On September 15, 1831, Dr. Samuel Worcester and Dr. Elizur Butler – missionaries – were tried in a Lawrenceville courtroom for living as white people among the Cherokee and refusing to take an oath of loyalty to Georgia, convicted and sentenced to hard labor. Some historians refer to this case, which went to the United States Supreme Court on appeal, as the beginning of the events that led to the forced removal of the Cherokee people from Georgia on the “Trail of Tears.”
HMS Beagle, carrying Charles Darwin, arrived at the Gallapagos Islands on September 15, 1835.
On September 15, 1904, Wilbur Wright made the first in-flight turn in an airplane.
Early on the morning of September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls.
On September 15, 1996, the Texas Rangers retired #34 in honor of the most dominant pitcher in professional baseball history, Nolan Ryan.
Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against President Trump’s order to restrict mail-in ballots, according to the Associated Press via the AJC.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to restrict mail ballots for the midterm elections, capping a flurry of last-minute legal action with voting already underway.
The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they’ve used for years and have accounted for nearly a third of votes cast.
The Supreme Court majority wrote that the administration’s push to implement the restrictions this year is likely to lose in court, though the brief emergency order didn’t detail its reasoning. Two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, publicly dissented.
The Trump administration had asked the justices, once again at the center of a roiling political controversy, to clear the way for restrictions before the pivotal November contests for control of Congress.
Alito wrote in his dissent that the Postal Service “has broad authority to regulate the mail” and likely does have the power to enforce Trump’s restrictions.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, meanwhile, agreed that the restrictions should not go into effect for the midterms but indicated he might rule in favor of the Trump administration if the issue comes back before the court at a later time.
Election officials have said there was simply no way to carry out a complete overhaul in the weeks before the midterms. Indeed, Alabama, North Carolina and Wisconsin began sending mail ballots to voters over the past week while the new system was still not active.
The Trump administration plan would require states to adopt a uniform envelope style and submit lists of eligible voters to an online portal. The Postal Service could refuse to deliver ballots to states that didn’t comply.
The administration’s efforts had the potential to be especially disruptive in states that send out ballots entirely by mail. Washington’s Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, said the decision means work “to carry out a safe, secure, and accurate election” can continue ”without having to upend our election processes to meet unrealistic ballot mail requirements.”
Trump has long opposed mail voting and falsely blamed it for his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden, even though he often uses that method to cast his own ballot, including as recently as this year.
A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.
Gabriel Sterling, the secretary of state’s director of special projects, applauded the ruling.
“This is a victory for voters and election administrators,” he wrote on social media late Monday. “Changing election processes at the 11th hour is always a recipe for chaos.”
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and several other Republican secretaries of state urged the Supreme Court last week to reject the Trump administration’s plan for the pivotal midterms, saying it wasn’t reasonable to overhaul procedures in time for November.
Chatham County Board of Elections Supervisor Brook Schreiner has resigned, according to TheCurrentGA.
Brook Schreiner had held the $95,000-a-year post for little more than six months when she submitted her resignation at an executive session of the five-member board Monday afternoon, board member James Hall said in a Facebook post.
The board accepted her decision to step down, Hall said. She will be succeeded by her predecessor, Billy Wooten, who held the position for five years, he added.
Hall gave no reasons for Schreiner’s resignation, saying the board would issue an official statement Tuesday. But her resignation comes amid persistent worries about the security of Georgia’s election system, which has been roiled in controversy since the 2020 presidential election.
In a phone interview with The Current late Monday, Schreiner disparaged the board, saying it had “never met” with her to “let me know what their expectations were.”
Noting that she was the first woman ever to hold the post of elections supervisor, she also said her “aggressiveness” at addressing “wrongdoing” faced resistance from the board and county officials. Asked to identify examples of “wrongdoing,” she referred opaquely to voter registration issues. In Chatham County, voter registration is handled separately, by the Board of Registrars. Schreiner’s work with the Board of Elections did not include oversight of the registration process, but does include oversight of the voting and tabulation processes.
“I guess Chatham County wasn’t ready for a strong, opinionated woman because when I see wrongdoing, I’m not looking at it from a political standpoint. I’m looking at the voter. And when I told people, ‘This is not right,’ I got backlash,” she said.
Schreiner also struck a note of remorse, saying she was “sorry” for the circumstances that led to her decision to quit. “I did it to myself of being too aggressive and trying to fix what I knew was wrong. It is what it is,” she said. She said her last day would be Tuesday (Sept. 15).
More on Governor Kemp’s endorsement of U.S. Rep. Mike Collins (R-Jackson) for U.S. Senate, from the Savannah Morning News.
“Governor Kemp has never been afraid of a tough fight, and Georgia is stronger today because he’s been willing to take them on,” Collins said in an announcement on social media. “I’m grateful to have him standing with me to take back Georgia’s Senate seat, stand up to the far-left agenda, and defeat Jon Ossoff this November.”
In a statement shared by the Collins campaign, Kemp said he and the candidate “share a commitment to making Georgia an even better place to live, work and raise a family.”
“I’m proud to endorse Mike Collins for the U.S. Senate, and I know he’ll always put Georgia first,” Kemp said in the statement.
In a statement from Ossoff campaign spokesperson Valeria Rivadeneira-Crandell, the endorsement was called a last-ditch effort for a “collapsing campaign.”
“There’s a reason Brian Kemp worked so hard to defeat bigot Mike Collins in the GOP primary and waited to endorse the congressman until less than two months from Election Day,” Rivadeneira-Crandell said, “and it’s that Collins, who’s only a congressman because his daddy was a congressman, is surrounded at work and at home by neo-Nazis and white nationalists.”
Early voting starts in Georgia on Oct. 13, nearly one month to the day after Kemp’s endorsement, and election day is held on Nov. 3.
Seven new Board of Education members were appointed for Dublin city schools, according to 13WMAZ.
Seven new members of the Dublin City Schools Board of Education were sworn in Monday night, officially ending months of uncertainty over who would lead the district after Gov. Brian Kemp suspended the previous board earlier this year.
Judge Jon Helton administered the oath to the new members, who then signed their paperwork and formally took their seats.
“I feel like there’s work to be done collectively as a team,” said board member Teresa Holliday. “I’m ready to learn what I need to learn, get involved.”
David Westerfield, who was later elected chairman, said he ran for the seat because he believes in the district’s potential.
“I know what Dublin City schools can and should be, and I’ve always been a believer if you can’t sit back and complain about something you’re not willing to roll up your sleeves and work for, so these kids deserve it,” Westerfield said.
Board members come from a range of professional and community backgrounds, something Holliday said will strengthen the board’s work going forward.
“I think that’s a plus because it also shows our children and shows the community that we all can pull together from different areas of this community and make a giant impact,” Holliday said.
After being sworn in, the board elected its leadership, choosing Westerfield as chairman and Priscilla Adams as vice chairman.
“Very excited about the opportunity, and excited about just what the future is gonna hold for Dublin City schools and getting it back to where it’s always been and once was — and it’s not the Fighting Irish for no reason,” Westerfield said.
The new board is now preparing to begin training with the Georgia School Boards Association as members get up to speed on their new roles.
“What’s our five-year plan going forward, to get a plan together that’s gonna serve more for the community,” Holliday said. “Definitely look out for our youth and our children.”
Board members say their varied backgrounds will bring a fresh perspective to the table as they work to restore Dublin City Schools to where it stood before the district’s governance crisis.
The board’s seats remain temporary until any appeals to the suspension are resolved. 13WMAZ will continue following the board’s progress as members settle into their new roles.
Police blotter: A now-former Colquitt County Sheriff’s Deputy was arrested for alleged misuse of Flock surveillance cameras, according to WALB.
On Monday, Sept. 14, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) announced the arrest of former deputy, Bentley Hughes, 37, of Moultrie. Hughes is charged with two counts of misuse of a license plate read system and two counts of violation of oath of office.
GBI officials say on Sept. 8, the sheriff’s office asked GBI to investigate a tip that Hughes was misusing the department’s Flock Safety camera system for non-law enforcement purposes.
Hughes turned herself in Sept. 14 and was booked into the Colquitt County Jail.
After the investigation is done, the case will be handed over to the Southern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.
The University of Georgia demoted an employee over allegations of Flock camera misuse, according to the Athens Banner Herald.
A University of Georgia employee who misused the Flock system by seeking information on two incidents in which he had personal interests was recently disciplined, according to the UGA Police Department.
The employee, whose name was not released, was demoted from his civilian position in the department and suspended without pay for 20 days.
The unauthorized use of the license plate reader system was discovered during an audit the department periodically does, according to a release from UGA.
The Flock violations occurred in 2025, when the employee sought information on two off-campus incidents: one a hit-and-run crash that involved a family member’s car and the other a theft at a local business, according to UGA.
The employee, a member of the IT staff, “did not have permission from his UGAPD supervisor to use it, nor had his assistance been requested by the other law enforcement agencies,” the university reported.
UGA Police Chief Jeff Clark issued a statement: “This staff member’s behavior constitutes a clear violation of departmental policy, particularly regarding misuse of a law enforcement database and failure to notify the chain of command.”
A Democratic win in the Lieutenant Governor’s race could lead to awkwardness, according to Atlanta News First via WRDW.
As Georgia voters prepare to cast ballots in November, the contest for lieutenant governor is quietly shaping up to be one of the most volatile and consequential crossroads in modern state political history.
The race — pitting Democrat Josh McLaurin against Republican Greg Dolezal — could produce a scenario Georgia has rarely witnessed: a divided government where a Democratic presiding officer faces a GOP state senate majority.
While the governor’s race commands national headlines, Atlanta News First political analyst Ben Taylor notes the top of the ticket already guarantees a historic reset under the Gold Dome.
“This is the first time that we will have a governor of Georgia, no matter who wins, that has not been elected to a state-level office since Lester Maddox,” Taylor said. “That was the first time, and it was a long time ago.”
In 1966, segregationist Lester Maddox won the governorship over future president Jimmy Carter. Four years later, Carter won the governor’s mansion while Maddox was elected lieutenant governor.
“Lester Maddox wins the governor’s race against Jimmy Carter and others,” Taylor said. “Then Jimmy Carter subsequently becomes the governor, and Lester Maddox gets elected lieutenant governor and they hated each other. They kept fighting all the time.”
Unlike the federal vice presidency, Georgia’s lieutenant governor does not run on a joint ticket with the governor. The officeholder serves as the president of the 56-member state senate, wielding immense influence over committee assignments, bill referrals and the daily legislative calendar.
But only if the chamber allows it.
“The constitution was changed in 1983, which made the governor much more powerful,” Taylor said. “But the lieutenant governor, while also gaining a bit of power, is still sort of beholden to the state senate.”
Under Georgia Senate rules, the majority party can rewrite chamber procedures on the opening day of the legislative session. If Republicans maintain their majority in the Senate while McLaurin wins the lieutenant governorship, history shows the chamber can render the office virtually powerless.
“When Mark Taylor was the Democratic lieutenant governor with a Republican state senate in 2005 and 2006, the senate stripped him of all of his power,” Taylor said. “He had effectively no power at all for two years.”
Taylor predicts a similar fate awaits the gavel if party lines cross in January.
“If we have a Republican state senate, McLaurin’s power will very likely be stripped,” Taylor said. “Similarly, flip it around if the Democrats somehow took the state senate, the same thing would happen to Dolezal.”
The candidates for Governor criticized each other over data centers, according to Atlanta News First via WTOC.
Rising power bills and the explosive growth of data centers collided in Georgia’s race for governor Monday, as Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms called for an immediate statewide freeze on new projects while Republican rival Rick Jackson pushed back against a blanket ban.
Speaking outside the Cobb County government complex, where commissioners have extended a local moratorium on data center development through February 2027, Bottoms warned that rapid industry expansion is threatening the state’s energy grid and consumers’ wallets.
“We don’t need to take another step forward in this state until we fully understand what the impact will be on consumers and what the impact will be on people across Georgia,” Bottoms said.
Bottoms pointed to recent reports regarding Jackson’s personal financial stake in Data Hub Developers, LLC, a company proposing a hyperscale facility in rural Bowie County, Texas. Her campaign accused Jackson of using non-disclosure agreements to push the project past local residents concerned about water usage, air pollution and falling property values.
“It seems as if he has his hands in just about every single thing that’s an issue in our state right now,” Bottoms said. “He owns data centers. We know that he is making money through his healthcare companies.”
Public Service Commissioner Peter Hubbard and state Democratic lawmakers joined Bottoms at the podium, echoing her calls for transparency and local control.
“Right now, in Texas, Rick Jackson’s data center project is using nondisclosure agreements to hide critical information from the public because he knows that what he’s doing is unpopular,” Hubbard said, pointing to a Texas petition opposing the development.
State Sen. RaShaun Kemp, who introduced legislation to ban nondisclosure agreements tied to utility consumption, argued that Georgia needs a leader who will ensure “communities get the best fair share that they can get in these deals.”
Jackson’s campaign fired back swiftly, labeling Bottoms a hypocrite and pointing to her record as Atlanta mayor. Jackson campaign spokesman Garrison Douglas noted that Bottoms previously chaired the Invest Atlanta board during its 2018 and 2019 approvals of up to $440 million in bond financing and a 15-year property tax abatement for the Coda data center at Georgia Tech.
Bottoms’ campaign argued the Midtown Atlanta transaction took place years ago, well before the current artificial intelligence boom placed unprecedented strain on Georgia’s electrical grid.
Jackson, who disclosed his stake in Datahub Developers, LLC on his state financial filings in April, rejected the call for an outright statewide freeze. Instead, he argued that projects must meet strict local thresholds.
“No new data center should be approved unless the local community supports it, it provides real local benefits, does not increase local utility costs, and it meets strict environmental standards,” Jackson said during a recent policy rollout.
Jackson’s team insisted the Texas development moved through all legally required public approval channels and shifted the ethics spotlight back onto Bottoms.
The Jackson campaign points to state filings showing that Bottoms reported earning between $250,000 and $500,000 in both 2024 and 2025 through her private advisory firm, KRLB, LLC, along with earnings while serving in the Biden White House, without disclosing the underlying clients.
“Keisha Lance Bottoms is the definition of a two-faced, double-talking politician,” Douglas said in a statement. “She supported data centers in office but attacks them on the campaign trail. She demands Rick disclose what is already public while hiding who paid her up to $1 million.”
When reporters asked her whether she would disclose who paid her firm, Bottoms issued a direct challenge.
“I’ll make my client list available at the exact same time that Rick Jackson makes his investments available to the public,” Bottoms said.
Georgia voters will soon begin deciding the contest, with early voting scheduled to begin Oct. 13.
But an Atlanta Journal-Constitution review of public records and past actions shows both candidates have more complicated histories with the industry they are now promising to regulate.
Jackson is an investor in a major Texas data center project, and his state financial disclosure lists him as the head of Datahub Developers LLC. Records tie the company to a rural northeast Texas site where a massive hyperscale data center campus is under development.
And Bottoms, back when she was mayor of Atlanta, led the city’s economic development authority in 2018 when it approved a seven-figure tax break as part of a complicated bond transaction for Coda, a mixed-use Georgia Tech project that includes a high-performance computing data center.
The Coda development is not the same sort of sprawling hyperscale campus driving much of today’s backlash. Its footprint is contained within the office building and is far smaller than the vast server farms that have come to define the current debate.
Still, the two records leave both candidates explaining how their past decisions square with the moves they now say are crucial to protect Georgians.
Democrats increasingly see an opening to challenge Republicans over a data center boom sparking ongoing political backlash rippling across the state.
That backlash cuts across party lines. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll in April found nearly 53% of likely Republican primary voters disapproved of a data center in their community. Among Democrats, opposition topped 75%.
Few states have more at stake in that debate than Georgia. Metro Atlanta now has more data center space under construction, as measured by electricity use, than any other region in the nation, according to the real estate services firm CBRE.
And multibillion-dollar projects have become the norm across the state, with developments from the state’s booming coast to rural North Georgia.
In Macon, the League of Women Voters will cohost an event for candidates to meet voters, according to the Macon Telegraph.
The League of Women Voters, alongside a coalition of Macon voting activists, will host candidates for several state and federal offices this weekend at Carolyn Crayton Park. The event is designed to give voters a relaxed environment to meet candidates and inform their decisions.
Saturday’s Votes and Vibez gathering at the Round Building will feature 10 candidates, including Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Josh McLaurin, who is currently a state senator from Sandy Springs; state school superintendent Democratic nominee Lydia Powell; and Democratic labor commissioner candidate Nikki Porcher.
Local incumbents also will be in attendance, including state representatives Floyd Griffin, D-Milledgeville; Miriam Paris, D-Macon; and Dale Washburn, R-Macon. Republicans Eric Wilson and Calvin Palmer, who are seeking seats in the state House of Representatives, will be on hand, as well.
Instead of a candidate forum or debate, organizers decided a meet and greet would give voters a much “more personal” and “invaluable” opportunity to meet candidates and share their concerns, said Marty Koplin, president of the League of Women Voters of Macon (LWV).
The league’s motto — “vote, it’s personal” — emphasizes the importance of not just presidential elections, but local and state races that have repercussions that hit closer to residents’ bottom line, Koplin said.
The group has been meeting every week to discuss how it will increase voter turnout in the county by 15% this coming election.
May’s primary election saw only 27.67%, or 29,184 of Bibb County’s 105,477 registered voters, cast their ballots. Georgia’s last gubernatorial election saw 54,007 votes placed.
Hall County property owners will receive their tax bills later than usual, according to AccessWDUN.
Hall County Tax Commissioner Darla Eden CPA is informing residents that 2026 property tax bills for real estate and personal property will be mailed later than the traditional September 15 date. This change is due to continuing conditions resulting from last year’s legislation and constraints associated with the digest preparation software used outside the Tax Commissioner’s Office, delaying completion of the 2026 tax digest and extending the timeline for finalizing and mailing property tax bills.
Although the mailing date will shift, the due date will remain 60 days from the date the bills are mailed, giving taxpayers the standard window to plan and make payment. Hall County residents are encouraged to visit the Hall County Tax Commissioner’s website, hallcountytax.org, or follow official social media channels for updates.
Eden said on Monday through a press release, “We are committed to providing Hall County residents with accurate property tax bills, which we anticipate mailing in mid-October. We are optimistic about future modernization efforts that will better integrate the systems that are used throughout the property tax process. Updated, connected technology will improve efficiency, strengthen coordination, and ultimately provide better service.”
The Grady County Sheriff’s Office wants to raise the rate they charge to house inmates from the City of Cairo, according to WALB.
GCSO asked the city for more money to house its inmates earlier this month. The city currently pays $25 per inmate per day in the agreement that started back in 2001.
According to the city attorney, GCSO proposed the rate increase to $65 per inmate, with a $35 booking fee.
Cairo Mayor Arlisha Williams said that the amount exceeds the amount that has been normally asked from the surrounding countries they have researched.
“I believe that gives the city attorney an opportunity to go back and revisit with the county attorney as well as with the county commission, and also gives our council an opportunity to go back and sit and negotiate,” Williams said.
City officials said they hope to discuss the terms of the proposal with the county to have a new IGA as soon as possible.
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