Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections for September 17, 2024

Forty-one delegates signed the United States Constitution, including Abraham Baldwin and William Few representing Georgia, at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787 before adjourning sine die.

On September 17, 1796, George Washington began working on the final draft of his farewell address as the first President of the United States of America.

The Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee met the Army of the Potomac under General George McClellan at the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862.

The Battle of Antietam actually consisted of three battles. Beginning at dawn on September 17, Union General Joseph Hooker’s men stormed Confederate General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s troops around the Dunker Church, the West Woods, and David Miller’s cornfield. The Federals made repeated attacks, but furious Rebel counterattacks kept the Yankees in check. By early afternoon, the fighting moved south to the middle of the battlefield. Union troops under General Edwin Sumner inflicted devastating casualties on the Confederates along a sunken road that became known as “Bloody Lane,” before the Southerners retreated. McClellan refused to apply reserves to exploit the opening in the Confederate center because he believed Lee’s force to be much larger than it actually was. In the late afternoon, Union General Ambrose Burnside attacked General James Longstreet’s troops across a stone bridge that came to bear Burnside’s name. The Yankees crossed the creek, but a Confederate counterattack brought any further advance to a halt.

The fighting ended by early evening, and the two armies remained in place throughout the following day. After dark on September 18, Lee began pulling his troops out of their defenses for a retreat to Virginia. The losses for the one-day battle were staggering. Union casualties included 2,108 dead, 9,540 wounded, and 753 missing, while Confederate casualties numbered 1,546 dead, 7,752 wounded, and 1,108 missing.

On September 17, 1932, the Georgia Division of the Roosevelt Business and Professional League was created to work with the Georgia Democratic Party to support FDR’s Presidential campaign in the Peach State.

Jimmy Carter received the first ever endorsement of a national ticket by the National Education Association in his bid for President on September 17, 1976.

Georgia Politics, Campaigns, and Elections

The Georgia State House Study Committee on Navigable Streams and Related Matters meets Friday at Unicoi State Park and will take public input, according to AccessWDUN.

The House Study Committee on Navigable Streams and Related Matters will hear from the public at Unicoi State Park near Helen at 9 a.m. The committee is part of a legislative effort to name sections of roughly 64 rivers and streams in Georgia as open to the public for boating, fishing, and hunting.

The committee is a response to HB 1397, which was introduced in the most recent legislative session but did not pass. The study committee will examine parts of the aspects of navigable streams in Georgia and potential issues surrounding their ownership, private and public right of use. The committee may then make recommendations for proposed legislation ahead of the 2025 legislative session.

Current state law guarantees the public the right to access all of the state’s navigable streams.

The public meeting will be at the Lodge at Unicoi State Park. Public comments will follow after a presentation by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The meeting will also be streamed here.

Suspicious packages were received by election officials in at least six states, according to the Associated Press via WSAV.

Powder-containing packages were sent to secretaries of state and state election offices in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, Wyoming and Oklahoma, officials in those states confirmed. The FBI and U.S. Postal Service were investigating. It marked the second time in the past year that suspicious packages were mailed to election officials in multiple state offices.

The latest scare comes as early voting has begun in several states less than two months ahead of the high-stakes elections for president, Senate, Congress and key statehouse offices around the nation, causing disruption in what is already a tense voting season.

Suspicious letters were sent to election offices and government buildings in at least six states last November, including the same building in Kansas that received suspicious mail Monday. While some of the letters contained fentanyl, even the suspicious mail that was not toxic delayed the counting of ballots in some local elections.

One of the targeted offices was in Fulton County, Georgia, the largest voting jurisdiction in one of the nation’s most important swing states. Four county election offices in Washington state had to be evacuated as election workers were processing ballots cast, delaying vote-counting.

The letters caused election workers around the country to stock up the overdose reversal medication naloxone.

Republican United States Senator and Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance (O-H-I-O) called for the left to tone down their rhetoric yesterday in Cobb County, according to 13WMAZ.

Speaking publicly for the first time following an apparent assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump, GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance called on Democrats to ““one down the rhetoric.”

While law enforcement officials have not yet released a suspected motive for the plot that authorities foiled in Florida Sunday, the Ohio senator suggested to a crowd of Georgia Republicans that Democrats bore some responsibility.

“I’m not going to say that conservatives always get things exactly right,” Vance said at his metro Atlanta rally. “But you know the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months. I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric. It needs to cut this crap out. Somebody’s going to get hurt by it.”

Vance’s comments came during a speech at an event organized by the Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition, an influence group that promotes conservative Christian policies.

Conservative Christians are a key voter group for Republicans in the November election. Speakers at the event like Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp stressed the importance of voter engagement and turnout.

“We have to expand our majority in Congress, take back control of the U.S. Senate, and send Donald Trump back to the white house,” said Kemp.

The emphasis on turnout underscored the important role Georgia could play in the election. As one of just a handful of battleground states, the decision Georgia voters make could be decisive to the outcome of the race.

From the AJC:

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance on Monday blamed “ridiculous and inflammatory political rhetoric” from Donald Trump’s critics for putting the former president at risk after a second apparent assassination attempt in nine weeks.

Harris and her Democratic allies have long portrayed Trump as a threat to democracy because of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and other states and his role in egging on the pro-Trump mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Vance said most Americans ignore the invective from both sides of the aisle, “but some crazy person is going to take matters into their own hands and actually listen to the crazy rhetoric that you’re putting out there.”

He called for the “reduction of the ridiculous and inflammatory political rhetoric coming from too many coroners of our politics,” and said he would also work to cool down the heated back-and-forth.

“We can disagree with one another, we can debate one another,” Vance said, “but we cannot tell the American people that one candidate is a fascist and if he’s elected, it’s going to be the end of democracy.”

Democratic Minnesota Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz has landed in Georgia, according to 13WMAZ.

Senators Miriam Paris and David Lucas – alongside Bibb County Sheriff David Davis and other officers – met were waiting at the airport to meet Walz once he landed.

According to a release from Walz’ team, the Minnesota Governor is in town for a political event on Monday morning. Walz and his team landed at Middle Georgia Regional Airport around 9:40 p.m. on Monday.

The release says Walz will travel to Atlanta after his appearance in Macon, where he’ll speak to the media at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Walz will attend other events in Atlanta after speaking at Hartsfield-Jackson, per the report.

This is Walz’s first solo trip across the Peach State since he was named the Democrats’ vice president nominee. He recently visited with vice president Harris and traveled across Georgia’s southern counties and cities.

Walz will end his brief stint in Georgia on Tuesday afternoon, when he will fly out to Asheville, North Carolina. He is scheduled to speak at a Harris-Walz campaign rally around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

From the Macon Telegraph:

The visit marks Walz’s first stop in Middle Georgia on the campaign trail. He previously appeared alongside Harris on a bus tour in late August that made stops in several coastal Georgia locations.

However, the Harris campaign has not ignored Macon. Earlier this month, a slate of politicians, activists and personalities stumped for Harris, including former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams and Paris.

The Trump campaign has also had Georgia on its mind. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem appeared alongside U.S. Reps. Buddy Carter and Mike Collins at an event in Savannah over the weekend. Trump himself visited Atlanta in August for a rally, just days after Harris held a similar event with rapper Megan Thee Stallion.

Both the Harris and Trump campaigns have focused on Georgia as it remains a toss up as the election nears. The state flipped for Biden during the 2020 race, awarding him 16 electoral votes and becoming a key part of the president’s victory.

From the AJC:

Walz will kick off a new campaign initiative aimed at turning out younger voters during the two-city tour, which marks his second trip to Georgia this campaign cycle. In late August, he and Harris joined a two-day bus tour that made several coastal Georgia stops.

Harris and former President Donald Trump are narrowing their focus on Georgia and a half-dozen other competitive states as the November election nears. U.S. Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running-mate, headlined a conservative gala in Cobb County on Monday.
The visits are part of a blitz of stops in swing states. Early voting in Georgia starts on Oct. 15, and both campaigns are intensifying their get-out-the-vote efforts.

”We are focused on meeting young Americans where they are to drive home the stakes of this election on the issues they care most about – and that when we vote, we win,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.

From the AJC Political Insider:

Vance reminded a ballroom full of evangelical leaders and Republican activists that it was Trump who engineered the demise of Roe v. Wade by tapping three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The Supreme Court’s decision was not only a victory for the Constitution. It was a victory and a testament to the resolve of tens of millions of pro-life Americans who never gave up,” he told the packed Cobb Galleria Centre ballroom.

“Now we’re united in our gratitude and our admiration for these devoted defenders of the unborn and for the judges, justices, and especially President Trump, whose commitment to defending the law and the Constitution allowed this breakthrough after over 50 years.”

Democrats are betting that the anti-abortion stances will backfire. Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign wrapped up a statewide bus tour last week that focused on her pledge to reinstate Roe if she prevails. Georgia Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff leveled one of the sharpest attacks.

Harris’ campaign, meanwhile, also highlighted a new investigation from ProPublica that found at least two Georgia women died after they were unable to receive proper medical care after the state implemented abortion restrictions.

A spokesman for Gov. Brian Kemp told ProPublica its reporting was a “fear-mongering campaign.”

Harris said Trump deserves the blame for the deaths for ensuring the Supreme Court would overturn federal protections for abortion access.

“This is exactly what we feared when Roe was struck down,” Harris said in a statement released this morning. “In more than 20 states, Trump abortion bans are preventing doctors from providing basic medical care.”

Former President Donald Trump is considering attending the Georgia v. Alabama football game September 28, 2024, according to WRBC via WTVM.

Former President Donald Trump says he has been considering attending the Alabama vs. Georgia game on Sept. 28, according to ALGOP Chairman John Wahl.

During an interview with WBRC, Chairman Wahl said he doesn’t know whether Sunday’s assassination attempt against the presidential candidate could affect those plans, saying security will play a huge role in the final decision.

“I can confirm this is something Donald Trump has been thinking about, and I think this is something he would like to do. There’s just so many logistics, especially with securing a venue with a stadium that holds tens of thousands of people, can security be where it needs to be,” Wahl said.

Chairman Wahl says he would expect a more concrete decision from the presidential candidate in the coming days.

Retired Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper said protocols at the game would definitely change following multiple assassination attempts. He said if the former president attends, fans should be flexible and mentally prepared for much longer wait times and enhanced security protocols.

During a press conference Monday, the Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service said Trump has the highest level of protection, adding they are always evaluating tactics. He says though what they’re doing now is working, he believes they need to change their protective methodology from a reactive model to a readiness model.

“We constantly evaluate based on threat and yesterday what we show is that our agents and our protective methodologies, and there’s a lot of tactical assets in place, things that have been put in place as a result of what happened 60 days ago,” said Ronald Rowe Jr. “Those elements are working and that demonstrates the redundancies that we have.”

Former President Trump has not officially said he will attend the Sept. 28 game.

Celebrations of former President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday begin tonight in Atlanta, according to WTOC.

Celebrations for Jimmy Carter’s upcoming 100th birthday begin Tuesday with Atlanta’s Fox Theatre’s hosting of Delta Air Lines Presents: Jimmy Carter 100: A Celebration in Song,” at 7:30 p.m.

Carter will turn 100 on Oct. 1, 2024, marking another milestone in the life of America’s longest living ex-president in history.

Tuesday’s event includes artists from pop, rock, gospel, country, jazz, hip-hop and classical music. Performers include Athens’ own The B-52s; singer-songwriter Duane Betts, son of legendary Allman Brothers Band co-founder Dickey Betts; singer-songwriter Carlene Carter, daughter of June Carter Cash; Angélique Kidjo, BeBe Winans, India Arie; Lalah Hathaway; Chuck Leavell; D-Nice; Drive-By Truckers; Eric Church; GROUPLOVE; Maren Morris; The War And Treaty; and The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chamber Chorus.

Mary Wharton, director of the documentary “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President,” will also present a short film exploring Carter’s relationship with popular musicians.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta is hosting a JC100 Film Festival from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. The library said it will be showing some of Carter’s favorite list of films that were shown at the White House during his administration. Museum and event admission is free.

As Georgia governor, Carter started the state’s film office after the success of “Deliverance,” one of the first films ever made in the Peach State. Released in 1972 and based on writer James Dickey’s debut novel of the same name, it starred Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox and Jon Voight and was filmed in northeast Georgia communities of Clayton and Rabun counties. It became a huge commercial success.

Carter has been in hospice care for more than a year. He officially became America’s oldest living ex-president on March 21, 2019, surpassing George H.W. Bush, who died in November 2018 at the age of 94 years and 171 days old. Prior to Bush, previous record holders were Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Herbert Hoover and John Adams.

Early voting in the November 5, 2024 General Election begins in October, according to 13WMAZ.

[Voter Jack] Ginaldi says everyone should register to vote especially with the election coming up. He says he will be filling out an absentee ballot.

“I would advise them to try and get educated so that they don’t just make a regular choice, and they set up to try to educate themselves and do research,” he said.

Thomas Gillon is the Macon-Bibb election supervisor and he said he agrees with Ginaldi. He says the only way to vote is if you are registered, though Gillon sees a problem with getting out the vote.

“We have a very good record in Bibb County for registering voters, [both] younger and older voters,” Gillon said. “Getting them out to actually vote is occasionally a challenge, but our registration rates are very good.”

If you are interested in registering you can go to a local early polling center or go online to National Voter Registration Day.
You also can go to the Secretary of State website. Early voting starts Oct. 16th and will last for three weeks.

Mail-in voters might want to return their ballots early, according to 13WMAZ.

With concerns mounting over potential postal service delays, Central Georgia election officials are urging voters to return their absentee ballots as early as possible ahead of the general election on Nov. 5.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger emphasized the importance of early voting to ensure ballots are counted on time.

“The safest thing for voters to do is request and return their absentee ballots early,” Raffensperger said. “Don’t wait until the last minute and risk delays.”

In Houston County, Board of Elections Director Andy Holland is echoing that message. He encouraged voters to take advantage of drop boxes placed around the county to avoid mail delays altogether.

“We have multiple drop boxes available for voters, and we strongly advise them to use those to ensure their ballots are received in time,” Holland said. “The voter, as soon as they get them, they can mark the ballots and return them to us as fast as they want.”

Absentee ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 5, to be counted. With reports of postal service slowdowns, election officials across the state are recommending voters act now to avoid missing the deadline.

“We can’t control the federal government and their inefficiency of the United States Postal Service,” Raffensperger said. “That’s a federal issue. And Congress needs to get serious.”

In addition to drop boxes, absentee ballots can be hand-delivered to local election offices. Election officials also recommend voters check the status of their absentee ballots online after submission to confirm they’ve been received and counted.

“We’ve already received about 2,500-plus applications,” Holland said. “We’re about halfway through packing up the ones that we got. A lot of them are from elderly and disabled voters.”

This push for early absentee voting comes amid a broader effort to ensure a smooth election process, as Georgia prepares for a closely watched general election this fall.

Professor Craig Albert, Director of Intelligence and Security Studies at Augusta University, discussed the possible assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump, according to WJBF.

“It is pretty unprecedented to see this type of violence inflicted upon political candidates, and against a former president and a presidential candidate, two in a couple of months though is just absolutely unheard of,” Dr. Albert said. “So this is something to be quite aware of, it’s quite alarming.”

Dr. Albert said many messages and propaganda on social and mainstream media platforms are supercharged and hyper-partisan, which can convince some people to enact political violence.

“It decreases your rationality, so the more you’re on social media, the more information you have that makes you angry, your brain and your frontal cortex starts to shrink, you start to become more emotional,” he said. “That means the more you’re on it, it becomes a vicious cycle and to the point where some people are psychologically oriented toward snapping.”

Some of this propaganda is distributed on social media by foreign adversaries wanting to create division in the United States, Dr. Albert said.

“So you have foreign influences on top of domestic extremist influences on both sides, and then when you have the political campaigns that just engage in rhetoric as a normal day or standard operating procedures, if you put that all together, it creates the perfect storm for somebody to want to create violence of an act of violence,” he said.

So, what’s the solution to this?

“To stop this is twofold, one to limit our exposure to social media especially which tends to trigger our emotional responses more than other forms of news like reading the newspapers or just watching the news,” Dr. Albert said. “Two is to educate ourselves on a variety of news sources, so never just read or watch one or two programs. Make sure you’re watching it from across different organizations.”

Votes for third-party presidential candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz may be counted after the Georgia Supreme Court took action, according to the Associated Press via WRDW.

In yet another reversal, votes in Georgia for presidential candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz will count for now after the Georgia Supreme Court paused orders disqualifying them.

The court’s decision Sunday came as Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office said military and overseas ballots will be mailed beginning Tuesday with West and De la Cruz listed as candidates.

This doesn’t guarantee that votes for the two will be counted. They could still be disqualified by the state high court, in which case votes for them would be discarded.

West is running as an independent in Georgia. De la Cruz is the nominee for the Party of Socialism and Liberation but she technically qualified for the Georgia ballot as an independent.

Presidential choices for Georgia voters will definitely include Republican Donald Trump, Democrat Kamala Harris, Libertarian Chase Oliver and Green Party nominee Jill Stein, the most candidates since 2000. But if West and De la Cruz are also included, it would be the first time since 1948 that more than four candidates seek Georgia’s presidential electors.

Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians automatically qualify for elections in Georgia.

Georgia is one of several states where Democrats and allied groups have filed challenges to third-party and independent candidates, seeking to block candidates who could siphon votes from Harris after President Joe Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes in 2020. In Georgia, Democrats argue West and De la Cruz should be denied access because their 16 electors didn’t file petitions in their own names.

Republicans in Georgia intervened, seeking to keep all the candidates on the ballot, and the party has pushed to prop up liberal third-party candidates such as West and Stein in battleground states in an effort to hurt Harris.

Those interests have contributed to a flurry of legal activity in Georgia. An administrative law judge disqualified West, De la Cruz, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the Georgia Green Party from the ballot. Raffensperger, a Republican, overruled the judge, and said West and De la Cruz should get access. He also ruled that under a new Georgia law, Stein should go on Georgia ballots because the national Green Party had qualified her in at least 20 other states.

Superior Court judges in Atlanta then agreed with Democrats who appealed Raffensperger’s decisions on West and De la Cruz, disqualifying them and setting the stage for the fight to move to the state Supreme Court.

 

United States District Judge Mark Cohen (ND-GA) heard arguments in a Democratic challenge to state law allowing “leadership committees” to fundraise beyong the normal single-candidate limits, according to the AJC.

At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, the Democratic Party of Georgia argued the law is unconstitutional. They say it gives the governor and a few incumbent officials an unfair advantage against other candidates, who face limits on the amounts they can receive.

“In large part, this (law) was about incumbent protection,” attorney Jen Jordan, herself a former senator, told U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen.

Cohen acknowledged that may be so as he quizzed Jordan about her case. But he said a law that protects incumbents is not necessarily unconstitutional. And he expressed doubt whether the Democratic Party had standing to bring a lawsuit based on what Cohen suggested was hypothetical future harm to Democratic candidates.

“There are a lot of what I’d call bad laws,” the judge said at Monday’s hearing. “I can’t rewrite bad laws. The only thing I can do is call them out when they’re unconstitutional.”

Under Georgia law, candidates for statewide office can raise up to $8,400 from individual donors for both the primary and general elections, plus an additional $4,800 for a primary runoff.

But a 2021 law allows the governor, lieutenant governor and the Democratic and Republican caucus chairs in both houses of the General Assembly to create “leadership committees” that can bypass those limits. They can also raise money during the legislative session, which other candidates can’t do.

The Democratic Party of Georgia recently filed a lawsuit to overturn the law. In court documents and at Monday’s hearing, Jordan argued the law violates the Democratic Party’s rights to free speech and equal protection by skewing the campaign finance playing field against its candidates.

She cited a list of Democratic legislative candidates that Kemp has targeted in the upcoming legislative races, plus a list of Republican incumbents the governor plans to aid with campaign cash. She said the Democrats in those races are subject to contributions limits, while Kemp is not.

Kemp’s attorneys say the Democrats’ argument fails on many counts. Among other things, they note that Democratic candidates can seek funding from their party leaders’ committees, just as Republicans can.

Georgia State House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington) informed legisators he will prioritize legislation to increase penalties for people who threaten schools, according to GPB News.

In a Sept. 12 letter to members of the state House Republican Caucus, House Speaker Jon Burns wrote that one of his objectives in the next legislative session will be to “increase penalties for making terroristic threats in our schools — and make it clear that here in Georgia, threats of violence against our students will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” (Burns did not respond to a request for comment.)

As Georgia lawmakers consider what they can do to keep students safer, experts say they should consider the implications their decisions may have for a broad spectrum of children — from the 14-year-old with access to assault rifles to the 10-year-old pointing a finger gun. People who study the warning signs of and legislative reactions to school shootings have long warned that zero-tolerance policies, such as the ones Tennessee adopted, are not proven to make schools safer — and in fact can harm students.

To deter violence, experts maintain, the research suggests that the most effective strategy is not mandatory expulsions and felony charges but a different kind of tactic, one that federal officials have touted based on decades of interviews with mass shooters, political assassins and people who survived attacks. Threat assessments, when done effectively, bring together mental health professionals, law enforcement and others in the community to help school officials sort out the credible threats from the simply disruptive acts and provide students with needed help.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced a Texas boy is being charged with threats against Georgia schools, according to WJBF.

A 12-year-old from Texas is facing charges after making two bomb threats to two schools in southwest Georgia last week. Following an investigation into the threats, the GBI identified the 12-year-old as the person responsible.

On Wednesday, September 11th, Miller County Middle School staff discovered a message sent to the school’s Facebook account that claimed a bomb was on campus. The Miller County Sheriff’s Office responded and requested GBI assistance. GBI bomb technicians cleared the school without finding anything of concern while other agents and intelligence analysts worked to identify who sent the message.

On Thursday, September 12th, staff with the Spring Creek Charter Academy in Bainbridge, Georgia discovered an email sent to an administrator that claimed a bomb was on campus, similar to the Miller County threat the day before. The Decatur County Sheriff’s Office responded and requested GBI assistance with investigating the message. The school was cleared without finding anything of concern.

After tracking the messages and conducting multiple interviews, investigators determined a twelve-year-old from Texas made both threats. There is no indication that the 12-year-old traveled to Georgia recently, nor is there any indication there was ever a legitimate safety risk at either school.

State School Superintendent Richard Woods will seek additional state funding for school security, according to the Capitol Beat News Service via the Savannah Morning News.

The goal will be providing a school resource officer and a crisis alert system in every Georgia school.

“Building on the strong commitment to school displayed by Governor Kemp and the General Assembly in previous sessions, including the addition of line-item funding for school safety in 2024, these are common-sense measures that will increase the security of schools throughout our state,” Woods said. “There is also early evidence they made a difference at Apalachee.”

Gov. Brian Kemp has included school safety measures in previous state budgets. This year’s spending plan set aside about $109 million for school districts to use in safety efforts.

The governor also signed the Safe Schools Act last year, which requires schools to conduct “intruder alert drills” and submit school safety plans to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security agencies.

But legislative Democrats, and some Republicans, are calling for more. Democrats are pushing for legislation requiring gun owners to lock their firearms and store them in a safe place and for a “red flag” law allowing the temporary seizure of firearms from a person deemed a danger to themselves or others.

On the GOP side, Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, late last week called for legislation offering tax credits to Georgians for the purchase of firearm storage safety devices including trigger locks and gun safes. The House overwhelmingly passed a tax-credit bill this year, but it failed to reach the Senate floor for a vote.

Woods also announced Monday that he will propose expanding a state program that promotes mental health counseling in the schools and the enactment of policies requiring more timely and effective sharing of information between law enforcement agencies and school districts.

Bulloch County public schools Superintendent Charles Wilson says doors must remain locked during the school day, according to the Statesboro Herald.

“I walked into some schools the day after that unfortunate, very tragic event up in Barrow County, to find that there were some schools with doors unlocked, and classrooms,” Wilson said. “Administrators were checking into it, as well as our SROs, and there were some choice words that are shared by some of those people that let us into those classes.”

In a phone interview Monday, he said the “choice words” reported by others who did the checking were along the lines of “What are you doing bothering my classroom?” and that this made him think that “we’re not digesting the message here” since locking the doors is not a new expectation.

“I think that’s concerning to the entire community, because if the things that we have in place – and we do have that in place, it is an expectation – are not being followed, how can we even explore other options?” he said.

“This is not an empty expectation, and I will unfortunately point to a very recent example as to how important it is that doors be locked, because unfortunately, it’s the path of least resistance thing, and this has to do with the safety of people, especially our children. I know it’s inconvenient. … But there can be no excuse,” he continued during his Sept. 12 “superintendent’s report.”

“But the schools have to be locked, and I want our public to know, I want our parents to know, that is the expectation and will be reinforced,” Wilson said. “We’re going to have some consequences for those who choose to put our children’s safety (behind) their own convenience. I’m just going to put it that bluntly. It has to happen.”

Chatham County District Attorney Shalena Cook-Jones and Republican challenger Andre Pretorius met in a public forum last night, according to WTOC.

Andre Pretorius and Incumbent District Attorney Shalena Cook-Jones headed to the Coastal Georgia Center where the two spent one hour addressing the most pressing questions from the public.

Several elephants in the room were addressed as multiple allegations were brought forward.

The first allegation coming to light was the letter sent by Shalena Cook-Jones’ office, accusing Pretorius of stepping out of pounds during investigation.

Pretorius strongly objected to saying that those allegations were baseless and shameful holding firm that all his involvement consisted of was an educated opinion.

A statement met with strong pushback from the current DA.

“What he should know, as a candidate for this office, is that drug traffic and a title three cases are so confidential, that no one in my office but me can sign off on those things. Can see evidence, can sign the letter, ect. It is unlawful, and unethical,” said Cook-Jones.

The current DA soon found herself under fire as questions about her current term came forward.

Questions about her ethics that were once pulled into question by a district judge, questions about her policy on plea deals, and thoughts on criminals continuing to be released on bond.

“I find it egregious that someone who is out on bond, committed another offense. I also think that if that is the concern, then my opponent should be running for a judgeship because that is not the job of a district attorney,” said Cook-Jones.

Throughout the forum, DA Cook-Jones, continued to hammer the lack of experience her opponent has in high profile cases, an idea, Pretorius strongly objected to.

“I like that she has never done anything in felony court, I have been in federal court, I am currently handling a felony caseload, when I first started I had felony cases in Hall County, so that is completely false.” Said Pretorius

Pretorius, who once worked for the District Attorney’s office, says that he never intended to run for office but fears for public safety. He claims that of the 30 murders that have occurred in the past 18 months, 18 of them have been of those out on bond.

“Some of those criminals are out on bond 1,2,3 one even out on 7 bonds,” he said in the closing statement. “I just couldn’t sit back and do nothing.”

Floyd County Commissioners are considering an ordinance aimed at discouraging homeless people from camping on public property or private property without permission, according to the Rome News Tribune.

According to Floyd County Public Safety Division Director John Blalock, the ordinance was approved by the Floyd County Public Safety Committee recently and received its first reading by the county commission Tuesday night.

“Our ordinance basically mirrors the Rome city ordinance,” Blalock said. “Although, we don’t have as many problems with homelessness in the county like they do in the city.”

The county ordinance, like the city, restricts all camping on public and private property, without permission, unless it’s a designated camping area.

Statesboro City Council and the Bulloch County Commission will host a meeting on transportation on Thursday, September 19, 2024, according to the Statesboro Herald.

The City of Statesboro and Bulloch County Board of Commissioners will hold a public open house about the 2045 Long Range Transportation Plan Thursday, Sept. 19 from 6-8 p.m. inside Statesboro First United Methodist Church at 101 South Main Street.

Members of the public are invited to share their ideas and provide feedback on proposed transportation projects in Bulloch County.

“Updating our Long Range Transportation Plan will assist the city and county with identifying problem areas in our existing traffic plans and help us prioritize future transportation infrastructure projects,” said John Washington, director of Public Works & Engineering for Statesboro.

Glynn County Commissioners will consider raising fees for some Parks & Recreation programs, according to The Brunswick News.

The Glynn County Commission will consider a proposal at a special-called meeting today to consider a proposal for some county Recreation and Parks Department fee increases.

Proposed fees will increase from $48 to $55 for youth baseball (age 7 and up), youth softball (age 7 and up), and youth spring soccer, tackle football, youth soccer and youth basketball (age 5 and up).

The rental fee at Gascoigne Bluff Park will increase from $400 to $500 a day.

Rent for Neptune Park with bandstand, currently $550 a day and $300 a half day, is proposed to increase to $750 per day and $400 per half day.

Fees at Postell Park are proposed to increase from the current $400 a day, plus $10 per vendor, or $250 for a half day, plus $5 a vendor to $500 per day and $15 per vendor, or $300 for a half day and $10 per vendor.

A new, non-refundable park cleaning fee of $50 will be charged to cover costs associated with extra park cleaning, trash removal, restroom supplies and other costs for non-county events.

Today’s meeting will be held 2 p.m. in the second-floor meeting room in the Harold Pate Building, 1725 Reynolds St. in Brunswick. It can be watched live online at glynncounty.org and clicking on the link to the meeting.

The City of Dalton will publish information on a proposed school zone speed camera program, according to the Dalton Daily Citizen News.

That will likely include information on potential fines.

When the cameras do begin operating there will be a 30-day grace period when speeders will receive only a warning.

In February, City Council members approved a two-year contract with Blue Line Solutions, which provides speed enforcement cameras for cities and counties across the nation, to provide and maintain the enforcement system. That contract says the city will receive “65% of all paid Notices of Liability” and Blue Line Solutions’ “portion shall be 35% of all paid Notices of Liability.”