The United States Senate ratified a treaty with France on October 20, 1805, closing the deal on the Louisiana Purchase.
On October 20, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt stopped in Roswell to visit his mother’s girlhood home at Bulloch Hall.
Lewis Grizzard was born on October 20, 1946 at Fort Benning, Georgia.
On October 20, 1977, a small twin-engine plane carrying members of Lynyrd Skynyrd from Greenville, South Carolina to Baton Rouge, Louisiana crashed in a swamp in Gillsburg, Mississippi. Singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, vocalist Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray died in the crash.
This Weekend’s Debates for Gov., Lt. Gov., Secretary of State
WMAZ writes that the debate between incumbent Republican Governor Nathan Deal, Democrat challenger Jason Carter, and Libertarian Andrew Hunt, returned to old ground as Deal and Carter revisited their disagreement over school funding.
Deal and Carter attacked each other over this year’s state education budget, which Carter did not vote for.
“Now what I have done in my four budgets is to appropriate a great percentage of general state revenue for K-12 education than any Governor since Carl Sanders was Governor back in the early 60’s. That is in 50 years. And this year the largest, single appropriation, as our economy was rebounding, was in this year’s budget, some 535 million additional dollars,” Deal said.
Carter hit back, saying the state’s education system is “crumbling.”
He said he didn’t vote for the budget because it underfunded education.
“Governor Deal has to look back to the 1960’s to justify his education policy,” Carter said. “We need to fund our education system for this century, not last century. And what you have seen in our state is the worst under-funding and the worst contraction of public education in the history of our state.”
Walter Jones writes that Governor Deal contested many of the statements Carter made about Georgia’s economy.
“Mr. Deal, what we have is the highest unemployment rate; we have the highest poverty in the nation, poor education, expensive healthcare, ninth-highest income tax — you promised a cut to the income tax — a corrupt state, high incarceration rate, $1,500 decrease in the income (of average Georgians), terrible Atlanta traffic. You promised limited government, but tax revenues have actually increased by $2 billion during your term,” Hunt charged. “You’ve dutifully glossed over this, but can you acknowledge these facts?”
Deal replied, “I reject your facts. I think they’re factually incorrect.”
But even one of the three questions that the public submitted also dealt with the unemployment rate, which is the highest in the nation.
The governor said it’s a misleading statistic because it lags other elements in the economy, such as the rate of job creation where Georgia was the sixth-best last year. And he said the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced it is revising how it calculates the rate because the current method is inaccurate.
He recounted a list of taxes cut, such as the sales tax on energy that manufacturers paid, as ways his administration has attracted employers like Caterpillar outside Athens.
Both Hunt and Carter also criticized [Deal] for not expanding Medicaid where the bulk of the added costs would be borne by the federal government. Carter said it would create 35,000 jobs and would allow Georgia to get money it is entitled to.
Deal noted that the money isn’t coming from Georgia taxpayers but from money the federal government is borrowing from China and other countries and that the state budget increased $350 million this year to comply with the Affordable Care Act. He then blasted Hunt for accepting $37 million in Medicaid grants to keep his company afloat.
Carter came under fire from Hunt for having no immediate plan for job creation other than funding education where it takes 12 years to produce a graduate. And Deal noted Carter had never passed a bill in his four years in the Senate or been given a leadership position.
Walter Jones writes that the debate between incumbent Republican Lt. Governor Casey Cagle and his Democratic opponent, Connie Stokes, hinged on ideology, with Cagle staking out the conservative side and Stokes showing herself a liberal.
During his time in office, Cagle has poured his energy primarily into two projects.
One is a pool of taxpayer funds and venture-capital cash that will be invested in start-up companies as a way to eventually stimulate job creation.
The second is a growing network of high schools called career academies that offer technical skills and some college courses. He wants to have more of them across the state.
“Furthermore, I am committed to expanding our efforts to ensure our students have the skills they need to compete in the 21st Century global economy by launching a world-class apprenticeship program that exposes children to the experience and skills needed to get a job,” he said.
Stokes, though, blames him for what she considers inadequate funding of public schools. She argues that enough waste can be cut to boost education funding.
“It’s budgetary,” she said. “We want to make sure that we have no debt in education.”
An additional priority of hers is the expansion of Medicaid by using financial incentives in the federal Affordable Care Act. Although Republicans say state taxpayers can’t afford it, according to her, expansion would actually boost the economy and create health care jobs while extending benefits to more people.
Headlines
Georgia voters cast votes on Sunday for the first time this weekend – WSB-TV.
This is the first time in a big general election that voters are going to be able to cast a ballot on the weekend. It will be the first time ever that Georgia voters will have the opportunity to early vote on a Sunday.
“You have people that work a lot and Sunday is mainly is some people’s down time, and that’ll give them an opportunity to vote,” said voter Jacklyn Madden.
Fulton County has seven early voting sites open Saturday. There will be twice that many next weekend in Fulton. DeKalb County will also have sites open next weekend.
“We really don’t know what to expect yet. We know that there are several churches that are talking about having campaigns to bring people out. There are discussions about busing people, and so we’re excited about any opportunity to allow people to cast their ballot,” said Maxine Daniels, DeKalb County voter registration and elections director.
Turnout of African-American voters is crucial to Democratic hopes this year – New York Times.
African-Americans could help swing elections in Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and possibly Arkansas, a New York Times analysis of voter data shows, but only if they turn out at higher-than-forecast rates. They will also be important in Kentucky, where Alison Lundergan Grimes, the Democratic Senate candidate, refuses to say if she voted for President Obama — a stance that black leaders including Ms. Fudge fear will depress turnout.
Republicans, who are expanding outreach to African-Americans in states like North Carolina and Georgia, have their own aggressive get-out-the-vote effort, mindful of the success of the Obama campaign, which turned out voters in record numbers.
Black voters made history in 2012, exit polling and census data show, when they turned out at a rate higher than whites to help re-elect Mr. Obama. But fewer voters go to polls in midterm elections. In 2010, a disastrous year for Democrats, blacks voted at a rate lower than whites, creating a “turnout gap.”
The numbers are significant. Although more than 1.1 million black Georgians went to the polls in 2012, only about 741,000 voted in 2010. In North Carolina, Democrats say there are nearly one million black registered voters who did not vote in 2010.
“If you tell me in Georgia that, on the closing of the polls, the electorate is 32 percent African-American, I’m going to tell you we have probably elected a Democratic senator,” [Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher] said. “That’s not theory. It’s basic math.”
Republicans are skeptical. “What the Democrats were able to pull off with African-American turnout in places like Ohio in 2012 was truly amazing,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster. “Accomplishing the same goal without the African-American president on the ballot at the top of the ticket is a totally different endeavor.”
In Georgia, where blacks make up 30 percent of registered voters, Democrats identified 600,000 unregistered black voters. The New Georgia Project, an officially nonpartisan effort founded by the Democratic leader of the State House, Stacey Abrams, has helped register about 120,000 voters. But the effort is under attack from the Republican secretary of state, who has not yet processed 40,000 of the applications — a move Ms. Abrams denounced as “voter suppression.
Kemp, however, said his office has now confirmed nearly 40,000 of those voters are active and on the rolls despite accusations to the contrary. He said almost 10,000 more are on the state’s “pending” voter list, meaning those voters have been asked to provide more information to confirm their identities.
More than 6,000 other registration forms involve deceased people or felons, or could not be traced because they were missing key tracking information such as a valid address or zip code. Kemp said one was listed for “Johnny B. Good” in a city of “Yo Town.”
Deal says the group will be composed of representatives from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, the state Department of Community Health and other organizations — including Emory University Hospital, which has treated four Americans that have been diagnosed with the virus.
Deal says the team will convene this week and begin issuing recommendations immediately.
Atlanta city officials have also asked department heads for plans and preventative strategies on Ebola and other diseases.
Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald says hospitals across the state either have or will do exercises to prepare for a patient with symptoms.
Fitzgerald says any hospital in the state is capable of isolating a patient whose travel history and symptoms indicate they could have the virus. She also defended Deal, who has been criticized for saying that water kills the Ebola virus.
“Given the recent spread of Ebola in the United States, I share the deep concerns expressed by many Georgians about the risk this deadly virus poses to our public health,” Chambliss said. “To contain this disease and help prevent any additional cases in our country, I support implementing travel restrictions from Ebola-affected nations in West Africa to the United States. I believe exceptions can and should be made for essential personnel to carry out our mission of stopping the spread of Ebola at the source. Our nation continues to face a growing array of threats from around the world and must remain vigilant; I urge the administration to put in place a proactive and carefully thought out plan to protect the American people from the spread of this virus.”
Isakson agreed, describing the situation as an “urgent priority” for the country.
“As a member of the Senate health committee, I believe that, given the transmission of Ebola in Dallas that originated from a passenger flying from West Africa, we need to temporarily restrict nonessential travel to the United States from Ebola-affected countries,” said Isakson. “Additionally, I urge the president to take charge of coordinating and increasing the U.S. response to the growing threat of the Ebola virus to the American people. I take this situation very seriously and believe it is an urgent priority for the United States to contain this outbreak at its source, as well as to ensure that any additional cases that arise in the United States are quickly isolated.”
One key to preventing the spread of Ebola is early detection, said Dr. Jay Goldstein, medical director of the Emergency Department at Savannah’s Memorial University Medical Center.One challenge, Goldstein said, is that early signs of Ebola are similar to the common flu.
“There is no red flag except for travel or contact history,” he said. “For the most part patients initially present with almost exactly the same symptoms as flu patients. That’s the scary reality of this illness.”
Goldstein and Allen agreed that if a patient who recently has been in West Africa shows any symptoms, the patient would be placed in isolation.
The next step, hospital officials said, would be to alert public health officials, starting with the Coastal Health District who would be responsible for tracking and responding to a disease outbreak such as Ebola.
Coastal Health spokeswoman Sally Silbermann said her agency would advise health workers of recommendations made by the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, identify and contact anyone who may have had contact with the patient and distribute information to the public.
“The ultimate goal of public health, along with our community partners, is to work together to do whatever is necessary to ensure the public’s health and safety,” she said.
Because there are so many different ways to access the Savannah area, it’s important area health officials be prepared to treat infectious diseases such as Ebola, Allen said.
“It is concerning because we’re in a port city, there’s (Interstate) 95, we have an airport, there is military here. These are all things that you take into consideration with any type of infection control plan,” she said.
Allen said St. Joseph’s/Candler would likely keep an Ebola patient there for treatment, while Goldstein said Memorial might consider transporting the patient to another hospital, perhaps Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital, where stricken aid workers recovered from the infection earlier this year.
In either case, both health systems have the necessary protective equipment for staff members and would place patients in low-trafficked isolation areas.
Seven ships from West Africa have entered the Port of Savannah in the last 30 days. Twenty-one from the region have sailed into ports across the U.S. Coast Guard’s entire Southeast District in the last 30 days.
None of them brought Ebola.
But when the Coast Guard met a ship that most recently docked in Nigeria and was bound for Savannah on Thursday morning to perform a routine safety inspection, people started wondering why.
“(Thursday) morning’s inspection of the commercial vessel Atlantic Pendant by the Marine Safety Unit Savannah was part of our standard screening protocol of merchant vessels arriving from foreign ports,” said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Gabe Somma. “… There were no health concerns.”
Fewer than 1 percent of the 2,322 ships that have entered ports in the Coast Guard’s Southeast District in the past 30 days have been from West Africa. In the same time frame, 310 foreign ships entered the Port of Savannah, Somma said.
“I can’t stress enough how we are working daily with the Department of Homeland Security and the CDC and all the other federal agencies and local port partners to ensure the safe arrival of ships into our ports,” Somma said. “There’s a lot of careful assessment going on.”
Among other things, it would require in-state cannabis growth in facilities as secure as a jail, state Rep. Allen Peake said.
Georgia’s sheriffs are looking closely at security, investors are looking at how to make money selling something that’s illegal under federal law to a limited number of people, and doctors will be tapped to decide which ailments would merit a medical cannabis card.
Peake very nearly passed a bill earlier this year that would have decriminalized Georgia possession of cannabidiol, or CBD, oil, the medicine that Haleigh takes. It’s an extract from a cannabis plant and does not cause a high.
“There’s a lot we don’t know” about CBD, said Mike Van Dyke, chief of toxicology at the Colorado Department of Public Health, though it is known to act on part of the brain and how it transmits messages. His department is about to distribute $10 million in grants on medical cannabis research. The evidence on seizure relief from CBD is small and anecdotal, he said, but it appears to cause about the same or fewer side effects compared to traditional pharmaceutical offerings.
The first part of it, he said, would decriminalize possession of liquid medicine like Haleigh’s that’s been legally obtained in another state, so that her family and others like them won’t risk arrest if they come home.
Second, it would lay out the legal landscape for a medical cannabis infrastructure starting with growing, through manufacture to retail. Oversight might be based in the Department of Revenue, said Peake, right beside alcohol and tobacco.
There would be just a handful of licenses for each step in the process, he said, “so that law enforcement doesn’t have to go all over the state looking for different facilities.”
Law enforcement will insist on the right to look, said Terry Norris, executive director of the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association.
The sheriffs think in-state grow is a bad idea though, he said. “You don’t cultivate poppy in the state for codeine.”
The biggest reason they’re skeptical of cultivation is what Norris called the “slippery slope” that appears to exist in other states that leads from medical marijuana to the recreational kind.
Peake said, “I am in lock step with them. I don’t want to go down that slippery slope.” He said the state Legislature is not in favor of any liberalization, and he would fight it as long as he’s in office.
The list of diagnoses that medical cannabis would be allowed for is still in flux. Laws in Minnesota and New York and a draft in Missouri are among Peake’s templates. All three name fewer than a dozen. All of them include HIV/AIDS, cancer and epilepsy.
Conditions from arthritis to post-traumatic stress syndrome have their partisans, and research is sparse.
Rather than fight over each one in the state Legislature, Peake’s bill would also create a medical board in charge of advising lawmakers on adding or deleting disorders from the cannabis-eligible list. It would also be charged with registering and approving doctors who could issue a medical cannabis card. That board would probably also take on the hot debate over THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.
The proposal by [Superintendent David] Lewis calls for $1.6 million to upgrade athletics facilities, $1.2 million to upgrade the Jordan High auditorium, $700,000 to upgrade security at schools, and $500,000 to upgrade furniture and equipment in middle schools and high schools.
A couple from Columbus, Georgia, now in Athens, won $1.2 million on “Shark Tank” – Ledger-Enquirer.
Officials said in a release that Washington Post reporter Todd Frankel will replace Wade C.L. Williams as a guest speaker during a lecture on the crisis at the university on Thursday.
Williams is editor of the news site FrontPage Africa and is a New Narratives fellow, which is a project to support African journalists. Frankel spent 10 days in Sierra Leone and returned to the U.S. on Sept. 1, UGA officials said in a statement.
Williams’ visit was postponed because she’s within a 21-day incubation period for the virus “and we didn’t feel like that was safe for our students,” UGA spokeswoman Sarah Freeman said. “It’s certainly a hope that we will have her in the future,” she said.
UGA officials said that Frankel and three other writers are also scheduled to speak about what journalistic courage means during a symposium at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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