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‘Millions of birds will die’: Last-minute Trump rule aids industry
In July 2011, a pipeline owned by ExxonMobil burst near Laurel, Mont., dumping 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the nearby Yellowstone River. As federal officials reported the damage for weeks afterward, they found American white pelicans, owls and other bird species covered in oil, injured or dead. ExxonMobil agreed to pay $12 million to […]
‘I just don’t trust the system anymore’: Voters on edge as election nears
WASHINGTON—Widespread anxiety and confusion around voting, compounded by the pandemic. A vastly underfunded and decentralized electoral system that could take days and possibly weeks to certify results. Attempts to suppress voting, interfere with elections and cast doubt on the integrity of mail-in ballots — including by none other than the president. These are but a […]
John Lewis’ presence felt as crowd rallies at March on Washington
WASHINGTON – On the 57th anniversary of the original March on Washington and in the throes of a pandemic, thousands of demonstrators on Friday joined Democratic lawmakers on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to demand Congress act on police brutality and voter suppression. The event, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, […]
State Rep. Vernon Jones, Herschel Walker at RNC: Trump isn’t a racist
Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones rebuked his fellow Democrats on the opening night of the Republican National Convention Monday and made an appeal for voters of color to reelect President Donald Trump. There’s little chance of Trump winning even a sizable minority of Black votes, with polls showing him trailing by far the Democratic nominee, […]
Georgia officials try to get handle on Trump’s $400-a-week jobless plan
Governors, lawmakers and state unemployment agencies on Monday wrestled with confusion created by President Donald Trump’s executive action extending unemployment benefits, and it appeared some states could settle for $300 a week in benefits instead of the $400 that the president touted. State leaders from both political parties remained unsure how much they’d have to […]
Trump moves to extend unemployment benefits, suspend payroll taxes after talks break down
President Donald Trump on Saturday circumvented Congress and took action into his own hands, after weeks of unsuccessful negotiations over another coronavirus relief package on Capitol Hill. He signed three presidential memoranda and an executive order at his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Trump would provide $300 per week in federal unemployment assistance with […]
House passes bipartisan public lands bill; next stop president’s desk
WASHINGTON — Major environmental legislation sailed through Congress Wednesday while the nation’s political leaders were stuck in intense negotiations over the contours of a fifth coronavirus relief package. The bill would provide $9.5 billion over five years to pay down the National Park Service’s maintenance backlog and provide permanent funding at $900 million per year […]
Georgia enlists CDC Foundation as states recruit COVID-19 tracing army
As states work to loosen wide-ranging restrictions imposed to constrain the novel coronavirus, they’re also looking to deploy a huge new fleet of workers to keep cases under control. Enter the contact tracers. With interpersonal contact certain to increase as states lift COVID-19 restrictions, tracing who infected people had contact with — and then isolating […]
Can lessons from the Great Recession help states avoid budget disasters?
As they face massive budget shortfalls due to the COVID-19 pandemic, states are looking for federal money to help stave off the kind of drastic cuts they enacted during the last economic downturn. State budget officers and economists generally agree that cuts to state spending worsened the Great Recession in the years following 2008. Layoffs, […]
Pandemic fuels state feuds over gun rights in Georgia and beyond
The COVID-19 outbreak is igniting the debate over gun rights as states grapple with whether to allow gun sales while other retailers are forced to shutter. Stores selling guns and ammunition remain legally open in 45 states that include sellers and manufacturers as essential services that are exempted from orders shutting down most commercial activity […]