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JFK’s Thanksgiving wish: Be ‘humbly grateful’ for what brings us together
Fifty-seven years ago, on Nov. 4, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed this Thanksgiving proclamation. Little more than two weeks later, on Nov. 22, 1963, he lost his life to an assassin’s bullet during a trip to Dallas, Texas. America is as divided as it has been lately and Kennedy’s wish that the nation unite around […]
State school board reverses course, backs deflating high-stakes tests
After a large majority of Georgians surveyed supported a proposal to make high-stakes standardized tests essentially meaningless for public school students this year, the State Board of Education voted Thursday to withdraw its recommendation to count the end-of- year exams as 10% of a course grade. Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods pushed to drop the […]
Teachers are on COVID-19 front lines, let them tell us what’s happening
In this moment, more than at any other time, it is non-negotiable that leaders of Georgia’s public schools operate with transparency. Georgia’s State School Superintendent Richard Woods issued a four-page statement Thursday using almost those exact words. He’s right. We are in a pandemic. School administrators and their human resources enforcers must make it clear […]
Arbery family meets with Trump, skips ‘police reform’ Rose Garden event
WASHINGTON — Relatives of Ahmaud Arbery met privately with President Donald Trump Tuesday, but did not attend a later Rose Garden event where Trump signed a modest police reform order he announced Tuesday in response to recent massive civil unrest over deadly police confrontations with African Americans. The executive order is designed to strengthen efforts to […]
Lawmakers return during pandemic, recession and historic calls for justice
Three months ago, the Georgia General Assembly took a historic hiatus because of concerns about COVID-19. Today, the Georgia Recorder staff returns to the Capitol and a political environment that’s continuing the palpable sense of history in the making. We have not seen anything like this before. Lawmakers (and journalists) will wear masks. Sanitization squads […]
McBath to George Floyd’s brother: ‘I know exactly how you feel’
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath consoled the brother of George Floyd during a Wednesday Capitol Hill hearing as she drew on her family’s personal tragedy to appeal to lawmakers to ensure the man didn’t die in vain on the pavement in Minneapolis. “We come to this hearing today as a result of deep morally […]
Long lines blamed on technical problems, poor poll worker training
Updated at 7:20 p.m. At the Fulton County precinct in the former Fanplex complex on Hank Aaron Drive downtown, perspiration beaded on Carlen Funk’s face around her mask as she handed out water and snacks to the hundreds of people lined up to vote inside the long-shuttered arcade. It was 4:15 p.m. and she’d already […]
Early-voting social distancing hints at tight spaces, long lines Tuesday
Voters at College Park’s library precinct waited more than six hours to cast ballots on a sometimes rainy Friday as in-person early voting came to a close, an indication that Georgia’s new ballot-marking equipment will be put to the test Tuesday under COVID-19 safety precautions that were not part of the plan. The line stretched […]
Ga. early voting underway as state eases county absentee ballot rules
Jennifer Rainwater arrived at her north Atlanta polling place on the first day of Georgia’s early primary voting with an absentee ballot in hand and a mask affixed to her face. She said she didn’t have much need for either one. Why show up for in-person, touchscreen voting when she’d requested a mail-in ballot weeks […]
Atlanta Press Club candidate debates set ahead of June primary
After years of originating its Georgia candidate debate series at the Georgia Public Broadcasting studios in Atlanta, the Atlanta Press Club is taking its signature election event online for the upcoming primary election. The virtual event is set to include candidates for U.S. Senate and the hotly contested race to replace outgoing Republican Congressman Rob […]
You’ve always got a next best step
The Georgia Recorder platform I have today gives me an opportunity to pay forward some good advice from my past: When you’re in a personal financial crisis, there’s always a next best step. I absorbed that advice — and saw it work — during the Great Recession, when I was communications manager for the nation’s […]
WalletHub ranks Georgia economy as least exposed to coronavirus
Georgia is about to find out how many people will miss their April rent and mortgage payments as thousands of workers lost their jobs already to the coronavirus economic shutdown. Georgia academic economists are predicting the state is particularly vulnerable to a downturn due to its dependence on the travel and hospitality industry. Already, Georgia […]