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Gold Dome handshakes to social distancing – a Ga. COVID-19 timeline
Just a little over two weeks ago U.S. Senate candidates, legislative hopefuls, lobbyists and the usual groups of student visitors converged on the Georgia Capitol on the first day candidates could qualify for 2020 elections. People were already dying of COVID-19 in other states by March 2 when U.S. Sen. David Perdue stopped by the Gold Dome to fill out his paperwork and glad hand with other politicians and some of the young visitors that day. Things have deteriorated at a head-spinning pace as you'll see in our timeline that traces the outbreak from a Chinese province late last year to this week's news that 236 state lawmakers are urged to self-quarantine because one of their own tested positive. And the lives of more than 10 million Georgians are now turned upside down.
Mental health advocates say cuts to state safety net are deadly serious
Officials in charge of Georgia’s mental health safety net offered dire predictions after the governor ordered nearly all state agencies to slash spending. People suffering from mental illnesses would land in the emergency room, they said. And more people contemplating suicide would act on those impulses. Those same officials with the Department of Behavioral Health […]
Georgia Recorder reports for Gold Dome duty
When Georgia’s 236 state lawmakers closed out the last legislative session on April 2, they tossed copies of bills in the air and sang Sine Die, Latin for adjourning with no appointed day of resumption. Now, that day of resumption is here. Georgia Recorder’s news operation was built for this moment. Since our Aug. 6 […]
Time for Georgia to snuff out this generation’s ‘coffin nails’
One of the state’s most influential lawmakers on health policy wants to ban flavored vaping products in Georgia and raise the purchase age from 18 to 21. Her colleagues should rush to support her when the legislative session kicks off in a couple of weeks. The electronic cigarettes are devices that can deliver nicotine clouds […]
Speak up to keep Georgia from getting short end of Medicaid stick
It’s time to tell state officials it’s not right to require poor people to punch a clock for their health care. Gov. Brian Kemp’s six-city road show to sell his skinny version of Medicaid expansion wraps up this week. Nearly 500,000 uninsured Georgians could get health coverage if the governor expanded Medicaid income eligibility. Just […]
Sunshine Laws apply to state officials’ open meetings training, too
The Georgia Department of Education board is set to get together Nov. 7, and this time around the public can expect compliance with the state’s Open Meetings Act. That might sound like a low bar to clear for a department with the largest budget of any state agency. Parents, teachers, students — indeed, every Georgia […]
Presidential candidate Warren goes after charter school industry
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is one of the Democratic presidential frontrunners, is going after controversial charters schools that have been blossoming nationwide and enjoy significant legislative support in Georgia — as part of a broad education plan released Monday. The plan titled, A Great Public School Education for Every Student, would end federal funding for […]
Georgia students plan to attend statewide ‘Climate strike’ rallies today
Nicole Pontzer’s anxiety over climate change is old news in her circle of friends in Athens and now hundreds of strangers are about to get an earful as well. She’ll be the one bringing the new 50-watt bullhorn to the Athens Climate Strike rally at the University of Georgia’s north lawn behind the school’s iconic […]
Require coal ash plan transparency in Georgia Power’s rate hike request
Georgia Power wants customers who pay the company for electricity to also pay to clean up its $525 million environmental mess. And that’s about all the company wants to tell Georgians about it. Georgia Power wants its 2.5 million ratepayers to cough up that half a billion over the next three years to seal about […]
Georgia’s low-income college students deserve need-based aid
Georgia lawmakers should open up a new source of money to help college students from low-income families start and finish school. And limited online sports betting might be a better way to do that than today’s state-sponsored lottery and the other gambling options on the table. Some of the old gaming standbys like casinos and […]
Coastal Georgians getting acclimated to hurricane emergency declarations
Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency Thursday afternoon for 12 coastal Georgia counties as Hurricane Dorian loomed to the south in the Atlantic Ocean, the first time he’s issued such an executive order since he took office in January. Several hours later, Ken Jacobsen exuded calm before the forecast storm as he spoke […]
Georgia’s poor, rural hospitals lose in lawmakers’ health care waiting game
Georgia lawmakers are again waiting, fingers crossed, for someone to provide an alternative to expanding Medicaid coverage to nearly 500,000 uninsured Georgians under the federal Affordable Care Act. The latest workaround, Georgia’s 2019 Patients First Act, is so much like a Utah plan the White House just rejected that it seems like it’s time to […]