Author
Plan to shield government officials’ personal info from public records sweeps Ga. Senate
Richard T. Griffiths of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation asked Georgia legislators this week to take a deep breath, tap the brakes, and reconsider the “vast sweep” of Senate Bill 215, which would require redaction of names and property ownership from state data bases of law enforcement personnel, politicians, and hundreds of thousands of other […]
People on streets of Plains not ready to let go of ‘Mister Jimmy’ after Carter enters hospice
PLAINS — The first media caravan arrived here late Saturday after the news Jimmy Carter would forgo any medical intervention and the family used the word “hospice” to describe his treatment going forward. The 39th president, the only one from Georgia, is 98 years old. People here dread the inevitable. The townsfolk are shaking their heads […]
Secrecy in Georgia’s medical cannabis regulation still frustrates efforts to deliver relief to patients
For months, rival companies that want to produce low-THC cannabis oil for medical purposes in Georgia have not been able to pry open the black box of the state’s 2019 Hope Act to see how six firms—out of 69 bidders—were awarded licenses to dispense the marijuana extract to patients across the state. The state’s Open […]
Sports betting and other legalized gambling could beat long odds after Georgia Legislature shakeup
State Rep. Ron Stephens, a Savannah Republican, wanted to make a point about gambling in the state of Georgia. During a 2021 hearing on legalized sports gambling, he walked to the well of the house and said he was filing a bill to outlaw all gambling in the state. He asked members to come up […]
Can Warnock or Walker win over the 81,000 Georgians who voted for the Libertarian in November?
What is to become of the 81,278 voters who marked their ballots for Libertarian Chase Oliver in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race? Will those voters return to the polls for the Dec. 6 runoff between Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker? Those 81,278 Georgians could sway the pivotal Senate race, but there are doubts among experts […]
Poll finds most Georgia voters favor casinos, online sports betting support comes up short
In May 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court opened the spigot to the $165 billion U.S. sports betting industry by allowing states to legalize online sports gambling as legislatures pressed for ways to close budget gaps. Revenue from taxes from online betting has flowed into the treasuries of 22 states, including Georgia’s neighbor Tennessee, which has […]
Sleepy Coffee County wakes to national spotlight with 2021 voting machine breach videos
This post was updated Sept. 21, at 9:40 a.m. to correct the dates of two events. DOUGLAS – Sitting at a back table at Ole Times restaurant, Larry Nesmith was putting a cold drink to his lips when his phone jangled. It was his wife calling. They live out near the high school and kids […]
Baseball’s minor leaguers among Georgians swept up in organized labor wave
The rise in union organizing around the U.S. because of a tight labor market has swept up in its wave the most egregious employer in all of American sports, minor league baseball. On the eve of Labor Day, minor leaguers—there are about 3,500 of them—are signing union authorization cards signaling their support for organizing around […]
The power of ‘No’: Trespass warnings on Georgia rivers roil the waters
This post was updated 5:15 p.m. August 16 to correct property owner information along the Flint River. The Chestatee River is there somewhere. It shows on the map winding through the hills just south of Dahlonega in north Georgia. “Chestatee” is on road signs along US 19. But the river is hard to see from […]
‘It’s not a religious service’: Are prayers after football games harmless?
The headlines blared and the news was treated as a thunderbolt, something cataclysmic. A ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court backed a Washington state high school football coach who had been fired for participating in a prayer with his team on the field at a public school. The Supreme Court’s conservative wing ruled the coach […]
Will confirmation of suspected tribal burial grounds end Okefenokee mine for good?
It was not just another government memorandum, one of hundreds to be shuffled off into the vast bureaucracy, to be acted on, or cast into a digital dustbin, to be forgotten. This memo was epic. This memo was rare assurance of equal treatment for Indigenous people in Georgia. The Jan. 26, 2021, memo from the […]
Pandemic-fueled Apple union movement unlikely to spur a trend in right-to-work Georgia
Inside the Apple store at Cumberland Mall, business is brisk on a Thursday afternoon. There is not a whiff of discontent among the retail workers judging by the demeanor of the staff. Before you can walk from the front of the store to the back of the store, three cheerful Apple workers want to know […]