By Guest Columnist SUSAN VARLAMOFF, retired director of the University of Georgia’s Office of Environmental Sciences
As Georgia is the political epicenter of the nation with two U.S. Senate runoff races, the 1.2 million Catholics in the state may play an outsized role in deciding which party controls the Senate.
Over these long months of lockdown and quarantine, our country has been the target of one of the biggest and most successful espionage efforts in history, one which the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said last week “poses a grave risk to the federal government.”
Paycheck-to-paycheck workers may be especially vulnerable to higher-than-standard power bills after a new rate program for Georgia Power takes effect Jan. 1, 2021, according to the consumer advocacy group Georgia Watch.
By Guest Columnist JILL BINKLEY, program director and founder of TurningPoint Breast Cancer Rehabilitation
Functional limitations and issues such as numbness, decreased shoulder range of motion, weakness and reduced aerobic capacity are common side effects for breast cancer patients following surgery.
Unless you’re among the select few who really know what’s going on, you may never have heard of the 305th Military Intelligence Battalion, or Executive Order 13848, or Scytl. You may not know that CIA Director Gina Haspel was killed last month in a U.S. Special Forces raid in Frankfurt, Germany, which retrieved a server used to control the Dominion voting machines in the U.S. presidential election. Or maybe she was just wounded. Or arrested, and singing like a bird about the global conspiracy to throw the election.
The summer smash refrain, “Lowkey F2020,” does as good a job as any of the surveys in summing up the nation’s mental and emotional health. One balm that still works, say those who promote it, is spending time outdoors.
By Guest Columnist MICK COCHRAN, chairman of the board of First Step Staffing, Inc.
2020 has presented all sorts of challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic. The loss of income and wealth creates significant uncertainty and anxiety, coupled with fears and concerns over our family and friends’ individual health and welfare. Parents struggle with balancing childcare and maintaining secure employment. Many children are in despair, trying to keep up with school while mastering a whole new way of learning.
The call for police reform following the death of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery has been sounded for the session of the state Legislature that is to begin in January. Six such proposals have been submitted in the state House.
By Guest Columnist KAREN J. HARDWICK, leadership consultant and executive coach
Stressful doesn’t quite describe 2020. And it is the grueling pressure of this moment that is creating a leadership movement that harnesses the power of Connection. The kind of connection filled with grit and grace. The kind of connection that transforms us, our workplaces, and our relationships.
You just have to wonder where Sonny Perdue’s shiny bald head is at these days. It was the secretary of agriculture and his former chief of staff Nick Ayers, you will recall, who came to President Donald Trump before the 2016 Georgia Republican primary for governor and convinced him to endorse Brian Kemp. “I did that for Sonny Perdue,” Trump would later say.
Georgia’s woes with rural broadband don’t seem so rural when it turns out the shortages include portions of metro Atlanta’s urban core – in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties. By Dec. 15, a plan to help alleviate the shortages is due from the state utilities regulator.
By Guest Columnist NANCY K. DAVES, retired international specialist, NOAA Fisheries
As Winter arrives, ‘tis the season for many holidays. But the ocean off Georgia’s coast has a different reason to celebrate. November marks the beginning of North Atlantic right whale calving season in our southern waters.
COVID-19, it was said many times during this election year, would go away on Nov. 4. There was that level of cynicism that all the alarm over the pandemic was merely politics, and would magically disappear after the election. This hasn’t proven to be the case.
The name Hosea Williams was scarcely mentioned in 2020, the year three civil rights icons died. Williams’ life and work in the movement was commemorated this month in a small ceremony, on the 20th anniversary of his death.
Transit expansion in metro Atlanta will continue in Atlanta and Clayton County. The region will go without eye-popping transit projects once envisioned in Gwinnett and DeKalb counties, nor will Newton County pilot a transit system, in the foreseeable future.
By Guest Columnist MELITA EASTERS, executive director of Georgia’s WIN List
As Georgia becomes the “center of the political universe,” due to attention focused on Georgia’s highly unusual two United States Senate runoff races, two heavily courted groups are particularly meaningful for turnout as a tipping point towards a winning margin – Atlanta’s suburban women and Georgia’s newly energized youth vote.
By Guest Columnist LALITH POLEPEDDI, a research scientist at Georgia Tech’s Global Change Program
Efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 have radically transformed travel patterns across the globe. Between April and September 2020, global air travel dropped by 58% compared to the same time period in 2019. In the US, air travel dropped by 79% in that same time period. The steepest reductions occurred in the US in April, when air travel fell by 95%, and globally in May, when air travel fell by 68%.
Affordable housing, LGBTQ rights and pediatric health are among the issues that have emerged in a federal lawsuit in Atlanta that pits landlords of millions of rental homes against the CDC’s efforts to prevent evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Guest Columnist PHIL OLALEYE, executive director of Next Generation Men & Women (Next Gen)
“Sit your behind down and let’s complete this application!” It was approaching midnight and Ms. Brenda was not going to allow her son’s close friend let this deadline pass. She recognized his talent and potential. And as a single-mother, she knew all he needed was some direction and support. “I won’t get in, and even if I do, I can’t afford it,” he muttered softly as he submitted his college application with a few minutes to spare.
Volunteer environmentalists are fighting two separate battles to keep pollution out of the Chattahoochee River and South River, the two biggest waterways in metro Atlanta.
