What does the governor know that the rest of us don’t? That question has floated rather ominously over the Golden Dome since Brian Kemp last month directed agency heads to start planning for a leaner tomorrow.
The complete story of last week’s vote in Congress to ban offshore oil drilling isn’t evident in the final tally of votes. A “No” vote from Georgia’s representative from the coast belies his efforts to support the opposition to drilling off Georgia’s coast that’s been voiced by his constituents and Gov. Brian Kemp.
Former state Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers announced Tuesday he’s leading a new battle after his years championing charter schools in the Georgia Legislature – fighting “illegal short term rentals,” such as Airbnb, on behalf of the hotel association he leads.
The idea behind business courts — the idea Georgia voters bought into last year when they approved a statewide business court — is that they provide a way for big, complicated lawsuits involving businesses to be settled in the fairest, most efficient way. That proposition is about to face a stern test, as the Gwinnett business court becomes the venue for the state’s opioid case.
When the history of whatever comes next in Georgia politics gets written some day, the first chapter is likely to dwell on two events: last year’s governor’s race and the fallout from Sen. Johnny Isakson’s resignation. Both are part of a generational shift which may turn out to be as meaningful as the long drift from Democratic to Republican dominance. Or even more so.
Hurricane damage repair costs have prompted North Carolina highway officials to announce layoffs of more than 500 road maintenance workers, and to predict delays in repairing storm-damaged roads in the future. Politics may have a role in this transportation scuffle, along with other skirmishes in a two-party state on a level that Georgia hasn’t yet experienced.
Almost lost in the discussion of affordable housing is the precipitous decline of black homebuyers and black homeownership. At a summit Wednesday at the Carter Center, housing specialists are to examine the roots of the problem and potential policy solutions.
What is crazy, after all? People’s ideas about that can differ as much as the songs by Patsy Cline and Gnarls Barkley. That’s what makes it such a difficult subject to approach politically.
Gov. Brian Kemp has ordered a 4 percent reduction in state spending starting Oct. 1 and a 6 percent cut starting next July 1. The move is in keeping with the long line of Georgia governors who have cut spending as revenues decline and maintained a high credit rating, according to Moody’s Investors Service.
There’s a template for handling budget shortfalls which Gov. Brian Kemp seems to be following. But there’s no template for the controversy which has erupted over toxic emissions affecting neighborhoods in Cobb, Fulton and Newton counties.
The latest plan to extract profits out of sand near the Okefenokee Swamp fits a pattern that started in the late 1800s and has ties to historic names in Atlanta’s growth – including Inman Park developer Joel Hurt, and an owner of the ‘Atlanta Journal’ who parleyed presidential endorsement editorials into a post as U.S. Secretary of Interior.
Coming only three days after the murderous attack on the El Paso Walmart, last week’s ICE raids on seven Mississippi chicken plants drew a lot of national media attention and caused a lot of disruption in the small towns that were affected. Federal officials said this was the largest single-state workplace enforcement action in history, but it wasn’t the first time a chicken plant raid has wreaked havoc in the rural South.
By Guest Columnist DEBRA EDELSON, executive director of Grove Park Foundation
If our Atlanta region continues to grow as predicted, we will have tens of thousands of new residents move in town over the next 10 years. How will they decide what neighborhood to live in? Like many of us, they will look for a community that feels safe, is proximate to good schools, and is accessible to retail and community services. Sadly, across Atlanta, many neighborhoods don’t have these critical characteristics.
On a day when President Trump has addressed the nation to condemn “racism, bigotry and white supremacy,” it might not seem appropriate to begin with Champ Bailey’s Pro Football Hall of Fame induction speech on Saturday. But the former Georgia Bulldog great spoke about that very subject with expertise, as he put it. It’s something, he said, which black men “have more expertise in than any aspect of our lives.”
Imagine a 3D printer that can build a 100-foot-tall rocket, or robots made of polymers and muscle tissue. Somebody already has, and is moving forward on the idea.
The Atlanta City Council is set to impose greater control over Invest Atlanta, the city’s economic development arm that acts as Atlanta’s agent to promote housing, economic development and redevelopment – all of it under control of a board chaired by the mayor, whose top advisor argued against the council’s exercise of authority.
The pace of activity is increasing in the effort to halt the pending restriction of abortion in Georgia.
Six Democratic lawmakers have just returned from a training seminar sponsored by a group founded by the former political director of NARAL, a pro-choice group. On Tuesday, the ACLU asked a federal judge to delay the Jan. 1, 2020 start of the “heartbeat bill.”
(A note from Tom: This week I’m stepping aside for something special. The Almanac of American Politics, published every two years since 1972, is a necessity for political junkies, with its reams of demographic and election data and carefully crafted profiles of every state and congressional district. Volume by volume over time, it has become […]
The discussion begins Saturday about replacing the departing director of the Sierra Club’s Georgia chapter, one of the state’s few environmental organizations that endorses political candidates, seeks to influence legislation and sway public opinion.
Demand for affordable housing comprises a fair amount of the housing sales in Georgia and the Southeast, even as employers offer incentives other than money to attract and retain labor in what remains a tight labor market, according to Wednesday’s edition of the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s Beige Book.
APS faces rocky future with non-renewal of Meria Carstarphen's contractSeptember 16, 2019 - 3:13 pm
Nora Saporta teacher of the year award stokes up memories of Mama, Papa, Dick Munroe and Luis MazaSeptember 9, 2019 - 4:15 pm
Community leaders rally behind APS Superintendent Meria CarstarphenSeptember 2, 2019 - 5:15 pm
Intentional tagging: PATH400 seeks artist to create abstract artwork alongside trailSeptember 20, 2019 - 5:55 pm
'Clean 13' list of water heroes includes Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Athens brewerySeptember 19, 2019 - 11:07 am
Atlanta honors 'warrior' in battle against human trafficking, child exploitationSeptember 17, 2019 - 7:43 pm
That old question — who will feel the cuts? — hovers over Kemp's directiveSeptember 16, 2019 - 7:04 pmWill opioid settlements become the tobacco settlement on steroids?September 9, 2019 - 6:44 pmIsakson's departure completes the generational change that began with the governor's raceSeptember 2, 2019 - 6:33 pm
Column: Jewish Federation raises $19 million, names chief foundation officerJuly 19, 2019 - 7:37 pm
Column: Junior Achievement of Georgia spinoff raises $27 million to transform high school educationJuly 19, 2019 - 6:55 pm
Column: Junior Achievement of Georgia spinoff raises $27 million to transform high school educationJuly 5, 2019 - 12:03 am
