In a move that has been telegraphed for months, State Representative Regina Quick (R-Athens) has been appointed as a Superior Court Judge by Governor Nathan Deal. Quick has previously indicated she would not be running for re-election, setting up a Republican primary between former State Rep Doug McKillip and Houston Gaines (thus far). The seat
State Representative Brian Strickland (R-McDonough) announced via Facebook this morning that he’ll be running for the State Senate Seat currently held by Senator Rick Jeffares. Jeffares is running for Lt. Governor. Strickland has been an upwardly mobile member of the Georgia House, and the move likely makes him the front runner for the Senate seat.
This week’s Courier Herald column: Last year there was a study committee on rural broadband issues and the growing digital divide facing our state. Residents of metro Atlanta and other densely populated parts of the state don’t witness this problem. Those living in rural Georgia too frequently deal with internet service that is slow, unreliable,
This week’s Courier Herald column: Governor Nathan Deal didn’t spend his Fourth of July weekend on a closed public beach because he and the state legislature didn’t pass a budget. That was Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. Both Georgia and New Jersey have fiscal years that begin on July 1st. As the new year
Fox 5 had an interview with Representative Scot Turner (R-Holly Springs), who dropped HB 641 towards the end of this year’s session of the Georgia General Assembly, discussing the bill’s requirement to equip our direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines with a permanent record of an individual that can be audited, used for a recount, and
Georgia will not be holding its tax-free weekend this August. WRDW has a crying Oprah GIF. The Macon Telegraph uses phrases like “Georgia shoppers will miss out” and “legislators shut down the sales tax-free weekend.” But is that really the case, or is this a surprisingly shrewd move from the Gold Dome? The annual tax-free weekend started
It’s that time a year again – legislative scorecards and awards are being dispersed from various organizations around the state based on legislation from the 2017 session. The most recent accolades announced are from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber announced Wednesday via press release that State Senator Brandon Beach and State Representative Christian
This week’s Courier Herald column: This is the second in a series. The introductory column can be found here. During the 1980’s, the Director of Georgia’s Cooperative Extension Service Tal DuVall published a study on “Two Georgias”, highlighting the growing disparity between a prosperous and growing metro Atlanta, and a mostly rural “other Georgia”. It
Dick Yarbrough is the latest to weigh in on the debacle that killed Rep. Bert Reeves’ adoption law update on the last day of the 2017 session of the Georgia General Assembly. His words aren’t kind, nor should they be. I’ve seen us lose more good and necessary legislation (locally and federally) to purposefully-toxic amendments than I
In 2015, the Georgia General Assembly reworked seventeen House districts’ boundaries through H.B. 566. A lawsuit filed Monday alleges that the changes in Districts 105 and 111 violate the Voting Rights Act because lawmakers diluted black voting strength with the changes in order to protect incumbents. The suit asks a three-judge panel to review the changes and
