The Georgia Supreme Court meets in the new Nathan Deal Judicial Center in downtown Atlanta (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – With the June 9 primary elections looming, former U.S. Rep. John Barrow is urging the Georgia Supreme Court to decide whether voters will get to choose a successor to retiring Justice Keith Blackwell.
Barrow and former state Rep. Beth Beskin signed up during the March qualifying period for the run for the seat.
But Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger canceled the election at the request of Gov. Brian Kemp and declared the governor gets to appoint Blackwell’s successor.
Barrow and Beskin sued the secretary of state late last month. A Fulton County court ruled against the plaintiffs two weeks ago, declaring Blackwell’s seat essentially is vacant now, giving Kemp the right to make the appointment. The decision has been appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Barrow is accusing the three Supreme Court justices who have declined to recuse themselves from the case of “slow-walking” a ruling that needs to made quickly in order to get the race on the June primary ballot. The justices who did recuse themselves are being replaced by substitute justices.
“I’m calling on the Supreme Court to announce its decision in this case now,” Barrow said. “We’ve done what the court has ordered us to do. It’s time for the court to do its job.”
Barrow has filed three motions since the Supreme Court agreed to take up the appeal, two to dismiss from the case Justice David Nahmias, one of the three justices refusing to recuse himself. The other motion was to expedite the case. All three motions were rejected.
“I’m concerned that Justice Nahmias may be trying to manipulate the substitute justices for the same reason Justice Blackwell and the governor have manipulated the timing of Justice Blackwell’s ‘retirement’ — to control the Georgia Supreme Court,” Barrow said.
Barrow, a Democrat, represented Georgia’s 12th Congressional District from 2005 through 2015. He ran for secretary of state two years ago, losing to Republican Raffensperger.
Responding to Barrow’s claims, Supreme Court spokeswoman Jane Hansen wrote in an email that the court’s quick, unanimous rulings against his three motions speak for themselves.
Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
ATLANTA – State and federal officials are hustling to increase the supply of hospital beds and coronavirus tests in Georgia ahead of an anticipated peak surge in COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks, Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday.
The governor highlighted a push by local hospitals and federal authorities to set up hundreds more beds to handle the patient surge projected for May 1, including 200 intensive care “pods” at the Georgia World Congress Center.
Meanwhile, diagnostic test results “continue to lag” despite a dramatic increase in the number and speed of tests conducted in recent days, Kemp said. More testing will be critical to maintain safety and track possible new outbreaks after people start going back to work, he said.
The combination of more beds and more testing should both bolster the state’s ability to handle the expected hospital surge and help Georgians bounce back more quickly once transmissions of the highly infectious virus begin to subside, Kemp said.
“We need to be firing on all cylinders to prepare for the days and weeks ahead,” Kemp said at a news conference Monday afternoon.
The governor did not speculate on when the state’s shelter-in-place order will ultimately be lifted. The current order is set to run through April, but Kemp has the ability to extend it. He has already done so once.
As of noon Monday, more than 13,000 people in Georgia had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel strain of coronavirus that sparked a global pandemic. It has killed 464 Georgians.
Based on current forecasting models, Georgia looks to be “in good shape” for a medium-range projection of needed hospital beds, said Georgia National Guard Adj. Gen. Thomas Carden. But the situation would change for the worse if the state approaches higher-range projections for patient surge, he said.
Georgia is currently forecast to fall short by more 200 beds of the roughly 800 ICU beds the state will likely need on May 1, according to a frequently cited model run by the University of Washington.
To date, according to Kemp, Georgia has a statewide inventory among its hospitals and temporary field sites of 2,617 emergency-room beds, 929 critical-care beds and nearly 6,000 general in-patient beds.
The temporary facility being set up at the World Congress Center will act as a “relief valve” for hospital overflow, Carden said.
“I frankly pray that we don’t need it,” Carden said Monday. “But I will tell you that it’s going to be in place and it’s going to be able to support you.”
The governor said other temporary medical units that the state purchased will be ready for use in the coming weeks in Rome, Albany, Gainesville and Macon.
The state has also completed roughly 57,000 diagnostic tests, mostly processed in commercial labs. The number of tests has increased substantially in recent days due to tighter coordination between the state health lab and private companies and speedier turnaround times at many local hospitals.
On Monday, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, the state’s public health commissioner, directed regional health departments to expand testing criteria so that tests can be given to more people than only the state’s most at-risk populations.
Tests can now be given to people who do not show symptoms of the virus but who were exposed to others who are showing symptoms, Kemp said. Tests can also be given to people working in certain jobs considered “critical infrastructure” who show symptoms.
By the end of this week, people who fit those criteria and want to be tested can call their local health agency to schedule an appointment and do not need a doctor’s referral first, Toomey said.
“We recognized that we had probably made it a little too hard for people to get in because we were requiring people to get a referral from a physician,” she said.
ATLANTA – Public transit systems across Georgia will receive $522.2 million from the federal economic stimulus package Congress passed late last month, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Monday.
The money is being made available by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) out of the $150 billion in the stimulus package dedicated to helping state and local governments offset financial losses from the coronavirus pandemic.
“This funding will make a profound impact on our economy in our fight against COVID-19,” Kemp said.
Most of the funding – $370.9 million – is earmarked for transit agencies in metro Atlanta, including $298.6 million headed for MARTA.
“The [stimulus] funding is critical to keeping the Atlanta region’s transit network moving,” said Chris Tomlinson, executive director of The ATL, the Atlanta area’s regional transit planning and governance agency. “These funds come at a much needed time and will help support those transit employees who continue to serve this region on the front lines of the COVID-19 response.”
The rest of the money is being split between transit systems in Georgia’s other larger cities, smaller urban transit systems and rural transit agencies.
Transit systems in the larger cities – including Augusta, Columbus and Savannah – will receive $26.6 million, while smaller urban systems will get $49.7 million. The rural systems will receive $75 million.
The FTA’s priorities for the stimulus funding will be supporting operating costs transit agencies are absorbing from the impacts of COVID-19, including maintaining service during a period of low ridership, purchasing the personal protective equipment employees need to prevent the spread of the virus and covering administrative leave granted to operations personnel.
The small urban and rural transit system operators will be working with the Georgia Department of Transportation to obtain their share of the money. Those funds will be enough to support the full cost of their operations retroactive to Jan. 20 and running through June 30 of next year.
Here is a breakdown of the federal funding headed to transit systems in metro Atlanta:
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency in Georgia Monday after a severe storm system ripped through the state Sunday night and early Monday, generating high winds, heavy rain and tornadoes.
At least seven people were killed in Georgia, including five at two mobile home parks near Chatsworth.
As of Monday afternoon, 59,000 Georgians still were without electricity.
“It is devastating,” Kemp said Monday afternoon after touring storm damage in Murray County. “It looked like a bomb went off in two neighborhoods I visited.”
The governor said the new state of emergency will coexist with the statewide public health emergency he first declared last month and renewed last week related to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The responses by the state to this state of emergency for storm damage and the public health state of emergency should both proceed simultaneously, without one impeding the other,” an executive order the governor issued Monday stated.
Monday’s executive order will remain in effect for 10 days, until April 23. The order authorizes the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency to bring “all “resources” of the state to bear to respond to the affected areas and help with recovery.
The order also suspended the federal rules limiting the hours commercial truck drivers can be on the roads in order to prevent disruptions in supplies of gasoline and diesel fuel, emergency supplies, food and other agricultural products and the removal of storm debris.
It also allows trucks to exceed the usual legal weight, height and length restrictions, subject to oversize permits issued by the Georgia Department of Public Safety.
“We are praying for those who lost loved ones overnight and the families dealing with severe storm damage.” Kemp said. “In coordination with private-sector partners, multiple state agencies – including the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, Department of Public Safety, Department of Natural Resources, Department of Transportation, and Georgia Forestry Commission – are working hard to restore power, clear debris, and provide necessary assistance to families across the state.”
Kemp said Pete Gaynor, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has offered the federal government’s assistance in the recovery.
ATLANTA – Voters in Georgia Senate District 4 will choose a successor to the late Sen. Jack Hill on June 9, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Monday.
Hill, R-Reidsville, died suddenly last Monday at the age of 75. He was elected to the Senate in 1990 as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party following the 2002 elections.
Hill has served since 2003 as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees the annual drafting of the state budget.
Qualifying for the Senate seat began Monday and will continue until 1 p.m. Wednesday at the secretary of state’s office on the eighth floor of the James. H. “Sloppy” Floyd Building, 2 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, in downtown Atlanta. The qualifying fee is $400.
If no candidate receives a majority of the vote during the June 9 special election, a runoff would take place on Aug. 11.
The voter registration deadline for the special election is May 11.
The sprawling Senate District 4 includes portions of Bulloch, Candler, Effingham, Evans and Tattnall counties.
