U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler speaks at the State Capitol after qualifying for the 2020 election on March 2, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., has doubled down on criticism of the Women’s National Basketball Association after players from several teams – including one which she co-owns – wore shirts to games Tuesday night urging voters to support her Democratic opponent, Rev. Raphael Warnock.
The shirts, which read “Vote Warnock,” served as a rebuke of Loeffler over comments she has made in recent weeks denouncing the league for its outspoken backing of the Black Lives Matter movement, amid months of nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
Loeffler, an Atlanta businesswoman who co-owns a team in the league, the Atlanta Dream, took heat for opposing plans for players to wear pre-game shirts supporting the protest movement and to have “Black Lives Matter” painted on the Florida basketball court where all games are being played this year.
Following the posting of photos of players wearing the “Vote Warnock” shirts on social media Tuesday, Loeffler issued a statement reiterating her stance against the Black Lives Matter organization “due to its radical ideas and Marxist foundations,” as well as calls to reduce local police funding.
“This is just more proof that the out-of-control cancel culture wants to shut out anyone who disagrees with them,” Loeffler said. “It’s clear that the league is more concerned with playing politics than basketball.”
Warnock, who is the senior pastor at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, praised the players for wearing the shirts and slammed Loeffler’s comments as moves that “seek to silence and dismiss others when they speak up for justice.”
“We are in a moment of generational, transformative change, and there is no place in the movement for bigotry,” Warnock said. “We celebrate the courage and resolve of these players standing for justice, and I am proud to stand with them.”
Loeffler, who was appointed in December to hold the seat of retired U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., has drawn a field of 20 other contenders in the free-for-all race to win her seat.
They include her toughest Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, who has taken aim at Loeffler for not condemning the league’s support for Planned Parenthood.
The Nov. 3 special election for Loeffler’s Senate seat will see candidates from all parties on the ballot. A runoff will be held in January if no candidate wins more than 50% of votes in November.
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. David Perdue has answered a TV ad aired by Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff accusing President Donald Trump and – by association – Perdue of failing to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a new ad sponsored by Perdue’s campaign, a voice-over narrator says the incumbent Republican “got to work” on COVID-19.
Specifically, the ad cites Perdue’s work to save 1.5 million Georgia jobs with his support of the Paycheck Protection Program, steer $6 billion to Georgia hospitals for “critical health-care needs,” and introduce legislation providing federal resources to help students and teachers return to schools safely or conduct classes online.
Perdue is seeking a second six-year term in the Senate. Ossoff, an investigative journalist, won the Democratic nomination to take on Perdue in June over a crowded primary field.
Ossoff’s ad attacking the Republicans’ handling of coronavirus was recorded in his home, where he has been self-quarantining since wife, Dr. Alisha Kramer, tested positive for COVID-19. Ossoff has tested negative for the virus,
ATLANTA – The state tax credits that have spurred the exponential growth of Georgia’s film industry will get added scrutiny under legislation Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law Tuesday.
House Bill 1037, which the General Assembly passed during the last week of this year’s session, will require all film productions located in Georgia to undergo mandatory audits by the Georgia Department of Revenue or third-party auditors selected by the state agency.
It also tightens rules governing how film companies transfer or sell unused tax credits to other businesses, a common practice for production groups that conduct part of their movie-making work outside Georgia.
The economic impact of film and TV production in Georgia has soared from $93 million in direct spending in fiscal 2007, the year before lawmakers adopted the film tax credit, to a peak of $2.9 billion in fiscal 2019 before dipping to $2.2 billion when the coronavirus pandemic ground production to a halt during the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.
However, two critical audits released in January put the tax credit’s supporters on the defensive, spurring efforts to bring the program under tighter control. The reports found the program has been poorly managed and called into question the accuracy of the fiscal impact estimates.
The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Matt Dollar, R-Marietta, passed both the Georgia House and Senate overwhelmingly.
Dollar’s legislation was among a flurry of bills Kemp signed Tuesday as he neared the deadline for signing the measures lawmakers passed during the General Assembly session that ended in June. The governor has until Wednesday – 40 calendar days after the session’s conclusion – to sign or veto bills.
Also on Tuesday, Kemp signed legislation banning utilities from burning wooden railroad ties treated in creosote to produce electricity. House Bill 857, sponsored by Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, was sparked by complaints from residents in two Northeast Georgia counties who have been pestered over the past year by foul smells and water pollution emanating from two new biomass plants.
Congressman Doug Collins speaks outside the Georgia House of Representatives on Jan. 28, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
A federal ethics complaint was filed Tuesday against Republican U.S. Senate candidate Doug Collins alleging the Gainesville congressman’s campaign has used videos of U.S. House floor broadcasts for political ends in violation of congressional rules.
Filed by the Democratic Party of Georgia, the complaint highlights YouTube videos and a recent ad attacking Collins’ chief opponent, U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., that show the congressman speaking from the House floor during last year’s presidential impeachment proceedings.
House rules forbid floor footage from being used as material for partisan political campaigns due to the risk that elected leaders may treat Congress as a venue for showmanship rather than to work in the public’s best interests, the complaint notes.
“This is the exact kind of conduct the ethics rules are designed to prevent,” reads the complaint, signed by Georgia Democratic Party Executive Director Scott Hogan.
A spokesman for Collins dismissed the complaint, labeling it an attempt by Loeffler and state Democrats to censor him. His campaign also noted the videos in question contained footage used in television news segments, not from C-SPAN.
“They really, really don’t want Georgians to see the video of Doug demolishing the Left as Trump’s chief defender during impeachment,” said spokesman Dan McLagan.
Several of Collins’ ads on Facebook were the subject of a previous ethics complaint filed by state Rep. David Clark, R-Buford, on grounds that they contained House floor footage.
Georgia Democrats also jabbed at Loeffler, an Atlanta businesswoman, in a news release Tuesday by drawing attention to controversial stock transactions she made ahead of the country’s COVID-19 outbreak that prompted a federal investigation.
Most recently, Collins’ campaign lashed out at a new ad released by Loeffler-supporting a political action committee with ties to Gov. Brian Kemp, who appointed Loeffler in December to hold the seat of retired U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson on an interim basis.
On Monday, Loeffler’s campaign criticized Collins for accepting donations from large tech companies amid congressional antitrust scrutiny into firms like Google, Facebook and Amazon.
Collins is set for a roughly weeklong tour at Warner Robbins Air Force Base, where he serves as a reserve chaplain.
The race for Loeffler’s seat has drawn 21 candidates in a free-for-all contest involving candidates from all parties on the same ballot. A runoff will be held in January if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote on Nov. 3.
Schools in Georgia need to limit group sizes, require masks and consider shutting down if outbreaks flare amid the COVID-19 pandemic as hundreds of thousands of kids head back to class this month, an infectious disease expert in Atlanta stressed Tuesday.
Parents and kids also need to mind what they do outside school settings since a young student who catches the virus can quickly spread it on buses, cafeterias and sports fields, said Dr. Marybeth Sexton, a member of the Serious Communicable Disease Unit at Emory University Hospital and a former Atlanta public school teacher.
Among more drastic measures, Sexton said schools should consider staggering lunch times, limit school buses to one student per seat, pull the plug on teacher lounges, hold classes outdoors if possible and keep kids in the same classroom rather than switching locations for different teachers.
“This is a time for people to really think about if this is incredibly important to us, to have kids in school – and it should be – what are we willing to do to make it happen?” Sexton said in a briefing Tuesday.
Many Georgia students began returning to in-person classes this week for the 2020-21 school year, following statewide school closures in March that prompted students to complete courses online.
As the fall semester kicks off, state officials have left it to local districts whether to hold classes in person or start off with virtual learning. Several districts have also decided to delay the start of classes for a few weeks, a move Sexton said schools would be wise to consider.
If all schools waited until after Labor Day to reconvene, and if people adhered to distancing, masking and cleanliness measures during that time, Sexton said Georgia could make big headway in curbing the spread of a virus that has a two-week incubation period before it can take root in classrooms.
“One of the best ways to get kids back to school is to do the things that are going to protect all of us, no matter what,” Sexton said.
But Sexton acknowledged keeping kids at home can be tough on parents juggling work with child care and could potentially lead to worse disparities between students who have consistent access to the internet and those who don’t.
Perhaps most important is for students to understand the reasons why wearing masks and keeping their distance from each other should be done, particularly for kindergarten-age students and teenagers with rebellious streaks, Sexton said.
“There probably does have to be a sense of you are not coming in my classroom if you do not have a mask on,” Sexton said. “Because that’s what’s safe for you, that’s what’s safe for your classmates and that’s what protects the teacher.”
Much of Sexton’s advice squared with guidelines the state Department of Education released over the summer to help local school districts decide how to hold classes in the fall via a mix of in-person classes and online instruction options.
State School Superintendent Richard Woods has stressed the importance of in-person classes on Georgia students’ quality of education but supports local districts making their own decisions on when to start classes and how to hold them safely.
“The first day of school will be the first day of school,” Woods said last month. “You can expect hiccups. You can expect challenges. But I guarantee your kids will be safe, your teachers will be safe and we will learn.”
