President Donald Trump rallied for then-Republican U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler ahead of the Senate runoff elections on Jan. 4, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – An anti-Donald Trump Republican political action committee has launched a six-figure ad campaign in Georgia and three other swing states focusing on the latest criminal indictment handed down against the former president.
The 30-second ad sponsored by the Republican Accountability Project plays clips of violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, over sound from Trump’s speech at the Ellipse that morning.
“Trump did this,” the ad states. “He’ll do it again unless he faces consequences.”
Trump was charged in federal court in Washington, D.C., Tuesday with four felony counts of interfering with the results of the 2020 presidential election that saw Democrat Joe Biden defeat the Republican incumbent. Trump is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on the charges.
Tuesday’s indictment was the third lodged against Trump this year, including charges that he paid hush money to ex-porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign to cover up a sexual relationship and that he kept classified documents after leaving office at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Trump also faces a fourth potential indictment in Fulton County for his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. Biden became the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry the Peach State since Bill Clinton in 1992.
The new ads will run in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Wisconsin, all states Biden narrowly won in 2020, as well as nationally on Fox News.
ATLANTA – The head of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Parks and Historic Sites Division will become director of the DNR’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD) later this month.
The state Board of Natural Resources voted unanimously Wednesday to approve Gov. Brian Kemp’s nomination of Jeff Cown to head the EPD. Cown will take up the post on Aug. 16 at an annual salary of $190,000.
Cown has spent 33 years with the DNR, the last five as director of the parks division. Before that, he served for 28 years with the EPD, including a five-year stint as chief of the agency’s Land Protection Branch.
“With an accomplished and dedicated history in this field, he will be an asset to the division as it continues the essential work of ensuring Georgia remains a good steward of our natural resources while balancing the needs of our citizens,” Kemp said Wednesday.
“He’s the steady hand we need right now,” added board member Ray Lambert, who made the motion to appoint Cown.
Cown will succeed Rick Dunn, who left the EPD last month to become director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget.
Cown said a top priority in his new job will be to retain and recruit adequate staffing at the EPD.
“We don’t want to overwork the people who are there,” he said after Wednesday’s vote.
Two issues Cown will face are Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals’ plan to mine titanium oxide at a site near the Okefenokee Swamp and how the state will regulate coal ash stored in ponds adjacent to coal-burning power plants.
Twin Pines is seeking permits from the EPD to open a mine along Trail Ridge in Charlton County. The proposal generated more than 100,000 comments during a recent 60-day public comment period from opponents warning the project would threaten the environmentally fragile blackwater swamp, the largest in North America.
The Georgia Water Coalition, a partnership of 256 organizations, is asking the EPD and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to prohibit coal ash ponds from being closed in place with ash sitting in groundwater.
Cown said his background with EPD includes experience with both mining and disposal of solid waste including coal ash. He promised to conduct a thorough scientific review of both issues and communicate the findings to the public in a way that builds trust in the agency.
“I need to get into that and see where we are,” he said.
Cown earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Georgia and is a graduate of the Institute of Georgia Environmental Leadership.
ATLANTA – The state should require hospitals planning to close or eliminate core medical services to give 180 days written notice, the head of a statewide consumer advocacy group said Tuesday.
That six months lead time should involve a review that would include a third-party assessment and a public hearing, Liz Coyle, executive director of Georgia Watch, told members of a Georgia House study committee meeting in Augusta.
Wellstar Health System provided only 30 days notice last year when it closed the Atlanta Medical Center, Coyle said.
“It happened so fast, and the community is still devastated,” she said. “We want this to be a much more public process.”
The study committee is looking for ways to modernize Georgia’s Certificate of Need (CON) law governing capital investments in the construction of new hospitals or the addition of new health-care services. The law requires project applicants to demonstrate a need for the new hospital or service in a given community.
Coyle said 180 days is how long it typically takes applicants to go through the CON review process, so it makes sense to require that much lead time before a hospital can shut its doors.
While the Georgia Department of Community Health is currently considering a 180-day notice requirement, she said she would like to see the General Assembly codify it into state law.
Hospital closures aren’t just affecting the Atlanta region. Jimmy Lewis, CEO of HomeTown Health LLC, told the committee 15 rural hospitals in Georgia have closed in the last 20 years.
“When we lose a hospital, we lose an economic generator,” Lewis said. “When these close, that community goes away.”
Coyle said requiring hospitals to give 180 days notice of an impending closure would give community leaders time to identify and obtain sources of funding to keep the facility open. She cited a poll Georgia Watch conducted in April, working with the University of Georgia, that found 82.9% of respondents support requiring a six-month review of proposed hospital closures.
Coyle suggested the lack of transparency in the current closure process may be contributing to the number of closures.
But Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, an emergency room physician, said requiring that much public notice of a closure could aggravate the financial problems a hospital is having by prompting vendors to cancel contracts and employees to leave for more secure jobs.
Coyle also recommended other ways of increasing transparency besides the 180-day notice of a hospital closure, including legislation requiring hospital administrators to file quarterly financial reports that would be accessible to the public.
But Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, who chairs the House Public Health Committee, said such a mandate could be overly burdensome for small hospitals.
“The cost of people to do this is beyond the resources of rural hospitals,” she said.
Coyle said the resource problem could be solved by getting state government accountants to compile the required reports.
The study committee on CON modernization will hold its next meeting in Albany before wrapping up its work with a final meeting in Atlanta. The panel is expected to make recommendations in time for the 2024 General Assembly session starting in January.
