ATLANTA – While 2023 wasn’t an election year in Georgia, politics was front and center throughout the last 12 months.
From January street protests of the proposed Atlanta Police Training Center derided by critics as “Cop City” to the General Assembly redrawing Georgia’s congressional and legislative maps in December under a federal court order, various forms of politics were playing out during the year.
Here’s a look at the top Georgia stories of 2023:
Jan. 9 – The Georgia Bulldogs trounce Texas Christian University 65-7 to win their second consecutive college football national championship.
Jan. 18 – Activist Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, 26, is shot and killed by police during a “clearing operation” at the wooded area that is the site of the proposed Atlanta Police Training Center. A Georgia State Patrol officer is shot and seriously wounded in the same incident.
April 28 – The first dispensaries for selling low-THC cannabis oil to eligible patients open in Macon and Marietta, one day after the agency in charge of Georgia’s medical cannabis program grants the first dispensing licenses to two companies that already have been awarded manufacturing licenses.
July 1 – Georgia Pathways, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s limited Medicaid expansion initiative, begins covering residents between the ages of 19 and 64 with household incomes up to 100% of the Federal Poverty Level. The program is plagued initially by low enrollment as Democrats continue to call for a full expansion of Medicaid coverage in Georgia.
July 31 – The first of two new nuclear reactors being built at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle goes into commercial operation. The second of the new reactors is due to begin operating by the end of March.
Aug. 14 – Former President Donald Trump is indicted in Fulton County on racketeering charges accusing the Republican of trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia that saw Joe Biden become the first Democrat to carry the Peach State since 1992.
Aug. 30 – Hurricane Idalia strikes South Georgia as a Category 1 storm, downing trees and powerlines and flooding local roads and highways. One fatality is reported when a tree falls on a vehicle in Lowndes County, one of the hardest-hit areas.
Nov. 16 – Atlanta is awarded the 2025 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, two years after the city loses the game in protest of the General Assembly’s passage of an election law adding new restrictions critics attacked as voter suppression.
Nov. 19 – Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter dies at age 96 at her home in Plains two days after entering hospice care. She was married to former President Jimmy Carter for 77 years.
Dec. 7 – The General Assembly adopts a new congressional map for Georgia, two days after approving new legislative maps. Kemp ordered the special session after a federal judge ruled maps the legislature’s Republican majorities had approved in 2021 violate the Voting Rights Act.
ATLANTA – President Joe Biden granted clemency Friday to two Georgians incarcerated on cocaine charges, part of a group of 11 Biden said are serving “unduly long” sentences for non-violent drug offenses.
The two Georgians to be released early are Anthony Ewing of Union City and Darryl Allen Winkfield of Augusta.
Ewing was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and crack cocaine and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Winkfield was convicted of possession of cocaine and crack cocaine with intent to distribute and three counts of distributing cocaine hydrochloride – a local anesthetic – and sentenced to a life term.
Biden commuted both sentences to expire on April 20, 2024.
In a prepared statement, Biden said all 11 people receiving clemency would have been eligible for significantly lower sentences if they were charged with the same offenses today.
“I have exercised my clemency power more than any recent predecessor has at this point in their presidency,” he said. “And while today’s announcement marks important progress, my administration will continue to review clemency petitions and deliver reforms that advance equal justice, address racial disparities, strengthen public safety, and enhance the wellbeing of all Americans.”
Biden also issued a proclamation Friday pardoning those convicted of possession and use of marijuana under federal and District of Columbia law. He urged governors to do the same for those convicted of the same offenses under state law.
Then-President Donald Trump at the White House podium in 2020 (White House video)
ATLANTA – An anti-Donald Trump Republican political action committee has launched a new six-figure ad campaign warning voters to “wake up” to the threat it says the former president poses to American democracy.
The 60-second ad, being run by the Republican Accountability PAC, compares Trump to dictators who systematically dismantled their countries’ democracies, including Benito Mussolini of Italy, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and Augusto Pinochet of Chile.
“Trump said he would terminate the Constitution so he could be president again,” the ad states. “Do you know who also did that? Mussolini, Chavez, Pinochet.”
The ad will run nationally on CNN and MSNBC and in the swing states of Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on the Hallmark Chanel and during TBS’ “A Christmas Story” marathon. The campaign began on Friday and will run through next week.
Trump continues to hold a huge lead in various polls for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, despite facing multiple criminal indictments for his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election, including racketeering charges in Fulton County.
“Among Republicans and Democrats alike, not enough people have internalized that Trump is cruising to a third nomination,” said Gunner Ramer, political director for the Republican Accountability PAC. “He’s become even more conspiratorial, more dictatorial, more authoritarian – and he has a real chance of being the next president of the United States. It’s time to start confronting the problem head-on.”
The Republican Accountability PAC also ran ads targeting Trump in August after he was indicted in Georgia. Last year, the PAC ran ads aimed at then-U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker, the University of Georgia football icon Trump endorsed in what turned out to be an unsuccessful bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.
ATLANTA – A Georgia attorney and former Atlanta police officer has been convicted on federal charges of fraudulently obtaining more than $7 million in pandemic relief funds.
Shelitha Robertson, 62, of Atlanta submitted applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans on behalf of four businesses she owned. The applications falsely inflated the number of employees and average monthly payroll for each of the businesses, resulting in larger PPP loans that she could legitimately obtain.
Robertson used the loan proceeds to buy luxury items, including a 10-carat diamond ring, and transfer funds to family members and a co-conspirator who already has pleaded guilty in the case.
Robertson was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, and one count of money laundering. She faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for each count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, and up to 10 years behind bars for money laundering.
The investigation was conducted by the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which the Justice Department formed in 2021 to enhance efforts to prevent and combat pandemic-related fraud.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate held steady at 3.4% in November for the third month in a row, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
Several categories again reached record highs, including the number of jobs, which rose slightly by 0.3% last month compared to November of last year to more than 4.95 million.
The labor force was up by 11,263 to nearly 5.36 million, another all-time high. Georgia’s labor force participation rate held steady at 61.6% last month compared to October but is up from 61.0% at the beginning of the year.
The number of employed Georgians also rose by 9,755 to almost 5.18 million, also an all-time high.
“With record-high job numbers, a thriving economy that stands among the nation’s best, and a workforce eager to embrace new opportunities, Georgia is poised to enter the new year with hope and boundless possibilities for all,” state Commissioner of Labor Bruce Thompson said Thursday.
On the negative side of the ledger, initial unemployment claims were up by 3% last month to 22,316. However, first-time jobless claims for the year declined by 13%.
