ATLANTA – The leader of a wide-ranging methamphetamine conspiracy has pleaded guilty to running the operation from inside a Georgia prison.
Christopher David Johnson, 46, pleaded guilty last week in federal court to distributing 500 grams or more of meth. He is facing a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of life behind bars.
According to court documents, Johnson conspired with multiple individuals including Michael Paul Brown, who was sentenced last week to 15 years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute meth from Georgia to Southwest Virginia.
From prison, Johnson used multiple cellphones to direct the operation. He also communicated regularly with his co-conspirators by using both Facebook and text messaging, coordinating pricing, quantities, sales, and deliveries of the drug.
The $36.1 billion state budget Gov. Brian Kemp signed last week includes $10.7 million for a technology upgrade inside state prisons to stem the flow of cellphones and other contraband being smuggled in to inmates.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and multiple law enforcement agencies in Georgia, Tennessee, and Virginia investigated Johnson’s case. Johnson’s guilty plea came in federal court in Abingdon, Va.
ATLANTA – Georgia tax collections continued their downward spiral last month, falling 5.4% from April of last year, the state Department of Revenue reported Friday.
The broader picture for the first 10 months of fiscal 2024 was similar. While net tax revenue was down only 1.2% between last July and the end of April, that doesn’t reflect the reality that the state was not collecting sales taxes on gasoline and other motor fuels during the first half of the last fiscal year.
Not counting the fuel taxes the state has brought in thus far in fiscal 2024, tax receipts for the first 10 months of the fiscal year declined by 4.6%.
Individual income taxes fell in April by 8% compared to the same month a year ago, as tax refunds increased by 31.4% while payments were down 11.5%. Net sales tax receipts also declined by 3%.
Usually volatile corporate income tax collections remained nearly flat last month, increasing by 0.5%.
With tax receipts down $341.3 million for fiscal 2024 and just two months left in the fiscal year, it appears likely the state will show revenues down when the year ends on June 30.
Gov. Brian Kemp warned this week after signing a robust $36.1 billion fiscal 2025 budget that times might be leaner when he and the General Assembly put together next year’s spending plan.
Electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) soon will be plying the skies above Georgia. Photo courtesy of Archer Aviation
ATLANTA – Flying cars might seem like something out of the distant future, zipping back and forth like in “The Jetsons,” the Hanna-Barbera Space Age animated TV series of the 1960s.
But Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), as the technology is known, is about to land at a general aviation airport near you.
At least 20 states – including Georgia – are starting to explore AAM technology, an investment of more than $8 billion today that is expected to grow to $45 billion by 2030, Clement Solomon, director of the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Intermodal Division, told members of the State Transportation Board last month.
The Federal Aviation Administration is expected to certify the first electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) late this year or early in 2025, Solomon said.
“This thing’s futuristic,” Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry added. “But there’s been activity already in Georgia with these types of AAMs.”
California-based Archer Aviation is building a 350,000-square-foot manufacturing plant adjacent to the Covington Municipal Airport in Newton County to produce up to 650 eVTOLs each year.
In Augusta, private air charter operator Bravo Air is working with Japan’s SkyDrive to begin flying passengers on short trips aboard eVTOLs the Japanese company has begun building through a joint venture with Suzuki Motor Corp.
Solomon said AAM technology focuses on transporting passengers and cargo on short trips at low altitudes. Flying at altitudes of 1,500 feet to 4,500 feet, eVTOLs are capable of transporting four to six passengers up to 250 miles.
“The concept right now is Air Uber,” he said.
Solomon said the freight potential of AAM technology is in carrying “low-volume, high-value” cargo, such as computer chips, medical equipment, or human organs needed for transplant.
Because they’re electric, eVTOLs are both quieter and more environmentally friendly than traditional combustion engine aircraft, Solomon said.
“In Columbus, our airport creates a lot of noise,” added Cathy Williams, a member of the State Transportation Board representing Georgia’s 2nd Congressional District. “This would be a nice addition that wouldn’t exacerbate that part of the problem.”
The Georgia DOT formed a working group last year to assess the potential for AAM technology in Georgia. The group included representatives of airports, municipal planning organizations, and the academic and business communities.
Solomon said the study found that nearly all of Georgia’s airports are compatible for eVTOLs and have the capacity to support AAM.
A network of eVTOL chargers needs to be built, at a cost of $500,000 to $750,000 each. Currently, the only chargers for the vehicles in Georgia are in Augusta and Valdosta, he said.
Solomon said the goals of the study were to set the stage for rolling out AAM technology in the next three to five years, with eVTOLs expected to begin commercial operations between 2026 and 2030.
Archer Aviation’s plans could come into fruition even earlier. Last month, the company announced an agreement with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office to begin air taxi operations using Archer’s four-passenger Midnight eVTOL model in the United Arab Emirates as soon as next year.
“This substantial agreement with Abu Dhabi is a pivotal moment for Archer’s commercialization efforts across the Emirates,” said Adam Goldstein, Archer’s founder and CEO. “The agreement underscores Abu Dhabi’s strong commitment to Archer and conviction to become a global hub for urban air mobility.”
Closer to home, SkyDrive’s agreement with Bravo Air calls for developing infrastructure to support a network of eVTOL air-taxi services to include Augusta Regional Airport. Bravo Air is buying five of the three-passenger eVTOL models SkyDrive is building in Japan to compete for certification in time to begin operations during the Osaka World Expo next year.
“Bravo Air is thrilled to be working with SkyDrive on revolutionizing advanced air mobility in the U.S.,” said Dann Standard, Bravo’s vice president of operations. “We are excited to be park of a collaborative effort to bring more environmentally conscious air travel options to the Augusta area and beyond.”
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is turning up the heat on the United States Postal Service (USPS) concerning delays in delivering mail processed at a new regional distribution center in Palmetto that opened early this year.
In a letter dated Thursday, Ossoff asked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to update on-time mail delivery in metro Atlanta within a week.
Ossoff grilled DeJoy more than three weeks ago during a hearing held by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. At the time, the senator revealed that only 36% of inbound mail handled by the Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center was being delivered on time as of the end of February.
DeJoy assured Ossoff that the problems would be fixed within about 60 days.
“It is urgent that the performance of USPS delivery in Georgia improve immediately,” Ossoff wrote. “Postal workers working diligently every day to deliver the mail on time deserve the infrastructure and the management competence to enable them to do so.”
DeJoy attributed the delays to problems starting up a USPS restructuring plan aimed at making the postal service financially self-sufficient and better able to compete with private shippers including Federal Express and the United Parcel Service.
The plan calls for consolidating local mail distribution offices into huge regional centers. The Atlanta-area consolidation involved moving nearly 10,000 employees from 10 locations to the new Palmetto distribution center.
DeJoy said plans to expand the new system nationwide have been put on hold while the postal service resolves the issues encountered at the Palmetto distribution center and a second regional center in Richmond, Va.
ATLANTA – Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has joined 24 counterparts from other Republican-led states in challenging a new federal rule governing emissions from coal-burning and gas-fired power plants.
In a legal filing asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to declare the new regulations unlawful, Carr and his colleagues argue the rules contain costly and unattainable emissions standards in an effort to close existing coal plants and prevent construction of new natural gas plants.
The plaintiffs also claim the new rule ignores a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that warned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency not to enforce regulations that are so stringent they force coal plants into retirement.
“The Biden administration continues to wage a shameless political attack on our energy sector,” Carr said. “Our economy depends on safe, reliable and affordable energy, and we won’t stand by while D.C. activists further burden families and businesses throughout our state.”
The new rule requires coal and gas plants to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2032. While it does not explicitly mandate abandoning coal or gas as a source for power generation, it is expected to accelerate the closure of coal plants.
The other states signing onto the lawsuit besides Georgia include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
