by Dave Williams | Jul 31, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Georgia man has pleaded guilty in federal court to threatening to kill U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome.
Sean Patrick Cirillo, 34, of Atlanta pleaded guilty to one count of transmitting interstate threats. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.
According to U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan and court records, Cirillo called Greene’s Capitol Hill office three times last Nov. 8 and spoke with her staffers. During the calls, he made multiple threats against the congresswoman, indicating he was planning to kill her the following week.
“Threatening to kill a public official is reprehensible,” Buchanan said Tuesday. “Our office will not tolerate any form of violence, threats, or intimidation against public officials. The prosecution of individuals who threaten the lives and welfare of public servants is a top priority for our office, as well as for our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners.”
The case is being investigated by the FBI.
by Dave Williams | Jul 30, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Vice President Kamala Harris brought her newly minted presidential campaign to Georgia Tuesday night, promising to build up the middle class and daring former President Donald Trump to debate the issues.
In a 20-minute speech to a roaring crowd of supporters at the Georgia State University Convocation Center in downtown Atlanta, Democrat Harris characterized Republican Trump’s bid to return to the White House as a campaign of the past and described her effort as a campaign of the future.
Calling out Project 2025, a playbook for Trump’s second term developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation, Harris accused the former president of planning to cut Medicare and Social Security, give tax breaks to billionaires that would raise taxes on middle-class families, repeal the Affordable Care Act then-President Barack Obama steered through a Democratic Congress more than a decade ago, and enact a nationwide abortion ban.
“America has tried those failed policies before, and we’re not going back!” she said.
In contrast, Harris pledged to defend voting rights and women’s right to choose and fight gun violence by pushing Congress to pass legislation requiring background checks and banning assault weapons.
Harris, a former prosecutor and California attorney general, attacked Trump’s criminal record in what already has become a familiar theme since she stepped forward to declare her candidacy just nine days ago when President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
“I took on perpetrators of all kinds, predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain, so hear me when I say, ‘I know Donald Trump’s type,’ ” she said.
The crowd followed immediately with chants of “Lock him up! Lock him up!” in a reprise of the chants Trump supporters aimed at Hillary Clinton, his Democratic opponent in 2016.
Harris also took on Trump on the issue of immigration, accusing the former president of intervening to kill immigration reform legislation that had the backing of Democrats and even conservative Republicans.
“He tanked the bipartisan bill because he thought it would help him win an election,” she said. “Donald Trump does not care about border security. He only cares about himself.”
The Republican National Committee, responding to Harris’ visit to Georgia, turned the tables on the immigration issue, accusing Harris of failing to solve the problem in her role as “immigration czar” for the Biden administration.
“If she really cared about Georgia, she would end the border bloodbath that led to the brutal murder of Laken Riley, who was killed at the University of Georgia,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said. “A vote for dangerously pro-criminal Kamala is a vote for another four years of soft on crime and open border policies that are making our communities around the country less safe.”
Harris chastised Trump for waffling over a previous commitment to a second debate in September, a pledge he made back when the presumptive Democratic nominee was Biden, who Trump trounced in the first debate last month in Atlanta. She noted that Trump and Republican running mate J.D. Vance have been highly critical of her.
“As the saying goes, ‘If you’ve got something to say, say it to my face,’ ” she said, addressing Trump directly.
Harris acknowledged that she’s the underdog in the race, even though she has pulled closer to Trump in Georgia and a handful of other battleground states since Biden abandoned the campaign.
“We have our work cut out for us,” she told the crowd. “But when we fight, we win!”
Georgia will remain the focus of the presidential contest as July turns to August. Trump and Vance are scheduled to address a rally Saturday inside the same venue on the Georgia State campus.
by Dave Williams | Jul 30, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The State Election Board voted unanimously Tuesday to rescind preliminary approval of two rules changes and decide those matters instead at the board’s next meeting on Aug. 6.
Board members held a special called meeting Tuesday after a watchdog group filed a lawsuit charging the board with violating Georgia’s Open Meetings Act for meeting July 12 without the legally required public notice or a quorum. State Attorney General Chris Carr also expressed concerns that the meeting was illegal.
At the July 12 meeting, the board’s three Republicans gave preliminary approval to rules changes that would require local election officials to post daily updates on their websites and inside polling places during early voting and give poll watchers greater access on election nights while votes are being processed.
Action on the two rules had been postponed from three days earlier when the board’s regularly scheduled meeting ran long.
On Tuesday, board member Dr. Janice Johnston argued that the board recessed the July 9 meeting to July 12 in “good faith” and “in keeping with Georgia law.” Johnston, who made the motion Tuesday to rescind the July 12 actions and decide them instead on Aug. 6, said she did so in response to a “weirdly overdramatic alarm” that was raised about those votes.
She said the board’s goal is to provide elections that are “transparent, fair, free, uniform, and orderly.”
Under the schedule agreed upon Tuesday, the board will hold preliminary votes on the two proposed rules changes on Aug. 6. If approved then, a final vote would take place on Aug. 19.
Chioma Chukwu, interim executive director of American Oversight, the group that filed the lawsuit, criticized the quick turnaround after Tuesday’s vote.
“We’re pleased that our lawsuit, along with pressure from partner organizations on the ground in Georgia, has prompted the board to withdraw the illegally approved rules from its sham July 12 meeting,” she said.
“However, we remain deeply concerned by the board’s decision to promptly revisit these problematic measures — including those coordinated with the state and national GOP — that serve to intimidate election workers and grant partisan advantage to preferred candidates this November.”
by Dave Williams | Jul 30, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Single-family residential subdivisions built on large lots are gobbling up Georgia’s farmland at an alarming rate, the head of a nonprofit land preservation group said Tuesday.
The Peach State lost about 2.6 million acres of farmland and 2 million acres of forest between 1974 and 2016, Katherine Moore, president of the Georgia Conservancy, told members of a state Senate study committee meeting on the campus of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. Most of that acreage has been turned into “low-intensity” residential properties, single-family homes scattered on large lots across former farmland, she said.
“Our land is a limited resource,” Moore said. “We have to think how to grow sustainably.”
Moore’s testimony came during the first meeting of the Senate Study Committee on Preservation of Georgia’s Farmlands, which the Senate formed this year to look for ways to slow the loss of farmland by helping farmers make a decent living pursuing the state’s No.-1 industry.
“We’ve got to find ways to ensure our farmers are successful,” Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler Harper said. “We do that by making farm families successful.”
Moore said Georgia’s current population of 11 million is expected to increase to 13.5 million by 2050.
Current growth has been uneven across the state, she said, with some areas where population growth has exceeded the increase in developed land and others where the loss of farmland has outstripped the increase in population.
The rapid growth of “solar farms,” farmland dedicated to vast fields of solar panels, has been a factor in the loss of agricultural land, eating up 30,000 acres by 2021, Moore said. But that’s far less than the impact construction of low-density residential subdivisions has had on available agricultural acreage, she said.
Moore said local governments should focus on land-use decisions that curb the spread of low-intensity residential development.
Others suggested more needs to be done to help financially struggling Georgia farmers resist the temptation to sell off their farms to developers.
Harper cited steps the state already has taken to incentivize farmers to stay on the land. The Georgia Farmland Conservation Act the General Assembly passed last year established a $2 million state fund to pay farmers willing to guarantee preserving their properties as farmland.
This year, the legislature passed a bill prohibiting foreign adversaries or their agents from acquiring Georgia farmland.
“These are the types of things that can help us move the ball in the right direction,” Harper said.
Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee and a farmer by trade, said farmers also face other challenges much broader in scope, including corporate consolidation of farms, overregulation, and unfair trade practices by foreign competitors.
Harper added inflated farm input costs and declining commodity prices to the list of challenges making it difficult for farmers to earn a profit.
“We’re asked to do more with less every day,” he said. “At some point, more with less doesn’t work anymore.”
Sen. Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro, the study committee’s chairman, said the panel will hold additional hearings this summer and fall across the state before meeting at the Georgia Capitol in November to finalize recommendations. The committee is due to issue a report by Dec. 1.
by Dave Williams | Jul 30, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Port of Brunswick had a better year than the Port of Savannah, the Georgia Ports Authority reported Tuesday.
Brunswick handled a record 876,000 units of Roll-on/Roll-off cargo, including autos and heavy machinery, during fiscal 2024, which ended June 30. That represented a 21% increase over the previous fiscal year.
On the other hand, containerized-cargo volume at the Port of Savannah was down 2.3% in fiscal 2024. Savannah handled 5.25 million twenty-foot equivalent container units, a decrease of 123,000 compared to fiscal 2023.
Ports Authority officials attributed growth at the Port of Brunswick to increasing demand from American consumers, growing import-export trade with both Europe and Asia, new car manufacturers choosing Brunswick, and the diversion of cargo to Brunswick after the collapse of a bridge leading into the harbor at Baltimore.
Authority president and CEO Griff Lynch said he remains optimistic despite the downturn in containerized cargo traffic at Savannah. With that in mind, the authority is continuing to expand its operations, recently completing construction of the new Garden City Terminal West facility.
“At Georgia Ports, our philosophy is to continue investing for the future, even during slow periods, so that we are ready for the next up cycle,” authority board Chairman Kent Fountain said Tuesday. “That’s how we have built one of the most reliable operations in global logistics.”
The Port of Brunswick also is expanding. The ports authority brought online 120 acres of Ro/Ro storage space at Colonel’s Island last year, with another 300 acres available for expansion. Brunswick also has added 640,000 square feet of warehousing and processing space.
