by Ty Tagami | Jun 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Democrat running for the Georgia Public Service Commission failed Tuesday to convince a judge to let him stay on the ballot after Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger ruled that he did not live in the district where he was running.
Daniel Blackman was among four Democrats running in the June 17 primary for the District 3 PSC seat currently held by Republican Fitz Johnson. But late last month, Raffensperger kicked Blackman off the ballot after declaring that he had failed to prove he had established residency in the district in time to satisfy the legal requirements for candidacy.
Blackman had said he moved last fall to Fulton County, which is in the 3rd District, but Raffensperger observed that his wife had remained in Forsyth County, which is not.
Raffensperger considered that and other evidence in disqualifying Blackman, who then appealed to Fulton County Superior Court.
Fulton Judge Ural Glanville quickly issued a stay on Raffensperger’s decision. But at the conclusion of a follow-up hearing Tuesday that lasted for more than an hour, the judge said he had decided to rule against Blackman’s petition.
“The secretary’s decision did in fact properly apply Georgia law,” Glanville said.
PSC District 3 includes Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties. The decision leaves three Democrats on the primary ballot for that seat: Keisha Sean Waites, who has served in the state House of Representatives and on Atlanta City Council; Peter Hubbard, a clean energy advocate; and Robert Jones, who has worked in energy and telecommunications.
by Dave Williams | Jun 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Five Georgians have come down with cases of highly contagious measles this year, State Epidemiologist Dr. Cherie Drenzek said Tuesday.
That’s a slight drop from last year’s six measles cases and well below a peak of 18 cases Georgia experienced in 2019, Drenzek told members of the state Board of Public Health.
She said the first three cases occurred in January to members of a family who had traveled together within the United States. None of the three had been vaccinated against measles, she said.
A second case of measles involving two Georgians took place more recently – in May spilling into June – with members of the same household falling ill, Drenzek said. Both were unvaccinated, and one had traveled internationally, she said.
The Georgia cases pale in comparison to ongoing measles outbreaks in Colorado and in eastern Canada. In the province of Ontario, 40 unvaccinated pregnant women came down with measles, Drenzek said. The disease spread to the newborns of six of those women, and one child died, she said.
In Colorado, an out-of-state passenger connecting at the Denver airport after a flight from Istanbul spread measles to eight people, Drenzek said.
“This is unusual, but it highlights what we’ve been seeing in international travel by unvaccinated individuals,” she said.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a recommendation last week advising that Americans traveling internationally be fully vaccinated against measles.
Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2020, meaning there was no spread within the country and new cases developed only after travel abroad.
But cases started climbing during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, as the nation’s Republican leaders began openly expressing doubts over the efficacy of vaccines. Just this week, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – a longtime vaccine skeptic – dismissed all members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee.
“I think we’re in for a period of skepticism that could result in lower immunization rates,” Board of Public Health Chairman Dr. James Curran said Tuesday. “It could lead to more freedom, but it will inevitably lead to more outbreaks.”
Meanwhile, Drenzek said the end of the respiratory virus season in Georgia has reduced cases of COVID, flu, and RSV to a minimum. However, she a new subvariant of COVID has begun spreading and likely will become the driver of a late- summer COVID wave.
“We have a lot more immunity to COVID now,” she said. “But we can still expect some of these seasonal patterns.”
Board Secretary Mychal Walker asked Drenzek how President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO) might affect public health in Georgia.
“I’m concerned that if we isolate ourselves, it will do more harm than good,” he said.
Drenzek said the state still has access to data generated by the WHO even though the U.S. is no longer participating in the international agency.
by Dave Williams | Jun 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia will be getting an 11th area code soon, with the new 565 area code being added as an overlay to the existing 912 area code in the southeastern part of the state, the Georgia Public Service Commission announced Tuesday.
Once new phone numbers for the 912 area code have been exhausted, some new users will be assigned the 565 area code. The 912 area code will remain in use, with phone customers currently using 912 keeping the number.
The 912 area code was established in 1954, the first split from the 404 area code that was once used statewide. In 2000, the 912 area code was further split to carve out 229 and 478 area codes in Southwest Georgia and Middle Georgia, respectively.
Currently, the 912 area code is assigned to phone numbers in Savannah, Brunswick, Douglas, Hinesville, Kingsland, Pooler, Richmond Hill, Saint Marys, Statesboro, Waycross and other smaller municipalities.
Telecommunications industry officials have determined that the 912 area code will exhaust its potential combinations by the second quarter of 2028. A specific date for the introduction of the 565 area code has not been set.
Experts believe adding the 565 area code will ensure southeastern Georgia has sufficient new phone numbers for 24 years.
by Dave Williams | Jun 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Supreme Court Tuesday upheld only one of seven controversial changes to state election laws the Republican-controlled State Election Board (SEB) approved before last November’s elections.
In a unanimous ruling, the justices declared four of the other changes invalid and sent the remaining two back to a lower court for further review.
The lawsuit was brought by Eternal Vigilance Action, a Georgia-based advocacy group headed by Republican former state Rep. Scot Turner, and two individual voters including Turner. It argued that the SEB usurped the General Assembly’s constitutional jurisdiction when it adopted the rules changes. Lawyers representing the state, the Republican National Committee, and the Georgia Republican Party countered that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to bring the case.
The only rules change the high court upheld requires video surveillance of absentee ballot drop boxes following the closing of polls each day.
The court sided with the plaintiffs by invalidating four of the rules, including requiring county election boards to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” before certifying election results, allowing election board members to examine all election-related documents before certifying results, requiring precinct workers to count ballots by hand after polls close, and requiring family members or caregivers to provide a photo ID when dropping off the absentee ballot of another voter.
The court ruled the other two rules changes – requiring that the total number of votes as well as the specific number of early and absentee votes be counted daily and posted on a website, and giving poll watchers greater access to areas where votes are being counted – cannot be challenged by voters or organizations and, thus, could not be decided by the justices.
On the legal standing issue, the court ruled that the individual voters who filed the suit have standing but the organizations involved in the case do not.
“The Georgia Constitution allows us to decide only claims brought by parties who have asserted their own rights have been violated,” Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson wrote in the court’s unanimous decision. “The organizational plaintiffs have not asserted the violation of any of their own rights … and so we cannot consider any of the claims they have brought.”
But the court agreed with the plaintiffs’ argument that four of the rules changes violated the state Constitution’s nondelegation doctrine, which prohibits each branch of state government from delegating its power to a different branch.
“(T)o permit the General Assembly to abdicate and transfer to administrative agencies of government essential legislative functions would strike down our constitutional system and inaugurate the police state, condemned by every advocate of individual liberty and freedom,” Peterson wrote, quoting from a 1950 state Supreme Court ruling.
Members of the SEB who voted for the changes said they were trying to restore public confidence in the electoral process that was shaken by uncertainties over the 2020 election results in Georgia. The rules’ opponents said the board was motivated by a desire to sow chaos and confusion in the 2024 results to boost the candidacy of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
by Dave Williams | Jun 9, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Alabama-based company planning to open a titanium mine adjacent to the Okefenokee Swamp has not submitted $2.1 million in financial assurances required to get a permit from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD).
Georgia law requires applicants for surface mining permits to submit such assurances to the state to ensure they will have the financial wherewithal to complete site reclamation once they finish mining activities.
The EPD sent a letter to Twin Pines Minerals (TPM) in February of last year requesting the financial assurances. However, as of last Friday, the company has yet to make even a partial payment or put up a partial bond, the state agency said Monday in a prepared statement.
Twin Pines’ failure to deliver financial assurances on the Charlton County project comes as the company faces several lawsuits in other states alleging it owes millions of dollars in unpaid bills.
The company first proposed in 2020 a plan to mine titanium oxide along Trail Ridge in Charlton County, near the southeastern edge of the largest black water swamp in North America.
The project has drawn opposition from local governments in southeastern Georgia and environmental advocates, citing scientific studies showing the mine would damage one of the largest intact freshwater wetlands in North America by drawing down its water level. At the state Capitol, efforts in the Georgia House to place a moratorium on mining near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge or ban mining altogether have failed to gain even a committee vote, much less reach the floor of the chamber.
Supporters of mining have countered that the project would serve as an important source of jobs in a high-poverty area of southeastern Georgia.
Specifically, the most serious lawsuit hanging over Twin Pines was filed earlier this year by Arizona-based M&L Commodities Inc., which entered into an agreement with Twin Pines back in 2021 to receive, store, and prepare for shipment a certain type of sand.
M&L began demanding payment of the full outstanding balance from the agreement early last year and received assurances from Twin Pines executives that the company was financially viable and experiencing only a temporary cash flow shortage, according to the suit.
After M&L informed Twin Pines it would stop performing the contracted service until it received payment, Twin Pines executed a promissory note that was due to be paid by last December. When the money still wasn’t forthcoming, M&L took its case to court in March.
The lawsuit alleges Twin Pines has been insolvent since early in 2023 and that one of its executives has a track record of criminal prosecutions for fraud.
Twin Pines declined to comment Monday on either the lawsuits or the mining project.
But environmental lawyer Josh Marks, president of the nonprofit Georgians for the Okefenokee, said the controversy swirling around Twin Pines should be enough to convince the EPD to deny its mining permit application.
“In my over 30 years of work in law and conservation, never have I seen an entity so apparently unwilling to tell the truth, honor its agreements, or follow the law, certainly not one whose director is a serial felon,” Marks said. “If these latest allegations are true, TPM has gone from a very bad actor to a truly atrocious one that should not be allowed to operate anywhere in Georgia, much less long the edge of the Okefenokee.”
