by Ty Tagami | Jul 31, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Cobb County Court Clerk Connie Taylor was indicted Thursday in connection with alleged destruction of documents in 2022, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office said.
The indictment on two counts each of destruction of public records and violation of oath of office stems from allegations that Taylor told an employee to delete government emails and financial records in response to an open records request in October 2022, Carr’s office said.
“Georgians deserve honesty and transparency from their elected officials, and anything less undermines public trust,” Carr said. “Any attempts to conceal or destroy government records are serious allegations that cannot be ignored, and those responsible will be held accountable.”
Taylor’s staff would not put calls through to Taylor or take messages from Capitol Beat Thursday afternoon. On a fourth call, a staffer forwarded the call to a local newspaper in Marietta.
The indictment came after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and the attorney general’s White Collar and Cyber Crime Unit presented evidence to a Cobb County grand jury.
“The intentional destruction of public records is a serious offense that undermines transparency and public trust,” GBI Director Chris Hosey said.
Neither agency disclosed the subject matter of the documents that allegedly were destroyed.
Carr’s office noted that indictments are merely allegations and that Taylor should be presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
It is not the first time Carr has pursued public officials in connection with open records requests. In 2019, his office obtained a conviction against a former press secretary of the City of Atlanta on two counts of violating the Georgia Open Records Act, which is a misdemeanor offense. The press secretary had told a spokesperson for the city’s Watershed Management Department to delay the release of records requested by a local television news station, according to Carr’s office.
by Dave Williams | Jul 31, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia Power asked state energy regulators Thursday to certify 9,900 megawatts of new energy resources that would come from a variety of power-generating projects.
In a filing with the Georgia Public Service Commission, the Atlanta-based utility proposed projects the PSC already has approved in Georgia Power’s last two Integrated Resource plans (IRPs), which the company submits every three years outlining the mix of energy sources it intends to rely on for power generation during the coming years.
About 8,000 megawatts would come from bids received from an “all-source” request for proposals the commission approved in the 2022 IRP. The projects include power-purchase agreements (PPAs) from existing resources as well as new company-owned natural gas generation, battery energy storage systems (BESS), and projects that combine BESS and solar.
A second filing requests certification of 1,886 megawatts that would come from projects the PSC approved this month in the utility’s 2025 IRP, including PPAs from existing resources, new battery energy storage construction, and company-owned BESS paired with solar.
“Every day, around the clock, during periods of extreme heat, extreme cold, and everything in between, our teams are working to keep reliable energy flowing for millions of Georgians,” said Rick Anderson, senior vice president and senior production officer for Georgia Power.
“That includes the culmination of years of proactively planning for filings like this that our generation plant teams and many others work diligently on in selecting the right future resources. … The diverse mix of resources we have proposed to the Georgia PSC will help us meet the needs of a growing Georgia with reliable and resilient energy while delivering long-term value for all of our customers.”
The list of projects includes previously approved new gas turbines to be built at Georgia Power’s Plant Yates near Newnan and Plant McIntosh near Savannah as well as a request for five additional turbines – two at Plant Bowen near Cartersville, two at Plant Wansley in Heard County, and one at Plant McIntosh.
Environmental groups have opposed the new gas turbines as a doubling down on Georgia Power’s commitment to continue using fossil fuels for power generation rather than more aggressive investment in renewable energy.
On the other hand, Georgia Power is stepping up its reliance on battery energy storage systems as a way to improve the efficiency of renewable power. Construction is currently underway on new BESS projects in Bibb, Lowndes, Floyd, and Cherokee counties, while the company is seeking certification of 10 new BESS facilities at eight sites across the state.
Georgia Power also is requesting approval of two new state-of-the-art solar systems paired with BESS. Those would be located in Laurens County and at the site of the former Plant Mitchell in Dougherty County.
The PSC will hold hearings on the two certification requests in October and early December, with a vote set for Dec. 19.
by Dave Williams | Jul 30, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia Democrats Wednesday criticized federal funding cuts to nursing homes included in President Donald Trump’s budget bill the Republican-controlled Congress passed early this month.
But the head of an organization that represents Georgia nursing homes said the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” won’t affect nursing homes because the final version of the measure exempted them from the cuts.
Democrats have focused on nursing home funding since the Brown University School of Public Health released a study earlier this summer identifying 579 nursing homes across the country at risk of closing because of cuts to Medicaid, including 37 in Georgia.
“To even allow one nursing home to close is unacceptable, but 37 is a moral failure,” state Rep. Bryce Berry, D-Atlanta, said Wednesday during a news conference inside the Georgia Capitol. “This is about our elders being evicted from the place they call home … (and) seniors being separated from their caregivers. This is how people die.”
“These cuts are cruel and heartless,” added U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Stone Mountain. “These cuts will hurt not just poor people in metro areas but MAGA constituents in rural areas.”
But Chris Downing, president and CEO of the Georgia Health Care Association, said the final version of Trump’s budget bill exempts the provider tax that helps fund nursing homes from the Medicaid cuts.
“They were on the menu at the beginning, but at the end, they were not,” he said. “Nursing homes are carved out of this bill. … We’re not going to see any cuts from this legislation.”
Downing said the Brown University study was released before the provision exempting nursing homes from the cuts was inserted into the bill, so its conclusions no longer apply.
“That study was sanctioned by (U.S.) Senate Democrats … to give their senators talking points to go out and say, ‘This bill is going to harm seniors,’ ” he said.
While the legislation lets nursing homes keep the provider tax intact, broader spending reductions in the bill could affect individual nursing home residents’ eligibility for Medicaid benefits.
However, Downing said it’s way too soon to assess the potential impacts of those cuts, which won’t take effect for several years.
by Ty Tagami | Jul 30, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A former Democratic state representative has entered the election to succeed Republican Chris Carr as attorney general.
Former House Minority Leader Bob Trammell on Wednesday became the first Democrat to announce his candidacy to become the state’s top attorney, saying he wants to “bring about real change” during a tumultuous era.
“At a time when Georgians are feeling the pressures of an erratic economy, corporate corruption, insidious frauds and scams, and the erosion of our rights, Georgians deserve someone who will fight for them,” the Luthersville attorney said.
Carr is running for governor, and the race to succeed him is wide open.
Two Republicans are already competing for the office: state Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, a lawyer who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee; and Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, a lawyer who chairs the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee.
Strickland filed a campaign contribution report on July 8 that showed he had raised $435,000. Cowsert filed one the same day showing he had brought in $531,000. Trammell registered his intent to raise money on July 1 but has not filed a contribution report.
Trammell grew up in Luthersville in Meriwether County and served as county attorney there. He was also the top Democrat in the state House, as minority leader from 2017-2021.
He graduated from the University of Georgia and the University of Virginia School of Law. He and his wife Jenny, a pharmacist, have three children.
by Ty Tagami | Jul 29, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Products from marijuana and hemp are either dangerous and should be banned or amazing and should be accessible to those who need and want them, a Georgia House study committee heard Tuesday.
Lawmakers heard conflicting assertions and opinions during their first hearing ahead of possible changes to state policies for medical marijuana and hemp derivatives.
Several parents testified about children who developed schizophrenia after prolonged consumption of high-dose, off-the-shelf products.
“This is the biggest regulatory failure of my lifetime,” testified one mother, who didn’t want to be identified. She said she discovered that her son had a discount code for frequent purchases at one store.
Dr. Colin Murphy, a psychiatrist, testified that increased potency was driving induced psychosis, with fellow critics saying teenagers are especially vulnerable.
But several medical marijuana advocates testified about the relief the plant delivered for pain, allowing them to avoid addictive opioids and other drugs.
“What about the good things about cannabis? Cannabis saved my life,” said Yolanda Bennett, co-founder of the Georgia Medical Cannabis Society who suffers from a hormonal disorder.
The committee is delving into an area of policy that is as complicated as it is divisive.
It is following on stalemated attempts during this year’s General Assembly session to both increase the potency of medical marijuana and ban hemp beverages.
The area is fraught because the federal government classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, making street use illegal. Georgia legalizes distribution with a doctor’s approval.
Yet, hemp, which comes from a related plant species, is legal under a 2018 federal law that allowed the plant to be used for products like rope. That federal law also allowed sales of the intoxicating part of the plant when limited to 3% of the product’s dry weight.
That has led to a hemp boom, from beverages to gummies.
The market is further complicated by synthetic derivatives that are not regulated. Last fall, the Georgia Department of Agriculture began focused regulatory enforcement of legal hemp regulations, but it was a largely unenforced area before then.
Katherine Russell, the agency’s policy director, said the industry is difficult to regulate because it is quickly evolving. She described a Florida company that is using orange peels to create cannabidiol, or CBD, a non-intoxicating compound also found in cannabis plants.
“You can regulate cannabis all day long, but if you can source your CBD from somewhere else, then the laws don’t actually cover that,” Russell said. “So the great thing about this emerging industry is that there are entrepreneurs involved, and it very much touches on the American spirit. But it also makes it very fast moving.”
The committee’s next hearing will be Aug. 21 in Augusta.
