Cocktails-to-go edged closer to becoming a reality in Georgia with passage in the state Senate Friday of a measure allowing restaurants to sell curbside alcoholic beverages in tightly sealed containers with takeout food.
Sponsored by Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, the bill would permit Georgians ages 21 and older to buy up to two mixed drinks in to-go cups with a maximum 3 ounces of liquor in each, or about two shots-worth. Georgia already permits to-go sales of beer and wine.
The drinks would have to be kept in cups without any holes for straws and sealed so securely it would be easy to tell if the cup has been opened before the purchaser arrives home. To-go drinks would also have to be stored in a glove box, locked trunk or behind the back seat while driving.
To-go drinks could not be sold on their own: Customers would have to buy food along with a takeaway alcoholic beverage. Third-party delivery services like Uber Eats, Doordash and Grubhub also could not bring cocktails to someone’s home due to legal liability issues, Brass said.
“One thing we learned from the pandemic is our hospitality industry was hit very, very hard,” Brass said from the Senate floor. “All we’re simply trying to do here is give them one more tool here to bounce back.”
“That tool is going to be a screwdriver,” he added. “And that screwdriver is going to be to-go.”
The measure passed 36-10 and now heads to the state House of Representatives.
Supporters have hailed legalized to-go drinks as a way to help struggling restaurants prop up sales amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has pummeled the food-service industry in Georgia over the past year.
Nearly 4,000 restaurants have closed in the state during the pandemic, with $5 billion lost in sales and around 100,000 employees left jobless, according to Karen Bremer, president of the Georgia Restaurant Association.
Opponents who have long resisted expanding alcohol sales on moral and practical grounds worry allowing motorists to take home cocktails could worsen traffic safety, spurring more drunk driving and potentially fatal car crashes.
Brass’ bill follows a separate law change passed last summer that allowed restaurants, supermarkets and liquor stores to make home deliveries of beer, wine and distilled spirits, subject to the approval of local voters.
Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium is set to host a mass COVID-19 vaccine site. (Mercedes-Benz Stadium photo)
Federal officials are planning to open a temporary mass COVID-19 vaccination site at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta, adding to several other large vaccine sites scattered across Georgia.
The Atlanta vaccine site inside the stadium is expected open in the next two weeks and should be able to administer about 6,000 shots a day, or 42,000 per week, according to a news release from President Joe Biden’s administration.
It will be open for eight weeks, marking a test run for mass vaccine sites overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in vulnerable communities hit hard by the pandemic.
Officials from FEMA, the state Department of Public Health, state emergency-management staff and Fulton County planned to meet Friday to shore up details on running the site, according to the White House.
Gov. Brian Kemp’s office praised the new partnership Friday as a way to boost vaccine administration and protect vulnerable Georgians.
“Governor Kemp is proud to partner with the federal government, Fulton County, and private partners to vaccinate more Georgians at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium,” said Mallory Blount, Kemp’s press secretary. “By working together at a federal, state, and local level, we can save lives and get Georgians back to normal.”
The new site in Atlanta comes as Georgia school teachers and staff become eligible for vaccines starting on Monday. Health-care workers, nursing home residents and staff, first responders and people ages 65 and older are already eligible.
Combined, those nine state-run vaccine sites should have the ability to give around 42,000 shots a week to eligible Georgians, with capacity to ramp up once the federal government approves the state for larger shipments of the vaccine.
Georgia’s weekly vaccine supplies are set to stand at 223,000 doses starting next week of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
Roughly 2,217,000 vaccines have been administered in Georgia so far, with nearly 867,000 of those shots being second doses to provide full inoculation, according to state data.
Nearly 824,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Thursday afternoon, with more than 192,000 more reported positive antigen tests indicating likely positive results. The virus has killed 15,462 Georgians.
Churches and other places of worship would have to remain open in Georgia during public emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic under a measure that passed the state Senate on Friday.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, would forbid Georgia governors from closing churches, mosques, synagogues or “other religious institutions” during a state of emergency.
It has backing from Gov. Brian Kemp who faced criticism for moving to impose distancing requirements in churches at the onset of the pandemic’s spread last March. He has also faced backlash for a largely hands-off approach to allowing businesses and churches to stay open during the pandemic.
Anavitarte’s bill also would allow Georgia businesses to remain open during emergency declarations so long as they comply with safety rules set by the governor.
“I think we as a people have a right to assemble in our churches,” Anavitarte said from the Senate floor on Friday. “As long as we follow the necessary health protocols that the experts put out there, we should be able to move forward.”
The measure passed the Republican-controlled Senate on a nearly party-line vote with Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, voting against. It now heads to the state House of Representatives.
Anavitarte’s legislation is similar to a separate bill limiting the governor’s emergency powers over religious groups in the House, sponsored by Rep. Dominic LaRiccia, R-Douglas.
Opponents argue barring churches from closing could endanger Georgians during a public-health crisis by promoting gathering spaces where viral outbreaks could occur. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the measure “extreme, dangerous and unnecessary.”
“The right to exercise one’s faith is among our most fundamental constitutional rights,” said Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU’s Georgia chapter. “But it is constitutionally appropriate for the government to place restrictions on religious activities and religious institutions.”
Kemp faced blowback from religious-freedom advocates last spring after authorities shut down a handful of local churches for congregating with too many people during the pandemic’s early days.
Despite the open-door policy, many churches and other places of worship have chosen to avoid resuming in-person services, opting instead to hold services online.
Kemp, who has credited his decision to let Georgia businesses largely stay open with shoring up the state’s economy, touted his move to work with local congregations rather than shutting them down. He threw his support last month behind Anavitarte’s bill, dubbed the “Faith Protection Act.”
“In Georgia, we never shuttered churches, synagogues, or other places of worship because we value faith, family and freedom,” Kemp said in a statement. “With the Faith Protection Act signed into law, Georgia will be a sanctuary state for people of faith.”
Legislation allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition for Georgia public colleges and universities cleared a major hurdle in the General Assembly on Thursday.
The House Higher Education Committee passed a measure brought by Rep. Kasey Carpenter, R-Dalton, that would extend lower-cost tuition rates to thousands of so-called “Dreamers” in Georgia who are protected from deportation under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
Carpenter’s bill stalled in the same committee last year amid uncertainty over then-President Donald Trump’s moves to scrap the DACA protections that were created during former President Barack Obama’s administration.
The bill now heads to the full House of Representatives where it could face stiff opposition from Republican lawmakers fearful of incentivizing undocumented immigrants to reside in Georgia illegally for the benefit of their children.
However, some Georgia Republicans have praised Carpenter for bringing the bill in the face of attacks from immigration hardliners in the state legislature and outside advocacy groups.
“This took a lot of courage and a lot of guts,” said Rep. Bert Reeves, R-Marietta. “This measure makes a tremendous amount of sense.”
The bill would cover DACA recipients who have lived continuously in Georgia since 2013 and are younger than 30, estimated by Carpenter at about 9,000 potential students who would be newly eligible for in-state tuition.
State law currently bars many non-citizen residents like DACA recipients from qualifying for in-state college tuition, which tends to be much lower than what students arriving from outside Georgia pay.
Carpenter’s bill would ease financial pain for DACA recipients who consider Georgia their home but tend to pay double or more to attend public colleges. It would let schools set the rates for DACA recipients at in-state tuition levels or up to 10% higher.
The bill would not allow in-state tuition to attend Georgia’s research schools including the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, Georgia State University and Augusta University.
Supporters say lowering tuition rates would bolster Georgia’s workforce with better-educated and higher-skilled workers in Georgia while giving longtime residents a reprieve as they navigate paths to citizenship.
Opponents have criticized the measure as a slap in the face for Georgia citizens that could attract more undocumented persons and take college spots away from U.S. citizen students from other states.
Carpenter’s bill still needs to clear the House Rules Committee and pass out of the full House no later than Monday for it to remain alive in the current legislative session.
Local schools in Georgia are gearing up to give teachers and staff doses of COVID-19 vaccine starting next week using a mix of on-campus curbside administration, large-scale distribution events and help from health clinics.
Teachers and school staff will be eligible for the vaccine and have first dibs next week at an 83,000-dose shipment of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine, as well as remaining supplies of the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, according to state officials.
Many school districts plan to inoculate teachers and staff who want the vaccine late next week and over the weekend, aiming to give them some recovery time in the event of possible mild side effects such as temporary flu-like symptoms and pain where the shot was given.
State officials are letting local school administrators decide their own logistics for administering vaccines rather than imposing state rules, marking an approach that several local superintendents praised at a meeting Thursday to outline plans for providing shots and boosting confidence among hesitant teachers.
“We really appreciate the trust in us to develop plans to work for our system,” said Dougherty County School System Superintendent Kenneth Dyer.
Atlanta Public Schools, where about 66% of staff have said they want the vaccine, has asked for more than 800,000 doses and plans to hold a “vaccination event” later this month to administer them, said Superintendent Lisa Herring.
Other districts like Calhoun City Schools and Henry County Schools are set to conduct on-campus vaccine events via curbside shots and in school buildings with nurses trained to administer the vaccines.
Cherokee County schools plan to host an “arena-style” vaccine event next Thursday and Friday with help from the local health department to the roughly 50% of the district’s teachers who have shown willingness to take the vaccine, said Superintendent Brian Hightower.
“We’re ready to have this event and make it a successful event, and at the same time continue instruction in our schools” Hightower said. “We want not only our schools to be open but we want them to remain open.”
The school rollout comes after Gov. Brian Kemp last week expanded who is eligible for the vaccine to teachers, school staff, adults with behavioral and developmental disabilities and the parents of children with complex medical conditions. Those groups may start receiving the vaccine on Monday.
State School Superintendent Richard Woods said vaccinating teachers and staff is critical to returning all Georgia K-12 students to in-person classes. Currently, around 30% of students are still receiving online-only instruction, he said.
“We’re looking at how we can make a significant dent in the last third of the school year,” Woods said. “We still have work to do but it’s a big opportunity for us as a state to look forward and be prepared.”
