ATLANTA – Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr is urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take immediate action to allow cellphone jamming devices to be used inside state prisons and local jails.
The FCC currently prohibits state and local governments from using jammers, a policy that dates back to the 1990s, before prison inmates began using contraband cellphones to plan and execute dangerous criminal operations.
“Nothing in (federal law) prohibits the FCC from revising its position to allow state agencies to use cellphone jamming devices in prisons,” Carr wrote in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel dated Tuesday.
“In fact, the United States Bureau of Prisons has recognized the potential value of cellphone jammers already and is permitted to use jamming devices at several federal penitentiaries, including at least one in Georgia.”
In Georgia alone, 8,074 contraband cellphones were confiscated last year, with 5,482 confiscated so far this year.
Recently, an incarcerated leader of the infamous street gang “Yves Saint Laurent Squad” used a contraband cellphone to order a hit that resulted in the death of an 88-year-old Georgia veteran.
“There are hundreds of examples from across the country of how a contraband cellphone in the hands of an inmate can be used as a deadly weapon (to) give them the ability to continue their criminal enterprise,” Georgia Commissioner of Corrections Tyrone Oliver said.
“As attempts to infiltrate our facilities with contraband cellphones evolve, access to jamming technology is paramount in our efforts to combat those attempts.”
The General Assembly passed legislation this year stiffening penalties for smuggling prohibited items including cellphones into prisons.
ATLANTA – The state Court of Appeals won’t hear former President Donald Trump’s appeal of a lower court ruling in the Georgia election interference case until October, multiple news outlets reported Monday.
The October hearing date the appellate court has set for Trump’s attempt to remove Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting the case all but guarantees the trial will not take place until after the Nov. 5 election.
Trump’s legal team sought Willis’ removal after she admitted a prior romantic relationship with attorney Nathan Wade, who she hired to lead the prosecution.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled in April that Willis could remain on the case but only if Wade stepped down, which he did a few hours after the decision was handed down.
A Fulton grand jury indicted Trump and 18 codefendants last August, charging the Republican with participating in a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, which saw Joe Biden become the first Democrat to carry the Peach State since 1992.
Trump also faces federal charges arising from his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and his retaining of classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida after leaving office.
Last week, the former president was convicted in New York City of 34 felonies for falsifying business records in connection with payments of hush money to ex-porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up a sexual relationship that was threatening to become public shortly before he won the presidency in 2016. Trump is schedule to be sentenced on July 11, four days before the start of the Republican National Convention.
The weeks-long trial that ended last week appears to be the only one of the four criminal cases against Trump likely to be tried before voters go the polls to decide between Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee to return to the White House, and Biden, who is seeking reelection.
ATLANTA – President Joe Biden Friday appointed former state Rep. Calvin Smyre to an independent board that advises the White House on intelligence issues.
Smyre, a Democrat from Columbus who served for 48 years in the Georgia House of Representatives, will join the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which offers the president objective, expert advice on the conduct of U.S. intelligence.
During decades in the General Assembly, Smyre rose to become the “dean” of the House, serving as chairman of the House Rules Committee and chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He played a key role in making Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a state holiday, replacing the 1950s-era state flag and its Confederate battle symbol with a new state flag, passing a hate crime law, and repealing Georgia’s 19th-century citizens arrest law.
Biden nominated Smyre in 2021 to serve as U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republican and switched it to ambassador to the Bahamas the following year. However, the U.S. Senate thus far has declined to confirm the nomination.
Last year, the State Department appointed Smyre to serve as the United States’ representative to the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Smyre retired in 2014 from an executive position with Columbus-based Synovus Financial Corp. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Fort Valley State University and an honorary doctorate from the Morehouse School of Medicine.
ATLANTA – Opposition is growing across Georgia to cryptocurrency mining, the process of creating Bitcoins and other forms of virtual currencies at giant server farm sites.
Residents of Gilmer County in the North Georgia mountains recently beat back a proposed rezoning to allow a cryptocurrency server farm in that rural community. Just north of Gilmer, the Fannin County Commission has enacted a ban on crypto mining.
And several hundred miles to the south, the Southern Georgia Regional Commission, which represents 18 primarily rural counties, has published a model ordinance counties can use to put restrictions on the development of cryptocurrency farms.
Opponents complain that server farms generating cryptocurrency are extremely noisy, impose a huge drain on electricity and water resources, and don’t generate enough jobs to justify those negative consequences.
“It’s the biggest con on the public ever,” said Cyndie Roberson, cofounder of Gilmer County Citizens Against Crypto Mining, which brought out hundreds of residents to a meeting of the county’s planning commission to oppose the project.
“So many attended, people were wrapped around the courthouse,” Roberson said.
The General Assembly took up the issue during this year’s session in the form of a bill aimed at growing the industry by offering a sales tax exemption on equipment purchased to equip cryptocurrency server farms and prohibiting local governments from passing noise ordinances specifically targeting crypto mining.
The industry already has gained a solid foothold in Georgia. Roberson’s group has documented 30 cryptocurrency mining operations in 20 communities across the state, from Rome and Dalton in Northwest Georgia to Swainsboro, Sandersville, and Brooklet in the southeast.
In fact, Georgia mines the second-most cryptocurrency in the country behind Texas.
“Bitcoin mining is more than just an economic activity,” Bo Ginn, who manages the Sandersville crypto mining operation for Nevada-based CleanSpark Inc., told state lawmakers during a hearing on the bill in February.
“It’s an important technological advancement that brings substantial investment, innovation and job creation to Georgia, especially to our rural communities,” he said.
But Rep. Penny Houston, R-Nashville, said she and her constituents have had a “terrible experience” since a crypto mining server farm began operating in Adel.
“The noise is absolutely atrocious,” she said. “They bring no money in, no jobs in, except for people who are there guarding the place.”
Houston also complained about the amount of electricity crypto mining uses. Large data centers are having an impact on Georgia’s power grid, as state lawmakers demonstrated this year when they passed legislation – subsequently vetoed by Gov. Brian Kemp – that would have temporarily suspended a tax break aimed at attracting more data centers to Georgia.
“We’ve built two (nuclear) reactors over at Plant Vogtle, and we’re using so much power, we’re going to have to build another one,” Houston said. “When we have to build another reactor, it’s going to be the taxpayers of this state who have to pay for it.”
Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, who introduced this year’s cryptocurrency bill, said it is not at the top of his priority list for the 2025 General Assembly session. However, he said he believes the legislature eventually should address the cryptocurrency issue.
The model ordinance might be a place to start. It allows the development of crypto mining operations but sets standards for noise levels and appearance server farms would have to meet before they could set up shop.
“I think those who are seeking to move these here would be amenable to reasonable accommodations,” Hilton said.
Bob Sherrier, a staff attorney with the Atlanta-based Southern Environmental Law Center, said he would rather let local governments regulate crypto mining operations than impose state control.
“Some industrial areas (suitable for a server farm) are next to residential,” he said. “It should be within the control of local government to say, ‘That area’s OK, and that area’s not.’ “
ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is vowing to put “maximum pressure” on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to improve service at the regional mail processing center in Palmetto.
“This is not on postal workers,” Ossoff, D-Ga., said Thursday after touring the facility and meeting with local postal service officials. “This is a question of management, competent management.”
Ossoff first raised the issue of delays in mail processing at the Palmetto center during a Senate committee hearing in mid-April. At the time, he cited statistics showing that only 36% of the first-class mail processed at the facility was being delivered on time.
DeJoy told the committee the delays were the result of problems encountered during the rollout last winter of a restructuring plan aimed at making the postal service economically self-sufficient. The plan was first implemented at the processing center in Palmetto and at a second center in Richmond, Va.
The Atlanta-area consolidation involved moving nearly 10,000 employees from 10 locations to the new Palmetto distribution center.
“This transition for our region was not well thought out, not well planned, and not competently executed,” Ossoff said.
The restructuring plan is on hold for now. DeJoy announced two weeks ago that the postal service would pause the plan at least until next year to give the agency a chance to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it.
Days later, he unveiled specific solutions for the Palmetto center, including bringing in more than 100 personnel from other centers and revising transportation schedules between the Palmetto facility and other local mail processing centers.
“Since the first week of March, our service performance scores in the region have shown consistent improvement,” according to a statement issued by the postal service Thursday. “While we are not entirely satisfied with the current levels, this positive trend indicates that the challenges we faced in March are being actively addressed.”
While on-time delivery has improved to about 60%, Ossoff he will keep monitoring the situation.
“I will continue to apply maximum pressure so that seniors in Georgia are not going without prescriptions, so that small businesses in Georgia are not unable to receive supplies or get products to market, so that voters in Georgia are not unable to cast their ballots timely by mail,” he said.
