by Dave Williams | Jun 18, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – It took the Georgia Department of Transportation seven months to finish clearing the massive amounts of debris Hurricane Helene left across a wide swath of the state, an engineer with the agency said Wednesday.
The DOT used 2,134 employees in the response to the storm – more than half of the agency’s staff – to haul nearly 4.8 million cubic yards of debris from 35 sites, Assistant State Maintenance Engineer Emily Fish told members of the State Transportation Board. The work was completed in April, she said.
Helene rampaged through South Georgia and north through the Augusta area in late September, killing 34 Georgians and causing heavy rainfall and widespread flooding as well as extensive power outages.
The General Assembly approved $862 million in disaster relief for victims of the storm.
Fish said the DOT has sent five applications for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The feds are expected to fully reimbursement the state for the first 120 days of recovery efforts and cover 75% of the costs after that, she said. The Federal Highway Administration also kicked in $9.1 million separately to help repair damaged roads, she said.
Fish said the state is having to provide a huge amount of documentation with the various reimbursement applications.
“It becomes incredibly tedious, but we have to do this to get that funding back,” she said.
Fish said lessons learned from the massive recovery include a need to improve communications among the various repair crews working throughout the disaster area. Cellphone service was out in some areas for up to five days following the storm, she said.
Fish said the DOT has bought 1,200 new radios and satellite phones that will help with communication the next time a hurricane or other weather emergency strikes.
The 2025 hurricane season outlook from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is calling for a 60% chance of an above-average amount of activity.
“I think we’re better prepared than ever,” Fish said. “But I hope we won’t have to respond.”
by Dave Williams | Jun 18, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Fulton County Jail employee has been indicted in federal court for allegedly using excessive force against prisoners.
Sgt. Khadijah Solomon, 47, is accused of repeatedly using tasers on compliant, non-resisting pre-trial detainees on three occasions last January and writing false reports about each of the incidents.
“The (Justice Department’s) Civil Rights Division has zero tolerance for law enforcement officers who abuse public trust through excessive force and concealing their misconduct,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon. “We will vigorously safeguard the constitutional rights of all individuals, including those in custody.”
“Abuses of power of this kind are unconstitutional, erode our community’s trust, and will be prosecuted,” added Theodore S. Hertzberg, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.
Solomon faces up to 10 years in prison for each federal civil rights violation and 20 years behind bars for each false report.
The FBI’s Atlanta Field Office is investigating the case based on a referral from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.
by Dave Williams | Jun 17, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Republican Tim Echols Tuesday cruised to his party’s nomination for another term on the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), which regulates utilities in the Peach State.
Echols captured 75.8% of the vote in the PSC’s District 2 to just 24.2% for challenger Lee Muns of Columbia County, according to unofficial results. Echols, who lives near Hoschton near Athens, will take on Democrat Alicia Johnson of Savannah in November.
Meanwhile, former Atlanta City Councilwoman Keisha Sean Waites was by far the top vote-getter in a three-way race for the Democratic nomination in PSC District 3 but was forced into a runoff next month with second-place finisher Peter Hubbard. Waites won 46% of the vote, well short of the 50%-plus-one-vote margin needed to avoid a runoff.
Hubbard, a clean-energy advocate, finished second with 33.3% of the vote, with former utilities executive Robert Jones in third and out of the running with 20.7%. The winner of the July 15 runoff between Waites and Hubbard will face incumbent Republican Commissioner Fitz Johnson in November.
Echols was elected to the PSC in 2010 and reelected in 2016. His term was supposed to expire in 2022 but was extended when the election was postponed by a lawsuit challenging the way members of the commission are elected. The plaintiffs argued that electing commissioners statewide instead of by district dilutes violates the 1965 federal Voting Rights Act by making it more difficult for Black voters to elect a candidate of their choice.
While the case was pending, the 2022 and 2024 PSC elections were postponed. As a result, Echols got three more years on his six-year term, while Fitz Johnson – appointed to the commission in 2021 – didn’t have to face Georgia voters until this year.
A federal appeals court eventually ruled against the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, leaving the system of statewide elections of members of the PSC intact.
The commission’s District 2 covers Fulton, Clayton, and DeKalb counties. District 3 stretches from Atlanta’s eastern and southeastern suburbs to Savannah.
by Dave Williams | Jun 17, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A state lawmaker from a city with a Hispanic majority marked the 13th anniversary of the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program Tuesday by urging Congress to make its protections permanent.
The city of Dalton makes up a large part of Georgia Republican Rep. Kasey Carpenter’s 4th House District in Northwest Georgia. It is widely known as the “Carpet Capital of the World.”
“It is a manufacturing hub for the state and a very diverse community,” Carpenter said during a news conference at the Georgia Capitol.
DACA was created in 2012 by the Obama administration to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation. Carpenter said the program has played an important role in Dalton’s progress.
“With DACA, I saw lives change, a workforce solidified, and a community strengthened,” he said.
Veronica Maldonado, CEO of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said Georgia’s undocumented immigrants pay more than $61 million in state and local taxes each year and have more than $850 million in spending power. More than 90% are either employed or in school.
“They don’t take. They contribute,” Maldonado said. “Georgia can’t afford to lose them.”
Currently, DACA is in legal limbo. The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in January against the program.
At the same time, the appellate court also approved a stay that allows current DACA recipients to continue renewing their status and receiving work authorization. However, no new applications are being accepted.
Maldonado urged members of Georgia’s congressional delegation to get behind efforts to make DACA protections permanent.
For his part, Carpenter introduced legislation into the state House of Representatives this year that would allow certain non-citizen students to pay in-state tuition to attend either a Georgia public college or university or one of the state’s technical colleges. However, the bill failed to make it through the House Higher Education Committee.
by Dave Williams | Jun 17, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Gwinnett County man has been charged in federal court with threatening two U.S. senators and their families.
Robert Davis Forney, 25, of Duluth allegedly called the offices of Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Deb Fischer, R-Neb., in January and left voice mails threating sexual violence against both senators and members of Cruz’ family.
“Targeting public officials with threatening messages is a serious federal crime,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Paul Brown. “There is no place for political violence or threats of violence in the United States. We will not hesitate to arrest and charge others who engage in similar criminal conduct.”
Forney was arraigned on Monday, the same day a man in Minnesota accused of murdering one Democratic state lawmaker and shooting another made his first court appearance. Vance Boelter, 57, was captured Sunday after an extensive manhunt, a day after the killings.
Boelter allegedly had prepared a list of 45 elected elected officials – all Democrats – he allegedly was planning to murder.
Republicans and Democrats alike, including President Donald Trump, condemned the shootings and said political violence should have no place in America.
The Georgia case is part of a nationwide initiative aimed at eliminating cartels and other multi-national criminal organizations. Operation Take Back America uses resources from the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.
