ATLANTA – First-time unemployment claims fell in Georgia last week, running counter to an increase at the national level.
Jobless Georgians filed 12,605 initial claims last week, down 1,870 from the previous week and the lowest weekly total since the coronavirus pandemic struck Georgia in March of last year.
The state Department of Labor has paid out almost $22.9 billion in state and federal unemployment benefits since March 21, 2020, more than during the last decade combined prior to the pandemic.
The agency has processed nearly 5 billion first-time unemployment claims during those months.
Resources for unemployed Georgians seeking reemployment along with information on filing jobless claims can be found on the labor department’s website at https://dol.georgia.gov. Job listings and job search assistance is available at https://employgeorgia.com.
Coronavirus (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
ATLANTA – Georgia and other states with low COVID-19 vaccination rates are in a race against time with fast-replicating variants of the virus, a faculty member at the Morehouse School of Medicine said Thursday.
The various coronavirus vaccines now available are effective against the Delta variant, now responsible for the most new infections. But other variants could spring up soon unless more residents of low-vaccination states get vaccinated, Dr. Michelle Nichols, associate dean of family medicine at Morehouse, warned during a panel discussion sponsored by the school and the Peach State Health Plan.
“These variants are smart. They’re dangerous,” she said. “There’s a point at which variants will overtake us.”
Faculty members from Morehouse, state agency heads, representatives of Peach State Health Plan and educational, religious and nonprofit leaders spent an hour talking about what can be done to overcome vaccine hesitancy in Georgia.
As of Thursday, COVID-19 had hospitalized 914,984 Georgians, while the virus had resulted in 21,593 confirmed or probable deaths. The state’s vaccination rate of 38% trails the national average.
Nichols said a key factor in why so many Georgians are reluctant to get vaccinated is the amount of misinformation being spread about the shots. She said COVID-19 vaccinations will not affect a woman’s fertility, will not alter a person’s DNA and will not cause a person to contract the virus.
Dr. Kathleen Toomey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health, said another argument against getting the shot is that it won’t protect the recipient from contracting the virus.
“You can still acquire an infection,” she said. “But you’re less likely to become seriously ill or die. … Nothing is more dangerous than a serious case of COVID.”
Wade Rakes, president and CEO of Peach State Health Plan, said events such as Thursday’s panel discussion are important to getting out the word about the safety and efficacy of the various vaccines.
“When people are informed, they choose to join the group of people who are vaccinated,” he said. “That’s going to be the way for us to get up to the goal of [a] 70% [vaccination rate].”
But the most important way to raise public awareness about the need to get vaccinated is through people in the community those who remain unvaccinated know and trust, said Marvin Laster, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Albany.
“It takes the influencers, your doctor, your minister, your barber,” he said.
“You’ve got to meet the people where they are,” added Gail Fowler, CEO and Superintendent of Cirrus Academy, a charter school in Macon.
With Georgians ages 60 and over most likely to have received COVID shots, Fowler said an important group to concentrate the message on now is students 12 and over, the latest to become eligible for vaccinations.
Dr. Lilly Immergluck, a pediatrician and professor of immunology at Morehouse, said the group of Americans eligible for the vaccine least likely to be vaccinated is between the ages of 18 and 29. Yet, with the Delta variant now prevalent, the virus is spreading to that group more frequently than during the earlier stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have to deliver a message to these young people they can relate to,” said Harry Douglas, a former wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons who cofounded a nonprofit serving underprivileged young people and their families. “Delivery is very important to this process.”
ATLANTA – Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan called on the General Assembly Thursday to create a $250 million state tax credit aimed at reducing crime statewide.
The Law Enforcement Strategic Support (LESS Crime) Act will be the cornerstone of Duncan’s 2022 legislative agenda.
Duncan was the third Republican state leader to announce an anti-crime initiative this week.
On Monday, Gov. Brian Kemp told members of a state House committee he will include anti-crime measures on the agenda of the special legislative session he will call this fall primarily for the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional and legislative district lines to account for population shifts in the 2020 U.S. Census.
Then on Wednesday, House Speaker David Ralston proposed spending an additional $75 million to bolster law enforcement and mental health services in Georgia.
“It should be no surprise that every state leader is concerned with the exponential rise in crime in Georgia, especially in our capital city,” Duncan said Thursday. “Rising crime is affecting individuals, businesses and Georgia families.
“Combating this problem will not be accomplished by one solution alone. … Big problems call for big solutions.”
The tax credit Duncan envisions would be modeled after the Rural Hospital Tax Credit Georgia lawmakers created in 2016 to help the state’s most financially stressed rural hospitals.
The new tax credit legislation would let Georgians write a check directly to their local law enforcement agency and receive a 100% dollar-for-dollar state income tax credit. The credit would be capped at $5,000 per individual taxpayer, $10,000 per married couple, or in the case of a business, at 75% of a company’s tax liability.
Law enforcement agencies would be required to allocate the money for police officer pay raises, to hire more officers or to increase training.
ATLANTA – The grandson of the late U.S. Sen. and Gov. Zell Miller is running for lieutenant governor on a platform that includes restoring full funding of the HOPE Scholarship program his grandfather started.
Bryan Miller of Watkinsville announced Thursday he will seek the Democratic nomination to succeed Republican Geoff Duncan as Georgia’s lieutenant governor. Duncan is not seeking re-election.
Miller recently stepped down as executive chairman of the Zell Miller Foundation, a nonprofit he launched in 2016 to build on the elder Miller’s legacy by focusing on education, leadership and public service.
Zell Miller, who died in 2018, was the driving force behind the Georgia Lottery, which voters approved in a 1992 referendum to raise money to start the HOPE program as well as statewide voluntary pre-kindergarten.
The General Assembly began reducing HOPE coverage in 2011, citing the financial stress growing college enrollments and rising tuition costs were putting on the program.
“I am running to restore the HOPE Scholarship back to its original promise of providing full tuition to any student who earns a ‘B’ average or higher,” Bryan Miller said. “Since my grandfather created it, nearly 2 million Georgians have gone to college on HOPE. Unfortunately, too few poor and minority students have been able to enjoy the full benefits of HOPE as intended.”
The younger Miller grew up in Young Harris. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in business and public policy from Young Harris College, he earned a law degree at Mercer University.
Two other Democrats – state Reps. Erick Allen of Smyrna and Derrick Jackson of Tyrone – already have entered the race for lieutenant governor.
Republican candidates for the post include Georgia Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller of Gainesville and Jeanne Seaver, a GOP activist from Savannah.
Before being elected governor in 1990, Zell Miller served four terms as lieutenant governor. After two terms as governor, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2000 and completed the unexpired term of Sen. Paul Coverdell after the Atlanta Republican died in office.
ATLANTA – Saturday will be a big day for Georgia’s medical marijuana program.
The Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission announced Wednesday it will hold a public meeting in Walker County on Saturday to reveal which applicants will be licensed to grow marijuana in Georgia, convert the leaf crop into cannabis oil and sell the finished product to eligible patients.
Under legislation the General Assembly passed two years ago, the commission will issue up to six licenses to private companies to grow marijuana in hothouses under close state supervision. Two licenses will allocate up to 100,000 square feet of growth space each, while the other four licensees will be limited to no more than 50,000 square feet of growth space.
Two other licenses will go to Georgia’s two land-grant universities, the University of Georgia and Fort Valley State University, for research purposes.
Licensees will be limited to producing low-THC cannabis oil, containing no more than 5% THC, the psychoactive ingredient that gets marijuana users high.
The drug will be sold at licensed dispensaries or specially licensed pharmacies to patients suffering from a range of diseases including cancer, seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, mitochondrial disease and sickle-cell anemia. Patients must be enrolled in a registry overseen by the state Department of Public Health and have a doctor’s prescription.
Georgia lawmakers first legalized the use of cannabis oil in 2015. However, the law provided no legal way for patients to obtain the drug inside the state.
The 2019 legislation created the seven member commission to oversee the rollout of Georgia’s medical cannabis program. Nearly 70 businesses have applied for a license.
