Major League Baseball is pulling the 2021 All-Star Game out of Truist Park in Cobb County.
ATLANTA – Major League Baseball announced Friday it is pulling this summer’s All-Star Game from Georgia in response to the General Assembly’s passage of an election bill that has been heavily criticized as voter suppression.
“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box,” Commissioner of Baseball Robert D. Manfred Jr. wrote in a prepared statement.
“In 2020 … we proudly used our platform to encourage baseball fans and communities throughout our country to perform their civic duty and actively participate in the voting process. Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support.”
Baseball’s decision to relocate the All-Star Game from Truist Park in Cobb County follows corporate criticism of the law by Atlanta-based companies, primarily Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola.
The Republican-controlled legislature passed the voting bill along party lines on the afternoon of March 25, and Gov. Brian Kemp signed it into law later that day.
The sweeping measure overhauls the absentee voting process and early voting in Georgia. It replaces the current signature- match method for verifying absentee ballots with a requirement that absentee voters provide a driver’s license or one of several other forms of identification.
The law expands opportunities for early voting on weekends, a provision Kemp and other Republicans have pointed to in arguing the legislation is not aimed at restricting voting access.
The provision that has drawn the strongest criticism prohibits people who aren’t poll workers from handing out food and drink to voters waiting in line outside polling places. Republicans have said the provision is intended to prevent illegal electioneering by candidates or campaign workers within 150 feet of the polls.
Democrats around the country – notably President Joe Biden – had called on Major League Baseball to pull the All-Star Game out of Atlanta since passage of the election law.
But in Georgia, Democrats have responded by opposing the move because of the economic consequences of losing the game.
“Disappointed MLB will move the All-Star Game, but proud of their stance on voting rights,” 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams wrote on Twitter. “Georgia GOP traded economic opportunity for suppression.”
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms expressed similar sentiments and warned further fallout from the voting law could follow.
“Unfortunately, the removal of the MLB All-Star Game from Georgia is likely the first of many dominoes to fall, until the unnecessary barriers put in place to restrict access to the ballot box are removed,” Bottoms wrote.
Georgia Rep. Teri Anulewicz, D-Smyrna, whose state House district includes Truist Park, said she was disappointed by the move.
“The American Rescue Plan exists because of the very Georgia voters who will be most impacted by the economic brunt of the decision to pull the MLB All-Star Game,” she said. “At the same time, I absolutely understand the disgust and frustration with our leadership in Georgia that ultimately led to this decision.”
Kemp released a statement after Friday’s announcement accusing Major League Baseball of caving in to “fear, political opportunism and liberal lies.
“Georgians – and all Americans – should fully understand what the MLB’s knee-jerk decision means: Cancel culture and woke political activists are coming for every aspect of your life, sports included. If the left doesn’t agree with you, facts and truth do not matter.”
Both Kemp and Georgia House Speaker David Ralston attributed baseball’s decision to lies from Abrams about the new law.
“This decision is not only economically harmful,” said Ralston, R-Blue Ridge. “It also robs Georgians of a special celebration of our national pastime free of politics.”
In a news release, the Atlanta Braves wrote that businesses, stadium employees and baseballs fans will all be hurt by the decision.
“The Braves organization will continue to stress the importance of equal voting opportunities, and we had hoped our city could use this event as a platform to enhance the discussion,” the release stated. “Our city has always been known as a uniter in divided times, and we will miss the opportunity to address issues that are important to our community.”
The new voting law has drawn the largest national outcry against Georgia since the General Assembly passed religious freedom legislation in 2016 that critics slammed as discriminatory. It drew boycott threats from local and national businesses, including the film industry, and then-Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed it.
Manfred said Major League Baseball still plans to celebrate the memory of Braves Hall of Fame slugger Hank Aaron, who died in January, as part of the All-Star Game festivities.
A decision has not been made on a new host city for the game.
Staff writer Beau Evans contributed to this report.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Labor surpassed a major milestone last week.
The agency now has paid out more than $20.2 billion in unemployment benefits since the coronavirus pandemic began in Georgia more than a year ago. That’s more than the department had paid out in the 82 years prior to the virus.
“We have issued payments to over 1.5 million Georgians during this pandemic while also continuing to support reemployment services looking to get many of these individuals back into the workplace,” state Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler said Thursday.
While more and more Georgia businesses have been ramping back up in recent weeks, the number of unemployment claims is still on the rise. Last week, jobless Georgians filed 39,282 initial claims, an increase of 14,493 over the previous week.
Since the pandemic began in March 2020, the labor agency has processed nearly 4.6 million first-time unemployment claims, more than during the last nine years combined prior to the outbreak of COVID-19.
The job sector accounting by far for the most claims in Georgia last week was accommodation and food services with 16,315 claims. The administrative and support services sector was next with 4,064 claims, followed by manufacturing with 2,336.
The labor department has 228,512 job listings posted online at https://bit.ly/36EA2vk for Georgians to access. The agency offers online resources for finding a job, building a resume and assisting with other reemployment needs.
Lake Lanier is part of the Chattahoochee River system.
ATLANTA – The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday sided with Georgia in a lawsuit Florida filed in 2013 over the allocation of water that flows between the two states.
In a unanimous 9-0 opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the court ruled that Florida failed to prove its allegations that Georgia’s water consumption from the Chattahoochee and Flint river systems caused the failure of Florida’s oyster industry in Apalachicola Bay.
“Florida allowed unprecedented levels of oyster harvesting in the years before the collapse,” Barrett wrote. “Georgia’s consumption had little to no impact on the bay’s oyster population.”
Florida claimed originally that increasing water consumption in rapidly growing metro Atlanta was causing unacceptably low flows where the Chattahoochee River enters Florida at Lake Seminole.
More recently, including during oral arguments before the Supreme Court in February, Florida’s lawyers put more of the blame on water consumption by farmers in the lower Flint River irrigating their crops.
Florida’s strategy shifted as water conservation efforts by municipal utilities in the Atlanta region began to pay off.
Gov. Brian Kemp hailed the decision as a “resounding victory” for Georgia and a vindication of the steps the state has taken to boost water-use efficiency.
“Our state will continue to wisely manage water resources and prioritize conservation, while also protecting Georgia’s economy and access to water,” Kemp said in a prepared statement.
“The Supreme Court … affirmed what we have long known to be true: Georgia’s water use has been fair and reasonable,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr added. “We will continue to be good stewards of our water resources, and we are proud to have obtained a positive resolution to this years-long dispute on behalf of all Georgians.”
Florida’s lawsuit sought the court to place a cap on Georgia’s water consumption. Georgia’s lawyers argued such a cap would bring growth in metro Atlanta – and the region’s economy with it – grinding to a halt and devastate Southwest Georgia’s farm belt.
Thursday’s decision doesn’t mean an end to the so-called tri-state “water wars” between Georgia, Florida and Alabama that have dragged on for three decades.
For one thing, Alabama is challenging an agreement Georgia and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed in January that for the first time authorized the use of Lake Lanier as a water supply.
While the federally managed reservoir has been supplying water for decades, its use for that purpose has been among the legal issues contested during the water wars.
ATLANTA – Legislation aimed at legalizing online sports betting in Georgia is a casualty of the controversial election law overhaul majority Republicans pushed through the General Assembly last week.
A constitutional amendment asking voters whether to bring legal sports betting to Georgia and a separate “enabling” bill outlining how the industry would operate failed to reach the floor of the state House of Representatives on the final night of this year’s legislative session.
Both measures had cleared the Georgia Senate early last month.
Supporters blamed passage of the omnibus election reform bill for poisoning the well for Democrats, whose support was critical to passing sports betting.
The Georgia chapter of the NAACP released a statement on Wednesday urging lawmakers not to vote for any legalized gambling legislation.
“That killed it,” state Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, who was carrying the sports betting legislation in the House, said Thursday. “After that, a lot of issues fell by the wayside.”
Stephens and other Republicans worked to win Democrats’ support for sports betting by agreeing to dedicate a portion of the proceeds to need-based scholarships, a key priority for Democrats.
But the goodwill between GOP supporters of sports betting and Democratic lawmakers faded after Gov. Brian Kemp signed an election reform bill Democrats labeled as voter suppression. The Georgia NAACP is among the groups challenging the legislation in a federal lawsuit.
“If they expect to earn our support on corporate issues that will make rich people wealthier, our expectation is that they, too, work with us on uplifting our community through meaningful policy objectives,” the Rev. James Woodall, state president of the Georgia NAACP, wrote in a statement.
Senate passage of sports betting had begun building momentum for the legislation in the House. It marked the first time in a decade of trying that supporters of legalized gambling had gotten a bill through either of the two chambers.
But the tide appeared to be turning by Wednesday morning, when Sen. Jeff Mullis, chief sponsor of the sports betting measures, took to the Senate floor to complain that House Democrats were blocking his legislation.
“They are leaving tens of millions of dollars on the table for need-based [scholarships] funding for people who really need it,” said Mullis, R-Chickamauga.
Rick Lackey, an Atlanta-based real estate developer behind three proposed casino resorts scattered across Georgia, suggested sports betting failed because the legislation didn’t include legalizing casino gambling.
He said casinos would bring in far more tax revenue for need-based scholarships, health care and other uses the state might have for gambling proceeds than sports betting. Also, online sports betting wouldn’t create jobs, while casinos would generate thousands of temporary construction jobs and permanent jobs after mixed-use casino resorts open for business, he said.
“It’s like comparing penny pitching to Blackjack,” Lackey said.
Lackey pointed out that a constitutional amendment to legalize sports betting, casinos and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing is still alive in the Georgia House for consideration next year.
But Stephens said he’d rather see the General Assembly pursue sports betting first.
“Sports betting is supposed to be the easy one,” he said. “It would give us momentum as we move into the other stuff.”
The General Assembly has passed a bill to hire a chiel labor officer over the objections of Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler.
ATLANTA – The General Assembly wants to hire a chief labor officer despite objections from Georgia Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler that the position represents an unnecessary encroachment on his jurisdiction.
The state Senate voted 29-20 Wednesday night to create the position of chief labor officer after months of complaints from jobless Georgians waiting for unemployment compensation checks. That’s the bare minimum of votes needed to pass a bill in the 56-member body.
The Georgia House of Representatives had passed the measure 142-22 earlier in the evening.
Under the bill, the chief labor officer’s job would be to keep lawmakers up to date on financial audits of the labor department.
Lawmakers have been bombarded throughout the coronavirus pandemic with complaints from constituents reporting delays in receiving benefit checks and the lack of response from the agency when they call to ask about their cases.
Legislators trying to run interference with the department for their constituents haven’t gotten satisfaction, House Majority Whip Trey Kelley said on the House floor Wednesday night.
“We’re just having trouble getting information on how claims are being processed,” said Kelley, R-Cedartown.
Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler spoke out against the bill as it went through the committee review process. He argued that hiring an untrained person lacking knowledge in how the department operates would do nothing to speed up the processing of an unprecedented deluge of claims resulting from the pandemic.
The bill also creates uncertainty over who would be in charge of the agency, a statewide elected official put there by Georgia voters or an appointee, Butler said.
A late change added to the bill would require the labor commissioner to submit periodic reports to the General Assembly on the disposition of unemployment claims.
“We’re going to hold them accountable to make sure they’re progressing, so we can give [legislators] information they can give to their constituents,” said Rep. Tom Kirby, R-Loganville, a member of the House Industry and Labor Committee.
The fiscal 2022 state budget the General Assembly passed Wednesday night includes $198,916 to fund the new position.
The job is meant to be temporary, expiring at the end of next year unless it’s renewed by the legislature.
The bill now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.
