ATLANTA – U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is turning up the heat on the United States Postal Service (USPS) concerning delays in delivering mail processed at a new regional distribution center in Palmetto that opened early this year.
In a letter dated Thursday, Ossoff asked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to update on-time mail delivery in metro Atlanta within a week.
Ossoff grilled DeJoy more than three weeks ago during a hearing held by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. At the time, the senator revealed that only 36% of inbound mail handled by the Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center was being delivered on time as of the end of February.
DeJoy assured Ossoff that the problems would be fixed within about 60 days.
“It is urgent that the performance of USPS delivery in Georgia improve immediately,” Ossoff wrote. “Postal workers working diligently every day to deliver the mail on time deserve the infrastructure and the management competence to enable them to do so.”
DeJoy attributed the delays to problems starting up a USPS restructuring plan aimed at making the postal service financially self-sufficient and better able to compete with private shippers including Federal Express and the United Parcel Service.
The plan calls for consolidating local mail distribution offices into huge regional centers. The Atlanta-area consolidation involved moving nearly 10,000 employees from 10 locations to the new Palmetto distribution center.
DeJoy said plans to expand the new system nationwide have been put on hold while the postal service resolves the issues encountered at the Palmetto distribution center and a second regional center in Richmond, Va.
ATLANTA – Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has joined 24 counterparts from other Republican-led states in challenging a new federal rule governing emissions from coal-burning and gas-fired power plants.
In a legal filing asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to declare the new regulations unlawful, Carr and his colleagues argue the rules contain costly and unattainable emissions standards in an effort to close existing coal plants and prevent construction of new natural gas plants.
The plaintiffs also claim the new rule ignores a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that warned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency not to enforce regulations that are so stringent they force coal plants into retirement.
“The Biden administration continues to wage a shameless political attack on our energy sector,” Carr said. “Our economy depends on safe, reliable and affordable energy, and we won’t stand by while D.C. activists further burden families and businesses throughout our state.”
The new rule requires coal and gas plants to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2032. While it does not explicitly mandate abandoning coal or gas as a source for power generation, it is expected to accelerate the closure of coal plants.
The other states signing onto the lawsuit besides Georgia include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
ATLANTA – Owners of independent pharmacies in Georgia are criticizing Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision this week to veto legislation aimed at rectifying a situation that has left them at a competitive disadvantage with pharmacy chains.
Senate Bill 198, which the state House and Senate passed with only one “no” vote, would have required the State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP) covering teachers and state employees to reimburse independent pharmacies filling prescriptions at rates no less than the average reimbursement provided to chain pharmacies.
In the most severe instance, pharmacy chains are being reimbursed for atorvastatin, a cholesterol-lowering drug known by the brand name Lipitor, at rates 2,000% higher than the reimbursements independent pharmacies are getting for the same drug.
Bell’s Family Pharmacy in Jasper, which went out of business in February, was being reimbursed just $1.90 for a 90-day supply of Lipitor, while the three closest chain pharmacies were getting $46.87, according to a chart compiled by CVS Caremark, which administers pharmacy benefit services for the SHBP.
“You can’t stay in business for $1.90,” said Denise Bennett, who owns two independent pharmacies in Blackshear and Nahunta. “Many pharmacies are closing because of this practice. … It’s just sad.”
Indeed, independent pharmacies have closed their doors in recent years in Cornelia, Dunwoody, Suwanee, Fayetteville, Helen, Clarksville, Hartwell, Royston, Statesboro and Waycross, citing low reimbursement rates for prescriptions.
“These were folks that stayed open during COVID,” said state Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, who owned an independent pharmacy until he retired from the business in 2016. “In some cases, they were the only health care in town.”
In his veto message, Kemp pointed to fiscal estimates showing that implementing the bill would cost the state Department of Community Health (DCH) $11 million to $45 million per year, funds the General Assembly did not provide.
As an alternative, the governor wrote, the fiscal 2025 state budget he signed this week includes one-time funding for a dispensing fee of $3 per prescription for independent pharmacists, increasing to $11.50 for independent low-volume pharmacies filling prescriptions for Medicaid patients. The budget also directs the DCH to use existing funds for an actuarial study on SHBP independent pharmacy prescription drug reimbursements, he wrote.
“These budget items provide an appropriate, fiscally sound approach to supporting independent pharmacists this year while obtaining necessary information to aid the department in evaluating current and future management of the state’s pharmacy plan,” Kemp wrote.
Stephens said the dispensing fee might allow some independent pharmacies to keep their doors open. But he vowed to mount another push next year for legislation evening the playing field for independent pharmacists.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Water Coalition released its annual “Dirty Dozen” list for 2024 Thursday, a combination of specific polluted waterways across the state and policies that threaten the health of Georgia’s water resources.
The report identified threats to the following specific waterways:
Abercorn Creek, where growth spurred by the Port of Savannah threatens regional water supplies.
Altamaha River, where the state continues to allow a pulp mill in Jesup to pollute the river.
Conasauga and Ogeechee rivers, where the presence of toxic “forever chemicals” taints fish and threatens human health.
Coosa River, where Georgia Power plans to leave coal ash in one pond at the closed Plant Hammond to remain in contact with groundwater.
Flint River in Decatur County, where plans for a $400 million monkey breeding facility have residents worried about the spread of disease.
Floridan Aquifer in South Georgia, where growth in coastal counties is straining underground water supplies.
Okefenokee Swamp, where the state is poised to issue permits for a proposed titanium mine along Trail Ridge.
More generally, the report warned about the drain on energy and water supplies posed by an influx of massive data centers in Georgia and a push to privatize public water resources.
Much of the stress on the state’s waterways stems from the rapid growth in recent years that has won Georgia the status of being the No.-1 state to do business, said Jesse Demonbreun-Chapman, executive director of the Coosa River Basin Initiative, one of the Georgia Water Coalition’s more than 260 member organizations.
“Our success in economic development has had a downside,” he said.
Joe Cook of the Georgia River Network, who chaired the committee that selected the Dirty Dozen, said the controversy over the proposed monkey breeding facility in Bainbridge drew attention to the role local development authorities play in crafting secret deals offering tax incentives to lure businesses to their communities. The company behind the project, Safer Human Medicine, is looking to house 30,000 monkeys for medical research.
“That’s more monkeys than there are people in Decatur County,” Cook said.
The report identified PFAS, a group of manmade “forever chemicals” used to make fabric stain resistant and fire retardant, as an emerging pollutant. While the carpet and textile industries are phasing them out, they’re still polluting rivers and contaminating fish, especially in the Conasauga and Ogeechee rivers.
Gov. Brian Kemp vetoed legislation this week that would have temporarily suspended a state sales tax exemption aimed at attracting data centers. The bill’s supporters said the two-year pause in the exemption was needed to allow time to study the impacts the industry’s rapid growth is having on energy and water supplies.
“Tax breaks to lure data centers to Georgia have had unintended consequences,” Cook said. “They use tremendous amounts of energy and water.”
Finally, the report cited two bills the General Assembly passed this year aimed at privatizing the state’s water resources. The water coalition criticized measures granting Georgians the right to hunt and fish in the state’s navigable rivers and streams as inadequate for protecting public access.
Another bill the report slammed will allow a private water utility to serve new homes near the Hyundai plant without the consent of local governments.
ATLANTA – Legislation U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., introduced to protect children from online abuse and exploitation has been signed into law.
President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan REPORT Act Tuesday, which Ossoff introduced in partnership with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
The bill requires websites and social media platforms to report crimes involving the trafficking and enticement of children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Companies that knowingly and willfully fail to report child sex abuse material on their sites will face increased fines.
“My bipartisan law with Senator Blackburn will ensure tech companies are held accountable to report and remove child sex abuse material and to strengthen protection for kids online,” Ossoff said. “At a time of such division in Congress, we successfully brought Republicans and Democrats together to protect kids on the internet, and now our bill is law.”
“Children are increasingly looking at screens, and the reality is that this leaves more innocent kids at risk of online exploitation,” Blackburn added. “Under this law, Big Tech will now be required to report trafficking, grooming or enticement of children found on their sites.”
Ossoff chairs the Senate’s Human Rights Subcommittee, while Blackburn serves as the panel’s ranking Republican. An investigation they launched early last year to assess the safety of children in foster care found lax oversight by federal and state child welfare agencies when it comes to missing children.
Ossoff cited audits of multiple states that found 45% of missing child incidents were not reported to the NCMEC and that most missing children were not screened for sex trafficking after they were recovered.
The NCMEC endorsed the REPORT Act as well as a companion bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“The REPORT Act provides critical child safety improvements,” said Michelle DeLaune, the NCMEC’s president and CEO. “We look forward to continuing our work with Congress to prioritize the safety of children online because every child deserves a safe childhood.”
This mug shot of Donald Trump was taken after he turned himself in at the Fulton County Jail last August.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Court of Appeals agreed Wednesday to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue leading the prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
The appellate court’s decision means further delays in a case that already has been slowed by a defense motion to remove Willis from prosecuting Trump and 18 co-defendants because of a romantic relationship between the DA and Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor she hired to lead the case.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled in March that Willis could remain on the case if Wade resigned, which he did several hours later.
A Fulton grand jury handed down an indictment last August charging Trump and his associates with racketeering for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Democrat Joe Biden carried the Peach State by the razor-thin margin of 11,780 votes.
Since then, several of the defendants have pleaded guilty, while McAfee has dismissed six of the 41 counts filed against Trump and several co-defendants. The judge declared the charges legally defective.
In the March ruling on the motion to disqualify Willis, McAfee declared the defendants failed to meet their burden of proof that the relationship between the DA and Wade resulted in an actual conflict of interest. But the judge declared that the appearance of a conflict was sufficient to infect “the current structure of the prosecution team.”
He gave Willis the option of removing herself from the case or remaining if Wade stepped aside.
