Passionately Catholic: Live and Love Every Day

Recently, I went through the drive-through at a local coffee shop. After I received my coffee, the employee said to me, “I just want to tell you that you have a very kind smile.” I looked at her and remarked back, “I bet you have one as well, I just can’t see it.” She was donning a mask and I was not. What are we all missing under the mask?

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New Bill in Georgia General Assembly Would Increase School Choice

Georgia State Rep. Wes Cantrell (R-Woodstock) has introduced a bill that, if enacted into law, would offer greater school choice for parents through Educational Scholarship Accounts. Parents could take these ESA’s and use them for private educational opportunities instead of public education funds.

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Brian Kemp Tells Georgia Legislators to Move Past 2020 and Focus on COVID-19 During State of State Address

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp delivered an optimistic State of the State address Thursday and proposed what he said were new ways for state officials to invest taxpayer money to counteract the effects of COVID-19. At one point in his speech, the governor apparently referred to the November 2020 elections and alleged voter fraud and other voter irregularities.

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Commentary: Impeachment Is Not Just About Removing President Trump—It’s About Canceling You

The House has voted to once again impeach President Donald Trump, charging him with incitement of insurrection. The single article of impeachment states the President “willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged — and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol.”

President Trump did nothing of the sort, but the facts do not matter to the House.

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Cotton, Senators Demand SBA Stop Planned Parenthood’s ‘Naked Attempts to Defraud’ Government Through PPP Loans

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton is leading lawmakers in calling on the Small Business Administration (SBA) to investigate alleged illegal loans distributed to Planned Parenthood affiliates, according to a letter exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Planned Parenthood affiliates are well aware that they are ineligible to receive PPP loans, on the basis of SBA’s letters and the frank admission of their political action committee” the senators wrote in a Thursday letter to SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza. “Their attempts to apply for PPP loans are naked attempts to defraud the United States government.”

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MIT Professor Who Received $19 Million in Federal Grants Is Charged Over Undisclosed Ties to China

A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has received nearly $20 million in grants from the Department of Energy was arrested Thursday on charges that he failed to disclose ties to the People’s Republic of China.

According to prosecutors, Gang Chen, a mechanical engineering professor at MIT, has held various positions on behalf of the PRC aimed at promoting China’s technological and scientific capabilities.

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Commentary: Vote to Impeach Imperils Liz Cheney’s GOP Leadership Role

Among the 232 votes in the House of Representatives to impeach Donald Trump a second time were 10 cast by Republicans — and now the GOP has a messy church fight on its hands. That’s  because one of the 10 breaking ranks was Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who chairs the GOP conference. The immediate question for House Republicans is whether Cheney should remain in that post after voting to impeach Trump. But this is a proxy fight. The broader question is whether Trump populism ought to remain Republican Party orthodoxy.

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New Jobless Claims Spike to 965,000, Economists Expected 800,000

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims increased to 965,000 last week as the economy continued to suffer the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to the Department of Labor.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) figure released Thursday represented a increase in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending Jan. 9, in which there were 787,000 new jobless claims reported. Roughly 18.4 million Americans continue to collect unemployment benefits, according to the BLS report Thursday.

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Young Americans for Liberty Fires President Amid Allegations of Sexual Misconduct

The Young Americans for Liberty announced Wednesday that the organization has terminated its former President Cliff Maloney “effective immediately” following allegations of sexual misconduct.

“Losing the confidence of the board, YAL staff, and key stakeholders makes the ability to lead impossible and this action necessary,” the organization said in a statement.

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Woman Charged for Plans to Smuggle Chinese Nationals into U.S. for Financial Gain

A Nevada woman was arrested and charged in connection with a scheme spanning several years to commit fraud and launder money to smuggle Chinese nationals into the U.S, the Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

Haiyan Liao, 43, was charged with conspiracy to commit visa fraud, money laundering conspiracy and to illegally smuggle Chinese nationals into the U.S. for financial gain, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

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Martha Boneta Commentary: Beginning to Look Like Time to Invent Another Internet

Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the Internet, says he is fed up with what it has become and he’s taking action to fix it.  

He has expressed frustration for years with how major corporations have taken what was supposed to a free environment and restricted in a variety of ways. He doesn’t like the way Facebook, Google and Amazon have centralized it and he especially doesn’t like how they control the data of almost all Americans.  

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Higher Ed Students in Georgia Would Have Greater First Amendment Rights under New Bill in General Assembly

Georgia State Rep. Josh Bonner (R-Fayetteville) has put forward a bill in the Georgia General Assembly that, if enacted into law, would grant greater free speech rights to students at the state’s institutions of higher learning. Bonner named the bill the Forming Open and Robust University Minds (FORUM) Act.

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Georgia State Representative Kendrick Introduces Bills to ‘Promote Black Wealth’

State Representative Dar’shun Kendrick (D-Lithonia) introduced five bills that are aimed at increasing “Black wealth.” The bills propose racial compositions on Georgia corporations receiving state tax credits; reinstatement of the “Angel Investor” tax credit and qualifying historically Black colleges and universities (HCBU) as eligible; tax credits for HBCU entrepreneurship programs; racially diversify all boards, commissions, councils, or committees to reflect the state’s demographics; and annual reports on wealth within certain demographics.

In a press release, Kendrick claimed that Black communities are systemically marginalized within the economy. She added that the pandemic has only compounded the matter.

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Bipartisan Push by Georgia Lawmakers to Replace Confederate Statue at U.S. Capitol

Republican lawmakers in Georgia appear ready to cave and work with Democrats on the removal of yet another Confederate statue. 

“The state legislative effort to remove the figure of Alexander Stephens from the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol and replace it with a likeness of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis will begin in earnest on Wednesday with a bipartisan resolution promoting the change,” according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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Commentary: Will Biden Kill the Trump Economic Recovery?

The U.S. economy is poised to continue a massive recovery that began after labor markets bottomed in April with 25 million jobs lost during Covid, with 16 million of the having been recovered since then — provided that President-elect Joe Biden does not kill the rest of the recovery that began on President Donald Trump’s watch.

Really, all Biden needs to do right now is almost nothing, and allow the U.S. economy to fully reopen once the Covid vaccine has been fully administered and the number of daily new cases approaches zero.

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Supreme Court Sides with Trump Admin, Says Abortion Pills Can’t Be Dispensed by Mail

The United States Supreme Court reinstated a requirement Tuesday that women seeking to obtain abortion pills must pick up the pills in person from a hospital or medical office rather than receiving them by mail.

The case is the Supreme Court’s first ruling on abortion since Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court, the New York Times reported, and the three liberal justices dissented.

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10 Republicans Voted to Impeach President Donald Trump

Unlike Trump’s first impeachment in early 2020, 10 House Republicans ultimately supported the Democrat-led effort the second time around and voted to impeach the president.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced the sole article of impeachment on Tuesday accusing President Donald Trump of inciting insurrection. On Jan. 6, a pro-Trump mob clashed with Capitol Police and stormed the Capitol itself, forcing lawmakers into hiding and resulting in the deaths of five people.

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Trump Touts Success of 450 Miles of Border Wall

President Donald Trump on Tuesday hailed the completion of 450 miles of border wall completed long the U.S.-Mexican border and praised the men and women of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

At a news conference held at the Mexico–U.S. border in Reynosa–McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, Trump said the border is more secure than it’s ever been.

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Commentary: Taxpayers and the Homeless Are Just Pawns in Scheme to Buoy Leftist Donors

Arguably, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is the most incompetent, destructive, negligent, no good, irresponsible mayor in American history. And he’s got plenty of competition right now. San Francisco’s London Breed, Ted Wheeler in Portland, and Bill de Blasio in New York City are all top contenders. Blue City mayors bent on destroying civilization are plentiful, but Garcetti is the worst member of this odious gang.

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YouTube Suspends Trump Account for at Least Seven Days

YouTube became the latest social media platform to ban President Donald Trump, announcing late Tuesday that he wouldn’t be able to post new content for seven days.

YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, said it took the action against Trump because of the potential for violence to be sparked from his content. The massive video-sharing platform joined Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, Reddit and many others in suspending or banning the president, Axios reported.

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Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to be Charged for Role in Flint Water Crisis: Report

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and several of his top aides were reportedly told that they will face charges for their role in the Flint Water Crisis, which began in 2014 and left the city of approximately 100,000 without clean water for years.

Two people aware of the charges told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the Michigan attorney general’s office has made their defense lawyers aware of the coming charges and told them to shortly expect court appearances. The nature of the charges against Snyder, a Republican, former heath department director Nick Lyon and other his aides remained unknown.

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Passionately Catholic: What We Are All Missing Under the Mask

Recently, I went through the drive-through at a local coffee shop. After I received my coffee, the employee said to me, “I just want to tell you that you have a very kind smile.” I looked at her and remarked back, “I bet you have one as well, I just can’t see it.” She was donning a mask and I was not. What are we all missing under the mask?

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Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case on Georgia Student Prohibited from Sharing Gospel on Campus

A Georgia Gwinnett College student appeared before the Supreme Court on Tuesday to defend free speech on campuses. The student, Chike Uzuegbunam, was prohibited by campus officials from speaking about the Christian faith on campus twice in 2016, following alleged complaints from other students.

A day before the Supreme Court hearing, Uzuegbunam published an opinion piece recounting his experience at the college and throughout the subsequent court hearings. Uzuegbunam explained that he was barred from passing out fliers and discussing his faith with fellow students publicly. According to his account, he was having one-on-one conversations with students when he was stopped by a campus official and told he needed to file a request for a speech zone.

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Georgia Legislator Wants Body Cams on Every Law Enforcement Officer and to Strip Them of Certain Legal Immunities

Georgia State Rep. Sandra Scott (D-Rex) has put forward separate bills that would, if enacted, require that law enforcement officers wear body cameras on-the-job. Law enforcement officers might also have to submit to a citizen review board. Members of such a board would review law enforcement officers’ actions while those officers served in the line of duty. Scott would also strip law enforcement officers of certain legal immunities they have as they do their jobs and make them liable to a lawsuit or other civil liability.

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Georgia House Introduces Bill Investing Educational Funds into Students Instead of Institutions

The Georgia House Education Committee introduced legislation to fund education savings accounts for qualifying parents. House Bill 60, or the “Georgia Educational Scholarship Act,” proposes granting certain state educational funds to parents directly rather than schools.

The bill would allow students with circumstances including poverty, foster care, active duty military parent(s), disability, bullying, or mandated distance learning to apply certain state educational funds to attend the participating school of their choice.

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Georgia Man Arrested in Capitol Protest Committed Suicide, Leftists Celebrate

The Georgia man who was found dead in his home Saturday after being charged in connection to the mostly peaceful protests in Washington, D.C. on January 6 committed suicide, police confirmed.

“The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office told Heavy that the cause of death was suicide,” Heavy confirmed. “[Christopher Stanton] Georgia died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, they said.”

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President Donald Trump’s Speech at the ‘Save America Rally’: Transcript

The United States House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump for the second time by a count of 232 to 197, including 10 Republicans. This marks the first-ever a president has been impeached twice.

The Democrat-led effort to try once again to oust the president is based on remarks he gave January 6th at the “Save America Rally,” which was attended by hundreds of thousands of people from across the country.

The congressmembers pushing for impeachment insist President Trump is guilty, in essence, of “inciting a riot” in his speech.

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Democrat-Controlled House Votes to Impeach Trump a Second Time

The Democrat-led House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

The final vote of 232 to 197 marks the second time the House voted to impeach Trump, who has just seven days remaining in office. Trump is the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice.

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Three Crucial Questions Remain Unanswered About Capitol Siege

One thing recent history has taught America is the first storyline of major tragedies or controversies is never the most accurate.

Americans were told by the Bush administration that they were sucker-punched by a surprise attack on 9/11 by terrorists, only to learn the CIA and FBI had significant advance evidence of the plot and its players and failed to connect the dots.

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Georgia Man Arrested After Capitol Protest Found Dead in Home

A Georgia man who was arrested last week for his role in the mostly peaceful protests at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. was found dead in his home Saturday. 

“Christopher Stanton Georgia, 53, was found dead at his home in Alpharetta on Saturday,” according to a report in Daily Mail. “Documents obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com show Georgia’s wife called 911 on Saturday morning, telling authorities there was ‘blood everywhere’. His body was found in the basement of the home they share.”

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Commentary: Removing President Trump Before January 20 Would Imperil the Union

House Democrats are proceeding apace with their plans to impeach President Donald Trump before his term ends on Jan. 20 when Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States, accusing Trump of inciting insurrection after the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 following the Save America Rally he spoke at challenging the outcome of the 2020 election.

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Alabama Representative Mo Brooks Calls Attacks on His Rally Speech a ‘Scurrilous, George Orwellian’ Strategy

U.S. Representative Mo Brooks (AL-05) on Tuesday responded to the “scurrilous, George Orwellian” attacks that Democrats are making against him over his “Save America” rally speech on January 6.

An official censure was proposed by U.S. Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-23) and Tom Malinowski (D-NJ-07), the Washington Examiner said.

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Minnesota Police Union President to Retire, Says ‘Our Noble Profession Has Been Demonized’

Minneapolis Police Union President Lt. Bob Kroll announced that he intends to retire at the end of January in a letter to union members, The Star Tribune reported.
Lt. Bob Kroll, 58, said he originally planned on retiring in May, but that he decided it was in his family’s best interest to retire sooner, according to The Star Tribune. Kroll attracted attention in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes.

“Most difficult for me as I made this decision was to see how our noble profession has been demonized,” Kroll wrote in the letter obt

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HHS Expected to Recommend Vaccine Distribution Extended to Elderly

The Trump administration is expected to alter its coronavirus vaccine distribution guidance, recommending that people aged 65 and older are made eligible to be inoculated, The New York Times reported.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense are expected to announce the new guidance at a noon press conference, an anonymous official briefed on the announcement told the Times. The change to the recommendations is intended to quicken the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine, which has been far behind pace.

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Commentary: The Purge Has Begun, But Nobody Knows When It Stops

In the weeks since the November presidential election, numerous liberals, leftists, and other opponents of President Donald Trump have called for a purge of him and his supporters from public life.

Just days ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20, those purges have begun in earnest.

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PBS Fires Former Employee Following Project Veritas Video Exposing ‘Hateful Rhetoric’

PBS is distancing itself from a former employee featured in a Project Veritas video who appeared to defend violent attacks on the White House, proposed re-education for the children of President Donald Trump supporters, and praised the COVID-19 deaths of GOP voters.

“This employee no longer works for PBS,” a PBS spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “As a mid-level staff attorney, he did not speak on behalf of our organization, nor did he make any editorial decisions.”

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Biden Says That His ‘Priority’ Will Be Minority and Women Owned Small Businesses

President-elect Joe Biden’s administration will make minority and women-owned small businesses their “priority,” his transition team tweeted Sunday.

“Our focus will be on small businesses on Main Street that aren’t wealthy and well-connected, that are facing real economic hardships through no fault of their own,” Biden said during the video.

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Twitter Says It Purged Over 70,000 Accounts Sharing ‘Harmful QAnon-Associated Content’

Twitter has reportedly purged over 70,000 accounts from its platform for sharing “harmful QAnon-associated content.”

The social media website began cracking down on Twitter activity after rioters supporting President Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol on Wednesday, committing acts of vandalism and postponing the certification process as members of Congress were forced to evacuate the building.

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Analysis: The Great Social Silencing

Last week Silicon Valley silenced the president. In unison, the social media giants, with an assist from Amazon and Apple, also eliminated their most popular conservative competitor and announced that their own moderation policies would now extend to other companies. Meanwhile, CNN openly called for Fox News to be banned from cable, while a major talk radio network issued new speech rules to its hosts, extending tech’s moderation policies to the offline world. Beyond all this, Congress and the European Union called for powerful new regulation of online speech.

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Georgia GOP State Senators Who Fought for Election Integrity Stripped of Committee Chairmanships

ATLANTA, Georgia – Two Georgia state senators who said they wanted to fight for the state’s election integrity after the November 2020 presidential election learned Tuesday they will no chair committees that they previously presided over. State Sen. Burt Jones (R-Jackson) will no longer chair the Committee on Insurance and Labor. State Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) no longer oversees that body’s Transportation Committee.

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Georgia Legislature Opens 2021 Session With COVID-19 Mitigation Measures, National Anthem Rendition

The Georgia General Assembly returned to session Monday for the first time since June 2020 with coronavirus measures in place.

Legislators were required to observe COVID-19 restrictions including wearing masks and social distancing, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Legislators will be tested twice a week for COVID-19, said State Senator Mike Dugan (R-Carrollton), the Republican Senate leader.

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Georgia’s Newly-Elected District Attorney for Athens-Clarke, Oconee Counties Implements List of Progressive Prosecution Reforms

District Attorney Deborah Gonzalez implemented over 40 new policy changes posing alternative, more progressive forms of prosecution. In a lengthy memorandum titled “Fairness and Equity in the Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney Office,” Gonzalez stated that the changes would take effect immediately. 

Gonzalez cited that these efforts would end their circuit’s “participation in mass incarceration and the school to prison pipeline.”

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Democrat-Turned-Republican Georgia State Rep. Vernon Jones to Speak to Nashville Young Republicans Tuesday

Less than a week after making the announcement that he would be leaving the Democrat Party to join the Republican Party, Georgia State Rep. Vernon Jones will be a keynote speaker at the Nashville Young Republicans monthly meeting Tuesday evening.

It was a history-making moment at the Save America March in Washington, D.C. last Wednesday, when Jones announced he would be officially joining the Republican Party.

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Commentary: The Now-Complete Democrat Trifecta Threatens Tax Hikes

Capitol building

Understandably lost in the wake of Wednesday’s shocking events was the fact that, with two election wins in Georgia, Democrats took control of the Senate to go with control over the House and presidency. Though tax policy may have taken a backseat in these Georgia elections, the results raised the chances of significant tax hikes, and the undoing of progress made in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), substantially.

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Facebook and Instagram Are Eliminating All Posts that Include the Phrase ‘Stop the Steal’

Facebook announced on Monday that it is purging both Instagram and Facebook, two major social media platforms, of all content that includes the phrase “stop the steal.”

“We are now removing content containing the phrase ‘stop the steal’ under our Coordinating Harm policy from Facebook and Instagram,” Facebook said. “We removed the original Stop the Steal group in November and have continued to remove Pages, groups and events that violate any of our policies, including calls for violence.”

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PGA President: 2022 Championship Hosted at Trump Golf Course Would be ‘Detrimental’

The Professional Golfers Association (PGA) announced Sunday that they won’t host their 2022 championship at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.

Jim Richerson, President of the PGA of America, called it “detrimental” for the association’s brand to have the championship take place at Trump Bedminster, during a video posted to the group’s website. Richerson said it would also “risk the PGA’s ability to deliver our many programs and sustain the longevity of our mission.”

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Georgia House Democratic Caucus COVID-19 Subcommittee Petitions Governor for Mandatory Shelter-in-Place, Mask Mandates, and Social Gathering Restrictions

The Georgia House Democratic Caucus Subcommittee on COVID-19 requested that Governor Brian Kemp implement more emergency regulations to address the new COVID-19 strain. Subcommittee members are State Representatives Rhonda Burnough (D-Riverdale), Viola Davis, (D-Stone Mountain), Shelly Hutchinson (D-Snellville), Donna McLeod (D-Lawrenceville), Sandra Scott (D-Rex), and Kim Schofieeld (D-Atlanta). 

The letter requested that Kemp expand the emergency orders to require everyone to either shelter-in-place, or do a combination of the following: cease all in-person schooling; further limit gatherings in bars, clubs, and restaurants; impose a statewide mask mandate; and establish moratoriums on evictions and utility cutoffs for all of this upcoming year.

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