Former U.S. President Donald Trump held a rally Saturday in Perry, where he introduced the candidates he wants Georgia voters to help elect in the 2022 elections. “One year from now Georgia will be a central battleground in our fight to rescue our beloved nation,” Trump told the audience.
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Members of the Georgia Department of Revenue (DOR) abused their powers and violated ethical and regulatory policies, according to a report that the Office of the State Inspector General (OIG) published this week. Georgia officials are supposed to distribute civil asset forfeiture funds to the state treasury. Officials with the DOR’s Office of Special Investigations (OSI) broke state law when they didn’t remit state asset forfeiture funds to the state general fund. Former OSI Director Joshua Waites failed to properly remit $5.3 million collected via state asset forfeiture between July 1, 2015 to March 11, 2020, the date of Waites’ termination from his position, the report said.
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Staff for U.S. Representative Buddy Carter (R-GA-01) said Thursday he will not run for the United States Senate to replace incumbent U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA). Carter will instead support Herschel Walker, a Republican, to run against and then replace Warnock.
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Democrats in the Georgia House of Representatives are scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday to discuss how state officials manage and secure the state’s prisons. Members of the Georgia House Democratic Caucus Committee on Crisis in Prisons are scheduled to hold the hearing at 1 p.m., Thursday, September 23, in Room 132 of the Georgia State Capitol.
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U.S. Representative Drew Ferguson (R-GA-03) this week said Democrats on the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee blocked every amendment he added to what he called that party’s $3.5 trillion tax-and-spend budget proposal. Ferguson serves on the committee.
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Georgia State Sen. Jason Anavitarte (R – Dallas) has called upon his colleagues in the Georgia General Assembly to place a statue of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas on the state capitol grounds. This, according to a press release that Anavitarte emailed Tuesday.
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U.S. Representative Austin Scott (R-GA-08) said a new Biden administration proposal would require financial institutions and other financial service providers to report all inflows and outflows on accounts that have more than $600. And this proposal, Scott told constituents in an emailed newsletter Sunday, would create a huge privacy issue for Americans and burden local banks and credit unions.
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Members of VoterGA want to inspect Fulton County’s mail-in ballots after four senior poll managers signed sworn affidavits indicating they handled counterfeit ballots during the Fulton County hand count audit. On Monday, in McDonough, VoterGA co-founder Garland Favorito said court officials made a decision and ultimately “kicked the can down the road.”
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Federal officials in Georgia have sentenced reality TV star Maurice Fayne to more than 17 years in federal prison for making false statements to a financial institution related a fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan application. Fayne starred in the series Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta.
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Federal officials have indicted certain South Georgia medical professionals for the alleged illegal distribution of opioids and conspiracy to commit health care fraud. This, according to a press release that officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia published Friday.
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Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and 23 other attorneys general said this week that federal agencies shouldn’t force private sector employees to choose between either a COVID-19 shot or a weekly COVID-19 test. Carr and the other attorneys general voiced their concerns in a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden. Biden wants officials with the U.S. Department of Labor and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to force private sector employees to guard themselves against COVID-19 — or else lose they will lose their jobs.
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Members of U.S. President Joe Biden’s Justice Department will investigate how Georgia’s state government confines it prisoners, particularly those who are gay or transgender. This, according to a press release that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee published this week.
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Certain crimes in Atlanta demand prosecution. This was the message that Georgia State Representative Alan Powell (R-Hartwell) conveyed Wednesday at a House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee. Committee members met to discuss Atlanta’s soaring crime rate.
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U.S. Representative Jody Hice (R-GA-10) said members of the U.S. State Department fell short when the congressman and members of his staff urgently asked the agency to help remove Afghan allies who assisted the U.S. military. Hice said this in an emailed press release where he linked to a recent Breitbart article.
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Buckhead residents wants to formally secede from crime-plagued Atlanta, and if those same frustrated residents were to leave then their new city would run a budget surplus, according to a study from Valdosta State University. Officials with Valdosta State University’s Center for South Georgia Regional Impact published the study this week.
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U.S. Representative Jody Hice (R-GA-10), running to replace Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger next year, has announced he will have to postpone a previously announced Election Integrity Tour. Hice originally scheduled the tour for this week.
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According to Delta Airlines’ privacy policy, the Chinese communist government collects personal information of passengers who use the airline to travel to China. This, according to a new article in The Federalist.
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U.S. Representative Austin Scott (R-GA-08) said this week that the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will benefit the two military bases in his district. Scott told his constituents in an emailed newsletter that the bill benefits Robins Air Force Base (AFB) and Moody Air Force Base (AFB).
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Georgia authorities have sentenced a member of a violent Chicago street gang, two Ghost Face Gangsters and a conduit for Mexican drug cartels to decades in federal prison for their roles in a major drug-trafficking conspiracy. Members of this conspiracy funneled large amounts of methamphetamine and other drugs into coastal and south Georgia.
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This week Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced the date of a special election to fill a vacancy due to the death of State Representative Edward Mickey Stephens (D-Savannah). Stephens represented Georgia House District 165.
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Georgia Republican Party Chair David Shafer criticized U.S. President Joe Biden Thursday for demanding that appointees of former U.S. President Donald Trump resign from the U.S. Military Academy’s advisory board. The appointees’ only other alternative is to wait for Biden to dismiss them.
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Fulton County election officials mismanaged money, mismanaged documents, and failed to comply with various grant requirements, according to a recent audit. The Georgia Star News requested a copy of the audit straight from county officials. The communications staff for the Fulton County Government, though, did not respond before Wednesday’s stated deadline. Staff at the Atlanta-based WSB-TV posted the audit on their website this week.
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A Clarke County School Board member said Georgians exaggerate the influence of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and that no one in her school district teaches it as the subject is too complex for K-12 public schools. That board member, Patricia Yager, talked to The Georgia Star News on Tuesday.
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Georgia Governor Brian Kemp will spend $5.8 billion in federal COVID-19 relief funds — taxpayer money — on the state’s tourism industry. This, according to an emailed press release late last week.
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Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr joined 17 states late last week in filing a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court to support the First Amendment rights of Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission. The Mission is seeking Supreme Court review of a recent ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court that denied the faith-based charity’s First Amendment right to hire employees who share its faith.
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U.S. Representative Jody Hice (R-GA-10), running to replace Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger next year, has announced a statewide “Election Integrity Fly Around Tour” later this month. Hice has scheduled the tour for September 14 through September 16, according to an email he sent supporters this week.
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U.S. Representative Austin Scott (R-GA-08) said this week that hundreds of Afghans with Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) connected to his district were left behind in Afghanistan. This, Scott said, after those SIVs waited for days at the gates to the Kabul airport as they tried to get out of Afghanistan.
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Members of the Georgia Democratic Party sent out a series of fundraising emails this week warning that U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) could lose reelection next year. “The analysts at CNN have put together a list of which Senate seats they believe are most likely to flip in 2022, and the results are extremely concerning: They’re saying Sen. Reverend Raphael Warnock is the MOST vulnerable Democrat up for re-election,” according to one of the Georgia Democratic Party’s emails.
“Making things even worse, a recent poll shows Herschel Walker, Donald Trump’s hand-picked candidate, is NECK AND NECK with Sen. Rev. Warnock! That means top supporters like YOU are all that will stand in the way of Mitch McConnell becoming Senate Majority Leader once again.”
U.S. Representative Rick Allen (R-GA-12) said his Republican colleagues are co-sponsoring legislation that would require the U.S. Secretary of Defense to submit daily reports to Congress about the evacuation of Americans from Afghanistan. Allen announced the news during a Tuesday telephone town hall with his constituents.
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Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced Wednesday that he has joined a coalition of 16 states to stop the Biden administration’s “Interim Guidance,” which Carr said “drastically and intentionally” curtails enforcement of immigration laws. Carr announced this in a press release.
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Wednesday he has filed a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) with the U.S. Department of Justice to release any records of contact with Stacey Abrams. Raffensperger said in a press release that he also wants records of contact with Abrams’ Fair Fight Action and 60 other liberal activist organizations.
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U.S. Representative Drew Ferguson (R-GA-03) on Tuesday reprimanded U.S. President Joe Biden and said the president ignored members of Congress, military leaders, and intelligence agencies before he abandoned Americans in the Middle East. Just the News reported Tuesday that Biden, in June, waived an important congressional mandate. That mandate would have forced members of the Pentagon to inform Congress, in depth, about the risks of withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
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If Georgia officials want to reverse soaring crime rates then they must keep more experienced prosecutors on the job, and they must also contain the spread of COVID-19 so jails can hold more prisoners. This, according to Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia (PACGA) Executive Director Pete Skandalakis. He spoke Tuesday at a hearing before Georgia State House Public Safety and Homeland Security committee members. Committee members met at the state capitol to discuss crime in Atlanta.
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Members of the Georgia State House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee are scheduled to meet Tuesday to address Atlanta’s rising crime rates, and a representative from a gun control group plans to speak. Committee members are scheduled to meet at 1 p.m., Tuesday, August 31, in room 406 of the Coverdale Legislative Office Building at 18 Capitol Square Southwest in Atlanta.
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U.S. Representative Nikema Williams (D-GA-05) reportedly said this week that the Federal Reserve must deliver “equity, diversity, and inclusion” to the banking and housing industries while also eliminating what she said was a “racial wealth disparity.” Williams serves on the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services.
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Thales Academy officials have announced they will open a private and low cost K-12 school in Greenville, South Carolina at an unspecified time. Thales Academy is an independent and private school.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee commented Saturday evening on the death of Ryan Knauss, an East Tennessean who was one of the 13 American service members killed in a deadly terrorist attack in Kabul, Afghanistan last week “Maria and I are heartbroken and mourning the loss of U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Knauss, a Tennessean who was killed in the tragic terrorist attack on Kabul. On behalf of all Tennesseans, we offer our full support in the difficult days ahead,” Lee tweeted Saturday.
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Several members of Georgia’s congressional delegation have commented on this week’s terror in Afghanistan, and many of them criticized U.S. President Joe Biden for what they described as a weak response. Twelve U.S. Marines died in explosions in Afghanistan, while the lives of thousands of Americans and allies within the country remained imperiled.
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Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian this week announced the Atlanta-based company will force employees who remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 to wear masks, to test for the virus, and to possibly sacrifice part of their compensation packages. But how will Delta officials distinguish between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated?
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FLOVILLA — Speaking before a crowd of several hundred people, Georgia State Senator Burt Jones (R-Jackson) declared Thursday he will run for lieutenant governor, and he listed four reforms he’ll deliver as a statewide elected official. Jones announced his candidacy at a conference center at Indian Springs State Park.
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Due to rising crime rates, the City of Atlanta is advertising for a director of violence reduction. Crime has increased so much that residents of nearby Buckhead formally want to secede from Atlanta. The man leading that secession movement told The Georgia Star News Wednesday that the new director of violence reduction, regardless of who takes the job, won’t influence Buckhead residents to have second thoughts about leaving.
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Herschel Walker has reportedly filed the paperwork to run for one of Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats. FOX News reported Tuesday that Walker, a Republican, will challenge incumbent U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) in 2022. The network also reported that Walker, a Georgia native, will officially announce “in coming days.”
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Members of the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) have referred their investigation of alleged shenanigans at the Spalding County Board of Elections to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. Spalding County officials allegedly showed gross incompetence in how they managed last year’s presidential election.
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Georgia State House Minority Leader James Beverly (D-Macon) and other members of the Georgia House Democratic Caucus on Monday demanded that Governor Brian Kemp and other state officials mandate COVID-19 masks at public schools. Beverly did not return The Georgia Star News’ request for comment Monday. We contacted the eight other caucus members who said in an emailed press release that public school students must wear masks. Seven of those eight state representatives did not respond before Monday’s stated deadline.
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Tea Party Patriots have scheduled a series of “Just Say No” rallies against mask and vaccine mandates nationwide, and they have scheduled one rally for next weekend in Georgia. Members of Tea Party Patriots, according to their website, already held one such rally last week in Marietta. They are scheduled to hold a “No to Vaccine Mandate” event from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, August 28, at 180 Market Square in Cartersville.
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Georgia Governor Brian Kemp reportedly has invited Afghan refugees to resettle there, and his announcement has not carried over well with Peach State conservatives. Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones said on his social media pages this week that Kemp’s suggestion is reckless and threatens national security.
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U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) has filed legislation that would, if enacted into law, create what he said is the first-ever affirmative right to vote and challenge Georgia’s new voter integrity law, Senate Bill 202. “This builds upon the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and would establish for the first time in federal statute an affirmative right to vote for every U.S. citizen,” Ossoff said on MSNBC.
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More than 250 residents gathered at Thursday’s Cherokee County School Board meeting to protest potential COVID-19 mask mandates, but parents’ comments irked board members to such an extent that those board members ended the forum prematurely. Witnesses said those board members then departed the building with police escorts.
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Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Vernon Jones announced Wednesday that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn will accompany him at various rallies later this month. Jones emailed supporters and said Flynn will appear with him at the following Take Back Georgia rallies:
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Several people on Wednesday urged members of the Fulton County Commission not to approve a nearly $600,000 contract with an Illinois-based group to review and assess the county’s voter registration and elections operations. County commissioners had not approved or rejected the proposed contract with this organization, The Elections Group, as of Wednesday evening.
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