(APN) ATLANTA — Medicaid expansion may be dead for the year, but there appears to be bipartisan cooperation on other health policy issues. “One of the biggest concerns I have is our rural hospitals…. I have personally seen what happened when some of my friends in Dooly County, when their hospital closed. I had friends who worked there, doctors, […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — The Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) opened its wait list for rental vouchers to new applicants statewide, and the results have been overwhelming. Within the first 24 hours, the agency has received approximately 47,000 applications, according to Jana Wiggins, a DCA spokesperson. That is more than three times the number of households that currently […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — This installment of Capitol Journal covers Week Three of the 2016 year of the 2015-2016 Legislative Session of the Georgia General Assembly. Legislative Session Day 9 (Monday, Jan. 25, 2016) The medical cannabis (marijuana) bill, HB 722, sponsored by State Rep. Allen Peake (R – Macon), had a hearing today, with over two hours of […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — Atlanta’s boundaries are growing, as more unincorporated neighborhoods in DeKalb and Fulton Counties are successfully annexing into the City of Atlanta, opting to use the petition method provided for by Georgia law, instead of seeking voter referenda. Most recently, the City of Atlanta annexed the community of South Oaks, a small residential area in south Fulton, […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — State Sen. Josh McKoon (R – Columbus) is currently championing legislation focused on increasing transparency at the Capitol, something that is greatly needed. McKoon–perhaps best known for his staunch support of the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)–has previously taken the lead on transparency and government reform issues. As a freshman during the 2011-2012 Legislative […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — On Wednesday, January 20, 2016, State Sen. Harold Jones ( D-Augusta) held a news conference at the State Capitol to discuss SB 254, which would change Georgia law regarding personal possession of over one ounce or more of cannabis (“marijuana”) from a felony to a misdemeanor charge. The bill does not decriminalize or legalize cannabis. Under […]
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(APN) DECATUR — On Thursday, January 21, 2016, after eight hours of hearing evidence, a criminal grand jury indicted DeKalb County police officer Robert Olsen on six counts for the murder of Anthony Hill. The charges include two counts of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault, one count of making a false statement, and two counts of violation […]
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(APN) ATLANTA –– Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp kicked off this Presidential Election year with a new program to get high schoolers civically engaged. The program trains high school students to act as “Ambassadors” of the Secretary of State’s office by holding voter registration drives and educating other youth about the electoral process. “As the father of […]
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(APN) DECATUR –– Demonstrators are braving below-freezing temperatures as they camp outside of the DeKalb County Courthouse in the lead-up to a grand jury hearing in the case of Anthony Hill. Hill, a 27-year-old Air Force veteran and musician, was suffering a mental breakdown when DeKalb Police Department (DPD) Officer Robert Olsen fatally shot him last March. http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/2015/03/14/rally-hold-for-dekalb-police-killing-of-anthony-hill/ […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — In the flurry of activity that marked the first week of the 2016 year of the 2015-2016 Legislative Session, members of the Georgia House Democratic Caucus gathered on Thursday, January 14, 2016, to announce their policy agenda. High on the list was Medicaid expansion in Georgia, an option under the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) that Georgia […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — The Assault Weapons Ban Bill, HB 731, has been introduced in the State House, and is co-sponsored by State Reps. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur), Rep. Stacey Abrams (D-Atlanta), Rep. Carolyn Hugley (D-Columbus), Rep. Pat Gardner (D-Atlanta), Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick (D-Lithonia), and Rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler (D-Lithonia). http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/154275.pdf The bill prohibits the sale, distribution, transport possession, and […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — On Saturday, December 05, 2015, the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow hosted a program at the Little 5 Points Community Center called, “Georgia Gulag: It’s Up to Us to Stop It.” In Georgia, there are eighty prisons, 22 youth detention facilities, five immigrant detention facilities, and 193 jails, plus probation centers. “Mass incarceration […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — Jill Stein, who is seeking the Green Party’s nomination for President and who was the party’s nominee in 2012; and renowned academic Cornel West are pushing for third-party ballot access in Georgia. The pair visited Atlanta on November 20, 2015 to stump for Stein’s campaign and work on collecting the required 50,000 signatures to get her […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — As next year’s General Assembly legislative session quickly approaches in Georgia, Atlanta Progressive News is taking a look back on what took place under the Gold Dome earlier this year, in 2015, updating the Legislative Scorecard we first published in 2014. We again rated State House Representatives and State Senators representing areas wholly or partially in […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — Earlier this year, two Atlanta activists, Ben Howard and Ron Shakir, were banned from participating in the public meetings of Atlanta’s Neighborhood Planning Unit R (NPU-R), a move that appears to have violated Georgia’s Open Meetings Act. http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/2015/07/15/atlantas-npu-r-illegally-bans-members-from-open-meetings/ Ricardo Jacobs, the Chair of NPU-R, initiated the ban because, he claimed, Howard and Shakir repeatedly disrupted […]
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