(APN) ATLANTA — State Rep. Pedro “Pete” Marin (D-Duluth) held a press conference to introduced his resolution, HR 1033, asking the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners to work to ease the traffic congestion and listen to citizens’ demands to increase mass transit options. Marin said he wants to continue the conversation to make sure Gwinnett County is not left […]
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(APN) CHAMBLEE — About three hundred residents from Chamblee and the proposed annexed area attended a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, February 18, 2016, at Lakeside High School to discuss the Chamblee annexation. http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/2016/02/11/city-of-chamblee-fixing-to-annex-much-of-the-lavista-hills-map/ State Sen. Elena Parent (D-Atlanta) updated the gathering on the Senate Study Committee recommendations on annexation. http://atlantaprogressivenews.com/2015/12/20/state-senate-house-study-committees-on-cityhood-annexation-release-reports/ State Reps. Scott Holcomb (D-Atlanta), Mary […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — A pro-consumer bill, HB 931, co-sponsored by State Rep. Karla Drenner (D-Avondale), calls for an end to the Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery (NCCR) surcharge on Georgia Power electric bills after March 2017. NCCR is a statewide surcharge that all Georgia Power residential and small business electricity customers pay every month. It is about eight percent […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is implementing a controversial plan to bring plutonium from foreign countries to the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina. Two ships have left the United Kingdom (UK) bound for the Tokai Nuclear Facility, near Tokyo, Japan, to load 331 kilograms of plutonium for shipment to SRS This is […]
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(APN) CHAMBLEE — Tonight, Thursday, February 11, 2016, during a public hearing called for 6:30 p.m., the City of Chamblee City Council will be hearing public testimony on a resolution to express their support for a referendum on whether to annex a northern section of DeKalb County that was formerly part of the proposed City of LaVista Hills (LVH). […]
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Photograph courtesy of Dr. Laura Emiko Soltis, Freedom University. (APN) ATLANTA — On Monday, February 01, 2016, fourteen students, including six undocumented students, were arrested in civil disobedience actions at two universities. Almost one hundred undocumented and documented students integrated classrooms at Georgia State University (GSU); the University of Georgia, Athens (UGA); and Georgia Tech. The purpose […]
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(APN) ATLANTA – On Monday, January 25, 2016, patients and parents testified to the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee asking for their support for HB 722, a follow-up bill to HB 1, Haleigh’s Hope Act. HB 1 allowed possession of medical cannabis oil for eight conditions, but no legal means to access it in-state. http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/Display/20152016/HB/722 The bill, if […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — State Rep Mike Dudgeon (R-Johns Creek) introduced HR 1051, a constitutional amendment to create a township form of governance in Georgia. State Sen. William Ligon (R- Brunswick) introduced SR 724, an identical resolution in the State Senate. The proposed amendment would create a township with limited powers and services. Towns would have the power of […]
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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) ATLANTA — The legal fight rages on between Texas-based Kinder Morgan, and environmental groups and property owners in Georgia and South Carolina, over the company’s proposed one billion dollar Palmetto Pipeline. The controversial 360 mile Palmetto Pipeline would run off the existing Plantation Pipeline at Belton, South Carolina, then run through North Augusta and snake its way down […]
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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 — Two new bills, HB 722 and SB 254, will challenge Georgia’s antiquated cannabis, or marijuana, laws this year of the 2015-2016 Legislative Session. As previously promised, State Rep. Allen Peake (R-Macon) filed HB 722, Peake’s new medical cannabis bill, which includes many of the model policies and practices reviewed by the medical cannabis commission during the […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — In November 2015, a Fulton County Superior Court Clerk employee was convicted and sentenced for selling Georgians’ Social Security numbers and other personal information in a tax fraud scheme that spanned three U.S. states. http://www.justice.gov/usao-sdtx/pr/eight-sentenced-massive-stolen-identity-tax-refund-fraud-scheme A total of eight people from three U.S. states were charged and sentenced in the Southern District of Texas in […]
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(APN) ATLANTA — Study Committees of the Georgia Senate and House, created to study and make recommendations regarding annexation, deannexation, and incorporation in Georgia, have published their final reports. The House Committee report contains few recommendations, while the Senate report contains several specific recommendations. The committees were created to deal with increasing questions and concerns among legislators about […]
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