(APN) ATLANTA — Republicans maintained control of all statewide Georgia positions, despite ethics scandals plaguing Republican Gov. Nathan Deal and Attorney General Sam Olens, and despite apparent voter suppression on the part of Secretary of State Brian Kemp. However, one progressive victory was won when Clayton County voters decided to join MARTA and pay a one penny sales tax to […]
Read moreWith additional reporting by Matthew Charles Cardinale (APN) ATLANTA — After finally claiming victory in an open meetings dispute with the City of Cumming, Georgia, that had been going on since April 17, 2012–where Forsyth Superior Court Judge Robert Adamson ruled that the City violated her right to videotape its meetings–activist and videographer Nydia Tisdale found herself in a new […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — On September 03, 2014, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville brought down sanctions against Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens and Holly LaBerge, Executive Secretary for the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission, for their failure to produce documents crucial to the Stacey Kalberman’s whistleblower case against Gov. Nathan Deal and his cronies. During […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — In the ongoing saga of the Stacey Kalberman whistleblower case, Kalberman, represented by attorney Kim Worth, has made a motion sanctions against Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens and against Executive Director Holly LaBerge, for Olens’s failure to turn over a controversial memo in the discovery phase of the Kalberman whistleblower case. As previously reported by Atlanta Progressive […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — In a new twist in the Gov. Nathan Deal ethics scandal, Holly LaBerge, Executive Secretary of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission–who initially was seen as a main player in keeping any investigation of Gov. Deal from coming to the light–has produced a memo showing that she too faced pressure from the Governor’s office. […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The Green Party of Georgia and the Constitution Party of Georgia have secured what is so far an important procedural victory in a federal lawsuit regarding Georgia’s oppressive petition requirements for Presidential candidates who are neither Democrats nor Republicans. http://www.ballot-access.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Georgia-hope.pdf Neither party was able to secure enough petition signatures–one percent of statewide registered […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Sam Olens, the Attorney General of the State of Georgia, sought but ultimately ignored the advice of Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD), in a legal challenge of new rules issued by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pursuant to the Clean Air Act. EPD advised Olens against challenging the Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule; however, […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The City of Atlanta Department of Law misrepresented to City Council Members the advice provided to them by the office of the Attorney General of Georgia related to airport concessions bidding records and the Georgia Open Records Act. At issue was whether the scores for the various food and beverage and retail proposals submitted to the City […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Making good on a campaign promise to strengthen Georgia’s Sunshine Laws, including the Open Records Act and Open Meetings Act, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, a Republican, has proposed a series of significant changes to both laws. According to a review of the current version of the proposal, HB 397, which was marked up by the […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Attorney General Sam Olens and the Georgia First Amendment Foundation have filed amicus briefs in the case, S11G1047, currently before the Supreme Court of Georgia, and brought by the News Editor of Atlanta Progressive News–the present writer–against the City of Atlanta, regarding the City Council’s secret vote of February 2010. Oral arguments will be held in the […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — The Supreme Court of Georgia has requested the opinion of Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens in a letter dated September 01, 2011, regarding the lawsuit currently before the Court, Matthew Cardinale v. City of Atlanta et al., which was brought by APN’s News Editor–the present writer–challenging the City Council of Atlanta’s secret vote of February 2010. “Dear […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — Attorney General Sam Olens’s office criticized the City Council of Savannah this month for having a series of meetings without quorums, and not allowing the public to attend. The practices of the Savannah Council are quite similar to practices that the City Council of Atlanta has been engaging in, as documented by Atlanta Progressive News over the […]
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