With additional reporting by Matthew Charles Cardinale (APN) ATLANTA — On Thursday, March 05, 2015, the full State Senate voted to engross SB 129, the controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Bill, in a vote of 38 yeas to 17 nays. The bill passed the Senate in a vote of 37 to 15. Engrossment means that the bill cannot be changed; […]
Read more
Photograph by Steve Eberhart (APN) ATLANTA — Twelve members of Moral Monday GA were arrested on Monday, March 02, 2015, when a crowd blocked a flight of stairs inside the State Capitol in protest of Gov. Nathan Deal’s continued refusal to expand Medicaid. Those arrested include Kathy Acker, Greg Ames, Adam Cobb, Tim Denson, Bob Goodman, Alan Jenkins, Tim […]
Read more
(APN) ATLANTA — Gov. Nathan Deal on Monday, February 23, 2015 signed the fair hiring policy, also known as “Ban the Box,” which postpones questions on a job application about a person’s criminal history until it is shown that the person is qualified for the job. This prohibits an automatic disqualification for potential state employees. It allows qualified applicants […]
Read more
(APN) ATLANTA — Despite media reports to the contrary, a proposal by Gov. Nathan Deal to cut health benefits for thousands of school bus drivers and cafeteria workers–who are for part-time, non-certified school district workers–is not projected to save the State of Georgia 103 million dollars. If part-time, non-certified school employees lost their benefits, the State Health Benefit Plan […]
Read more
(APN) ATLANTA — One week after Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, unveiled a proposal to enable state takeovers and privatization of struggling schools, State Senate Democrats have put forth an alternative plan they say addresses the root causes of failure in the education system. At a press conference on February 17, 2014, the Senate Democratic Caucus introduced the […]
Read more
(APN) ATLANTA — Governor Nathan Deal wants to disband an environmental agency that is almost 80 years old and includes a statewide network of 370 volunteer conservationists. The Governor’s budget report for FY 2016 recommends transferring all funding and operations from the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission (GSWCC), to two other state agencies, in order to “consolidate soil […]
Read more
(APN) ATLANTA — Moral Monday Georgia took action for the second time during the 2015 Legislative Session on January 26, 2015, when members of the coalition convened at the State Capitol, urging lawmakers to pass a Law Enforcement Reform package. Over one hundred people formed a circle in the Capitol Rotunda, singing Civil Rights songs adapted to address the […]
Read more
(APN) ATLANTA — Medical cannabis activists in Georgia are livid after State Rep. Allen Peake (R-Macon) sent out a press release stating that he would gut his own medical cannabis bill, HB 1, following a meeting with Gov. Nathan Deal. “I have been in intense conversations with the Governor over the last several days about HB 1, and I view […]
Read more
(APN) ATLANTA — The Supreme Court of Georgia unanimously ruled, on November 24, 2014, that courts are prohibited from lengthening a person’s misdemeanor sentence beyond what was originally ordered by the sentencing court. The opinion was written by Chief Justice Hugh Thompson. The Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s finding that private probation companies do not have the legal […]
Read moreBy Arit Essien, Special to The Atlanta Progressive News. Photograph courtesy of Sekondi Landry. (APN ATLANTA — In a move that will bring the State of Georgia closer to honoring the late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. only steps from his birth home, members of the Georgia Senate voted Wednesday, March 12, 2014, to approve […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — It is no secret that there is an element in the Republican Party that has callous disdain for poor people and blames them for being poor. On Monday, March 03, 2014, Georgia’s Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, made that element blatantly obvious, with his bold new idea that uninsured people should be turned away […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — House Republicans are pushing new legislation to give the Legislature a say over whether the State of Georgia will accept federal funding to expand Medicaid in Georgia. Medicaid expansion has been a hot issue, with Sen. Jason Carter (D-Decatur), the presumptive Democratic nominee for Governor, having criticized Gov. Nathan Deal for refusing to expand Medicaid […]
Read moreWith additional reporting by Gloria Tatum, Kevin Moran, and Matthew Charles Cardinale. (APN) ATLANTA — State Rep. Pat Gardner (D-Atlanta) says she is hopeful that Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, will change his mind over whether to expand Medicaid in Georgia pursuant to the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Currently the U.S. states are split completely in half on the […]
Read more(APN) QUITMAN — On Saturday, February 25, 2012, over five hundred Georgia citizens marched in support of the Quitman Ten Plus Two. As previously reported by Atlanta Progressive News, the twelve have been accused of voter fraud in a local Board of Education election in Brooks County, Georgia, in 2010. Activists are calling the Quitman case a modern-day civil rights […]
Read more(APN) ATLANTA — On June 27, 2011, US District Judge Thomas Thrash, Jr., put on hold two core parts of HB 87 which would have gone into effect July 1. His ruling blocks police from asking about immigration status during investigations of criminal violations. Investigations into someone going a few miles over the speed limit, rolling a stop sign, […]
Read more