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AJC.com > Legislature > Georgia Beat > Archives > 2005 > February > 01
Tuesday, February 1, 2005
Lawmaker targets violent video games
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sen. Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna) filed a bill today that would prohibit the sale of violent video games to children.
He also filed a companion bill that would require video game retailers to post a sign explaining the rating system that appears on video games.
Video games are currently rated E for everyone; T for teenager; and M for mature. Game publishers voluntarily have their products rated by the independent Entertainment Software Rating Board. About 10 percent of games rates in 2003 received a mature rating, according to ESRB.
Stoner said he was surprised to learn that children can buy mature video games and that stores are not required to display information in a prominent position.
“We prohibit selling pornographic materials to minors; this is just an issue that people haven’t thought of,” Stoner said. “Some of the new games are becoming more sexually explicit. That’s fine for an adult. That’s their choice. But we need to make sure a 15 or 16-year-old can’t buy it for themselves or for their younger brother.”
Stoner’s bill would define an excessively violent video game as one that meets the following criteria: it depicts exceptional pain or suffering; the violence constitutes criminal acts; the violence is committed without conscience, pity or empathy; and the game has sound and other features that make the violence seem real.
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Senate agrees to cap malpractice awards
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Senate today approved legislation designed to limit the amount a jury can award in medical malpractice suits against doctors and hospitals.
By a 39 to 15 vote, the Senate approved capping jury awards to $250,000 for pain and suffering. The vote followed hours of sometimes contentious and emotional statements by senators on both sides of the issue.
The most controversial maneuver was to prohibit the legislation from being amended.
This morning, MAG Mutual Insurance company, the largest insurer of doctors in Georgia, pledged to roll back medical malpractice insurance premiums by at least 10 percent if the legislation is enacted and upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court. Any law limiting jury awards it expected to be challenged in court by trial lawyers as unconstitutional.
Mag Mutual’s chairman, Roy Vandiver, said in a letter to state senators that the bill would lower insurance rates.
“We are committed to passing along those savings to our insureds, ” Vandiver wrote.
The legislation now moves to the House for consideration.
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Abortion rights activists speak out at Capitol
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Abortion rights activists at the state Capitol today said they will not sit still while Republicans chip away at the guarantees afforded women under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
“We’ll do whatever it takes, because these are our bodies and our lives,” said Roslyn Satchel of the National Center for Human Rights Education.
Satchel, an African Methodist Episcopal pastor, was joined at a prayer breakfast and press conference by a handful of other clergy, a few Democratic legislators and abortion rights groups, including Planned Parenthood of Georgia and NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia. The event was a kickoff to “Reproductive Justice Lobby Week” at the Capitol, designed to draw attention to legislation under consideration.
Last week, Republican lawmakers introduced legislation they say seeks to reduce the number of women getting abortions in Georgia.
The bills would require doctors to give women information on the medical risks of abortion, the probable gestational age and development of the fetus, alternatives to abortion including adoption, and information on fetal pain. The bill would require women to wait 24 hours after receiving that information before deciding whether to move forward with the procedure. They would also require that minors seeking abortion notify a parent or legal guardian.
Abortion rights activists said the proposed laws are intended to intimidate doctors who perform legal and safe abortions and confuse and deter women seeking them.
“This is a way to backdoor and become an obstruction to what the federal government has said women are entitled to do,” said state Rep. Pam Stephenson (D-Atlanta).
Donna Oswald, 21, said she came to the Capitol today to lobby against the Republican bills. “I am deeply concerned by the new Legislature and what they’re doing to reproductive rights,” said Oswald, a recent Emory University graduate. “I don’t think Legislature should make it harder for us to get abortions.”
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Senate bill would cap some malpractice suit awards
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hordes of lobbyists packed the hallways of the state Capitol this morning for the first highly charged debate of the session. The Senate began tackling a bill introduced by Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome) to limit jury awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice suits.
Sen. Sam Zamarripa (D-Atlanta) urged his colleagues not to “engross” the tort reform bill — an action that stops the bill from being amended. Zamarripa argued that engrossing the bill effectively cuts off debate.
But minutes later, Smith made a motion to do just that. After a short debate, Smith’s motion to engross the bill passed 29 to 25. A motion to reconsider that vote failed. The debate over tort reform is expected to last for several hours.
The Senate also approved several bills this morning on first reading, including a measure introduced by Sen. Bill Hamrick (R-Carrollton) to stiffen penalties against people who commit mortgage fraud.
Senate President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah), along with Majority Leader Bill Stephens (R-Canton) and several other legislators, introduced a resolution proposing a constitutional amendment to protect the right of Georgians to fish and hunt.
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House turns to medical malpractice reform
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Members of the House introduced their legislative package dealing with medical malpractice reforms this morning, just as the full Senate opened debate on the same topic.
Other bills read for the first time in the House call for sheriffs’ elections to be non-partisan, for locally owned businesses to be given an edge in competitive bids for government contracts, for seat belt requirements to be extended to pickup trucks and for tighter restrictions to be placed on the sale of drugs including pseudoephedrine.
Another resolution calls for a constitutional amendment on removing the ban on pari-mutuel betting and allowing the proceeds to go to the HOPE scholarship program, as well as various equine programs.
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State Sen. Cagle to run for lieutenant governor
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Republican state senator has announced plans to run for lieutenant governor in 2006.
State Sen. Casey Cagle, R-Chestnut Mountain, made the announcement Monday.
Cagle, 39, was elected to the Senate in 1994. He said he will begin his campaign with an event in Gainesville after the legislative session.
Cagle becomes the first GOP candidate to announce a run to succeed Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, a Democrat who is running for governor.
“I’m at a time and a place in my career, financially and from a family perspective, where I can do this,” Cagle said.
Cagle has named Sen. Chip Pearson of Dawsonville as his campaign chairman and Rep. James Mills of Chestnut Mountain as his treasurer.
Under Georgia law, Cagle cannot raise money until the end of the legislative session. He said he will continue serving in the Senate while he campaigns.
Cagle said he has the support of two-thirds of the Republican members of the Senate, but says he also believes he can reach out to Democrats.
“I spent eight years in the minority, and when I was in the minority I was able to accomplish a lot for my district,” he said.
Cagle is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He graduated from Hall County public schools and is a businessman with interests in real estate and banking.
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