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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 15
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Lawmaker caught in peanut butter recall
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A lawmaker who represents one of Georgia’s biggest peanut producing areas had an admission to make Thursday: The jars of peanut butter he recently handed out to colleagues were among those recalled after they were linked to a salmonella outbreak.
State Rep. Ed Rynders, who represents a southwest Georgia region he calls the “peanut capital of Georgia” went to the well of the Georgia House to tell lawmakers and lobbyists to discard the peanut butter jars he recently gave them. He said he would make it up to them.
“Make sure you’ve discarded it,” warned Rynders, an Albany Republican. “We’re going to get you some good peanut butter and make sure you’re done right.”
Rynders said they were among the jars of Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter that ConAgra Inc. told consumers to discard after the spread was linked to a salmonella outbreak that has sickened 288 people in 39 states since August. The affected peanut butter jars have a product code beginning with “2111,” the company said.
Federal health officials said the salmonella outbreak was linked to tainted peanut butter produced by ConAgra at a plant in Sylvester, Ga. How salmonella got into peanut butter is still under investigation, said Dr. Mike Lynch, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC officials believe the salmonella outbreak to be the nation’s first stemming from peanut butter. The most cases were reported in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: politics
Anti-evolution memo stirs controversy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Anti-Defamation League is calling on state Rep. Ben Bridges to apologize for a memo distributed under his name that says the teaching of evolution should be banned in public schools because it is a religious deception stemming from an ancient Jewish sect.
Bridges (R-Cleveland) denies having anything to do with the memo. But one of his constituents said he wrote the memo with Bridges’ approval before it was recently distributed to lawmakers in several states, including Texas, California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
“Indisputable evidence — long hidden but now available to everyone — demonstrates conclusively that so-called ‘secular evolution science’ is the Big-Bang 15-billion-year alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion,” the memo says. “This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic ‘holy book’ Kabbala dating back at least two millennia.”
The memo calls on lawmakers to introduce legislation that would end the teaching of evolution in public schools because it is “a deception that is causing incalculable harm to every student and every truth-loving citizen.”
It also directs readers to a Web site www.fixedearth.com, which includes model legislation that calls the Kabbala “a mystic, anti-Christ ‘holy book’ of the Pharisee Sect of Judaism.” The Web site also declares “the earth is not rotating … nor is it going around the sun.”
The Anti-Defamation League says the assertions in the memo border on anti-Semitism.
“Your memo conjures up repugnant images of Judaism used for thousands of years to smear the Jewish people as cult-like and manipulative,” Bill Nigut, the ADL’s Southeast regional director, wrote in an e-mail to Bridges Thursday. “I am shocked and appalled that you would send this anti-Semitic material to colleagues and friends, and call upon you to repudiate and apologize for distributing this highly offensive memo.”
Bridges denied writing or authorizing the memo.
“I did not put it out nor did I know it was going out,” Bridges said. “I’m not defending it or taking up for it.”
The memo directs supporters to call Marshall Hall, president of the Fair Education Foundation Inc., a Cornelia, Ga.-based organization that seeks to show evolution is a myth. Hall said he showed Bridges the text of the memo and got his permission to distribute it.
“I gave him a copy of it months ago,” said Hall, a retired high school teacher. “I had already written this up as an idea to present to him so he could see what it was and what we were thinking.”
Hall said his wife Bonnie has served as Bridges’ campaign manager since 1996.
Bridges acknowledged that he talked to Hall about filing legislation this year that would end the teaching of evolution in Georgia’s public schools. Bridges said the views in the memo belong to Hall, though Bridges said he doesn’t necessarily disagree with them.
“I agree with it more than I would the Big Bang Theory or the Darwin Theory,” Bridges said. “I am convinced that rather than risk teaching a lie why teach anything?”
Bridges sponsored unsuccessful legislation in 2005 that would have required Georgia’s teachers to introduce scientific evidence challenging evolution.
Asked about the ADL’s call for an apology, Bridges said: “I regret that these people have been offended, but I didn’t offend them because I didn’t put the memo out.”
A Texas lawmaker says he is now “willing to apologize” for giving fellow legislators the memo Tuesday, The Dallas Morning News reported today.
“The stuff that causes conflicts between religious beliefs, you know, I’d never be a party to that,” Texas House Appropriations Chairman Warren Chisum told the Morning News Wednesday. “I’m willing to apologize if I’ve offended anyone.”
The newspaper reported Chisum made his comments after he learned the Anti-Defamation League was demanding an apology in a letter to his office.
The National Center for Science Education, an Oakland, Calif.-based organization that defends the teaching of evolution in public schools, said the assertion that evolution is linked to an ancient Jewish sect is “bizarre.”
“Evolution is recognized as a central unifying principle of the biological sciences by the scientific community and the education community,” said Glenn Branch, the center’s deputy director.
Permalink | Comments (77) | Categories: politics
Abortion bill clears Senate committee
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill that would require any pregnant woman who is seeking an abortion in Georgia to undergo an ultrasound and then choose whether to view the images passed a Senate committee Thursday.
The Senate Health and Human Sciences Committee, chaired by Sen. Don Thomas (R-Dalton), voted 8 to 5 for Senate Bill 66. Thomas shut down debate despite the fact that some lawmakers raised major concerns about the bill’s language and several people signed up to testify.
Nancy Schaefer (R-Turnersville), the bill’s sponsor, opened the hearing by explaining that she believed her proposal would help women make a sound decision about going through with an abortion.
“This act will help women in Georgia have the accurate information they desire to make an informed decision about their pregnancy,” Schaefer said.
Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome) proposed an amendment to the bill that exempts victims of rape and incest from the sonogram requirement.
“I think compassion argues that a person who has been the victim of rape or incest be exempt,” Smith said.
His amendment passed, but at least three senators voted against it: Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth), Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville), and Sen. Judson Hill (R-Marietta).
Schaefer proposed a similar measure last year, which passed the Senate but died in the House. SB 66 is Georgia Right to Life’s number one legislative priority this year. Not surprisingly, abortion-rights groups oppose the measure.
However, the committee did not hear much testimony from either side on the nuances of the bill. Thomas, in a hurry to get to the funeral of U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood, limited testimony to three minutes from one person for the bill, and one person against the bill.
Anne Feldman, the mother of adopted twin girls born in 2004, testified that her daughters are alive now because their birth mother underwent a sonogram before seeking an abortion. The sonogram changed the birth mother’s mind about terminating her pregnancy.
Carrie Cwiak, an Emory University physician who represents the Georgia Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, argued against the bill, saying it mandates a medically unnecessary procedure. She also raised concerns about the cost implications of the bill for women seeking an abortion.
Several lawmakers, including Sen. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta), Sen. Gloria Butler (D-Stone Mountain), and Sen. Steve Henson (D-Tucker) tried to clarify the bill’s language and offer additional amendments. They extended the length of the meeting to just over an hour despite Thomas’s repeated efforts to move quickly.
At one point, a frustrated Thomas exclaimed, “I have a plane to catch.”
Henson asked the committee to approve an amendment that would make the sonogram procedure optional for pregnant women seeking an abortion. He argued that it was not logical to make women have the procedure if they would decline the opportunity to view the images anyway. Last year, a House committee amended Schaefer’s bill to include such language against the recommendation of Georgia Right to Life.
Henson’s amendment failed, as did a suggestion by Butler to ensure that women be referred only to “licensed” medical facilities for the ultrasound.
Senate Bill 66 heads to the Senate Rules committee next.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Miscellaneous
Dem takes ethics complaint to feds
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One day after Republican legislative leaders dismissed his complaint, a former Democratic researcher said he would take his conflict of interest complaint against a Republican House member to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and State Attorney General Thurbert Baker.
Edward Chapman, who worked last year for the Democratic Party, alleges House Ways & Means Chairman Larry O’Neal (R-Warner Robins) pushed legislation that led to a $100,000 property tax deferral for Gov. Sonny Perdue.
O’Neal and Perdue are long-time friends and O’Neal has served as the governor’s lawyer on some land deals.
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) and Senate President Pro-tempore Eric Johnson (R-Savannah), who head the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee, had defended O’Neal’s actions even before the complaint was filed. Chapman said that showed they had no intention of taking his complaint seriously.
The Ethics committee determined that it had no jurisdiction in the matter because the alleged ethics violation took place during the 2005 legislative session, prior to the Jan. 9, 2006, creation of the panel, Johnson said in a statement.
However, the panel has now quickly dismissed all four of the complaints against Republican lawmakers that have been filed, raising questions about the panel’s ability to police its members when it comes to conflicts of interest.
Much of what was in the complaint about O’Neal and the Perdue tax break was reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last fall. The complaint said O’Neal put the financial interests of the governor above those of the state.
He will now ask the U.S. Attorney’s and Georgia Attorney General’s offices to review his complaint.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: politics
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