Home > Political Insider > Archives > 2007 > January > 26
Friday, January 26, 2007
Blogwatch: Yikes. One heckuva sunburn in Valdosta.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One of the new blog packages set up by the New York Times features a look at a new non-lethal ray gun that “underwent its first public demonstration at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia on Wednesday.”
No joke.
It’s reported as a tool for crowd control. The machine “projects a focused beam of millimeter waves to induce an intolerable heating sensation on an adversary’s skin, repelling the individual without causing injury. This capability will add to the ability to stop, deter and turn back an advancing adversary providing an option to lethal force.”
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How to create a Milton County with a majority vote of the Legislature
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Speaker Glenn Richardson met with a hand-picked group of reporters on Friday to talk about a range of issues.
One of topics was the establishment of a Milton County. Richardson says he’s neither for it nor against it, but is leaving that issue in the hands of his No. 2, Speaker pro tem Mark Burkhalter of Alpharetta — as he did with the creation of the city of Sandy Springs.
There’s no meaning to be drawn from House postponement of action on the secession from Fulton County this year, Richardson said — because it would likely require a constitutional amendment. That would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers, followed by a statewide referendum that can only be placed on general election ballots.
But the speaker acknowledged the existence of a back door on the issue, should pro-Miltonists fail to get their way with the Legislature. It’s a tough door, but a door nonetheless.
A constitutional amendment would be required to increase the number of Georgia counties from 159 to 160. But suppose two small counties in rural Georgia decided to consolidate, or could be persuaded to do so. Would the creation of Milton County then require a two-thirds vote in the Legislature?
“No,” the speaker replied.
Blogwatch: ‘Dear Diary, Today I made front page news on my own site…’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You don’t expect much from blogs written by legislators, but in a matter of days, state Sen. David Shafer of Duluth has generated a reputation for material that’s often newsy.
In today’s posting, he notes his role in the passage of the first Senate bill of the year. “I have finally been mentioned in the AJC outside the context of Sunday alcohol sales,” Shafer writes. The Republican chairman has put a hold S.B. 26, which would allow grocery stores to sell beer and wine on the Christian Sabbath. (Sorry, David. Readers demand that context.)
On Thursday, Shafer wrote of the visit to the Senate chamber by U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, a Republican often mentioned as a candidate for governor. “He spoke briefly and concluded his remarks by expressing an interest in working with us in state government ‘once again,’” the state legislator wrote. “He was not any more specific but I am pretty sure he does not have plans to run again for his old seat in the Georgia House of Representatives.”
