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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
House Republicans may be laying groundwork for state takeover of MARTA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There’s more evidence of a very large shake-up in Georgia’s network — some would say maze — of transportation agencies.
We’ve reported that Gov. Sonny Perdue is very hot on the idea, and has named it as a price for his support of a statewide sales tax to address congestion.
House Majority Leader Jerry Keen has suggested blowing up the state transportation board as we know it. Similar ideas have popped up in the Senate. Check out S.B. 40 proposed by President pro tem Tommie Williams (R-Lyons), Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga), Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) and Doug Stoner (D-Smyrna).
It would allow the Legislature to decide what projects are too important to be handled by the state Department of Transportation.
But wait. There’s more.
In the list of House committee assignments that came out late last week, two small changes went largely unnoticed.
State Rep. Larry O’Neal (R-Bonaire), confidante of Gov. Sonny Perdue, was returned to the joint MARTA oversight committee known as MARTOC. House Rules Chairman Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), a close friend of Speaker Glen Richardson, was assigned to the same committee for the first time.
Asked what the appointment of two heavy-hitters signifies, MARTOC chairman Jill Chambers (R-Atlanta) replied, “Leadership support of my initiatives.”
Any initiative in particular? “Consolidation of the state-created transportation agencies under a single umbrella,” Chambers said. For instance, the absorption of MARTA into the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority — or some other state acronym.
MARTA, technically a creation of the Legislature, has pleaded for more state funding. The transit system, which covers DeKalb and Fulton counties, was $43 million in the red as of last summer.
“In order to get state funding, the state has to have more control,” the chairman said. Or in this case, total control. Other regional transportation authorities — bus systems in Clayton and Cobb, for instance — could be wrapped into this single system as well.
How quickly? Not this calendar year, Chambers said. Maybe next.
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A non-encounter of the ex-presidential kind
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ABC News says it has video of an ex-presidential snubbing just before the swearing-in ceremony:
Former Democratic President Jimmy Carter appeared to greet former Republican President George H.W. Bush and his wife warmly, kissing Barbara Bush on the cheek. But as Carter passed fellow Democrats Bill and Hillary Clinton, the two men did not appear to acknowledge each other’s presence at all.
President Carter disputes there was any snub and says any suggestion there was is “erroneous.” Through a spokesperson at the Carter Center in Atlanta, the former President told ABC News that he had earlier spent a half hour talking to the Clintons and therefore wanted to use the opportunity to say hello to the Bushes while he could. According to the spokesperson, cameras only caught the later encounter.
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Watching the inauguration in an empty state Capitol
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Capitol is virtually on holiday today. The halls are empty save for the occasional office-worker or classroom tour group.
The inauguration in D.C. is being shown on two big screens in the state Senate, where a mix of 36 staffers and such — white, black, young, old — sit in the chairs of lawmakers, watching history.
But this is a Republican-controlled Legislature. So the channel is Fox News, of course.
At 11:45 a.m.: Scattered applause here as Barack Obama stepped into the frame.
One of those in the back is Rusty Henderson, a Dublin fellow — nice guy — who participated in the fight to restore the Confederate battle emblem to the state flag. He now sits on the Georgia Civil War Commission.
The state Capitol is virtually on holiday today. The halls are empty save for the occasional office-worker or classroom tour group.
The inauguration in D.C. is being shown on two big screens in the state Senate, where a mix of 36 staffers and such — white, black, young, old — sit in the chairs of lawmakers, watching history.
But this is a Republican-controlled Legislature. So the channel is Fox News, of course.
At 12:05 p.m.: A dozen here stood as Obama took his oath of office, but all applauded after he’d finished.
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Updated: Home of Obama celebrant reduced to ashes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Forsyth County woman who went to Washington D.C. to attend the inauguration of President Barack Obama will come home to find her house burned.
Authorities have declared the fire in Cumming to be suspicious and spoke of “terroristic threats and acts.” There’s no sign that anyone has talked to the homeowner, Pamela Graf, so the story remains incomplete.
Jon Flack, a Democratic activist who lives in Forsyth County and operates the blog Tondee’s Tavern, said Graf is on her way home. Flack said she had been active with Democratic women in the county.
This was posted late last night by the Gainesville Times:
No one was home when the house on Lanier Drive in northeastern Forsyth County burned to the ground about 4:30 a.m. Sunday. Someone spray-painted graffiti that included the phrase “your black boy will die” on a fence along the property….
Attempts to reach Graf for comment Monday were not successful. But her father, William Morrow, said he thinks she was targeted because of her political views.
Morrow said Graf had two Obama campaign signs in her yard before the fire. He wasn’t sure what happened to one sign, but said he asked her to remove the other after she received a negative letter about a week before the fire.
Morrow said the letter addressed her political views, though he couldn’t remember any specifics from it that his daughter had shared with him. He said she had taken the sign out of her yard before she left Friday.
Anderson said if fire investigators determine that the graffiti is a possible threat against Obama, they will involve the Secret Service. The department’s Atlanta field office was closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
“Once I sit down and talk with her and we can discuss this a little bit more in depth, if we feel that’s what it is we’ll call them and give them the information and see what they want to do,” he said.
Last night, Marie Anderson, chairman of the Forsyth County Democratic Party, put out this statement:
”In response to the recent house fire which occurred in Forsyth County and is suspected to have been racially motivated, the Forsyth County Democratic Party condemns hate crimes of any nature.
“Should the allegations prove to be true, we as residents of Forsyth County, whether Republican or Democrat, Obama supporter or not, should be shocked and appalled that this type of incident would happen here in our County.”
Updated: This morning, as inauguration ceremonies in D.C. got underway, the Southeastern office of the Anti-Defamation League condemned the fire as “a terrible reminder that even on this day of history, racism remains a virulent threat in America.”
Said Bill Nigut, ADL director:
“We’ve talked to the authorities in Forsyth and they assure us they are pursing this as a terroristic threat against Ms. Graf. One of the messages seemed to imply a threat against President-elect Obama, and authorities are pursing this with the appropriate federal agencies.”
