Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013 | 7:50 a.m.
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Your daily jolt: Jimmy Carter's grandson tests waters for a '14 run for governor
Gov. Nathan Deal may have more than a GOP primary challenge on his hands next year. We’re told that state Sen. Jason Carter, a Decatur Democrat and grandson of the former president, has commissioned a poll to "test the political environment, given recent events," for a 2014 run for governor. ...
Your daily jolt: Blue Cross/Blue Shield chief ‘not anticipating’ a defunding of Obamacare
Over at WABE (90.1FM) on Thursday, Denis O’Hayer offered up an interview with Morgan Kendrick, president of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Georgia, the only health insurance carrier offering policies in all 16 areas of the state under the new, federally mandated exchanges. “We understand the business is shifting, and we ...
Your (giant) daily jolt: Tom Graves named a post-shutdown negotiator
As the government shutdown arrived, House Speaker John Boehner appointed eight members of a conference committee to work out a short-term spending bill with the Senate. Among them is Rep. Tom Graves, the Republican from Ranger who has led the “defund Obamacare” fight. Boehner’s move is a sign that the ...
Your daily jolt: Justice Department to sue over N.C. voter ID law
One wonders whether the White House decided this needed to be done before midnight. From the Associated Press: The Justice Department will sue the state of North Carolina for alleged racial discrimination over tough new voting rules, the latest effort by the Obama administration to fight back against a Supreme ...
Georgia eyes bigger Hyundai presence
New cars spill off the Kia Motors assembly line in every 60 seconds. The automaker’s nearly four-year-old plant near the Georgia-Alabama line is close to maximum capacity, humming 24 hours a day, often six days a week. That crunch – plus labor issues at Kia and Hyundai factories at home ...
What’s in a name? Now, a gay rights controversy.
A married gay couple’s visit to a driver’s licensing office highlights Georgia’s struggles with same-sex marriage after a landmark Supreme Court decision and creates an unlikely flash point in the gay rights debate. It happened this month when newlywed Danielle McCollum visited the state Department of Driver Services office in ...
Your Daily Jolt: Tune in for the shutdown countdown
This week is turning CSPAN-2 into must-see TV. In honor of today's binge-watching culture, we had a 21-hour Ted Cruz marathon on the Senate floor the other day, with a side of Green Eggs and Ham. And Thursday afternoon, in honor of the proliferation of debate shows, Cruz battled Tennessee ...
Georgia’s port push starts in Panama
Colón, Panama - In a soggy abyss carved into Panama’s craggy rockbed, a convoy of Georgia’s top leaders snaked a path through a construction project that could transform international trade. In about a year, the course they followed on Monday will likely be under water, at the bottom of a ...
The floodgates opening on Savannah port dredging?
The push to deepen the Savannah harbor has been in limbo for years. Now it must feel like the floodgates have finally opened. Days after Vice President Joe Biden said the dredging would happen “come hell or high water,” the chair of the House committee handling a bill that would ...
Deal says he has firmer resolve to back Savannah River dredging
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA — Gov. Nathan Deal came away from an inspection of the Panama Canal expansion Monday vowing to exploit the full powers of his office to make sure that the dredging of Savannah’s port starts next year, even without Washington’s financial backing. Deal said the trip has given ...
AJC poll: Support for gay marriage in Georgia is growing
More Georgians now support gay marriage than oppose it thanks to burgeoning support from younger residents, according to a poll commissioned by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But even the staunchest backers say they are years away from reviving a push to legalize same-sex unions in Georgia. The poll found that 48 ...
Social studies review: Politics or a push for better education?
What Georgia students learn in social studies could be changing, but some worry the calls for change are more about politics than education. This week, the state Board of Education will set the parameters for a review of Common Core, a new set of national academic standards. That review was ...
Ex-ethics official had concerns
The lone Democrat on Georgia’s ethics panel was kept in the dark as two Republican commissioners consulted with Nathan Deal’s office to replace the agency’s director in the midst of investigating the governor, according to new legal documents reviewed Friday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Kent Alexander, a former federal prosecutor ...
Your daily jolt: Nathan Deal cashes in on bad news
At just about suppertime on Thursday, Gov. Nathan Deal served up an email that attempted to wring some good out of a sour news day. There were no details, no repetition of the allegations that the top staffer for the state ethics commission had improperly intervened in an investigation of ...
AJC poll: Nathan Deal approval hovers near 50 percent
According to a poll just conducted for the governor’s favorite out-of-touch fish-wrapper, Nathan Deal is in relatively good shape, politically speaking. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll has found that 49 percent of respondents approve of his performance and 24 percent disapprove. That's a solid, if not overwhelming, number that matches the ...
Ethics chief has received major raises
The embattled head of the state ethics commission has received pay increases of more than 17 percent over the past two years, despite being hired as the agency said it had to cut costs.Holly LaBerge’s salary increased from $85,000 when she came aboard in September 2011 to $92,000 in 2012 ...
Gov. Deal calls allegations of ethics abuse ‘unsubstantiated’
Gov. Nathan Deal said allegations that the head of Georgia’s ethics commission improperly intervened into an investigation involving an ethics complaint against him were “totally unsubstantiated and primarily false.” He lashed out at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for reporting complaints by current and former commission employees who said Holly LaBerge ordered ...
Your daily jolt: Governor slams newspaper for reviving ethics case
An angry Gov. Nathan Deal on Thursday accused this newspaper of an unwarranted revival of issues largely dismissed by the state ethics commission – based on sworn statements from current and former employees of the commission, who said their boss improperly intervened in complaints lodged against the governor. Said Deal: ...
Did ethics head intervene in complaint against Gov. Deal?
The head of Georgia’s ethics commission is accused of improperly intervening into an investigation of Gov. Nathan Deal, raising serious questions about the independence of the state panel charged with keeping watch over Georgia’s elected officials. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s exclusive report reveals allegations by current and former commission employees who ...
Ruling on Deal tainted?
The head of Georgia’s ethics commission is accused of improperly intervening into an investigation of Gov. Nathan Deal, raising serious questions about the independence of the state panel charged with keeping watch over Georgia’s elected officials. Current and former commission employees told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday that Holly LaBerge ...
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