For more than a year, busted locks on the cell doors of its jail have served as a symbol of Fulton County’s dysfunctional state – just one more reason for Republicans in the state Capitol to shake their heads and continue their dismantlement of the county government.

So you’ll have to forgive John Eaves – Fulton’s commission chairman -- for confessing that the following paragraphs in Tuesday’s AJC brought a slight, schadenfreudic smile to his lips:

After three prisoner deaths in two months at Hays State Prison in northwest Georgia, state officials say they may have addressed one of the root causes of violence at the high-security facility: locks that don’t lock.

Yet, records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show several other high-security prisons — facilities rife with gangs, hardened criminals and constant threats of violence — continue to be plagued with doors that won’t lock, a problem one top lawmaker said needs to be explained.

Three years after an internal audit reported problems with locks, the Department of Corrections signed a $1 million emergency contract in February to replace cell door locks at Hays.

Some think that inaction was a factor in several prison deaths.

“I read that this morning and I chuckled, because people wanted to think that this was just a Fulton County foul-up. It has more to do with the infrastructure needs of jails and prisoners,” Eaves said last night.

In fact, Eaves said his county is fortunate. “Fulton County hasn’t had the situation where people have been murdered,” he pointed out. “I feel somewhat vindicated.”

Last month, the Fulton County Commission awarded a $4.8 million contract to replace almost 1,400 faulty door locks that inmates have been able to open at will to assault guards and other inmates.

***

Earlier this week, the Georgia chapter of Americans For Prosperity came out against a Republican-backed move on the Georgia Public Service Commission to require Georgia Power to incorporate more solar power into its energy-generating portfolio.

Another tea party group, Georgia Tea Patriots, had previously endorsed the measure. Early this morning, state coordinators Julianne Thompson and Debbie Dooley laid out their defense – under the heading, “Distortions and Deception.” It included this:

There are some that believe if someone throws around Solyndra or says that solar is a component of Agenda 21, we take action without investigation. We don't do this and we do research to find out the truth and not fall for talking points or key words thrown out to manipulate and deceive us.

They like to point out the loan guarantee Solyndra received for solar but deliberately fail to point out that President Obama announced a $8.33 billion nuke power loan guarantee package to Southern Company for two reactors being built at Georgia’s Vogtle - which Southern Company lobbied hard for.

***

Republican blogger Andre Walker is attempting to stir up Democrats this morning with this tidbit on former state Sen. Doug Stoner, who announced his candidacy for state Democratic party chairman on Tuesday:

Georgia Unfiltered has learned, through a review of public voting records, that Stoner voted in the Republican primary eight times, from 1988 to 2000.

In addition, Stoner ran as an independent in the 2000 election for state House, district 29. Stoner finished third behind Democrat Randy Sauder and Republican Ginger Collins.

So one could argue that Stoner is exactly the kind of voter that Democrats need to recruit if they're to make a comeback.

***

Earlier this week, video excavator James Earl Carter IV found a clip of U.S. Senate candidate Karen Handel in Pickens County, delivering a message similar offered by Mitt Romney last year. His tweet:

Karen Handel thinks the 47% are young people who don't want to work. youtu.be/5RgUy8vwUMw #gapol

Here’s what Handle said at the Pickens County GOP’s Tomato Sandwich Fiesta:

“We need entitlement reform as well. Some people might think that’s not a very politically correct thing to say, but when we have almost 50 percent of Americans on some sort of government assistance, that is not the American dream.

“These programs were put in place out of great compassion. But they’re having the opposite effect. They’re sapping the very will of young people to even pursue the American dream. We need a greater emphasis on the importance of working and personal responsibility.”

There is the small the fact that Social Security and Medicare recipients, not young people, make up the bulk of those who get government checks. That aside, you could play that YouTube clip from here to eternity, and it would do nothing but help Handel in a Republican primary.

But a tomato sandwich fiesta? Is that how you chase the Hispanic vote?

***

Speaking of Mr. 47 percent, a new book by Dan Balz of the Washington Post says Mitt Romney came close – twice – to abandoning his quest for the presidency:

In the exploratory phase of his campaign in May 2011, Romney was preparing one morning to deliver a speech in Michigan to defend the health-care plan he signed into law as governor of Massachusetts and to attack President Obama’s health-care law. The Wall Street Journal released a scathing op-ed that day criticizing Romney for his Massachusetts plan.

Romney’s eldest son received a message from his father early that day, he told Balz. “ ‘I’m going to tell them I’m out,’ ” Tagg Romney recalled his father saying. “He said there’s no path to win the nomination.”

***

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll says  the following:

Americans across racial groups are critical of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Voting Rights Act, with disapproval of the decision exceeding approval by 15 percentage points among whites as well as by a vast 45-point margin among African-Americans....

The high court’s rulings on gay marriage last week are more popular, particularly its decision providing married same-sex couples with the same federal benefits as other married couples: Americans approve by 56-41 percent, with sharp partisan and ideological divisions.

***

The Cherokee Tribune reports that, seven months after he left his job in the state Senate for a position with Georgia Public Broadcasting, former majority leader Chip Rogers’ long-awaited weekly radio show will debut at 7 p.m. Thursday. That's right -- a kick-off on the evening of the Fourth of July. Not unlike launching a ship in the dead of night.

***

The AJC’s Politifact Georgia today examines whether attacks on 11^th District congressional candidate Bob Barr for changing his positions on the Defense of Marriage Act are kosher.