Authorities in Savannah have finally confirmed that a local artist was shocked to death in the Chatham County jail while strapped to a restraining chair. From the Savannah Morning News:
Lawyers for the Ajibade family say they are disappointed that murder charges weren't leveled against the deputies. More background can be found here.
Here's your Wikipedia definition of "drive stun."
***
The National Park Service is calling on concessionaires to stop selling items with the Confederate flag following the fatal shooting of nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, S.C. From the Associated Press:
Jarvis made his request in a memo issued Wednesday evening.
The agency contracts with third parties to administer concessions at national parks. Park stores that carry the Confederate flag are generally found at Civil War battlefields or national historic sites.
***
Georgia Equality sends word it has at least a half-dozen couples lined up to immediately get hitched at the Fulton County Courthouse, should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn state bans on gay marriage this morning -- or next week.
***
Stripped of all their trade leverage, Georgia's U.S. House Democrats are preparing to cave on aid to displaced workers as part of a new trade deal.
House Democrats had blocked Trade Adjustment Assistance in an effort to shut down President Barack Obama's efforts to get "fast track" authority to negotiate a trade deal. It didn't work. The Senate sent fast-track to Obama's desk Wednesday, and it sent TAA back to the House attached to a popular African trade measure.
Republicans don't like the new spending, so Democrats have to carry the vote on a program they typically support. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Wednesday she will flip -- and the rest of her caucus likely will follow suit.
Said Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta:
"And I'm going to continue to yell about all the ceding of our power to the presidency and so forth. But we made a good case for it. But it wouldn't be smart to just for spite now go against something that we normally agree with."
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia, said a new training center in his district at Georgia Piedmont Technical College was built with TAA money:
"Disappointment has to turn now to optimism that this TPP is going to be much better than those previously. I'm just an optimistic person at heart, as opposed to thinking it's terrible that this has happened. My mind goes to, OK, the president has assured us this trade agreement will be better than the others. So we await that vote."
***
Meanwhile, you might say that the Lanier Tea Party Patriots were against Trade Promotion Authority, based on this tweet.
***
Don't give Sonny Perdue short-shrift for his role in the flag overhaul. That's the message from one former Democratic state lawmaker.
Rob Teilhet, a former Smyrna Democrat, recalled on Facebook the 2003 vote to replace Barnes' version of the flag with the compromise version that we have now. That vote helped stave off a divisive referendum on the controversial 1956 version of the flag that Perdue promised to hold when he was elected.
The truth is, had Governor Perdue wanted the 1956 flag on that referendum, or had he felt obliged to fight for it to be there, it would have been, and I suspect Georgia would be where so many of our neighbor states are tonight. It took wisdom and restraint to do what he did, and those are qualities that seem in short supply in politics.
***
The Alligator, the University of Florida's student newspaper, is reporting that the Atlanta-based regional administrator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is in some financial hot water:
Documents obtained by the Alligator reveal that Jennings took out a loan from Alarion Bank for $144,504 on Aug. 3, 2011. Jennings reportedly owes $100,579.31 in principal on the loan along with $1,829 in unpaid interest. He also reportedly owes $4,618.45 in late fees as of March 11. ...
According to documents, multiple attempts by the Fulton County Sheriff's Office in Fulton County, Georgia, to serve Jennings an affidavit in March and April were unsuccessful.
About the Author
