Daimler AG appears to have rejected Georgia's coastal mega-industrial site in Pooler. Again. From the Charleston, S.C., Post and Courier:
The plant is expected to bring at least 1,200 jobs to that state. This morning's Savannah Morning News explains why Georgia economic development officials may be disappointed:
The decision to build in North Charleston, where Daimler has had a Sprinter assembly plant since 2007, likely puts to rest any possibility that the auto giant will look again at the Pooler property.
The company has been an off-and-on match for the Pooler site since 2002, when Gov. Roy Barnes touted a Daimler deal during the final weeks of his unsuccessful re-election bid.
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On a related note, South Carolina has another missing governor. But this one seems to be following the example of Georgia's Gov. Nathan Deal. From The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C.:
S.C. Department of Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt joined her on the trip that lasts through Wednesday, the governor's office said. A flight manifest with the S.C. Aeronautics Commission shows Hitt flying on a state plane to Washington Dulles International Airport on Sunday afternoon with three "confidential" passengers.
Haley and Deal may be focusing on the same target. Again, from the newspaper:
South Carolina also is in the mix for a Jaguar Land Rover plant, according to several automotive trade websites.
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It's official: U.S. Reps. Jody Hice,
R-Monroe, and Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, are on the Republican establishment's target list.
A $400,000 campaign by the American Action Network to encourage full-year funding for the Department of Homeland Security went after a dozen Republicans who bucked House leadership on a three-week bill.
The Internet display ads going after Hice and Loudermilk -- just imagine their faces instead of Louie Gohmert's -- can be found here. And here's the national radio ad that ran on the Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh shows.
Notice the framing: "conservatives" want to beef up security funding, while "some in Washington" are threatening the department's funding. The objectors are generally considered to be some of the most conservative members of the House, willing to go to the barricades against the president's immigration plans.
An American Action Network spokesman said all the ads were taken down after Tuesday's vote to fund the department through September. It's not hard to draw a line from AAN to the House GOP leadership: its board includes Barry Jackson, former chief of staff to Speaker John Boehner, along with longtime Republican financier Fred Malek and some former members of Congress.
The ads did not have the intended effect, according to Loudermilk, who -- along with the entire Georgia GOP delegation -- voted against the full-year funding bill:
"Our phones have been ringing off the hook today; 100 percent of them said: 'Vote against this bill. Stand up to the president.' One hundred percent of the calls. ...I think the ads firmed up those that they were going after."
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A press release that came over the transom Tuesday caused us to do a double-take: Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., looking to strengthen a piece of Obamacare?
Yes, Isakson and some Republican colleagues in both chambers this week introduced a bill to protect a piece of the Obamacare law that allows employers to reduce employees' insurance premiums in exchange for meeting healthy lifestyle goals -- quitting smoking or losing weight, for example.
But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, oddly, has been filing lawsuits claiming medical tests for employees violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. Said Isakson:
"This legislation ensures what Congress has already decided – private companies are free to promote health and wellness among their employees through voluntary incentives like premium discounts, rather than heavy-handed federal mandates and taxes. I am proud to be an original co-sponsor of the Preserving Employee Wellness Program Act, and applaud employers that put in place such programs to lower health care costs for employees while also creating a healthy workforce."
So they're merely protecting Obamacare from the Obama administration. Got it.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress drew the usual fusillade of press releases, but here are two reactions that caught our eye. First, here's Johnny Isakson speaking to visitors from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee:
They key quote: "The speech today was absolutely marvelous. I hope the president was watching and I wish he had the same delivery."
And here's Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, on why he didn't go:
The key quote: "That the Speaker of the House of Representatives would allow the floor of this chamber to be used to undercut the negotiations of the President of the United States is partisan, and it is not right."
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There was a particularly interesting addition to Gov. Nathan Deal's delegation to New Orleans last week to study Louisiana's school reforms.
Lula Gilliam is the founder of an education outreach group called Youth Enhancement Services. She's also an executive board member of the NAACP's Atlanta branch and the chair of its education committee.
As Deal works to convince more Democrats to get on board with his bid for more state power to intervene in struggling schools, the NAACP's endorsement is a sought-after commodity.
The organization has yet to take a stance - and may not - but Gilliam sounded impressed by what she saw. She sent us over her impression:
Our schools and communities have been failing poor and minority students for decades. There is no quick fix to counter all the ingredients that have gone into the mix to create where we are today with academically inadequate schools in our state. I can say that it is going to take real leadership and courage – from both government and the community – to go downstream and locate the blockage. What I do know with certainty is we must work together to address these educational deficiencies and give it our best efforts – our children's lives are depending on us to get it right!
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The boxes of petitions that landed in Gov. Nathan Deal's office earlier this week protesting Kelly Gissendaner's execution made for great TV. But here's what Deal's staffers found when they opened a few of them.
A petition organizer sent over a note saying he was unsure who dropped the ball. He attached a spreadsheet with all the signers:
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Charles Walker, the Augusta lawmaker who was Senate majority leader during the last years of Democratic rule in the state Capitol, is out of prison, out of the hospital, and on a book tour. From the Augusta Chronicle:
He's now back to business in his office at The Walker Group on Laney-Walker Boulevard, where he greeted an interviewer this week with a big smile. He tries not to voice bitterness over what he's convinced was a Republican politically motivated prosecution that led to his "captivity" in Estill Federal Prison in Estill, S.C., all of which is detailed in his just-released autobiography, "From Peanuts to Power, The Road to Wealth, Success and Happiness."
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