Atlanta's Delta Air Lines is not shying away from a political fight.
Chief executive Richard Anderson turned heads when he urged corporate leaders to "stand up" to Georgia lawmakers who could ding the state's reputation and went on national TV to back President Barack Obama's executive order clearing the way for millions of undocumented immigrants to stay.
Now the company is among about two dozen major national firms who signed briefs filed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta supporting a legal challenge to end Florida's same-sex marriage ban.
Also included in the friend-of-the-court brief are small businesses across the circuit, which includes Georgia, Alabama and Florida, and hundreds of religious leaders and law enforcement officers.
The GA Voice offers us more context about what it means for Georgia:
U.S. District Court Judge William Duffey, who is presiding over the lawsuit seeking to overturn Georgia's same-sex marriage ban , has been sitting on court documents since the lawsuit was filed in April by Lambda Legal. Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens has asked for a motion to dismiss while Lambda Legal files additional documents citing other same-sex marriage victories as to why the case should move forward.
Lambda Legal has said it had concerns about filing a lawsuit in Georgia because of the conservative 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which would eventually have to rule on the state's case after it is decided one way or the other in U.S. District Court. But that conservative reputation of the 11th Circuit may not hold up after ruling in the Florida case.
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This CBS46 story caught our attention:
A woman considered the girlfriend of longtime Cumming Mayor H. Ford Gravitt has received city-paid health benefits since 2005, even though she's never been employed by the city, CBS46 News has learned. Meanwhile, a councilman accused of releasing that information will face an impeachment hearing Tuesday.
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If you missed this story by our AJC colleague Richard Halicks, it's worth another look:
Grady Health System has turned a business dispute with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia into a kind of health-insurance holy war, accusing the insurance giant of caring more about profit than people and launching a social media campaign to belabor the Blues.
Grady has since hauled out the hashtags – #Befair2Grady and #ShameonBlueCross – for a Facebook barrage, lined up people in the community to pick up Grady's banner, fired lengthy press releases into the ether, even published the name, number and email of the Blues' CEO.
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As Georgia Republicans offered support for Sally Quillian Yates to ascend to the Department of Justice's No. 2 slot, one politico was able to take a small measure of credit:
Barr -- the onetime congressman, candidate for president and Borat victim -- served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia from 1986-90.
Here's more on Yates from David Wickert's profile in today's subscriber/dead tree edition:
"Even in an adversarial setting you had to respect her professionalism," said Josh Kenyon, Skandalakis' chief of staff, who served six months in prison for accepting $14,000 in bribes. "She was disarmingly cordial and courteous while aggressively building the government's case against you."
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