Mother Nature has handed Gov. Nathan Deal an early chance at redemption with a wintry blast that could be far more severe than the snowfall that brought Atlanta to its knees last month.
The cold front zeroing in on north Georgia tonight and tomorrow offers the governor the first real test for his promises of a new and improved emergency response.
We already saw the first hint of that last week with the amped-up reaction to the flurries that fell late Thursday. In that case, emergency officials opened their command center more than 12 hours before the first snowflakes fluttered down, state salt stockpiles were replenished and local meteorologists were consulted.
This storm is much more ominous, and Deal doesn't want to take any chances. The command center will be opened early again. Meteorologists will be on speed dial. The National Guard is at the ready. And Deal has taken the unusual step of warning drivers to stay off the roadways and tractor-trailers to steer clear early Monday afternoon.
Deal will be briefed by first-responders at 11 a.m. and then go before the cameras at noon. We wouldn't be surprised if he has at least one more presser in the offing even later today.
The wild card in all of this are the school systems, whose separate decisions to stay open during the Jan. 28 storm -- and then dismiss students hours early -- contributed to the mess.
State and city officials don't have any say over superintendents' decisions to open their classrooms (and publicly say they don't want any say), but the Deal administration is now sending emails to school administrators warning of weather conditions.
Beyond the obvious benefit of sharing weather details, the notifications provide the added bonus of political cover in case a wayward school official decides to stay open.
This storm also puts Charley English, Georgia's emergency guru, back in the spotlight. English took a beating over his lackluster response to the Snowjam debacle. Over at myajc.com and in the dead-tree edition's front-page, we explore how he's begun to redeem himself in Deal's eyes.
The governor won't talk about English's future but we are told he hasn't made up his mind yet. And perhaps for good reason.
Imagine if English had been fired last week and his replacement had to step in just as a major winter storm was rumbling toward the state. If said fill-in gave a less than stellar performance, Deal would have a much bigger winter headache on his mind.
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It didn't get much notice, but on a Friday tour of schools to thank them for their conduct during Snowjam, Gov. Nathan Deal was asked about a hot re-election topic. From the Marietta Daily Journal:
"I think it would be ill-advised to just simply abolish the standards without having anything to to take their place. That would leave students and teachers in a very vulnerable situation," Deal said.
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WSAV in Savannah has taken a look at free travel by the three U.S. House members in the Republican race for Senate: Paul Broun of Athens, Phil Gingrey of Marietta, and Jack Kingston of Savannah. Of the trio, the news station found that Kingston is the more likely to have accepted free trips to places you wouldn't want to go:
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Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi will put in an Atlanta appearance on Feb. 20 at an event called "When Women Succeed, America Succeeds."
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You don't see this very often. From the Fulton County Daily Report:
But Chief Municipal Court Judge Melvin Johnson [said] he and co-defendant Ellen Corkrum, the former managing director of the Liberia Airport Authority in Monrovia, were framed by the government of 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf after they attempted to curb corrupt practices at the airport.
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Nearly five years after President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package received congressional approval, the money is still being spent, reports our blogging colleague Jamie Dupree:
Emblazoned on the official contract award notice is the word "RECOVERY," signifying the use of money from the Recovery Act.
In January, the feds issued a $500,993 contract to a company in Indiana to perform work on electronic health records, with the money coming from the 2009 stimulus law.
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