Politico's David Rogers writes about a fascinating battle over catfish inspections that could interfere with a new U.S. trade deal with Asian nations.
Georgia Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson, along with John McCain, R-Ariz., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., are working to block the pending rule, as the seafood industry has expressed concerns about dealing with separate inspections from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
But Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., wants the separate inspection regime -- which catfish producers say will allow them to better compete with Chinese and Vietnamese imports. And Team Cochran isn't messing around,
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The increased bullying appears driven by staff serving Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), a powerhouse on the Agriculture and Appropriations committees and the chief author of the catfish program. At 77, Cochran himself is the very image of the gentle, small-town Southern lawyer, but his aides have clearly felt free to put pressure on commodity groups and Isakson to fall in line.
The war of nerves began last month when a cooking tin of fried catfish was delivered by Cochran's staff to Isakson's office within days of the Finance markup on the trade bill. This was followed by not-so-subtle hints that future appropriations for projects important to Georgia's ports and a major poultry research facility in the state could be affected down the road.
Shades of Luca Brasi, there.
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Ohio Gov. John Kasich is expanding his May 26 footprint in Georgia. The Republican presidential possibility had already scheduled a 5 p.m. Tuesday appearance at a Walton County GOP barbecue for his inaugural trip here. Now he's tacked on a luncheon bash sponsored by the Fulton County Republican party and Maggie's List.
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If you can't get what you want out of your Republican lawmaking body, executive orders are your tool. Just posted by McClatchyDC:
Jindal, who the previous day announced an exploratory committee for a possible 2016 presidential bid, acted after a state legislative committee effectively killed legislation that would have done the same. Critics contended the measure opens the door for discrimination against gays.
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On that same topic, the Gallup organization reports that, for the first time, a majority of Americans think gays and lesbians are born, not made:
…..Republicans, including Republican-leaning independents, are evenly divided on whether Americans are born gay or lesbian (40%) or whether same-sex orientation is determined by environmental factors (36%). However, even that is a dramatic shift for Republicans, as it represents the first time they have not attributed being gay or lesbian to environmental factors by at least a small margin.
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Qualifying for special July 14 elections to fill four vacant House seats will be held June 1-3, according to a spokesman for Secretary of State Brian Kemp. The seats at issue: District 48, held by the late Harry Geisinger of Roswell; District 146, vacated by Larry O'Neal, R-Bonaire; District 155, vacated by Jay Roberts, R-Ocilla; and District 80, vacated by Mike Jacobs, R-Brookhaven.
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We've seen how polarized Georgia's county-by-county map is, but we've never seen anything like the "heat map" that CrowdPac put together highlighting all itemized donations in Atlanta for state and federal races since 2004.
It's fascinating - and not terribly surprising - to see where the bulk of partisan donors are. Democratic financial power is concentrated in the city's core and Decatur, with some small outposts in southwest Atlanta, south Cobb and south DeKalb. The deepest blue areas are centered on northeast Atlanta (think: former state Sen. Jason Carter's old district.)
The GOP donor base is much more diffused, sweeping from Marietta to Buckhead then back across the northern Arc to Lawrenceville and Snellville, with tendrils spreading to almost every exurban metropolitan area and a small hub in Gainesville, the home of Gov. Nathan Deal and Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle.
If this map holds true, it could also be a template for the 2018 race. With so much of the financial power in Attorney General Sam Olens' east Cobb backyard, there's a reason he keeps being mentioned as a possible gubernatorial candidate.
Another thought: This graphic doesn't look all that different from the heat map of ticket-buyers the Atlanta Braves posted to explain their shift to Cobb County.
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"Believe it or not Mayor Reed, I am looking out for your legacy." Maria Saporta uses those words to cap an open letter to hizzoner about the city's pending deal with Tyler Perry to transform part of Fort McPherson into new film studios.
The journalist and the mayor have been locked in a war-of-words over the project, and the mayor's office released a lengthy press release defending the deal in response to her original piece. Take a look at Saporta's original piece and the mayor's response to see what started it all.
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Former Democratic state Sen. Kenneth Fuller has a favor to ask from his former colleagues: Introduce legislation to remove the grand jury and the local prosecutor from investigations of police misconduct.
The Rome attorney writes in the News-Tribune that the failure of grand juries to indict police officers has left questions about the ability of district attorneys to be impartial in those cases. From the column:
...Some states have established permanent special prosecutors' offices. There are several approaches employed in states across the country that could serve as a model for reform in Georgia. We could provide the attorney general additional prosecutorial authority over fatalities involving police as well as over allegations of police brutality or other abuse of authority. This would create permanent "special prosecutors" that are housed within the state office of the attorney general to provide a level of insulation from local law enforcement.
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In a radio interview, U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, said on his recent trip to Israel he felt safer than in some parts of the U.S. From Buzzfeed:
"In fact, I can say that we felt safer in Israel than we would in certain parts of New York City or Chicago," Loudermilk said.
"Yeah — or Baltimore, I would think, as well," interjected host Tony Perkins.
"Exactly," replied Loudermilk laughing.
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In Your Occasional Georgia Politics and Hip-Hop Update: Buzzfeed has the fascinating backstory on how rapper Waka Flocka Flame became a major supporter of Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue:
"In layman's terms, [I'm a] consultant," he told BuzzFeed News.
Warren and Waka met back on the set of Gucci Mane's "Wasted" video in 2009. They crossed paths over the years, and connected again a couple of years ago.
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