AJC Truth-O-Meter looks at state highway fatals, the Fair Tax

To fact-check a claim, reporters first contact the speaker to verify the statement. Next, the research begins. Reporters consult a variety of sources, including industry and academic experts. This research can take hours or a few days or even longer, depending on the claim. Reporters then compile the research into story form and include a recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling.

The fact check then moves on to a panel of veteran editors who debate the statement and the reporter’s recommended Truth-O-Meter ruling. The panel votes on a final ruling; majority prevails.

The AJC Truth-O-Meter spent the pre-holiday week focusing on state highway fatalties, the Fair Tax, a GOP presidential hopeful and a feud between two airline CEOs.

PolitiFact Georgia checked out a statement by Georgia's junior senator, David Perdue, on the Fair Tax and a claim that GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee appeared in diabetes infomercials to endorse "cures and treatments that no health agency supports."

Akbar Al Baker, the chief of Qatar Airways, landed on the Truth-O-Meter for the charged words he had for Delta Air Lines.

Our fact-checkers also looked at a grim forecast that Georgia could be about to end a nine-year run of declines in roadway deaths.

Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below.

Want to comment on our rulings or suggest one of your own? Just go to our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/politifact.georgia). You can also follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/politifactga).

Full versions can be found at www.politifact.com/georgia/

Russell McMurry on May 11, 2015, in news reports:

Georgia is on track for 1,200 traffic fatalities this year, a reversal of nine years of declines.

PolitiFact Georgia was revving up for the summer driving season when a statement from the head of the Georgia Department of Transportation caught our attention.

The state is on pace to see 1,200 people lose their lives on Georgia roads this year, Commissioner Russell McMurry said in news reports. If that happens, it would be a reversal after nine years of declines.

Is that possible, even before the busy season of summer? We set aside our packing and decided to check.

By last Tuesday, 465 people had been killed in vehicle crashes in Georgia, state DOT data show. That's 69 more deaths, or 17 percent more, than during the same period in 2014.

That means Georgia is averaging 100 deaths a month, which would result in a year-end total of 1,200 deaths for the first time since 2011. It also would be the first year-to-year increase in nine years.

We rated the commissioner's statement True.

Akbar Al Baker on March 16, 2015, in an interview:

The average age of planes in the Qatar Airways fleet is about four years while Delta Air Lines flies planes that are 35 years old.

Akbar Al Baker, the chief of Qatar Airways, recently said his airline flies airplanes that are superior to those flown by Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines by virtue of their age.

"I am delighted that (CEO) Richard Anderson of Delta is not here," Al Baker said in an interview March 16. "First of all, we don't fly crap airplanes that are 35 years old. The Qatar Airways average fleet (age) is only four years and one month."

PolitiFact Georgia decided to fact-check Al Baker's claim.

Al Baker was conservative in saying that Qatar Airways had a fleet of airplanes that was 4.1 years old on average. The average age of aircraft in its fleet, which is much smaller than Delta's with 152 passenger and cargo airplanes, is actually 3.1 years.

But Al Baker veered off course when his comments morphed into an attack on Delta.

Delta has more than 1,200 aircraft, with an average age of 14 years to 17 years. The carrier is flying four airplanes that are just over 30 years old, but all of them are due to retire this year,

We rated Al Baker's comments Mostly False.

David Perdue on April 27, 2015, in his debut Senate floor speech:

The Fair Tax proposal encourages innovation and investment and would "level the playing field" for American companies to compete globally.

Georgia's freshman senator, David Perdue, is a big advocate of the Fair Tax – a proposal long linked to the Peach State that calls for replacing federal income taxes with a national sales tax on all goods and services.

Perdue talked up the plan in the GOP primary and general election, and he included it in his first speech from the Senate floor last month. The former Fortune 500 CEO said the Fair Tax would boost the national economy.

"Our archaic tax system is choking growth, holding back innovation and discouraging investment," Perdue said in calling for a transition to the Fair Tax to "level the playing field with the rest of the world."

PolitiFact Georgia wondered whether evidence exists that the plan would boost investment and innovation, thereby improving the economy, and decided to check it out.

There are some models that reinforce the idea that the way to encourage investment is to free up more money in the private sector – something the Fair Tax pledges to do.

But the claim ignores contrary economic models that show the additional money stays as profit for companies – or investments for the wealthy – while lower-income taxpayers spend most of their income.

What exactly would happen can't be known unless the change is fully implemented. But the Fair Tax also ignores political realities, such as tax evasion and potential uproar at increasing taxes on the powerful voting bloc of the elderly.

There is some truth that a broad consumption tax will help the economy, but the specific Fair Tax has too many questions to be a certainty.

We rated Perdue's claim Half True.

Ron Fournier on May 10, 2015, as a member of a pundit panel on "Face the Nation":

Says Mike Huckabee appeared in diabetes infomercials to endorse "cures and treatments that no health agency supports."

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is distancing himself from the unusual ways he earned money before announcing his White House run May 5, but journalists aren't letting the former Arkansas governor off the hook.

Huckabee, who shed about 100 pounds after being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, filmed TV and radio infomercials advertising a program to "reverse" diabetes in February and March. Huckabee also lent his email list to carry ads about a looming food shortage and a cancer cure found in the Bible.

CBS' "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer tried to pin Huckabee down on his business dealings during a May 10 interview that followed a critical column about "Huckabee's Hucksterism" by The National Journal's Ron Fournier.

Huckabee got testy as he explained the program he endorsed is more about healthy eating than dietary supplements.

A bit later, Schieffer moved on to Fournier during a pundit panel discussion for a response.

"As you know, there was more to that, and I really like the way you kind of put him on his heels and he had to filibuster you," Fournier said. "He — his endorsing — the infomercials that are endorsing cures and treatments that no health agency supports. He's linking cancer to cures to the Bible verse."

Health groups and physicians that specialize in diabetes told us they do not support the approach to "reversing diabetes" outlined in the Diabetes Solution Kit that Huckabee has endorsed.

We rated Fournier's claim True.