Money could buy equipment, House appropriations chairman says
The state could ante up about $16 million to help public schools address security issues, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry England said in a weekend report in The Barrow Journal. England said the Georgia House will set aside $8 million in bond funding for the purchase of school security equipment. He said House leaders are hoping the state Senate will match the $8 million in response to the mass school shooting in Parkland, Fla., on Valentine's Day.
Bridge could still stand as tribute to Girl Scout’s founder
State Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, says he's not giving up hope on renaming Savannah's Talmadge Memorial Bridge to honor Juliette Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts. The bill, which did not clear the House by Crossover Day, could be tacked onto other legislation and clear the Legislature this year, Stephens told The Savannah Morning News. But Low's last name may not be part of the naming because of fears that the port's competitors would capitalize on ships having to go under a "low" bridge, Stephens said. He said he is leaning toward renaming the bridge the Juliette Great Savannah Bridge.
Column: Independent commission or nonpartisan body needs to handle redistricting
Georgia had the dubious distinction of being the most politically noncompetitive state in the U.S. as far as the 2016 legislative elections were concerned, according to a recent column in The Savannah Morning News by Jeff Ploussard, with the advocacy group Fair Districts GA. He cites data showing 81.4 percent of candidates for the state Legislature in 2016 won without opposition. He says the redrawing of legislative and other political boundary lines should be reassigned away from the politicians and to an independent commission or nonpartisan body. "This is the most promising way to give a voice to the moderate majority as our founding fathers intended," Ploussard writes.
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