General Assembly is big on campus

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They may have been under the Gold Dome, but this past week legislators’ minds seemed to be on college campuses.

The biggest example was Wednesday's filing of House Bill 859, the newest attempt to open up campuses to guns. The last try was in 2014, when the General Assembly — at the urging of university presidents in the state — stripped out campus carry while passing what has become known as the "Guns Everywhere Bill." That law allows weapons to be carried in, among other places, many government buildings, bars and restaurants.

So now, why not in Econ 101?

State Rep. Rick Jasperse, the author of the 2014 law, and state Rep. Mandi Ballinger are asking that campus carry be granted a retest. Their bill would allow guns anywhere on a public college or university campus, except for inside dormitories, fraternity houses and sorority houses, and at sporting events.

In the House, Jasperse and Ballinger are loaded for bear, counting dozens of co-sponsors. Most importantly, they already have the two votes that probably count the most, state House Speaker David Ralston and Rules Committee Chairman John Meadows.

But as the saying goes, sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you. If this particular bear is to be fed, it will be in the state Senate, where campus carry hit the wall in 2014.

University president

gets a schooling

One particular campus drew more attention than others at the Capitol. That would be the one on North Avenue in Atlanta.

Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson faced tough questioning Monday from the subcommittee that controls university funding. Those questions dealt with whether the university had failed to provide due process to students accused of sexual assault and other wrongdoing.

Tech has been hit with a pair of lawsuits by students who were expelled after being found responsible — unfairly they say — for sexual misconduct. The state Board of Regents overruled the school this month and reinstated one of the students. Tech is also embroiled in a dispute for disciplining a fraternity accused of hurling racial slurs at a black female student. The fraternity says it didn’t happen.

The school is known for engineering, but Peterson got a lesson in literature from state Rep. Earl Ehrhart, who called Tech's policies "Kafkaesque."

Ehrhart, the subcommittee’s chairman, warned Peterson that schools that fail to give both sides a fair shake in disciplinary matters could see state funding cut.

“If you’ve got a bond project, if you don’t protect the students of this state with due process, don’t come looking for money. Period,” Ehrhart said.

Gandhi, MLK

and Peake?

Gov. Nathan Deal suggested this week that if state Rep. Allen Peake wants to continue being an advocate for medical marijuana, he might find a better platform behind bars.

Peake, the author of the state's current medical marijuana law, has now proposed House Bill 722, which would expand the list of diseases and disorders that can be treated with the drug. It would also allow limited cultivation and distribution of marijuana in Georgia so families would not have to break federal law by transporting the drug across state lines.

The Macon Republican recently admitted in Jim Galloway's Political Insider column that he has "delivered product," transporting cannabis oil from a state where it's legal to Georgia, in order to help a child suffering from a debilitating disease.

Deal, not a fan of HB 722, called it “problematic to say the least” when he learned what Peake is apparently carrying in his luggage.

“Everybody has to make their own decision,” Deal said Tuesday. “I would point out, however, that in the truest tradition of civil disobedience — Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. — the real emphasis of civil disobedience is accepting the punishment to what you consider to be unjust. I’ll leave it at that.”

Peake took the Fifth. Well, he declined to comment.

The grass is greener

for singer’s Capitol visit

Wednesday offered an opportunity for stargazing — and a chance for Chris "Ludacris" Bridges to inspect the newly painted lawn at Liberty Plaza, where the rapper and actor headlined a rally to support legislation that would expand charter schools and other educational options in Georgia.

The rally highlighted Senate Bill 92 and House Bill 243, which would establish an education savings account program in Georgia.

“Regardless to social status, all children should be able to access a great school,” Ludacris said. “Education savings accounts empower all children to be able to access a great education.”

Ludacris offered no comment on the Georgia Building Authority’s little landscaping project at the plaza a couple of days earlier. The brown/yellow lawn, due to the ravages of winter, was nothing to sing about, so the GBA gave it a $1,000 dye job.

Dollar would be its name,

not the highway’s toll

The first question: Will it be a street paved in gold?