PolitiFact: The Roundup

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

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PolitiFact Georgia and the AJC Truth-O-Meter combined the new with the old last week and researched two fresh and two previous topics.

We examined another claim about Atlanta’s iconic Pink Pony gentleman’s club. This time, whether the number of employees on the club’s payroll reaches the triple digits. We were asked to review a claim that resurfaced about an alleged “hidden” provision in the health care law. And with news last week that the U.S. Postal Service could reduce its door-to-door mail delivery services, we checked a claim about the agency’s funding and whether it includes our tax dollars. And before the U.S. House produces its version of an overhaul of immigration policy, we examined a claim about provisions in the Senate’s bill and whether some industries were rewarded in the legislation.

Abbreviated versions of our fact checks are below. Full versions can be found at: www.politifact.com/georgia/.

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Pink Pony: The city of Brookhaven’s ordinance could cause the Pink Pony to close, thereby “putting 300 Pink Pony employees out of work in this economy.”

Representatives of the iconic gentlemen’s club made this claim in a newspaper ad arguing against a city of Brookhaven ordinance to shut down the strip club. The ordinance would prohibit nude dancing, with or without serving alcohol.

Dancers. Bartenders. Even “house moms” would lose their jobs, and the club’s attorney said 300 was a conservative number of employees. About 200 of those employees are dancers who work on varied schedules, the attorney said. But he would not show us employee records to verify the numbers.

County records showed that there are more than 300 people currently licensed to work at the club, which is more than what the Pink Pony claimed in its ad. Still, we don’t know whether all of them are regularly working there.

The club’s claim is partially accurate, but it ignores a lot of context that would give a reader a different impression.

We rated the Pink Pony’s claim Half True.

Chain email: A “hidden” provision in the health care law taxes sporting goods as medical devices.

A reader asked us to check this claim that had been circulating in a chain email. Our colleagues at PolitiFact Ohio previously checked a similar claim and found it to be untrue.

The email includes a receipt from a sporting goods store, not found in Georgia, with an amount charged for a “medical excise tax.” The email implies that this tax is hidden and that items that can be taxed include fishing rods and some cars.

There is, in fact, a 2.3 percent medical device excise tax, effective this year, designed to offset costs of expanding health coverage to the uninsured. The devices taxed are those used by physicians or medical offices, but not eyeglasses or hearing aids, and not sporting goods.

The email said the sporting goods store “refused to hide” the tax, but the company said it made a mistake when it taxed customers and would refund them.

We rated the chain email Pants On Fire.

American Postal Workers Union: “The U.S. Postal Service doesn’t run on your tax dollars. It’s funded solely by stamps and postage.”

There’s been talk of proposed cuts to the U.S. Postal Service, particularly ending Saturday delivery. A reader asked us to check this claim from a TV ad from the postal union about the taxpayer cost of delivering the mail. The union said the ad was created to combat “detrimental legislation.”

Since 1971 the Postal Service has operated independently, using revenue from postage sales and services. Congress gives the Postal Service $100 million a year — less than 1 percent of the office’s budget — for providing free mailing services to blind people and overseas voters. The Postal Service has also borrowed money from the government in recent years to cover the costs to pre-fund employee health benefits. The money must be paid back, but that hasn’t been done yet.

The first part of the statement is on target. The second part, however, got a return to sender.

We rated the union’s claim Half True.

Karen Handel: “The Senate immigration bill is … filled with things like rewards for au pair agencies, Alaskan seafood processors and Vegas casinos.”

In a Twitter post and campaign blog last week, Handel, one of Georgia’s candidates for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate, blasted the immigration bill passed by the Senate in June. The claim highlights the large amount of “pork” she said was in the bill.

Our research found that the provisions cited for the three industries are included in the legislation, along with several others. The au pair industry was allowed to continue charging foreign exchange students — now regulated — fees to work in the U.S. The bill also restarts the summer work travel visa program for foreign workers for the seafood processing industry. And a tourism promotion program benefiting the Vegas casinos was funded indefinitely in the bill.

Whether the provisions should be classified as “rewards” is subjective, but they do exist and were included to gain support for the bill.

We rated Handel’s claim True.