Incoming House Speaker Mark Burkhalter said this morning that he will instill in fellow lawmakers that “forever the state Capitol is a different place” after the highly publicized scandal that led to the resignation of outgoing speaker Glenn Richardson.
Burkhalter also said he didn’t know about the alleged affair Susan Richardson [...]
Update 4:39 p.m. It’s official. The statement from Richardson follows. Key points are that he is resigning effective the first of the year and that he is, in addition to stepping down as speaker, also resigning his House seat rather than stay on as a legislator.
It’s also worth noting that [...]
A meeting of the Legislative Services Committee that House Speaker Glenn Richardson was to have chaired today has been cancelled, the House Clerk’s Office confirmed.
The 2 p.m. meeting of the committee was to have been Richardson’s first public appearance since his ex-wife’s devastating appearance on an Atlanta television station that [...]
Rep. David Ralston, the Blue Ridge Republican who last year unsuccessfully challenged Glenn Richardson to be speaker of the Georgia House, on Tuesday said he trusts that Richardson “is going to make the right decision.”
Ralston, who lost his committee chairmanship after his ill-fated attempt to unseat Richardson, said revelations from [...]
The former wife of House Speaker Glenn Richardson told an Atlanta television station on Monday that her ex-husband’s attempted suicide was less about taking his own life than it was gaining control over her.
“I don’t think it was because he was depressed. I think it was power and control that [...]
A top state senator has pre-filed a bill that would force lottery officials to get legislative approval before they hand out bonuses to staffers.
The bill from Senate Majority Whip Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) would dissolve the current Georgia Lottery Corp. board and create a new one appointed by the governor, lieutenant [...]
State Sen. David Adelman (D-Atlanta) has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be U.S. ambassador to Singapore, the White House announced late Thursday.
Adelman, a member of Georgia’s state Senate since 2002 served as a member of Obama’s national finance campaign during the 2008 campaign. His wife, Caroline, served on [...]
Attorney General Thurbert Baker is in St. Joseph’s Hospital of Atlanta recuperating from surgery to remove his gall bladder.
Baker, a 2010 Democratic candidate for governor, under went the procedure Tuesday evening, his campaign spokesman Jeff DiSantis said Wednesday.
“Attorney General Baker is expected to return to his normal work schedule after [...]
A bipartisan panel of state lawmakers on Wednesday backed a plan to legalize betting on horse racing in Georgia.
Rep. Harry Geisinger (R-Roswell), the chairman of the Special Equine Study Committee, said at the panel’s meeting that they would propose a public referendum to legalize a new form of gambling in [...]
House Speaker Glenn Richardson called his parents in Douglas County last Sunday and told them he had taken sleeping pills and that it “was too late to do anything,” according to the 911 recording of the call.
Richardson’s mother, Merty, called 911 on Nov. 8 and said her son was conscious [...]
Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram)
Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) suffers from depression and recently tried to take his own life.
Richardson, in a statement to the media, said Friday that he has been suffering from depression for the past 2 1/2 [...]
Gov. Sonny Perdue on Tuesday visited Georgia National Guard units fighting in Iraq.
While in Baghdad’s Green Zone, Perdue spoke by telephone with reporters in Georgia about his trip.
“All in all the spirit and morale of our troops is palpable,” Perdue said. “They feel there is light at the end of [...]
Georgia’s revenue collections fell another 18 percent in October, compared to the same month a year ago, as the state’s three main sources of tax income continued to collapse.
This marks the 11th consecutive month of declining revenues. Here is a look at the figures released Monday and how they compare [...]
The state Department of Corrections will ban all tobacco use at its 37 facilities by the end of next year, becoming the 11th state to implement a total withdrawal of smoking at its prisons.
Corrections Commissioner Brian Owens told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday that the agency will begin a phase-out [...]
Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine levied a $750,000 fine against United Healthcare Insurance Company and its sister companies for delaying payment on thousands of health claims.
Oxendine said the firms were slow to pay about $20 million in health care claims.
The commissioner, a Republican candidate for governor, has fined several health insurance [...]
Wall Street’s top bond-rating agencies confirmed Georgia’s top-shelf financial status Friday, but one warned that the state faces an additional $360 million in budget cuts this fiscal year.
Moody’s, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s review every state’s financial health and awards a grade. Those grades are used by banks to set [...]
Statehouse insurance lobbyist Wayne Reece, recently booted off a nonprofit board after fellow board members found out he’d been paid $400,000 by the group for lobbying and consulting, is hosting a campaign fundraiser next month for U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) according to an invitation sent out by a Washington [...]
F. Allen Barnes will be the new director of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division if Gov. Sonny Perdue’s choice for the job is approved by the Department of Natural Resources board on Wednesday.
Barnes, a former regional U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief of staff, will replace Carol Couch at EPD. Couch [...]
Gov. Sonny Perdue charged state agency leaders this morning to make the most of the final months of his administration.
Perdue, who is constitutionally prevented from seeking a third term, will leave the governor’s office in Jan. 2011. That’s not a lot time, he told more than 200 agency directors and [...]
The Georgia Democratic Party has launched a new Web site that it says details “cases of corruption, graft and backroom dealings from influential Georgia Republicans.”
The site, www.WhoTheyRepresent.com, targets U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.), state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, former state Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) and U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson [...]
A Georgia state employee has filed a civil suit accusing Gov. Sonny Perdue of taking away employees’ pay raises.
William Estill sued Perdue and the head of every state agency in Fulton County Superior Court on Monday. He is asking for class-action status.
Estill claims that the General Assembly and Perdue approved [...]
State Revenue Commissioner Bart Graham said today that it cost the state 36 cents to mail each of the 278,000 interest checks that were issued because the state was slow to process and send out income tax refunds this year.
That works out to about $100,000 for a state hurting for [...]
The U.S. Justice Department has denied Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel’s appeal of its decision to reject Handel’s plan for verifying voters’ citizenship.
Handel, a 2010 Republican gubernatorial hopeful, asked the department in August to reconsider its decision to reject the system.
The Justice Department in May said the verification program [...]
U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Ga) was fined $7,500 by the state Ethics Commission Thursday for failing to file reports showing what he did with leftover campaign money he raised while he served in the General Assembly.
Scott served two decades in the General Assembly from Atlanta before being elected to Congress [...]
The Professional Association of Georgia Educators, the state’s largest teacher group, has filed a lawsuit against the state for cutting the 10 percent salary supplements going to about 2,500 National Board Certified teachers.
PAGE is requesting that a Fulton County Superior Court judge reinstate the supplements, which were cut from 10 [...]
The business partner of U.S Rep. Nathan Deal, a Republican candidate for governor in 2010, says they got out of the lucrative state auto salvage inspection business because they fear changes made by the state endanger the safety of Georgians.
“I am deeply concerned that a reduction in safety requirements could [...]
Georgia’s revenue collections fell another 16 percent in September, compared to the same month a year ago, as the state’s three main sources of tax income continued to bottom out.
It is the 10th consecutive month of declining revenues.
For the fiscal year, which began July 1, state revenue is off 14.2 [...]
Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, a Republican candidate for governor in 2010, is the first hopeful out of the gate Monday with a news release denouncing cuts in bonuses for the state’s more 2,000 national board certified teachers.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this weekend that national board certified teachers are seeing the [...]
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Friday that more than 3,600 Georgians have already applied for assistance in the wake of this week’s devastating floods.
And more applications are expected to continue to pour in as additional counties are added to the list of those eligible.
As of late Friday, eight counties [...]
Federal officials have added another county to the disaster list from this week’s floods, as Walker County joins seven other counties were federal assistance is now available.
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s office announced the addition of Walker County on Friday afternoon, after Vice President Joe Biden announced that Chattooga and Stephens were [...]
Two additional counties have been added to Georgia’s disaster list and those in the most severely impacted area have a new way to get help.
Vice President Joe Biden was in Georgia today to tour damage from this year’s historic flood, which claimed nine lives and caused more than $250 million [...]
Final update 12:18 p.m.: Biden and his party have departed for Air Force Two to return to Washington. Look for a complete story on his visit on ajc.com shortly.
Update: 11:40 a.m.: Biden said two more counties have been added to the disaster list: Stephens and Chattooga
Update: 11:39: Vice President Joe [...]
Update 4:08 p.m.: OK, confusion cleared. They were both right. The White House now says that Cherokee AND Carroll were included in the disaster declaration. That makes five counties instead of four.
Original post:
Is Cherokee or Carroll county a disaster area?
Carroll, along with Douglas, Cobb and Paulding, have appeared to have [...]
Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Georgia on Friday to brief state and local leaders on federal response to this week’s devastating floods.
Biden will also meet witih families affected by the floods, the White House announced. More detailis are to be released later Thursday.
Biden’s visit comes the day [...]
President Barack Obama has issued a federal disaster declaration for Carroll, Cobb, Paulding, Douglas and Cherokee counties in the wake of this week’s devastating floods, Gov. Sonny Perdue’s office has announced.
Perdue had asked Obama to declare an emergency in 17 Georgia counties and the governor said the request covering the [...]
A state official called to say the College Football Hall of Fame is going to announce Thursday that the hall is moving from South Bend, Indiana, home of Notre Dame, to Atlanta. The official said he has been invited to the press conference at ESPNzone in Atlanta
[...]Mitsubishi Power Systems will place a new manufacturing facility in Georgia’s industrial “megasite” near Savannah and bring a $325 million investment and 500 jobs with it.
Gov. Sonny Perdue announced the deal Monday afternoon. Mitsubishi will build advanced steam and gas turbines at the site, and service turbines and other equipment [...]
Updated throughout 2:36 p.m:
Republican Eric Johnson on Tuesday resigned from the state Senate, giving himself a leg up in the money race as he makes a bid for the 2010 GOP nomination for governor.
Johnson, who was chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee and served in the General Assembly for 17 [...]
Former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears is endorsing former prosecutor Ken Hodges in the Democratic race for attorney general.
Sears, the state’s first female member of the Supreme Court, retired this summer. She joins former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador Andrew Young as top Georgia Democrats to endorse [...]
Elena Parent, an attorney and former state Senate aide, will challenge state Rep. Jill Chambers (R-Atlanta) for the North DeKalb seat in the General Assembly.
Parent, former chief of staff to Sen. David Adelman (D-Atlanta), is the development director for HOPE Atlanta, also known as Travelers Aid of Metro Atlanta.
Chambers is [...]
State tax revenue dropped 16.2 percent in August, in part because the state was still sending income tax refund checks to Georgians from returns they filed in April.
Collections were off $207 million from August of 2008. Income tax revenue, which was affected  by the refunds, were down 20.8 percent from [...]
A group of Republican state senators on Thursday said they want to amend the state’s Constitution in an attempt to stop Democrats in Washington from enforcing health care reform here.
Sens. Judson Hill (R-Marietta) and Chip Rogers (R-Marietta) were joined by about half a dozen colleagues to unveil their plans. The [...]
When is a four-day weekend not necessarily a good thing? When one of those four days is an unpaid furlough.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of state employees are taking a forced unpaid day off Friday as state government continues to deal with its budget crisis.
Employees across state government have been ordered [...]
A non-profit legal watchdog group in Washington has filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga) in response to a story in this past Sunday’s AJC.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed the complaint Wednesday, arguing that Deal violated House rules and [...]
The House Transportation Committee has confirmed the governor’s pick for director of planning at the state Department of Transportation. Todd Long, a longtime engineer and manager at the DOT and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, won confirmation in a unanimous voice vote. Last week, a House subcommittee also recommended him unanimously. Long [...]
Georgia has a new federal stimulus czar. Gov. Sonny Perdue on Tuesday named Sid Johnson, a veteran state government worker, as Director of Stimulus Accountability. He takes the job as Celeste Osborn, who doubles as the state’s deputy financial officer, announced her retirement at the end of this month. Johnson will oversee how [...]
Rick Thompson, executive secretary of the State Ethics Commission, resigned his post today.
The commission handles campaign finance and lobbyist disclosure reports and judges complaints filed against politicians, lobbyists and political groups.
Thompson has been with the commission since January 2004 and took over at a time when state officials said the agency [...]
Former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young has endorsed Ken Hodges in the 2010 Democratic primary campaign for attorney general.
Young’s endorsement of the former Albany prosecutor is significant, because Young remains one of Georgia’s most influential Democrats, and because African-Americans could make up half of the electorate in July’s Democratic primary between [...]
By Kristi E. Swartz kswartz@ajc.com
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has agreed to meet with Gov. Sonny Perdue an an attempt to hash out a water-sharing agreement, Perdue said Monday. Now it’s up to Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida to join in as well. Perdue sent the two governors a list of 40 possible dates [...]
Gov. Sonny Perdue on Wednesday will host a briefing on the ongoing efforts to solve the tri-state water war for those who want to succeed him.
Perdue’s communications director, Bert Brantley, said Friday that the governor offered the 2010 gubernatorial candidates an opportunity to learn more about the situation and the state’s [...]
Aaron Gould Sheinin, James Salzer
