August 1, 2018

Facing criticism, GOP governor nominee Kemp removes links from official app

Republican {Secretary of State} Brian Kemp plans to remove links to his campaign’s social media account from his office’s official app, amid criticism from Democrats and others who said he was improperly promoting his bid for governor.

Kemp spokesman Ryan Mahoney said Tuesday that links to the campaign’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts would be removed from an app released by the secretary of state’s office.

Kemp’s campaign had previously refused to remove the links, but Mahoney said Tuesday that the Republican didn’t want them to be a distraction ahead of the November election.

“This practice is legal and common for elected officials who value accessibility and citizen engagement,” said Mahoney. “However, the links will be removed so we can focus on important issues like Stacey Abrams failing to pay her taxes.”

Read more: https://politics.myajc.com/blog/politics/democrats-take-aim-kemp-social-media-links/xYDop18HzIYcanjJlENFHJ/

No, using taxpayer resources to promote an election campaign is unethical and the law in Georgia needs to be tightened so that it is illegal also.

August 1, 2018

Rockdale deputy allegedly smuggled cocaine into county's jail to give inmates

A Rockdale County detention deputy is accused of smuggling drugs into the county’s jail, Channel 2 Action News reported.

Ezra Black, 25, of McDonough, was arrested Thursday after an investigation alleged he was smuggling cocaine into the jail for inmates, Channel 2 reported. He’s been working for the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office for less than six months.

“The entire office is in shock,” Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Yolande Moore told the news station. “It was hard for us to believe that this was going on in our jail.”

The investigation began earlier in July after a tip was received by the Rockdale County Special Investigations Unit, Channel 2 reported.

Read more: https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/rockdale-deputy-allegedly-smuggled-cocaine-into-county-jail-give-inmates/pKUxqmKVmY9XEyMSCmSHzI/

August 1, 2018

Ex-Bibb deputy arrested, charged with aggravated stalking

A former Bibb County sheriff’s deputy was arrested Tuesday afternoon in Dodge County on an aggravated stalking charge.

Clayton Sutton, 35, of Eastman, is accused of violating a temporary restraining order/temporary protective order by allegedly having contact with his ex-wife to harass and/or intimidate her, according to an arrest warrant and an incident report.

Sutton was being held without bond in the Dodge County jail. A Macon attorney who represented him in an unsuccessful appeal of his firing from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office could not be reached late Tuesday afternoon.

Gillian Sutton told a Dodge County sheriff’s deputy that Clayton Sutton had been texting her family members and her boyfriend in spite of a court order, according to Dodge County Sheriff’s Office incident report.

Read more: https://www.macon.com/news/local/crime/article215839285.html

August 1, 2018

Glynn County Democrats holding monthly brainstorming sessions

Jerrold Dagen is running against incumbent Republican state Sen. William Ligon for the District 3 seat, but in addition to that focus, he hosts monthly lunch meetings at the Glynn County Democratic Party office to try to bring Democrats together in a county that tends to go reliably Republican.

“(We’re) trying to get our campaigns more coordinated and trying to get the state more involved, too — I think with our school board, county, state representatives and congressional representative, we have a lot of points of contact and what we started to talk about last week was just how we could get canvassing more organized, and that’s going to be the big thing in voter turnout this year,” Dagen said.

He continued, “Just old-fashioned knocking on the door is what’s making the difference in different parts of the country — and phone banking, too. I think we have to sit down and everybody look at their calendars and see if we can do one or two days a week — one or two days of canvassing, get all the campaign lit that’s out there that we can — and try to get at least one day of phone banking….”

Audrey Gibbons, fresh off a campaign for a seat on the Brunswick-Glynn County Joint Water & Sewer Commission, also stressed the importance of working together.

Read more: https://thebrunswicknews.com/news/local_news/democrats-holding-monthly-brainstorming-sessions/article_7f3c0188-0fed-5b33-9669-6076f910be86.html

August 1, 2018

Ethics charges filed against Georgia judge accused of theft

Georgia’s judicial watchdog agency has filed ethics charges with the state Supreme Court accusing a judge of pulling $15,000 from a court registry.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the Judicial Qualifications Commission says state superior court judge Mack Crawford violated the code of judicial conduct. The commission says even if the money had been his, he failed to follow proper procedures required by attorneys.

In March, a Pike County court clerk told the district attorney Crawford asked for a check from the registry for funds pertaining to a 2002 case in which Crawford served as a private attorney.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is also investigating the matter.

Read more: https://www.allongeorgia.com/georgia-state-news/ethics-charges-filed-against-georgia-judge-accused-of-theft/

August 1, 2018

Georgia jet fuel tax halted, months after Delta, NRA fight

Georgia’s governor on Monday made good on his vow to restore a tax cut on jet fuel sales that was previously killed by state GOP lawmakers irate with Delta Air Lines for ending a discount for members of the National Rifle Association.

Republican Gov. Nathan Deal issued an executive order suspending collection of the state’s 4 percent sales tax on jet fuel beginning Aug. 1. The Georgia General Assembly could reinstate the tax when it reconvenes for the 2019 legislative session in January.

Earlier this year, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle effectively killed a proposed sales tax exemption on jet fuel to punish Delta for ending a discount program for NRA members in the wake of the deadly school shootings in Parkland, Florida, in February.

The proposed exemption was included in a larger tax bill but was stripped by Cagle and the state Senate, capping what Deal referred to an “unbecoming squabble.”

Read more: https://www.allongeorgia.com/georgia-state-politics/georgia-jet-fuel-tax-halted-months-after-delta-nra-fight/

August 1, 2018

Michael Stipe's Brooklyn Art Show Reflects His Ties to Athenian Jeremy Ayers

Beyond his renowned musical career, Michael Stipe has long been a fine-art photographer with an offbeat sensibility. To showcase that side of his artistic talent, Stipe mounted a solo exhibition of photographs, which opened at the Journal Gallery in Brooklyn, NY in early July. The gallery show coincides with the publication of his latest photo book, titled Volume 1.

The exhibition, called “Infinity Mirror” (mimicking the title of Yayoi Kusama’s popular art installation), clearly reflects Stipe’s formative years in Athens and his early aesthetic influences—most prominently the late Jeremy Ayers.

Entering the small, chic gallery, the first image viewers confront is a floor-to-ceiling photo of Ayers standing in a field of kudzu in winter. The stark undulations of the vines and the lone figure in an overcoat and signature hat is simply otherworldly, yet also a bit creepy and menacing. The scale, similar to Jeff Wall’s narrative pictures, enhances the impact of its visual and dramatic appeal.

Stipe’s second homage to Ayers, whom he acknowledges as both mentor and first love, is openly tender and revelatory. Behind a partition on the back wall of the gallery is a video Stipe made in 2014 of Ayers dancing alone. Ayers moves with balletic elegance; he’s fluid and floppy, an obvious free spirit. (Stipe said he shot the video when Ayers was “in his prime—at age 65.”) If you watch the video for a while, you can easily see the influence Ayers had on Stipe’s wispy onstage presence during his 30-year career with R.E.M.

Read more: https://flagpole.com/arts-culture/arts-culture-features/2018/08/01/michael-stipe-s-brooklyn-art-show-reflects-his-ties-to-athens-jeremy-ayers

August 1, 2018

State Representative Jason Spencer Resigns After Fallout from 'Who Is America' Episode

State Representative Jason Spencer, the Woodbine Republican who made national headlines this week for appearing on SHOwtime’s “Who is America?” has resigned from his state house seat.

A copy of the resignation was provided to AllOnGeorgia late Tuesday night after it was sent to Speaker of the House David Ralston at 11:18 P.M. It reads as follows:

Spencer initially said he would not resign from the seat after Speaker David Ralston, Governor Deal and others called for him to step down on Monday.

The show, which aired Sunday night, depicted Spencer dropping his pants to expose his buttocks, yelling profanities, and shouting racial slurs. At the end of the segment in a “Message to Terrorists,” Spencer took to a monologue where he tells “sand n*****s” that “we’re tired of you coming to America” and “trying to threaten us.”

Read more: https://www.allongeorgia.com/georgia-state-politics/state-representative-jason-spencer-resigns-after-fallout-from-who-is-america-episode/

Related thread:
Georgia Lawmaker Makes an Ass Out of Himself--Literally (With Video)
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10462362

August 1, 2018

Georgia Lawmaker Makes an Ass Out of Himself--Literally (With Video)

In the middle of a summer chock-full of political hilarity, with Georgia taking center stage nationally with its candidates and their guns and pickup trucks, another Georgian has set a new low for the state.

On Sunday’s episode of Sacha Baron Cohen’s new project “Who Is America?” the intrepid host—who says he is “in Mossad… I mean, not in Mossad”—persuades naïve Georgia Rep. Jason Spencer (R-Woodbine) to appear on the show ostensibly to learn how to identify and intimidate terrorists. Spencer fails to catch Cohen’s clues that he is not what he says and proceeds to follow the most ridiculous instructions.

Cohen probably zeroed in on the controversial Spencer thanks to his public threat against a black former state representative who was calling for the removal of Confederate statues and his proposed 2016 bill banning burkas.

The highlight of the show comes when Cohen—posing as an Israeli military expert—tells him in an exaggerated accent that the best way to intimidate a terrorist is to threaten to make him “be seen as homo,” and that “if your buttock touch them, it will mean they have become…”

Read more: https://flagpole.com/news/in-the-loop/georgia-lawmaker-makes-an-ass-out-of-himself-literally

August 1, 2018

The Future of the Irish Travelers

Over the past several weeks, there has been a lot of news and rumors circulating regarding the Irish Travelers and those associated with Murphy Village located off Edgefield Road in North Augusta.

While some of the news has been positive for the future of the more than 20 local Irish Travelers who have pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit racketeering, another local businessman with ties to the Travelers faces potentially serious charges relating to a murder-for-hire plot in Texas.

Let’s start with the more positive news for the Travelers.

Just this week, the Augusta Chronicle’s James Folker reported that the federal government has lightened the sentences of a few Travelers charged with racketeering after they agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

One of the Travelers got a six-month prison term; another got only probation, and a third woman with mental health issues received a 36-month home confinement sentence, according to Folker’s July 23 story.

Read more: http://metrospirit.com/future-irish-travelers/