Ward had served on the Clarkesville City Council for 4 years, joining in 2017, and was re-elected to continue his service on the council during November’s municipal elections. Just weeks after his reelection, a heart attack took his life.
Clarkesville City Councilman Steven Ward passed away on Dec. 11, 2021, of natural causes.
“Steven served the city with a willing spirit and a keen financial mind,” Mayor Barrie Aycock told Now Habersham. “He will be greatly missed by all of us at the city.”
While still mourning his passing, the city council recognizes his post on the council needs to be filled. The city will hold an election Tuesday, May 24 for the Post 5 seat.
According to City Manager Keith Dickerson, qualifying for the election will begin on Monday, March 7 at 9:00 a.m. with an $18 qualifying fee. That qualifying period will end on Friday, March 11 at noon.
Those interested in serving on the council can qualify during that period at the Habersham County Office of Elections and Voter Registration, located in the basement of the Habersham County Administration Building.
Candidates must have lived in Clarkesville for at least one year prior to running, be at least 21 years old and be registered to vote in the City of Clarkesville. For a full list of qualifications, click here.
Around midnight on Friday, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department responded to reports of a shooting on Elkview Drive in Athens, where a 28-year-old man had been shot in the leg.
According to the ACCPD’s incident report, Bernabe Hernandez, 28, was shot in the leg on the front lawn of his home. Witnesses said they saw a gray sedan flee the scene just after Hernandez was shot, and that one of the people in the vehicle was someone Hernandez knew.
Hernandez was shot in the leg while outside of his home on Elkview Drive in Athens. (Google Street View)
That person, Alexis Alba of Commerce, is now a suspect in the shooting. The ACCPD says Hernandez received a text from the Alba asking him to come outside before he was shot.
Hernandez was transported to Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, where he is expected to recover.
The investigation into Friday’s events is ongoing. Anyone with information regarding the incident is encouraged to contact Sergeant Dickson at 762-400-7070 or via email at [email protected].
Heather Cimellaro, builds a toy house with her twins, Milo, left, and Charlie, at their home, Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022, in Auburn, Maine. Heather Cimellaro is one many parents concerned about the omicron surge and the dilemma it's posing for families of children too young to be vaccinated. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Many parents hoped end-of-year holidays and vacations would lead to a better sense of peace, if not normalcy, with respect to the ongoing pandemic.
Instead, as we head into the third year of COVID-19, Georgia is seeing its highest case counts — particularly among children — since the virus appeared. Much of that comes thanks to the omicron variant.
This latest variant, which only made its debut in Georgia about a month ago, moves much more quickly than the delta variant. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that vaccines are doing their job, said Dr. Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the NYC hospital system.
In New York City, where COVID cases are currently leading the nation, many patients sick enough to need hospitalization are elderly or have other health issues that put them at higher risk for severe disease or death, Madad said.
“In addition to those being hospitalized, as you look at their vaccination status, by and large a majority of those that are hospitalized are unvaccinated,” she said. “And so, again, that really just shows you the power of vaccination in our communities.”
Infections in children spiked in the last 14 days of 2021, with Rockdale and Newton counties seeing the highest case counts in the metro Atlanta area, which leads the state.
More adults get sick when community spread is high, which inevitably leads to more sick children. This is also the time of year when students return to school after winter break.
Available data show that severe illness due to COVID-19 is uncommon among children, but more pediatric patients are being admitted to hospitals.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta recently reported more than 100 COVID patients treated at the same time — a record number.
Hospitalized children with COVID are most often unvaccinated, Madad said.
Also, attention should be paid toward the longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may have negative emotional and mental health effects, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine is now available for children as young as 5 years old, but instead of curbing community spread by vaccinating, Georgia, with its 55% vaccination rate, is experiencing a fifth wave of COVID cases.
Emory University School of Medicine Distinguished Professor Dr. Carlos del Rio told Political Rewind on Tuesday that everyone entering an emergency room is tested for COVID-19, and that this is a procedure doctors have been doing for months now.
Lately, roughly 30% of patients test positive for the disease despite seeking care for unrelated medical issues, such as treating injuries after a car crash.
That estimate predates data available Monday from the Georgia Department of Public Health. The state said an overwhelming amount of data could not be sorted quickly enough to meet the usual deadline for the weekly report.
The Daily Status Report will not update today, Jan. 3, due to a large amount of data overwhelming the system. We are working to fix the problem and expect to have an update tomorrow at 3 p.m.
Holiday travel and indoor gatherings will likely lead to even more testing as well as higher percent positivity, Del Rio said, adding that everyone should remain “on guard.”
That means a return to masking in public — and wearing a proper mask correctly, with a strong seal, he said, suggesting KN95 or N95 brands. Del Rio admitted many masks for sale are not NIOSH approved, and consumers must be wary.
As of Thursday, Jan. 6, the rate of positivity in Georgia has risen to 25%. The goal experts aim for is less than 5% positivity.
Back in August, when students returned to in-person classes, the delta variant pushed test positivity to 29%. At that time, Georgia had not seen more than 40,000 new COVID cases in a week since January, reported microbiologist Amber Schmidtke.
Del Rio said the best way to protect children under 5, who currently cannot get vaccinated, is to vaccinate those around them.
“As a grandparent of two kids under 5, it’s something we’re all concerned about,” Del Rio said. “At this time, what we need to tell parents of kids under 5 is that the best way to protect the kids is to have everybody around them vaccinated.”
Many Georgians now feel like every step forward gets pushed two steps back by new variants. Many people are burned out on all aspects of the pandemic. Many gave up wearing or never wanted to wear masks, and, now, many people are shutting out any information about coronavirus.
The experts haven’t changed their advice: All people age 5 and above should get at least one dose of an mRNA or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as soon as possible.
In facing both delta and omicron variants, experts agree that COVID vaccination saves lives.
“You’re seeing more individuals with breakthrough infections that have been fully vaccinated and boosted, and that’s completely normal because there’s so much virus working in the community,” Madad said. “But what you’re seeing is a majority of those breakthrough infections are extremely mild or asymptomatic.”
As the latest Covid surge intensifies, state Public Health officials are running an “isolation hotel’’ for virus patients who are homeless or in living situations where disease spread is more likely.
State health officials said Wednesday that the metro Atlanta facility, which was not identified, has capacity for 50 people, along with additional space in trailers if needed.
The state effort renews the public Covid isolation effort that local agencies, with state and city funding, ran from April 2020 to June 2021 in an Atlanta hotel.
Homeless camp under Atlanta interstate
This recent Covid wave, driven by the Omicron variant, has caused explosive growth in infections across Georgia.
In Savannah, Chatham County public health officials reported a 480 percent increase in cases over the past week. Cobb County’s rate of cases climbed to 2,468 per 100,000 residents over the last two weeks, the Marietta Daily Journal reported. Any rate above 100 per 100,000, by comparison, is considered “high transmission” of the virus.
The AJC reported that many Georgia professors are calling for stricter COVID-19 protocols ahead of Monday’s return to classrooms. That’s the same day when UGA students are expected to gather in large numbers to watch the broadcast of the college football national championship game, in which Georgia plays Alabama.
State statistics show a startling 35 percent of residents getting PCR tests over the past two weeks have been found to be infected.
The previous Atlanta isolation hotel, a Holiday Inn in Atlanta, served about 560 Covid patients, said Cathryn Marchman of Partners for Home, an advocacy organization for people who are homeless.
“I think it was a tremendous accomplishment in aiding us in preventing the spread of infection among the homeless population,’’ said Marchman of Partners, a nonprofit that manages the city’s homelessness strategy.
At the current state-run facility, Georgia’s Department of Public Health and a contractor manage a location with 50 rooms, agency spokeswoman Nancy Nydam said Wednesday. “We also have some overflow trailers that can be used if needed,” she said.
The people referred there include homeless persons, individuals living in “congregate settings,’’ and those who cannot safely isolate themselves in their current residences. “We typically receive referrals from hospitals or congregate settings,” Nydam said.
In March 2020, during the early stages of the pandemic, state officials opened an isolation and monitoring site for coronavirus patients at Hard Labor Creek State Park in Morgan County. That site was shut down the same month, after having served just two patients.
The search for a Cleveland, Georgia, woman missing since New Year’s Day ended tragically on Thursday when searchers found the body of Mattie Mizell. White County Coroner Ricky Barrett confirmed the 69-year-old’s death.
Mizell was captured on surveillance cameras as she walked around Cleveland on New Year’s Day (photo from Cleveland Police Dept.)
“We don’t know how long she was dead, cause of death or anything like that – we don’t know right yet,” Barrett told Now Habersham. He said he will confer with the State Medical Examiner’s office on Friday.
The Cleveland Police Department, which led the exhaustive six-day search for Mizell, released a statement late on January 6 saying her body was found that evening along the edge of a creek in a densely wooded area.
“Foul play is not suspected,” said Cleveland Police Chief Jeff Shoemaker.
The discovery came on the heels of an exhaustive six-day search that began January first when Mizell, who had dementia, went for a walk and never returned home. She was captured on surveillance cameras and spotted by residents in several locations on New Year’s Day. The last known sighting of her was in the area of NOK Drive northeast of Cleveland.
Exhaustive search
Ground crews and tracking dogs spent days searching the outlying areas near where Mizell was seen. Search teams used drones and helicopters to check adjacent waterways and areas difficult to access by foot, officials said.
On Tuesday, Chief Shoemaker released a photo of a pickup truck seen on NOK Drive around the same time as Mizell. Officials were looking for the driver, hoping to speak with them to find out if they saw anything. As of Wednesday evening, police were still looking for that driver.
Police released this photo of a pickup truck, hoping to speak with its driver. (photo Cleveland Police Dept.)
The search for Mizell gained statewide attention. News stations across Georgia covered the story and thousands of people shared social media posts and articles about the search for the missing woman. They shared the hope, too, that she would be found safe.
“We are heartbroken with the outcome of this case. It is not the outcome anyone in our community was hoping for,” said Cleveland Mayor Josh Turner. “On behalf of the City of Cleveland and our partners, I would like to extend sincere and heartfelt condolences to the Mizell family. This is an incredibly difficult time for Mrs. Mizell’s family and the community.”
As invested as the public was in this case, none were more invested than those public safety officials and volunteers who searched for Mattie Mizell. Personnel from multiple local and state agencies including the Cleveland Police Department, White County Public Safety Department, Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Georgia Emergency Management Agency, and Georgia Department of Defense were involved in the search. Barrett said they should be commended because they never gave up.
“Nobody stopped looking for her. They just kept on,” he told Now Habersham. “They had resources from everywhere looking for her and they stayed with it.”
Searchers used drones to try and locate Mattie Mizell. The 69-year-old Cleveland woman, who police say had dementia, walked away from her home on New Year’s Day and never returned. (photo by wrwh.com)Low cloud cover grounded search helicopters in the area of NOK Drive in Cleveland on Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)Officials set up a command post during the search at the White County Middle School gym. Mizell was seen walking near the school the day she went missing. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)Cleveland Police Chief Jeff Shoemaker (left), White County Fire Chief Seth Weaver (right) discuss the search with state law enforcement officials. (Hadley Cottingham/Now Habersham)
“The police department would like to thank members of the community who assisted in the search,” Chief Shoemaker said. “We are all saddened by the outcome; our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Mrs. Mizell.”
Mizell’s family has asked for the public to respect their privacy and will make no statements regarding the matter, the police chief said. He also said they will not be receiving visitors at this time, adding, anyone may contact the Cleveland Police Department at 706-348-7078.
This article has been updated with the latest information
A memorial for former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson was held in Atlanta on Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022.
(Credit: Screenshot)
One year after an attack on democracy at the U.S. Capitol, a bipartisan group of friends, family and former colleagues remembered the long, impactful life of former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson on Thursday.
The pews of Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in Atlanta were full of people who had a story about Isakson, who died just before his 77th birthday in December after largely retiring from the public eye, battling Parkinson’s disease and other health issues.
Isakson was a Republican when being a Republican wasn’t common in Georgia, and grew to become a uniquely beloved figure by both parties. The only person to serve in the Georgia state House and Senate, plus the U.S. House and Senate, Isakson embodied a type of people-focused bipartisan politics over four decades that just isn’t present much anymore.
“I never worry about what I’m doing politically or practically in the Senate as long as I think I’m doing what’s right,” he told GPB’s Political Rewind in 2019. “Hopefully my epitaph will say … that he always worked for the best interests of people. As long as that’s the case, I’m happy.”
For more than 90 minutes on Jan. 6, 2022, his children talked of a caring father, colleagues talked of a genuine friend and hard worker, and the audience was reminded of how giant a hole Isakson will leave behind.
“There’s an old saying that if you know who you are, then you’ll know what to do,” Peachtree Road United Methodist Church senior minister Bill Britt said. “And without question, Johnny Isakson was a man of faith, a man of hope, a man of great compassion for others. He knew who he was, and he knew what to do. What he did is live an extraordinary life.”
Setting the theme for the memorial, Britt said that “Johnny Isaksons just don’t come along every day.”
Isakson was a lifelong conservative, and his voting record reflected it. But he was a rare breed of politicians who was truly willing to work across the aisle to accomplish things for the greater good. On the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection in which a pro-Trump mob tried to stop the Electoral College process, in a way the Isakson memorial also served as a memorial for decency in politics in a bitterly polarized era.
Around two dozen U.S. senators flocked to the memorial to pay tribute to their friend and colleague, as did Georgia political leaders such as Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr, a former top aide and close family friend.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) praised Isakson’s savvy legislating and “cunning” dealmaking, noting that his achievements did not come in spite of his “quiet virtues,” but because of them.
“Now we all know this is a polarized time; unity is in short supply,” McConnell said. “But the gigantic and diverse Johnny Isakson fan club has never failed to pack a room. Johnny Isakson told the truth, he played by the rules, he treated everybody with respect and unfailing kindness: a gentleman in the literal sense, a gentle man.”
Former Sen. Saxby Chambliss met Isakson at the University of Georgia (noting Isakson would certainly be in heaven watching UGA play in the college football national championship on Monday) and walked through Isakson’s long, storied career in politics.
“He particularly loved to vote for a bipartisan bill and authored an awful lot of bipartisan legislation,” he said. “He was very proud to work with Republicans and Democrats on a regular basis. His longtime good friend former Gov. Roy Barnes has oft said of Johnny
that ‘If all Republicans were like Johnny Isakson, I would be a Republican.'”
But there are not many like Johnny Isakson in today’s politics, a similar feeling that was shared when Isakson’s friend Democratic Rep. John Lewis died in 2020.
Their bond, and their impact on better political discourse, can be summed up in an iconic moment when Lewis spoke at Isakson’s farewell to the Senate in 2019.
“The senator does not make a lot of noise, but he has the ability and the capacity to speak power,” Lewis said. “He did not just talk the talk, he literally walked the walk.”
This article appears on Now Habersham through a partnership with GPB News
In a letter Thursday, U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and all six Georgia House Democrats asked federal officials to rescind the federal approval allowing Georgia to be the first state to circumvent healthcare.gov. Screenshot of livestream (2021 file photo)
(GA Recorder) — Georgia’s congressional Democrats are asking the Biden administration to abandon the governor’s plan to bypass healthcare.gov, calling the move “callous and cruel.”
Gov. Brian Kemp’s proposal to divert consumers looking for insurance to a privately run process is part of a health care plan that was approved by the Trump administration in late 2020 but has since faced federal scrutiny.
State officials have defended the plan and accused federal officials of trying to backtrack without justification.
In a letter Thursday, U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and all six Georgia House Democrats asked federal officials to rescind the federal approval allowing Georgia to be the first state to circumvent healthcare.gov, which is the online gateway to the federal insurance marketplace.
“The country is in the midst of tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the greatest health threats in our lifetime, and Georgia should be focused on improving access to health care, not limiting it,” the group wrote. “Instead, this attempt to undermine the (Affordable Care Act) and push Georgians into health plans that are less comprehensive and more expensive is callous and cruel.”
The letter was sent to Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, who is the CMS administrator.
Another portion of the governor’s plan that has found broader support would create a reinsurance program designed to rein in premiums, particularly in rural areas.
The health care plan is one of two conservative-friendly waiver proposals offered up by Kemp in 2019.
The second one would slightly expand Medicaid, but the federal government recently withdrew approval for a work requirement and a monthly premium the state wanted to charge some participants. Kemp has said he plans to challenge the decision in court but has not said whether he plans to move forward with the rest of the expansion plan.
But when it comes to the other waiver, Kemp’s spokeswoman Katie Byrd said the state has already gone live with the reinsurance program, and she said the governor remains focused on implementing the health care plan.
“It is no surprise that this group is choosing to lobby President Biden and obstruct Georgia Access,” Byrd said. “Democrats in Washington want to federalize everything from healthcare to elections. Governor Kemp knows that a one-size-fits-all approach by the federal government will not work in Georgia. At its core, Georgia Access is about expanding consumer access to affordable insurance coverage and, ultimately, reducing our state’s uninsured population.”
In the letter, the Democrats said the plan to by healthcare.gov would drastically change how Georgians enroll in health insurance and cause a major disruption for hundreds of thousands of people. Without access to the site, the state’s low-income residents would be at a “severe disadvantage” compared to their counterparts in other 11 states that have not fully expanded Medicaid, they argued in the letter.
A record 13.6 million Americans have signed up for health coverage for this year on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces as of December, with some of the largest increases coming from Georgia and other non-expansion states, Georgia Health News reported last month.
“We’ve made tremendous strides to improve healthcare for all Georgians over the past few years, including significantly lowering the cost of premiums on the health care exchange,” Suwanee Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Bourdeaux said in a statement. “We cannot allow Republicans in the statehouse to strip those gains.
“Georgia’s attempts to stop individuals from using Healthcare.gov will make it more difficult to find and purchase quality insurance. Washington must block this shadow-rollback of the ACA and protect care for millions of Georgia’s residents,” she added.
Georgia’s congressional Democrats have championed a federal Medicaid workaround program, which was added to the sweeping social and climate bill that has stalled in the Senate.
Due the threat of black ice Friday morning, January 7, Habersham County public schools will operate on a 3-hour delay. The following message is from Superintendent of Schools Matthew Cooper:
“We have been monitoring a potential winter weather event that may impact our Habersham roadways tomorrow morning.
The National Weather Service has just issued a special weather statement for black ice in Habersham County.
We are receiving rain this evening followed by what is called a rapid freeze-up. Temperatures are predicted to be below freezing in our mountains by 11:00pm. Temperatures county-wide will plummet to the low 20s by morning. Any moisture or standing water on roadways will result in black ice.
We are concerned about our student drivers and our buses with the potential for black ice.
We are unable to ignore the black ice threat and are delaying buses and schools by 3 hours tomorrow morning. The three-hour delay is necessary because temperatures are not predicted to rise above freezing until after 10:00 am.
Anyone driving in the early morning hours should use extra caution. Especially on back roads and on bridges.
We wanted to get the word out early so that our parents can make the necessary adjustments for tomorrow.”
As temperatures drop to the coldest so far this season and Georgians warm up their homes, the Georgia Office of the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner and Habersham County Emergency Services Director, Chad Black, are encouraging citizens to be cautious when using space heaters in their homes.
The Office of the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner says that heating equipment is a leading cause of residential fires in the United States. According to the National Fire Protection Association, heating equipment is a leading cause of fires in U.S. homes.
(Source: NFPA)
The NFPA says that every year, fire departments respond to an average of 48,530 fires involving heating equipment. Those fires result in an annual loss of approximately 500 lives, 1,350 injuries and $1.1 billion in property damage.
When using a space heater, Black and the Office of the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner recommend similar safety guidelines:
Keep anything that could catch fire at least 3 feet away from a space heater
Never leave a space heater unattended, whether leaving the house or going to sleep
Never plug a space heater into an extension cord, a heater should be plugged directly into an outlet
Keep space heaters on a level surface on the floor
Don’t use space heaters in kitchens or bathrooms where they could be exposed to water
Keep children and pets safely away from space heaters
Keep cords away from where they may be trip hazards
Black says that all current space heaters have a shut-off mechanism if the heater is tipped over. He says to check and make sure your heaters have this mechanism, and if not, it may be time to look into a new heater.
“Using common sense is the best way to go,” he says.
A Hartwell man died when his mobile home caught on fire the evening of Dec. 6, 2020. Investigators believe the fatal fire was caused by poorly positioned space heaters inside the home.
Not following those important safety instructions can have horrible consequences, though. Black has seen many space heater fires in the years he’s worked in fire services, some resulting in deaths.
“We had one in my past department that was a modular home,” Black says. “[It] occurred during the middle of the night and killed two adults and three children. . . this was a tragic and sad event.”
He says that following investigation into the fire’s origin, they found that a space heater had been left on while the family was asleep. The fire started in the room the space heater was in, and quickly spread through the residence, taking the lives of five people.
“Just use [heaters] exactly how they are recommended to be utilized, never do anything that goes against those recommendations,” Black says. “It only takes a moment to leave [a space heater] unattended, or go to sleep and something tragic occur.”
Space heaters don’t just create a fire hazard in homes, they create a carbon monoxide risk, too. Check back with Now Habersham to hear how a local family almost lost their lives from excess carbon monoxide in their home due to a heater.
Habersham County investigators charged a Gainesville woman with sexual exploitation of children for allegedly asking a 5-year-old to take nude photos of her. Sheriff’s investigators say the accused, Peggy Sue Mize, age 57, wanted the photos to send to someone.
The alleged incident happened at a residence in Clarkesville sometime between October 1, 2020, and January 15, 2021, according to the arrest warrant. It came to light this past December after the child told a counselor about it.
According to the incident report, the child, who is related to Mize, also told the counselor Mize had sex with a man in front of her and that she allegedly gave the child drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes to keep quiet.
Deputies arrested Mize on January 4 and booked her into the Habersham County Detention Center.
This article has been updated to reflect that the alleged victim was female
WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the one-year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2022 in Washington, DC. One year ago, supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol Building in an attempt to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm the electoral college win for Joe Biden. (Photo by Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (GA Recorder) — President Joe Biden on Thursday warned of the dangers of a collapse of American democracy, standing in a historic chamber in the U.S. Capitol that was besieged by an angry mob of pro-Trump supporters who attempted to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
“We are in the battle for the soul of America,” Biden said during a somber and strongly-worded speech in Statuary Hall to mark the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“This was an armed insurrection,” he said. “They weren’t looking to uphold the will of the people.”
Biden stressed that the way forward for the nation to recover from the attack is to “recognize the truth and to live by it.”
“We must be absolutely clear what is true and what is a lie,” he said. “And here’s the truth: The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principle.”
Without citing former President Donald Trump by name, Biden noted that rioters threatened the life of the speaker of the House, and were “literally erecting gallows” to hang the vice president as they rampaged through the Capitol and battled police.
Trump, Biden said, sat in the dining room just off the Oval Office at the White House, “watching it all on television and doing nothing for hours.”
Biden said that Americans should not let Jan. 6 mark the end of democracy, and it instead should spur a renaissance period of protecting the ballot through congressional action.
“Deep in the heart of America burns a flame lit almost 200 years ago,” he said. “Here in America, the people rule through the ballot, and their will prevails.”
Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged that Congress’ role in protecting democracy would not be easy
“Here in this very building,” she said, “a decision will be made on whether we uphold the right to vote and ensure (a) free and fair election.”
Throughout the day, Democrats reflected on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, and multiple speeches on the House and Senate floor were delivered.
We’ve had lots of people who were willing to step up and put their public lives against their private lives. And that’s what we’ve got to depend on today. That’s what we need in these years and months ahead. – Doris Kearns Goodwin
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shortly after the president’s speech held a private moment of reflection on the House floor with staff who were present on Jan. 6.
Pelosi also held a moment of silence on the House floor at noon and honored the lives of the law enforcement officers who died as a result of the attack on the Capitol.
“As we acknowledge the horror of that day in the face of extreme danger, they all risked their safety for our democracy by protecting the Capitol complex, members, staff, press, safeguarding the ballot — in those mahogany boxes — to validate the election and ensuring that Congress could accomplish our purpose,” she said.
The only House Republican who attended was Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. She was accompanied by her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who is also the former House Republican whip.
Dick Cheney said he was disappointed in how Republican leadership was reacting to the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack.
“It’s not a leadership that resembles any of the folks I knew when I was here for 10 years,” he said, according to Capitol Hill pool reports.
Leaving the House’s moment of silence, Cheney said that she’s concerned about the future of the country.
“There are moments when we all have to come together in order to defend the Constitution,” she said, according to pool reports.
More than a dozen Senate Democrats were scheduled to speak on the Senate floor. “There were many breakdowns that day, but the biggest breakdown was the breakdown of our democracy,” said Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Pelosi, along with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and several historians, hosted a discussion in the Cannon Caucus Room about how to preserve the narrative of events that occurred on Jan. 6. The event opened with a virtual appearance by composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, who introduced a group screen performance of “Dear Theodosia” from his musical “Hamilton.”
A pair of prominent historians, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jon Meacham, in the discussion, compared the attack to major events in U.S. history.
Meacham called the event “an inflection point,” that reflected the divisions that pose the greatest threat to the republic since the 1861 attack on Fort Sumter that opened the Civil War.
“This is a chapter, not the end of the story,” he said. “If it is the end of the story, then we have failed…. I don’t believe that’s going to happen. But I believe we are as close to that we have been since Sumter.”
“What you saw a year ago today was the worst instinct of both human nature and American politics, which is the will of power over the idea of equality and the rule of law,” he said.
Goodwin called the divisions in the country today “the hardest moment for democracy in my lifetime.”
Still, she said, other examples — George Washington’s decision to rein in the powers of the presidency, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s leadership during the Great Depression, the civil rights, gay rights, women’s and environmental movements — showed the country could overcome difficult times.
“Even though there’s these bad angels, there are extraordinarily good angels, even on Jan. 6,” she said.
“We’ve had lots of people who were willing to step up and put their public lives against their private lives. And that’s what we’ve got to depend on today. That’s what we need in these years and months ahead.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, said in a statement that Trump’s repeated false claims about voter fraud are a threat to the nation. Trump was impeached for a second time on the grounds of inciting the insurrection.
“The January 6th insurrectionists were emboldened by President Trump to act upon the ‘Big Lie,’ the unfounded conspiracy that voter fraud caused his defeat in the 2020 election, and to use violence as a means to keep a losing president in office,” Merkley said. “This was an attempted coup to disrupt our institutions, sustain power, and overrule the will of the American people.”
That “Big Lie” rhetoric has spurred Republicans at the state level to introduce and pass hundreds of laws that impose strict voting requirements.
Congressional Democrats have struggled to pass federal voting rights legislation, due to the Senate’s filibuster rules that require a 60-vote threshold rather than a simple majority for bills to advance. Senate Democrats have also struggled to get all their members on board with changing current rules to allow for the passage of voting rights.
Two House GOP members, Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, held the only Republican response about the insurrection, on Thursday afternoon. Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom
Republican leadership on Thursday morning largely stayed quiet — except for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. In a statement, McConnell, who was in Georgia attending the funeral of former U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, praised the law enforcement officers who protected lawmakers and defended the Capitol on Jan. 6. But he criticized Democrats for politicizing the day to call for voting rights legislation.
“It is especially jaw-dropping to hear some Senate Democrats invoke the mob’s attempt to disrupt our country’s norms, rules, and institutions as a justification to discard our norms, rules and institutions themselves,” he said.
Two House GOP members, Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, held the only Republican response about the insurrection, on Thursday afternoon.
The press conference was an attempt for Greene and Gaetz to spread a conspiracy theory, which has circled around conservative outlets and right-wing groups without evidence, that the federal government played a role in the insurrection. Both lawmakers objected to the certification of the electoral college votes on the grounds of voter fraud, which was the underlying reason the mob attacked the Capitol.
Greene, a freshman, was stripped of her committee seats after social media posts surfaced where she encouraged violence against Democratic leaders.
Gaetz is currently under investigation by the Justice Department looking into sex trafficking allegations to conclude if he violated federal law by providing payments to a 17-year-old girl in exchange for sex.
In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, five people died, hundreds of law enforcement officers were injured — four later died by suicide — and congressional staff, lawmakers, police and journalists were traumatized. One woman was shot and killed by a Capitol Hill police officer after she tried to breach the House Speaker’s Lobby.
The architect of the Capitol estimated that the attack caused about $1.5 million worth of damage to the Capitol building.
More than 725 defendants who participated in the riot have been arrested in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The Justice Department has charged more than 225 defendants “with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including over 75 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer,” according to the agency.
Timmie Ralph “Tim” Sutton, age 62 of Clarkesville, passed away on Tuesday, January 4, 2022.
Born on November 2, 1959, in Clayton, he was a son of Rosie Nelms Sutton of Demorest and the late Junior Ralph Sutton. Mr. Sutton was the owner of Tim Sutton Construction where he specialized in residential construction. In his spare time, he enjoyed woodworking and was also a classic car enthusiast. He enjoyed restoring, rebuilding and showing his cars and won many first-place trophies in the shows. Most of all, Mr. Sutton loved his family, especially his grandkids. He was of the Baptist faith.
In addition to his mother, survivors include his wife of 41 years, Patsy Hulsey Sutton of Clarkesville; son and daughter-in-law, Shane Sutton (Katrina) of Demorest; daughter and son-in-law, Tammy Little (Jason) of Clarkesville; grandchildren, Aaron, LeeAnn, Leah, Alex, Ethan, Jayla, Levi and Cody; brothers and sisters-in-law, Steve Sutton (Denise) and Vinson Sutton (Debbie) all of Demorest; sisters and brothers-in-law, Barbara Crider (Lonnie) and Jean Frankum (James) all of Demorest, Linda Gragg (Tim) of Clarkesville; several nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.
Funeral services are 2 pm Sunday, January 9, 2022, in the Chapel of McGahee-Griffin & Stewart with Rev. Keith Allison officiating. Interment will follow in Fairfield Baptist Church cemetery.
The family will receive friends from 10 am until the service hour on Sunday at the funeral home.
Those in attendance are asked to adhere to public health and social distancing guidelines regarding COVID-19.
An online guest register is available and may be viewed at www.mcgaheegriffinandstewart.com
MCGAHEE-GRIFFIN & STEWART FUNERAL HOME OF CORNELIA, GEORGIA (706/778-8668) IS IN CHARGE OF ARRA NGEMENTS.
