Thirty-one rural school districts in Georgia have received grants to help students gain professional certifications and work experience. The funding is part of an initiative by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Center for Talent and Workforce Preparedness and the Georgia Department of Education.
Four Northeast Georgia school districts — Banks, Elbert, Madison, and White — received funding. Other school districts benefiting from the program include Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley, Burke, Butts, Candler, Chattahoochee, Decatur, Early, Emanuel, Irwin, Lamar, Lee, Lincoln, Macon, Marion, Meriwether, Oglethorpe, Pelham City, Pickens, Seminole, Sumter, Tattnall, Turner, Wayne, and Wilkes.
Number one issue
A press release from the Georgia Chamber said its annual executive insights survey revealed that talent remains the number one issue facing the state’s businesses.
“The Georgia Chamber is excited to support these programs that offer students in our rural school districts opportunities to explore and become better prepared for careers across the state,” said Georgia Chamber President and CEO Chris Clark.
State School Superintendent Richard Woods called early exposure to careers and access to industry-recognized training “vital” to ensuring students gain the skills they need to enter the workforce or pursue higher education.
Woods added, “This partnership with the Georgia Chamber Foundation allows Georgia’s rural students to participate in workforce opportunities available in their local communities, equipping them for success in the classroom and beyond.”
Athens-Clarke County police officers at a recent vehicle checkpoint provided safety information to over 1,000 drivers. (ACCPD)
Police will target drunk drivers at vehicle checkpoints in Athens on March 19. The checkpoints are in response to an 11% increase in DUI arrests last year.
“These checkpoints allow the department to remove unsafe drivers from our streets and also give us a chance to educate the public,” said Sergeant Vincent Schill, a member of the ACCPD Traffic Unit and checkpoint organizer.
Athens-Clarke County Police Department policy dictates the checkpoint date be announced but not the specific location. In a press release, the department said officers will also pass out educational flyers with local statistics addressing why the checkpoints are being conducted.
FILE PHOTO - Gov. Brian Kemp steps out of a Rivian truck at December 2021 press event announcing the electric vehicle maker would build a factory in Georgia. (Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder)
(Georgia Recorder) — The electric vehicle start-up Rivian announced Thursday that it will delay construction on its Georgia plant and instead begin production on new models at its existing plant in Illinois.
Rivian Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe broke the news during a live unveiling of the R2, a new midsize SUV originally planned for production at a site in rural east Georgia. Scaringe also rolled out the R3 and R3X, a new midsize crossover.
The Georgia site was first announced with great fanfare in late 2021. The $5 billion project was hailed as one of the biggest economic development projects in Georgia’s history and a sign of Georgia’s growing role in the electric vehicle industry.
The project was originally set to break ground in early 2022 but has been slowed by legal challenges to the incentives offered to the California-based company and supply chain and other manufacturing woes.
Scaringe said during the live reveal of the new models Thursday that the Georgia plant “remains really important to us.” He said the facility is “core to the scaling across all these vehicles” being launched.
But he said the decision to start production in Illinois was made to quickly bring the new models to market. One of them was notable for its lower $45,000 starting price tag. That move is expected to save the company more than $2 billion.
A company spokesman did not respond to questions about when an updated timeline for construction in Georgia would be released.
“Our Georgia plant remains an extremely important part of our strategy to scale production of R2 and R3, but the timing for its launch is expected to be later to focus our teams on the capital efficient launch of R2 in Normal, IL,” a Rivian spokesman said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
In a statement, the state and local economic development authorities emphasized the silver lining in Thursday’s announcement. The governor’s office deferred comment to the state Department of Economic Development.
“Rivian has restated its commitment to Georgia, and the State and JDA are in steady communication with Rivian regarding its manufacturing plans at Stanton Springs North,” read a joint statement from Georgia Department of Economic Development and Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton, and Walton counties.
The state offered Rivian a $1.5 billion incentive package. Under the project’s economic development agreement, Rivian must meet 80% of its commitment to spend $5 billion and create 7,500 jobs by the end of 2030 through 2049.
Instead of property tax payments, the company pays the local development authority a PILOT payment. Rivian has made $3 million in these payments so far, with the most recent check cut this month. In the long term, the company would also receive job tax credits as it beefs up its payroll.
While the change in plans was greeted with frustration by some in Georgia, the company’s rollout of new models was pleasing to Wall Street. Shares of Rivian Automotive jumped 13% Thursday.
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol on March 07, 2024 in Washington, DC. This was Biden’s last State of the Union address before the general election in November. (livestream image)
WASHINGTON (Georgia Recorder) — In remarks pivotal to his reelection this fall, President Joe Biden, in his State of the Union address Thursday night, portrayed himself as the defender of democracy, touted the bipartisan deals he’s brokered during his first term in office and appealed to Congress to support Ukraine in its battle against the Russian invasion.
“My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy,” Biden said. “A future based on the core values that have defined America: honesty, decency, dignity, equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor. Now, some other people my age see it differently: an American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me.”
Without ever uttering his name, Biden rebuked likely Republican opponent Donald Trump by calling him “a former president” and said that Trump’s recent comments at a rally in South Carolina about allowing Russia’s military to attack NATO allies were outrageous, dangerous, and unacceptable.
“History is literally watching,” Biden said. “If the United States walks away, it will put Ukraine at risk. Europe is at risk. The free world will be at risk, emboldening others to do what they wish, to do us harm.”
Biden said, “what makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home and overseas, at the very same time.”
The president promised to seek the restoration of reproductive rights — speaking to a chamber full of Democratic women dressed in white, intended to show their support for such rights — and with a heavy emphasis on an economic agenda, he vowed to reduce health care costs, impose higher taxes on the wealthy and bring back an expanded child tax credit.
Trump has made immigration a main theme of his campaign, and the Republican-led House earlier Thursday passed legislation named for a college student killed on the campus of the University of Georgia, Laken Riley, whose death has been tied by conservatives to White House immigration policies.
As Biden walked down the House aisle before the speech, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Rome, Georgia, who was wearing a t-shirt bearing Riley’s name, attempted to hand Biden a button with Riley’s name on it. And when Biden mentioned immigration during his remarks, Greene continued to interrupt the president.
Georgia Congressman Mike Collins said on social media that he had invited the parents of Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley, who was killed while jogging on the University of Georgia’s campus. A man who entered the country illegally in 2022 has been charged with murder.
Her parents declined, so Collins said the seat reserved for his guest “will remain vacant to honor Laken and all American victims of illegal alien crime.”
Biden’s address to the joint session of Congress was part campaign speech, part legislative agenda, and part victory lap on the laws enacted during his first term. But it was also significant because it was the largest audience he is likely to have to himself all year, both in person and watching on television.
The speech marked an especially important moment for Biden’s reelection bid after dozens of Republicans questioned his mental faculties following Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on classified documents, which said the president “would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Biden will have dozens of opportunities to take the message in his State of the Union speech directly to voters in the months ahead, beginning with a visit to the Philadelphia area on Friday and a trip to Atlanta on Saturday.
On foreign policy, Biden used the address to call for the protection of civilians in Gaza and for Hamas to release the hostages that militants have held since attacking Israel in October.
He pressed Congress to approve aid for Ukraine and Israel as well as the bipartisan border security and immigration bill that senators negotiated earlier this year — and that Republicans then dropped under pressure from Trump.
FDR reference
Biden began his speech referencing one that President Franklin Roosevelt gave in January 1941.
“President Roosevelt’s purpose was to wake up Congress and alert the American people that this was no ordinary time. Freedom and democracy were under assault in the world,” Biden said.
“Tonight, I come to the same chamber to address the nation. Now it is we who face an unprecedented moment in the history of the Union,” Biden added. “And yes, my purpose tonight is to wake up this Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either.”
Biden assured lawmakers who think that Russian President Vladimir Putin will stop if he successfully overtakes Ukraine that he will not end his military campaign there.
Biden criticized Trump and Republican lawmakers in statehouses throughout the country for restricting or banning access to abortion in the last two years after the Supreme Court’s conservative justices overturned the constitutional right to end a pregnancy that had stood for nearly 50 years.
Speaking about the controversial Roe v Wade decision overturning abortion rights, President Biden spoke directly to members of the U.S. Supreme Court, telling them they would come to understand the “electoral and political power of women.” (livestream image)
“My predecessor came into office determined to see Roe v. Wade overturned,” Biden said. “He’s the reason it was overturned, and he brags about it. Look at the chaos that has resulted.”
Biden then called on voters to flip the U.S. House back to Democratic control while keeping the Senate blue during November’s elections.
“Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America,” Biden said. “But they found out when reproductive freedom was on the ballot and won in 2022, 2023, and they will find out again in 2024.”
“If Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you: I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again,” Biden added.
Popular policy issues
Biden’s address touched on many of the policy issues that Americans view as important areas for lawmakers to address, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.
About 73% of Americans view the economy as a top policy priority for the Biden administration, followed by defending against terrorism at 63% and reducing the influence of money in politics at 62%.
Reducing health care costs, improving education and making Social Security financially sound all tied at 60% in the poll.
Dealing with immigration received 57%, while reducing the availability of illegal drugs got 55% in the survey.
Biden also called on Congress to pass a so-called Unity Agenda that includes issues he believes Republicans and Democrats can agree on.
Those bills, he said, should increase penalties for people who traffic fentanyl, provide protections for children online, bolster artificial intelligence while protecting people from “its peril” and find new ways of treating cancer.
Israel-Hamas war
Biden also discussed the war in Gaza, saying that Hamas’ attack on Israel was the “deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
Biden added that more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, “many of whom are not Hamas.”
“Israel has an added burden because Hamas hides and operates among the civilian population, like cowards – under hospitals, daycare centers and all the like,” Biden said. “But Israel also has a fundamental responsibility to protect innocent civilians in Gaza.”
Biden said the United States would lead an effort to get more humanitarian assistance through a temporary pier installed off the coast, but he called on Israel to “do its part” and allow more aid into Gaza.
“To the leadership of Israel, I say this: Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip,” Biden said. “Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.”
“As we look to the future, the only real solution to the situation is a two-state solution over time,” Biden said.
Democratic Reps. Cori Bush of Missouri, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan held up small posters that called for an immediate ceasefire.
Hours before the president’s address, pro-Palestinian activists blocked roads leading to the U.S. Capitol, according to media reports.
Many activists have pushed for Biden to call for a permanent ceasefire, as Israel’s assault on Gaza since October. Voters across numerous primary states in this week’s Democratic 2024 Super Tuesday cast “uncommitted” ballots as a protest of Biden’s continued support of Israel’s bombardment in Gaza.
GOP blowback
Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama delivered the traditional Republican response to Biden after he spoke, blasting his handling of immigration, the economy, crime and foreign policy, while questioning if the 81-year-old is up to the challenge of leading the country.
“The American people are scraping by while the President proudly proclaims Bidenomics is working,” she said, seated at a kitchen table. “Goodness, y’all. Bless his heart. We know better.”
Other Republicans, such as Greene, yelled at Biden to “say her name” during his speech, referring to Riley. Greene and Troy Nehls of Texas wore pins with Riley’s name on their clothes. Greene also wore a shirt that read: “Say Her Name,” followed by Riley’s name.
The “Say Her Name” is a social movement spurred by intersectional feminist Kimberlé Crenshaw that specifically raises awareness for Black women who are victims of police brutality and gender-based violence.
Biden expressed his condolences to Riley’s family, saying he knew how it felt to lose a child, talking about his son, Beau, who died of cancer.
After the outburst from Greene, Biden took another swipe at Trump. He called out how the former president has used dehumanizing language to describe migrants claiming asylum at the southern border.
“I will not demonize immigrants saying they are ‘poisoning the blood of our country,’” Biden said. “I will not separate families. I will not ban people because of their faith.”
House Republicans have repeatedly clashed with the Biden administration on its policies at the southern border as the White House deals with the largest number of migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border in 20 years.
That disagreement has continued to escalate, first with the walking back of a bipartisan border security deal that would have resulted in the overhaul of U.S. immigration law. It reached a crux with the recent impeachment of U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in February.
Since Republicans walked away from that immigration deal, Biden has pressed for them to reconsider it so his administration can adequately address migration at the southern border.
“Unfortunately, politics has derailed this bill so far,” Biden said. “I’m told my predecessor called members of Congress in the Senate to demand they block the bill.”
Republicans have argued that Biden can take executive action to address the border — however, immigration law is set by Congress. So far, the Biden administration has taken 535 executive actions related to immigration compared to the 472 executive actions under the Trump administration, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute.
Democrats celebrate
Following the speech, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pumped his fists up and down and shouted, “We are exhilarated.”
Sen. Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, said that “the whole world is watching” what the U.S. does. He also dismissed worries about Biden’s age.
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia said he was pleased to hear Biden’s support for a six-week ceasefire in Gaza, and wants to see humanitarian aid delivered quickly to the region.
Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan said she felt optimistic after Biden’s speech, especially how he touched upon conservation and climate initiatives. She said she believes he’ll be supportive of the Senate’s work on the delayed farm bill.
“Our farmers need it, our families need it and our rural communities need it,” Stabenow, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, said.
Louisiana’s GOP Rep. Garret Graves said he felt Biden’s speech was more of “a campaign speech” rather than a “sincere sort of message to the American people.”
“This administration thought it was a good idea to double and triple down on stupid,” Graves said, talking about some tax proposals Biden mentioned. “The very policies that got us into this quandary that we’re in right now.”
Deputy Editor Jill Nolin contributed to this report.
U.S. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama delivered the Republican response to the State of the Union on Thursday, March 7, 2024. (Screenshot from C-SPAN)
(States Newsroom) — First-term U.S. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama delivered the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Thursday night and laid blame on Biden for a host of national and international crises — what she said is chaos at the border, in cities, in the economy, and among U.S. allies.
Britt stuck mostly to familiar GOP talking points. She panned Biden’s handling of immigration, the economy, crime, and foreign policy while questioning if the 81-year-old is up to the challenge of leading the country.
But the Alabamian delivered some critiques in a more congenial Southern manner than many other national Republicans are prone to use.
“The American people are scraping by while the President proudly proclaims Bidenomics is working,” she said. “Goodness, y’all. Bless his heart. We know better.”
Seated at a kitchen table, Britt said her most important job was as “a wife and mother to two school-aged children,” and framed much of her criticism as anxiety about her children’s generation.
Biden has overseen an eroding American dream, Britt said, delivering in gentler language a central campaign theme for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“The country we know and love seems to be slipping away,” she said. “It feels like the next generation will have fewer opportunities — and less freedom — than we did. I worry my own children may not even get a shot at living their American dreams.”
The country can “do better,” Britt said.
Coming eight months before a presidential election, the State of the Union and Britt’s response were marked by heavy doses of campaign rhetoric, and Britt asked voters to reject Biden at the ballot box.
“There is no doubt we’re at a crossroads. We all feel it,” she said.
“But here’s the good news: We the people are still in the driver’s seat. We get to decide whether our future will grow brighter, or whether we settle for an America in decline. Well, I know which choice our children deserve — and the choice the Republican Party is fighting for.”
Immigration, foreign policy
As Trump and other Republicans have for the past year, Britt made a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border a central criticism of the president.
Biden came into office with “the most secure border of all time,” but squandered it with a host of executive orders meant to soften the approach to immigration Trump, his predecessor, oversaw, Britt said.
Britt said fentanyl and coming across the border and “senseless murders” were responsible for “empty chairs at kitchen tables just like this one.”
Britt cited Laken Riley, a nursing student in Georgia killed by a Venezuelan immigrant with a previous conviction for shoplifting.
Biden mentioned Riley during his address, which still didn’t satisfy Republican critics who urged him to “say her name.”
“Tonight, President Biden finally said her name,” Britt said. “But he refused to take responsibility for his own actions. Mr. President, enough is enough.”
Biden also squandered U.S. geopolitical advantages, Britt said, first with a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and then by entertaining a new deal to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.
“We’ve become a nation in retreat,” she said. “And the enemies of freedom see an opportunity.”
She described an unsafe world stage, highlighting U.S. casualties in the Middle East since war between Israel and the militant group Hamas began in October. She referenced the deaths of three U.S. soldiers in Jordan and two Navy SEALS off the coast of Somalia in January.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine also showed world affairs were dangerous, Britt said.
But she did not address Biden’s call roughly an hour earlier for Congress to approve funding for Ukraine. Republicans in Congress have stymied the administration’s request for additional aid to help Ukraine fight Russia’s invasion.
IVF, economy and crime
Britt said Republicans support nationwide access to in vitro fertilization, a common fertility treatment that has been in the national spotlight for more than a week after the Alabama Supreme Court issued a decision holding that excess embryos routinely created during IVF had the same legal rights as children.
“We strongly support continued nationwide access to in vitro fertilization,” Britt said. “We want to help loving moms and dads bring precious life into this world.”
While the president pointed to dropping unemployment, flattening inflation and rising wages, Britt said Biden’s message was divorced from the reality for families still “struggling to make ends meet” with the high costs of necessities such as housing and childcare.
Britt also played on voters fears’ of crime, blaming a perceived rise in violence on a liberal political ideology that accepts criminality and opposes police funding.
“For years, the left has coddled criminals and defunded the police – all while letting repeat offenders walk free. The result is tragic but foreseeable—from our small towns to America’s most iconic city streets, life is getting more and more dangerous.”
The actual crime statistics painted a less clear picture. While the interview-based annual criminal victimization survey conducted by the federal Bureau of Justice indicated an increase in violent crime from 2021 to 2022, FBI crime statistics compiled from local police reports across the country showed a drop in the national violent crime rate and the murder rate.
Unifying all of Britt’s criticisms of Biden’s policy choices was the idea that Biden was a weak leader, perhaps hobbled by age.
“Right now, our Commander in Chief is not in command,” she said. “The free world deserves better than a dithering and diminished leader.”
Launching pad?
The State of the Union response, delivered by a member of the opposing party to the president, is seen as a plum assignment for young politicians with ambitions beyond their current office.
Florida Republican Marco Rubio delivered a response in 2013, two years before he’d run for president.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s response to Donald Trump in 2020 raised her national profile enough that Biden reportedly vetted her as a running mate that year.
And South Carolina’s Tim Scott gave the response to Biden in 2021, two years before announcing his White House run.
Britt’s response was likely the largest audience she’s addressed since succeeding longtime Sen. Richard Shelby in 2023. Britt, 42, worked for Shelby for five years, including two as the powerful appropriator’s chief of staff.
The Indians snapped a two-game skid with crucial region wins at #6-ranked Elbert County on Thursday night. #4-ranked TFS took a 3-2 nail-biter in the opening game, and won 7-3 in the second contest. In both, Tallulah Falls held a lead throughout.
The Indians are now 7-3 overall and 2-1 in region play. Both TFS and Elbert were ranked inside the top-10 in four separate state polls.
GAME 1
The Indians set an early lead and held it to the final out, taking a 3-2 win against Elbert in the opening game of the double-header. BJ Carver had an RBI single as part of a 2-run opening frame. Diego Gonzalez had gotten an RBI the hard way in the previous at-bat, getting plunked with the bases loaded.
Starter Rohajae Pinder was cruising through the contest, inducing an inning-ending double-play grounder in the first. Up 2-0 in the fifth, TFS added an insurance run when Gonzalez lined a single to left to plate Danny Grant, who had opened the inning with a leadoff double. Elbert got a 2-out rally in the home half, and a 2-run single made it a 3-2 game. Pinder finished out the inning with a lead in hand.
Andrew Skvarka pitched a perfect sixth, and Cole Bonitatibus worked a flawless seventh to earn a save. Pinder (2-1) picked up the win, going five innnings with eight hits, two walks, and two strikeouts. Skvarka and Bonitatibus had a strikeout apiece. Grant went 3-for-3 with two runs, while Gonzalez notched two RBI.
TFS won the nightcap 7-3. The Indians held a 4-0 lead after the first two innings, though the Blue Devils battled back.
Gonzalez remained hot, singling in Caden Walker in the first. Chase Pollock put down a bunt to give himself up and bring in Grant. In the second, Tallulah Falls added to the lead with a Walker RBI double that scored Ashton Roache, and Grant bringing in Walker with an ensuing single to left.
Bonitatibus, the starter in the second game, was backed with the 4-run lead. The Blue Devils chipped away, and got one run in each of the third, fourth, and fifth innings to pull within 4-3 heading into the sixth. Back-to-back singles had TFS in business, and Zaiden Cox had an RBI groundout to get a run back. Chris Waldron followed that with a sac fly. Walker then singled in Roache, who doubled with two outs to help make it a 7-3 lead.
Bonitatibus (2-0) earned the victory, going 4.1 innings while giving up three runs (one earned) on four hits, three walks, and five strikeouts. Skvarka pitched in relief again, and went 2.2 innings with a pair of strikeouts. Walker was 3-for-3 with two RBI and two runs, while Grant had two hits, an RBI, and a run. Gonzalez also had two hits and an RBI.
W: Cole Bonitatibus (2-0) RBI: 2 – Caden Walker, Danny Grant, Diego Gonzalez, Chase Pollock, Zaiden Cox, Chris Waldron
JV
The JV Indians shut out Franklin County 7-0 on Thursday night to remain unbeaten on the season, but the box score showed the oddity of how TFS won. While Griffin Harkness was hurling one of the best games of his career, the offense was putting up runs – yet tallied just one hit in the victory but recorded 14 walks.
A scoreless tie was broken in the third when Drew Barron worked a bases-loaded walk. Merrick Carnes had a sacrifice bunt to score Asa Popham in the fourth, and a 4-run fifth was highlighted by a 2-run single off the bat of Popham. It was the game’s only hit for TFS, which got one more in the sixth.
Harkness dazzled with a 10-strikeout game while going five innings and allowing just one hit and two walks. Barron pitched the final inning, striking out the side around a hit. Jackson Savage scored two runs and had three walks. Popham had two RBI and a run along with two walks. Six different players had multiple walks.
WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — Hours before President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, the U.S. House Thursday passedthe Laken Riley Act, named after a Georgia college student whose murder has been blamed by conservatives on White House immigration policies.
On the 251-170 vote, 37 Democrats voted with Republicans who pushed for the legislation.
Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student at Augusta University, was reported missing by her roommate when she did not return home after a run on the campus of the University of Georgia. Local police found her body and shortly afterward arrested a 26-year-old man from Venezuela for her murder — an immigrant who had been previously arrested in Georgia on a shoplifting charge.
According to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, 26-year-old Jose Ibarra allegedly entered the country illegally in 2022.
The nine-page messaging bill, H.R. 7511, is not likely to advance in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority.
It would require the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detain immigrants charged with local theft, burglary, or shoplifting. It would also grant states the authority to bring civil lawsuits against the federal government for “failure to enforce immigration law,” House Rules Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma said during a markup of the bill Tuesday.
“Together, these authorities will ensure that what happened to Laken Riley won’t happen to anyone else in the future,” Cole, a Republican, said.
Republicans timed debate and approval of the legislation to come the same day Biden, who will face former President Donald Trump in November in a re-election campaign heavily focused on immigration, spoke to the nation.
Georgia lawmakers
Following Riley’s death, the Georgia state legislature is moving a bill that would penalize law enforcement agencies that do not notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, of an arrest if an undocumented immigrant is in custody and found to be in the U.S. without authorization.
U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, a Jackson, Georgia Republican, wrote on X that he invited Riley’s parents to the State of the Union as his guests, but they “have chosen to stay home as they grieve the loss of their daughter.”
“Therefore, the seat reserved for my guest will remain vacant to honor Laken and all American victims of illegal alien crime,” he said.
During debate on the U.S. House floor Thursday, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, accused Republicans of “exploiting her death” and “demonizing immigrants.”
Republicans like North Carolina’s Dan Bishop argued that the bill was necessary so there are no “other victims of the Biden border crisis.”
“Allowing this criminal to freely roam our communities is absolutely unacceptable,” Georgia GOP Rep. Rick Allen of Augusta said on the House floor Thursday.
Maryland Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey argued that the U.S. Supreme Court already ruled last year that the Biden administration has the authority to determine its deportation policy.
“DHS cannot detain everybody, so the executive branch, not the states, have to make choices,” Ivey said. “This bill would not give DHS the resources to change that.”
House GOP Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana said during a Wednesday GOP press conference that Republicans planned to vote on the bill ahead of the State of the Union to criticize the Biden administration for its handling of immigration at the southern border.
“A crisis that has had a devastating impact on families like Laken Riley’s,” Scalise said.
Democrats decried the bill and accused Republicans of politicizing a young woman’s murder.
Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said what happened to Riley was a tragedy and that his own daughter is 22, the same age Riley was when she was killed in late February.
“I am appalled that we have people in Congress and in this committee who are using such a horrible crime to score political points,” McGovern said. “We’re here because you want to try to campaign off this horrible tragedy.”
House Republicans have clashed repeatedly with the White House over immigration, such as passing on a party line H.R. 2, a bill that would reinstate Trump-era immigration policies, and walking away from a bipartisan deal in the Senate to give the president executive action at the southern border.
WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — Lawmakers on the powerful U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved a White House-supported bill that would force TikTok to split from its Chinese parent company or face prohibition from U.S. app stores and web hosting services.
The wildly popular social media platform has long been a concern of Congress and intelligence officials. In December 2022, lawmakers passed legislation banning the app from most federal employee devices. The Montana legislature banned the app last year, but the law remains in legal limbo. Georgia lawmakers banned the app from state-owned devices last year.
The bill received sweeping support because of national security concerns over China, a major U.S. adversary with access to Americans’ data and a grip on their attention spans. Chinese companies can be made to share sensitive information with that country’s government.
The legislation has moved unusually fast, only having been introduced in the House Tuesday. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana said he plans to bring the bill to the floor as early as next week.
Committee members sat in a multi-hour classified hearing with U.S. intelligence officials before Thursday’s vote. During the hearing, the lawmakers “witnessed firsthand, in real time, how the Chinese Communist Party can weaponize platforms like TikTok to manipulate the American people,” Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican, said in her opening remarks.
The Biden administration worked with lawmakers from both parties to craft the bill and “want to see this bill get done so it can get to the president’s desk,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday.
Despite the administration’s support for the bill, President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign joined TikTok less than a month ago.
Thursday’s scheduled vote sparked a frenzy among TikTok users, whom the company urged to contact Congress. Lawmakers’ offices were flooded with calls, many from young people.
TikTok, which boasts 170 million American users and almost 7,000 U.S. employees, maintains the bill, if enacted, would result in an outright ban of the platform.
“This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States,” a spokesperson for TikTok said in an emailed statement Thursday. “The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
Both the White House and House Republicans disagreed with TikTok’s accusation of a ban.
“We don’t see this as banning these apps — that’s not what this is — but by ensuring that their ownership isn’t in the hands of those who may do us harm. This is about our national security, obviously, and this is what we’re focused on here,” Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.
The legislation empowers the president, in conjunction with executive branch agencies, to determine when a divestiture or other transaction “would result in the relevant covered company no longer being controlled by a foreign adversary” — in other words, when TikTok has severed financial ties with ByteDance.
A post on X from the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party said the panic among users Thursday showed “clear demonstration of how TikTok gives an adversary political power on U.S. soil.”
“TikTok is LYING to the American people about our bill. It does not ban the app, but offers them a pathway to remain in the U.S.,” read the post from the committee chaired by Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher, one of the bill’s original sponsors.
Clarke County Sheriff John Q. Williams (Athens-Clarke County)
The following is an open letter from Clarke County Sheriff John Q. Williams regarding the sheriff’s office policy on detaining immigrants. Sheriff Williams released this letter in response to criticism aimed at law enforcement over the illegal immigration status of Lake Riley murder suspect Jose Ibarra.
“Sheriff John Q. Williams and the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office would respectfully like to offer the family and friends of Laken Riley our sincerest condolences for their profound loss. No one should have their promising life cut short at the hands of another. Our prayers remain with her friends and family.
In light of ongoing speculation about our procedures for processing undocumented arrestees/inmates. We would like to clarify the current policy.
In 2018, the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office reviewed and updated its policy concerning foreign nationals booked into the jail. These updates to the policy were the result of public input, a review of best practices, relevant case law, and input from legal counsel. Based on the totality of circumstances at that time, the policy was changed to decline requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold inmates, known as “detainers,” that are not signed by a judge. The law requires us to notify ICE whenever we book someone either known or suspected to be a foreign national. Our policy reflects that. ICE detainers are requests, not a court order or warrant. Holding a person based solely on an ICE detainer constitutes a warrantless arrest. The policy does allow for detaining if a warrant or court order signed by a judge is issued. Whenever ICE is able to pick up an undocumented person before the time they would have been able to bond out or otherwise be lawfully released, the Sheriff’s Office does not prevent them from doing so. When Sheriff Williams took office in 2021, we maintained this policy.
In the case of murder suspect, Jose Ibarra, he had never been arrested in Athens-Clarke County or the state of Georgia. At no time was Jose Ibarra detained by CCSO before his arrest for the murder of Laken Riley. The Sheriff’s Office’s first contact with him was when he was charged with the murder and he is currently confined and held with no bail.
It is important to note that the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office is not a full-service law enforcement agency. Under Section 4-105 of the Charter of Athens-Clarke County, “[t]he Sheriff shall be responsible for the operation of the jail, the transport of prisoners, the service of process and such other duties being provided on the effective date” of the Charter. Thus, the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office does not typically handle duties such as response to 9-1-1 calls and routine patrols.
This incident did call attention to some record-keeping practices that could be improved to help identify and track our responses to any interactions with subjects determined to be undocumented. The stakes involved are of the highest importance. As a result, we are strengthening our policy and will continue to work to uphold all local, state, and federal laws.
We would like to reaffirm to the people who live, work, and contribute to Athens-Clarke County that we care about your safety and this is our main priority.
Our Office is committed to our mission to serve our community through intentional engagement, access, and transparency. We are dedicated to conducting ourselves in a manner respectful of the trust that has been placed upon us. We strive to actively enforce the laws of our state and to safely operate our detention facilities through progressive, innovative, and humane practices aimed towards rehabilitating those in custody through non-conventional methods and returning citizens back into our community with hope and a chance for a successful future. We are dedicated to this mission and to the people we serve to ensure that Clarke County is a safe place to live, work, and visit.”
Paco Gaspar went missing on Feb. 24, 2024. He was found safe in Kansas two weeks later. (Baldwin Police Department photo)
A local teen who went missing two weeks ago has been found safe in Kansas. The Baldwin Police Department says it is now working with state child welfare agencies to bring 16-year-old Paco Gaspar home.
The department says charges are pending against those responsible for Gaspar’s care and well-being.
“There are also pending charges in relation to [the] concealing of his whereabouts throughout this investigation,” a department spokesperson says.
Not reported missing for 5 days
According to the police timeline, Gaspar was last seen near Airport Road in Baldwin on Feb. 24, but five days lapsed before anyone reported him missing.
Baldwin PD thanked the Coffeyville, Kansas, police department and federal law enforcement agents for helping to find the teen.
In an updated social media post on March 7, the department also thanked its investigator, Dakota Foster, for his work on the case and the general public, who shared information about Gaspar’s disappearance hundreds of times on social media.
“Lastly, thank you to our community and residents for your commitment and concern for Paco’s safety. We are proud to serve you,” the post said.
Clarke County Sheriff John Q. Williams (Athens-Clarke County)
The Clarke County Sheriff’s Office is explaining and clarifying its policy towards undocumented migrants in the wake of the murder of former University of Georgia student Laken Riley last month.
At issue is how the Sheriff’s office handles undocumented migrants, specifically how it deals with so-called ICE detainers, requests from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold suspected undocumented migrants for up to 48 hours to allow for their detention by federal authorities.
In a statement to the media, Sheriff John Q. Williams said that the department’s policy of not cooperating with ICE detainers dates to 2018 before he was in office. Williams said the decision was based on “the result of public input, a review of best practices, relevant case law, and input from legal counsel.”
In his statement, Williams said that ICE detainers were requests, not warrants or court orders and that holding someone on an ICE detainer would constitute a “warrantless arrest.” In cases where a judge orders an inmate be held, the Sheriff’s policy allows for them to stay in jail.
Williams’ statement also notes that Jose Ibarra, the suspect in Riley’s murder, “had never been arrested in Athens-Clarke County or the state of Georgia. At no time was Jose Ibarra detained by CCSO before his arrest for the murder of Laken Riley.”
Williams said the case had prompted his office to review some of its record-keeping practices.
Statement from Clarke County Sheriff John Q. Williams
Sheriff John Q. Williams and the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office would respectfully like to offer the family and friends of Laken Riley our sincerest condolences for their profound loss. No one should have their promising life cut short at the hands of another. Our prayers remain with her friends and family.
In light of ongoing speculation about our procedures for processing undocumented arrestees/inmates. We would like to clarify the current policy.
In 2018, the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office reviewed and updated its policy concerning foreign nationals booked into the jail. These updates to the policy were the result of public input, a review of best practices, relevant case law, and input from legal counsel. Based on the totality of circumstances at that time, the policy was changed to decline requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold inmates, known as “detainers,” that are not signed by a judge. The law requires us to notify ICE whenever we book someone either known or suspected to be a foreign national. Our policy reflects that. ICE detainers are requests, not a court order or warrant. Holding a person based solely on an ICE detainer constitutes a warrantless arrest. The policy does allow for detaining if a warrant or court order signed by a judge is issued. Whenever ICE is able to pick up an undocumented person before the time they would have been able to bond out or otherwise be lawfully released, the Sheriff’s Office does not prevent them from doing so. When Sheriff Williams took office in 2021, we maintained this policy.
In the case of murder suspect, Jose Ibarra, he had never been arrested in Athens-Clarke County or the state of Georgia. At no time was Jose Ibarra detained by CCSO before his arrest for the murder of Laken Riley. The Sheriff’s Office’s first contact with him was when he was charged with the murder and he is currently confined and held with no bail.
It is important to note that the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office is not a full-service law enforcement agency. Under Section 4-105 of the Charter of Athens-Clarke County, “[t]he Sheriff shall be responsible for the operation of the jail, the transport of prisoners, the service of process and such other duties being provided on the effective date” of the Charter. Thus, the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office does not typically handle duties such as response to 9-1-1 calls and routine patrols.
This incident did call attention to some record-keeping practices that could be improved to help identify and track our responses to any interactions with subjects determined to be undocumented. The stakes involved are of the highest importance. As a result, we are strengthening our policy and will continue to work to uphold all local, state, and federal laws.
We would like to reaffirm to the people who live, work, and contribute to Athens-Clarke County that we care about your safety and this is our main priority.
Our Office is committed to our mission to serve our community through intentional engagement, access, and transparency. We are dedicated to conducting ourselves in a manner respectful of the trust that has been placed upon us. We strive to actively enforce the laws of our state and to safely operate our detention facilities through progressive, innovative, and humane practices aimed towards rehabilitating those in custody through non-conventional methods and returning citizens back into our community with hope and a chance for a successful future. We are dedicated to this mission and to the people we serve to ensure that Clarke County is a safe place to live, work, and visit.
This article comes to Now Habersham through a news partnership with WUGA
WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 07: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress as Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) listen on February 7, 2023 in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. The speech marks Biden's first address to the new Republican-controlled House. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin-Pool/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — Top White House economic officials said that President Joe Biden will announce how his administration is tackling economic issues — from the housing crisis to restoring the expansion of the child tax credit — during this week’s State of the Union address to Congress and the nation.
“Providing more breathing room to American families is really something that remains a top priority for the president,” said Jon Donenberg, a deputy director of the National Economic Council, in a briefing at the White House with reporters from regional publications.
The speech is expected to be of great significance for Biden as he seeks reelection in November against the likely Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.
Biden will address several policies in his remarks Thursday night, including his administration’s efforts to crack down on “junk fees,” help first-time homebuyers, and protect renters from rent hikes. He will also push for several changes to the U.S. tax code.
Daniel Hornung, a deputy director of the National Economic Council, said that Biden will make the case to Republicans to bring back the expanded child tax credit.
“The president will push to restore that tax break to make sure that families across the country, families with children, have the breathing room they need,” Hornung said.
Biden will use the State of the Union to push tax policies that promote the “interests of working people and not billionaires or megacorporations,” Hornung said.
Biden’s State of the Union address will begin at 9 p.m. EST on Thursday, March 7. It will be carried live by major news networks. The White House will stream the speech live at WH.gov/sotu and across its social media channels.
The president will propose a multi-pronged plan that would include raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, a priority Biden discussed in last year’s budget proposal.
Hornung said the president wants to reverse the “tax windfall” that corporations enjoyed following the Trump administration’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that set the corporate rate at 21%.
Biden will again advocate a minimum tax on the richest 0.01% of Americans and call on Congress to ensure tax cuts for lower—and middle-income Americans by restoring all or part of the pandemic-era expansion of the child tax credit and premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act plans.
Push in Congress on taxes
Biden’s renewed urgency over the tax code comes as Trump’s 2017 tax policies are winding down and must either be renewed or changed by the end of 2025. Biden is expected, in his speech, to criticize Republican proposals to extend some Trump-era tax breaks.
Congress has taken rare bipartisan, bicameral action this year to head off the looming tax code tempest.
A proposal to temporarily expand the child tax credit and restore a handful of expired or expiring corporate tax incentives received sweeping support in the U.S. House in late January. The bill, which the White House has endorsed, is stalled in the U.S. Senate.
The 2021 expansion of the child tax credit lifted nearly 3 million children out of poverty, according to the U.S. Census.
That temporary pandemic-era expansion under the American Rescue Plan, now expired, increased benefits from up to $2,000 to $3,600 for qualifying children under age 6, and $3,000 for other qualifying children under age 18.
Housing crunch
Several economic advisers noted that rental rates have continued to rise and that there is a “housing gap in this country,” Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said.
“He has specific proposals that he’ll speak to in terms of housing affordability and ensuring that we are addressing rent,” Tanden said of the president’s speech Thursday.
Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said that the administration is also looking at ways to lower closing costs on buying a home because the White House’s analysis has found that expense “drains people’s down payment and pushes up their monthly mortgage payment.”
He added that the White House is also looking for ways to make it easier for homeowners to refinance “now that (interest) rates have started to come down.”
Hornung said that the White House is also exploring ways to “boost the supply of housing throughout the country,” and find steps that the federal government can take to “help state (and) local governments reduce barriers” when it comes to expanding housing.
He said that in addition to getting more housing supply online, Biden will lay out how the administration is looking “to invest in the supply of affordable housing,” and to block “practices that are driving up rents that are not just about supply and demand.”
Biden to point to actions on junk fees
Chopra said that Biden will stress how his administration has gone after “junk fees,” and will continue to do so, pointing to a finalized rule Tuesday that will cap most credit card fees to $8.
“I think the impact is gonna be most felt by those who really are living paycheck to paycheck, those who are trying to pay off their debt,” he said.
Chopra said that the administration launched an industry-wide study and found junk fees in hotels, ticket sales, airlines and the banking industry. He said it’s a tactic that companies use to push up purchase prices to “charge for fake or worthless services.”
“I think we’ve all been seeing these creep across the economy in our lives almost everywhere we go,” he said.
Chopra said the White House found that one bank was charging customers a fake junk fee for a printed bank statement “that was neither printed nor mailed.”
“We have already ordered them and others to refund the money,” he said. “I think what we’re seeing is people, perhaps those who have the least amount of time to bicker with customer service agents. They’re no longer spending that time. They’re actually seeing that money being kept for themselves.”
