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ACC commissioners expected to vote on Salvation Army grant

By
Martin Matheny
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While most eyes at Tuesday’s Mayor and Commission meeting will likely be turned to a $500,000-plus package of public safety enhancements and possible protests over Athens-Clarke County’s policies towards undocumented migrants, commissioners are also expected to vote on whether to allocate $550,000 to the Salvation Army to expand its capacity to accept unhoused people in its shelter.

The measure, part of a larger package of spending to beef up the county’s response to a growing homelessness problem, sparked debate at a meeting in January. Commissioner Jesse Houle questioned the process, which skipped the usual request for proposals that the county government follows.

“We’re rushing in this case, skipping the bidding process that would normally happen and just direct awarding $550,000 to the Salvation Army for a proposal that’s fairly underdeveloped,” Houle said.

Other homelessness service providers also criticized the process. In a letter to commissioners, leaders from Project Safe, Family Promise, Bigger Vision, and the Athens Area Homeless Shelter called it “confounding” that they were shut out of the process afforded to the Salvation Army and asked ACC officials to allocate funding to all shelter programs in the county.

While commissioners approved the measure at that January meeting, it has taken since then for a contract to be drafted and for county staff to work with the Salvation Army to provide more detail about the scope of services and how the money would be spent. That contract is what commissioners are expected to vote on Tuesday night.

According to the Salvation Army in documents prepared by county staff, the $550,000 allocation would provide ten additional beds in the Salvation Army’s shelter, as well as an additional 20 cots for temporary overflows caused by severe weather. A portion of the money would also go towards other upgrades, including new security cameras, new bunk beds and locker space, and pay raises for monitors and case workers, who currently make $9-$17 per hour.

At the January meeting, some commissioners also voiced concerns about the role of District 7 Commissioner John Culpepper, who serves on the Salvation Army’s board and played a role in drafting the measure. Culpepper recused himself from January’s vote.

This article comes to Now Habersham in partnership with WUGA

Five months late, Congress is poised to pass a huge chunk of federal spending

By
Jennifer Shutt, Jacob Fischler and Ashley Murray
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WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — Congress is on track to approve a staggering $468 billion in government spending this week, finishing part of the work it was supposed to complete by Oct. 1 — including a big boost intended to shore up the federal WIC nutrition program for women, infants and children.

Other agencies will see cuts, including the FBI and the National Park Service, as Democrats and Republicans haggled over winners and losers in the annual spending process. There are spending increases for items such as wildland fire management, first-time-ever federal oversight of cosmetics and emergency rental assistance for low-income families.

Surviving: Plenty of earmarks for lawmakers’ local projects, also referred to as congressionally directed spending or community project funding, which received $12.655 billion in spending for the 6,630 projects within the six spending bills combined into one package, according to two people familiar with the total.

For example, the bill that provides funds for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration includes everything from $3 million for the Integrative Precision Agriculture Laboratory at the University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc. to $800,000 for Livingston Parish Courthouse Renovations in Louisiana to $3.3 million for the Pinetop Wildland Fire Response Station in Arizona.

The U.S. House and Senate are expected to take broadly bipartisan votes to send the package known as a “minibus” to President Joe Biden ahead of a Friday midnight deadline.

However, agreement on six other consequential appropriations bills, which are due by March 22 and include health, defense and homeland security programs, remains elusive.

Dems tout WIC funding

The first batch of government funding bills brokered by the divided Congress includes the Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA and Transportation-HUD measures.

Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat, said in a statement released Sunday that she and other Democratic lawmakers “fought hard to protect investments that matter to working people everywhere and help keep our economy strong—rejecting devastating cuts to housing, nutrition assistance, and more.”

“Forcing states to pick and choose which moms and kids will be able to access essential WIC benefits was never an acceptable outcome to Democrats, and this bill ensures that won’t happen by fully funding WIC for millions of families nationwide,” Murray said, referring to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC, which provides grants to states and had faced a shortfall.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, ranking member on the panel, said in a written statement the “bills will make a real difference in communities throughout the United States.”

“Members of the Appropriations Committee in both chambers have worked very hard to reach agreements on the bill text unveiled today,” Collins said. “I look forward to working with Chair Murray and our colleagues to bring this legislation to the Senate floor for a vote without any further delay.”

House Appropriations Committee Chair Kay Granger, a Texas Republican, said the bills “achieve what we set out to do: strategically increase defense spending and make targeted cuts to wasteful non-defense programs.”

Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement the bipartisan bills “help keep communities safe and healthy.”

“I am grateful that each of these bills rejects many of the extreme cuts and policies proposed by House Republicans and protects the great strides we made over the last two years to reverse the underinvestment in domestic programs that Americans depend on,” DeLauro said. “I urge swift passage of this package and look forward to releasing the remaining 2024 funding bills.”

Agency cuts

The bills would cut funding from several federal agencies, including a $977 million reduction to the Environmental Protection Agency, a $654 million cut for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a $150 million reduction to the National Park Service, and a $122 million cut to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

The Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects are among the programs that would see an increase in their funding.

Congress, after approving these six bills this week, must finalize a bipartisan agreement on the remaining six.

Those bills include Defense, Financial Services and General Government, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch and State-Foreign Operations. They are typically harder to negotiate than the bills in this week’s minibus.

Congress would likely start on the fiscal 2025 process shortly after approving all dozen annual appropriations bills, given that Biden is expected to send lawmakers his next request for fiscal 2025 on March 11.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s funded in each of the bills that Congress will vote on this week.

Agriculture-FDA

The Agriculture-FDA funding bill would provide $26.2 billion in discretionary spending for the agencies and programs within the legislation, including conservation and rural development. That represents a $383 million increase above current funding levels.

The USDA would receive $22.3 billion, which would be about $383 million more than current law. That discretionary funding would go toward several programs, including the Agricultural Research Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Foreign Agricultural Service.

The FDA would receive $3.5 billion in discretionary funding, including “$7 million to conduct oversight of cosmetics for the first time ever and $1.5 million to reduce animal testing through alternative methods,” according to a summary of the bill released by Senate Democrats.

The Agriculture-FDA measure includes significant mandatory spending as well, which is counted outside the discretionary spending caps the Biden administration and House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, agreed to in January.

Mandatory spending is required by laws that Congress has already approved. It makes up the largest component of federal expenditures and is often spent outside of the annual appropriations process, though some mandatory spending accounts are reported in the bills.

Discretionary accounts make up about one-third of federal spending and are what’s subject to the spending caps on the dozen annual appropriations bills.

The Agriculture-FDA bill would approve $7 billion for the Women, Infants and Children program, an increase of more than $1 billion compared to its current funding level.

The increase would “fully fund” the WIC program, which includes more than 7 million people, according to subcommittee Chairman Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat, who said in a statement he was “focused on delivering for American families, farmers and producers, and rural communities.”

“This bill gets that done, even while we had to make some tough decisions to get there,” Heinrich said. “I am especially proud that we stood firm to fully fund WIC and the other programs that will help put food on the table for America’s kids.”

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which provides grocery benefits to low-income families, would get $122.4 billion, a $32 billion decrease in mandatory spending that’s “due to the end of pandemic-era benefits and decreases in participation rates,” according to a summary of the bill from Senate Republicans.

Child nutrition programs — like the national school lunch program, school breakfast program and summer food programs — would get $33.3 billion, an increase of $4.7 billion over what the federal government currently spends.

The legislation doesn’t include many of the conservative policy riders House Republicans added in their original bill, such as a proposal to ban the abortion medication mifepristone from being sent to patients through the mail.

The bill has 72-pages of community projects, formerly known as earmarks, that will go to nearly every state in the country.

Commerce-Justice-Science

The Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill provides approximately $67 billion in discretionary funding plus $2 billion in emergency funding “to address violent crime, counter the fentanyl crisis, and maintain U.S. scientific, technological, and economic superiority over China,” according to Senate Republicans’ summary of the bill.

That funding level would be divvied up with about $37.5 billion for the Department of Justice, $10.8 billion for the Department of Commerce, $9.1 billion for the National Science Foundation and nearly $24.9 billion for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA.

The bill would approve $844 million for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, or EOIR, that will go toward legal services for underrepresented communities and modifications to courtrooms. That is about $16 million less than current law.

The bill would address the more than 2.5 million case backlog in immigration courts by hiring new immigration judges and providing training.

The bill would require EOIR to implement a performance appraisal based on recommendations from the Government Accountability Office for immigration judges and the agency has to submit a report to Congress on the results of the appraisal process.

The legislation provides an increase of $13 million for the Violence Against Women Act, bringing the funding level to  $713 million toward those programs. That funding will go toward assistance with transitional housing, domestic violence reduction, sexual assault services, research on violence against Indigenous women and legal assistance, among other initiatives.

The bill provides about $10.6 billion for the FBI, a decrease from fiscal 2023. That funding will go toward targeting fentanyl and opioid trafficking, child exploitation, trafficking and bioforensic analysis, among other initiatives.

The bill includes a 95% cut in funding for FBI construction, from $629.1 million to $30 million. The bill would require the FBI to conduct a study on the “feasibility of expanding the FBI operations in regional offices around the country,” according to the explanatory statement. 

The bill includes a provision that none of the funds can be used to “target or investigate parents who peacefully protest at school board meetings and are not suspected of engaging in unlawful activity.”

House Republicans have scrutinized the Justice Department after the agency directed the FBI to investigate threats of violence made to school board officials and teachers after a conservative backlash to discussions about race in public schools.

The bill would provide the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with $1.6 billion, a decrease of $112 million below fiscal year 2023 levels in order to reverse “anti-Second Amendment overreach,” according to a summary of the bill by House Republicans.  

Members of Congress obtained 86 pages of earmarks in the Commerce-Justice-Science bill.

Energy-Water

The Energy-Water appropriations measure would moderately boost spending on defense — primarily the Energy Department’s nuclear programs — while cutting slightly from the bill’s domestic water infrastructure accounts.

The defense discretionary total in that bill, which is apart from overall Pentagon spending, would be $33.3 billion, a 6% increase from fiscal 2023, and discretionary domestic spending on the bill’s programs would be $24.9 billion, a 2% decrease.

The bill includes more than $50 billion for the Department of Energy, $8.7 billion for the Army Corp of Engineers, which oversees most federal water project construction, and $1.9 billion for the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation.

The National Nuclear Security Administration would see a nearly $2 billion funding increase from fiscal 2023, almost all of which is for the agency’s weapons activities.

The Bureau of Reclamation, the Interior Department agency that deals with water and hydroelectric power, would see a $31 million decrease to $1.9 billion.

The bill included 30 pages of earmarks.

Interior-Environment

The Interior-Environment funding bill, which covers the Interior Department, EPA and related agencies, totals $41.2 billion, which would be a decrease of more than $11 billion, more than 21%, from fiscal 2023.

The bill would cut nearly $1 billion of the EPA’s budget, a 9.6% decrease from fiscal 2023.

Most of that cut, $745 million, is from the agency’s Hazardous Substance Superfund. That account, which funds cleanup of massive environmental hazardous waste sites, would receive $537.7 million, down from $1.3 billion in fiscal 2023.

Two other long-term spending laws, the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and Democrats’ 2022 energy, taxes and domestic policy law, provide additional funding for Superfund cleanup. Total federal spending would be more than $3 billion in fiscal 2024, even with the proposed cut.

Addressing wildfires was a priority in the bill, according to summaries from both Senate Democrats and House Republicans.

The bill includes $6 billion for the U.S. Forest Service, including $2.3 billion for the agency’s Wildland Fire Management program. That represents an increase of $1.37 billion for wildland fire management.

The bill would also maintain full funding for wildland firefighter pay, which was increased in the 2021 infrastructure law.

The bill maintains $900 million in mandatory federal spending for the Land and Water Conservation Fund that allocates money for federal land acquisition, state grants for outdoor recreation and related efforts.

And it would direct $1.9 billion in mandatory spending for the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund that addresses roads and buildings across five Interior Department agencies, with the bulk of the funding going to the National Park Service.

The funding levels in both the Land and Water Conservation Fund and public lands fund meet caps established in the 2020 Great American Outdoors Act and do not count against the discretionary funding limit.

The bill includes 100 pages of earmarks.

Military Construction-Veterans Affairs

Lawmakers are touting the Military Construction and VA bill’s $326.4 billion total as “fully funding” veterans’ benefits and health care, bolstering national security in the Indo-Pacific region, and upgrading housing for service members and their families, among other priorities, according to a statement Sunday from Murray’s office.

The bill contains $175.2 billion in mandatory spending on veterans’ benefits that encompass disability compensation, education, and employment training.

On the discretionary side, $153.92 billion would be allocated to the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs as well as four related agencies, including Arlington National Cemetery, American Battle Monuments Commission, Armed Forces Retirement Home, and the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

If cleared by Congress, the lion’s share of the bill’s funds, at $134.8 billion, would go to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Of that total, roughly $121 billion would be allocated for veterans medical care, including $16.2 billion for mental health, $5.2 billion for telehealth services, $3.1 billion for homelessness programs, $231 million for substance abuse and opioid misuse prevention, and $108 million for overall well-being programs, or “Whole Health Initiatives.”

The remaining $18.675 billion in discretionary funds would head to the Department of Defense for the planning and construction of several military projects, including $2.4 billion for shipyard infrastructure, $2 billion for military family housing, and $1.5 billion for construction or upgrades to military Reserve and Guard facilities.

Specific domestic projects and their locations can be found in the 11 pages of lawmaker earmarks for community funding. They include a range of infrastructure upgrades, numerous child development centers and several barracks upgrades at military sites across the U.S.

Other allocations in the military construction spending total include $634 million for energy projects, $293 million to the NATO Security Investment Program, and $489 million for base realignment and closures, $50 million of which will be dedicated to the cleanup of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, otherwise known as PFAS chemicals.

About $131 million would be allocated for planning, design and minor construction for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which operates in a strategically important region for the U.S. military.

The Military Construction and VA spending bill also sets some funding levels for the following fiscal year. The bill allocates $195.8 billion for veterans’ benefits and $112.6 billion in discretionary programs in 2025.

Transportation-HUD

The Transportation-HUD appropriations measure would appropriate about $89.5 billion in discretionary funding for the dozens of programs throughout the bill.

Another $8 billion in emergency funding was added to the legislation “to maintain current rental assistance for low income Americans amid a collapse in housing receipts that are used to help offset the cost of such assistance,” according to a summary of the bill from Senate Republicans.

The Department of Transportation would receive $27 billion in discretionary funding while another $79 billion would come from obligation limitations, according to Senate Democrats’ summary of the bill.

The Federal Aviation Administration would receive $20.1 billion, about $1 billion more than its current funding level. The money would allow the FAA to hire “1,800 new controllers, improving training facilities at the air traffic controller academy, and addressing the reliability of critical IT and telecommunications legacy systems,” according to Senate Democrats’ summary.

The Federal Highway Administration would receive $63 billion, the Federal Railroad Administration would get $2.9 billion and the Federal Transit Administration would receive $16 billion.

“To address the rail safety deficiencies identified in the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment, the bill provides a $27.3 million increase for FRA’s safety and operations budget—meeting the President’s budget request for rail safety inspectors,” according to Senate Democrats’ summary.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development would receive $70.1 billion that would go toward “rental assistance and self-sufficiency support for low-income working families, seniors, veterans, and persons with disabilities; housing and services to homeless individuals; and support for economic and community development,” according to the Senate Republican summary.

Homeless Assistance Grants would increase in funding by $418 million to $4.05 billion. Community Development Block Grants would receive $3.3 billion in funding.

The Native American Housing Block Grant program would receive $1.3 billion, a “historic level of funding” that would “make significant progress in addressing the dire housing needs of Indian Country, where residents are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty and nearly three times more likely to live in overcrowded conditions compared to other U.S. households,” according to Senate Democrats’ summary.

The Transportation-HUD bill includes 306 pages of community projects, or earmarks, making it one of the more significant bills for lawmakers to receive funding for priority initiatives.

Those include $1 million for the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia, one of three projects that House Republicans stripped out of their original bill in July after initially approving them.

The bill didn’t include funding for the LGBT Center of Greater Reading in Pennsylvania, which was originally selected for $970,000 in funding, or for affordable senior housing at LGBTQ Senior Housing, Inc. in Massachusetts, which was on track for $850,000 in funding.

Demorest wall project delayed due to defective sealant

By
Jerry Neace
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The sidewalk above the new retaining wall in Demorest is waiting for new sealant to be applied. (Jerry Neace/NowHabersham.com)

A project that was supposed to be completed by the end of last year has hit another hurdle.

According to Demorest City Manager Mark Musselwhite, the contractor had to remove the sealant from the sidewalk and the joints above the recently installed retaining wall on Central Avenue/Historic US 441 due to the sealant being defective. It only affects the middle section that is covered in plastic. The plastic is in place to prevent water intrusion under the sidewalk and eroding beneath the wall.

Musselwhite states that according to the contractor, the sealant they used in that section of sidewalk was a “bad batch” and had to be removed and replaced.

He adds that they did not have to remove the sidewalk, only the defective sealant. Once the new sealant is applied, they will continue with installing the handrails.

SEE RELATED: Demorest wall project nears completion, finally

Georgia DOT awarded the project to Vertical Earth nearly a year ago. Vertical Earth had hoped to complete the project last summer once the hand railing arrived, however, the hand railing didn’t arrive until early winter.

The project had a completion date of December 31, 2023 but missed that deadline due to supply chain issues with receiving the required railing.

Musselwhite did not have a completion date for the project.

W. L. (Dub) Lovell, Sr.

By
Now Habersham
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On Sunday morning, March 3, 2026, just before sunrise, W. L. (Dub) Lovell, Sr., after a difficult period of illness accepted his invitation to cast off the pain of this world and rise with the morning sun to enter a well-deserved and glorious eternal rest.

Dub entered this life on October 22, 1924. The fifth child of the ten children born to Virgil and Lillie Lovell. He grew up on a large farm where he worked hard alongside his siblings and parents farming the land, and caring for a wide variety of farm animals including the Black Angus cattle that his father helped introduce to this area. Dub attended the Providence School and is a member of Providence Baptist Church.

As a young man he served in the military during the Korean Conflict between January 11, 1945 and November 24, 1946, he served as a Military Policeman. He received the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Ribbon, Army of Occupation (Japan), Ribbon Victory Ribbon 2 Overseas Service Bars, and Expert Infantryman Badge.

Dub worked for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources for 28 years as a Game Ranger, attaining the rank of lieutenant and later managing the Fish Hatchery at Moccasin Creek in Rabun County, Georgia. Unrealized by many, during these years, Dub was very actively and powerfully successful in advocating to the members of the Georgia Legislature and other influential individuals at the Georgia Capital in Atlanta and around the state for their support of many policies and issues that would aid the Georgia Department of Natural Resources with its mission to manage the rich natural resource of Georgia. He knew and entertained in his home and on his farm every Georgia governor from Herman Talmadge through Sonny Perdue. Dub was known for his wonderful fresh-caught fish fries and has fed many friends and visitors at his home. His ability to move through such a varied group of personalities is due to the fact that Dub treated each person he met the same as an equal and received the same respect back from them. You always knew where you stood with him. He was always willing to help a friend if it was within his power to do so.

Except for a few years at the beginning of his career when he was stationed in such locations as Social Circle and Conasauga, Georgia, he lived his life in or no more than a few miles from Batesville with his family. Continuing to support the DNR as well as his community. An example, he was the driving force instrumental in securing the placement of a volunteer fire department in the Batesville community. Dub watched over his family, and lived a long, fulfilling, eventful and influential life and will be remembered and greatly missed by the many people whose lives he touched and all his friends and family who loved him.

Dub is preceded in death by his parents, Virgil and Lille K. Lovell, and his siblings and their spouses: V. L. Lovell and Blondine Lovell, Lillie Marie Lovell Barron and Sion Barron, Irene Lovell Blalock, and Woodrow Blalock, R. L. Lovell and Murvine Lovell, Carlos Lovell and Ruby Lovell, V. C. Lovell and JoAnne Lovell, Earl Lovell and Janice Lovell. Also preceding Dub in death are wife Thelma Garrish Lovell, and wife Irene Allen Lovell, and daughter Patsy Lovell Christopher.

Dub is survived by siblings and their spouses: Fred Lovell and Yvonne Welborn Lovell, and Judy Lovell Rea. Children and spouses: Ann Lovell Vandiver Braudy and Douglas Braudy, Peggy Lovell Cantrell Huffman and Stewart R. Huffman, W. L. (Buddy) Lovell, Jr. Grandchildren and spouses: Scott Cantrell and Hortencia (Abi), Ang’ele Cantrell and Michael McLaine, Travis Morgan Lovell, Jamieson Paul Lovell, Tyler Cody Barnes and Jordan Barnes, Adam Lovell, Katie Irene Christopher Shockley and Matt Shockley, Matthew Christopher. Chelsea Lindsey, Carleen Monti, Kirsten Lindsey. Daughter-in-law: Judith C. Lovell. Great Grandchildren: Patsy Folds, Zack Lovell, Alexandria (Andi) Lovell, Waylon Barnes, Katherine Shockley, Kaitlyn Shockley, Kylie Annette ‘Pumpkin’ Miller, Charlotte Tyre, Evelyn Watts, Bo Monti, Brantley Keller, Drake Keller, Oaklee Dawson.

We appreciate the support provided by the caring Hospice nurses and aids who have been there for us. The entire Lovell family are so grateful for the loving care that our amazing caregiver Amber Cook Gragg has given Daddy during the past two years.

Funeral services will be held at 2:00 PM on Thursday, March 7, 2024, at Hillside Memorial Chapel, with Rev. Eddie Tanner officiating. Interment will follow the service in Providence Baptist Church Cemetery. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Wednesday, March 6, 2024, from 2-4 PM and 6-8 PM.

Online condolences may be sent at www.hillsidememorialchapel.com.

Arrangements are in the care and professional direction of Hillside Memorial Chapel & Gardens, Clarkesville, GA. 706-754-6256

Mark Ballew

By
Now Habersham
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Mark Ballew, age 55, of Alto, passed away on Friday, March 1, 2024.

Born on July 10, 1968, in Demorest, he was the son of Luther P. Ballew and Laverne Garrett Ballew of Alto. Mr. Ballew was retired from Kubota and was of the Baptist faith. He is remembered as a man of many talents who loved his family.

In addition to his parents, survivors include daughters Hannah Cross and Cassidy Ballew and three grandchildren.

No formal service is planned at this time.

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 arrangements.

U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Colorado 14th Amendment ruling, clearing Trump for ballot

By
Chase Woodruff
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Krista Kafer, a Republican commentator and one of the plaintiffs in a case seeking to bar former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot, speaks to the press outside the U.S. Supreme Court following oral arguments in the case on Feb. 8, 2024. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)

(Colorado Newsline) — Former President Donald Trump must be placed on Colorado’s 2024 ballot, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday, striking down a first-of-its-kind holding by the Colorado Supreme Court that the Republican front-runner is disqualified from office under a Civil War-era insurrection clause.

Trump disqualification

“Because the Constitution makes Congress, rather than the States, responsible for enforcing Section 3 (of the 14th Amendment) against federal officeholders and candidates, we reverse,” justices wrote in the unsigned, “per curiam” opinion.

The ruling — which comes just one day before Colorado holds its presidential primary election on Super Tuesday, March 5 — brings an end to a six-month legal saga that began in Denver District Court and sent shockwaves through American politics during its fast-tracked ascent through the judicial system.

Six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters, backed by the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed a lawsuit last September alleging that Trump’s actions in relation to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol disqualify him from office under Section 3. The clause prohibits a person who “engaged in insurrection” after taking an oath to support the Constitution from holding office again.

In a 4-3 majority opinion issued Dec. 19, the Colorado Supreme Court sided with the plaintiffs, ordering Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold not to certify Trump’s candidacy for the state’s 2024 Republican presidential primary. The historic ruling, which drew furious condemnations from leading Republicans and even some centrist and liberal commentators, set the stage for similar decisions by Maine’s secretary of state later in December and an Illinois judge last week.

Monday’s ruling will likely result in the reversal of those decisions and spell an end to similar Section 3 challenges in at least a dozen other states, with the justices citing the “disruption” and “chaos” that would ensue if states were allowed to enforce the clause against federal candidates.

Trump said in a radio interview Monday morning that he was “very honored by a nine-to-nothing vote.”

Representatives from CREW said in a press call they were “still digesting” the particulars of the court’s ruling, but faulted the court for taking what they called a “procedural off-ramp” to allow Trump on the ballot.

“The Supreme Court removed an enforcement mechanism, and in letting Trump back on the ballot, they failed to meet the moment,” CREW president Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. “But it is now clear that Trump led the Jan. 6 insurrection, and it will be up to the American people to ensure accountability.”

The Colorado ruling never took effect, because the justices stayed their order pending U.S. Supreme Court review, and Trump still appeared on GOP primary ballots, which were mailed to Colorado voters beginning Feb. 12. Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling ensures that all votes cast by Colorado primary voters for Trump — the overwhelming favorite for his party’s nomination following the withdrawal of nearly all of his major rivals from the race — will be counted.

“I am disappointed in the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision stripping states of the authority to enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment for federal candidates,” Griswold wrote on Xfollowing the ruling. “Colorado should be able to bar oath-breaking insurrections from our ballot.”

“In accordance with this decision, Donald Trump is an eligible candidate on Colorado’s 2024 Presidential Primary,” Griswold said.

Court split on enforcement

Though all nine U.S. Supreme Court justices agreed on the outcome of the case, the opinions released Monday show a divide over how far the court should have gone to settle key issues relating to the enforcement of Section 3.

In his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Trump’s attorneys challenged the Colorado ruling on a variety of grounds. In addition to arguing that enforcement of Section 3 required an act of Congress, Trump’s team put forward a theory that Section 3’s reference to “officer(s) of the United States” did not include the presidency and disputed claims that the Jan. 6 attack was an “insurrection” and Trump “engaged” in it.

Monday’s ruling is silent on the latter two questions, an outcome that the plaintiffs’ attorneys sought to portray as a victory on Monday.

“The Supreme Court was given the opportunity to exonerate Donald Trump for engaging in insurrection. Donald Trump asked them to exonerate him for engaging in insurrection,” Bookbinder said in a press call. “And they did not do that. There is not a single sentence from a single justice, in that opinion that came out today, taking substantive issue with the findings of the Colorado Supreme Court that Donald Trump engaged in insurrection.”

But five Republican-appointed justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — appeared to back strict limitations on how the insurrection clause can be enforced. Citing a precedent known as Griffin’s case, an 1869 circuit court opinion authored by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, they wrote that it was “necessary” for Congress to enact enforcing legislation pursuant to Section 5 of the 14th Amendment, which states that “Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”

“The Constitution empowers Congress to prescribe how those determinations should be made,” the ruling says, referring to the Enforcement Act of 1870 and Section 2383 of the U.S. Code, a statute prescribing a criminal penalty for “rebellion or insurrection,” as appropriate uses of the Section 5 power.

That interpretation appears to rule out the possibility that Section 3 could be enforced by federal courts or by Congress through other means, such as by refusing to seat insurrectionist members or declining to certify the election of an insurrectionist president. In a separate opinion, Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote that she did not join the other conservative justices in deciding that issue. And in a third opinion, the three Democratic-appointed members of the court — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — called the majority’s Section 5 findings “as inadequately supported as they are gratuitous.”

“Today, the majority goes beyond the necessities of this case to limit how Section 3 can bar an oathbreaking insurrectionist from becoming President,” the liberal justices wrote. “Although we agree that Colorado cannot enforce Section 3, we protest the majority’s effort to use this case to define the limits of federal enforcement of that provision.”

‘Other avenues’

Following the 14th Amendment’s ratification in 1868, Section 3 was aggressively enforced against hundreds of ex-Confederates for a period of several years. But a series of amnesty measures approved by Congress largely rendered it moot by 1871, and it was enforced in only a handful of cases in the ensuing 150 years.

The unprecedented events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, revived interest in the clause among legal scholars. In another case brought by CREW in 2022, a New Mexico court removed from office a GOP county commissioner who had participated in the attack. Monday’s ruling bars states from enforcing Section 3 against candidates for president or other federal offices, but does not preclude them from enforcing it against state and local officeholders.

Colorado was singled out by CREW as a “good venue” for a 14th Amendment case against Trump because of provisions in its election code requiring only candidates who are eligible to assume office to be placed on the ballot. Challenges in several other states, including Minnesota and Michigan, had been rejected by the courts.

Trump was indicted last year by federal prosecutors who allege that his “pervasive and destabilizing lies” about the 2020 election “targeted a bedrock function of the United States federal government.” That case is still pending, as is a separate election interference case against Trump in Fulton County, Georgia.

In briefs and oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court last month, the Colorado plaintiffs had argued that Section 3, like many other measures in the Constitution, is “self-executing” and that Griffin’s case was wrongly decided. Donald Sherman, CREW’s executive vice president and chief counsel, said Monday that the majority’s interpretation contradicts the consensus view of historians and constitutional scholars.

“The text of Section 3 does not say any of this,” Sherman said. “The majority opinion is reading words into this provision that clearly are not there.”

Proponents of Trump’s disqualification said they will closely scrutinize the court’s opinion and evaluate other ways that Section 3 could be enforced.

“We certainly expect there will be interest in Congress as to whether there is a practical path forward for congressional action,” Bookbinder said. “And we’ll be looking into what other avenues there might be, whether it’s rooted in the 14th Amendment or otherwise, to try to protect democracy from those who have attacked it.”

David A. Dover

By
Now Habersham
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David A. Dover, age 64, of Demorest, Georgia, passed away on Sunday, March 3, 2024.

Mr. Dover was born on February 4, 1960 in Stephens County, Georgia to the late Clarence and Edith Church Dover. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by brother, Larry Dover and nephew, Shane Dover.

Mr. Dover had retired from Piedmont Automotive with 40 years of service. David was an avid hunter and fisherman. He will be remembered as a loving husband, father, and grandfather. David loved to spend time with his family, especially his grandchildren.

Survivors include his loving wife of 37 years, Cynthia Dover, of Demorest; daughter and son-in-law, Nicole and Fred Brewer, of Demorest; grandchildren, Amilya Grace Webb and Samuel Rayne Brewer, both of Demorest; sister and brother-in-law, Kay and Bobby Barron, of Clarkesville; sister-in-law, Jeanne Dover; and several nieces and nephews.

Funeral Services will be held at 2:00 p.m., Tuesday, March 5, 2024 at the Whitfield Funeral Home, North Chapel with Rev. Danny Spurr. officiating. Interment will follow in the Yonah Memorial Gardens.

The family will receive friends from 12:00 p.m. to 1:45 p.m., Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at the funeral home prior to the service.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the Whitfield Funeral Homes & Crematory, North Chapel, at 245 Central Avenue, Demorest, Georgia 30535. Telephone: 706-778-1700.

Celebrating 75 Years of United Way in Hall County

By
Nora Almazan
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The Team at United Way of Hall County prepares for the celebration of 75 years. (submitted)

The United Way of Hall County is preparing for a celebration decades in the making. The local nonprofit will celebrate its 75th anniversary at a Gala later this month.

The celebration will recognize 75 years of service directly impacting those most in need. Seventy-five years of collaborating with other local non-profits, individuals, and businesses who share the same mission – “to unite people, organizations, and resources to improve lives in Hall County.”

The Gala will be Saturday, March 9, from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. at The Boathouse, located at 3105 Clarks Bridge Road in Gainesville. The attire for the event is formal. There will be a dinner, cash bar, and live band.

The significance of the Gala

“This Gala is a milestone celebration for us at United Way of Hall County! Seventy-five years is definitely worth the celebration,” said Kaitlin Ellison, Marketing and Resource Development Director for United Way of Hall County.

Ellison added that they are very excited to be one of the very first events at the highly anticipated new venue in Hall County. The Boathouse recently opened at Lake Lanier Olympic Park.

“It is a monumental event for our community, so we’re looking forward to taking a look back over the impact we’ve made as a community and use it as a launch pad for the impact we can come together to make for the next 75 years!” Ellison remarked.

Benefits of supporting United Way

One of the many community resources United Way offers Hall County is the Compass Center. The Center operates inside the United Way office on Oak Street, offering once-a-month walk-in hours or by calling to schedule an appointment.

“The Compass Center helps those in need truly navigate life. It is a place where someone can go and meet with one of our on-staff social workers to develop a pathway out of poverty,” said Ellison.

United Way hopes the Gala will be a celebration of the past and a toast to the future!

“Those who Unite with us by giving from their paycheck, by giving their time to volunteer, or by giving their resources help us grow a better Hall County,” Ellison said. “When a community can come together and unite to serve better those who are having a hard time, everyone benefits.”

To buy tickets, visit United Way ticket sales.

(United Way of Hall County)

Denali: Huggable Husky waiting on forever home

By
India Kelley
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Hi! I'm Denali, a 6 1/2 year old female Husky. My first owner couldn't take care of me any more and then my adopted owner traded me in for a new puppy. Now, here I am, back in the shelter waiting for my forever home. I'm ready to be adopted and can't wait to meet you! (photo by Habersham County Animal Care and Control)

Woof! Hey there, it’s me, Denali, and I’m sort of new here at the shelter, and I’d like to share with you a bit more to share about my journey. You see, my world turned a bit upside down because my previous human, the one who used to scratch behind my ears and take me on walks, couldn’t keep me anymore. It wasn’t their fault; it was something about their health. I didn’t really understand the details, but I could sense the love they had for me. They wanted me to have a better life, where I could get the care and exercise I need. While I do miss my humans, I appreciate that they had my best interest in mind. You can tell when you meet me I was so taken care of and loved.

I had a new family for a short time after that, but they returned me to the shelter after they got a new puppy. So here I am, a 6 1/2 year old, 65 pound ball of Husky love, ready to bring joy and comfort to a new home. My silver and white fur might have a few extra stories to tell now, but my blue eyes are still as bright and eager as ever.

Denali is a 65-pound female Husky who plays well with kids and other dogs, but no cats please.. (HCACC photo)

Got Kids? Oh, they’re the best! I absolutely adore them. Their giggles and playfulness light up my world. I’m like a fluffy big sister, always ready for games and cuddles. Patience? Well, that’s my middle name – Denali “Patience” Husky, at your service!

As for those feline friends, well, let’s just say I’m more of a “dogs-only” kind of gal. Cats and I might not be the best of buddies, but I’m all about forming strong connections with my human pals. Besides, huskies are known to prefer cat-free homes.

I do have a “dainty” play style, so I would appreciate a playmate who isn’t rude or pushy. I may have to activate my “momma dog mode” and help them learn boundaries and respect for their elders if they are naughty youngins!

I might not understand everything that’s happened, but I know there’s a special family out there looking for a furry friend to share their love and warmth. If you’re ready for a loving companion who understands the language of tail wags and cozy snuggles, then I’m your girl. Let’s create a new chapter of adventures together!

Oh, and health-wise, I’ve got it covered. I’ve been spayed and fully vetted!  No worries there; I’m fit, healthy, and ready for some serious tail-wagging adventures.

I’d love for you to come to the shelter and meet me. I’m a wonderful girl who would make an excellent companion for someone who loves huskies but not all the husky drama. The shelter people say I’m the un-huskiest husky ever!

Click on Denali’s photo to schedule a time to meet him.

Bodycam captures armed carjacker’s arrest

By
Joy Purcell
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Carjacking suspect Abraham Santiago is seen moments before he gets into a scuffle with Gainesville police during his arrest on the morning of Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. (Gainesville Police Department bodycam screen grab)

Two people are being held in the Hall County Jail after police say they tried to carjack a taxi driver at gunpoint.

Abraham Santiago, 31, and Ana Maria Calderilla-Linares, 38, were arrested after the taxi picked them up and drove them to the 1000 block of Dawsonville Highway on February 29th at around 6 a.m.

Gainesville Police say Santiago allegedly pulled a gun on the driver, who was able to run away on foot.

“Moments later, police encountered the armed duo and arrested both,” a police department news release states. “During the arrest, Santiago resisted officers before being taken into custody.”

Police say they found a stolen gun on Santiago’s ankle and another stolen gun at the scene.

Bodycam captured arrest

The Gainesville Police Department released edited bodycam footage of the arrest. The video shows a scuffle break out between Santiago and one of the arresting officers. The suspect appears to try to get away, but police hold him back.

The video then cuts to a scene showing police handcuffing Santiago on the ground.

The bodycam footage also shows the moment officers discover Santiago is carrying a gun strapped to his ankle.

“It’s a gun. We got a gun,” an officer shouts.

In the clip that follows, one of the policemen points to a holster on Santiago’s ankle while, in the background, you can hear an off-camera officer give instructions to “check the backseat.”

Police charged Santiago with hijacking, drug and weapons charges, and resisting arrest. Calderilla-Linares was charged with theft by receiving stolen property, drug and weapons charges, and giving convicts items without consent.

Both suspects were booked at the Hall County Jail, where Santiago is being held without bond. The bond for Calderilla-Linares was set at $11,800.

3 teens hurt, Royston woman lifeflighted after wreck on GA 106

By
Joy Purcell
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File photo (NowHabersham.com)

A Royston woman was critically injured and three teens were hurt in a two-vehicle crash Saturday in Franklin County. The wreck happened around 5:40 p.m. on March 2 on GA 106 near Cromers Bridge Road, the Georgia State Patrol (GSP) said.

According to GSP, 19-year-old Payton Riley Caldwell of Crawford was driving a Ford Excursion south on GA 106. The Excursion crossed into the northbound lane and crashed into the front of a Honda Accord, driven by 32-year-old Tatsianna Nicole Peeples.

Paramedics airlifted Peeples to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville with life-threatening injuries.

Franklin County EMS transported Caldwell and two passengers in his vehicle — 17-year-old Robert Joel Baker and a 15-year-old female, both of Winder — to Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries. The girl’s name is being withheld because she’s a juvenile.

GSP’s Troop B Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team is assisting Post 52 in Hartwell with the investigation. Troopers say charges are pending.

Georgia Power’s request for more electricity comes under fire

By
Emily Jones
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Georgia Power says the spike in demand is so high and will be needed so soon that it needs to rapidly add sources of electricity to the grid. (John McCosh/Georgia Recorder)

(Georgia Recorder) — Georgia’s energy regulators are considering Georgia Power’s request to generate and buy more electricity to meet what the utility calls a surge in demand from new businesses in the state. State lawmakers, meanwhile, are grappling with a leading source of that increased power demand: high-tech data centers.

Georgia Power says the spike in demand is so high and will be needed so soon that it needs to rapidly add sources of electricity to the grid, so it has filed an update to its long-range power plan, known as the Integrated Resource Plan or IRP. The company is seeking approval to buy electricity from other utilities, build new gas and oil turbines at an existing power plant, and build new solar and battery storage.

But in recent hearings before the Georgia Public Service Commission, experts, advocates, and members of the public questioned the utility’s forecast and its plans to meet the demand.

“Their plan relies largely on the same old technology: power from coal- and gas-fired power plants,” said Larry Heiman of Dunwoody during the public comment section of Thursday’s hearing. “My question is, doesn’t this unprecedented situation deserve some unprecedented thinking?”

These proceedings, focused on sources of energy, don’t dig into what any changes will ultimately cost customers. Georgia Power rates have gone up four times in the last fourteen months with the PSC’s approval. Any decisions about the impact on rates from these proposed changes would come later.

Planning for the future

The latest hearings were the second phase in Georgia Power’s IRP update. In January, the Public Service Commission heard from the utility. This time, expert witnesses for the commission’s staff as well as stakeholders – including environmental and consumer advocates, municipalities, energy providers, and major electricity customers like Walmart and the Department of Defense – weighed in.

They criticized Georgia Power’s request on several fronts.

Witnesses for the PSC staff pushed back on the utility’s projections. Georgia Power claims the increased demand is coming so quickly that it needs to act now rather than waiting for the regularly scheduled IRP proceeding next year. But the PSC staff witnesses disagreed. The actual need, they said, would likely take longer.

“The load forecast that we’ve produced…indicates that we do have more time,” said PSC staffer Robert Trokey.

Witnesses also questioned Georgia Power’s plans for how to meet the increased power demand, particularly the company’s reliance on fossil fuels. The utility’s plan includes solar energy but also relies heavily on fossil fuels in the form of new oil and gas turbines, buying power from other utilities that use more fossil fuels, and the possibility of running coal plants longer than planned.

Expert witnesses suggested several alternatives to Georgia Power’s plan. The utility could add capacity by upgrading to transmission lines that can handle more power, a witness for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy suggested. Others proposed a system of solar panels and batteries located at homes and businesses throughout Georgia Power’s territory that the utility could draw on when it needs extra energy.

Solutions like this, they argued, could be built more quickly and often more cheaply than the plan the utility has proposed.

Healthcare professionals and public health students spoke during the public comment section of both days of hearings, reminding the commission of the negative impacts of climate change and air pollution on health, from heat-related illness to worsening asthma and allergies to water-borne pathogens due to floods.

“The burning of fossil fuels causes climate change and air pollution, and these things are killing us and making us sick,” said pediatrician Preeti Jaggi.

Data centers incentives in limbo

Georgia Power says that 80% of the new electricity need driving its request comes from data centers, the large buildings packed with computer servers that facilitate websites, apps, and other online activities.

Every time you send an email, go to a Zoom meeting or stream a movie, you’re using data. It has to come from somewhere: generally, a data center full of computer servers.

Data centers have enjoyed a tax break in Georgia since 2018, but that could soon change: a bill that has passed the state House would suspend the data center tax exemption, which could further complicate the energy outlook in Georgia.

“Data centers enable the apps, platforms, and services that we use personally and professionally every day,” said Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition. “They keep us connected in our modern lives.”

Since the introduction of the tax exemption for data center equipment in 2018, metro Atlanta’s data center market is booming.

The goal of tax incentives like this is to spur economic development. Levi said data centers give rise to other businesses, from IT maintenance to HVAC to security.

“They tend to develop and expand entire ecosystems around them,” he said.

But the rush to supply enough electricity for the influx of data centers has state officials second-guessing the tax break. House Bill 1192, which is now before the state’s Senate Finance Committee, would suspend the tax break and create a special commission to look at where data centers should be located and how to supply them with energy.

“Well, better late than never,” said Mark Woodall, the legislative chair for the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club. “They should have studied it when they were giving it away.”

Instead, the Public Service Commission is now weighing the questions that HB 1192 would put to its special commission.

“So we got a big mess here,” Woodall said. “And the first thing we can do is quit digging the hole.”

Opponents of the bill are concerned that doing away with the tax incentive would hurt job growth and economic development in the data center industry and beyond.

“Without that incentive, I think data center owners are going to be challenged in recruiting tenant investment in jobs and bringing them to the state,” Levi said. “The abrupt suspension of the programs…sends a contrary signal, not just to the data center industry, but I think to the larger business community.”

The bill would grandfather in the sales tax exemption for data centers that have already applied for their certificate of exemption. But the uncertainty for centers that are in earlier stages of development could have significant bearing on the energy that Georgia Power will need.

The utility’s forecasting in the IRP update, its representatives have testified, is based on “tangible projects” the company is aware of through discussions with prospective customers. Much of the criticism leveled at Georgia Power in the hearings, however, focused on the likelihood of those prospective customers turning into real ones who actually purchase the electricity the utility says it needs to generate.

“We cannot say for certain that they will materialize fully or actually situate within Georgia Power’s service territory,” said consultant Karan Pol, who testified Thursday on behalf of PSC staff.

Suspending the tax incentive, Levi said, would add “uncertainty and a lot of risk” for data centers considering locating in Georgia. If the future of data center development in the state is uncertain – so too is just how much electricity they will need.

This coverage is made possible through a partnership with WABE and Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future.

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