Juliette Gordon Low’s lobbyists to carry cookies, milk to Capitol
Hundreds of pint-size lobbyists will be doling out cookies and milk at the Georgia Capitol on Tuesday as they push to strike a segregationist’s name from a major gateway bridge, The New York Times reported Sunday.The Times piece tracks the fight by the Girl Scouts to have the Eugene Talmadge Memorial Bridge in Savannah renamed for Juliette Gordon Low, the Girl Scouts founder. Savannah residents have tried unsuccessfully for years to rename the bridge but are thought to have momentum this year. The Times said two factors may help lead to success this year. One is Low’s good name. Also, it appears that lawyers can’t find where the formalities of naming the bridge after the former governor were ever completed.
Georgia bill seeks lottery money for helping vets
Could a share of Georgia's lottery proceeds go toward helping some military veterans? That idea was discussed at a town hall meeting Saturday with state House and Senate members representing the Columbus region, WRBL.com reported. State Sen. Ed Harbison, D-Columbus, said one proposal calls for funding coming from a special scratch-off ticket. The measure, House Bill 794, is sponsored by state Rep. Sandra Scott, a Democrat from Rex in Clayton County. Currently, the overwhelming majority of Georgia's lottery funds pay for voluntary pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds and scholarships for qualifying college and technical school students.
Could another city, county pool resources?
Most of the news about local governments in recent years has been about their creation, not consolidation. But that's the case in Barrow County. In a column published over the weekend at Barrow News-Journal.com. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry English reports lawmakers are still working on legislation requested by Barrow County and the city of Winder. The legislation would put before the public the question of whether to study possible consolidation of local government services. English says he'll have a resolution for legislative attorneys to review. "At that point," he said, "all of us in the local delegation will sit down to discuss the first draft and what we do going forward."
McKoon: English-only bill offers exceptions
In this column last week, we had a brief on state Sen. Josh McKoon’s English-only bill. He contacted us and wanted to clarify that his proposal, Senate Resolution 587, includes nine exceptions when languages other than English could be used in state communications. McKoon, a Republican running to become Georgia’s secretary of state, also pointed out that the resolution would only become law if approved by lawmakers and then by the public in November. Additionally, he said, his proposal is similar to laws in 32 states.
