Tag: Georgia

Georgia runoff: Early voting for Warnock-Walker round 2

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ATLANTA (AP) — In-person early voting for the last U.S. Senate seat is underway statewide in Georgia’s runoff, with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock working to get the jump on Republican challenger Herschel Walker who is putting less emphasis on advance balloting.

After winning a state lawsuit to allow Saturday voting after Thanksgiving, Warnock spent the weekend urging his supporters not to wait until the Dec. 6 runoff. Trying to leverage his role as pastor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s church and Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator, Warnock concentrated his efforts Sunday among Black communities in metro Atlanta.

“What we are doing right now is soul work,” Warnock said at Liberty International Church southwest of downtown, where he rallied supporters before leading a march to a nearby early voting site where he cast his ballot. “We are engaged in a political exercise,” Warnock continued, “but this is moral and spiritual work, and for us that has always been based on the foundation of the church.”

Walker, in contrast, did not hold public events over the long Thanksgiving weekend, and in his return to the campaign Monday night in the northern Atlanta suburb of Cumming, he did not mention early voting specifically. “Tell your friends to come with you to vote,” he said. “If you don’t have any friends, go make some friends.”

Separately, the Republican Party and its aligned PACs are trying to drive turnout after Walker underperformed other Georgia Republicans in the general election. Walker finished the first round with about 200,000 fewer votes than Gov. Brian Kemp, who easily won a second term. Walker resumes his campaign Monday with stops in small-town Toccoa and suburban Cumming.

Early in-person voting continues through Friday. Runoff Election Day is Tuesday of next week.

Warnock led Walker by about 37,000 votes out of about 4 million cast in the general election but fell short of the majority required under Georgia law, triggering a four-week runoff blitz. Warnock first won the seat as part of concurrent Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, 2021, when he and Sen. Jon Ossoff prevailed over Republican incumbents to give Democrats narrow control of the Senate for the start of President Joe Biden’s tenure. Warnock won a special election and now is seeking a full six-year term.

This time, Senate control is not in play, with Democrats already having secured 50 seats to go with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote. That puts pressure on both Warnock and Walker to convince Georgia voters that it’s worth their time to cast a second ballot, even if the national stakes aren’t as high.

As of late Sunday, almost 200,000 ballots had been cast in the relative handful of counties that opted to have weekend voting. The first day of statewide early voting on Monday added at least 250,000 more, the largest in-person early voting day in Georgia history, according to Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling. That’s included long lines in several heavily Democratic counties of metro Atlanta, enough to give Democrats confidence that their core supporters remain excited to vote for Warnock. But the total remains a fraction of the nearly 2.3 million early in-person voters ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.

And Democrats remain cautious given that the early voting window is much shorter than two years ago, when the second round spanned two months between the general election and runoff. Voting on Saturday was allowed only because Warnock and Democrats sued amid a dispute with the Republican secretary of state over whether Saturday voting could occur on a holiday weekend.

The senator followed up with a parade of Black leaders for weekend rallies and a march reminiscent of voting rights demonstrations during the civil rights movement.

“We have one vote here that can change the world,” Andrew Young, a former Atlanta mayor and onetime aide to King, implored Black voters on Sunday. Rising from his wheelchair to speak, the 90-year-old former congressman and U.N. ambassador reminded the assembly of the congressional compromise that ended post-Civil War Reconstruction and paved the way for Jim Crow segregation across the South.

“One vote at the end of the Civil War pulled all of the Union troops out of the South and lost us the rights we had fought for in the war and that people had fought for us,” he said, starting “a struggle that we have been in ever since.”

Warnock praised the weekend turnout as he campaigned Monday with college students on the campus of Morehouse College, where he graduated. “I don’t want us to get too comfortable, or self- congratulatory,” he said. “We’ve had just two days of early voting, today is day three. We cannot take our foot off the gas.”

Later Monday, Warnock appeared in suburban Cobb County with musician Dave Matthews, who praised Warnock as a “decent man.” The audience of hundreds included many middle-aged white voters, a key target for Warnock as he tries to reach past core Democrats to capture voters who sometimes choose Republicans.

“When you go home, please tell all your friends that were like, on the fence, to get on the correct side of the fence,” Matthews said.

Walker, for his part, has drawn enthusiastic crowds in the early weeks of the runoff, as well, and his campaign aides remain confident that he has no problem among core Republicans. His challenge comes with the middle of the Georgia electorate, a gap highlighted by his shortfall compared to Kemp.

“I feel Herschel Walker benefited by having Brian Kemp in the original election on Nov. 8, and I think Kemp not being there will hurt the Republicans a little bit,” said Alpharetta resident Marcelo Salvatierra, who voted for Republican Kemp and Democrat Warnock and still supports the senator in the runoff.

Salvatierra said he backed Kemp’s re-election “because it seems to me Georgia has done well.” But Republicans at the federal level, he said, never offered a serious counter to Democratic control of Washington, while Walker also comes with considerable personal baggage.

“Character matters and I sense he doesn’t have character,” Salvatierra said.

Warnock has encouraged that sentiment among core Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans. For months, he’s said Walker, a former football star making his first bid for public office, was “not ready” for the Senate. In recent weeks, he’s ratcheted up the attack to say Walker is “not fit,” highlighting the challenger’s falsehoods about his accomplishments in the private sector, along with allegations of violence against women and accusations by two women that Walker encouraged and paid for their abortions. Walker, who backs a national ban on abortions without exceptions, denies that he ever paid for any abortions.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections

Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections

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November 29, 2022
FBI confirms remains in landfill belong to Georgia toddler

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SAVANNAH, Ga. — The FBI on Monday confirmed that the bones found in a Georgia landfill are those of a toddler who had been reported missing last month and whose mother was arrested last week on charges including murder.

The FBI used DNA analysis to confirm that the bones belonged to 20-month-old Quinton Simon, the agency said in a news release. Chatham County police said on Nov. 21 that they had arrested Leilani Simon, 22, on charges of malice murder, concealing the death of another person, false reporting and making false statements involving her son.

Simon was being held in the Chatham County Jail, and it wasn’t immediately clear Monday whether she had an attorney who could comment on her behalf.

Simon called police on Oct. 5 to report that her son was missing from his playpen in their home just outside Savannah. The remains that were determined to be Quinton’s were found in a landfill on Nov. 18.

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November 28, 2022
Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker Get Ready To Rumble In Upcoming Senate Runoff

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The competition between incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and former football star Herschel Walker heats up as the Georgia Senate runoff nears.

According to the secretary of state’s office, more than 70,000 people voted Saturday, as early voting is underway before the December 6 runoff.

Regardless of the Georgia race’s outcome, the Senate will be controlled by the Democrats, as the Democrats have 50 seats after the November 8 midterm election—plus, a vote from Vice President Kamala Harris to break any ties.

“Herschel Walker ain’t serious,” Warnock told supporters recently. “But the election is very serious. Don’t get those two things confused.” Walker probably wasn’t helping his case when he said, seemingly out of nowhere, at a recent campaign rally that he watched a movie about vampires and came to the conclusion: “I don’t want to be a vampire any more. I want to be a werewolf.”

Warnock also said the former running back “majors in lying,” emphasizing Walker’s falsehoods regarding his career in law enforcement and abortion stance. “My opponent lies about everything…He said he was a police officer. He’s not. He said he worked for the FBI. He did not. Said he graduated from the University of Georgia. He did not. Said he was valedictorian of his class. He was not…He said he had another business with 800 employees. It has eight.”

Walker was in the news earlier this week after reports showed he has benefitted from a tax break in 2021 and 2022 for a home he owns in Dallas; the tax exemption only applies if that home is your “principal residence.” He took the tax exemption for his Texas residence after launching a bid for Senate in a different state.

Meanwhile, Walker has called Warnock “Scooby-Doo” while offering up an impression of the cartoon, and has criticized the pastor regarding the Columbia Tower low-income apartment building in Atlanta, which is owned by Warnock’s church, as residents recently complained about unfair eviction notices.

“What he’s doing in this apartment building at Columbia Towers is not right,” Walker said recently at a suburban Atlanta campaign stop. “You shouldn’t put Jesus’ name on what you’re doing to people, and don’t put Martin Luther King name on it. … You’re not Jesus, and you’re not Dr. King.”

Warnock denied these allegations, saying no one has been evicted, adding: “This isn’t the first time people attacked Ebenezer Baptist Church. They attacked Martin Luther King Jr. I’m in good company.” Columbia Residential, which manages the building’s day-to-day operations, issued a statement that aligned with Warnock, saying that not only was Warnock not involved in the building’s operations, but also that there had been no evictions in the building for not paying rent since June 2020.

In the November 8 election, Warnock led Walker by 37,000 votes; however, the incumbent did not cross the 50% threshold necessary to secure the victory.

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November 27, 2022
One killed, 5 wounded in shooting near popular Atlanta shopping district

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Authorities said one person was killed and at least five others wounded when a dispute escalated into a shooting Saturday evening near a popular shopping and entertainment district in Atlanta.

The shooting occurred at about 8 p.m. local time on a street near Atlantic Station, Atlanta police Lt. Germain Dearlove said in a late Saturday night news briefing. Footage from the scene showed a heavy police presence with several surrounding roads blocked off.

One male victim was pronounced dead on scene, Dearlove said, and five others were transported to nearby hospitals with unknown injuries. All six victims were believed to be between 15 and 21 years of age. No names were immediately provided.

Just prior to the shooting, Dearlove said, a “large group” of juveniles had been escorted off Atlantic Station property by security for “unruly behavior, and also curfew violations.”

That group then gathered on the 17th Street bridge where a “dispute occurred, that escalated to gunfire.”

Dearlove said the exact circumstances of the shooting were still unclear. No arrests have been made.

“It may be between two groups, one shooting at another, so two possible shooters,” Dearlove said.

Atlantic Station is busy shopping area, with several stores and restaurants. It is located a few miles north of downtown Atlanta.

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November 26, 2022
Shooting in Atlanta neighborhood kills 1 person, wounds 5

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ATLANTA — A shooting in an Atlanta neighborhood Saturday evening killed one person and wounded five, police said.

The Atlanta Police Department said several shots were fired during a dispute around 8 p.m. on the 17th Street bridge in Atlantic Station, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Police said the shooting occurred after a group of people was escorted off the Atlantic Station open air mall property by security and off-duty Atlanta police officers.

“At this time, we have one male on scene deceased and several others were transported to area hospitals,” Lt. Germaine Dearlove, Atlanta police homicide commander, said during a media briefing late Saturday.

The deceased victim was between the ages of 15 and 21, WSB-TV reported.

Atlantic Station is a private property consisting primarily of retail and residential space. A statement emailed to The Associated Press by a representative said the company was aware of the shooting and cooperating with investigators.

“APD and EMS immediately responded to an altercation within a group that led to shots being fired with possible injuries,” the statement said. “The community’s safety continues to be our top priority, and we are working closely with law enforcement during this active investigation.”

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November 26, 2022
At least 1 person killed and 5 wounded in a shooting at a shopping district near downtown Atlanta, police say | CNN

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CNN
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At least one person was killed and five people were wounded in a shooting after a “dispute occurred that escalated to gunfire” near Atlanta’s Atlantic Station retail district Saturday night, according to police.

At around 8 p.m., a “group of juveniles” were escorted off Atlantic Station property by off-duty Atlanta police officers and Atlantic Station personnel, Atlanta Police Homicide Commander Lt. Germain Dearlove said in a news conference.

“They were removed for unruly behavior and also curfew violations for Atlantic Station,” Dearlove told reporters.

The group moved to 17th Street where the dispute occurred and “escalated to gunfire,” Dearlove said.

“We have one male deceased on scene and several victims were transported to area hospitals,” Dearlove said. “Currently homicide investigators are on scene working to establish a lead on the case and also suspect information and also identify involved parties.”

Five people are at area hospitals with gunshot wounds, Dearlove said.

While authorities are working to determine the ages of the victims, police believe “they are between 15 to 21 years old,” Dearlove said.

“We are still working to identify and determine what exactly occurred,” Dearlove said, adding it is possible there were two shooters due to the dispute being “between two groups.”

Dearlove would not say where on the sprawling midtown Atlanta commercial property the group was prior to their removal, instead deferring the question to Atlantic Station personnel.

According to the shopping district’s official website, there is a 3:00 p.m. curfew for all people under 18, at which time anyone under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian and groups of four or more juveniles “will be dispersed.”

In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Atlantic Station said, “Atlantic Station Security is working with APD on this matter and has indicated there is no active threat to the property. The community’s safety continues to be our top priority, and we are working closely with law enforcement during this active investigation.”

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November 26, 2022
Midterms free of feared chaos as voting experts look to 2024

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Before Election Day, anxiety mounted over potential chaos at the polls.

Election officials warned about poll watchers who had been steeped in conspiracy theories falsely claiming that then-President Donald Trump did not actually lose the 2020 election. Democrats and voting rights groups worried about the effects of new election laws, in some Republican-controlled states, that President Joe Biden decried as “Jim Crow 2.0.” Law enforcement agencies were monitoring possible threats at the polls.

Yet Election Day, and the weeks of early voting before it, went fairly smoothly. There were some reports of unruly poll watchers disrupting voting, but they were scattered. Groups of armed vigilantes began watching over a handful of ballot drop boxes in Arizona until a judge ordered them to stay far away to ensure they would not intimidate voters. And while it might take months to figure out their full impact, GOP-backed voting laws enacted after the 2020 election did not appear to cause major disruptions the way they did during the March primary in Texas.

“The entire ecosystem in a lot of ways has become more resilient in the aftermath of 2020,” said Amber McReynolds, a former Denver elections director who advises a number of voting rights organizations. “There’s been a lot of effort on ensuring things went well.”

Even though some voting experts’ worst fears didn’t materialize, some voters still experienced the types of routine foul-ups that happen on a small scale in every election. Many of those fell disproportionately on Black and Hispanic voters.

“Things went better than expected,” said Amir Badat of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. “But we have to say that with a caveat: Our expectations are low.”

Badat said his organization recorded long lines at various polling places from South Carolina to Texas.

There were particular problems in Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston. Shortages of paper ballots and at least one polling location opening late led to long lines and triggered an investigation of the predominantly Democratic county by the state’s Republican authorities.

The investigation is partly a reflection of how certain voting snafus on Election Day are increasingly falling on Republican voters, who have been discouraged from using mailed ballots or using early in-person voting by Trump and his allies. But it’s a very different problem from what Texas had during its March primary.

Then, a controversial new voting law that increased the requirements on mail ballots led to about 13% of all such ballots being rejected, much higher compared with other elections. It was an ominous sign for a wave of new laws, passed after Trump’s loss to Biden and false claims about mail voting, but there have been no problems of that scale reported for the general election.

Texas changed the design of its mail ballots, which solved many of the problems voters had putting identifying information in the proper place. Other states that added regulations on voting didn’t appear to have widespread problems, though voting rights groups and analysts say it will take weeks of combing through data to find out the laws’ impacts.

The Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law is compiling data to determine whether new voting laws in states such as Georgia contributed to a drop in turnout among Black and Hispanic voters.

Preliminary figures show turnout was lower this year than in the last midterm election four years ago in Florida, Georgia, Iowa and Texas — four states that passed significant voting restrictions since the 2020 election — although there could be a number of reasons why.

“It’s difficult to judge, empirically, the kind of effect these laws have on turnout because so many factors go into turnout,” said Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Los Angeles law school. “You also have plenty of exaggeration on the Democratic side that any kind of change in voting laws are going to cause some major effect on the election, which has been proven not to be the case.”

In Georgia, for example, Republicans made it more complicated to apply for mailed ballots after the 2020 election — among other things, requiring voters to include their driver’s license number or some other form of identification rather than a signature. That may be one reason why early in-person voting soared in popularity in the state this year, and turnout there dipped only slightly from 2018.

Jason Snead, executive director of the conservative Honest Elections Project, which advocates for tighter voting laws, said the fairly robust turnout in the midterm elections shows that fears of the new voting regulations were overblown.

“We are on the back end of an election that was supposed to be the end of democracy, and it very much was not,” Snead said.

Poll watchers were a significant concern of voting rights groups and election officials heading into Election Day. The representatives of the two major political parties are a key part of any secure election process, credentialed observers who can object to perceived violations of rules.

But this year, groups aligned with conspiracy theorists who challenged Biden’s 2020 victory recruited poll watchers heavily, and some states reported that aggressive volunteers caused disruptions during the primary. But there were fewer issues in November.

In North Carolina, where several counties had reported problems with poll watchers in the May primary, the state elections board reported 21 incidents of misbehavior at the polls in the general election, most during the early, in-person voting period and by members of campaigns rather than poll watchers. The observers were responsible for eight of the incidents.

Voting experts were pleasantly surprised there weren’t more problems with poll watchers, marking the second general election in a row when a feared threat of aggressive Republican observers did not materialize.

“This seems to be an increase over 2020. Is it a small increase? Yes,” said Michael McDonald, a political scientist at the University of Florida. “It’s still a dry run for 2024, and we can’t quite let down our guard.”

One of the main organizers of the poll watcher effort was Cleta Mitchell, a veteran Republican election lawyer who joined Trump on a Jan. 2, 2020, call to Georgia’s top election official when the president asked that the state “find” enough votes to declare him the winner. Mitchell then launched an organization to train volunteers who wanted to keep an eye on election officials, which was seen as the driver of the poll watcher surge.

Mitchell said the relatively quiet election is vindication that groups like hers were simply concerned with election integrity rather than causing disruptions.

“Every training conducted by those of us doing such training included instruction about behavior, and that they must be ‘Peaceful, Lawful, Honest,’” Mitchell wrote in the conservative online publication The Federalist. “Yet, without evidence, the closer we got to Election Day, the more hysterical the headlines became, warning of violence at the polls resulting from too many observers watching the process. It didn’t happen.”

Voting rights groups say they’re relieved their fears didn’t materialize, but they say threats to democracy remain on the horizon for 2024 — especially with Trump announcing that he’s running again. Wendy Weiser, a voting and elections expert at the Brennan Center, agreed that things overall went smoother than expected.

“By and large, sabotage didn’t happen,” Weiser said. “I don’t think that means we’re in the clear.”

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections.

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November 26, 2022
Georgia Supreme Court reinstates abortion ban

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The Georgia Supreme Court Wednesday reinstated the state’s ban on abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy.

In a one-page order, the high court put a lower court ruling overturning the ban on hold while it considers an appeal. Abortion providers who had resumed performing the procedure past six weeks after the lower court ruling will again have to stop.

The order said seven of the nine justices had agreed to the decision. It said one was disqualified and another did not participate.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled on November 15 that the state’s abortion ban was invalid because when it was signed into law in 2019, U.S. Supreme Court precedent under Roe. v. Wade and another ruling allowed abortion well past six weeks.

The decision immediately prohibited enforcement of the abortion ban statewide. Abortion providers had resumed performing the procedure past six weeks, though some said they were proceeding cautiously over concerns the ban could be quickly reinstated.

Abortion rights protesters participate in nationwide demonstrations following the leaked Supreme Court opinion suggesting the possibility of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., May 14, 2022.

ALYSSA POINTER / REUTERS

The state attorney general’s office appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court. It also asked the high court for an order putting the decision on hold while the appeal was pending.

Georgia’s ban took effect in July, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It prohibited most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” was present.

Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart around six weeks into a pregnancy. That means most abortions in Georgia were effectively banned at a point before many people knew they were pregnant.

The Battle Over Abortion

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November 23, 2022
Savannah Chrisley caring for brother and niece as Todd and Julie Chrisley are sentenced to prison | CNN

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CNN
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Savannah Chrisley will be caring for her younger brother and niece as her parents Todd and Julie Chrisley have been sentenced to prison for fraud and tax crimes.

Chrisley spoke about the custody arrangement on her podcast “Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley” in an episode published Tuesday, during which she said she knew it was a possibility her parents would not be coming home.

“I may come home without both of my parents,” she said prior to their sentencing on Monday. “That’s what the chances are. That’s the likelihood, and that’s my new normal.”

She continued: “I come home Tuesday, and I have custody of a 16-year-old and a 10-year-old, and we spend our first Thanksgiving not as a family.”

“I’ve never been away from my family for the holidays,” she said. “I just ask that you to show up and understand where I’m coming from and have some grace for me and my family and to stop with the negative comments because it hurts.”

Todd Chrisley was sentenced to 12 years in prison with three years of supervised release. Julie Chrisley was sentenced to seven years in prison and three years of supervised release after being found guilty in June of conspiracy to defraud banks out of more than $30 million in fraudulent loans.

Savannah Chrisley, 25, the couple’s oldest daughter, said their prison terms are forcing her to grieve “the loss of parents who are still alive.”

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November 23, 2022
Georgia Supreme Court Reinstates Abortion Ban

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ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia Supreme Court Wednesday reinstated the state’s ban on abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy.

The high court put a lower court ruling overturning the ban on hold while it considers an appeal.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled on November 15 that the state’s abortion ban was invalid because when it was signed into law in 2019, U.S. Supreme Court precedent under Roe. v. Wade and another ruling allowed abortion well past six weeks.

The decision immediately prohibited enforcement of the abortion ban statewide. Abortion providers had resumed performing the procedure past six weeks.

The state attorney general’s office appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court. It also asked the high court for an order putting the decision on hold while the appeal was pending.

Georgia’s ban took effect in July, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. It prohibited most abortions once a “detectable human heartbeat” was present.

Cardiac activity can be detected by ultrasound in cells within an embryo that will eventually become the heart around six weeks into a pregnancy. That means most abortions in Georgia were effectively banned at a point before many people knew they were pregnant.

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November 23, 2022
Lindsey Graham appears before Georgia grand jury

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Sen. Lindsey Graham appeared before a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, on Tuesday as part of an investigation into efforts from former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election results in that state, his spokesperson confirmed.

“Today, Senator Graham appeared before the Fulton County Special Grand Jury for just over two hours and answered all questions,” said Kevin Bishop, a spokesperson for Graham, in a statement. “The Senator feels he was treated with respect, professionalism and courtesy. Out of respect for the grand jury process, he will not comment on the substance of the questions.”

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis had sought Graham’s testimony in relation to phone calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the election.

Raffensperger told “CBS Mornings” in November 2020 that, in a phone call, Graham suggested absentee ballots from counties with high rates of nonmatching signatures be disqualified. At the time, the South Carolina Republican denied Raffensperger’s claims and dismissed his comments as “ridiculous.”

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) as they walk through the Senate Subway to participate in a vote on the Senate floor at the U.S. Capitol Building on Nov. 16, 2022 in Washington, D.C.

Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

Georgia had not voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since 1992. Ultimately, President Biden won the state by over 11,000 votes. Trump had zeroed in on Fulton County, which encompasses Atlanta, and alleged without evidence that there was voter fraud and that “dead people voted.”

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol said, during a hearing this summer, that the White House called and texted Raffensperger’s office 18 times to set up a call about a statewide audit of the vote. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows also appeared at a signature audit site in Georgia, where he met with Frances Watson, the chief investigator for the secretary of state’s office, who was supervising that audit.

Willis opened the investigation into Trump and his allies’ actions after a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call where Trump asked Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes — or “one more than we have” — to win the state.

Graham, one of Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, had sought to appeal the order to testify, arguing he was protected under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate clause, which shields lawmakers from some criminal or civil proceedings related to their legislative duties. But earlier this month, the Supreme Court refused to halt a lower court order that Graham testify, saying that while “informal investigative fact-finding” is protected, Graham can return to district court if there is a dispute “regarding the application of the Speech or Debate Clause immunity to specific questions.”

Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn was also ordered to appear on Tuesday, according to court documents, although CNN reported that Flynn was granted a provisional stay while he fights the supboena.

Melissa Quinn contributed to this report.

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November 22, 2022
Georgia runoff: Why one Senate seat is crucial for Democrats

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats have secured their majority in the Senate for the next two years. But holding on to Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock’s seat in Georgia’s runoff next month could be crucial to their success.

If Warnock wins the runoff against Republican Herschel Walker, Democrats will have 51 seats. That would make legislating a lot easier than it is in the current 50-50 Senate, the narrowest possible balance of power. For the last two years, Democrats have had to rely on Vice President Kamala Harris — she is the president of the Senate — to break ties.

Republicans and Democrats are spending millions of dollars to win the seat in the Dec. 6 runoff in Georgia after neither Warnock nor Walker, a famed former football player, won the necessary 50 percent margin to triumph on Election Day. Warnock beat Sen. Kelly Loeffler in a 2020 special election and is now vying for a full six-year term.

A 50-50 Senate “slows everything down,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in an interview last week. “So it makes a big difference to us.”

A look at what a 51st seat would mean for Senate Democrats:

OUTRIGHT MAJORITY

A 51-49 Senate would give Democrats an outright majority, meaning that Schumer wouldn’t have to negotiate a power-sharing agreement with Republican leader Mitch McConnell. The two parties had to do that two years ago and also in 2001, the last time the Senate was evenly split.

In early 2021, confirmations of new President Joe Biden’s nominees were stalled for several weeks while Schumer and McConnell worked out an agreement on how to split committees and move legislation on the Senate floor. Using the little leverage he had, McConnell threatened not to finalize a deal until Democrats promised that they wouldn’t try to kill the legislative filibuster that forces a 60-vote threshold.

The Republican leader finally relented after two Democratic senators — West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema — made it clear they would not support such a move on the filibuster.

COMMITTEE BALANCE

Committees are now evenly split between the two parties due to the 50-50 power-sharing deal. This often creates extra steps when a committee vote is tied, forcing Democrats to hold votes on the Senate floor to move ahead with bills or nominees.

Should they win an outright 51-seat majority, Democrats would likely hold an extra seat on every committee, making it much easier to move nominees or legislation on party-line votes.

Biden, a longtime senator before becoming president, acknowledged this reality after Democrats clinched 50 seats and the Senate majority.

“It’s always better with 51, because we’re in a situation where you don’t have to have an even makeup of the committees,” Biden said. “And so that’s why it’s important, mostly. But it’s just simply better. The bigger the numbers, the better.”

THE JOE MANCHIN PROBLEM

The extra seat would also give Democrats the ability to pass bills while losing one vote within their caucus — a luxury they haven’t had over the last two years. Manchin, a moderate from conservative West Virginia, often used the narrow margin to his advantage, forcing Democrats to bend to his will on several pieces of legislation.

Manchin’s opposition to Biden’s sweeping health, climate and economic package stalled it for months, until Schumer negotiated a narrower version with the West Virginia senator. In the end, several of Biden’s legislative priorities were left out.

That pressure could be even more acute in the next Congress, as Manchin and Sinema, a fellow moderate, are both up for reelection and will want to prove their bipartisan credentials.

CONFIRMING JUDGES

With Republicans taking charge of the House majority next year, Democrats won’t have much of a chance to pass major legislation. So one of Schumer’s main priorities will be confirming judges nominated by Biden in the last two years of his term.

A rules change under former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a decade ago allowed the Senate to pass judges with only a simple majority, or 51 votes. Winning Warnock’s seat would make that process easier and more expedient.

“We’ve been able to achieve a lot, but we can do even more with additional senator,” said Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

FREE KAMALA HARRIS

The vice president has already broken 26 tied votes as vice president — twice as many as Mike Pence did in his four years in the job. Biden never broke a tie in his eight years as vice president.

The need to break tie votes requires Harris to keep close to Washington. A 51st vote would free up the vice president somewhat, allowing her to be out of town when the Senate is holding important votes.

In a speech earlier this year, Harris noted that she had broken President John Adams’ record of casting the most tie-breaking votes in a single term.

“I think we should all fully appreciate how history can take a turn,” Harris said.

___

Associated Press writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.

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November 22, 2022
Reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley face combined 19 years in prison

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Reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley face combined 19 years in prison – CBS News

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A federal judge in Atlanta, Georgia sentenced reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley to a combined 19 years in prison for bank fraud and tax evasion. CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann reports.

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November 22, 2022
Todd and Julie Chrisley sentenced for bank fraud, tax evasion

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Reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley were sentenced Monday to lengthy prison terms after being convicted earlier this year on charges including bank fraud and tax evasion.

U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross in Atlanta gave Todd Chrisley 12 years in prison, while Julie Chrisley got seven years behind bars, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta. Each is to serve three years supervised release afterward, and Ross also ordered them to pay restitution in an amount to be determined later.

“The Chrisleys have built an empire based on the lie that their wealth came from dedication and hard work,” prosecutors wrote. “The jury’s unanimous verdict sets the record straight: Todd and Julie Chrisley are career swindlers who have made a living by jumping from one fraud scheme to another, lying to banks, stiffing vendors, and evading taxes at every corner.”

Federal prosecutors had previously said that the couple should each be sentenced to more than ten years in prison.

“A message must be sent to the Chrisleys and others that tax evasion is a serious offense, and that wealthy tax cheats who use personal companies to avoid paying taxes will face a substantial prison sentence,” the prosecutors said. “Finally, Todd and Julie Chrisley’s arrogance merits special consideration.”

Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Julie Chrisley, Todd Chrisley

USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

The Chrisleys gained fame with their show “Chrisley Knows Best,” which follows their tight-knit, boisterous family. Federal prosecutors said the couple engaged in an extensive bank fraud scheme and then hid their wealth from tax authorities while flaunting their lavish lifestyle.

Todd Chrisley’s attorneys had argued in a court filing that he should not face more than nine years in prison. Julie Chrisley’s lawyers said a reasonable sentence for her would be probation with special conditions and no prison time.

The Chrisleys were convicted in June on charges of bank fraud, tax evasion and conspiring to defraud the IRS. Julie Chrisley was also convicted of wire fraud and obstruction of justice. In a podcast episode released shortly after their convictions, Todd Chrisley said the it was a “heartbreaking time” for his family.

U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a June 2022 press release that Todd and Julie Chrisley conspired to defraud community banks in the Atlanta area to obtain more than $30 million in personal loans prior to the launch of their first television show in 2014. The Chrisleys and their former business partner submitted false documents to obtain the loans, and then spent the money on cars, clothes, real estate and travel. They used new loans to pay back the old ones, Buchanan said.

Todd Chrisley filed for bankruptcy and was able to walk away from more than $20 million of the loans. While he claimed he was bankrupt, he and his family were earning millions of dollars from their TV show, according to Buchanan. The Chrisleys were operating a loan-out company, which are usually used by entertainment professionals, and earned money from their show and other entertainment ventures.

When the IRS asked for information about their bank accounts, they transferred their loan-out company’s corporate account to Todd Chrisley’s mother in an effort to hide from the IRS. However, Todd Chrisley was still operating the loan-out company behind the scenes, Buchanan said.

“The Chrisleys are unique given the varied and wide-ranging scope of their fraudulent conduct and the extent to which they engaged in fraud and obstructive behavior for a prolonged period of time,” prosecutors said.

Pictured: (l-r) Faye Chrisley, Chase Chrisley, Todd Chrisley, Savannah Chrisley, Chloe Chrisley, Julie Chrisley and Grayson Chrisley during Season Eight of “Chrisley Knows Best.”

Tommy Garcia/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

The couple’s accountant, Peter Tarantino, was also found guilty of conspiring to defraud the IRS and filing two false corporate tax returns on behalf of the Chrisleys’ company.

The prosecutors argued that while “most tax cheaters try to keep a low profile while avoiding detection from the IRS,” the Chrisleys did the opposite.

“In 2013, while Todd was in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings, the Chrisleys filmed a promotional video for their new reality show about their extravagant lifestyle. In the video, Todd boasted that he ‘make[s] millions of dollars a year,’ and in another shot where he is standing in his walk-in closet in his expansive house, he bragged that ‘in a year, we probably spend over $300,000, sometimes more, just on clothing.’”

The Chrisleys have three children together and full custody of the 10-year-old daughter of Todd Chrisley’s son from a prior marriage. One of the couple’s children, Grayson Chrisley, 16, was hospitalized earlier this month after a car accident on Nov. 12.

According to a report from Metropolitan Nashville Police Department that was obtained by CBS News, Grayson Chrisley rear-ended another vehicle on Interstate 65. The driver of the other vehicle suffered injuries but refused to be transported by ambulance at the time of the accident. Chrisley was “unable to recall anything from the accident, possibly due to a head injury,” according to the department. He was transported to the hospital by ambulance.

Although the crash happened more than a week ago, the accident did not make headlines until this week, when TMZ first reported on it.

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November 21, 2022
Georgia authorities arrest mother of still-missing toddler

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SAVANNAH, Ga. — The mother of a toddler reported missing Oct. 5 in Georgia has been arrested in connection with the child’s disappearance and presumed death, authorities said Monday.

The Chatham County Police Department in a post on Twitter said officers had arrested Leilani Simon, 22, on charges of malice murder, concealing the death of another person, false reporting and making false statements involving her son — 20-month-old Quinton Simon.

Police Chief Jeff Hadley, at a news conference later Monday, said Simon has been the sole suspect since the child was first reported missing.

“This is a heartbreaking development,” Hadley said. “From the beginning, we were hopeful we would find him alive and unharmed. But evidence has always pointed to the mother and we believe his remains were found in the landfill.”

Human remains were found in a landfill on Friday and the FBI, which has assisted in the search and other aspects of the case, is working to confirm the remains are those of the child, Hadley said.

“It could be days before we have full confirmation, said Will Clarke, the supervisory senior resident agent for the FBI’s Savannah and Brunswick offices.

“What happened to this child should not happen to anyone let alone by someone who should be their protector,” he added.

Hadley said Simon was transported to the Chatham County Detention Center where she will await a bond hearing. Simon had no listed phone number and it was not known Monday if she had a lawyer who could speak on her behalf. Court records showed she represented herself in two civil cases filed since March involving custody of her children and child support.

“We do not anticipate any other arrests in connection with this case,” Hadley said.

“We are deeply saddened by this case, but we are thankful that we are one step closer to justice for little Quinton,” the police department said in its post on Twitter announcing the arrest.

Hadley said they are still determining whether to continue searching the landfill in light of Friday’s findings and will confer with the FBI before that decision is made.

“We have a high level of confidence that those are Quinton’s remains,” Hadley said of why authorities moved to arrest Simon.

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November 21, 2022
Tosca Musk, Elon’s sister, has a business venture of her own — and it’s all about romance and female sexuality | CNN

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Atlanta, Georgia
CNN
—

Tosca Musk strides onto the red carpet at a Regal Cinemas, statuesque in a white pant suit and glistening burgundy silk top.

A hush comes over a group gathered outside the theater’s doors. Some whip out cell phones and start recording her every move.

It’s a chilly October night in Atlanta, and the fans are here for the premiere of “Torn,” the second in a trilogy of romantic fantasy movies based on books by author Jennifer Armentrout. The group of mostly female fans range in age from their twenties to their seventies, and some flew in from Boston, Detroit and other cities.

This is a big night for Musk and her five-year-old streaming service Passionflix, the backer of the movie. It’s their first public film premiere since the pandemic started.

She floats from one group to another, chatting effortlessly with Passionflix’s superfans, known as Passionistas. Her older brother, Elon Musk, may be the most famous sibling in the family, but he’s not the only one who’s founded a company.

Musk, 48, is the force behind Passionflix, which adapts romance novels into movies and streams them to a devoted niche audience. Romance novels are the most popular genre of books in the United States, and Musk is tapping into that market with stories about sultry, powerful female leads and handsome men with chiseled abs. She directs some of the films herself.

“Passionflix focuses on adapting romance novels exactly as the fan and the author envision it,” Musk says in a separate CNN interview. “We focus on connection, communication and compromise – and remove the shame from sexuality, specifically for women, because it empowers women to both acknowledge and ask for pleasure.”

Days earlier, on the set of a Passionflix movie, “The Secret Life of Amy Bensen,” Musk provides a few glimpses into life with her famous family.

Perched on a navy blue couch in a room tucked inside a warehouse in suburban Atlanta, she chooses her words carefully when asked about her older brother, who was on the verge of his Twitter acquisition.

The Musk children – Elon, Tosca and another brother, middle child Kimbal – were born in South Africa and spent time in Canada before coming to the United States. Their father, Errol, is an engineer and property developer, while their glamorous mother, Maye, is a model.

Tosca Musk attended film school at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and moved to California after graduation. For three months, she worked for one of Elon Musk’s companies, Zip2.

“I realized every time I stepped out of the film world, I was just not happy,” she says. “It just wasn’t my thing.”

After a brief stint at the Los Angeles office of Canadian media company Alliance Atlantis, she began directing and producing films while still in her twenties.

Musk produced romance films for the Lifetime and Hallmark channels and in 2005 launched a comic web series, Tiki Bar TV, which was hailed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs as ahead of its time in the emerging field of vodcasts – or video podcasting.

Then came Passionflix. Its origin story is a classic tale of when one door closes, another one opens.

About five years ago, Musk got an email from a woman who wanted her to turn her script into a movie. Musk loved the script, but there wasn’t much interest from production companies.

“People weren’t really that interested because it was too risque … It was an adult movie with a little bit of reincarnation, things like that,” she says. “It just wasn’t one of those things that regular network television wanted to do.”

But Musk met the woman, Joany Kane, in Los Angeles, and they bonded over their shared passion for romance novels. During that conversation, Kane brought up the idea of turning romance novels into movies and creating a streaming platform for them.

And with that, Passionflix was born – with Musk at the helm and Kane as a co-founder.

“We had no investors. We had to go out and find every investor. So it was a matter of going out and pitching every single person,” Musk says. “We pitched every friend, every family member, everybody just for that small bit of angel investment. It was hard. The first money in is always the hardest money.”

Musk declines to say whether her brother Elon was one of her original investors. But she says she can always count on her two brothers, including restaurateur Kimbal Musk, to give her advice on her business ventures. She tries not to ask unless she really needs to.

“I get advice from them to a certain degree when I ask for it. But no unsolicited advice,” she says. “If I ask for advice, I have no doubt that he (Elon) will give it to me. And then I have to take it, because he’s going to be right. So you have to really want to know what you want to ask. But most of the time when I’m with my family, we talk about family things.”

So what does she think about her brother’s new role as CEO of Twitter – and the flurry of headlines surrounding it?

No comment.

Passionflix’s first film was “Hollywood Dirt,” based on a best-selling novel by Alessandra Torre about a Southern woman who finds romance with a Hollywood star when he comes to her small town to film a movie.

“During that shooting of that movie, we were struggling,” Musk says. “Are we going to get money? Are we going to be able to finish it? We were not really sure. We basically were just sort of piecing the dollars together.”

In May 2017, Musk played a trailer of the movie at a romance novel convention and asked attendees to prepay $100, as founding members, for a two-year Passionflix subscription. About 4,000 people signed up, Musk says, and she and Kane used that to show potential investors they were onto something.

“Trying to raise money for a female-driven platform on romance was just not high on anybody’s priority list at the time,” she says. “But as soon as we showed there was that many people that would come on board, the investors just started flying in.”

Passionflix has since produced more than two dozen feature-length and short films, according to the Internet Movie Database.

The company remains lean – it has a core team of seven people who each wear a lot of hats. In addition to producing its own content, Passionflix also licenses films for its platform.

“I think the biggest challenge for Passionflix is we can’t produce enough content to satiate the fans,” Musk says. “It’s a struggle with so many streaming platforms, when people want original content all the time.”

With more than 200 streaming services now competing for viewers, such niche markets face a myriad of challenges, says Dan Rayburn, a streaming media expert and consultant.

Creating, licensing and marketing content is very costly, he said. And while romance is the biggest-selling genre of books in the US, that doesn’t necessarily mean its popularity translates to movies.

“That’s comparing apples to oranges. Books are different,” Rayburn says. “This business is beyond tough. It’s highly competitive and requires an absolute large sum of money.”

Passionflix charges a subscription fee of $5.99 a month. The company does not disclose its subscriber numbers. Musk says subscribers are in the “six figures,” but declines to offer specifics.

Rayburn says it’s hard to determine the company’s profitability without knowing its expenses, including production and licensing costs.

“OK, if you don’t have subscriber numbers, what’s the usage? How many hours per month do people watch it? How much are you spending on content licensing?”

A deep dive into Passionflix’s online movie catalog reveals a mix of contemporary romance, fantasy romance, paranormal romance, erotic fan fiction and related sub-genres.

The films, which stream on the Passionflix site and on Amazon Prime Video, are rated on an escalating steaminess scale Musk calls a “barometer of naughtiness.”

The five categories: Oh So Vanilla, for wholesome romcoms; Mildly Titillating; Passion and Romance; Toe Curling Yumminess; and NSFW (Not Safe for Work). The latter category has risque plot lines and more sex – think “Fifty Shades of Grey.”

But Musk says that even the naughtiest Passionflix movies don’t reach the soft-core porn threshold.

“When we first started Passionflix, somebody asked us if we’re going to rate using MPAA,” she says, referring to the Motion Picture Association of America’s movie ratings such as PG-13, R, etc. “I don’t actually like any of those ratings. They’re not specific to women. I wanted something that could rate our shows and create more of a tongue-in-cheek conversation.”

Musk says she’s a romantic at heart and is a big fan of the genre.

“Love is amazing, it’s incredibly powerful. I love to tell stories of love, all kinds of love,” she says. “So parental love, friend love, family love, and love between any kind of couple.”

That broad range of romantic genres, and its sexy content, are what sets Passionflix apart from channels such as Hallmark and Lifetime Movie Network, says romance novelist Tamara Lush. She believes the romance genre has been especially popular during the pandemic because people seek comfort in stories with happy-ever-after endings.

“Hallmark is romance-centered but the stories are very, very sweet. Passionflix tells a wider range of stories, and the ones romance readers want to watch,” Lush says.

“The popularity of ‘Bridgerton,’ ‘After’ and ’365 Days’ on Netflix should tell streaming services all they need to know: that romance is a lucrative and sure bet for viewers.”

Passionflix’s original subscribers, known as founding members, get access to movie premieres and filming sets.

Last month in Atlanta, about four dozen of them piled into the Regal theater for the premiere of “Torn.” Following the movie, Musk hosted a question-and-answer session with the lead actors, followed by an after-party at a bar across the street. Fans and actors mingled over drinks.

Debbie Parziale, 67, says she flew in from Boston for the event. One of the founding members, she says she spent the pandemic years curled up on her couch, watching Passionflix movies.

“I love Tosca’s premise of empowering women and making sex not such a taboo subject,” she says. “She’s so true to the romance novels. When you read a book and watch one of her movies, it’s the book you read.”

Amanda Cromer, 32, says she signed up for Passionflix at a romance book convention. She loves the camaraderie that comes with being part of the Passionistas. The group has a virtual book club, called Passion Squad.

As one of the original members, Cromer can visit sets and interact with the actors. Cromer, who lives in a suburb of Atlanta, says that during a visit to the set of “Torn” she became an extra in a cafe scene.

“I love the empowerment the movies bring,” says Cromer, who attended last month’s “Torn” premiere with her mother.

“They choose books with strong female leads. They’ve done such a good job of portraying the female persona as a strong independent female, and not a timid person.”

Back on the set of her latest romance movie, Tosca Musk moves from one sparsely furnished room to another.

Musk lives in suburban Atlanta with her two children, 9-year-old twins who were conceived through in vitro fertilization using an anonymous sperm donor.

She’s getting ready to fly to Italy with the twins to film “Gabriel’s Redemption,” the third book in a series by Sylvain Reynard about a Dante scholar and his passionate affair with a younger graduate student. She says they plan to enjoy lots of gelato in Florence and visit Oxford, England, so the kids can see some of the locations where the Harry Potter movies were filmed.

As a single mother, Musk says she marvels at the path that led her to a job she loves.

She hopes Passionflix will help convince the film industry’s big names that adopting romance novels into movies is a worthy investment.

“The entertainment world is controlled mostly by men. At the end of the day, the decisions tend to sway toward the male audience as opposed to the female audience,” she says. “They also tend to be more about the victimization of women than they are about sexually free or sexually empowered stories about women.”

And for Musk, there’s also a simpler reason for her filmmaking ventures.

“I’m a storyteller at heart,” she says. “I just want to be able to tell stories.”

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November 20, 2022
B. Smyth, R&B singer, dead at 30 | CNN

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B. Smyth, an R&B artist who found success with his songs “Win Win” and “Twerkaholic,” has died, his brother announced on the singer’s Instagram page.

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November 18, 2022
Vampires, Werewolves, and Horse Manure: The Latest WTF Comments That Have Come Out of Herschel Walker’s Mouth

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On December 6, Georgia voters will once again head to the polls to choose the next US senator from their state, following a November general election that somehow was too close to call. That Republican Herschel Walker won 48.5% of the vote, compared to incumbent Raphael Warnock’s 49.43%, might suggest that the candidates are of equal “quality” and that both would make fine lawmakers who would do good by Georgia. Of course, that is not at all the case, and to suggest that they are equally good choices would be like asking someone, “What do you want to do tonight? Should we order some takeout and watch that new show everyone’s talking about? Or would you rather I burn your house down?”

In Warnock, voters have a candidate who believes all people should have rights, be able to make decisions about their own bodies, have access to health care, and not die in a mass shootings. His campaign staff has not told reporters he’s a pathological liar who lies like he‘s breathing, and when he speaks, people don’t think things like, Jesus, this guy makes Donald Trump sound eloquent.

In Walker, well…we’ll let his recent remarks speak for themselves.

Take, for instance, his comments from earlier this week, in which he went on an extended tangent about vampires and werewolves, telling people that while he once wanted to be a vampire, he’s changed his mind and would like to be a werewolf:

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Or his incomprehensible aside about Democrats and bikes:

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Or his election night story about horse manure:

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Or…whatever this was:

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November 17, 2022
Attorneys demand arrest of guards in jail detainee’s beating

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WOODBINE, Ga. — Attorneys for a Georgia jail detainee recorded by security cameras being punched by guards repeatedly in the head and neck called Wednesday for the deputies to be fired and arrested, insisting the videos show the violence was unjustified.

“There is no way in hell that anybody should be beaten the way this man was beaten,” Harry Daniels, an attorney for the detainee, told reporters. “I don’t care what he did. I don’t care if he knocked the damn door down. You don’t beat a person like that.”

Jarrett Hobbs, a 41-year-old Black man from North Carolina, was booked into the Camden County jail in coastal Georgia on Sept. 3 on traffic violation and drug possession charges. Security video from the same night shows Hobbs standing alone in his cell before five guards rush in and surround him. At least three deputies can be seen landing punches before Hobbs gets dragged from the cell and hurled against a wall.

Two of Hobbs’ sisters joined his lawyers Wednesday for a news conference on a courthouse square within view of the jail where the violent confrontation took place. His siblings said they want justice for their brother, whose story even they initially found hard to believe.

“He literally told me that he didn’t do anything wrong, they just came in and beat” him, said Taylor Wood, one of Hobbs’ sisters. “I’m like: Are you sure? It’s kind of hard to believe. And then you see the video and he really didn’t do nothing.”

Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor, who oversees the jail, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have announced they’re conducting separate investigations.

Hobbs’ attorneys are questioning why the sheriff didn’t investigate sooner, considering the incident involving Hobbs happened more than two months ago. Hobbs was charged immediately with fighting the guards.

Capt. Larry Bruce, the sheriff’s spokesman, declined to answer questions Wednesday about the timing of the internal investigation and whether the deputies in the video remained on duty. The sheriff’s office has not released the names or races of the deputies involved.

“The two independent investigations limit comment for now from the Sheriff’s Office,” Bruce said in an email.

The jail videos came to light because Hobbs of Greensboro, North Carolina, was probation for a 2014 federal conviction. His Georgia arrest prompted an investigation into whether he had violated terms of his supervised release. The jail footage became part of the evidence in that case.

Hobbs’ attorneys released the video publicly Monday.

According to federal court records, guards went into Hobbs’ cell on Sept. 3 because he was kicking the door and refused orders to stop. The video shows a guard rush into the cell and grab Hobbs around the neck, trying to push him into a corner. Four others come in behind him.

As jailers try to hold Hobbs by his wrists, one of them starts punching Hobbs in the back of the head and neck. The video shows at least two other guards throwing punches. A second video from a camera outside the cell shows jailers dragging Hobbs through the open door and hurling him against a wall. The struggle continues until Hobbs, who is out of the camera frame, appears to be pinned on the ground. The entire confrontation lasts about a minute.

For most of the video, Hobbs is either obscured by the guards surrounding him or out of the camera frame. It’s unclear to what extent he fought the jailers. Daniels said Hobbs would have been justified to fight back against an unlawful attack by the guards.

An Oct. 20 judge’s order in the probation case said a probation officer testified that Hobbs had “punched one deputy in the face while punching another deputy in the side of the head. One deputy sustained a bruised eye and a broken hand as a result of the incident.” It also noted that Hobbs was punched in the head and that the probation officer was “unaware of the exact sequence of events.”

Hobbs’ probation was revoked on Nov. 7. However, the court dismissed alleged probation violations based on the struggle with jailers in Georgia. The court record doesn’t say why.

Hobbs was released from the Camden County jail on Sept. 30, but he remains in custody in North Carolina.

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November 16, 2022
Electric air taxi company Archer plans $118M Georgia factory

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ATLANTA (AP) — A California company seeking to build small electric aircraft says it will invest $118 million to construct a plant near Atlanta, eventually hiring up to 1,000 people.

Archer Aviation, based in Santa Clara, California, said Monday that it would seek to build its aircraft adjoining an airport in Covington, Georgia.

Archer is one of many companies trying to build electric air taxis. Archer’s plan involves a battery-powered vertical takeoff and landing craft with six propellers, holding four passengers and a pilot. The propellers would pivot allowing the aircraft to take off and land like a helicopter and fly like a plane.

The idea is that such craft could be used for short flights, especially in urban areas. United Airlines last week said it would fly the craft from downtown Manhattan to United’s hub at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, cutting a trip that can take an hour by car in congested traffic to 10 minutes.

United earlier put down a $10 million deposit to buy 100 aircraft from Archer for $1 billion. United later put down a $15 million deposit for 200 aircraft from another company.

After building a prototype weighing 3,330 pounds (1,510 kilograms), the company plans to unveil a production model dubbed “Midnight” on Wednesday, aiming for it to enter service in 2025. The U.S. Air Force is also evaluating the company’s aircraft for possible use, Archer has said.

Archer is still seeking Federal Aviation Administration certification, but says it could get it in 2024. The company says it wants to produce 650 aircraft per year at the Georgia site, possibly scaling up to 2,300 per year. Automotive firm Stellantis, owner of Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep and Ram, is providing manufacturing and engineering help.

Archer said it expects to get a roughly $40 million incentive package from Georgia and local governments, including the donation of 96 acres (39 hectares) of land at Covington Municipal Airport, a cash grant from the state, and other tax incentives. Those would often include a property tax break as well as a job tax credit that could be worth $15 million to Archer over five years, as long as employees make at least $31,300.

State and local officials did not immediately respond to questions Monday, including the decision to incentivize a startup in an unproven industry.

The company said it chose the Georgia location for locally available workers, the ability to conduct test flights, affordable construction costs and good highway, rail and air connections.

“Our eVTOL technology can transform how urban and rural communities live and commute and this factory can create pathways to highly skilled manufacturing hobs and other ladders of social and economic opportunity,” Archer CEO Adam Goldstein said in a statement, using an acronym for electric vertical takeoff and landing.

Archer said it expected to borrow money from Georgia-based Synovus Financial Corp. for the plant’s construction, which is expected to begin and conclude in 2024. The company went public last year, raising about $850 million. It lost $91 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30, reporting $600 million in cash on hand.

Georgia economic development officials have been focusing on recruiting electric car companies, landing major plants from Rivian Automotive and Hyundai Motor Group last year. Norwegian batter startup Freyr announced a $2.6 billion plant in Georgia on Friday, joining an already-constructed electric battery plant owned by South Korean firm SK Innovation.

Georgia Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson said economic recruiters focused on aerospace had worked with Archer, saying “technology and innovation continue to drive change across strategic industries.”

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November 15, 2022