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Tag: jon ossoff

  • Substandard rental conditions draw federal attention and push for change

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    Substandard rental conditions draw federal attention and push for change

    A federal watchdog may soon hold apartment complex owners accountable for allowing low-income renters to live in substandard conditions, following a push by U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.

    Ossoff, motivated by media reports, has garnered bipartisan support for an amendment that would require federal oversight of property owners who receive federal funding. This move aims to improve living conditions for tenants in federally funded housing.

    “These landlords are abusing their tenants – and they’re collecting federal dollars,” Ossoff said. “So we have to keep the attention on this and hold people accountable.”

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    A disabled tenant, whose name wasn’t share, lives at the apartment complex, formerly known as Creekside Forest in DeKalb County.

    Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes remembers doing stories on this complex back in 2016, when the county shut it down for unsanitary conditions.

    The tenant reported similar conditions, including a bathroom ceiling on the verge of collapse due to leaks.

    “I shouldn’t have to live like this; it’s unsanitary,” she told Fernandes.

    “My bathroom ceiling – it’s getting ready to collapse – from the upstairs it leaks down – it’s unsanitary. I complain and complain and nothing has been done about that,” the tenant said.

    “We do know that many of the entities in the chain of title for the last 10 years have all had a New Jersey, the same New Jersey address, which circumstantially that they’re at least related,” title attorney Doug McKillip said.

    Ossoff’s amendment seeks to address issues similar to those reported at the DeKalb County complex, where tenants have complained of mold and other hazardous conditions.

    A recent mold test in one unit showed 100% fungal growth in all bedrooms.

    “I don’t think much of this in metro Atlanta would’ve come to light without reporting from WSB … but these landlords are abusing their tenants – and they’re collecting federal dollars. So we have to keep the attention on this and hold people accountable,” Ossoff said.

    If passed into law, Ossoff’s amendment could significantly improve living conditions for low-income tenants by ensuring greater accountability for property owners receiving federal funds.

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  • ‘I see the future of Georgia’: VP Vance visits Peachtree City to take potshots at Atlanta, Ossoff, big cities

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    “People that built Atlanta did not build it so you could not walk the streets safely at night,” Vance said.
    Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice

    PEACHTREE CITY, GA. – During a week in which both Georgia Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff addressed the media about the toll tariffs are taking on small businesses in Georgia and healthcare cuts are having on Georgians, United States Vice President JD Vance returned to the Peach State to talk about the tax cuts within President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

    The Vice President also took verbal jabs at the City of Atlanta and Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff while he was in Fayette County.

    “I haven’t been to Atlanta in a little while, but I bet there are places in Atlanta you wouldn’t take your family,” Vance, a native of Middletown, Ohio, said. 

    That comment was followed by a large round of applause. Peachtree City is 30 miles from Atlanta. He wasn’t done. He mentioned crime in Atlanta at least a half-dozen times during his speech. 

    “People that built Atlanta did not build it so you could not walk the streets safely at night,” Vance said.

    On Ossoff, who is currently campaigning for a second term to represent the state of Georgia in the United States Senate, Vance said he wasn’t doing a good job in Washington and needs to be replaced in next year’s election.

    “I see the future of the state of Georgia,” Vance said. 

    A long lined form outside one of the buildings on the Alta Refrigeration to see and hear the Vice President speak.
    Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice

    Black SUVs with tinted windows and the workers at Alta Refrigeration, Inc. on forklifts crosscrossed the large parking lot hours before Vance arrived. Alta Refrigeration, an industrial equipment supplier, employs hundreds of people who live in Fayette County, a Republican stronghold for decades.

    The image of the SUVs being driven by men and women in dark suits and sunglasses and the forklifts being driven by men in Dickies overalls with t-shirts underneath and work boots on blended what the Republican Party has been preaching ever since Trump became the face of the party: We are all on the same page. 

    An hour before Vance took the stage, Alta employees lined up on stage under a navy blue banner that read, “JOBS! JOBS!, JOBS!, JOBS!” 

    The entire event was an opportunity for republican politicians to champion Trump’s bill, while propping up Republican candidates for governor and Senate in this state.

    The tax cuts Vance came to Georgia to talk about are being used in opposite ways depending on what political parties deliver the message. Senatorial candidates Derek Dooley and Buddy Carter both took shots at Ossoff during their time on stage. 

    “He is a typical politician. He looks good, he talks good, but we have an old saying in football: “Your film is your resume,” said Dooley, 57, who opened his remarks by saying he is new to politics and that was why he was selected to speak first.

    “Jon Ossoff doesn’t represent the values of Georgians,” Carter said. “He does not work for you. I’m running for United States Senate and I’m working my ass off to get rid of Ossoff.

    Georgia Congressman Mike Collins and Lt. Governor Burt Jones also took the stage to make comments about the ‘Big Beautiful Bill” and the 2026 Senate election. 

    Collins also attacked Ossoff during his speech, calling Ossoff a “trust fun kid” and saying that he doesn’t believe in the state of Georgia.

    “He is California’s third senator,” Collins said. “Come November, we are going to fire Jon Ossoff.”

    Alta Refrigeration President Eric Brown introduced Georgia Congressman Brian Jack.

    “This is a monumental moment for Alta Refrigeration,” Brown said. “In my book, guys, this man is a rock star.” 

    Jack said it was an honor to welcome Vance to his hometown in Fayette County and credited Trump for “delivering on his promises.” 

    Mayors from Peachtree City, Tyrone, Woolsey, local politicians, city council members, and former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, United States Administrator of the Small Business Administration were also in attendance on Thursday. 

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    Donnell Suggs

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  • Judge Hatchett’s family’s story is highlight of Harris-Walz reproductive freedom bus tour

    Judge Hatchett’s family’s story is highlight of Harris-Walz reproductive freedom bus tour

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    Glenda A. Hatchett, also known as “Judge Hatchett”, practices law in Atlanta with Stewart Miller Simmons trial attorneys.
    Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice

    The interior of Wood Chapel BBQ in Summerhill was a bit different than it would normally be on a Friday night. Blue “Harris Walz” signs took up wall space next to red “Stop Trump’s Abortion Ban” signs. The restaurant was packed as usual, but on that afternoon it was supporters of the Democratic presidential Harris-Walz ticket that filled the wooden picnic tables. They were there to see and hear popular political figures such as Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff, Congresswoman Nikema Williams, and State Rep. Shea Roberts (District 52), and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms speak as part of that day’s “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour, but it was a former television star that stole the show. 

    Glenda A. Hatchett, more commonly known as “Judge Hatchett” from her many seasons as a television star and TV judge, still practices law in Atlanta as a trial attorney with Stewart Miller Simmons, but on Friday afternoon she took the stage as a grandmother. Hatchett and her son, Charles Johnson IV, lost Kira Dixon Johnson, her daughter-in-law, during childbirth in 2016. Though not necessarily a reproductive issue, Dixon’s death during what should have been one of the greatest moments of that family’s life, is parallel to what happens when women aren’t heard.

    Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms took part in that day’s bus tour and was in Atlanta to speak at Wood Chapel BBQ in Summer Hill. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice
    Hatchett with The Atlanta Voice Editor-in-Chief Donnell Suggs following the reproductive freedom bus tour stop in Atlanta on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice

    “This is the first time I’ve told this story on the campaign trail,” Hatchett told The Atlanta Voice after she left the stage.

    Hatchett and her son have made several television appearances and talked to several publications about their family’s loss, but the political sphere is new to her. A major pillar of United States Vice President Kamala Harris’ and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s presidential campaign are reproductive rights and Hatchett’s testimony about Kira’s unfortunate passing is something the Harris-Walz campaign might want to make a feature, at least in Georgia, going forward.

    Hatchett wore a white jacket with words and phrases on it like “Empowered,” “Vote”, “Let Your Voice be Heard,” and “Democracy,” as she walked over to speak. She was roundly applauded after being announced to speak, saying it was a “privilege and responsibility to be here” and that voters didn’t do what they needed to do in 2016 and “because we didn’t do what we needed to do in 2016” the country saw three Supreme Court Justices help get Roe v. Wade overturned after decades in the books. 

    “Had that not happened we wouldn’t be talking about the overturning of Roe v. Wade,” Hatchett reiterated. 

    Moments later she shared her family’s story of loss and you could hear a pin drop in what was minutes earlier filled with loud, energetic supporters. The silence in the room said a lot about how a story of such tragic loss affects anyone that hears it. Roberts, a wife and mother, also shared her story of having to have an abortion at the age of 37. 

    “I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was the best decision for myself, my family, and my unborn child,” Roberts, who is an outspoken supporter of reproductive rights, said.  

    Opal Williams, an independent voter, said the economy, social security, and Medicare are at the top of her list of concerns this election season. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice

    Asked if she was open to sharing her story on the campaign again, Hatchett said she was open to doing that. 

     “This is not a story that I am shy about telling,” she said. 

    Two of the people inside Wood Chapel BBQ that were listening, Marnita Lawrence, a Douglas County resident, and Opal Williams, a Fulton County resident and independent, both listed social security, Medicare, and the economy as issues that are at the top of their lists this election season. That said, both were captivated by Hatchett’s story. During the telling, each were speechless, similar to what looked like every other person in the room that wasn’t either crying or physically wiping away tears.

    Marita Lawrence, a Douglas County resident, was in attendance on Friday. She plans to vote in November. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice

    “I vote for my interests and the interests of my family,” Williams said. 

    “I think there’s momentum going, but hopefully that translates into votes,” Lawrence said. 

    Ossoff added that the coming presidential election is about more than party choice. “It’s not about Democrats v. Republicans,” Ossoff said. “It’s about real women’s lives.” 

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    Donnell Suggs

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  • Tributes for Rosalynn Carter pour in after her death

    Tributes for Rosalynn Carter pour in after her death

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    Tributes for Rosalynn Carter pour in after her death – CBS News


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    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and other lawmakers are paying tribute to former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died Sunday at 96. CBS News congressional correspondent Nikole Killion reports.

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  • Dem Lawmakers Speak Out Against Cop City Arrests

    Dem Lawmakers Speak Out Against Cop City Arrests

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    Several Democrat lawmakers spoke out on the arrests of people connected to the Stop Cop City movement on Sunday, the day before the Atlanta City Council is set to vote on a controversial public safety training facility.

    The three arrested individuals, board members of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, an organization that supports activists who are arrested, were charged with money laundering and charity fraud. During their arrests on Wednesday, they were faced with helicopters and a SWAT team.

    At the time, state Rep. Saira Draper called the arrests “grossly excessive” and said, “weaponizing the powers of the state for political gain is abuse of power.”

    Organizers have told HuffPost on multiple occasions over the past few months that the state is using political persecution to intimidate opponents of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, also known as Cop City. The facility would train law enforcement and firefighters and is set to be at least 85 acres large in the South River Forest.

    A diverse movement of organizers and community members have condemned the center for a variety of reasons — including claims that the facility will lead to harm Black and Brown people, that the money would be better spent on community resources, and that the forest is vital land.

    Since Wednesday, state Sens. Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) have spoken out following the board members’ arrests and ahead of a Monday city council meeting.

    Warnock said he’s concerned about the arrest of three board members.

    “These tactics, coupled with the limited public information provided so far, can have a chilling effect on nonviolent, constitutionally-protected free speech activities those of us in the fight for justice have been engaged in for years,” he wrote.

    Warnock argued that the arrests illustrate the fears and concerns that organizers and community members have voiced on the topic of overpolicing and the militarization of police in Georgia.

    Ossoff’s statement was much shorter than Warnock’s. He mentioned that there has been an “extremist” minority that has engaged in violence.

    “It is imperative that the response of government to the violent few not intimidate or infringe on the Constitutional rights of those engaged in nonviolent protest and civil disobedience,” he wrote.

    Both Warnock and Ossoff condemned violent protests, as they have previously in a report by Axios, and maintained that they don’t know all the details related to the investigation of the ASF members.

    Mariah Parker, a labor organizer and former Clark County commissioner who uses they/them pronouns, told HuffPost Sunday that statements from Warnock and Ossoff were necessary, but only just a start.

    “I do maintain concerns myself that they are not taking this situation seriously enough given that repression of activists has been long-standing and ongoing, that the facility is planned within their constituency, within their geographic constituency and that this is going to impact their constituents,” Parker said. “So I hope that they will take a stronger stance on this issue in the future as what they did today was a good start, but not good enough.”

    The commentary extended beyond state lines with Bowman also weighing in on the topic on Sunday from New York.

    “What we’re seeing in Atlanta is the suppression of the right to organize and the right to free speech,” Bowman said. “We cannot let this happen.”

    None of the lawmakers mentioned the Georgia State Troopers’ killing of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, also known as Tortuguita, in January during a peaceful protest in the forest. Terán’s death marked the first time an environmental activist was killed by police in the U.S., according to The Guardian.

    Since the start of the movement, over 40 people have been charged with domestic terrorism in relation to the Stop Cop City movement — some of which had attended a music festival. Three more who had been accused of putting out flyers to intimidate an officer were charged with felonies.

    The Atlanta City Council is set to vote on funding for the facility on Monday.

    “No matter what happens tomorrow, this facility is not going to be built,” Parker told HuffPost. “The people are willing to exhaust every civic avenue that we can come up with in order to make sure that they are heard. And so I feel confident that that is the ultimate result whether or not they approve the funding for the facility tomorrow.”

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  • Why Black voters are more important in Georgia than in any other state | CNN Politics

    Why Black voters are more important in Georgia than in any other state | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden is heading back to Georgia. On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he’s visiting Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where the civil rights pioneer once preached. The trip makes a lot of sense, not just to pay tribute to King, but also because King helped lead the drive for equal voting rights for Black Americans.

    The Peach State is in many ways the place where the political importance of Black voters is clearest. They are one of the biggest reasons Georgia has swung from a red state to a purple one.

    The current list of swing states in American politics mostly features places where Black voters don’t play an outsize role – states such as Arizona, Nevada and Wisconsin. Even in swing states where Black voters make up at least 10% of the voting public (e.g., Michigan and Pennsylvania), the Black portion of the electorate in the 2020 election was comparable to what it was nationwide (12%).

    Georgia is the big exception. According to US Census data, 33% of 2020 presidential election voters in the state were Black. That ranked second nationally behind deep-red Mississippi. Georgia’s own records show that a slightly smaller 29% of 2020 voters whose race was known were Black (or 27% when we include voters for whom race was unknown). That’s still the highest percentage in any swing state by far.

    Not only that, but the Black portion of the electorate is growing in Georgia as their percentage of the population has risen. State records show that Black adults made up 23% of voters in the 2000 election – which indicates a 6-point increase in the Black portion of the presidential electorate (whose race was known) from 2000 to 2020. There was an uptick of 1 point nationally over the same time span.

    To put into perspective how important this shift has been to Democratic fortunes, consider this math of the 2020 election results. Black voters in Georgia favored Biden by 77 points, according to the exit polls. Non-Black voters as a group (led by White voters) backed then-President Donald Trump by about 30 points. If Black voters had made up the same 23% of presidential election voters they did in 2000, Trump would have won the state by 6 points.

    Instead, Biden won Georgia by less than a point and became the first Democrat to carry the state in a presidential election since Bill Clinton in 1992.

    (Keep in mind, other datasets suggest that Biden won Georgia’s Black voters by an even larger margin, so this math may, in fact, underestimate how important Black voters were to Biden’s win.)

    There are other factors as to why Biden won Georgia when Democrats before him had failed. The state’s Asian and Hispanic populations are also way up from where they were 20 years ago. At the same time, White voters with a college degree in Georgia have shifted well to the left, matching recent national trends.

    All that said, Black voters are a huge reason why only a handful of states have swung more Democratic in presidential elections since 2004 than Georgia, which has moved 17 points more Democratic. None of the seven states with bigger Democratic swings had elections that were anywhere as close as Georgia’s was in 2020.

    Of course, it’s not just in presidential elections where the voting power of Black Georgians is felt.

    Both of Georgia’s US senators are Democrats, including the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church himself, Raphael Warnock. Without Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff, Democrats would be in the Senate minority instead of holding 51 out of 100 seats.

    Neither Warnock nor Ossoff would be in the Senate without Black voters. I’m not only talking about the fact that Black Georgians overwhelmingly cast their ballots for Ossoff and Warnock in twin Senate runoffs in 2021 or about the rise in the percentage of Black voters in the state since the beginning of the century.

    I’m talking about factors unique to the 2021 runoffs. Historically, Black turnout had dropped in general election runoffs in Georgia. That was not the case in 2021, when both Ossoff and Warnock scored narrow wins.

    Black voter turnout (relative to voters as a whole) was actually up in the 2021 runoffs compared with the November 2020 general election. Moreover, those who turned out were more Democratic-leaning than Black voters who had voted in the general election.

    Many of these same Black voters backed Warnock in huge numbers again in his victorious bid for a full six-year term in December’s Senate runoff.

    With the 2024 election around the corner, Georgia’s electoral fate depends on Black voter turnout and whether Democrats continue to win them in large numbers more than any other state. Expect Biden to be back in the Peach State rallying Black voters, if he runs for a second term.

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  • ‘Tiger King’s’ Joe Exotic describes Atlanta federal prison as ‘bottom of hell’

    ‘Tiger King’s’ Joe Exotic describes Atlanta federal prison as ‘bottom of hell’

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    ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – The infamous reality TV star “Tiger King” Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, is now spending time in a cage at the Atlanta federal prison and he isn’t too happy about it.

    In posts to social media, Joe says that senators (Jon) Ossoff and (Raphael) Warnock and (Herschel) Walker are “all lying to you Black Voters of #Georgia because the Animals at the Atlanta #Zoo are living better than your loved ones are in here… .” He also describes the prison as “the bottom of hell.”

    In July, Sen. Ossoff opened hearings into alleged abuses and corruption at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta.

    Ossoff, who is chairman of the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, told the panel that a 10-month bipartisan probe uncovered a “harrowing picture of a federal prison in crisis for many years.”

    RELATED: Inmate suicides, sewage backups, non-existent security cited at Atlanta federal pen

    “Conditions for inmates were abusive and inhumane, and should concern all of us who believe in our country’s constitutional traditions, that all people have an Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and a Sixth Amendment right to counsel,” said Ossoff.

    After the hearings, federal officials nearly emptied the prison and banned several prison staffers.

    Ossoff recently inspected the prison and said that conditions at the prison appear to be improving. He also said it was too soon to declare the prison to be problem-free.

    RELATED: PSI Chair Osoff introduces major bipartisan bill to overhaul prison oversight

    The former 59-year-old zookeeper was sentenced to 22 years in prison in January 2020 after he was convicted to trying to hire two men to kill animal welfare activist and enemy Carole Baskin.

    He was also convicted of killing 5 tigers, selling tiger clubs and falsifying wildlife records.

    It is unknown why Maldonado-Passage is in the Atlanta prison or how long he will be there. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer after he was sentenced but is reportedly in remission. Recent media reports say he has been battling a common variable immunodeficiency and has been sick for the last few months. He was previously imprisoned at the Butner Federal Medical Center in North Carolina, which houses inmates with special needs.

    Atlanta News First received the following statement from the Bureau of Prisons:

    The BOP takes pride in protecting and securing individuals entrusted in our custody, as well as maintaining the safety of correctional staff and the community.  We make every effort to ensure the physical safety of inmates confined to our facilities through a controlled environment that is secure and humane.

    Copyright 2022 WANF. All rights reserved.

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