One Georgia lawmaker has dropped a bill to alter the criminality and punishment of misdemeanor marijuana possession in Georgia. Democrat Senator Harold Jones of Augusta filed Senate Bill 10, though the bill has not been assigned to a committee. Current state law sets possession of marijuana in the amount of “one ounce or less” as

Rep. Drew Ferguson (R, GA-3) was selected to serve on the Committee on Ways and Means by the House Republican Steering Committee today. Ways and Means is the tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives and has jurisdiction over all taxation, trade, tariffs and other revenue-raising measures. The full House will confirm the appointment in

New Year, New Lieutenant Governor, New Senate Committee Assignments. Some notable changes from last year: Senator P.K. Martin is now the Chair of the Senate Education and Youth Committee, replacing Senator Lindsey Tippins who now chairs Senate Higher Ed. Health and Human Services is now chaired by Senator Ben Watson, with Renee Unterman moving to

Good morning! It’s Day 2 of the Legislative Session. Volkswagen is opening a second assembly plant in Chattanooga. Why are there two headstones embedded in runway 10 at SAV? The Mayor of Austell is retiring after three decades in office. The litigation over seismic testing in South Carolina continues. The fishing season is open for

It’s almost that time once again when the Georgia Republican Party enters into a convention cycle to elect officers, adopt rules for the current term, and “for other purposes”. We’ve been through a few long (sometimes very long) state conventions where quorum was lost and remaining business had to be carried on by the state

This week’s Courier Herald column: A new era has begun in Atlanta for all of Georgia.  Monday officially brought us a new Governor, Brian Kemp.  The Georgia General Assembly also has many fresh faces as the legislature begins their annual meeting.  Chief among them is the new Lieutenant Governor, Geoff Duncan, who will guide the

So, you want to keep up with the General Assembly, but you don’t want to drive to Atlanta, fight parking, and/or you have an aversion to metal detectors? The General Assembly has your back. Legislators convene this morning at 10am. They’ll do a bit of pageantry, swear in new members, officially elect leaders and rules,

Today feels a little surreal. Even as spouse. And I know I can’t be the only one feeling that way. You work for months and months, you go to every meeting imaginable (and unimaginable), you put signs up, you take signs down, you wave signs, you make call after call. And then election day is

Some stories you find in the news are confusing. That’s to be expected; life is complicated. Some stories actually make you less informed if you read them. But some are a working version of Roko’s Basilisk: if you read it and believe it, you might die. Last night, the AJC posted a story about hypothermia

Apparently, Thursday was “Expand Georgia’s National Parks Day” in Senator Isakson’s office. He reintroduced legislation to protect and expand the parks of Fort Frederica, Kennesaw Mountain and the Ocmulgee Mounds. The legislative effort included Senator David Perdue and a bi-partisan coterie of Georgia’s congressional delegation introducing the same legislation in the House of Representatives. The Fort