ATLANTA – U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy Friday outlined a series to steps the postal service is taking to improve service at a regional mail processing center in Palmetto.
In a letter to U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., DeJoy announced that more than 100 personnel from across the postal service have been sent to the Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center (RPDC) “to work onsite to identify and rectify bottlenecks, conduct quality assurance, ensure Atlanta personnel are adhering to the new procedures, and ensure the timely processing and dispatch of mail and packages.”
The federal agency also will revise transportation schedules between the regional center and other local processing centers to increase local trips, add processing capacity at the local centers, and shift cross-country volume away from the Atlanta facility until service stabilizes, DeJoy wrote.
A postal service restructuring plan launched at Atlanta and Richmond, Va., earlier this year aimed at stopping the agency from bleeding red ink resulted in massive delays in mail processing. At a Senate committee hearing last month, Ossoff revealed that only 36% of inbound mail handled by the Palmetto center was being delivered on time as of the end of February.
“The postal service is in the middle of a major new investment in our Georgia operations,” DeJoy wrote Friday. “Unfortunately, the initiation of the Atlanta RPDC led to a significant drop in performance, which was unanticipated.
“To address this challenge in a purposeful and deliberative manner, we will continue to devote substantial time, resources, and attention until the facility and network improvements are performing to the intended specifications.”
DeJoy had announced earlier this week that the postal service would call a pause in implementing the restructuring plan at least until next year to allow time to get a handle on the problems. However, that raised questions as to whether that pause would affect the processing delays already being experienced in Georgia.
Ossoff released a statement earlier Friday criticizing DeJoy for failing to provide updates the senator had requested regarding on-time mail delivery for Georgia families and businesses.
“I will continue fighting for the Georgians suffering from the postmaster general’s failure,” Ossoff vowed in a statement he released after receiving the letter.
ATLANTA – In an election year without either of Georgia’s U.S. senators or Gov. Brian Kemp on the ballot, a rare contest for a state Supreme Court seat is garnering what little statewide attention is focused on primary season.
Former U.S. Rep. John Barrow is challenging incumbent Justice Andrew Pinson Tuesday in a nonpartisan primary race that’s been laser-focused on abortion.
Otherwise, Georgia voters will be choosing party nominees for Congress and the General Assembly in a landscape where – thanks to redistricting – competitive contests are few.
The Barrow-Pinson race is unusual in that Supreme Court justices typically run for reelection unopposed. In fact, three other justices – including Chief Justice Michael Boggs – are on the May 21 ballot without opposition.
“The pattern is you get to the Supreme Court because you’re appointed by the governor to fill a vacancy,” said Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia. “Then, you run unopposed or with token opposition.”
In this case, Barrow – a Democrat who represented Georgia’s 12th Congressional District for a decade – is running an aggressive campaign vowing to protect abortion rights.
“Politicians should not be making your private medical decisions,” Barrow says in a campaign ad.
On the other side, Republicans and anti-abortion groups are criticizing Barrow for politicizing a race that’s supposed to be nonpartisan.
“We need judges who follow the law and uphold the Constitution, not more partisan politicians in the courtroom,” Kemp says in an ad backing Pinson, whom the governor appointed to the Supreme Court two years ago.
Congressional contests
Although all 14 of Georgia’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for grabs, Democrats are unlikely to dent Republicans’ 9-5 advantage in the Peach State’s congressional delegation. The new congressional map the General Assembly’s GOP majorities drew during last fall’s redistricting special session left all 14 districts skewing heavily Democratic or Republican.
“Redistricting has had an effect,” said Kerwin Swint, a political science professor at Kennesaw State University. “When you draw districts to make them lean one direction as much as possible, you get a lot of safe seats.”
The impacts of congressional redistricting make the primary races more interesting than what’s likely to take place later during the general election campaigns.
For example, while Republicans are heavily favored to retain the 3rd Congressional District seat in west-central Georgia being vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-West Point, five Republicans are battling for the GOP nomination for Georgia’s only open House seat.
Former state Sens. Mike Dugan and Mike Crane, and former state Rep. Philip Singleton are touting their accomplishments in the legislature. Brian Jack, a former aide to former President Donald Trump, is highlighting the achievements of the Trump administration. Businessman Jim Bennett is emphasizing his business acumen.
Two Democrats – retired physician Val Almonord and retired Lt. Col. Maura Keller – will square off in the District 3 Democratic primary.
Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, has drawn two Democratic challengers in the 6th Congressional District: Cobb County Commissioner Jerica Richardson and state Rep. Mandisha Thomas.
An advantage the challengers enjoy is that legislative Republicans targeted McBath during redistricting, reconfiguring her 7th Congressional District to favor the GOP by extending it north through Forsyth, Dawson, and Lumpkin counties. McBath responded by signing up to run for the Democratic-leaning 6th District seat instead. However, the switch is forcing McBath to run in a new district where she is less familiar to the voters.
But Bullock said McBath, who is seeking a fourth term, has built strong name recognition throughout metro Atlanta for leaving her career as a flight attendant to work for stricter gun control after her teenage son was shot to death.
“She has a compelling story that gave her a leg up the first time she ran,” Bullock said.
Republican Jeff Criswell, a businessman, will face the winner of the 6th District Democratic primary in November.
Another primary race that has drawn a crowded field is in the 13th Congressional District, where six Democrats are challenging one of their own: longtime Democratic Rep. David Scott of Atlanta. The list of challengers includes Marcus Flowers, the Democrat who proved to be a prolific fundraiser two years ago in an unsuccessful bid to unseat conservative lightning rod Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Rome.
As with McBath, redistricting is forcing Scott to run in a district with lots of new constituents.
“He’s having to represent a new area in DeKalb County going into Gwinnett,” Bullock said. “He’s a non-incumbent there.”
The winner of the 13th District Democratic primary will take on the Republican nominee in November, either Jonathan Chavez or Johsie Cruz Fletcher.
Legislative races
In the General Assembly, the primaries – and, for that matter, even the general election – are largely a fait accompli for the incumbents.
In the state House of Representatives, 42 Republicans and 30 Democrats are running unopposed. Thus, 72 of the 180 members of the House already have been reelected.
In the state Senate, only 23 of the 56 seats are being contested by both parties. Thirteen Senate Republicans and 10 Democrats already have clinched reelection.
However, a few competitive legislative primary races are being waged. In the Senate, three open seats held by Democrats have attracted crowded fields of Democratic primary candidates, including the District 55 seat being vacated by retiring Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler of Stone Mountain.
In Senate District 40, David Lubin, whose 21-year-old daughter Rose was killed last November while serving in the Israeli military, is challenging incumbent Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta. Harrell abstained from a vote on an antisemitism bill in January, citing widespread opposition among Muslim Georgians to Israel’s war in Gaza.
In Senate District 44, former Sen. Nadine Thomas of DeKalb County is challenging incumbent Sen. Elena Parent in the Democratic primary. The new Senate map Republicans drew last fall significantly shifted Parent’s district, leaving her with a lot of new constituents to seek to represent.
In the House, two Republicans – businesswoman Pamela Eckhardt and retired IT systems expert Michael Gordon – are mounting extremely uphill GOP primary challenges in Atlanta’s northern suburbs against Speaker Pro Tempore Jan Jones of Milton and veteran Rep. Chuck Martin of Alpharetta, respectively.
Three Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination in House District 56, a heavily Democratic area in Atlanta currently served by Rep. Mesha Mainor, a former Democrat who turned Republican last year.
And two Democratic House incumbents, Becky Evans and Saira Draper, are running against each other in Atlanta’s House District 90. Legislative Republicans drew them into the same districts during last fall’s redistricting session.
Two other Democrats – Rep. Teri Anulewicz of Smyrna and House Minority Whip Sam Park of Lawrenceville – avoided facing fellow incumbents in the primaries when their potential opponents decided to leave office rather than run against a fellow Democrat.
Republican state Rep. Beth Camp of Concord dodged that same fate when veteran GOP Rep. David Knight of Griffin retired from the House rather than oppose Camp in the same district.
ATLANTA – Avian influenza, which wild birds have been transmitting to poultry during the last two years, has now spread to dairy cows, State Epidemiologist Dr. Cherie Drenzek reported this week.
Cows in 40 dairy herds in nine states – but not Georgia – started coming down with the H5N1 strain of bird flu in March, Drenzek told members of the state Board of Public Health. The outbreak began in Texas last December, she said.
Thus far, the only human infected with the virus was a dairy farm worker in Colorado, Drenzek said.
“The human health risk remains low for the general public,” she said.
While H5N1 manifests in poultry as a severe respiratory infection, it tends to be mild in dairy cows, Drenzek said. However, it can be spread in raw milk, she said.
“H5N1 is killed by pasteurization,” she said.
As a result, the state Department of Public Health is monitoring both dairy and poultry farmworkers in Georgia for the virus, Drenzek said.
Two outbreaks of avian influenza occurred in Georgia two years ago, both in backyard poultry flocks. While 117 people were exposed, none came down with the virus, Drenzek said.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) is moving to expand a network of toll lanes in the Atlanta region that began a few years ago on interstates 75 and 85.
The State Transportation Board voted Thursday to work with the State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) to add toll lanes to the top half of I-285 and along Georgia 400 to the North Springs MARTA station.
As with the Northwest Corridor along I-75 north of 285 and a second stretch of I-75 just south of Atlanta, the Georgia Department of Transportation will work in partnership with the private sector on the 285 toll-lane projects. The DOT will coordinate the work, while a private developer will design, construct, operate, and maintain the new lanes, Helen Pinkston-Pope, senior counsel to the DOT, said Thursday.
“We really see the benefits in bringing in the developer early on,” she said.
I-285 perennially ranks among the most congested stretches of highway in the nation, said Tim Matthews, program manager with the DOT division in charge of projects built through public-private partnerships. Atlanta’s “Perimeter Highway” sees 250,000 to 300,000 vehicles per day, he said.
As with the earlier toll-lane projects, SRTA will coordinate the financing and collect the revenue from the tolls.
Pinkston-Pope said the DOT will seek bids on the I-285 East Express Lanes project first, covering a stretch from Georgia 400 east and south to Interstate 20. Procurement for the I-285 West Express Lanes – from Georgia 400 west and south to I-20 – will follow, she said.
“The size of these projects is significant,” Matthews said. “We can’t build them with one contract.”
In a related matter, Matthews said the DOT has received two bids from contractors interested in adding toll lanes to Georgia 400 in Fulton and Forsyth counties. The agency will evaluate the bids and recommend a contractor for that project to the State Transportation Board in August, he said.
ATLANTA – U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., introduced legislation Thursday to launch a feasibility study aimed at designating the Benton MacKaye Trail as a National Scenic Trail.
The Benton MacKaye Trail, named in honor of a 20th century forester and conservationist, runs for 280 miles from Springer Mountain in the North Georgia mountains into Tennessee and North Carolina. It is considered a sister trail to southern portions of the better known Appalachian Trail.
“More than simply initiating a new federal walking path through our natural environment, this bill is an investment in our nation’s forests and green spaces, a bridge connecting communities, and a powerful catalyst for our rural economies,” Warnock said.
“By preserving the natural beauty of our landscapes, we help protect the planet for future generations to enjoy.”
The trail has been protected and maintained by a volunteer association since 1980. Completion of the proposed feasibility study would allow Congress to add it to the National Trails System, improving mobility for hikers and more leisurely walkers through the mountainous three-state region.
A companion bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday by cosponsors including Reps. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, and Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate held steady at 3.1% in April for the fourth month in a row, even as several jobs categories reached all-time highs, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday.
The state’s labor force was up by 13,655 last month to a record high of nearly 5.4 million. The number of employed Georgians also hit an all-time high of almost 5.2 million, an increase of 11,620 in April over the previous month.
The monthly trends reflected jobs activity for the past year, Georgia Commissioner of Labor Bruce Thompson said.
“With nearly 70,000 jobs added to the economy over the last year, including a whopping 15,000 this past month alone, there are now more opportunities than ever to launch Georgians into high-demand careers that meet industry needs head-on,” Thompson said.
“While the future remains unclear, all signs are pointing toward Georgia as a perennial leader in growing jobs and creating economic opportunity for all.”
The job sectors with the most over-the-month gains included professional, scientific, and technical services, which rose by 4,300 jobs; durable goods manufacturing, which was up by 3,500; and health care and social assistance, which rose by 3,100 jobs.
The most over-the-year job gains were posted in the health care and social assistance sector, which was up by 25,100 jobs; local government, with job gains of 13,500; and the accommodation and food services sector, which rose by 11,400 jobs.
On the down side, jobs in the information sector- which includes the film industry – fell by 13,700 jobs, while the administration and support services sector declined over the year by 11,500 jobs.
First-time unemployment claims rose by 21% in April to 21,552. However, over the year, first-time jobless claims fell by 15%.
