Tag Archives: Georgia

Georgia unveils statue of civil rights leader King on capitol grounds

Members of Martin Luther King Jr.'s family and Georgia elected leaders stand in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. statue unveiled in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., August 28, 2017. REUTERS/David Beasley

By David Beasley

ATLANTA (Reuters) – Georgia on Monday unveiled a statue of the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on the same capitol grounds in Atlanta where statues of segregationists remain.

The new installation comes amid an intensified debate in the United States over Confederate symbols after a woman was killed during an Aug. 12 protest by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, objecting to the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The bronze King statue should provide a sense of hope, his daughter Bernice King told the several hundred people who attended the unveiling ceremony in the state that was part of the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War.

The event on Monday was timed to coincide with the 54th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech calling for racial justice and equality.

The civil rights leader said it was his dream that the sons of former slaves and former slave owners would one day sit down together in brotherhood.

“Well, the sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners sat down in this state capitol and made the decision to erect the Martin Luther King Jr. monument,” Bernice King said.

King, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was assassinated in 1968, was born a few blocks from the Georgia capitol. Although his portrait is on display inside the building, there had been no monuments to him on the Capitol grounds. The statue faces his birthplace.

The monument to King joins existing statues on capitol grounds of John B. Gordon, a Confederate military general; Joseph Brown, the state’s governor during the Civil War; and past Governor Eugene Talmadge, a staunch segregationist.

Georgia state officials in 2014 announced plans for the King statue a few months after they quietly relocated off capitol grounds a statue of Thomas Watson, a U.S. senator who died in 1922. Watson espoused bigoted attitudes towards African Americans, Catholics, and Jews, according to scholars.

“This day took much too long to get here,” said David Ralston, the Republican speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives. “From those days we can grow and learn.”

(Reporting by David Beasley in Atlanta; Editing by Bernie Woodall, Andrew Hay and Lisa Shumaker)

Anthem to pare back Obamacare offerings in Nevada and Georgia

FILE PHOTO: The office building of health insurer Anthem is seen in Los Angeles, California February 5, 2015. REUTERS/Gus Ruelas/File Photo

(Reuters) – U.S. health insurer Anthem Inc <ANTM.N> said on Monday it will no longer offer Obamacare plans in Nevada’s state exchange and will stop offering the plans in nearly half of Georgia’s counties next year.

The moves come after Republican senators last month failed to repeal and replace Obamacare, former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reform law, creating uncertainty over how the program providing health benefits to 20 million Americans will be funded and managed in 2018.

Hundreds of U.S. counties are at risk of losing access to private health coverage in 2018 as insurers consider pulling out of those markets in the coming months.

Nevada had said in June that residents in 14 counties out of 17 in the state would not have access to qualified health plans on the state exchanges. Anthem’s decision to leave the state entirely does not increase the number of “bare counties” in the state, Nevada Insurance Commissioner Barbara Richardson said in a statement.

The insurer will still offer “catastrophic plans,” which can be purchased outside the state’s exchange and are only available to consumers under 30 years old or with a low income.

Anthem also said it will only offer Obamacare plans in 85 of Georgia’s 159 counties. It said the counties it will continue to offer the plans in are mostly rural counties that would otherwise not have health insurance coverage for their residents.

It said these changes do not impact Anthem’s Medicare Advantage, Medicaid or employer-based plans in either state.

The company said last week that it will pull out of 16 of 19 pricing regions in California in 2018 where it offered Obamacare options this year.

Anthem blamed the moves in part on uncertainty over whether the Trump administration would maintain subsidies that keep costs down.

U.S. President Donald Trump last week threatened to cut off subsidy payments that make the plans affordable for lower-income Americans and help insurers to keep premiums down, after efforts to repeal the law signed by his predecessor, President Barack Obama, failed in Congress.

Trump has repeatedly urged Republican lawmakers to keep working to undo Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

(Reporting by Michael Erman and Bill Berkrot in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Lisa Shumaker)

Georgian soldier killed in Afghanistan convoy attack: coalition

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Georgian soldier from the NATO-led Resolute Support mission was killed and six personnel were wounded in Afghanistan on Thursday after a suicide bomber attacked their convoy in Kabul province, a coalition statement said.

In addition, two Afghan civilians were killed and seven wounded in the attack.

The wounded service personnel, three Georgians, two Americans and a local interpreter, were being treated at a U.S. military hospital at Bagram airfield and were in stable condition, the statement said.

The incident occurred in Qarabagh district outside the capital, Kabul.

The coalition maintains nearly 13,000 troops from 39 countries, as part of a mission to train, advise and assist Afghan troops. Georgia is not a member of NATO, but has 870 troops serving in Afghanistan, one of the largest contingents in the coalition.

“The commitment of Georgia as our largest non-NATO contributor is vital to our mission and we are honored to stand beside them under these difficult circumstances,” said the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson.

A suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan killed two American troops on Wednesday as they traveled in a convoy near the airport in southern Kandahar city, the U.S. military said, in a strike claimed by the Taliban insurgency.

The attack was seen as a reminder of the dangers posed to the 8,400 U.S. service members in Afghanistan as President Donald Trump weighs sending thousands more troops to fight America’s longest war.

U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan have asked for several thousand additional troops, but the request is stalled in Washington, where Trump has expressed skepticism over extending the American commitment.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and James Mackenzie; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Clarence Fernandez)

Republican avoids upset in costly Georgia congressional race

Karen Handel, Republican candidate for Georgia's 6th Congressional District, makes an appearance before supporters prior to giving her acceptance speech at her election night party at the Hyatt Regency at Villa Christina in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., June 20, 2017. REUTERS/Bita Honarvar

By Andy Sullivan

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. (Reuters) – Georgia Republican Karen Handel won the most expensive congressional race in history on Tuesday, avoiding a Democratic upset in a race that was widely seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump.

By a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent, the former Georgia secretary of state defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff, a political newcomer who sought to wrest control of a suburban Atlanta district that has elected Republicans to Congress since the 1970s.

The election will not significantly change the balance of power in Washington, where Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress.

But it could give Republicans a boost in confidence as they struggle to advance health and tax legislation that has been bogged down by infighting and investigations into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in last year’s presidential election.

Handel said at her victory rally that she knew it was going to “require all hands on deck” for Republicans to hold on to the district.

“Tonight I stand before you, extraordinarily humbled and honored at the tremendous privilege and high responsibility that you … have given me,” Handel told a boisterous crowd that chanted Trump’s name.

Ossoff and Handel both tried to focus on local issues and avoided mentioning Trump, whose approval rating sits at 37 percent, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.

But that did not stop Trump from weighing in on Twitter, urging voters to support Handel before the election and celebrating her victory afterward.

“Fantastic job, we are all very proud of you!” he posted Tuesday night.

Spending on the race reached at least $57 million, nearly twice the previous record, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group. The special election was held to fill the seat vacated by Tom Price after Trump appointed him as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Democrats celebrated the fact that they had turned a conservative stronghold into a competitive district.

“We showed the world that in places where no one thought it was even possible we could fight (that) we could fight,” Ossoff told supporters.

But the defeat was sure to prompt soul-searching in a party that is shut out of power in Washington and has steadily lost influence at the state level in recent years. Despite spending more than $30 million, Ossoff lost the district by a wider margin than Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Democrats also lost a special election in neighboring South Carolina on Tuesday, where Republican Ralph Norman easily prevailed over Democrat Archie Parnell in a seat formerly held by Republican Mick Mulvaney, who is now serving as Trump’s budget director.

Democrats are 0 for 4 in congressional elections this year, having earlier lost races to fill vacant seats in Kansas and Montana.

“All the Fake News, all the money spent = 0,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Republicans, meanwhile, can now breathe a sigh of relief with the knowledge that they can still win in the kind of affluent, educated districts that often favor Democrats – even with a president who has divided voters in their own party.

“Do I agree 100 percent with what he does? God, no. But I believe he has the country’s best interests at heart,” said Jessica Podalsky, who voted for Handel on Tuesday morning.

(Additional reporting by Amanda Becker in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler, Peter Cooney and Paul Tait)

Contractor charged with leaking document about U.S. election hacking: sources

Reality Leigh Winner, 25, a federal contractor charged by the U.S. Department of Justice for sending classified material to a news organization, poses in a picture posted to her Instagram account. Reality Winner/Social Media via REUTERS

By Dustin Volz and Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday charged a federal contractor with sending classified material to a news organization that sources identified to Reuters as The Intercept, marking one of the first concrete efforts by the Trump administration to crack down on leaks to the media.

Reality Leigh Winner, 25, was charged with removing classified material from a government facility located in Georgia. She was arrested on June 3, the Justice Department said.

The charges were announced less than an hour after The Intercept published a top-secret document from the U.S. National Security Agency that described Russian efforts to launch cyber attacks on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and send “spear-phishing” emails, or targeted emails that try to trick a recipient into clicking on a malicious link to steal data, to more than 100 local election officials days before the presidential election last November.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the case beyond its filing. Federal Bureau of Investigation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While the charges do not name the publication, a U.S. official with knowledge of the case said Winner was charged with leaking the NSA report to The Intercept. A second official confirmed The Intercept document was authentic and did not dispute that the charges against Winner were directly tied to it.

The Intercept’s reporting reveals new details behind the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russian intelligence services were seeking to infiltrate state voter registration systems as part of a broader effort to interfere in the election, discredit Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and help then Republican candidate Donald Trump win the election.

The new material does not, however, suggest that actual votes were manipulated.

The Intercept co-founding editor Glenn Greenwald did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Winter’s mother also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While partially redacted, the NSA document is marked to show it would be up for declassification on May 5, 2042. The indictment against Winner alleges she “printed and improperly removed” classified intelligence reporting that was dated “on or about May 5, 2017.”

Classified documents are typically due to be declassified after 25 years under an executive order signed under former President Bill Clinton.

The NSA opened a facility in Augusta in 2012 at Fort Gordon, a U.S. Army outpost.

The FBI and several congressional committees are investigating how Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and whether associated of President Donald Trump may have colluded with Russian intelligence operatives during the campaign.

Trump has dismissed the allegations as “fake news,” while attempting to refocus attention on leaks of information to the media.

Winner graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio in 2011. Investigators determined she was one of only six individuals to print the document in question and that she had exchanged emails with the news outlet, according to the indictment.

U.S. intelligence agencies including the NSA and CIA have fallen victim to several thefts of classified material in recent years, often at the hands of a federal contractor. For example, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 disclosed secret documents to journalists, including The Intercept’s Greenwald, that revealed broad U.S. surveillance programs.

(Additional reporting by John Walcott)

Fire in Okefenokee wildlife refuge forces evacuations in Georgia

The West Mims fire burns in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia,

By Bernie Woodall

(Reuters) – A wildfire in Georgia’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge has forced dozens of nearby residents to leave their homes, authorities said on Sunday, adding the blaze might not be fully contained for months.

About 130,000 acres (52,600 hectares), or almost a third of the refuge, have already burned, said Melanie Banton, a spokeswoman for firefighters and park officials battling the West Mims Fire, which began on April 6.

The refuge, which is popular with tourists, is home to black bears, alligators and sandhill cranes.

The fire was only 12 percent contained as of Sunday afternoon and more than 500 people were fighting the blaze, according to fire information website InciWeb.

Most of the fire was within the refuge, which straddles Georgia’s southeast border with Florida, but it is encroaching on private land. No injuries have been reported.

A shelter has been set up in a gymnasium in Folkston, Georgia, for 79 residents in the tiny town of St. George, Georgia, who were told on Saturday to evacuate, Banton said.

“First Responders are NOT coming door to door, because they are fighting this approaching fire to try to save your homes,” the refuge said on its Facebook page.

Shifting winds have helped spread the fire, Banton said, adding it could take until November before the blaze is fully contained.

Smoke is seen during sunset as the West Mims fire burns in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia,

Smoke is seen during sunset as the West Mims fire burns in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia, U.S. in a photo released April 29, 2017. Fish and Wildlife Service/Mark Davis/Handout via REUTERS

Winds gusts of up to 25 miles per hour (40 kph) and low humidity boosted chances of the fire’s spreading on Sunday, according to a statement issued by forestry and firefighting officials.

“Anything that can burn will burn if a hot ember falls,” the statement said.

The fire burned into Florida last month and may advance into that state again, officials said on Sunday.

While much of the wildlife refuge is marshland and swamp, parts of it are prairie and wooded land.

Six years ago, a wildfire burned more than 300,000 acres (121,400 hectares) of the 407,000-acre (164,700-hectare) refuge, said Mark Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which runs the refuge.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Paul Simao and Peter Cooney)

Georgia governor signs bill allowing guns on college campuses

A selection of Glock pistols are seen for sale at the Pony Express Firearms shop in Parker, Colorado

By Bernie Woodall

(Reuters) – Georgia Governor Nathan Deal on Thursday signed a bill allowing guns on college campuses in the state, making it the 11th of the 50 U.S. states to do so.

Since the 2007 shooting deaths of 32 people by a student at Virginia Tech, a university in southwestern Virginia, state legislatures have grappled with the question of allowing licensed gun owners to bring their weapons on college campuses.

Deal said in a statement that he believed that people licensed to carry guns could help increase safety on college campuses. He said students at campuses where guns are known to be disallowed are easy prey for assailants.

“At the present time, assailants can, and do, target these students knowing full well that their victims are not permitted to carry protection,” said Deal.

On March 31, the Republican-controlled Georgia Senate and House of Representatives approved the guns-on-campus measure and sent it to Deal, a Republican.

Laura Cutilletta, legal director for the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said her group was disappointed in Deal’s action.

“Colleges and universities are safe havens from gun violence, largely because guns are prohibited on the vast majority of campuses. Allowing guns on campus will jeopardize students, faculty and staff and likely lead to more campus homicides and suicides,” Cutilletta said in an email.

The new Georgia law will prohibit firearms in some campus areas with large crowds, including football stadiums and basketball arenas.

Guns will remain prohibited in campus housing, including fraternity and sorority houses; any rooms where high school students are taking classes; rooms where disciplinary hearings are held; preschool or child care areas; and faculty, staff and administrative offices.

The American Journal of Public Health found that 23 percent of Americans in a recent survey supported guns on college campuses. (http://in.reuters.com/article/us-health-guns-public-opinion-idINKBN17N28Y)

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Richard Chang)

Fire in Georgia wildlife refuge could take months to fight: U.S. officials

Smoke is seen during sunset as the West Mims fire burns in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia, U.S. in a photo released April 29, 2017. Fish and Wildlife Service/Mark Davis/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) – A wildfire that has burned more than 100,000 acres (40,469 hectares) at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southern Georgia could take until November before it is put out, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said on Monday.

The fire has burned about one-fourth of the wildlife refuge, and the blaze is considered only eight-percent contained, said Mark Davis, spokesman for the service.

“November is the worst-case scenario,” said Davis. “The firefighters’ plan is to contain the fire as best they can, hoping that nature will cooperate with some rainfall.”

Helicopters, bulldozers and 500 firefighters are involved in fighting the blaze, Davis said.

No homes have been burned or threatened, but smoke has reached some cities including Waycross, Georgia, Davis said.

While much of the wildlife refuge is marshland and swamp, parts of it are prairie and wooded land. The refuge is home to black bears, alligators and sandhill cranes. Davis said wildlife knows to avoid the flames.

Six years ago, a wildfire burned more than 300,000 acres (12,1406 hectares)of the 407,000-acre (16,4707-hectare)refuge, Davis said.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Democrats aim to ‘make Trump furious’ in Georgia election

Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff for Georgia's 6th Congressional District special election speaks during an election eve rally in Roswell, Georgia. REUTERS/Kevin D. Liles

By Andy Sullivan

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. (Reuters) – For U.S. President Donald Trump, an off-year congressional election on Tuesday in the reliably Republican northern suburbs of Atlanta could spell trouble if Democratic upstart Jon Ossoff pulls off a surprise victory.

A 30-year-old political novice, Ossoff is running as the lone Democrat against a field of 17 Republicans for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives vacated when Trump named Tom Price as his health secretary.

An Ossoff win would not tip the balance of power in the Republican-controlled House but could weaken Trump’s already shaky hold on his party there by encouraging those in competitive districts to distance themselves from him.

Ossoff faces formidable odds. Georgia’s 6th District has elected Republicans to the House since the late 1970s. Trump won the Southern state by about 5 percentage points in November’s election.

Still, opinion polls show Ossoff leading his many rivals. With the slogan “Make Trump Furious,” he aims to galvanize opposition to a president struggling with low approval ratings.

“We have an amazing chance here, an extraordinary moment for Georgia,” Ossoff told campaign volunteers as they headed out for a final round of door-knocking on Monday afternoon.

Ossoff raised a stunning $8.3 million in the first quarter, forcing Republicans to spend heavily against him. Those in the race are split among Trump supporters and candidates trying to hold the president at arm’s length.

Trump defeated Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton last year, and Republicans have controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress since January. But they have yet to enact major legislation to fulfill campaign promises.

The president’s approval rating has not topped 50 percent since he took office on Jan. 20, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows.

Trump, a businessman and TV celebrity who previously had not held political office, has blasted Ossoff as a “super Liberal Democrat.”

In several tweets on Tuesday, he said Ossoff was “very weak on crime and illegal immigration, bad for jobs and wants higher taxes” and urged Republicans to vote to force a run-off.

Ossoff aims to win an outright majority in Tuesday’s vote, a “jungle primary” with all 18 candidates from both parties on the same ballot. If no one reaches 50 percent, the top two vote-getters square off on June 20.

Republicans say they could beat Ossoff in a one-on-one contest. The party avoided embarrassment last week when it narrowly held a conservative Kansas seat vacated when Trump tapped Republican Representative Mike Pompeo to head the Central Intelligence Agency.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Additional reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Lisa Von Ahn)

One killed, three wounded in shooting aboard Atlanta metro

By Ian Simpson

(Reuters) – A man opened fire aboard a moving Atlanta metro train on Thursday, killing one man and wounding three other passengers before the suspected gunman was arrested at the next station, a police spokesman said.

The gunfire erupted aboard a Blue Line train at about 4:30 p.m. shortly after it left a station on the city’s west side, Joseph Dorsey, deputy chief of the MARTA police, said at a news conference. MARTA is the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority.

“As the train was in motion, the suspect fired several shots toward the victims,” Dorsey said.

The three people who were wounded are expected to survive, Dorsey said. A fifth person suffered an ankle injury as passengers scrambled away from the gunman.

All the victims, as well as the suspected gunman, were in their 30s, Dorsey said.

The shooting was “targeted, but isolated,” MARTA’s Police Chief Wanda Dunham said, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper.

Police detained the suspected gunman at the train’s next stop, West Lake Station, and recovered a weapon, Dorsey said. He gave no information about a possible motive and said the shooting was under investigation.

A man who was in the train car told Atlanta’s Fox 5 television that a man wearing a hat sat next to another passenger, his head bobbing. The man then got up and walked to the back of the car.

“And after that, heard shots, hit the deck, and just saw some shoes walk past and that’s it,” said the man, who was not identified.

Cellphone video shot by a bystander and carried on the Fox station’s Facebook page showed a woman and another person lying on the floor of a train car as passengers bent over them.

The transit agency said the station had been temporarily closed.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washingon and Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Additional reporting by David Beasley in Atlanta; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler)