Northern

Both parties push to get voters back to the polls

Early Saturday morning, a dozen volunteers unlocked the doors at the Clarke County Democratic Committee's headquarters and cranked up Barack Obama's vaunted voter-turnout machine one more time.

They sorted maps and slapped stickers on doorknob hangers as they prepared to go door-to-door in the heavily Democratic Spring Valley and Nellie B neighborhoods, alerting voters to a Dec. 2 runoff election between Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin.

All through the spring and summer months, whenever he would discuss his upcoming Senate race with reporters, Saxby Chambliss would always remind them: "We know that this is going to be a very tough race."

I tended to pay little attention to that disclaimer, especially when it looked like Chambliss' Democratic opponent would be DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones, a candidate with a troubled personal history.

HIAWASSEE, GA: Jim Powell, Democratic Candidate for the Public Service Commission, calls on his opponent, Lauren McDonald, to join him in pledging to the voters that if elected the candidate would not participate in any closed door communications with representatives or lobbyist of the utility companies regulated by the Public Service Commission.  Georgia is one of only a handful of states that allow Public Service Commissioners to hold ex-parte discussions with utility company representatives behind closed doors and without a public record of the conversation. 

Athens-area Republican and Democratic lawmakers agree on one thing: The 6 percent budget reductions Gov. Sonny Perdue has ordered for state agencies may not be enough to bridge the financial crisis that has echoed across Georgia and other states.

But ideas about what to do to about it diverge pretty much along party lines as state agencies like the University of Georgia brace for the worst.

 ATLANTA --- The U.S. Department of Justice is questioning 2 million requests it says were made by Georgia officials since last fall to check the Social Security numbers of newly registered voters, far more than any other state.

In a letter sent to Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, Justice Department officials said those checks appear to represent a substantial change in state law.

Would end automatic pay hikes for retirees

Georgia teacher organizations are lining up to fight a proposal by Gov. Sonny Perdue that would end automatic cost-of-living raises for retirees covered by the state Teachers Retirement System.

About 80,000 retired teachers, professors and other school employees draw retirement pay from the system, and more than 250,000 people still in the workforce have teachers retirement accounts, according to the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.

A PERFECT STORM of local repercussions to criminal justice and public safety are in the process of being caused by the state's across-the-board budget cuts.

There are going to be two major categories of victims likely to be swamped by this state-caused tempest, local taxpayers and defendants. Just for the record: Defendants are innocent until proven guilty ... and whole lot of them, with adequate legal representation, are indeed found not guilty. And taxpayers? Well, they're always the victims of governmental mischief, aren't they?

Mohawk Industries will shutter a northwest Georgia manufacturing plant by the end of November, leaving 230 jobless, the Georgia Department of Labor said this week.

The pending closure of the synthetic carpet yarn producing plant in Fort Oglethorpe in Catoosa County is the fourth such announced shutdown this year by Calhoun-based Mohawk, which has been hit by the housing downturn.

What would you do?

Georgia's gasoline pumps have all but run dry. Prices have soared at the few stations still in business. The state's unemployment rate is running ahead of the national jobless rate, which is over 6 percent and rising.

The state budget has a $1.5 billion to $2 billion hole in it, thanks to some unrealistic economic forecasting and a steep dip in revenue collections. And Georgia is among the top five states in home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies.

GEORGIA is in the midst of a highly publicized budget shortfall and yet it persists in throwing money away.

No, we're not referring to it just having spent $600,000 on a hangar lease at Charlie Brown field in the metro to house its fleet of seven state airplanes, though that's certainly amazing given what is being taken away from ordinary citizens in all the budget cutting. Say, Sonny (Gov. Perdue has a pilot's license), that couldn't have anything to do with your being passed up for vice president, could it?