Blog Topic: Government

In the Loop: Court Rules Undocumented Immigrants Can't Sue the Board of Regents

By Blake Aued | February 1, 2016 10:58am

Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones/file

Eduardo Samaniego, shown here at an April 2014 rally, was class president of his high school and recruited by UGA but later told he couldn't enroll because he is undocumented.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled today that a group of young undocumented students who were raised in Georgia can’t sue the University System Board of Regents.

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In the Loop: The 'Campus Carry' Bill Is Back

By Blake Aued | January 28, 2016 11:54am

Two state representatives have re-introduced a bill to allow guns on college campuses, according to the AJC. (Click here for the free version or here for a longer story on their pay site.)

House Bill 859 would let gun owners who are 21 and up carry their weapons at public colleges and universities, except in dormitories and fraternity and sorority houses or at athletic events.

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In the Loop: Breweries Can Sell You Beer to Take Home Again

By Blake Aued | January 26, 2016 4:03pm

Photo Credit: Porter McLeod/file

Creature Comforts' David Stein pours a beer from a tank.

Craft beer brewers have reached a deal with alcohol wholesalers that will allow breweries to essentially sell beer straight to consumers, according to the AJC.

The Georgia legislature passed a law last year allowing breweries to include beer to go with tours, rather than merely letting them drink free samples on-site. Craft breweries hailed the law as making Georgia more competitive for this growing industry; most other states already allowed breweries to operate pubs and/or sell beer to go.

However, after meeting secretly with the middlemen in our state’s three-tiered distribution system (producers, wholesalers and retailers), the Georgia Department of Revenueadministratively gutted the law, barring breweries from charging different rates for different tours depending on how much beer was included in the package.

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In the Loop: Hundreds March Against Downtown Discrimination

By Blake Aued | January 19, 2016 11:23am

Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones

Hip hop promoter Mokah Johnson, rapper Versatyle tha Wildchylde and activist Tim Denson.

Chanting slogans like “shut them down!” several hundred marchers braved freezing weather on Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday to protest discriminatory practices at student bars downtown, as well as what they see as a more generally unwelcoming attitude toward African Americans downtown.

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In the Loop: Athens State Reps Don't Like Redistricting Bill

By Lee Becker | January 18, 2016 10:59am

Neither of Oconee County’s two members of the Georgia House of Representatives is willing to support a pair of resolutions prefiled before the current session began on Jan. 11 that would create an independent commission to create Congressional and General Assembly districts in the state.

Oconee County was split into two House districts in a special session of the General Assembly in 2011 to help the dominant Republican Party achieve a super majority. A super majority allows the dominant party to govern without minority support.

Oconee County had made up the majority of the old House 113th District.

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In the Loop: Study: Families Can't Afford to Buy Homes in Athens

By Blake Aued | January 13, 2016 1:24pm

Photo Credit: Blake Aued/file

Most of the new construction in Athens is infill housing, like this on Easy Street, that's far out of reach of most families.

Families with children are fleeing Athens to buy homes in surrounding counties because the housing stock here doesn’t meet their needs, according to a study commissioned by Athens-Clarke County in 2014 and released Tuesday.

The study examines “workforce housing”—housing for the 53,000 people in Athens whose households earn between 60 percent and 120 percent of the city’s median income, or about $30,000–$60,000 a year. This category includes a wide variety of blue- and white-collar jobs, such as maids, electricians, police officers, bank tellers, nurses, claims adjusters and graphic designers.

Vaughn Irons, CEO of consultants APD Solutions, who briefed commissioners on the study Tuesday night, described them as “people who get up and go to work every day, but there may be a mismatch between what the private sector provides and what they can afford.”

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In the Loop: Oconee Commission Approves $4 Million Road for Potential Costco

By Lee Becker | January 10, 2016 1:20pm

Photo Credit: Lee Becker

Left to right, Commissioner Bubber Wilkes, Public Works Director Emil Beshara, consultant Bill Ross and Planning Director B.R. White.

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners approved a $3.35 million contract on Friday with Simpson Trucking and Grading Company of Gainesville for construction of Parkway Boulevard Extension.

The three-lane road will run from the current terminus of Parkway Boulevard just west of Kohl’s department store to opposite an existing entrance to Epps Bridge Centre and is to be open by September of 2016.

Total cost for the roadway, including right-of-way acquisition, is expected to run to $3.9 million, and Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis said the county does not know at present how it is going to pay for the road project.

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In the Loop: The Commission Will Vote Tonight on Banning Discrimination in Downtown Bars

By Blake Aued | January 5, 2016 3:11pm

Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones/file

General Beauregard's, where all this started.

The Athens-Clarke County Commission will vote tonight on taking the first step toward banning discrimination at downtown bars.

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In the Loop: Video: Rally to Decriminalize Pot in Athens

By Blake Aued | December 3, 2015 11:52am

Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones

Athens CARE (Campaign for Access, Reform and Education) and Georgia CARE rallied outside City Hall on Tuesday in an effort to convince the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission to decriminalize marijuana possession. Flagpole photographer Joshua L. Jones was there:

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In the Loop: Last Night's Commission Meeting in GIFs

By Blake Aued | December 2, 2015 1:24pm

Black is white, up is down, and I don’t know who’s allied with whom on the Athens-Clarke County Commission anymore.

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