Latest news with #JohnMcCosh
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Introducing the next generation of the Georgia Recorder
Today, the Georgia Recorder is moving into a new chapter, and as the Recorder's new editor, I wanted to take a moment to reintroduce us. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder For nearly six years, we've covered high-stakes elections. We've been your eyes and ears at the state Capitol. And we've explained what policy decisions made in Atlanta mean for communities across Georgia. Administrations, politicians and agency heads have come and gone during that time, but our mission has stayed the same: To provide meaningful coverage of state policy and politics – without a paywall – to readers living below the gnat line, in the mountains of north Georgia and anywhere in between. As a nonprofit news outlet, our stories and photos are also available for local newsrooms to complement the vital work they are doing – and available to republish for free. The generous support of our readers and donors to our parent organization, States Newsroom, makes all this possible. That's especially true during these uncertain economic times when many Georgians are having to make hard choices to get by. And today, the Georgia Recorder is moving into a new chapter. Our founding editor John McCosh is retiring and handing the reins over to me, and as the Recorder's new editor, I wanted to take a moment to reintroduce us. I've been with the Recorder since we launched in 2019, serving you as the deputy editor. And before that, I covered state politics and policy for a chain of newspapers around the state (shoutout to CNHI). All told, I have been covering the state Capitol here for a decade now, doing my part to help tell the story of Georgia's evolution into the swingy, purpley state it has become and all that comes with it – and what that means for you. The Recorder staff includes veterans, like our new deputy editor, Ross Williams, who focuses on education and economic inequality. Senior reporter Stanley Dunlap covers energy and environmental issues, including what the Trump administration's policies mean for Georgians and the resources they rely on. And reporter Maya Homan has joined us to cover state politics with an emphasis on voting rights and immigration. And I'm still chasing down stories about health care and the state's safety net systems. We'll all pitch in on the campaign trail. Two Public Service Commission seats are on the ballot this year, and the 2026 midterms are already ramping up, as Georgians prepare to pick a new governor and as U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff works to defend his seat in a state President Donald Trump won last year. You can read more about us, our beats and how to submit story tips, questions or feedback here. Feel free to shoot us a note at info@ too. And you can also have our work sent directly to you every morning by signing up for our daily newsletter. We're also on Facebook, Bluesky and Instagram. We may be undergoing some changes, but our commitment to you is the same: To deliver the same scrappy, independent reporting and analysis of the day's news that you've come to appreciate. That kind of unflinching coverage of our state Capitol is more crucial today than it's ever been, and we are renewing our pledge to be a resource amid the chaos for all Georgians, regardless of where they live or their ability to pay. We promise to always do our best to get the facts right, to be fair in our reporting and to be transparent. Because we recognize that your trust in the media's credibility is the foundation for all that we do – not to mention foundational to democracy. So, thanks for joining us for the ride, and if you're new to us, we're so glad you're here. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Clock ticking for Georgia voter registration to elect two new members to Public Service Commission
There are eight candidates who have qualified to run for office this year for positions on the Georgia Public Service Commission that have not been on the ballot following of lengthy legal battles. State regulators oversee Georgia Power rate cases. John McCosh/Georgia Power (file) Monday is the last day to register to vote in the June 17 primary to fill two Georgia Public Service Commission seats on an embattled board that has faced criticism for a series of Georgia Power rate hikes over the last several years. Winners of the upcoming primaries will face off in November to determine who will serve on the five-member charged with regulating a number of telecommunications, electricity and natural gas services across the state. The winners will serve on a board that has approved six utility rate increases since 2023 for Georgia Power customers. This year's primary and general elections will mark the first time since 2020 PSC contests have appeared on Georgia ballots following lawsuits challenging redistricting and the fairness of the PSC election process for Black voters. Typically, the terms of the five commission districts are staggered over a six-year period. The 2025 PSC early voting period for the primary election will be held from May 27 to June 13. If no candidate receives 50% of the vote in the June 17 election, a runoff election will be held on July 15. Georgians can find information about registering to vote and more about elections on the Georgia Secretary of State's My Voter Page. Currently, Republican incumbents Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson are facing challengers seeking to upset their bids to remain on the board. The other three members of the board are also Republicans. Echols, who is seeking his third term on the PSC, will face challenger Lee Muns in the Republican primary for the commission's District 2 seat. Whoever wins will go on to face Alicia Johnson of Savannah, the sole candidate for the Democratic Party. Although the commissioners must reside in the geographical district that they represent, every Georgia voter can determine the winner since the state regulators are elected statewide. There is a large field of candidates for the metro and suburban Atlanta area represented by Johnson, who is seeking re-election after being appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp to fill a vacancy in 2021. One of the Democratic candidates is Daniel Blackman, who served as a regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency under President Joe Biden, and went to a run-off against incumbent Lauren 'Bubba' McDonald in the 2020 Public Service Commission election. The District 3 Democratic primary also includes Keisha Waites, a former member of the Atlanta City Council and the Georgia House of Representatives, as well as Peter Hubbard, founder of Center for Energy Solutions who has been an expert witness at PSC hearings, and Robert Jones, who has had a career involved in energy regulation in California. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Friday that a residency challenge has been filed against Blackman after he moved into the PSC district one day before the deadline for candidates. Since the start of 2023, the average Georgia Power residential customer is paying about $43 more to cover base electric rate increases, recover excess fuel expenses, and cover the cost of completing two nuclear power generators at the Plant Vogtle expansion. The Southern Company subsidiary serves about 2.7 million customers and is the state's largest supplier of electricity. Georgia Power's 2025 resource plan details the company's ambitious energy deployment goals for the next decade, including accelerated plans to add both fossil fuel and clean energy sources. Georgia Power projects that over the next decade the growth of data centers will significantly increase the state's electricity consumption. The proliferation of data centers has become a source of consternation for a number of consumer and environmental watchdogs. There has been some optimism among Republican members of the PSC that the new federal administration under President Donald Trump will curb inflation and stabilize some of the high electricity bills Georgians pay. Additionally, they stated that they supported efforts to increase solar production and usage in the state. Georgia isn't the only state with customers frustrated about rising utility costs. Consumer education nonprofit PowerLines and the polling company Ipsos conducted a nationwide survey in March that revealed 73% of 2,000 respondents were concerned about rising energy prices. 'The results held consistent across the political spectrum, with Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike expressing similar levels of concern,' the report said. However, 90% of respondents could not identify the name of the state regulator that oversees gas and electric bills. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal appeals court upholds Michigan's process of removing dead people from voter rolls
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways John McCosh/States Newsroom Updated at 2:30 p.m. A federal appeals panel has upheld Michigan's process for removing deceased voters from the voting rolls. In a decision released Tuesday, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied an appeal of a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit by the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a conservative group that has filed legal challenges across the U.S. seeking to remove people from voter rolls. 'I'm very grateful that a federal court has once again recognized our strong work keeping our voter file up to date,' Benson said in a press release. 'Since 2020, our department has fought a record number of lawsuits based on false and meritless claims meant to undermine people's faith in Michigan's elections.' Public Interest Legal Foundation filed the lawsuit against Benson, a Democrat who is also a candidate for governor, in November 2021, alleging Michigan was violating the National Voter Registration Act by refusing to remove 27,000 individuals from its qualified voter file the group said were dead. Lawyers for Benson's office had argued that she declined to remove the voters because doing so without confirming the accuracy of the group's list would have risked removing eligible voters in violation of federal voting law, which seeks to ensure voters aren't wrongly removed. That argument was supported by U.S. District Court Judge Jane Beckering of the Western District of Michigan, who in March 2024 rejected as 'theoretical' the harms claimed by the group, and concluded that deceased voters were removed from Michigan's voter rolls on a regular basis. In its decision to reject Public Interest Legal Foundation's appeal, the 6th Circuit said Michigan has actively made 'an inherently rational, sensible attempt at maintaining accurate voter registration lists,' and that the state 'goes further by also actively employing a third party, ERIC, to assist in identifying deceased registrants. This additional effort only further enhances the reasonableness of Michigan's efforts to maintain accurate voter rolls.' The Electronic Registration Information Center, commonly called ERIC, is a nonpartisan interstate cooperative that seeks to maintain accurate voter registration rolls. According to the Public Interest Legal Foundation's website, the group has filed numerous lawsuits across the country requesting similar releases of voter roll information in an effort to prove illegal voting, which is extremely rare. J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, sent the following to Michigan Advance when asked for comment on the decision, 'Disappointed that what Congress thought it was passing to keep rolls clean isn't being implemented,' Adams said. Data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission ranked Michigan fifth in the nation in 2020 and 2022 in removing registrations of voters who have died. This story was updated with comment from the Public Interest Legal Foundation. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Atlanta air quality gets failing grade in new American Lung Association national ranking
According to the Atlanta Regional Commission, transportation contributes about 10% of air pollution in the region. John McCosh/Georgia Recorder (file) The American Lung Association's 2025 annual air quality index gives failing grades to Georgia's population center for smog and air pollution. The American Lung Association's 'State of the Air' report released Wednesday ranks Atlanta third worse in ozone pollution and fourth worse in year-round counts for particle pollution in the Southeast. The association's 28th annual report examines data during a three year window from 2021 to 2023, a period during the transition out of a pandemic that kept the roads clearer due to more people working from home. Atlanta's grade also slips from a C to F for ground-level ozone pollution after recording 5.5 unhealthy days per year compared to 1.8 days in the 2024 report. Atlanta's ozone emissions ranks 48th worst out of 228 cities across the country, which is the third worst metro area in Southeast. Atlanta ranked 67th worst nationally in the Lung Association's 2024 findings. The 2025 report issued Atlanta a failing grade for short term spikes in particle pollution levels recorded above the federal standard. Atlanta, which received a failing grade in 2024, was ranked 34th worst out of 204 nationally and tied for fourth worst metro area in Southeast. The report measures levels of ozone, which is one of the components of smog that becomes worse during the summer as Georgia's dog days set in. The program also tracks the amount of particle pollution emitted from industrial sources such as power plants. Nearly half of the U.S. population live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution, the report says. Danna Thompson, advocacy director for the Lung Association in Georgia, said that poor air quality, particularly caused by ozone, poses a health risk to children and the elderly, as well as people suffering with pre-existing conditions like asthma or heart disease. She said it's important that commuters help reduce emissions, especially in metropolitan areas where the amount of smog is affected by the number of cars and trucks traveling along roads and highways. 'When heading into higher temperatures in the summer in the South, we certainly really encourage people to consider taking and using other forms of transportation, whether it's biking, walking, taking trains because cars and the trucking industry do impact air quality,' Thompson said. According to the Atlanta Regional Commission, there has been a significant reduction in air pollution emissions since 2010. ARC publishes online transportation-related emissions data, which has included Environmental Protection Agency data since 2020. According to the regional commission, transportation contributes about 10% of air pollution in the region, while power generation and manufacturing are also major sources of air pollution Thompson said the lung association is concerned about the potential rollback to Clean Air Act regulations that are designed to protect the public and environment. Last week, President Donald Trump administration's EpA granted a two-year exemption allowing several power plants across the nation, including Georgia Power's coal-firing Plant Bowen and Plant Scherer bypass federal emission regulations for mercury and other air pollutants. Thompson said it's tough to determine what is the largest factor that changes the levels of pollution recorded on a year to year basis. Thompson said the report highlights the need for the EPA to set up more air quality monitors in Georgia since only 27 of 159 counties currently have the equipment used to measure how safe air is. 'It's hard to pinpoint one factor that causes the air quality to to be worse,' she said. ' The ozone is like a powerful oxidant. It's like household bleach. When it's inhaled, ozone damages the tissues in our respiratory tract.' The 2025 American Lung Association report other notable findings for Georgia include Augusta ranking among cleanest in the nation for ozone smog while also tying for fourth worst in the Southeast for year-round level of particle pollution. Savannah was dinged from an 'A' to a 'B' because of higher levels of ozone smog. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bookman: Attempts to deport international students will cause lasting harm in Georgia and beyond
Emory University is one of the Georgia universities with a significant population of international students. John McCosh/Georgia Recorder 'It's our mission to enhance your college experience through the internationalization of campus,' the University of Georgia tells its 2,600 foreign students on its website. 'No matter your held identity, perspective and worldview, there's a place for everyone.' Except, there's not a place for everyone. Not anymore. All around the country, including here in Georgia, hundreds and most likely thousands of foreign students are being stripped of their student visas for little or no apparent reason, and are told to either deport themselves immediately or be arrested and deported by force. Agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under pressure to meet deportation quotas, have found those students to be easy pickings. They're simple to find – their names and addresses are already in a federal database – and ICE agents are apparently sifting through that database, trying to find any reason, plausible or implausible, to evict people. In some cases, students are being targeted for voicing support for Palestinians, not necessarily in protests but on social media and other outlets as well. One student in Vermont, a 10-year U.S. resident with a green card, was arrested for deportation at an interview that he scheduled as part of his process to become an American citizen, and we still don't know the reason. Others have been ordered to leave the country immediately based on years-old traffic tickets or dropped misdemeanor charges, and some based on no apparent reason at all. Lawsuits have been filed in federal courts here in Georgia and elsewhere, attempting to force the government to justify its actions, but the outcome of those suits is uncertain. The fact that there's so little rhyme or reason to the deportation orders, which come with no warning, makes them even more frightening and dangerous. These aren't terrorists or criminals who are being targeted. They are people who came here legally, through the process, and the random nature of their attempted removal makes the message clear: Immigrants, get out. The impact here in Georgia can be significant. Emory University hosts roughly 3,300 foreign undergraduates and more than 1,000 post-graduate students and scholars, many in the medical field. Kennesaw State enrolls more than 1,600 international students, and Georgia State has more than twice that number. Not surprisingly, Georgia Tech hosts the largest contingent of international students in the state. In addition to more than 1,600 undergraduate students, Tech has attracted almost 12,000 post-graduate students to its campus, representing the best and the brightest of more than 100 countries. They make up more than a third of Tech's post-grad student body. Those students and the often-cutting-edge research they conduct have in turn helped to attract venture capital, startups and incubators to Georgia Tech's Technology Square in midtown Atlanta. Companies such as NCR, Boeing and others have invested more than $1 billion in projects at Tech Square, which according to Georgia Tech has 'the highest density of startups, corporate innovators, academic researchers, and students in the entire southeastern United States,' with 'over 100 startups, 5 startup accelerators, 25 corporate innovation centers, 7 venture funds, 10 research labs, 10 Top 10 engineering programs (and) one Top 10 MBA program.' These are, or ought to be, the foundations upon which a modern, prosperous economy are built. In fact, according to one study, '21 of the 87 privately held U.S. companies valued at $1 billion or more had a founder who first came to the United States as an international student.' Yet we're in the process of running them off. In addition, foreign students are a big revenue generator for many schools, because they generally are able and willing to pay full tuition, in effect subsidizing their U.S. classmates. If the flow of international students and revenue is shut down, as seems likely, some smaller private schools may even be forced to close. Overall, higher education is an American specialty, an 'industry' renowned around the world for its quality, and we're locking the doors to incoming customers. The impact of these deportation attempts goes well beyond those individuals being targeted for removal. Word has already spread overseas, where these evictions are creating a climate of fear and distrust that will last generations. To make things even worse, the Trump regime is also attempting to slash funding for American scholars who want to study and do research overseas, through programs such as the Fulbright. What supposedly began as a concern about illegal immigration has grown into something much uglier and destructive. We are shutting ourselves off from the rest of the world. We are telling them we don't want their business, we don't want their friendship, we don't want them. It's just crazy what we're doing to ourselves. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
