Prisons chief: Official who beat inmates deserves 2nd chance
The director of the federal Bureau of Prisons is defending her decision to rally behind a high-ranking agency official who climbed the ranks after beating Black inmates, saying Tuesday that she feels he’s shown contrition and deserves a second chance.
Walker, Kemp campaign in Ga. together for the 1st time
Fresh off his commanding re-election victory, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Saturday played the role of dutiful Republican soldier as he campaigned for the first time alongside Senate hopeful Herschel Walker after spending months steering clear of his ticket-mate.
Abrams' strategy to boost turnout: Early voting commitments
Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is launching an intensive effort to get out the vote by urging potential supporters to cast in-person ballots the first week of early voting as she tries to navigate the state’s new election laws.
Prisons chief deflects blame for failures, angering senators
With just days left in his tenure, the embattled director of the federal prison system faced a bipartisan onslaught Tuesday as he refused to accept responsibility for a culture of corruption and misconduct that has plagued his agency for years.
Bill pushes feds to notify families of sick, dying inmates
New legislation in the Senate requires the Justice Department to establish guidelines for the federal Bureau of Prisons and state correctional systems to notify the families of inmates if their loved one has a serious illness, a life-threatening injury or if they die behind bars.
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EXPLAINER: What does Georgia's new GOP election law do?
The sweeping rewrite of Georgia’s election rules that was signed into law by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp represents the first big set of changes since former President Donald Trump’s repeated, baseless claims of fraud following his presidential loss to Joe Biden.
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Shooting victim's husband says police detained him for hours
(AP Photo/Ben Gray)ATLANTA – A man who survived the shooting that killed his wife at an Atlanta-area massage business last week said police detained him in handcuffs for four hours after the attack. Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said in an emailed statement Monday afternoon that his office would not have any further comment on the case and is focusing on the investigation and prosecution. In all, seven of the slain victims were women, six of them of Asian descent. Gonzalez said they put him in handcuffs and detained him for about four hours, according to the website. “Only when they finally confirmed I was her husband, did they tell me that she was dead," he said.
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Rallies in Atlanta, nation against hate after spa shootings
A 21-year-old white man is accused of killing eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, at three Atlanta-area massage businesses Tuesday. Hundreds of people of all ages and varied racial and ethnic backgrounds gathered in Liberty Plaza in Atlanta, and in similar rallies across the country, waving signs and chanting slogans. Otis Wilson, a 38-year-old photographer who's Black, said people need to pay attention to the discrimination those of Asian descent face. They moved to Atlanta four years ago and got involved in community organizing, last summer pulling together an event to support Black women victimized by police violence. AdHunt, who's Black, joined Saturday's rally to “show Black and Asian solidarity,” adding “I think it’s amazing.
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'Speak out:' Biden, Harris decry racism during Atlanta visit
President Joe Biden speaks after meeting with leaders from Georgia's Asian-American and Pacific Islander community, Friday, March 19, 2021, at Emory University in Atlanta, as Vice President Kamala Harris listens. We cannot be complicit.”“They’ve been attacked, blamed, scapegoated and harassed; they’ve been verbally assaulted, physically assaulted, killed," Biden said of Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic. But Biden and Harris instead spent much of their visit consoling a community whose growing voting power helped secure their victory in Georgia and beyond. As the fastest-growing racial demographic in the U.S. electorate, Asian Americans are gaining political influence across the country. The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, typically dominated by Democrats, has its largest roster ever, including Asian American and Pacific Islander members and others who represent significant numbers of Asian Americans.
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Biden to meet with Stacey Abrams on trip to Georgia
FILE - In this April 3, 2019, file photo, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams speaks during the National Action Network Convention in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)During his visit to Atlanta on Friday, President Joe Biden will meet with former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who has been widely credited with helping flip the former Republican stronghold blue. But Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will still meet with Abrams and thank her for her work, the White House confirmed on Thursday. AdThe meeting will come as Republicans in the Georgia state General Assembly push several proposals to make it harder to vote in the state. Ad“Stacey, you’re changing Georgia,” Biden said.
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Warnock: GOP voting restrictions resurrect ‘Jim Crow era’
“We are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights and voter access unlike anything we have seen since the Jim Crow era,” Warnock said Wednesday. Democrats cast their legislation as a way to render most of the state GOP moves moot. AdBoth the Voting Rights Act restoration and the wider bill face an uphill path in the 50-50 Senate as long the current filibuster rule requires major legislation to get 60 votes to pass. His bid will test whether Democrats have staying power in Georgia after decades of Republican dominance in federal elections. AdIn that same era, Warnock said, his mother worked in tobacco and cotton fields — generations after the Civil War and the 13th Amendment had ended slavery.
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'We can do big things,' Schumer says as Senate approves aid
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., leaves the chamber just after the Senate narrowly approved a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, March 6, 2021. Senate passage sets up final congressional approval by the House next week so lawmakers can send it to President Joe Biden for his signature. Ad“Lessons learned: If we have unity, we can do big things,” Schumer told The Associated Press in an interview after the vote. The outcome “gives us optimism about doing more big things in the future — because it worked,” he said. He and Schumer spoke often as the Senate leader steered the pandemic aid to approval.
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LeBron James going to All-Star with elections on his mind
Golden State Warriors guard Brad Wanamaker, right, shoots as Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Feb. 28, 2021, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)LeBron James is going to Georgia this weekend for more than the NBA All-Star Game. “Look what we made happen, what our voices made possible,” James says in the 51-second spot. Ad“We’ve already been engaged to some degree in Georgia, which is Ground Zero for this wave of voter suppression efforts,” Tyler said. “This isn’t the time to put your feet up or to think posting hashtags and black squares is enough,” James said to conclude the ad.
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Critics: GOP measures target Black voter turnout in Georgia
(AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)ATLANTA – Fueled by Black turnout, Democrats scored stunning wins in Georgia in the presidential and U.S. Senate races. But one aspect of their plans, a proposal to eliminate early voting on Sundays, seems specifically targeted at a traditional get-out-the-vote campaign used by Black churches, referred to as “souls to the polls." AdIn Georgia, Republicans control state government and have introduced dozens of legislative measures that would restrict voting access. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, also a Republican, has called for a photo ID requirement for absentee voting but has yet to back a specific proposal. After states expanded access to mail-in and early voting during the coronavirus pandemic, nearly 70% of all ballots cast nationwide came before Election Day.
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Georgia Senate GOP introduce bills to limit mail voting
Many of the proposals target absentee voting by mail after relentless false claims by former President Donald Trump and his allies, including some Republican state senators. Senate Bill 71 would limit who is allowed to vote absentee by mail, a method currently available to any Georgian without needing an excuse. AdBroad, no-excuse absentee voting was introduced in Georgia by a Republican-controlled legislature in 2005. “Now, GA Senate Republicans introduced (a) bevy of bills to try to stop multi-racial, multi-age coalition that elected them from voting. House Speaker David Ralston said in January that he was not convinced of the need to end no-excuse absentee voting, for one.
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Senate filibuster fight cools for now, but battles ahead
The pivotal Georgia runoff election this month was decisive in handing Democrats the majority in the Senate. Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – Easing off a stalemate, the Senate moved forward Tuesday with a power-sharing agreement in the evenly-split chamber after Republican leader Mitch McConnell backed off his demand that Senate Democrats preserve the procedural tool known as the filibuster. The stand-off between McConnell and new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had all but ground the Senate to a halt in the early days of the Democratic majority and threatened President Joe Biden's agenda. “I'm glad we're finally able to get the Senate up and running,” Schumer said Tuesday as he opened the chamber. Schumer's office said the Republican leader had no choice but to set aside his demands.
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New Georgia senators carry John Lewis' influence with them
Sen. Raphael Warnock was Lewis’ pastor and stood at his bedside before Lewis died. It seeks to restore portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013. Democrats and voting rights groups argue that the ruling has led to a cascade of changes in many states that have disenfranchised voters, including polling place closures. They are the first Democrats to win a U.S. Senate election in Georgia since 2000. “My friend John Lewis planted the foundation of this Georgia over his career,” Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey said in a tweet.
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Democrats formalize Jaime Harrison as national party chair
Harrison, the longtime Democratic Party official, is President-elect Joe Bidens choice to lead the national party, according to multiple party officials. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro, File)COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Democratic National Committee elected Jaime Harrison of South Carolina as chair on Thursday, signifying an early alignment between newly inaugurated President Joe Biden and state party leaders around the country. Harrison was a key liaison with state party leaders with whom Perez sometimes had rocky relationships. Harrison, 44, comes into the job with overwhelming support from state party leaders, making his elevation a sign of relative unity in a party organization often beset by infighting among state leaders and Washington power players. Thursday's meeting also included a video tribute to Don Fowler, a former national party chair and mainstay of South Carolina politics, who died last month at age 85.
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Democrats set to formalize Jaime Harrison as national chair
Harrison, the longtime Democratic Party official, is President-elect Joe Bidens choice to lead the national party, according to multiple party officials. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro, File)COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Democratic National Committee is set to formally elect Jaime Harrison of South Carolina as chairman on Thursday, signifying an early alignment between newly inaugurated President Joe Biden and state party leaders around the country. Harrison was a key liaison with state party leaders with whom Perez sometimes had rocky relationships. Harrison, 44, comes into the job with overwhelming support from state party leaders, making his elevation a sign of relative unity in a party organization often beset by infighting among state leaders and Washington power players. Some party leaders, including Clyburn, have also argued a more diverse state like South Carolina should be first to vote.