Georgia
Florida, Georgia communities pay final respects as Army Sergeant killed in Jordan is returned home
:quality(70)/d1hfln2sfez66z.cloudfront.net/02-14-2024/t_2bfab6d6c0fd4f9ab25bcdb6dd1148e1_name_file_960x540_1200_v3_1_.jpg)
WAYCROSS, Ga. — US Army Sergeant Kennedy Sanders has returned home to Waycross.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
Hundreds of Floridians and Georgians lined the US 1 stretching from Jacksonville to Waycross Wednesday, as the funeral procession for a 24-year-old soldier brought her casket back to her hometown.
The funeral procession from Jacksonville marked the final stretch of a roughly 7,000-mile journey back home after Sanders and two other soldiers were killed by a drone attack launched by Iranian-backed militias while serving in Jordan last month.
Family, friends, and community members released balloons as the hearse reached its final destination at the Fluker Funeral Home.
The thundering engines of more than 100 motorcycles bid farewell to the soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice for her country.
“I’m just grateful for so many people showing them so much love,” said Yolando Rivers, Sanders’ family friend and former employer.
Read: A moment of silence in Waycross; fallen soldiers return home after deadly drone strike in Jordan
Rivers told Action News Jax Sanders lived her life with a dedication to serving others.
“Just think about even her working at the pharmacy. It wasn’t something that was on her goal list to do, but I needed somebody, so she was there for me,” said Rivers.
Waycross Mayor Michael-Angelo James knew Sanders from an early age and served as her family pastor.
“I loved her smile. She’s not only brawny, brainy, but beautiful,” said James.
James said the tragedy of Sanders’ loss has generated an incredible outpouring of support, respect, and unity.
Her sacrifice serves as a reminder to us all of the true cost of freedom and the courage of those willing to put their lives on the line to defend it.
“It’s connecting not only cities and counties but states and the nation,” said James.
The funeral service for Sanders is scheduled for 11:00 this Saturday at the Ware County Middle School Auditorium.
There will be another procession following the service which will end at Oakland Cemetery, where she’ll be laid to rest.
[SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.

Georgia
Georgia Power customers facing higher bills next year

ATLANTA – Georgia Power customers should brace for higher utility bills in the new year.
The Georgia Public Service Commission approved another rate increase on Tuesday, marking the sixth hike in three years. Starting in January, the average customer’s bill will rise by $5.85.
According to Georgia Power, the increase is part of a long-term plan approved in 2022. The additional revenue will be used to fund ongoing infrastructure projects, address higher fuel costs, and support nuclear power developments.
Earlier this year, Georgia Power customers were hit with a 5% increase when the Plant Vogtle’s fourth nuclear unit came online.
This latest hike continues a trend of rising costs for electricity across the state.
Georgia
Bookman: Wealthy school voucher supporters send disapproving taxpayers the bill • Georgia Recorder

School vouchers are unpopular.
They are unpopular with liberal voters. They are unpopular with conservative voters.
In modern American politics, it is rare to find such agreement, with voters of all stripes recognizing that they pose an existential threat to public education.
Yet somehow, in Georgia and other states, voucher programs continue to be implemented against what appears to be strong bipartisan opposition.
How is that happening?
It’s happening because a relative handful of very wealthy people have made school vouchers their pet vanity project, using multi-million-dollar campaign chests to try to refashion state legislatures all across the country to do their will.
Jeffrey Yass of Pennsylvania, Betsy DeVos of Michigan, Richard Uihlein of Illinois, Charles Koch of Kansas and other billionaires are all funding crusades in states where they don’t live, threatening the health of public schools that their kids will never attend, because they believe they know better than residents of those states how their children should be educated.
In Texas, for example, Yass and others donated tens of millions of dollars to remove conservative legislators who had dared to vote against a universal voucher program. In legislative races, $10,000 can do a lot of damage, and in November they succeeded in removing 15 conservative anti-voucher legislators, replacing them with candidates willing to do their bidding.
In states such as Georgia, where public opposition has continued to frustrate straightforward attempts to implement universal vouchers, proponents have resorted to political intimidation, deception and bait-and-switch legislation to accomplish their goals.
Let’s start with the assertion that vouchers are highly unpopular.
In every single state, liberal or conservative, in which voters have had a chance to directly voice their opinion, pro-voucher referendums have been defeated, and usually by overwhelmingly margins.
It happened most recently last month in Nebraska, a conservative state that Donald Trump carried by 20 points. If vouchers are truly a grassroots conservative cause, with broad popular support, surely you would expect them to be popular in the Nebraska heartland.
Yet Nebraskans voted overwhelmingly, 57% to 43%, to repeal a voucher program that their state legislators had tried to impose on them. It was the third time that Nebraskans have directly voted against using taxpayer money to fund private schools.
In Kentucky, the story was much the same. State legislators, goaded by out-of-state donors, needed to change the state constitution to allow vouchers, but doing so required that they get voter approval. It didn’t happen. In a deep-red state that Trump carried by 30 points, the proposed voucher amendment was rejected by 30 points. It failed in every one of the state’s 120 counties, rural and urban.
It’s also important to note that the distorting effect of huge sums of campaign money from billionaire voucher proponents is not felt solely in legislative races. Republican megadonors have also made it clear to politicians with ambitions for higher office that if they want the type of large donations needed in national races, they better toe the line on vouchers.
So here in Georgia last year, Gov. Brian Kemp helped to strong-arm the state Legislature into narrowly passing what was sold to legislators and the public as a very limited voucher bill, estimated to provide $6,500 in taxpayer money to pay private-school tuition to students in the lowest-performing 25% of Georgia schools. As part of that bill, legislators authorized spending for vouchers for as many as 22,000 students who are supposedly “stuck” in those poor-performing schools.
Except ….
Suddenly, state education officials have reread that new law and now claim that it makes as many as 400,000 Georgia students eligible for vouchers, including hundreds of thousands who do not attend a low-performing school. That is a number that was never heard or seen during debate on the legislation.
State Rep. Chris Erwin, chair of the House Education Committee, told the Associated Press that wasn’t how the law was intended to work and he wants it rewritten.
House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones joined him, saying she also felt misled.
“That wasn’t my understanding,” she said of the expanded program.
This is hardly the first time that voucher proponents in Georgia have told the public one thing during debate on a bill, only to turn around and disavow those promises later. It’s the kind of bait-and-switch technique you turn to only when you know that your proposal is too unpopular to be adopted through honest means.
It’s also important to point out that the public’s distrust of vouchers is well-grounded in fact and reality. Study after study has found that vouchers do not improve education outcomes, and instead can cause significant harm. And just as opponents have warned for decades, most of the taxpayer money spent on vouchers is going to subsidize students in prosperous families who were already attending private school or being home-schooled. Relatively little is used to help public-school students “escape” into better schools, the supposed rationale for vouchers.
And because voucher advocates insist upon little or no regulation of such programs, abuses have become legendary.
In Florida, homeschooling parents are using tax money to fund family trips to Disney World. In Arizona, families are using vouchers to buy themselves big-screen TVs. In Arkansas, a state that ranks 45th in the country in teacher pay, a voucher program created in 2023 is paying for horseback riding lessons for home-schooled children.
Think about that. At a time when public schools often lack the funding for even basic supplies, voucher advocates are using taxpayer money for equestrian training.
You can cite any number of circumstances in which unregulated campaign money is distorting the political process in this country, but perhaps none is as egregious, blatant and potentially destructive as the debate over vouchers. Rural communities in particular are wary of proposals that would drain resources from their public schools, and if Democrats are looking for a way to restore common ground with those voters, the fight against vouchers offers a great opportunity to do so.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
Georgia
LOOK: Georgia Football Equipment Staff Prepares Jerseys for Sugar Bowl

The Georgia Bulldogs equipment staff has begun preparing the Dawgs’ uniforms for the Sugar Bowl.
The Georgia Bulldogs are just weeks away from their College Football Playoff appearance and are diligently preparing for their Sugar Bowl matchup. The Bulldogs will await the winner of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish or the Indiana Hoosiers.
As provisions for the Sugar Bowl continue and the team gears up for the big game, the Bulldogs’ equipment staff has begun preparing the jerseys that the Dawgs will wear for the game. Georgia will be wearing their classic red jerseys with red helmets and their classic silver pants. The team’s jerseys will also feature the iconic Sugar Bowl patch on their left shoulder.
The Dawgs and their red uniforms will take the field in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on January 1st, 2025, and will look to advance to the semi-finals of the College Football Playoff. A win will put Georgia one step closer to its third national championship appearance in four seasons and will give them their first playoff win since the 2022 season.
Other Georgia News:
Join the Community:
Subscribe to our YouTube Page HERE.
You can follow us for future coverage by clicking “Follow” on the top right-hand corner of the page. Also, be sure to like us on Facebook @BulldogMaven & follow us on Twitter at@DawgsDaily
-
Politics6 days ago
Canadian premier threatens to cut off energy imports to US if Trump imposes tariff on country
-
Technology1 week ago
Inside the launch — and future — of ChatGPT
-
Technology5 days ago
OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever says the way AI is built is about to change
-
Politics5 days ago
U.S. Supreme Court will decide if oil industry may sue to block California's zero-emissions goal
-
Technology6 days ago
Meta asks the US government to block OpenAI’s switch to a for-profit
-
Politics7 days ago
Conservative group debuts major ad buy in key senators' states as 'soft appeal' for Hegseth, Gabbard, Patel
-
Business4 days ago
Freddie Freeman's World Series walk-off grand slam baseball sells at auction for $1.56 million
-
Technology4 days ago
Meta’s Instagram boss: who posted something matters more in the AI age