Georgia
Kemp to begin second Georgia term with new pay raise pledge
![Kemp to begin second Georgia term with new pay raise pledge](https://storage.googleapis.com/afs-prod/media/4c86b16739d7464797c28ee31e997b93/3000.jpeg)
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s Brian Kemp is scheduled to be sworn in for a second time period as governor Thursday, promising across-the-board pay raises for state workers and public college lecturers whereas questions linger about his long-term legacy whilst he rides excessive politically.
The Republican plans to make use of his inaugural handle to suggest additional pay raises, in line with draft remarks considered by The Related Press, though the precise quantity gained’t be unveiled till he speaks Thursday.
The 59-year-old Kemp begins his second time period atop Georgia’s political world. He rode his stewardship of the financial system to a giant win over Democrat Stacey Abrams, although Abrams once more outspent Kemp.
With a brand new Home speaker and lieutenant governor, Kemp is unlikely to be challenged by the GOP-led Legislature.
The incumbent retains ticking off financial improvement bulletins, together with $2.5 billion for 2 photo voltaic panel crops introduced Wednesday by Hanwha Answer’s Qcells unit in what the corporate mentioned was the biggest photo voltaic funding ever within the U.S.
Kemp delivered $5,000 pay raises to lecturers and state workers in his first time period. He promised lecturers $5,000 when he ran in 2018, delivering in two steps, whereas state workers bought your entire $5,000 as Kemp ran for reelection final 12 months, after state revenues have been supercharged by federal spending and the financial restoration from the COVID-19 pandemic. His inaugural pledge will reprise that theme.
Kemp additionally seeks to satisfy marketing campaign guarantees to ship one other $1 billion of revenue tax refunds and a $1 billion property tax rebate. He plans to make use of Georgia’s $6.6 billion in surplus money to pay for these givebacks, in addition to refill the state’s roadbuilding coffers after suspending gasoline tax collections for 10 months.
“They despatched it to us, so as a substitute of spending it on new authorities applications, and larger authorities, we’re going to place that cash again of their pocket to assist them combat by 40-year-high inflation,” Kemp advised the Georgia Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.
Kemp’s towering political successes have given him a nationwide political profile, thriving as a Republican regardless of Donald Trump’s emnity. Kemp even basked in a presidential boomlet within the weeks after he stomped Abrams.
After taking his oath, he’s headed to the World Financial Discussion board in Davos, Switzerland, the place his workers says he’ll discuss how his conservative governance has promoted financial success.
However Kemp has but to clinch the height achievements defining probably the most profitable Georgia governors in current historical past. Democrat Joe Frank Harris carried out the state’s present training funding system and backed Atlanta’s 1996 Olympics bid. Democrat Zell Miller created HOPE faculty scholarships and prekindergarten funded by the state lottery. Republican Nathan Deal reformed Georgia’s felony justice system and backed a tax enhance for street building.
“I feel his final 4 years would be the figuring out issue, as a result of he’s nonetheless serving. I’m undecided but,” Democratic state Rep. Al Williams of Halfway mentioned of Kemp’s legacy.
Brian Robinson, a Republican political marketing consultant who was Deal’s communications chief, mentioned the governor’s “political shackles are off,” notably if Kemp doesn’t plan to run for workplace once more.
“He has the flexibility for a time frame to enact a imaginative and prescient, to do one thing that may be a legacy undertaking. He can assume massive, he can assume daring, and ship on change,” Robinson mentioned, including that the window in all probability runs by the top of the 2024 legislative session, earlier than lame duck standing will minimize into Kemp’s affect.
Kemp to this point hasn’t rolled out any monumental second-term plans. However generally a legacy finds a governor. Robinson mentioned it wasn’t in any respect sure in late 2014 that Deal would get behind a plan to boost gasoline taxes.
“I’m sitting there on the senior workers lunch going. ‘I don’t know what our agenda is, however there’s this transportation invoice that’s effervescent up, and we will both lead the cost or we will stand within the again and never have a say on this,’” Robinson mentioned. “And finally he led the cost.”
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Georgia
College baseball: Georgia's Condon wins Howser Trophy – Salisbury Post
![College baseball: Georgia's Condon wins Howser Trophy – Salisbury Post](https://www.salisburypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2024/06/preview-30.jpg)
College baseball: Georgia’s Condon wins Howser Trophy
Published 10:29 pm Sunday, June 16, 2024
- Georgia’s Charlie Condon speaks to the media before an NCAA college baseball practice, Wednesday, May 15, 2024, in Athens, Ala. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Georgia’s Charlie Condon was selected the winner of the Dick Howser Trophy on Saturday as the national player of the year in college baseball after he led the country in home runs and batting average.
Condon batted .433 and hit 37 homers, the most by a Division I player since Rice’s Lance Berkman had 41 in 1997. Condon played first and third base and in the outfield and committed just four errors in 163 chances. He is projected to be an early pick in next month’s amateur draft.
The consensus first team All-American and Southeastern Conference player of the year became the first Georgia player to win the Howser Trophy, which is awarded based on voting by members of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
Other Howser Trophy finalists were Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana, Wake Forest pitcher Chase Burns, first baseman-pitcher Jac Caglianone of Florida and pitcher Hagen Smith of Arkansas.
The Howser Trophy honors the memory of Dick Howser, a two-time All-America shortstop for Florida State (1957-58) and later manager of the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals. The award has been presented since 1987, shortly after Howser’s death.
Georgia
Inmate used gun to kill a prison kitchen worker before killing himself, officials say
![Inmate used gun to kill a prison kitchen worker before killing himself, officials say](https://s.abcnews.com/images/US/abc_news_default_2000x2000_update_16x9_992.jpg)
GLENNVILLE, Ga. — An inmate used a gun to kill a kitchen worker at a Georgia prison early Sunday before fatally shooting himself, state officials said.
The Georgia Department of Corrections in a statement said it’s investigating the deaths at Smith State Prison in rural southeast Georgia. The agency provided few immediate details, including how the inmate obtained a firearm.
The agency’s statement said inmate Jaydrekus Hart fatally shot a food service worker in the prison’s kitchen at about 4:30 a.m. Sunday, then used the gun to kill himself.
“The weapon is in GDC custody at this time, and a complete and thorough investigation of what led up to this tragic incident will be carried out,” the statement said.
Agency spokeswoman Lori Benoit provided no further information when reached by phone. She said further details would be released when they become available.
The name of the slain kitchen worker, an employee of the food service company Aramark, was not immediately released.
“We are heartbroken over the loss of our colleague and our hearts and prayers go out to her family,” Aramark spokesperson Debbie Albert said in an emailed statement. “This is a tragedy for all of us.”
Albert said the company was assisting Georgia prison officials in their investigation.
It’s the second killing of a staff member at Smith State Prison in less than a year. Correctional officer Robert Clark, 42, died last October after an inmate he was escorting attacked him from behind with a homemade weapon.
A state investigation into a sprawling contraband scheme inside the prison resulted in the arrest and firing of the prison’s warden, Brian Adams, in February 2023. He was charged with racketeering, bribery, making or writing false statements and violating his oath as a public officer.
Hart had been imprisoned since 2015 after being convicted in Carroll County of voluntary manslaughter and aggravated battery, according to online prison records. His earliest potential release date would have been in 2043.
Smith State Prison, which has capacity for 1,500 inmates, is a close-security prison that houses offenders considered violent or an escape risk.
Georgia
Three-Star Edge Carrington Coombs Commits to Georgia Tech, Bumps Yellow Jackets Up to No. 22 Nationally In Rankings
![Three-Star Edge Carrington Coombs Commits to Georgia Tech, Bumps Yellow Jackets Up to No. 22 Nationally In Rankings](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_3872,h_2178,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/all_yellow_jackets/01j0exgybgn7jvzhhvt8.jpg)
Georgia Tech had a great weekend recruiting last weekend and they have got the ball rolling again tonight with the commitment of Carrington Coombs, a three-star edge who plays at Hebron Christian Academy in Georgia. Coombs is now the 13th commitment in the 2025 class for Georgia Tech.
To God be the Glory!! I’m Home, Go Jackets!! @GeorgiaTechFB . @HebronLionsFB @jonathan_gess @Terrencemelton @Danny__mejia @CoachSantucci pic.twitter.com/L3JL1cwKky
— Carrington Coombs (@cacoombs3) June 15, 2024
Georgia Tech’s class now ranks 22nd in the country and 4th in the ACC, behind only Clemson, Syracuse and Stanford. The Yellow Jackets average recruit rank is an 87.44, higher than either Syracuse and Stanford and only trails Clemson, Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, and SMU.
According to the 247Sports Composite, Coombs is a three-star player, the No. 625 player in the country, the No. 68 linebacker in the country, and the No. 69 player in the state of Georgia.
Other offers that Coombs held were Boston College, Kansas State, Liberty, Virginia, Oklahoma State, USF, and App State, among others. Here are some other news and noteworthy stats about Coombs courtesy of 247Sports:
Also plays basketball.
2023: Two-way snaps for Dacula (Ga.) Hebron Christian Academy, helping lead the Lions to a 6-5 record and first round berth in the GHSA 3A playoffs. Totaled 41 tackles, four sacks, and a forced fumble as a junior along with two catches for 23 yards on offense.
Georgia Tech is off to a really good start to the month and they should only be getting better. Brent Key has done a great job of getting guys on campus and being able to land them.
2025 Georgia Tech commitments
Four-Star Offensive Lineman Justin Hasenhuetl
Three-Star defensive end Andre Fuller
Three-star quarterback Grady Adamson
Three-star offensive lineman Jimmy Bryson
Three-star Safety Rasean Dinkins
Three-star Running Back JP Powell
Three-Star Safety Fenix Felton
Three-Star Athlete Jamauri Brice
Three-Star Tight end Connor Roush
Three-star offensive lineman Kevin Peay
Four-Star Cornerback Dalen Penson
Three-Star Wide Receiver Sam Turner
Three-Star Edge Carrington Coombs
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