Good morning! Today is Jan. 5 and Georgia is in the midst of a tumultuous runoff election that will determine the balance of power in the U.S. Senate. It will also put an end to all those mailers and text messages you’ve been bombarded with. Here is what you need to know today.
Headlines:
- Donald Trump and Joe Biden were both in Georgia yesterday to campaign with Georgia’s candidates for senate.
- Election officials in Georgia — all republicans — were actively debunking Trump’s claims of voter fraud yesterday in an effort to try to convince republicans to vote in today’s election.
- Republicans in Georgia and throughout the country are split about a phone call where Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes he needed to win the state and to tell voters he had “recalculated” the votes.
- The New Year’s holiday turned deadly on Georgia’s roads. The Georgia State Patrol reported 13 deaths over the New Year’s holiday.
- Atlanta has seen an increase in violent crime. Here is what Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is doing about it.
- You don’t often hear of firefighters getting arrested, but a firefighter in Hartwell was arrested and charged with theft yesterday.
- A deputy in Henry County died from COVID-19.
Today:
Voters will cast their ballots today in two U.S. Senate races. One is between Republican Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock and the other is between Republican David Perdue and Democrat John Ossoff. If you’re still not sure who you’re voting for, or woke up this morning and realized there was an election, here are some recent stories relating to the senate race.
- What could be done to lower insurance rates in Georgia?
- New Georgia Laws: Cellphone bans and tax relief on the agenda
- Is Your HOA Aggressive and Unreasonable? A New Bill in Georgia Could Fix That
- Cobb Agrees to Spend $5 Million on Veterans Memorial After 10-Year Wait
- Georgia Senate to Cities: You Can’t Require Residents to Lock Guns in Cars
- Georgia’s Gold Dome is Humming With Talk of Affordability
- Same Old Legislature, But The Georgia Capitol Got a Facelift
- Meet Georgia’s Newest Lawmakers
- DeKalb Commissioner Wants ICE Agents Out of Local Neighborhoods
- When Does Roswell’s New Mayor Take Office?
- Here’s What Eliminating Georgia’s Income Tax Could Look Like
- Could The East Cobb Library Check Out of Its Current Strip Mall Location?
- Another Georgia Lawmaker Charged With Fraud
- What Did Marjorie Taylor Greene Say About The Trump Administration’s Capture of Venezuela’s Maduro?
- Towns County Sheriff’s Office Still Missing One Gun
Weather:
Temperatures will get up to about 52 degrees today with minimal chance for rain. You’ll want to vote during the day though. Evening temperatures will dip to 39 degrees and may hit freezing in the overnight hours.
Coronavirus: More than 6,000 Georgians are testing positive for coronavirus per day. The 7-day-average is the highest it has been in the state.
Thom Chandler
Thom Chandler is the editor of The Georgia Sun and has been writing, editing and managing websites and blogs since 1995. He is a lifelong Georgian and one of those increasingly rare Atlanta natives.
