Biden’s gun violence initiative | ANF+ Political Update’s weekly wrap
Making headlines: Hakeem Jeffries, John Lewis voting act, Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, HBCUs ... and New Orleans Saints fans.
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Georgia has been under the nation’s political microscope before, but never more so than now.
Here’s a recap of Sept. 11-15, 2023:
McBath joins White House in gun violence prevention announcement
On Friday, President Joe Biden announce the establishment of the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to reduce gun violence.
U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Georgia) was on hand in the White House briefing room for the announcement. McBath lost her son, Jordan, to a shooting in 2012. McBath has served in Congress since 2018.
The new Office of Gun Violence Prevention will be overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris, who was also dubbed the administration’s “border czar” at the beginning of Biden’s term.
Stefanie Feldman, a longtime policy advisor to Biden on gun violence prevention, will serve as director of the office.
Big Democratic shindig next week
U.S. House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California) will be in Atlanta next Friday for a special fundraising reception on behalf of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
Earlier in the day, Dr. Bernice King will be hosting an event at the King Center featuring Jeffries.
Kemp: Get behind the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center
Gov. Brian Kemp voiced his support for the controversial Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, and on Friday, the Georgians First Leadership Committee called on elected officials from both parties to support the facility.
THE ATLANTA PUBLIC SAFETY TRAINING CENTER
“Providing effective training for our law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, and all first responders to better serve their communities should not be controversial,” said Cody Hall, senior advisor to GFLC. “Georgians deserve to know where their elected officials stand in protecting their families, and the question for vulnerable Georgia Democrats is simple: do you support funding and properly training our police officers and first responders, or not?”
John Lewis voting rights bill reintroduced in Congress ... but not by a Georgian
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Alabama) reintroduced this week the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
The bill, supporters said, would provide mechanisms to stop discriminatory voting laws and dissuade their passage and enactment in the future.
While the measure was reintroduced by an Alabama Democrat, the Georgia-based, Stacey Abrams-founded Fair Fight Action was quick to offer its support.
“Fair Fight Action implores members of Congress to come together and pass the [measure,]” the organization said. “Our elected representatives must take action to shore up democracy in America during a time when it is greatly imperiled.”
Pen Pals
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp joined 24 other GOP governors this week in writing a letter to President Joe Biden, urging his administration to respond to the nation’s southern border crisis.
The letter calls on Biden to immediately relay accurate, detailed, and thorough data to the states about who is crossing the southern border illegally, where they are relocating, how the federal government is processing their asylum applications, and whether they are being deported.
You can read their full letter here.
Speaking of letters, Kemp got one of his own last week, along with 15 other GOP governors, from U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack. The two Biden administration officials urged the 16 governors to close the gap between $12 billion disparity in funding between land-grant Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and their non-HBCU land-grant peers in their states.
Not political, but just because they’re the Saints ...
New Orleans Saints fans are the most disillusioned in the county, a new study has found.
The research by onlinecasinos.com, which helps players find the best online casinos worldwide, analyzed Google searches for 50 different terms related to the National Football League, such as “NFL”, “NFL scores” “NFL schedule” and “NFL draft” to discover each state’s rate of searches, and find the where fans are least optimistic about the league and their team.
Louisiana has the lowest rate of searches out of states that are home to an NFL team, and is therefore home to the most disillusioned fans. The home state of the New Orleans Saints generates 1,379,854 NFL-related searches each month from an estimated population of 4,590,241, which equates to 30,061 searches per 100,000 people. That is the fifth lowest ratio out of all 50 states, with only states that don’t have an NFL team producing a lower level of searches for the league.
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