Carter legislation builds on previous FDA measure
U.S Rep. Buddy Carter, R-St. Simons Island, is sponsoring legislation to promote nonclinical testing methods for cosmetics and other products that would reduce or possibly even replace the use of animals such as mice, monkeys and beagles.
“The FDA Modernization Act 3.0 will allow for development of safe, effective treatments and therapies without unnecessary animal suffering,” Carter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The measure follows up on legislation passed in 2022 — known as the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 — that freed the federal Food and Drug Administration from requiring animal tests.
That was a departure from the FDA’s 1938 charter, which often required animal testing data before drugs and cosmetics could enter the marketplace.
Dave Allen, senior director of the International Collaboration on Cosmetics Safety, said Carter’s legislation is necessary because FDA 2.0 essentially gave the agency the option to accept non-animal tests but didn’t explicitly require it to give them priority.
Groups advocating for alternatives to animal testing question their results, saying many drugs that clear that hurdle then go on to fail in human clinical trials.
Carter’s co-sponsors on the bill are Democratic U.S. Rep. Nanette Barragán of California and Republican U.S. Reps. Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee and Vern Buchanan of Florida.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Court of Appeals sets October date for hearing over whether to disqualify Willis
The Georgia Court of Appeals has tentatively set Oct. 4 to hear oral arguments before deciding whether Democratic District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from Fulton County’s election interference case against former Republican President Donald Trump and his co-defendants.
The court also issued an order staying any further work on the case until appeals are decided.
Judges Trenton Brown, Benjamin Land and Todd Markle were randomly selected by computer to hear the case. Brown and Markle were both appointed to the court in 2018 by then-Republican Gov. Nathan Deal. Land was named to the court two years ago by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
They will consider Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s ruling in March that allowed Willis to stay on the case if Nathan Wade, a former special prosecutor with whom Willis had a romantic relationship, departed the prosecution.
Defendants appealed McAfee’s ruling, and the appeals court agreed last month to take up the matter.
The panel is not expected to issue a decision before voters cast their votes in the presidential election this fall. That works well with Trump’s strategy seeking delays in cases involving numerous charges on allegations of election interference and the mishandling of documents.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AJC
‘2000 Mules’ publisher apologizes to man film falsely accused of voting fraud
The publisher of the film and book “2000 Mules” apologized to a metro Atlanta man who was falsely accused of voting fraud in the film.
The voter, Mark Andrews, filed a defamation lawsuit against Salem Media Group and the film’s producers in 2022. The apology is apparently part of a settlement of that lawsuit.
The 2022 documentary film purported to expose illegal ballot “harvesting” in Georgia and other states. Harvesting is the practice of collecting and delivering multiple absentee ballots.
The film showed Andrews — face blurred — depositing five ballots in a drop box before the 2020 presidential election. “What you are seeing is a crime,” says narrator Dinesh D’Souza, a well-known conspiracy theorist and a producer of the film. ”These are fraudulent votes.”
But an investigation by the secretary of state’s office found the ballots were not fraudulent. Andrews was delivering ballots for himself and members of his family, which is not illegal. Investigators also debunked other Georgia claims made in the film.
The producers — D’Souza and the group True the Vote — later told a court they had no documentary evidence supporting their ballot harvesting claims and didn’t even know the identity of their anonymous source who outlined the purported scheme.
Two former candidates back ex-Trump aide for west Georgia US House seat
Brian Jack, a former aide to then-President Donald Trump now heading for a June 18 runoff, picked up endorsements from two rivals he topped in last month’s 3rd Congressional District GOP primary.
Former state Sen. Mike Crane and ex-state Rep. Philip Singleton — who finished third and fourth in the May primary, respectively — say they are backing Jack over former state Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan.
The two are running to fill the west Georgia seat of retiring U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, R-The Rock.
Crane and Singleton join other conservative figures who support Jack’s campaign, including the former president and several of his MAGA allies.
Dugan has drawn endorsements from a range of sheriffs and county officials while emphasizing his own conservative record. That includes taking credit for GOP-backed measures that won passage while he was majority leader, included rewriting voting rules, setting new abortion limits and expanding gun rights backed by Gov. Brian Kemp and other party leaders.
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Credit: Nathan Posner for the AJC
Clyde rebuffed again in effort to restore Confederate monument
Signs suggest U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde shall rise again in the coming week to push again for the reinstallation of a Confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery.
The memorial — placed there in 1914 — was removed last year by the Pentagon after a review of Confederate symbols, names and memorials by the military.
The Republican from Athens tried this past week to persuade the powerful House Rules Committee to allow a floor vote to return the memorial to the nation’s most revered military cemetery. But he was turned back.
Earlier, as a House panel was considering a 2025 funding measure for military construction, Clyde tried to amend that legislation to force the Pentagon to return the monument to Arlington.
He’s expected to try again in the coming week to get the House to consider his proposal.
Clyde has called the monument “a powerful symbol of the healing and unification of our nation after the deep divisions of the Civil War.”
The sculpture — which Clyde wants to rename as the “Reconciliation Memorial” or “Reconciliation Monument” — doesn’t really put the past in the rearview mirror. It falls more under the category of “old times there are not forgotten.”
It includes depictions of a Black “Mammy” holding the young child of a white Southern officer, as well as an enslaved man following his owner into war. There’s also a Latin inscription extolling the “Lost Cause” narrative that the formation of the Confederacy was not centered on slavery.
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Carr seeks ability to use jamming devices to scramble inmates’ cellphone calls
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr is once again calling on the federal government to revise its ban on jamming devices in state prisons and local jails to stymie the use of cellphones by inmates.
Carr and the attorneys general of 21 other states petitioned Congress 17 months ago to legalize the use of jammers in correctional facilities. So far, lawmakers have not taken action
Georgia correctional officers, according to Carr’s office, confiscated 8,074 contraband cellphones in 2023 and have seized 5,482 so far this year. The problem recently gained new attention when an inmate used a cellphone to order the killing of a Georgia man.
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Water conservation group plans legal challenge against Hyundai Metaplant
A coastal Georgia conservation group, the Ogeechee Riverkeeper, is planning to launch a legal challenge to permits issued for construction of the Hyundai Metaplant near Savannah.
The group notified the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of its intentions, citing risks posed to waters near the site, including the Ogeechee River, as well as to the local water supply.
The Metaplant, which is expected to start assembling electric vehicles on the site in Ellabell later this year, is the largest economic development project in the state’s history.
Resistance grows to new bridge or tunnel in Savannah
Resistance from an unknown source is growing in opposition to replace savanna’s Talmadge Bridge with either a higher bridge or a tunnel to link Georgia to South Carolina.
The flyers, headlined “A Bridge Too Far for Savannah,” recently landed in the mailboxes of area residents encouraging recipients to submit feedback to the Georgia Department of Transportation before a public comment period ended this past Wednesday. The cards included a QR code that linked directly to the GDOT public comment portal as well as a web address to learn more about the bridge plans, abridgetoofarsav.org.
The identities of those behind the group are unknown. Their resistance to the GDOT plan centers on the proposed location of the new river crossing and the amount of public engagement.
GDOT made public a study late last year that recommended that a higher bridge or a tunnel — which would better accommodate the larger cargo ships now working on the East Coast — be built next to or under the current bridge.
GDOT officials have targeted October 2025 to finalize state approval of a new river crossing before seeking financing.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Biden gives Smyre a new assignment
President Joe Biden, filling a slot on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, picked former state Rep. Calvin Smyre for the job.
It’s the fourth assignment that Biden has picked for Smyre, who retired from the Georgia House in 2022 after representing the Columbus area for nearly a half-century.
Biden nominated Smyre to serve as ambassador to the Dominican Republic and then ambassador to the Bahamas, but both times Smyre didn’t win Senate confirmation.
Smyre served as one of five U.S. delegates to the United Nations General Assembly.
