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Page 20 March 17, 2024 StarNews www.starnewsgaonline.com Comment ary Sanctuary Georgia: Governor Brian Kemp at home D.A. KING PRESIDENT The Dustin Inman Society 404-316-6712 The heart-wrenching national story around last month’s murder of the University of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley needs to be filled in with background that many Republican politicians in Georgia hope will never see daylight. Readers should remember that the latest estimates from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security show that only six states host more illegal aliens than Georgia. At about 400,000, we have more illegal aliens than “green card” holders. The GOP has had control of every state constitutional office and a legislative majority here for two decades. We think an easy way to keep score is to realize that some people are pro-enforcement on immigration, and some are anti enforcement. Let’s examine examples of “who’s who.” Shortly after taking office in 2021, Democrat Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens invited a mariachi band to celebrate his announcement to end the jail’s 287(g) (Google it) partnership with federal immigration authorities. On the other side of metro-Atlanta, at his swearing-in event in Gwinnett County, the newly elected Democrat sheriff, Keybo Taylor, stood before a large audience - including media - and boasted that he, too, had ended the jail’s 287(g) agreement with ICE. He went further by announcing “what we will not be doing is notifying ICE of anybody’s immigration status in the jail or any of our facilities.” To make his professional position on the inherent dangers of “criminal illegals” set free on our streets crystal clear, Taylor added “We will not keep anyone in jail under an ICE detainer.” As Georgia Rep. Jesse Petrea pointed out when he presented his pro-enforcement bill HB 1105 “The Criminal Alien Track and Report Act”, the definition of “sanctuary” policies in state law OCGA 36-80-23. “...means any regulation, mle, policy, or practice adopted by a local governing body which prohibits or restricts local officials or employees from communicating or cooperating with federal officials...” While illegal immigration is the number one issue in the nation, until last week’s news of the murder at UGA, the same was not tme in Georgia’s “Number One for Business” politics. Broaching the issue with a Peach State focus under the Gold Domed state Capitol did not result in long or welcomed conversations. Rep. Petrea is a genuine leader. He should be thanked: jesse.petrea@house.ga.gov River in the sky Sybil ROSEN THOMAS River Rambles syllabiH 7@aol.com Much has been written in the news lately about atmospheric rivers, especially after the bmising rain southern California got pum- meled by in early February. So, I began to wonder: what is an atmospheric river anyway and why are they so destructive? Coined by research scientists from the Masschusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1990s, the evocative term ‘atmospheric river’ also goes by the name tropical plume, tropical connection, moisture plume, water vapor surge, or cloud band, all of which makes me think of ice cream flavors or alcoholic drinks with tiny paper umbrellas. Any of these titles can be used to describe what is basically a giant conveyor belt of water in the Earth’s atmosphere, capable of spanning 2000 miles long, 500 miles wide and 2 miles deep. Occupying a (relatively) narrow cor ridor in the sky, a single plume can flow from the Phillipines to the American West Coast or, similarly, from the Caribbean to the United Kingdom. Try taking a restful cmise down one of those sky-high rivers. Despite their awe-inspiring size, three to five tropical plumes can actually be present at one time over a single hemisphere. Most common in winter, they’re found in mid-latitudes around the world, originating above warm tropical water and guided toward coastlines by low- level jet streams ahead of cold fronts, like flocks of birds chased south by an Arctic blast. Maybe you’ve heard of the Pineapple Express, so-named for the surge of heated water-vapor that forms over the Hawaiian trop ics and follows varying paths to California or the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia or southeast Alaska. The long meandering plumes of concentrated water can convey more H20 than the planet’s largest terrestial river, the Amazon in South America, a fact I find impossible to wrap my mind around. When these heavy cloud bands move inland and encounter mountains or local weather dynamics, they are forced to rise, causing the moisture in them to cool and condense, thus producing intense rain or snowfall. An atmos pheric river can bring on sustained heavy pre cipitation responsible for flash floods, land- Maybe you’ve heard of the Pineapple Express, so-named for the surge of heated water-vapor that forms over the Hawaiian tropics and follows varying paths Jerry, my Peddler boss: Part 2 Bill BOURIS digi@mindspring.com In Part 1 (February edition) I described my Fridays as a peddler in New York City between the ages of 20 and 21. That summer, I worked 6 and 7 days of the week. The work was excit ing, I was earning good money, and it all hap pened because of a guy named Jerry, the peddler-boss. During the earlier hours of a typical non- Friday, I would push my ice-cream cart, from Jerry’s store-front, a couple miles north, to around the Museum of Natural History, which borders on Central Park. Gradually, through the day, I’d work the neighborhoods and the Park, going South, until I had reached the Park’s southern boundary, where I’d work the famous hotels, from the San Moritz, going east to 5th Avenue, and concentrating around the classy Plaza Hotel. I soon had discovered a wonderful little neighborhood. It ran from the recently-opened Wollman Skating Rink (which was at the cor ner of the Park across from the Plaza), to 58th Street, across from the back-side of the Plaza. First, the area of the Skating-Rink: At night, the newly planted shrubbery that shielded the Rink from gawkers, also shielded hotel-guests who would rendezvous with their girlfriends. It took a few days for me to realize what was going on. First, I was tmly surprised at such quiet and civility in the bushes. And the tipping was incredible. Then I began to figure out why these men were buying two of what I had! (... often more.) What was going on in bushes, there, in the hot night, between the San Moritz and the Rink? With the busy and hot Fridays at the Bus Terminal in mind, I say it was “Hanky- Panky in the bushes without air-conditioning!” All that was taking place on 59th Street. Later, I would meander to the back-side of the Plaza, onto 58th Street, and there I discovered a most interesting collection of businesses. My favorites were the Paris Theater (a movie house that featured the world’s best non- Hollywood films), a jewelry shop (whose dis play actually showed me what I felt was beau tiful jewelry!), and a Flamenco night club (which featured the phenomenal Carmen Amaya!). It was a tiny piece of neighborhood that gave me much rest and pleasure, a wrap- up of the long hot day’s work. Usually, I would head back to Jerry’s after that... Carmen Amaya, I believe, had a Broadway show going at the time. And she spent her off- days and free hours at this flamenco club. The performers would come out to the street and buy my ice cream, where I had been taking in the show, outside, near the entrance, in my “working-whites”. Once, I sent a sandwich in “Para la Senora Amaya”. The situation became something like “peddling-thru-the-bus-driver”, as described in Part 1. Another show that I’d discovered, “My Fair Lady” with Rex Harrison was a few streets away. After the Flamenco stop, I might drop by there. But that spot yielded the poorest sales, almost none. Harrison would msh out from a stage-door, a crowd of fans would cheer and scream as he dashed to his waiting MG and drive off. He signed fewer autographs than the ice-creams that I sold. Little did I know, for many decades, that my summer as an ice-cream peddler would be the beginning of the end of my being a native of New York City. In a few months I would become a commuter to a city to the north, my first computer job. And after a few years, finally to Georgia... Whitesburg, where, oddly enough, I feel neighborhood connections and ties that echo my childhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan! And, recently, I realized something else. It’s about money. In my new professional life I got paid each month by check, which was taken to a bank, or automatically deposited into my checking account. As a peddler, I handled cash, mostly in silver, and stashed it until there was enough This writer has spent considerable time over the last several years speaking with law enforcement officials and collecting responses to open records requests that show many Georgia jailers do not obey the laws against sanctuary. Complaints filed with various officials and agencies in an effort to force compliance - or at least coverage in “the news” - went nowhere. It is sadly accurate to say that much of Georgia is a sanctuary state. This brings us to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. As noted by the left wing Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper at the time, candidate Kemp’s first TV ad in the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary cited Americans who had been killed by illegal aliens and portrayed him as “tough on illegal immigration.” The widespread belief then was that he meant tough on illegal immigration in Georgia. See D.A. KING page 22 slides, and hurricane force winds, taking a toll on all life in its path as we’ve watched happen over the past few years on the West Coast. Regardless of their recent sinister cast, these tropical connections play a central role in the global water cycle. From weak in strength to exceptionally fierce, they can be beneficial or hazardous, depending on the amount of mois ture they hold and the duration of that water’s release, which can last from less than 24 hours to up to 48 hours and longer. What’s more, they account for 90% of the Earth’s north-south water-vapor transport and contribute to 22% of total global runoff. These may sound like dry numbers but they add up to an obvious truth: Atmospheric rivers have always been with us. So why, suddenly, have they become bad news? Many of you can probably guess where this is going. The simple fact is that warmer air See RIVER RAMBLES page 23 to make a decent deposit. That world of cash and only a savings account was much more reflective of the working class and immigrant neighborhoods where I had been raised. Now, without realizing it, I had begun to make my way into a professional and middle-class world. Also, during that summer, when I was a peddler, I managed to do something that I’ve always considered very important. During my rest periods, when I’d take a break, say at a park-bench under a tree, or sit ting atop the low stone wall that surrounded all of the rectangular vastness of Central Park, I would read. The two novels I read that summer were “East of Eden” and “Moby Dick”. Because Steinbeck’s novel was made into a really good movie that I’ve seen several times, his novel has stayed with me. Moby Dick was made into a so-so movie, but my ice-cream cart was colored white and felt like a whale. So, the thought of that great novel stirs deep feelings and memories in me. In tact, until this writing, whenever I’ve thought of the time I was an ice-cream peddler, those novels would immediately come to mind. And then, ... the police. They would come to mind... Back then, New York City’s laws about ped dling first required a “peddler’s license”. Therefore, whenever a policeman had reason to stop a peddler, the question was first asked, “Where’s your license, kid?” See BILL BOURIS oaae 23
