Newspaper Page Text
ity Region
By The Associated Press
2 The status of major legisla-
Yion after 17 days of the 2004
Gay Marriage
T Republican senators are
leading a push to ban same
dex marriage in the state con-
Yitution. Gay marriages are
already illegal in Georgia, but
the matter isn't addressed in
the constitution. If approved
By lawmakers, the issue would
go to Georgia voters this fall.
~ 5R595 was approved by the
Senate Rules Committee and
awaits a vote in the full Senate.
Right to hunt
A constitutional amend
ment saying “the tradition of
hunting and fishing and the
taking of fish and wildlife shall
be preserved for the good of
e people.” Both chambers
ve approved the amend
ent, but in separate forms,
Lt. Governor Mark Taylor
listens to students’ views on
HOPE, cutting books and fees
" ATLANTA - Lt. Gover
fior Mark Taylor has met
With students at both
Georgia Institute of Tech
nology and Georgia State
University to discuss pro
posed changes to the
HOPE scholarships pro
gram.
“The HOPE scholarship
Blirectly so many people on
campus,” said Rob Lange,
®ne of the GSU students
‘who helped bring Taylor to
‘¢ampus.
HOPE has paid more
‘than 700,000 students to
%o college in Georgia dur
ing the last decade. 17,661
‘HOPE scholars attended
g;eorgia Institute of Tech
‘)r,lology; 26,414 have
attended Georgia State
throughout the life of the
jprogram.
,; Predicting no growth in
,fi)ttcry, many state officials
gre demanding immediate
guts to the program. Taylor
has asked the legislature to
Jook at the lottery’s record
growth and take a more
caution approach to any
changes.
-t The proposed budget for
[Fiscal Year 2005 cuts $125
million that previously
?aid for books and fees for
Albany elects first black mayor
.ALBANY, Ga. (AP) -
Albany voters chose their
g:st black mayor on Tues
day, Feb.lo, in an election
that was postponed last fall
,gccausc of a federal lawsuit
over district lines of the
southwest Georgia city's
\gilards.
4 Dr. Willie Adams Jr.
defeated incumbent Mayor
Tommy Coleman by gar
CAPIT@QL ROUNDUP
so theyll have to agree on a
it to voters for final approval
HR9BS, 5R563 have been
approved by their respective
bodies.
M“M;*fl |
The governors proposed
midyear budget would reduce
state spending by $27.6 mil
lion between now and June
30 to $16.146 billion. Most
state agencies were cut by 2.5
percent, meaning they will
lose $363 million under his
proposal. Most of that money
will be reshuffled to other
needs, including about S2OO
million to Medicaid and
Peach Care and about $136
million to education.
HBIIBO is pending before
House Appropriations Com
mittee.
Next year’s budget
The governor’s proposed
HOPE scholars. Taylor
warned that Georgia stu
dents should speak up
about these cuts; otherwise,
the funds will likely be lost
forever.
“You should let your
voice be heard by contact
ing your senator and repre
sentatives and the gover
nor’s office. Your voice will
be heard. Since you are the
people whom these changes
will most affect, your opin
ion is critical,” he said.
“I know that books are
expensive and the last thing
we want to see someone
not be able to go to college
because they cant afford
the books or fees required
by the university. One of
the main reasons I will not
inception. I believe they are
part of the contract we
signed with students of
Georgia when we said work
hard for a B average and we
will pay for your college
costs,” Taylor said.
Gov. Perdue has also pro
posed requiring a mini
mum SAT score of 900 for
HOPE scholarships, a
change that would have a
disproportionate impact or
rural Georgians attending
two years colleges.
nering more than 60 per
cent of the vote.
Adams, a physician, got
8,368 votes to 5,330 for
Coleman, who has served
four terms since 1990. Mar
cia Felts Wimberly, a Med
icaid case manager, got 36
votes.
The nonpartisan elections
for mayor and three of six
City Commission seats
od beginning RN
an ddl DI
L
lion to p -’ : -
‘of health care programs,
including Medicaid. He
would incur $1 billion worth
of new debt to finance new
school and college buildings
and road construction.
HBIIBI is pending before
House Appropriations Com
mittee.
Education
Gov. Sonny Perdue’s educa
tion package includes tougher
discipline standards, a meas
ure to revoke a teen’s drivers
license if he or she has missed
too many classes and a new
central office for early learning
Instead of cutting books
and fees, Taylor discussed
his three-part plan that
includes a recommenda
tion on freezing tuition and
fees at universities.
Implement a 3.0 grade
point average for every
qualifying scholar.
Re-evaluate HOPE
scholars every 24-college
credit hours.
Freeze college tuition and
fees for the next three years.
“Regents have defended
the consecutive tuition
increase by saying they
have only raised tuition an
average of seven percent a
year. Seven percent is noth
ing to brag about. It is
more than inflation, more
than most annual pay raises
and much than the interest
paid on a saving account or
CD, he said. “In order to
safeguard HOPE against
another steep increase, we
need the Regents to step up
and acknowledge its role in
this program’s success,”
Taylor said.
For more information on
this, please contact Kristi
Huller at (404)656-5030
or 678-488-0714.
were delayed last year by a
federal judge. The Ameri
can Civil Liberties Union
sought the delay, arguing
the city’s wards were based
on outdated census data
and no longer reflected
their true racial makeup.
Coleman was mayor from
1990-92 but did not seek
re-election. He ran again
and was elected in 1995.
AUGUSTA FOCUS
WO o 8
HBII2BB ll pending before
. 58A288R429. and SB4SG
Truancy
A bill aimed at reducing tru
ancy would require schools to
notify parents of the truancy
law and set up penalties for
parents who don't make sure
their children are in class.
H 8395 has passed the
House and is pending in the
Senate.
Faith-based charities
A constitutional amend
ment proposed by the gover
nor would give the state new
power to let faith-based chari
ties compete for state con
tracts for providing services to
Racial profiling
not systematic,
study says
By JAY COHEN
Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)
- A study of state High
way Patrol traffic stops
released Wednesday, Feb.
11, found no systematic
racial profiling but
researchers say some indi
vidual officers may be
biased.
Researchers from North
Carolina State and North
Carolina Central said
their study showed that
in 2000, blacks account
ed for 21.2 percent of all
licensed North Carolina
drivers, but received 24.9
percent of all citations
from troopers.
However, that wasn’t
enough of a gap to sug
gest a prevalence of racial
profiling in traffic stops
and citations, they added.
“We found nothing in
the rules of the organiza
tion that encourages offi
cers to target minorities
and that’s consistent with
the patterns for citations
and surveys,” said Donald
Tomaskovic-Devey, a pro
fessor of sociology at
N.C. State.
“This doesn’t mean that
individual officers aren’t
biased and that becomes a
role for managerial
awareness and monitor
ing by the leadership of
the Highway Patrol.”
In the study, some dis
tricts and individual
troopers were found to
have higher rates of citing
of blacks than would have
been predicted. Others
had lower-than-expected
citation rates.
Soae 014
e
people who manufacture
methamphetamine around
children.
HBIIOB, H 811135 are
awaiting action in the House
Judiciary Committee.
58467 has passed Senate
47-0 and is pending in the
House.
HOPE Scholarship
Several plans have been dis
cussed to cut costs from the
lottery-funded HOPE schol
arship.
HBIII6, H 81271,
H 81325 are pending in the
House Higher Education
Researchers said several
variables could contribute
to differences between
districts and across the
state, including where
and when troopers patrol
and are deployed, as well
as the behavior of drivers.
They declined to release
data about individual dis
tricts or areas.
Some troopers who par
ticipated in focus groups
also said they believe it is
likely that some racial
profiling occurs among
their ranks.
The analysis is based on
data on citation and
searches by the North
Carolina Highway Patrol
from 1997-2000.
Matthew Zingraff, a soci
ology professor at N.C.
State, said most of the
citations, stops and writ
ten warnings were from
2000.
- The report also includes
a survey in 2000 of just
under 3,000 North Car
olina licensed drivers and
focus groups comprised
of citizens and Highway
Patrol officials.
Some researchers
believe that the variables
involved in the study
make it hard to draw
comprehensive conclu
sions.
“You can see how many
people the North Caroli
na Highway Patrol has
stopped, but it really
becomes meaningless
without knowing who is
available to be stopped,”
said Geoffrey Alpert, a
criminolgy professor at
the University of South
Carolina who is familiar
February 19, 2004
Tortrorm
‘stop fri lawsuits and
%; lawsuit in med
ical malpractice cases. The
bills vary slighty but include
caps on non-economic jury
awards, new rules for intro
ducing expert witnesses and
limited liability for emergency
room doctors and nurses.
H 81396, H 81397,
H 81398, H 81399, HBI4OO,
HBI4OI, H 81402, H 81403
are all pending before the
House Judiciary Committee.
58174 has passed the Sen
ate and is pending in the
House Judiciary Committee.
58432 is pending in the
Senate Judiciary Committee.
with the study.
Zingraff said
researchers were confi
dent in their methodolo
gy.
“We certainly need to
keep in mind research,
however thorough, is
only going to give us
some of the information
we need,” he said. “There
needs to be continual
monitoring of police
activities because racial
disparities may manifest
themselves in many,
many ways that arent
simply the result of racial
hostility.”
The project began in
1999 after the General
Assembly required that
the state Highway Patrol
and other state law
enforcement agencies
document the race, gen
der and age of people
pulled over. The study
was funded by a
$472,231 grant from the
National Institute of Jus
tice.
Sgt. Everett Clendenin,
a spokesman for the state
Highway Patrol, said the
agency is pleased with the
study’s results.
“It supported our belief
that there was not wide
spread racial disparity in
traffic stops conducted by
our troopers,”he said.
“I think what we have
done is develop a pretty
simple methodology that
the Highway Patrol and
other law enforcement
agencies can use to help
them monitor their activ
ities to help key an eye on
what is going on,” Zin
graff said.
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