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Weekend Edition-December 30-31,2022
2A | FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS | ForsythNews.com
FORSYTH FORECAST
The four-day outlook
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
43
MONDAY
Cloudy
58/51
60/47
Mostly Sunny
RM. Showers
63/44
65/55
Lake Lanier level
1068.28 feet (as of 10 a.m. Dec. 29)
Full pool is 1,071 feet
Dec. 26:1068.38 feet
Dec. 27:1068.29 feet
Dec. 28:1068.29 feet
Jan. 6 panel drops Trump
subpoena as it wraps up
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
and ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON —
The House Jan. 6 commit
tee has dropped its sub
poena against former
President Donald Trump
as it wraps up work and
prepares to dissolve next
week.
Mississippi Rep. Bennie
Thompson, the commit
tee’s Democratic chair
man, wrote in a letter to
Trump lawyer David
Warrington on Wednesday
that he is formally with
drawing the subpoena.
“As you may know, the
Select Committee has
concluded its hearings,
released its final report
and will very soon reach
its end,” Thompson wrote.
“In light of the imminent
end of our investigation,
the Select Committee can
no longer pursue the spe
cific information covered
by the subpoena.”
The committee had
voted to subpoena Trump
during its final televised
hearing before the mid
term elections in October,
demanding testimony and
documents from the for
mer president as it has
investigated his role in the
Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insur
rection and efforts to over
turn his 2020 defeat.
Lawmakers on the panel
have acknowledged the
subpoena would be diffi
cult to enforce, especially
as Republicans are poised
to take over the House in
January. But the move had
political and symbolic
value.
“We are obligated to
seek answers directly
from the man who set this
all in motion,” Wyoming
Rep. Liz Cheney, the pan
el’s vice chairwoman and
one of two Republicans on
the nine-member commit
tee, said at the time. “And
every American is entitled
to those answers.”
Trump then sued the
panel in November to
avoid cooperating. The
lawsuit contended that
while former presidents
have voluntarily agreed to
provide testimony or doc
uments in response to con
gressional subpoenas in
the past, “no president or
former president has ever
been compelled to do so.”
The committee’s
request for documents
was sweeping, including
personal communications
between Trump and mem
bers of Congress as well
as extremist groups.
Trump’s attorneys said it
was overly broad and
framed it as an infringe
ment of his First
Amendment rights.
While the panel never
gained Trump’s testimo
ny, the committee inter
viewed more than 1,000
witnesses, including most
of his closest White
House aides and allies.
Many of those witnesses
provided substantive
detail about his efforts to
sway state legislators, fed
eral officials and lawmak
ers to help him overturn
his defeat. And White
House aides who were
with him on Jan. 6 told
the panel about his resis
tance to tell the violent
mob of his supporters to
leave the Capitol after
they had broken in and
interrupted the certifica
tion of President Joe
Biden’s victory.
In its final report issued
last week, the committee
concluded that Trump
engaged in a “multi-part
conspiracy” to upend the
2020 election and failed
to act on the violence. The
panel also recommended
that the Justice
Department investigate
the former president for
four separate crimes,
including aiding an insur
rection.
On social media
Wednesday evening,
Trump and his lawyers
construed the move as a
victory. “They probably
did so because they knew
I did nothing wrong, or
they were about to lose in
Court,” Trump wrote on
his social media site. He
called the panel “political
Thugs.”
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ABOUT US AND OUR VALUES
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OBITS
Obituaries
Patricia Gayle
Lewis Parr
December 12, 2022
Patricia Gayle Lewis
Parr, Cumming, Georgia,
died at home on December
12, 2022. Pat was born in
Detroit, Michigan, in 1943
and was raised in South
Florida. She was prede
ceased by her parents,
Lew and Mary Lewis. Pat
retired from BellSouth
Telecommunications after a
long career, much of it in
database management.
Pat is survived by her
husband, Dailey Parr,
Cumming, Georgia; daugh
ter and her husband, Kim
and Al Bergonzi, Cumming,
Georgia; stepsons and
their wives, Stephen and
Laura Parr, Charlottesville,
Virginia; Kevin and Jennie
Parr, Maryville, Tennessee;
Allan and Muriel Parr,
Inman, South Carolina;
eleven grandchildren; her
brother and his wife, Tom
and Dot Burns, Lakeland,
Florida; her brother-in-law
and his wife, David and
Patricia Zimbardi Parr,
Dacula, Georgia; and niec
es and nephews.
Pat was an active mem
ber of Cumming First
United Methodist Church.
The family would appreci
ate flowers, or memorial
donations may be made to
the Gentle Souls Ministries,
Cumming First United
Methodist Church, P. O.
Box 606, Cumming,
Georgia 30028 or to a
charity of your choice.
Visitation will be held on
Friday, January 6 from 4:00
p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and on
Saturday, January 7, from
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at
Ingram Funeral Home,
Cumming, Georgia. A ser
vice will be held on
Saturday, January 7, at
3:30 p.m. in the mausole
um at Sawnee View
Gardens, Cumming,
Georgia
Ingram Funeral Home,
210 Ingram Ave, Cumming,
GA is in charge of arrange
ments. Condolences may
be expressed online at
ingramfuneralhome.com.
New Ga. laws include regs
for mental health reporting
By JEFF AMY
Associated Press
ATLANTA — Parts of a
law overhauling insurance
coverage for mental health,
new ways for parents to
challenge materials used in
schools and a tax credit for
donating to police are
among new laws taking
effect Sunday in Georgia.
Most Georgia laws take
effect on July 1, but the
General Assembly delayed
some laws, or parts of laws,
until Jan. 1. That is particu
larly true of some tax pro
visions for taxes collected
on a yearly basis.
Among the measures
that took effect earlier in
2022 were a repeal of the
requirement for a permit to
carry a concealed handgun
in public, a ban on teaching
certain racial concepts that
Republicans say are divi
sive, and a $1.1 billion state
income tax refund that sent
between $250 and $500 to
many households.
Here’s a look at some of
the new laws and provi
sions that begin Jan. 1:
Mental health
Health insurance compa
nies have to begin reporting
to the state Insurance
Department how they pro
vide mental health coverage
for children, adolescents
and adults under House Bill
1013, a state effort to make
sure insurers follow federal
law requiring that they
cover mental health care in
the same way they pay for
physical health care.
Insurance Commissioner
John King is supposed to
seek data to examine com
pliance by May 15 and sub
mit a report on its results by
Aug. 15. The department is
also required beginning Jan.
1 to create a system for
tracking complaints about
unfair coverage denials.
Grants to help with court-
ordered mental health treat
ment in the community also
begin Jan. 1. Other require
ments kick in later in 2023
and in 2024.
School material
challenges
School districts have to
start taking complaints
from about books, websites
and other materials that
parents believe are obscene
or harmful to minors under
Senate Bill 226. The bill
was part of a raft of cultur
ally conservative school
legislation approved in the
2022 session. The new law
requires principals or des
ignees to investigate within
seven business days, decide
whether to ban the materi
als or restrict access, and
confer with the complain
ing parent within 10 busi
ness days. Unhappy parents
can appeal to the local
school board, which is sup
posed to decide within 30
days of getting an appeal,
while providing a parent a
legal right to address the
board during a public meet
ing. The district has to pub
lish the tides of any materi
al involved in an appeal on
its website for a year, and
parents must be provided
access to such materials.
Police tax credits
People can get tax credits
on their state income tax by
donating to law enforce
ment foundations that sup
port local police agencies.
Senate Bill 361 provides
for $75 million in tax cred
its per year, with up to $3
million per police depart
ment or sheriff’s depart
ment. The money can be
used to increase officer sal
aries, provide more train
ing, buy or maintain equip
ment, or pay for programs
that send out social and
health workers to help with
mental health emergencies.
Hospital tax credits
Tax credits for donating
to rural hospitals rise from
the current $60 million to
$75 million under House
Bill 1041. Both individuals
and corporations can give
money, up to certain limits,
to 56 hospitals as designat
ed by the Department of
Community Health. Each
hospital can collect up to
$4 million a year. The hos
pitals collected a total of
$59.4 million, close to the
previous limit, in 2021. The
state auditor found that the
average hospital collected
less than $1 million in
2021, although 17 collected
more than $1 million.
Food truck permitting
Food trucks can operate
statewide now with a health
permit from their home
county’s health department,
instead of having to seek
permits in multiple coun
ties, under House Bill
1443. The law is meant to
reduce paperwork and
costs for food trucks.
Operators still have to sub
mit their health permit to
other counties where they
plan to operate and wait for
that county to verify the
permit is valid. Other coun
ties can inspect mobile
food trucks and cite them
or shut them down if they
fail inspection. Fees for
inspections are supposed to
be limited to a county’s
actual costs.
Online sellers
More online sellers will
be required to publish con
tact information under
Senate Bill 332. Supporters
say the law will make it
harder to sell stolen or
counterfeit goods online. It
requires online marketplac
es to provide to consumers
the full name of third-party
companies or individuals
with more than $20,000 in
annual sales on the plat
form. The platform must
also provide a seller’s
address, phone number and
email address or other elec
tronic messaging link, with
some exceptions. Platforms
are supposed to suspend
companies that don’t pro
vide a phone number and
email address for custom
ers to report suspicious
activity to the platform.
FROM 1A
Weather
Another noticeable
impact of the weather was
low or no water pressure
for residents living north
of Hwy. 369 on Christmas
Day, followed by a boil-
water advisory until
Wednesday, Dec. 28.
“The [advisory] was
issued after some custom
ers experienced little or no
water pressure on Dec. 25
due to a frozen pump sta
tion valve at the north
high pump station,”
Forsyth County officials
said in a news release.
“Water quality tests have
been completed and indi
cate the water is safe for
consumption without boil
ing.
With the cold snap com
ing over the holidays,
Grimes applauded the
efforts of workers from
various agencies to keep
county residents safe.
“We knew that there
were things that had to get
done,” Grimes said. “We
knew that we had to take
care of the community
and their visitors.”
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS
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