About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 16, 2024)
LOCAL/STATE The Times, Gainesville, Georgia I gainesvilletimes.com Tuesday, July 16, 2024 3A Hall County chairman recovering from surgery BY DENISE ETHERIDGE deniseetheridge@gainesvilletimes.com Hall County Commission Chairman Richard Higgins, 71, is recovering from surgery he had last week. During a Thursday, July 11 Gainesville City Council work session, council member Danny Dunagan commented publicly that Higgins had quadruple bypass surgery on July 9 and seemed to be doing well. County officials declined to release details about the surgery. “First, we wish Chairman Higgins a full and speedy recovery,” said Hall County spokesperson Joy Holmes. “Out of respect for Chairman Higgins, Hall County government will not provide specific comments related to his surgery. While Chairman Higgins is recovering from his surgery, Vice Chair man [Gregg] Poole will be completing the Chair man's official duties.” Higgins lost his reelec tion bid in a June 18 runoff against chal lenger David Gibbs. Gibbs will be sworn in as the new chairman in January 2025. Higgins was first elected Hall County Commission Chairman in 2016. He previously had served as chairman of the Hall County Board of Education for 11 years. Sardis Road connector work could start in late ’24 BY JEFF GILL jgill@gainesvilletimes.com Work could start later this year on the long-awaited Sardis Road Connector, as a construction contract on the project is set to go to bids on Sept. 20, said Elizabeth Johnson of GDOT. Right of way acquisi tion wrapped up earlier this year with the purchase of property at Corinth Church off Thompson Bridge and Mount Vernon roads. Road construction, cost ing about $48 million, could take about two years to com plete, officials have said. The project consists of widening and rebuilding several existing local roads with some new roadways to create a new four-lane road. The road will extend north ward from Sardis Road at Chestatee Road to Mount Vernon Road at Ga. 60. The Mount Vernon Road/Ga. 60 intersection would be rebuilt as part of the work. The Times File Photo Several homes at Fran Mar Drive at Sardis Road have been demolished Wednesday, March 16, 2022, to make way for the upcoming Sardis Connector road project. Mechanical issues prompt 2 Delta Air Lines flights to divert, return to airport Associated Press ST. LOUIS — Two Delta Air Lines flights were diverted over the weekend because of mechanical issues, the FAA said Monday. Delta flight 927, en route from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to Atlanta, was diverted to St. Louis shortly before noon Sat urday because of an issue with cabin pressure, the airline said in a statement. None of the 148 passen gers or six crew members were hurt, and passengers were placed on another flight to Atlanta later Saturday. Also on Saturday, Delta flight 1950, bound for St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, from Atlanta, returned to Atlanta about 12:30 p.m. after the crew reported a potential mechanical issue, the airline said. Pas sengers were later placed on another flight to St. Thomas. No one was hurt. Delta Air Lines adopts new rules for employee uniforms after Palestinian pin flap Associated Press DEL T A IMIIIII Ch David Zalubowski Associated Press A Delta Air Lines jetliner is shown at Denver International Airport in Denver, June 26, 2019. Delta Air Lines is changing its employee uniform policy fol lowing a turbulent ride through a social media storm started by a passenger’s outrage over two flight atten dants photographed wearing Palestinian pins. ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines is changing its employee uniform policy following a turbulent ride through a social media storm started by an X user's outrage over two flight attendants who were photo graphed wearing Palestinian flag pins. The uproar over the July 10 post on X, which described the Palestinian pins as “Hamas badges,” led Delta to ban its employees from wearing pins represent ing any country or national ity besides the U.S. The rule will take effect Monday. “We are proud of our diverse base of employees and customers and the foun dation of our brand, which is to connect the world and provide a premium experi ence,” the Atlanta-based air line said in a statement “We are taking this step to help ensure a safe, comfortable and welcoming environment for all.” Delta's policy shift reflects the ongoing ten sions surrounding the Israel-Hamas war, which has triggered high-profile protests that, among other things, have roiled college campuses. Both attendants pictured wearing the pins were in compliance with Delta's pre vious policy giving employ ees more flexibility with uniform accessories. Before Delta announced its new policy, one of its employees escalated the situation by posting a reply on X asserting the attendants wearing the Palestinian pins were violating company rules and sympathizing with passengers who might be “terrified” by it. That post has since been deleted but was captured in a screen- shot shared by the American Muslim rights group CAIR, the Council on American- Islamic Relations. Authorities: Man reaches 115 mph during pursuit, crashes Henderson BY NICK WATSON nwatson@gainesvilletimes.com A Gainesville man faces charges after authorities said he reached 115 mph Sunday, July 14, during a chase before crash ing into another vehicle. Loren Hayden Henderson, 24, was charged with felony fleeing and attempting to elude along with other misdemeanor charges. He was booked Sunday in to the Hall County Jail, where he remains with a $23,820 bond. A Hall County Sheriff's Office deputy pulled over Hen derson around 10 a.m. Sunday near Holly Springs Baptist Church in Clermont after he ran a stop sign, according to the Sheriff's Office. Henderson initially stopped his Jeep Grand Cherokee in the middle of the road, showing the deputy an ID on his phone, authorities said. “The deputy asked Hender son to move to an empty park ing lot to avoid impeding traffic flow, and at that time, Hender son fled the scene,” according to the Sheriff's Office. “The deputy began to follow Hender son, who accelerated to speeds reaching 115 mph.” Hall County dispatchers notified Georgia State Patrol, which intercepted him at Cornelia Highway after Hen derson collided with another vehicle, according to the Sher iff's Office. The Times has reached out to state patrol for information on this incident. “Henderson exited his crashed vehicle and began to run from the accident scene with our deputy and a state trooper in pursuit on foot,” according to the Sheriff's Office. ‘After (a) short chase, Henderson was caught and arrested.” Henderson was also charged with obstruction, failure to maintain lane, reckless driv ing, speeding and other traffic- related offenses. First year of Georgia’s experimental Medicaid plan is not promising Jeff Amy Associated Press Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, left, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, right, sign healthcare waivers at the state Capitol in Atlanta, Oct. 15, 2020. Pathways to Coverage launched last July and is the only Medicaid plan in the country that requires beneficiaries to work or engage in other activities to get coverage. As of June, it had about 4,300 members. BYSUDHINTHANAWALA Associated Press ATLANTA — By now, Georgia officials expected their new Medicaid plan, the only one in the nation with a work requirement, to provide health insurance to 25,000 low-income residents and possibly tens of thousands more. But a year since its launch, Pathways to Coverage has roughly 4,300 members, much lower than what state officials projected and a tiny fraction of the roughly half million state residents who could be covered if Georgia, like 40 other states, agreed to a full Medicaid expansion. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's office has presented Pathways as a compromise that would add people to Medicaid while also helping them transition off it. Blam ing the Biden administration for delaying the program's start, Kemp's office says it's redoubling efforts to sign people up. Health and public policy experts believe the enroll ment numbers, dismal even compared to what Kemp's office had said Pathways could achieve, reflect a fun damental flaw: The work requirement is just too burdensome. “It's clear that the Geor gia Pathways experiment is a huge failure,” said Leo Cuello, a research professor at the Georgetown Univer sity McCourt School of Pub lic Policy. Pathways requires all recipients to show at least 80 hours of work monthly, vol unteer activity, schooling or vocational rehabilitation. It also limits coverage to able- bodied adults earning no more than the federal poverty line, which is $15,060 for a single person and $31,200 for a family of four. Cuello noted the pro gram makes no exceptions for people who are caring for children or other family, lack transportation, suffer from drug addiction or face a myriad other barriers to employment. Then there are people with informal jobs that make documenting their hours impossible. In rural Clay County in southwest Georgia, Dr. Karen Kinsell said many of her patients are too sick to work. Over the last year, Kinsell has suggested Path ways to about 30 patients who might meets its require ments, but none have signed up. “I think the general idea is it would be too much work and too complicated for little benefit,” she said. Just going online each month to submit proof of work can be a significant obstacle, said Harry Heiman, a health policy professor at Georgia State University. “For low-income people who are worried about stay ing housed and putting food on the table, one more thing to do is often one thing too many,” he said. The program's poor show ing so far may have impli cations beyond Georgia. Republicans in other states in recent months also have proposed requiring work to get Medicaid. In Mississippi, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann in February cited Georgia's Pathways program as a model. A second term for former President Donald Trump would significantly boost the prospects for such programs. The Trump administration approved Medicaid work requirement plans in 13 states, only to have the Biden administration revoke those waivers in 2021. Pathways survived after a court fight. Georgia launched the pro gram on July 1, 2023 with little fanfare, and public health experts say they have seen scant effort to promote it or sign people up. The launch coincided with a federally mandated review of the eligibility of all 2.7 million Medicaid recipients in the state following the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, another challenging task for Georgia officials. Still, they did not scale- back their enrollment expectations. Days before the launch, then-Georgia Department of Community Health Commissioner Cay- lee Noggle told The Asso ciated Press that Pathways could cover up to 100,000 people in year one. The 25,000 estimate had been in the state's 2019 application for Pathways. Garrison Douglas, a spokesman for Kemp, said in a statement that Pathways had received “extraordinary interest from thousands of low income, able-bodied Georgians,” and the state was “still fighting to reclaim the time stolen” from it by the Biden administration. The program was sup posed to launch in 2021, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services objected to the work requirement that February and later revoked it. Georgia sued and a federal judge reinstated the work mandate in 2022. As of June 7, 2024, Path ways had 4,318 members, according to the Georgia Department of Community Health. The agency said in an email that promotion efforts have included social media content and streaming ads on TV and radio, while a “robust” outreach campaign was being planned. “Pathways deserves more time to see if it reaches its potential,” said Chris Den son, director of policy and research at the conserva tive Georgia Public Policy Foundation. Denson said there is gen eral agreement even among Pathways' supporters that the state could have done a better marketing job.
