About The Madison County journal. (Hull, Ga.) 1989-current | View Entire Issue (July 2, 2025)
THE MADISON COUNTY (GA) JOURNAL, WEDNESDAY, JULY 2, 2025 - PAGE State News Federal judge halts Ga. law restricting youth access to social media By Ty Tagami Capitol Beat News Service A federal judge issued a preliminary injunc tion Thursday against enforcement of a 2024 Georgia law that sought to limit social media companies’ access to children. The Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act sailed through the General Assembly with broad bipartisan support and was a top pri ority for Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones. But Amy Totenberg, a federal judge for the Northern District of Georgia, said the indus try-backed plaintiff in the case was likely to prevail on claims that the law violates the First Amendment’s speech protections. To restrict speech, the government must have a “compelling interest” that is “narrowly tai lored,” the judge’s order says. But this law had “flawed tailoring,” she wrote, and it “curbs the speech rights of Georgia’s youth while imposing an immense, potentially intrusive burden on all Georgians who wish to engage in the most central computerized public forum of the twenty-first century.” The plaintiff, a group called NetChoice, rep resents a who’s who of social media companies, Including Facebook and Instagram parent com pany Meta, YouTube, Reddit, X and Pinterest. “Free expression doesn’t end where govern ment anxiety begins,” said Chris Marchese, Ne- tChoice’s litigation director. He added, “Parents — not politicians — should guide their children’s lives online and offline — and no one should have to hand over a government ID to speak in digital spaces.” NetChoice had urged Gov. Brian Kemp to veto the bill last year, asserting that it was un constitutional. But Kemp signed the legislation, which re quired social media companies to make “com mercially reasonable efforts” to verify users’ age and mandated parent consent for those under 16. It also banned advertising to children. Supporters had cited numerous studies that found social media posed significant danger to young people, particularly girls, increasing their risk of suicide. Among Judge Totenberg’s criticisms was the age verification provision that she said imposes “severe burdens” on all Georgians. The judge noted that NetChoice has chal lenged similar laws in at least eight other states, including Texas, Ohio, Arkansas, California, Utah, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee. “Nearly all of those state laws are currently enjoined on a preliminary or permanent basis,” she added. Cursive returning to Georgia schools this fall By Ty Tagami Capitol Beat News Service When younger students re turn to Georgia public schools this fall, they will learn an old- school skill: handwriting. New changes to the state standards for English Language Arts will require the teaching of cursive writing in elementary school. The state Board of Ed ucation approved the standards overhaul two years ago but gave teachers until this fall to prepare. Georgia is joining other states, from Alabama to Texas, that are resurrecting a skill that had seemingly gone the way of the dodo after the prolifera tion of laptops and touchscreen devices. Even California, the cradle of computer keyboards, passed a law requiring cursive in schools in 2023. Compulsory cursive writing has been tucked into dozens of pages that describe the stan dards for English in elementary school. The state board approved the revised standards in a 13-1 vote in May 2023. In third grade, students will have to learn how to read phras es and sentences in cursive, and they will practice forming letters and word connectors. By fifth grade, they will be called on to write whole texts in cursive, “legibly and efficiently,” with appropriate spacing throughout. All along, they will be working on fine motor skills that some feared had gone extinct. At a state school board meet ing last month, Richard Woods, the elected state school superin tendent, introduced a new ini tiative to promote those loopy letter's: the John Hancock Award will go to schools that demon- state excellence in cursive. “Cursive writing is more than just a skill — it strengthens find motor development, improve: literacy, and connects student: to historical documents in thei original form,” the awar'd de scription says. Woods got big applause wher he mentioned the new require ments at the Republican stall convention in Dalton in early June. People clapped when he an nounced that students would have to learn about personal fi nances. But the audience erupt ed when he said cursive writin; was back. “Every student will own thei signature. Every student wil know how to read our origi nal documents in their origina script,” Woods said, adding tha childr'en should be able to rear the U.S. Constitution, the Dec laration of Independence am other texts handwritten by the nation’s founder's. PSC hears Georgia Power freeze plan By Dave Williams Capitol Beat News Service Executives representing Georgia Power and the state’s energy regulating agency Thursday defended the utility’s plan to freeze rates against accusations that the temporary pause won’t stop customer bills from increasing. Georgia Power and the state Public Service Commission’s Public Interest Advocacy (PIA) Staff reached agreement last month to freeze the company’s base rates for the next three years. However, the proposal exempts “reasonable and prudent” costs the utility has incurred from storm damage primarily from Hurricane Helene. The agreement, which the commission is due to vote on next week, would cancel the rate case Georgia Power had been plaiming to submit by July 1. Had that case gone forward, the company likely would have sought a significant rate hike, Aaron Abramovitz, the utility’s chief financial officer, testified Thursday during a hearing be fore the commission. Temporarily pausing rates would help Geor gia Power customers recover from the impact of several rate hikes the PSC has granted the com pany in the past three years, Steven Ruetger, an analyst with the PLA Staff, testified Thursday during a hearing before the commission. “Staff believes the (agreement) is a reason able resolution,” he said. “Stabilizing these rates has tremendous value.” Abramovitz said Georgia’s Power electrical capacity demand projections have risen substan tially in recent years, from an expected increase of just 200 to 300 megawatts forecast in 2022 to about 8,000 megawatts covering the next five to 10 years. Some 80% to 90% of that new demand will come from “large load” customers includ ing data centers, he said. To meet that demand, Georgia Power is plan ning major investments in a variety of ener gy-generating sources, Abramovitz said. “We’re investing in three new [natural gas] combustion turbines, 1,000 megawatts of bat tery energy storage units and ... more invest ment to come,” he said. Environmental advocacy and consumer watchdog groups have argued Georgia Power’s energy demand projections are overblown since not all data center operators that have shown in terest in setting up in Georgia will actually come here rather than somewhere else. On Thursday, critics of the proposed rate freeze also focused on the exemption that would allow the company to recoup its storm recovery costs, estimated at $860 million. “The rate freeze isn’t a rate freeze,” Patty Du rand, founder of the nonprofit Georgians for Af fordable Energy, told commissioners. “It freezes rates but does not freeze spending.” But Ruetger said it’s important that Georg Power be allowed to recover its storm dama costs sooner rather than later. “The under-recovery of storm damage co: must be dealt with because Helene was so li mendously damaging,” he said. "Otherwis the company’s balance sheet is simply going grow.” Some of the agreement’s opponents ha called upon three members of the PSC — coi mission Chairman Jason Shaw and comm sioners Tim Echols and Lauren “Bubba” M Donald — to recuse themselves from voting i the plan because they had publicly endorsed t proposed freeze prior to Thursday’s hearing. / three declined to do so Thursday after a memt of the PSC’s Public Interest Advisory Staff sa there were no grounds for sucli a recusal. A INICTDECIT I A CCICIE DC Place Classified Ads Online MVAINDIKtt I CLASSIFIEDS MAINSTREETNEWS.COM 120 AUTOMOTIVE FOR SALE 1976 Ford Bronco Truck. Runs Great. New Tires. $40,000 Call for information. 706- 491-5241 JACKSON COUNTY DOUBLE- WIDE 3/2 off of new cut road outside Braselton on 2 acres very private owner financing 8k down 1076 mt plus 155 mt escrow 3.49 percent fixed 30 yrs or 248k cash 770-882-8419 640 YARD/LAND SERVICES 160 NOTICES NOTICE OF AUCTION. 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