In case you missed it. Here are some of the goings-on around the Georgia Capitol last week

U.S. Supreme Court upholds statewide PSC elections

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal in a lawsuit challenging the way Georgia elects members of the state Public Service Commission (PSC).

The court’s decision not to take up the case means members of the PSC will continue to be elected statewide under a new schedule adopted by the General Assembly this year.

While the five members of the commission serve as representatives of districts, each is elected statewide.

A federal lawsuit filed by four Black Fulton County residents argued that electing members of the PSC statewide diluted Black voting strength in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act, making it more difficult for Black voters to elect a candidate of their choice.

While a lower federal court agreed and ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned that decision. The ruling by the Supreme Court not to hear the case upheld the appellate court, meaning statewide PSC elections that had been delayed while the lawsuit was pending now may go forward.

Under the schedule the legislature approved in March, the election for the PSC’s District 2 seat now held by Commissioner Tim Echols will take place in May of next year in conjunction with municipal election primaries. The elections for districts 3 and 5 – seats now held by commissioners Fitz Johnson and Tricia Pridemore – will be held in 2026.

Elections for PSC districts 1 and 4 – now served by commissioners Jason Shaw and Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, will take place in 2028.

Georgia Gang Prosecution Unit expanding into Macon

The statewide Gang Prosecution Unit Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr created in 2022 is expanding its operations.

A newly hired prosecutor and a new investigator will oversee the unit’s regional efforts in Macon-Bibb County. Previously, the unit was based in Atlanta, Albany, and Augusta.

The new prosecutor, Ashton Jordan, joins the state unit after serving as a senior district attorney in the Griffin Judicial Circuit since 2015. Criminal investigator Nathan Shoate comes to the state after serving with the Fulton County District Attorney’s office since last year.

In its two years in operation, the state unit has won more than 40 convictions and indicted nearly 140 criminal suspects in 13 counties from Athens-Clarke County to Dougherty County in Southwest Georgia, including all five of metro Atlanta’s core counties.

In addition to Macon, the unit also plans to expand its footprint with new prosecutors and investigators in Columbus and Southeast Georgia.

Poll shows strong opposition to mining near Okefenokee

A new poll shows overwhelming public opposition to an Alabama company’s plans to mine titanium near the Okefenokee Swamp.

The survey of 600 Georgia voters, conducted late last month by Washington, D.C.-based Hart Research Associates, found widespread bipartisan opposition to issuing state permits to Twin Pines Minerals for the project.

More than nine of 10 poll respondents said it is important to protect the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and its wildlife from pollution and other environmental dangers. By the same overwhelming margin, the voters surveyed said it’s more important to protect plants and wildlife that live in the swamp from harm, even if it might prevent economic development.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) released draft permits for the first phase of the proposed mine in February. Twin Pines executives have said the project would not harm the swamp.

But opponents cite research showing that mining titanium oxide along Trail Ridge on the Okefenokee’s eastern rim would threaten the swamp’s water levels, increase wildfire risks, harm wildlife, and release toxic contaminants into nearby surface and groundwater.

Legislation aimed at stopping the mine has been introduced in the General Assembly but has failed to win passage. The latest effort, which the state House of Representative passed on the next-to-last day of this year’s legislative session, called for a three-year moratorium on the type of mining being planned near the swamp. But the bill died when it failed to get a vote in the Senate.

At least 19 local governments across Georgia have passed resolutions calling for protecting the Okefenokee.

Conservation group buys properties near Ocmulgee Mounds

A nonprofit organization dedicated to land conservation has acquired two parcels of land in Middle Georgia that will support efforts to establish the Ocmulgee Mounds as Georgia’s first national park.

The “Branson Tracts” occupy 931 acres in Bibb and Twiggs counties. The Open Space Institute has acquired the properties from conservation-minded landowner Martha Bond Branson with plans to transfer them to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as additions to the 8,600-acre Bond Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.

The tracts are located a short distance from traditional Muscogee (Creek) Nation lands and Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park.

More than half a million people live near the Bond Swamp, which will allow easy public access to an outdoor recreation opportunity.

Georgia’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, and U.S. Reps. Austin Scott, R-Tifton, and Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, introduced legislation into Congress last month to create a national park and preserve at the Ocmulgee Mounds.

The area is the ancestral home of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and has been inhabited continuously by humans for more than 12,000 years.