Ups, Downs and In-betweens
Warm Welcome:A young girl gives former First Lady Rosalynn Carter flowers during a February 2007 visit to Nigeria; photo from The Carter Center.
Paying Respects: President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden traveled to Atlanta to attend the memorial service for Rosalynn Carter, held at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church on the Emory campus. Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff were also in attendance, as was every living former first lady.
The Bidens said in a statement that Rosalynn Carter inspired the nation. “She was a champion for equal rights and opportunities for women and girls; an advocate for mental health and wellness for every person; and a supporter of the often unseen and uncompensated caregivers of our children, aging loved ones and people with disabilities,” they said.
Play Ball: The news that Atlanta will host the 2025 MLB All-Star Game brought cheers from baseball fans, civic leaders and politicians on both sides of the aisle. Truist Park was set to be the scene of the 2021 All-Star Game, but MLB moved it to Denver’s Coors Field after state legislators made controversial changes to Georgia’s voting rights laws.
Two previous All-Star Games have been played in Atlanta, one in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1972 and one at Turner Field in 2000.
Johnson Re-election: Savannah Mayor Van Johnson officially starts his second term this month, having won his re-election bid by a landslide, garnering 77% of the votes cast and winning in every precinct. He defeated his political rival, Kesha Gibson-Carter, and a political newcomer, Tyrisha Davis. Gibson-Carter resigned her seat on the city council to run for mayor.
Award to Oliver: State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) is the recipient of the 21st Weltner Freedom of Information Award, given by the Georgia First Amendment Foundation for her work in promoting government transparency and accountability. The award honors the memory of the late Georgia Supreme Court Justice Charles Weltner.
Former State Rep. Dubose Porter, chair of the Dublin Courier Herald Publishing Company, presented the award to Oliver, noting that she has “always been on the right side of history.”
Isakson Symposium: UGA’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) hosted U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) and former Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) for the inaugural Isakson Symposium on Political Civility, established to honor Georgia’s late U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, who died in 2021. Blunt replaced Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who cancelled.
The SPIA has established the Johnny Isakson Legacy Fund “to provide perpetual support to programs at SPIA that advance political civility and encourage common-interest problem-solving.”
UGA is home to the Isakson Center for Neurological Disease Research, where researchers are working to develop diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic strategies to treat Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
New City in Gwinnett? Georgia House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration (R-Dacula) announced plans to introduce legislation to create a new Gwinnett County city, currently going by the name Mill Creek. Efstration told the Atlanta-Journal Constitution that cityhood would allow residents in the Hamilton Mill area and adjacent communities to have better control over development.
