Meet the lobbyist with a legislator on the payroll

July 2 -– Wayne Garner (left), the mayor of Carrollton, may be the only lobbyist in Georgia who has a legislator on the payroll. Garner also has a funeral home, and the legislator, state Rep. Tim Bearden (right), had a funeral home bill this year. It didn’t pass.
Hmmmm.

Full story & documents

DK spends $170K on bullying probe; written findings remain secret

June 29 – DeKalb County schools have spent $170,000 -- and plan to spend even more -- to investigate whether bullying led to the suicide of a fifth-grader at Dunaire Elementary. But, whatever retired judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore (above) learns, attorneys say her written findings are not subject to public disclosure.

Full story & documents

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Recent headlines

Report: ATL police oversight panel needs stronger subpoena power

Ex-CEO: Grady board's chair doctored his contract

DeKalb records, statements at odds on value of Sembler tax break

Fulton deputy: Going once, going twice ... gone?

Private reprimand for ATL municipal court judge's DUI

Ex-N. Ga. judge may face $100K fine in fraud case

Atlanta police still investigating protection ring, narcotics squad

Report: Fayette commissioner asked deputies to 'resolve' pot charge at scene

Judge lobbied legislator who was defendant

Behind the curtain of campaign finance

PAC Watch

Ga. GOP fund-raising down 29% in 2009

July 2 -- Georgia’s Republican Party has reported raised $684,741 this year. That’s down nearly a third from the amount raised in the first six months of 2007 (the last off-election year). On the other hand, the party reported $2.2 million in the bank. That’s about four times as much as the state GOP had on hand in July 2007.

Check out the biggest donors

United Health Services on shopping spree?

July 1 -- United Health Services, a Toccoa-based nursing-home chain, has shelled out $73,000 in political contributions to Georgia politicians so far this year. That’s by far the largest total to surface on the first day of reporting on campaign giving for 2009. Who's their fave? U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal (left).

Full story

Recent news:

Walker's Sembler donations undisclosed until election was over

Ethics panel issues opinion, still investigating $120K to Oxendine

Ethics fines trimmed for Maddox, McDonald

Sembler spent $45K on '08 DeKalb campaigns

Bankrupt TitleMax gave $296K but no disclosure

Oxendine: Who knew $120,000 came from same source?

Ga. PAC gave $123,000 with no disclosures

Unopposed House speaker raised $953,000 in 2007-08

A look back at Georgia politicos
(and their pals) who've done time

JIM WILLIAMSON

June 26 -- Ex-Telfair County Sheriff Jim Williamson will serve three years in federal prison for misusing county funds, federal prosecutors announced. According to testimony, Williamson paid for an all-terrain vehicle with county funds, pocketed fines intended for the Probate Court and kept $5,000 seized in a traffic stop for himself, according to the Macon Telegraph.

View the Crooked Politicians Registry

$380,632

Gary P. Stokan (FY 2008)

President of the Peach Bowl. Stokan is paid by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, which -- as a non-profit business league -- does not have to disclose the amount. But the Peach Bowl does, since it pays the chamber to run its affairs and Stokan works for both organizations. Records show the chamber paid Stokan $345, 597 in FY07 and $265,905 in FY06.

Archive

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Other Ga. watchdog news

July 3

AGL to pay $5M fine for violating gas pipeline policy

VA silent on patient compensation

July 2

Beazer to pay up in mortgage fraud case

Do Milton County advocates have conflict of interest?

July 1

Ga. State University accused of anti-Muslim bias

June 29

Toys for Tots leader says Bearden did no work for toy drive

June 28

Unstable mental patients freed by flawed system

Atlanta philanthropists lost $1.9 million to Okun scam

Grandson killed: A life of turmoil cut short

Inman Park Properties' strategy hurts some Atlanta neighborhoods

State doesn't fund law for taser training

Woodmen's youth campground mired in years of legal dispute

Cobb superintendent accused of hiding project

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Archives

June 2009

May 2009

April 2009