Gold Dome Nuggets: Cornbread baked in state code, pronoun triggers and get along little DOGE

by Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder
March 1, 2025

This week’s serving of Gold Dome Nuggets may contain traces of cornbread, Brunswick stew and 15-year-old funny dog pictures. Plus, should students read about plus-size women of color posing nude to increase their self-esteem?

Let’s dig in.

CORNBREAD

If Georgia were an insect, what kind of insect would it be?

That’s an easy one – the honeybee, the official state insect, as designated by the Legislature in 1975.

But how would one express the concept of Georgia as a fish? You could go with the official state fish, the largemouth bass – the obvious choice. But what about Georgia’s official state saltwater fish, the red drum? Or the mighty Southern Appalachian brook trout, the state’s official cold water game fish.

Every day, state leaders make weighty decisions like how to encapsulate Georgia’s rich history in a butterfly (the tiger swallowtail) or how to instill every Georgian heart with pride in the form of a folk dance (square dancing).

But while Georgia has an official prepared food — grits — the state has no official state bread.

Dalton Republican Rep. Kasey Carpenter wants to correct that oversight, and he’s revived a bill that would enshrine cornbread as Georgia’s official state bread.

Carpenter shepherded a cornbread bill through the House in 2024, but it failed to get a vote in the Senate.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: we used every cornbread pun known to mankind last year, so that’s why there aren’t any here.)

“It’s back, baby, it’s back, it’s a reunion tour,” Carpenter said from the House floor Wednesday before the vote on this year’s bill.

The House approved elevating cornbread to the state’s latest symbol 157-4, but not before peppering Carpenter with questions.

“Is it also a possibility that we could label any cornbread not made from the state as foreign cornbread?” asked Dawsonville Republican Rep. Brent Cox, a reference to a recently-passed bill requiring restaurants to label imported shrimp (the official state crustacean).

“I don’t think we’re gonna go that far,” Carpenter said with a laugh.

Marietta Democratic Rep. Mary Frances Williams tossed out a cultural hand grenade:

“Can you answer the age-old question that has caused many a family break-up and fight: do you or do you not add sugar to cornbread?” she asked.

A consummate politician, Carpenter tried to play to both sides.

“I do add a pinch of sugar,” Carpenter said. “I think if you study the history of cornbread, the corn used to be a lot sweeter than it is now once they started mass producing.”

Cornbread was not the only Southern delicacy to earn special distinction from the House Wednesday.

Rep. Rick Townsend, a Republican from Brunswick, presented a bill to name Brunswick stew Georgia’s official state stew.

“It goes with many things, whether it’s biscuits, crackers, and especially cornbread,” Townsend said. “It’s delicious stew.”

Not everyone agreed with Townsend’s assessment. Macon Democratic Rep. Miriam Paris displayed a surprising amount of antipathy toward the tomato-based stew.

“Is it not true that if you took a poll in here today, that this bill would lose?” Paris asked. “If you took a poll in here today, would it not be that 51% of these people would say they don’t like Brunswick stew?”

“It would still be the best stew in Georgia,” Townsend said.

As it turns out, they did take a poll. The House voted 152-2 to make Brunswick stew the official state stew, with Paris and Dallas Republican Rep. Joseph Gullett opposed.

Paris did not respond to a request for comment.

DEI

A Q and A on a bill in a Senate Committee Thursday started with a question about the presenter’s pronouns.

“Let me start off with a couple of questions. What’s your pronoun?” asked Senate Higher Education Committee Chairman Max Burns, a Sylvania Republican.

“Your majesty or your highness,” said Tyrone Republican Sen. Marty Harbin.

“That’s interesting,” Burns said with a laugh. “Does that question offend you?”

“I know what I am, and I know that I am a male, and I would take he and him, and that’s where I am. I believe there are two sexes, male and female,” Harbin said.

The two were discussing a bill Harbin said would remove diversity, equity and inclusion programs from Georgia’s public and private universities. It was not scheduled for a vote.

Harbin said DEI programs have become tools of ideology rather than inclusion.

“Too often they result in a campus culture where dissenting viewpoints are silenced, where professors fear retribution for presenting alternate perspectives and where students self censor themselves to avoid accusations of insensitivity or bias,” he said. “Academic institutions should encourage the marketplace of ideas and not a dogmatic adherence to a singular worldview. When certain perspectives are deemed unacceptable simply because they do not align with DEI principles, we replace education with indoctrination.”

Several dozen people came to the committee to oppose the bill.

“When we learn about different cultures, perspectives, and histories, we become better thinkers, leaders, and citizens,” said high school student Laila Erold. “This bill attempts to stifle that growth, and I will not stand by and let it happen. By silencing discussions on race and identity, SB 120 perpetuates ignorance and fear. It tells us that our struggles don’t matter, that our voices don’t matter. We’re not just students, we are activists, and we will fight for our right to learn in an environment that embraces rather than shuns diversity.”

Harbin said he was bringing the bill on behalf of a constituent’s daughter who had several galling experiences at Georgia College and State University.

“When she joined her sorority, she was required to pick a pronoun to describe her and what she was. And she said, ‘I know what I am. I should not be required –’ but she was required, in order to join, she was required to have to fill out the form as it was,” he said.

The freshman had another problem with one of the texts in her English class, Harbin said.

“The requirement was this article, this was read, had to be read in class,” he said. “And I will not read the title of it. You can read the title yourself there because I don’t want to offend anybody, but if you read that, that was read in class by each of the students, (they) had to sit there and go through that and read different parts of this, and she was extremely offended.”

The title of the article was “I’m a plus-size woman of color. Posing nude in front of strangers helped my self-esteem.”

DOGE

For centuries, the word “doge” was nothing but a childish misspelling for man’s best friend. For a brief window from about 2013 to 2025, doge described a silly little dog that people on the internet could use to make jokes, as well as a niche cryptocurrency.

But from January to an unknown point in the future, DOGE is the Department of Government Efficiency, a chaotic government agency dedicated to rooting out waste, spearheaded by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.

Sandy Springs Democratic Sen. Josh McLaurin may have become the first Georgia senator to take to the well with an internet meme printed out on Senate letterhead Monday when he wielded a picture of the doge meme to speak against Georgia’s “Red Tape Rollback Act,” which supporters billed as Georgia’s version of DOGE.

In the broken English typical of doge memes, McLaurin’s picture read “so Senate, Red, very tape, much legal, wow.”

McLaurin is accustomed to using humor to make a political point – he regularly takes on the persona of a news anchor to roast President Donald Trump’s second administration from the Senate well, sometimes earning chuckles even from his Trump-supporting Republican colleagues.

He said he used the doge prop to illustrate the disdain he says the administration shows toward institutions and the people who make them up.

“I think the challenge with using humor in politics is it’s got to be a type of fun that everybody can get behind, or at least most people can get behind, that’s not at somebody else’s expense,” he said. “Genuine fun for the sake of fun lightens all our spirits, but when somebody is couching something destructive or mean or insulting as a quote-unquote ‘joke,’ then it takes on a different character. That’s my criticism of the use of the doge meme federally, is that it’s being used to dismantle the government, to strand USAID employees overseas, to fire a bunch of people illegally who do great work and depend on those paychecks. There’s some things that a meme can’t make funny, and that’s in that category.”

Speaking with the Recorder about memes and humor in politics Friday, McLaurin used Vice President JD Vance – McLaurin’s former college roommate – as an example of someone who uses comedy to punch down.

McLaurin referred to a 2021 tweet from Vance after actor and outspoken Trump critic Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer while filming a movie. Vance called on Twitter’s then-CEO to reinstate Trump’s then-canceled account so the then-former president could comment on his detractor’s misfortune, which many panned as insensitive in the wake of the tragic accident.

“When he was confronted about that, he said something like, ‘the country wants authenticity and wants people to lighten up,’” McLaurin said. “My sense is that the country does want people to lighten up. The country does want authenticity. But the country doesn’t want leaders who are authentically an a–hole.”

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

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SUMMARY: On February 28, Savannah High and McIntosh County Academy advanced to the GHSA Class A Division II state championship with semifinal wins. Savannah High defeated Warren County 64-55, securing the victory with strong late-game plays. Senior guard Jermontae Brown emphasized their teamwork and goal to win the state championship. McIntosh County Academy triumphed over Greene County 49-41, after a strong defensive performance in the final quarter. Forward MJ Quarterman expressed motivation to avenge their previous losses to Savannah High. In Class AAA, Windsor Forest and Jenkins both faced playoff exits, while Bradwell Institute’s season ended against Langston Hughes.

Read the full article

The post Savannah, McIntosh County advance to set up rematch in state title game, plus other semifinal results appeared first on www.wsav.com

Georgia voucher program could cover biological children of families that take in foster children

by Ross Williams, Georgia Recorder
February 28, 2025

Senate Republicans passed a bill they say will help encourage residents to take in foster children by giving foster parents priority access to the state’s school voucher program for their biological and adopted children.

Democrats, who largely opposed the voucher plan when it passed last year, criticized the plan for not benefiting foster children themselves and said it could invite fraud, waste and abuse.

Under Georgia’s voucher system, officially called the Promise Scholarship, parents can apply for $6,500 for academic expenses, including private school, if they pull their kids out of public school. Participating families must have an income level below four times the national poverty level and be districted into the bottom quartile of public schools in Georgia.

Public education advocates argue that vouchers take money from public schools that need it and send it to private schools, which are not subject to government scrutiny.

The Governor’s Office of Student Achievement keeps a list of eligible schools, and applications are set to begin on Saturday.

If Senate Bill 152 by Cumming Republican Greg Dolezal becomes law, foster parents will not need to meet those requirements to be eligible.

Democrats said it does not look proper that the bill would not apply to foster children themselves. Instead, the benefit would apply to any biological or adopted children of foster parents.

“As we all know, typically foster children feel ostracized,” said Atlanta Democratic Sen. RaShaun Kemp. “They come into a household where there are already relationships developed where they may feel a little jealousy in terms of the environment in which they’re in. And now we’re telling them to come into this house, the children of the parents can go to the private school that’s down the street, to the school that they have deemed to be the better school for their children. But we’re telling the foster children, no, you have to go to the school that I have found to be ineffective for my own kids. This is wrong.”

Dolezal said the bill’s goal is to encourage more people to take in foster children. He said including foster kids did not make sense for this bill but added that he plans to look into the idea.

“We went through a number of steps to try to work this bill in its current form to include the foster families, but everything in the bill and in the Georgia Promise Scholarship program is executed and managed by parents, the biological parents or the adopted parents of children,” he said. “And so we are going to work in the off session to do the work that needs to be done to have that included. I believe there may be a study committee.”

Dolezal sparred with Atlanta Democratic Sen. Elena Parent, who said the voucher expansion could be rife for abuse.

“Are you aware that in Florida families have used this taxpayer money for annual passes to Disney World and Universal Studios?” Parent asked.

“I can tell you I am familiar that Florida’s program was so successful that it was originally implemented under Governor (Jeb) Bush that just a couple of years ago Governor (Ron) DeSantis and the Florida legislature expanded it from its limited use to be a universal program in Florida, and they have appropriated about 10 times as much funding as we have to our current program,” Dolezal said.

Parent said said families in other states have taken advantage of voucher programs to buy things like electronics, video game consoles and sporting equipment.

“Senator, it sounds like we might need Elon Musk to go down to Florida and look into what they’re doing down there,” Dolezal said. “I know that Governor DeSantis has implemented a DOGE Florida bill, and I would probably say that in all areas of government, we can find examples of misappropriation of funds, and I would link arms with you in finding ways to find those.”

Under the bill, families could remain eligible up to 10 years after they care for a foster child. And once a child is in the program, they remain in it until they decide to reenroll in public school. Parent implied that could lead to significant fraud.

“Would you agree with me that the language in today’s bill, the way it’s written, does say that a family could have a foster child for a day, then say, ‘you know, it didn’t work out,’ and then receive the taxpayer-funded voucher for the next 15 years?”

“Senator, I think we could imagine edge cases in which that would be the case, but I know that the 2,300 families who are currently fostering in the state of Georgia are not doing it for their daily stipend that they currently get paid, but they are doing it for love of the children and for a desire to see some of the most vulnerable children in our state be taken care of,” Dolezal said.

The bill will next head to the House, where it will need to pass out of committee and the full chamber before the end of the session, April 4.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

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