By Jill Nolin | Editor
Happy Saturday! Allow me to send you off into the weekend with some notes on the past week, which was very much giving 2020.
Speculation that Georgia’s 2020 election would feature prominently in President Trump’s Thursday night speech on elections did not pan out. There was no mention of Georgia at all after days of chatter that Trump would somehow declare U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock illegitimate. The address also happened as the Trump administration escalates its efforts to turn up evidence in Fulton County to support the president’s stolen election claims.
Speaking of Fulton County, the FBI’s all-hands-on-deck examination of hundreds of 2020 election records was supposed to wrap up by Friday. We’re keeping a close eye on what happens next.
Ossoff had another viral moment this week after he pressed Trump’s director of national intelligence nominee, Jay Clayton, on who won the 2020 election during a hearing on his nomination. “I'm not gonna do this with you,” Clayton said. Ossoff was unsparing: “Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president’s delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question.”
And Trump, if you don’t already know, is planning to visit Georgia next week, specifically Wheeler High School in Marietta. The stated reason for the visit is to promote “Trump accounts,” which are tax-advantaged investment accounts for children.
Here’s a look back at our best work from the week.
Marcye Scott, the daughter of the late Congressman David Scott, qualifies to run in a special election to finish the rest of his term. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder
SPECIAL ELECTION
By Alander Rocha
Voters in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District are voting in a special election to fill the remainder of late Congressman David Scott’s term, whose seat was vacant after he died in late April.
Three Democrats and two Republicans are vying to represent the metro Atlanta seat that was drawn to be a safe blue seat. One former candidate, Democrat Tony Brown, will still appear on the ballot, according to a spokesperson from the state Secretary of State, but he was disqualified and votes for him will not be counted.
Scott died in April after serving in Congress for more than two decades. He had qualified in early March to serve another term.
Some school districts in Georgia are eliminating vacant positions as enrollment falls and property tax growth flattens. Others are dipping into savings accounts. (Justin Taylor/The Current GA/CatchLight Local)
EDUCATION
By Jeff Amy
After years of spending rapidly increasing revenues on new programs and pay increases, many of Georgia’s school districts are beginning to tighten their belts.
Most of the state’s 180 traditional K-12 public school districts have set spending plans for the budget year that began July 1. While a few are still giving pay raises, others are eliminating vacant positions as enrollment falls and property tax growth flattens. Many districts are dipping into savings accounts that ballooned during the pandemic to avoid spending cuts, at least for one more year.
Georgia's First Offender Act is a type of deferred adjudication program where a judge can offer certain defendants a reduced sentence — such as a fine or probation — rather than a conviction. Photo by Greenleaf123/Getty Images
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
By Maya Homan
A mistake doesn’t have to be a life sentence.
That’s the promise of Georgia’s First Offender Act, which is meant to give residents who find themselves facing their first misdemeanor or qualifying felony charge a chance to avoid the stigma that comes with having a criminal record.
First enacted in 1968, the law is a type of deferred adjudication program where a judge can offer certain defendants a reduced sentence — such as a fine or probation — rather than a conviction. There are some limits — with charges like DUIs, serious violent felonies and certain sexual offenses among those that are considered disqualifying — but every year, between 8,000 and 11,000 Georgians enter a first offender plea.
But until this month, records for first offender pleas were generally sealed upon completion of the program instead of at the time of sentencing, meaning that they could be publicly available for years before being removed from public view.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock (left) speaks at a press conference on July 13, 2026, in Atlanta and is joined by Mayor Andre Dickens to discuss a new federal law that limits the number of single-family homes an institutional investor can own to 350 homes. Alander Rocha/Georgia Recorder
HOUSING
By Alander Rocha
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock on Monday touted a new federal law that went into effect over the weekend that is aimed at making homeownership more attainable.
Speaking in southwest Atlanta in front of a home that is corporate owned, Warnock was joined by city leaders and a local resident struggling to find an affordable home for sale.
The legislation, which was headed by Massachusetts Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and South Carolina Republican U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, automatically became law over the weekend after President Donald Trump did not sign the measure but also did not veto it.
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OTHER GEORGIA NEWS
ICYMI FROM THE RECORDER
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