Benfield is leaving the house, but she is not leaving public life. She will be the Executive Director of GreenLaw – don’t see this as a retirement, but as a redeployment to another area of service.

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State Representative Stephanie Stuckey Benfield has announced her plans to become the new Executive Director of GreenLaw, a Georgia environmental advocacy organization, dedicated to clean air and clean water. Benfield will begin her new position at the conclusion of this year’s legislative session.

An outdoors enthusiast and nature lover, Rep. Benfield has been a vocal environmental advocate during her 14 years as a member of the Georgia House’s Natural Resources Committee. Her commitment to clean water and clean air issues grew even stronger after her son was diagnosed with asthma.

“When I learned that my son has asthma, it really hit home that pollution can hurt our most vulnerable citizens, our children,” said Benfield. “For the past 20 years, GreenLaw has been a leader in protecting Georgians from pollution, and I am excited to be able to focus my attention on cleaning up our air and water for our families.”

Rep. Benfield received both an undergraduate and law degree from the University of Georgia. She graduated Cum Laude from UGA law school in 1992. Among her notable achievements while in office are: earning the Outstanding Lawyer in Public Service Award by the Atlanta Bar Association, being named one of “40 under 40″ promising Georgians by Georgia Trend magazine as well as one of “16 Attorneys to Watch” by the Fulton County Daily Report. She was also awarded the Environmental Leadership Award by the Georgia Conservation Voters and the Georgia Urban Forest Council Award for Promoting Arbor Day in public schools.

Rep. Benfield will be finishing out her legislative term. She will not, however, seek re-election to the Georgia General Assembly in order to focus her full-time energies leading GreenLaw.

In addition to continuing the effort to stop pollution from two other proposed coal plants in south Georgia, GreenLaw represents nonprofit clients around the state to help enforce laws that protect nature. GreenLaw is representing Ogeechee Riverkeeper in an effort to stop pollution following the state’s largest fish kill on the south Georgia River. Attorneys at GreenLaw are also working to ensure that pollution from landfills and scrap tire dumps don’t negatively affect community health in the metro-Atlanta area.

“I look forward to working with the skilled attorneys at GreenLaw to continue to give our environment its day in court,” said Rep. Benfield. “Whether the pollution is from landfills, careless industries, or dirty coal, it’s high time that we clear the air and clean the water in Georgia so our children can live healthy, productive lives,” Benfield said.

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GreenLaw is dedicated to preventing air and water pollution that endangers human health and degrades Georgia’s natural resources. GreenLaw achieves these goals by providing free high quality legal and technical assistance to environmental organizations and community groups throughout Georgia. www.greenlaw.org

Stephanie Stuckey Benfield currently represents House District 85, which includes neighborhoods in metro-Atlanta. In the Georgia Legislature, Stephanie serves on the following House Committees: Banks & Banking, Judiciary, and Natural Resources. A bio and resume are available at GreenLaw’s website: www.greenlaw.org.

Don’t get me wrong, I disagree with Mayor Denson on quite a few things – the Walmart, a property tax break for Seniors, and a few other of her initiatives. However, Mayor Denson cannot be recalled just because people are super mad at her. In Georgia, a public official has to have done one of the following:

• an act of malfeasance or misconduct while in office,
• violation of the oath of office,
• failure to perform duties prescribed by law, or
• willfully misusing, converting, or misappropriating, without authority, public property or public funds entrusted to or associated with the elective office to which the official has been elected or appointed.

In other words, she actually has to have done something. One could argue that the closed-door meeting of the Economic Development Foundation was illegal, and I believe it was; however, there is no evidence that she willfully disregarded law. Plus, by the time the recall goes forward, a vote is held (and if approved, which is unlikely), and another mayor is elected, it will be close to time for the 2014 election anyway.

Come on people, we can put our energies in other areas where it will actually make a difference – like getting McKillip kicked out of office.

However, it seems Glee may be poking a nudge at him to come on out of the closet.

The next episode of Glee is called “Big Brother,” it will feature Blaine Anderson’s older brother. Blaine Anderson is one half of the gay power couple in a show that has at least 5 gay characters. Blaine’s older brother’s name… Cooper. That is right, his full name is Cooper Anderson.  

Maybe I’m reading too much into it – but with a show that has tackled gay bullying, coming out, gay teen suicides, parental acceptance, and openly promoted such causes as Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, The Trevor Project, and so many other causes, it is hard to see this as a mere coincidence. Plus, how common of a name is Cooper?

Come on out Anderson, we all love you!

Being from a small town, my mom called to see if I “knew the girl that got stabbed.” My dorm room was only about a mile away from that Kroger. In my hometown, everyone knows everyone – so it is likely you know the victim. I said that it was sad, and that the spirit in the community was dampened, but that I did not know the girl personally. At the time, I also did not know it was an officer.

Flashforward a few years, and I found myself sitting in a MPA class debating some topic of importance at the time. There was this blonde girl who sat in the front of the class. We often clashed in discussions – I usually argued from the idealistic view of a situation while the blonde headed girl always took the realistic approach. Nothing was more aggravating than hearing her say “while I think Dustin presents the ideal situation, in day-to-day operations, it wouldn’t work like that.” A few times we carried our discussions outside of the classroom, into the elevator, down into the parking deck before wishing our group goodnight.

What I never realized is that I did know that police officer that got stabbed – she was the blonde headed girl who sat in the front of my class – Officer Courtney Gale. She was an incredibly brilliant, practical student. She never backed away from a discussion or debate. And while she was earning her Master’s Degree in Public Administration, she was also doing physical therapy. She was exercising both her mental and physical self to return to a job that she loves.

Gale wants to, one day, be a police chief – and I know no one that is better suited to be one than her. I am glad she is returning to work and wish her well.

The latest is Rep. Yasmin Neal’s bill to end Vasectomies in the state. This bill is a response to Rep.. Doug McKillip’s bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks. Neal argues that if women’s reproductive choices and bodies are up for debate, so also should be a man’s. The bill would allow for exemptions if the man had a health problem.

Imagine that! An elected official who’s making it his personal mission to force his vision for redrawing county commission districts on Athens-Clarke County — keeping his own constituents out of the loop, as it were ­— not being kept aware of the biggest news here in a long, long time. Oh, well … maybe Rev. McKillip’s — oops, make that Rep. McKillip — next Bible study will focus on Galatians 6:7.

Galatians 6:7 says the following: Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

Many people felt that this comment was over the line – especially for a leader at the newspaper. However, Jim replied with the following:

Allow me to explain: It was not your favorite editorial page editor who injected religion into the McKillip narrative. If you’ll recall, Rep. McKillip said in a Feb. 9 story in this newspaper that it was his Christian faith that motivated him to introduce a bill in the current legislative session that would ban abortions after 20 weeks. Specifically, he said; “I became a Christian in ’09. You start reading the Bible, and you realize life begins at conception.”

Now, if McKillip, as a public figure, is going to inject his religious faith into his public discourse, that faith becomes a fair target for editorial comment.

But let’s not be as disingenuous as to pretend that McKillip’s religious faith, insofar as he uses it as a rationale for decisions he makes in his public role as a state legislator, should somehow be off-limits for comment.

However, after this attempt at defense, he did later concede that he made a mistake:

And with that, I consider myself well and truly and properly chastised. Thanks for cutting through the verbiage flying from all sides to get to the heart of the matter, Ross. I’ll try to restrain myself from this kind of cheap-shotting in the future.

So what do you think? Did he cross the line or was McKillip’s religion fair game?

-Dr. House

Three Georgia Republican Senators, Joshua McKoon’s, David Shafer, and William Ligon, are sponsoring SB 460, which would do away with coverage of contraceptives if the employer claimed it was against their religion.

Georgia’s policy has worked well for the last 10 years. No religious institutions, that I know of, have claimed any discrimination based on the policy – which leaves only two reasons to have this bill.

First, Republicans want to cover up their hypocrisy. It is hard to write a resolution condemn a policy when your own state has the policy. Republican Senators put this bill together to attack the President, and then got egg on their face when their hypocrisy was pointed out.

Second, it is a continued assault upon women in our state. A high number of Catholics use birth control. While there has been some debate over the exact number, Politifact says the 98% number is “mostly true.” While I think that may be a little high, previous studies have put the number at about 75% in 2005. Regardless of the exact number, it appears that many, if not most, do not follow the Catholic Church’s antiquated teaching on birth control (and I call them antiquated as a Catholic). In this day and age, birth control and contraception should be a right.

Instead, Republicans are using the bodies of women to push a political agenda. However, they should know that the solutions to our state’s problems will not be found between women’s legs. While Ovaries can produce babies when and if a woman wants to have one, they will not produce any jobs. Family planning helps keep people out of poverty. If Republicans in our state care at all about women and poverty, they will stop this assault immediately.