Archive for February, 2009

FROM GEORGIA ONLINE NEWS SERVICE

By John Sugg

So, legislative water-carriers for Big Pharma want to create a safe haven in Georgia for drug companies whose products surprise consumers by causing warts, flatulence, heart palpitations, bleeding, loss of appetite, erections that last more than four hours, depression, suicide, death-by-other-means and many other side effects the corporate giants should have warned us about but didn’t.

It’s all in the name of creating a good atmosphere for business, says Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens), one of the bills sponsors. “I want to make sure we attract this clean industry to Georgia,” he told me. “I see a corridor from Grady [Memorial Hospital] to Athens, a high tech corridor, a bio tech corridor.”

That sounds mighty good. But what’s “good for bidness” in Georgia often spells dismay for the state’s citizens. Senate Bill 101 — which is pushed by two of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s closest allies, Cowsert and Sen. Bill Heath (R-Bremen) – could be aptly titled the Pharmaceutical Corporate Welfare and Elimination of Citizens’ Rights Act of 2009. It is, indeed, one of the many corporate welfare giveaways with which Georgia officials are so fond.

And I have one word for the Big Pharma bill: Nuts.

Yes, nuts. As in peanuts. Former Gov. Roy Barnes has told me that this state is among the worst when it comes to protecting consumers. Barnes tried to rectify some of that, but when the Republicans hordes sacked the Capitol, they rolled back sensible consumer legislation such as Barnes’ anti-predatory lending law. That the Republicans contributed greatly to the current financial misery of many Georgians by scrapping that law is something that should be long remembered at election time.

Beyond that is a tradition in Georgia and the South that we’ll do anything to woo businesses. For decades, the Rebel Yell for “economic development” has been “cheap land and cheap labor.” To that has been added the lure of huge taxpayer-funded welfare given to companies so that they’ll locate here – and many do, at least until they find a better deal elsewhere. Georgia’s landscape is littered with factories whose owners collected “incentives,” and them moved on, often to Third World countries, when the gifts ran out.

Now we have a new twist to the corporate welfare: It’s called “tort reform,” and it’s basically a scam to protect irresponsible companies at your expense. That’s what behind Cowsert’s and Heath’s legislation.

The anti-people, pro-business mentality is responsible, at least in part, for the horror show going on in Blakely, where the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) is accused of knowingly sending salmonella tainted products to consumers. The result has been a wave of nine deaths and 600 sickened people across the nation.

The premise of the Big Pharma bill is that if a company gets approval for a drug from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), consumers who later suffer side effects or die couldn’t sue. By that standard, I’m sure the Blakely peanut magnates would like to argue that they were inspected and that it’s not their fault federal and state regulators didn’t spot the salmonella bugs and blow the whistle.

The peanut case has become far too large for PCA to escape, and that’s good news. But if a few years ago, the peanut magnates had sent their lobbyists-bearing-gifts to the Gold Dome with the message that “making us responsible for killing people is really bad for business,” the legislators likely would have swooned with love for the companies and crafted a “tort reform” bill such as the Big Pharma legislation. Perhaps it would have stated that unless every single peanut is individually inspected, we couldn’t hold a company responsible if a few bad nuts killed some folks.

That’s more or less what the Big Pharma relief bill does. Cowsert makes the argument that his law wouldn’t protect companies for errors in manufacturing. It only protects them from problems that arise from the design of drugs – problems that weren’t detected in testing by the FDA. Nor, Cowsert says, would companies be protected if they committed fraud, such as concealing or manipulating test results. Interesting fact: the FDA allows companies to conceal many studies.

Cowsert’s spin sounds good. But it really provides little protection for you. For a start, it creates such a hurdle in proving companies knowingly put a bad drug on the market, it will be almost impossible for a victim to sue. And believe me, the hurdles people already face in suing the drug conglomerates are daunting.

Moreover, a lot goes on with the FDA that is truly scary. For example, drug giant Eli Lilly & Co. markets a FDA-approved drug for depression called Cymbalta, trade name for duloxetine, which the company also tested for a urinary incontinence drug called Yentreve. Eli Lilly withdrew Yentreve from the approval process, and FDA rules didn’t make it disclose why. Those reasons are “trade secrets.” There were deaths and suicides attributed to the drug, but if you research the subject, you’ll find a mess of conflicting reports. The one thing that’s clear is that the company capitalizes on the confusion to avoid linking some deaths to the drug. And no one knows all that the company knows, and it would cost a fortune in lawyers’ fees to pry lose the information.

Under the Cowsert-Heath legislation, a manufacturer would be off the hook even if the company was gaming the FDA system – a system that invites gaming – to conceal responsibility.

Another example: For years I was involved in covering litigation involving a Monsanto Co. product, rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone). It’s FDA approved, although banned in many countries. Farmers inject the hormone into cattle to speed growth. Critics, and there are many of them, claim the hormone causes harm in cattle and humans. For people, the alleged problems include premature growth stimulation in infants, breast enlargement in young children and breast cancer in adult females. Plus a lot else.

What’s clear is that the science on rBGH is mixed. Despite conflicting evidence, not only has the FDA approved its use, it has tried to stop companies that don’t use rBGH milk from labeling their products as hormone free.

Again, under the Cowsert-Heath protect-the-corporations-at-all-costs legislation, the FDA approval – whether or not that approval was based on the best science available and whether or not giant corporations successfully leaned on the agency – would be all that’s needed to get a case thrown out of court.

Over the years, I’ve talked to many companies just like the ones Cowsert says he wants to attract to Georgia. Three years ago, I reported on Novartis, a giant bio-tech firm that located a plant in North Carolina, even though Georgia’s incentive package was $17 million more than our neighbor to the north. Why? Did North Carolina have a law banning lawsuits, such as the Cowsert-Heath legislation? Not at all. North Carolina, in general, is much more balanced in protecting consumers and businesses.

However, Mike Cassidy, president of the Georgia Research Alliance at Georgia Tech, told me:
“North Carolina has a technically experienced work force. We don’t have that here, and that’s a sad fact.”

Many, many other companies of all varieties have opted for other Southern states because their executives and employees don’t relish the idea of sitting for hours each day in our massive expressway congestion. Thus, if the senators were really serious about attracting high tech companies to Georgia, they’d be clamoring for bills to inject money into schools and to come up with the tens of billions of dollars needed to fix our transportation system.

Finally, it’s not clear how or why the drug company protection bill came into being. The idea certainly didn’t spring fully formed into some senators’ brains. The companies that are hiding behind the curtain and pulling the senators’ strings are probably outfits that have something to fear. They know they’re vulnerable to lawsuits, perhaps because they know they have something to hide.

So, Big Pharma’s easy solution: Find some rube legislators in a hick Southern state to give the industry a security blanket.

And the public be damned.

John F. Sugg is executive editor of the Georgia Online News Service.

Protecting Big Pharma from lawsuits isn’t the way to build a healthy economy in Georgiaby John Sugg Georgia Online News ServiceSo, legislative water-carriers for Big Pharma want to create a safe haven in Georgia for drug companies whose products surprise consumers by causing warts, flatulence, heart palpitations, bleeding, loss of appetite, erections that last more than four hours, depression, suicide, death-by-other-means and many other side effects the corporate giants should have warned us about but didn’t.
It’s all in the name of creating a good atmosphere for business, says Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens), one of the bills sponsors. “I want to make sure we attract this clean industry to Georgia,” he told me. “I see a corridor from Grady [Memorial Hospital] to Athens, a high tech corridor, a bio tech corridor.”
That sounds mighty good. But what’s “good for bidness” in Georgia often spells dismay for the state’s citizens. Senate Bill 101 — which is pushed by two of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s closest allies, Cowsert and Sen. Bill Heath (R-Bremen) – could be aptly titled the Pharmaceutical Corporate Welfare and Elimination of Citizens’ Rights Act of 2009. It is, indeed, one of the many corporate welfare giveaways with which Georgia officials are so fond.
And I have one word for the Big Pharma bill: Nuts.
Yes, nuts. As in peanuts. Former Gov. Roy Barnes has told me that this state is among the worst when it comes to protecting consumers. Barnes tried to rectify some of that, but when the Republicans hordes sacked the Capitol, they rolled back sensible consumer legislation such as Barnes’ anti-predatory lending law. That the Republicans contributed greatly to the current financial misery of many Georgians by scrapping that law is something that should be long remembered at election time.
Beyond that is a tradition in Georgia and the South that we’ll do anything to woo businesses. For decades, the Rebel Yell for “economic development” has been “cheap land and cheap labor.” To that has been added the lure of huge taxpayer-funded welfare given to companies so that they’ll locate here – and many do, at least until they find a better deal elsewhere. Georgia’s landscape is littered with factories whose owners collected “incentives,” and them moved on, often to Third World countries, when the gifts ran out.
Now we have a new twist to the corporate welfare: It’s called “tort reform,” and it’s basically a scam to protect irresponsible companies at your expense. That’s what behind Cowsert’s and Heath’s legislation.
The anti-people, pro-business mentality is responsible, at least in part, for the horror show going on in Blakely, where the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) is accused of knowingly sending salmonella tainted products to consumers. The result has been a wave of nine deaths and 600 sickened people across the nation.
The premise of the Big Pharma bill is that if a company gets approval for a drug from the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA), consumers who later suffer side effects or die couldn’t sue. By that standard, I’m sure the Blakely peanut magnates would like to argue that they were inspected and that it’s not their fault federal and state regulators didn’t spot the salmonella bugs and blow the whistle.
The peanut case has become far too large for PCA to escape, and that’s good news. But if a few years ago, the peanut magnates had sent their lobbyists-bearing-gifts to the Gold Dome with the message that “making us responsible for killing people is really bad for business,” the legislators likely would have swooned with love for the companies and crafted a “tort reform” bill such as the Big Pharma legislation. Perhaps it would have stated that unless every single peanut is individually inspected, we couldn’t hold a company responsible if a few bad nuts killed some folks.
That’s more or less what the Big Pharma relief bill does. Cowsert makes the argument that his law wouldn’t protect companies for errors in manufacturing. It only protects them from problems that arise from the design of drugs – problems that weren’t detected in testing by the FDA. Nor, Cowsert says, would companies be protected if they committed fraud, such as concealing or manipulating test results. Interesting fact: the FDA allows companies to conceal many studies.
Cowsert’s spin sounds good. But it really provides little protection for you. For a start, it creates such a hurdle in proving companies knowingly put a bad drug on the market, it will be almost impossible for a victim to sue. And believe me, the hurdles people already face in suing the drug conglomerates are daunting.
Moreover, a lot goes on with the FDA that is truly scary. For example, drug giant Eli Lilly & Co. markets a FDA-approved drug for depression called Cymbalta, trade name for duloxetine, which the company also tested for a urinary incontinence drug called Yentreve. Eli Lilly withdrew Yentreve from the approval process, and FDA rules didn’t make it disclose why. Those reasons are “trade secrets.” There were deaths and suicides attributed to the drug, but if you research the subject, you’ll find a mess of conflicting reports. The one thing that’s clear is that the company capitalizes on the confusion to avoid linking some deaths to the drug. And no one knows all that the company knows, and it would cost a fortune in lawyers’ fees to pry lose the information.
Under the Cowsert-Heath legislation, a manufacturer would be off the hook even if the company was gaming the FDA system – a system that invites gaming – to conceal responsibility.
Another example: For years I was involved in covering litigation involving a Monsanto Co. product, rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone). It’s FDA approved, although banned in many countries. Farmers inject the hormone into cattle to speed growth. Critics, and there are many of them, claim the hormone causes harm in cattle and humans. For people, the alleged problems include premature growth stimulation in infants, breast enlargement in young children and breast cancer in adult females. Plus a lot else.
What’s clear is that the science on rBGH is mixed. Despite conflicting evidence, not only has the FDA approved its use, it has tried to stop companies that don’t use rBGH milk from labeling their products as hormone free.
Again, under the Cowsert-Heath protect-the-corporations-at-all-costs legislation, the FDA approval – whether or not that approval was based on the best science available and whether or not giant corporations successfully leaned on the agency – would be all that’s needed to get a case thrown out of court.
Over the years, I’ve talked to many companies just like the ones Cowsert says he wants to attract to Georgia. Three years ago, I reported on Novartis, a giant bio-tech firm that located a plant in North Carolina, even though Georgia’s incentive package was $17 million more than our neighbor to the north. Why? Did North Carolina have a law banning lawsuits, such as the Cowsert-Heath legislation? Not at all. North Carolina, in general, is much more balanced in protecting consumers and businesses.
However, Mike Cassidy, president of the Georgia Research Alliance at Georgia Tech, told me: “North Carolina has a technically experienced work force. We don’t have that here, and that’s a sad fact.”
Many, many other companies of all varieties have opted for other Southern states because their executives and employees don’t relish the idea of sitting for hours each day in our massive expressway congestion. Thus, if the senators were really serious about attracting high tech companies to Georgia, they’d be clamoring for bills to inject money into schools and to come up with the tens of billions of dollars needed to fix our transportation system.
Finally, it’s not clear how or why the drug company protection bill came into being. The idea certainly didn’t spring fully formed into some senators’ brains. The companies that are hiding behind the curtain and pulling the senators’ strings are probably outfits that have something to fear. They know they’re vulnerable to lawsuits, perhaps because they know they have something to hide.
So, Big Pharma’s easy solution: Find some rube legislators in a hick Southern state to give the industry a security blanket.
And the public be damned.
John F. Sugg is executive editor of the Georgia Online News Service. [full bio]

FROM GEORGIA ONLINE NEWS SERVICE

By Maggie Lee

Georgia state representatives took their first look Wednesday at a controversial bill that would raise Georgia Power bills and will soon decide if the state has more nuclear power in its future.

Senate Bill 31 allows Georgia Power to tack a surcharge on ratepayers – mostly households and small businesses – to finance the construction of two new nuclear power plants near Augusta. The fees are expected to start at $1.30 per month in 2011 for an average family, rising to $9.10 in 2017. That’s a change from usual policy that recoups construction costs after a plant is built.
In the first House hearing – before the Regulatory and Utility Affairs Subcommittee – Senate sponsor Don Bafour (R-Snellvile) Wednesday framed the bill as a “pro-America” stand against foreign oil and for jobs in the form of $14 billion in capital investment.

The bill only concerns financing, not approval of the nuclear plants, but Georgia Power today made a connection between these two plants and Georgia’s long-term future.

If the bill doesn’t pass, “you run the risk of pulling nuclear as a viable option off the table as a future option for Georgia,” said Oscar Harper, Georgia Power vice president of nuclear development.

But “would this be customer-friendly, to keep these funds?” asked Rep. Earnest “Coach” Williams (D-Avondale Estates) over the possibility that Georgia Power could use ratepayers’ pre-paid money to earn money in some other kinds of investments. Balfour says an annual “true-up” – returning money to ratepayers if Georgia power can get cheaper credit – will solve that issue.

“True,” Allison Wall, executive director of consumer protection group Georgia Watch testified to the subcommittee. But there’s never been a case of a nuclear power plant coming in under budget, she says.

Rep. Bob Smith (R-Watkinsville) and head of the Regulatory and Utility Affairs subcommittee pointed that during the building of Georgia’s last power plant, construction costs kept escalating.
But both Smith and Rep. Billy Horne (R-Newnan) wonder if Georgia Watch, the bill’s main opponent, is simply an opponent of nuclear power.

“Are you going to show up here in 2017 and not want to pay?” Horne asked. Smith asked if Georgia Watch is anti-nuclear. Wall said her organization has no nuclear stance and only seeks the best deal for consumers.

Under this bill, Georgia Power bypasses the elected Public Service Commission, which usually must vet rate hikes on ratepayers. Bill critics call it an “end run” because the utility is appealing straight to the PSC’s bosses in the legislature.

Georgia Power is allowed to recoup plant construction and finance costs from ratepayers only after the plants come online, according to precedents governed by the PSC. That way, only people who actually use the plant pay for it.

Bill opponents also say big businesses get a carve-out – no surcharge on their bills.

Senate sponsor Balfour admits that the breakdown does in fact exempt some big industrial customers, but argues that division matches Georgia Power’s usual pattern for new plant bills.
According to Georgia Power figures, some 14 percent of its energy revenue is exempt from the 2011 rate hike. In new testimony today, Georgia Watch’s Wall said the figure is more like 14 to 20 percent. The Public Service Commission analysis of the bill previously put the figure at 37.7 percent.

But financing some of the construction with ratepayers’ dollars could shave $300 million off the project, according to Georgia Power figures. The paying starts earlier, but eventually costs less over the life of the plants, according to those calculations.

The bill will be carried in the House by Rep. Ben Harbin (R- Evans).

And as the House considers the bill, the PSC is considering almost exactly the same proposal from Georgia Power. The utility argues that it’s going to both because it must be fully “confident” in full funding. Of the two bodies, Georgia Power needs only one to put its signature on the early surcharge.

In a 38-16 vote last week, the Senate passed the bill with a modification submitted by Sen. Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) that allows the PSC more flexibility to set rates. Under the approved language, the PSC is allowed to consider the impact of the surcharge when it sets rates. The original language required the PSC to disregard the surcharge when considering an appropriate rate for ratepayers.

The bill only affects Georgia Power customers. The state’s electric membership cooperatives and municipally owned utilities’ domestic customers are not regulated by the PSC and may start billing for their portion of costs on the two nuclear plants at any time.

Maggie Lee specializes in quality of life topics, Atlanta’s international communities and general reporting. She covers Georgia economic development and the Chinese community as a stringer for China Daily and chronicles life in Georgia’s most diverse county for the DeKalb Champion.

FROM GEORGIA ONLINE NEWS SERVICE

By Lyle Harris

Gov. Sonny Perdue’s long-awaited plan for re-tooling Georgia’s fossilized transportation agencies is the best idea he’s had all year. But that’s only if the year in question is 1985, not 2009.

While there’s some merit to what Perdue is trying to accomplish, his approach ultimately suffers from the same dollar-short-and-a-day-late mindset that has stymied efforts to improve the state’s transportation network for decades.

The plan, just announced this week, would eliminate two bureaucracies in one fell swoop: The State Road and Tollway Authority, which is responsible for overseeing the operations along busy Ga. 400 in metro Atlanta, would simply go away. There’s no reason to shed any tears over SRTA’s possible demise since it barely ever had enough work to do to justify its existence. The other agency that would also get shuffled off to the graveyard is the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, created by the man Perdue vanquished, Roy Barnes. By way of comparison, GRTA wound up running the extremely popular commuter bus service in metro Atlanta, an on-the-ground operational role it was never intended to play.

Although the hulking Georgia Department of Transportation would survive under Perdue’s plan, its power and influence would be greatly diminished. In effect, GDOT would be replaced by a whole new agency, the State Transportation Authority. The STA would be led by a “transportation secretary” (who’ll be referred to as a “czar” soon enough) and a board chairman, both handpicked by the governor. Members of the STA board would be selected by the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the state House of Representatives in a deal that Perdue hammered out with the two men who now occupy those positions, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Speaker Glenn Richardson. The changes being proposed are spelled out in a voluminous bill the
General Assembly is expected to vote on during this session.

Perdue is dead right in seeking to reform or, at least, rein in DOT, an agency, which has become an ineffectual anachronism. There was so much wrong with the way DOT is governed for it to be left unscathed. Among the agency’s systemic flaws is the method for choosing its policy-setting board by a secret ballot of lawmakers in each of Georgia’s 13 Congressional districts. Such a process has proven indefensible and, as anyone might have predicted, degenerated into a mechanism for patronage, cronyism and waste.

The STA that Perdue envisions would be headed by appointees who are directly accountable to two of the state’s top elected officials. That arrangement makes sense and could prove to be more successful in cutting through the red tape and getting projects built on time and on budget, areas in which DOT has been failing miserably. There’s also some reason to hope that the STA will take a broader, and more aggressive stance on alternative modes of transportation such as mass transit, commuter and high-speed rail. Despite its name, DOT has never done much more than build and maintain roads and bridges.

It’s unclear at this point whether Perdue’s transportation do-over will have any impact on the antiquated, ethically challenged process for selecting DOT board members. While such reforms are desperately needed, our problems won’t be solved by shuffling boxes around on the state’s organizational chart or dreaming up spiffy new titles. The real key is addressing the severe lack of transportation funding that will determine Georgia’s ability to confront its transportation challenges now and in the future. That’s really all that counts.

But during a press conference to announce the governor’s plans, there was little mention of raising Georgia’s gas tax, which, at 7.5 cents per gallon, is still one of the lowest in the nation and has failed to keep pace with rising inflation. A separate, 4 percent sales tax on motor fuels, most of which can only be used on road and bridge projects, must be revamped. Also at issue is the funding straitjacket known as congressional balancing” a state law that mandates federal transportation money that flows through the DOT be shared equally among Georgia’s congressional districts. The balancing law was originally passed to ensure the transportation needs of rural parts of the state’s didn’t go begging but has had exactly the opposite effect. DOT has built beautiful, but mostly empty stretches of highway where there’s little travel or commerce at the expense of metropolitan regions where construction costs are much higher and urgent transportation needs are largely unmet.

There’s no doubt that this latest, top-level effort to reorganize the state’s addled transportation infrastructure comes at a crucial juncture. GDOT has been in disarray for years and is about $450 million in the red. As a result, hundreds of important transportation projects all over Georgia are hanging fire because there’s no money in the pipeline to get them completed.

Georgia is also trying to get its act together at the same time the Obama administration is set to begin doling out billions in federal stimulus money for transportation projects. A review of the federal stimulus package by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that Georgia could receive about $1 billion for highways and bridges and $168 million for transit capital projects, a potential boon for MARTA and other operators.

After years of dithering on transportation issues, Perdue’s belated epiphany on the subject could also have an impact on two pending bills in the Legislature that were crafted to address chronic funding shortfalls. One measure would allow residents in metro Atlanta and other regions to vote on whether to tax themselves for transportation improvements, such as expanding transit. The other bill would seek to raise gasoline taxes by one percent statewide to generate revenues for a long list of unfunded transportation projects. Perdue’s conservative inclinations, not to mention the ongoing economic downturn, have seemingly put him at odds with any measure that even remotely resembles a tax increase.

The recession notwithstanding, this is no time for timidity or slavish devotion to political ideology that doesn’t serve our long-term interests. What Georgia needs is bold leadership to identify innovative new ways of funding costly transportation improvements. We’ll never move forward if we continue looking in our rear-view mirror.

Lyle Harris is a former member of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial board.

Albany GA has a lot to shout about

FROM FORIMMEDIATERELEASE.NET

ALBANY, GA. — For such a quiet town, Albany is making a lot of noise these days.

Tucked into the southwest corner of Georgia, Albany has long been connected with the Civil Rights legacy, Southern history encompassing plantations, African-Americans and Native Americans, and outdoor adventure — but these treasures have been treated like best-kept secrets. Lately, with many Albany attractions getting a spit shine, the city is getting downright noisy about sharing its unique story.

Albany on my mind

Albany recently unveiled a tribute to its most famous native son, Ray Charles. Located on the banks of the Flint River, the new Ray Charles Plaza commemorates the life and legacy of Ray Charles Robinson with a splash. Holding court in the center of the Plaza is a life-size sculpture of the pioneering soul musician seated at a baby grand piano, which rests on a rotating pedestal. While Charles’ beloved melodies play at timed intervals, water flows over the pedestal and spills into a reflecting pool at its base.

With its covered seating, paved piano key walkway, and musical note accents, the Plaza is a harmonious extension of Albany’s beautiful RiverFront Park that includes an animated water fountain, Turtle Grove Play Park, a three-mile Greenways Trail System, and peaceful Riverwalk.

Sing a song of freedom

After a multimillion-dollar expansion, the Albany Civil Rights Institute, the repository for Albany’s African American civil and human rights legacy, has opened the doors of its beautiful glass-enclosed, state-of-the-art museum adjacent to the 1906 Mt. Zion Baptist Church — one of Dr. Martin Luther King’s main speaking locations. Presenting Albany’s role in the Civil Rights Movement in a local, regional, and national context, the museum features many locals — “everyday citizens” who changed history with their deeds, courage, and strength and who lived through the era — “on the wall.” Their images are on the walls and in the halls, and their stories are told through exhibits, recordings of their oral histories, and in-person appearances. Permanent exhibits will be supplemented by traveling exhibits, including a planned exhibition on black cowboys.

At the church, visitors can hear the authentic songs of the Civil Rights era performed by one of the original SNCC Freedom Singers: Rutha Harris. Harris is an Albany native and active participant of the freedom movement and through her songs brings to life the trials, tribulations, and traditions of the times. On the second Saturday of each month, the Institute hosts the American Civil Rights Movement Museum Freedom Singers. Formed originally in 1962 and including soprano Harris, the Freedom Singers share the songs that reflected the political aims of the Civil Rights Movement: freedom songs, “come and meet” hymns or spirituals familiar to the southern black community, such as “This Little Light of Mine,” continue to share the black choral tradition today.

The museum complex also has an indoor classroom and an outdoor courtyard called the Freedom Garden, a beautiful space for quiet reflection, as well as gatherings, meetings, and weddings.

The Historic Bridge House, now home to the Albany Welcome Center, has been fully and beautifully restored. In 1858, Albany founder Nelson Tift hired African American bridge builder Horace King to build a covered bridge and bridge house to span the Flint River. King’s 150-year-old brick bridge house still stands today and is the place for visitors to stop for brochures and information, as well as Albany souvenirs, including stuffed turtles (the signature painted turtle statues are found throughout downtown Albany) and kitchen and cooking items inspired by Albany native and queen of southern cuisine, Paula Deen.

Adventures in dining

Meal time has become a noisy affair in Albany, with many of the guests chewing with their mouths open and making other rude noises. That’s because, with advance reservations, visitors to the 100-acre Parks at Chehaw have the opportunity to sit down to breakfast with the cheetahs or dinner with the rhinos. Poor table manners aside, the sleek cheetahs and prehistoric-looking rhinos, as well as the stunning African Crowned Cranes and beautiful chestnut-colored bongos, are part of the menagerie at one of Albany’s favorite family attractions that also includes natural ecosystem, recreational vehicle park, nature area, and the largest kids’ playground in southwest Georgia.

Albany has a lively downtown dining landscape that includes the American Grill Café located in the Hilton Garden Inn, the Brown Bean Coffee Company, the Cookie Shoppe, and Riverfront Barbecue plating up Southern favorites such as pulled pork, smoked ribs, or chicken with cheese grits, fried okra, and sweet potato fries, washed down with fresh-squeezed lemonade.

Other Albany area favorites are Carter’s Grill & Restaurant — famous throughout the region for its soul food and barbecue: collards, chitterlings, ox tails and barbecue ribs, black-eyed peas and butter beans, and okra — and Mrs. Bea’s Soul Food Restaurant, known for its chicken wing and catfish dinners.

Albany amusements bring indoor and outdoor fun

Several attractions give visitors new reasons to explore the area set upon the banks of the Flint River.

At Thronateeska Heritage Center, visitors may explore the Wetherbee Planetarium with its 40-foot dome and digital projection. Also at the center is Heritage Plaza with its historic buildings and the only brick street remaining in Albany. A Science Discovery Center offers archeology, paleontology, geology, and water science sections, along with an interactive weather center. The History Museum is housed in the Union Depot, built in 1912, and focuses on South Georgia history. Inside the restored railroad baggage car is a model railroad exhibit.

The Flint RiverQuarium tells the story of the Flint River and the blue hole springs that helped create it. Visitors experience the unique ecosystems of the Flint River watershed through a variety of interactive exhibits featuring more than 100 species of native aquatic life. A recent aviary addition gives visitors an up-close look at a wide variety of birds found in the surrounding wetland habitat. Several shows, including “Whales: An Unforgettable Journey,” bring adventure right to your seat in the new three-story screened Imagination Theater. Ongoing programming like dive shows, alligator feedings, and animal presentations keep things lively.

On display within the six galleries of the Albany Museum of Art, Southwest Georgia’s only fully accredited art museum, are more than 200 works, chosen and rotated from a 2,400-piece permanent collection that comprises African, European, and American art. One of its most famous collections is found in the Miller Gallery: The Stella Davis Collection, AFRIcultures, features art and artifacts from the museum’s Sub-Saharan African collection — one of the largest of its kind in the southeastern United States — and includes an impressive array of masks, sculpture, pottery, baskets, textiles, jewelry, and gold weights.

Theatre Albany, celebrating its 75th anniversary, is a top-notch company performing in a beautiful, historic theatre that is the largest playhouse outside of Atlanta’s Fox Theatre. Each season, the 314-seat theatre presents five shows in an ambitious and wide-ranging bill of fare: popular Broadway plays and musicals, classic dramas, contemporary plays, original works, and holiday productions.

Albany shopping is summed up beautifully in two words: Lancaster Village. With its mix of upscale clothing boutiques, gourmet kitchen store, and local farmer’s market, it is both urbane and disarmingly appealing. The shop, African Connection, is similarly impressive with its mod and mystic mix of body oils, African arts and sculptures, home interior accents, African cuisine products, and more. A quiet town tucked in the southwest corner of Georgia, Albany has a lot to shout about, from its favorite native children, Ray Charles and Paula Deen, to a rich blend of unique southern heritage, to a thriving cultural community, to natural beauty that holds a number of recreational possibilities. It may not be one of Georgia’s best-kept secrets much longer. Come visit to see what all the noise is about.

IF YOU GO
For more information, contact the Albany Convention&Visitors Bureau, 112 N. Front Street, Albany, GA 31701, 1-866-750-0840, 1-229-317-4760, www.visitalbanyga.com.

Liz Gray Email: lgray@albanyga.com Phone: 229-317-4760 Toll-Free: 866-750-0840

Freedom Singer co-founder Rutha Harris of Albany is featured in a PNC Bank Black History Month video.

Here’s the video.

http://www.pncsites.com/BHM/index.html?WT.mc_id=BHM2009_PNCWeb_0001&WT.ac=BHM09_0209_P_FL

Meanwhile, Miss Harris is featured in a new New York Times book on President Obama’s election.

Here’s the story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29221720/