
Georgia elections overhaul gutted by state Senate committee, setting up potential showdown
CNN
A Georgia state Senate committee on Tuesday gutted a controversial elections overhaul -- a day after local election officials from both parties blasted it as complicating their work in an election year.
The fate of the massive bill -- which sped through the GOP-led state House earlier this month -- is now uncertain and could result in a showdown in the final days of Georgia's legislative session.
In its vote Tuesday, the Senate Ethics Committee stripped out most of the House-approved provisions, including one that would hand new election policing powers to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. The panel advanced only one slice of the original 40-page bill: a requirement that employers provide time off for workers to cast their ballots during the state's early voting period. Current Georgia law mandates time off only on Election Day.

The two men killed as they floated holding onto their capsized boat in a secondary strike against a suspected drug vessel in early September did not appear to have radio or other communications devices, the top military official overseeing the strike told lawmakers on Thursday, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his congressional briefings.












