4/11: On America’s greatness; Fairness in government; more

GEARING UP: The Gearheadz Club at Gwinnett Tech invites the community to come out and enjoy the Third Annual Gearheadz Car Show on Saturday, April 15 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The car show will be in Parking Lot C in front of Building 300 on Gwinnett Tech’s main campus at 5150 Sugarloaf Parkway in Lawrenceville. The event is free to spectators, offering exciting door prizes, vendors, and a live DJ. Food and beverages will be available for sale onsite. The show is open to all makes, models and owners. No advance registration is required. Vehicles will register the day of the event. General vehicle registration is $10. Student registration is $5. Awards will be given for People’s Choice/Best in Show, Classic, Import, Domestic, Truck, MOPAR, and Project. Gwinnett Tech faculty and advisory board members will serve as judges. Attendees will get to vote on their favorite for the People’s Choice/Best in Show Award. NOPI is the distinguished trophy sponsor.

TODAY’S FOCUS: Yearns for Day When USA Can Say with Authority, We Are Great

EEB PERSPECTIVE: Fairness In Government Is Basic to the Laws and Customs of Our Nation

SPOTLIGHT: Howard Brothers

FEEDBACK: Urges Peachtree Corners To Consider Enlarging Town Green

UPCOMING: GGC Plans Seventh Annual Button Gwinnett Day on April 12

NOTABLE: Crystal Kerwin Becomes Gwinnett Tech’s 2017 Distinguished Student

RECOMMENDED: Georgia Backroads magazine

GEORGIA TIDBIT: Sherry Smith Held His Own Against Baseball Superstars of Another Era

TODAY’S QUOTE: Will Rogers’ Thoughts Apply to USA Today

MYSTERY PHOTO: You May Be Fooled by Where This Southern Mansion Is

LAGNIAPPE: An Exhibit of the Works of Frank Sharp is at Tucker Library

CALENDAR:  Check out coming events

Yearns for day when USA can say with authority, “We are great”

By Roger Hagen, Lilburn, Ga.  |  It’s been bewildering at how the phrase “Make America Great Again” has gained so much popularity even among those opposed to its present professed political agenda. Our nation has existed about 241 years, and has yet to realize the Founding Fathers’ vision of a free and self -governing people.

Hagen

Our democratic republic was created in diametric opposition to its stated intent: freedom and equality for all. America was created as an idea to aspire to. The founding fathers knew they had not achieved fully the idea that had built in contradictions to the reality, the most obvious being the institution of slavery.

Today what passes for the vision of the Founding Fathers has been largely misunderstood, misrepresented or flatly ignored in the larger pursuit of power and greed. Many of those same Founding Fathers had their own doubts about the ability of common people to self-govern. The majority of them understood that the way to achieve this goal was through the education of the common people.

The Founding Fathers knew they had not achieved their intended goal of a free and self-governing people. They understood that to achieve that goal, a people must become literate and educated and all should be given those opportunities. Education of the people, many of the Founding Fathers knew, would be key to ensuring the new republic’s future success and evolution.

As a nation we can easily point to some great moments in our history. Science, technology and medicine have been advanced exponentially during the past 100 years. However we have achieved these advances while continuing to struggle for equal rights for all citizens.

There are also darker moments in our history where false justifications for war were manufactured. In the early 20th century, women were beaten, some even killed, for the right to vote. Later the same rights for African Americans to education and the vote were equally hard fought for with lives.

It is well documented that there has been a constant struggle for true equality – often very violent – between the well-to-do and those who provide the hard labor for those well-to-do. In the last part of the 19th century our own government took part in violent suppression of union organizing. At that time the labor unions were organizing for things like a minimum age (now 15) when a child could work, a five day work week and an eight hour work day. At the time children, some under 10, often worked 14 hours for six days a week in factories.

We are at a crucial point in our history where we must choose to move forward or hold fast to the old social tiers of life.

When I hear the slogan barked “Make America Great Again,” I see it as a warning that we are going the wrong direction. It assumes the vision of a truly free and self-governing people has been achieved in the past. No one can honestly say this is true. This American still looks forward to the day when all are treated as equals and we can say with authority we are great, at last.

• Have a comment?  Send to:  elliott@brack.net

Fairness in government is basic to laws and customs of our nation

By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher |  Though it’s not stated in the U.S. Constitution, the quality of fairness is embodied in our government. After all, we are a nation of laws, and that alone speaks to reason and decorum in deliberations. Throw out fairness and you move toward chaos.

Without fairness, you raise questions of trust and partiality and bias, and even decorum.

This basis of fairness in our everyday lives extends to relationships and commerce. Without fairness, major questions arise in our day-to-day activities.

We raise these points in considering the recent confirmation of Neal Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. We congratulate him on his elevation from U.S. Court of Appeals from the 10th District. We presume that as a lawyer, Judge Gorsuch always thought such a position as desirable and sees this confirmation as the pinnacle of his legal career.

However, Judge Gorsuch’s name will always be associated with that of federal appellate Judge Merrick Garland, the choice last year of President Barack Obama for the vacancy created when Justice Antonin Scalia died unexpectedly on February 14, 2016.

A month later, on March 16, 2016, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland, the chief justice of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to the Supreme Court. This was a normal procedure. Judge Garland was a reasonable and somewhat centrist choice, and his confirmation was anticipated.

Our country recognized that by having a nomination from a Democratic president, it was possible that this could influence the tenuous split on the Supreme Court, possibly giving centrist elements a 5-4 majority over conservative judges.

Then a bombshell struck! Senate Republicans maneuvered with what was a virtual pocket veto of the president’s choice. They simply announced that the Senate would not hold hearings on the potential justice.  With Republicans having a majority in the Senate, this derailed the president’s choice in making the nomination. And we had a divided 4-4 court all these months.

This failure to hold hearings on Judge Garland smacks of downright unfairness.

McConnell

The one elected official responsible for this unfair shenanigan and this usurping of the normal process is Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate majority leader. While there has been deep partisanship in Washington within the last decades, no element of policy has approached the level that this division has brought to our government.

This obvious partisanship is not confined to the Republicans. The Democratic Party also shares the blame for this continual divide.

But one person within the Republican Party, Senator McConnell, has been responsible for such a high level of unfairness in this selection of a new Supreme Court justice. Senator McConnell will go down in history as the architect for deep mistrust in the way the Senate has maneuvered in this nomination. Never in its years of history has it taken such a major step in uprooting established transition.

McConnell’s final move last week was having his Senate colleagues adopt the “nuclear option” of allowing only a majority of senators (not the normal 60) to confirm court nominees.  While Senator McConnell may delight in his victory now, this can come to haunt Republicans in future years, when as it usually happens, the party in power loses, and now has to abide by the same rules that it forged, without being in power.

And who’s to say when the Republicans will lose their current majorities? Sometimes the winds of government shift quickly, as Democrats now realize…..and Republicans may soon.

We yearn for the days of established rule, a more courteous government, with objective equal treatment in an impartial and fair manner. Senator McConnell has ensured that we don’t have that now.

• Have a comment?  Send to:  elliott@brack.net

Howard Brothers

Today’s sponsor is Howard Brothers, which has retail stores in Alpharetta, Doraville, Duluth, Oakwood and Athens. John and Doug Howard are the ‘brothers’ in Howard Brothers. This family owned business was started by their dad, and continues to specialize in hardware, outdoor power equipment and parts and service.  Howard Brothers are authorized dealers of STIHL, Exmark, Honda, Echo outdoor power equipment and Benjamin Moore paint.  Howard Brothers is also an authorized Big Green Egg, Traeger Grill and YETI Cooler dealer.

• Visit their web site howardbrothers.com.

• For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.

Urges Peachtree Corners to consider enlarging Town Green

Editor, the Forum:

The size of the Peachtree Corners Town Green proposed space in the architect’s rendition looks proportional to the rest of the structures, but seems way too small to function as a practical, usable space.

That appears to be about the size of a football field, which isn’t much when you factor in that adjacent apartments and townhomes will use it as their backyard, and that middle school kids will use it as their hang-out space. That seems to be about the same size as the Suwanee Town Green, which is packed on any given weekend. Tossing a Frisbee, playing touch football, and a pickup soccer game can quickly crowd picnicking families.

For those living at Peachtree Corners I would advise that you show up to the project review and voice concern for its size and push to enlarge it. Once the space begins to be a location for farmer’s market, auto shows, arts and craft shows, weekend concerts, road race headquarters, swap meets, etc., people will wish it were larger.

This is a good problem. It’s not the first time that an architect or designer created a beautiful space that was too impractical to use.

— Joe Briggs, Buford

Dear Joe: OK, if what you say is true, we’ll be giving you the credit for the Peachtree Corners Town Green being seen as too little…..if city officials continue with their present plan. –eeb

Send us your thoughts:  We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum.  Please limit comments to 300 words.  We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length.  Send feedback and letters to:    elliott@brack.net

GGC plans 7th annual Button Gwinnett Day on April 12

Georgia Gwinnett College, in partnership with Gwinnett County Public Library, will host the Seventh Annual Button Gwinnett Day on April 12, 2017, in celebration of Gwinnett’s history and in recognition of the Georgia signer of the Declaration of Independence for whom the county is named. The event will be held in Cisco Auditorium, Building C, from 10:00 a.m. to noon and is open to the public.

The day will begin with a Literary Summit featuring authors Thomas Mullen, The Last Town on Earth, and Richard Hoard, The Race Before Us, followed by a panel discussion on the process of writing, the new world of journalism and what it takes to become a published author. Guest panelists are:

• Bob Babcock, chief executive officer and founder, Deeds Publishing;
• Dr. Steven Brown, professor of business, Georgia Gwinnett College; and
• Will Hammock, sports editor, Gwinnett Daily Post.

The 2017 Button Gwinnett Day will conclude with a private presentation to Author and Publisher Elliott Brack with the second GGC Preservation Award for his dedication to the preservation of Gwinnett County history.

Brack, a native Georgian, currently publishes Gwinnett Forum and GeorgiaClips, an executive news digest of Georgia, and distributes an online commentary forum. During his career, Brack served as associate publisher for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, vice president and general manager of Gwinnett Daily News and publisher of the Wayne County Press in Jesup, Ga.

Eleven seek elevation to win Annandale’s Kiss the Pig Contest

Eleven community leaders have qualified for the opportunity to pucker up and kiss a pig in support of programs and services for men and women with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and other forms of developmental disabilities.

From now until, May 18, the 11 citizens will serve as candidates of Annandale Village’s annual fundraising and disabilities awareness program. The candidates include:

• Taylor Anderson, Blue Landworks, LLC;
• Marsha Anderson Bomar, Gwinnett Village CID;
• Scott Andrews, City of Sugar Hill;
• Amy Bray, Coulter and Sierra, LLC;
• Cliff Bray, WBO CPA Group;
• Denise Brinson, City of Suwanee;
• Don Britt, Summit Chase Country Club;
• Paige Havens, Consultant/Brain Injury Advocate;
• Angela Veugeler, Veugeler Design Group; and
• Chuck Warbington, City of Lawrenceville.

County mails assessments to 277,000 property owners in Gwinnett

The Gwinnett County Board of Assessors has mailed approximately 277,000 annual notices of assessment to residential and commercial property owners. Notices are mailed in accordance with state law to notify property owners regarding the current year value assessed on taxable property and provide a reason for any change in the value. The current year value identified on the notice is the value that will be used by the Tax Commissioner in the calculation of property taxes later in the year.

While it is required that the annual notice of assessment includes an estimate of taxes, the notice is not a tax bill. This estimate of taxes is created by combining the 2017 value with the 2016 millage rates, as 2017 millage rates will not be determined by the County, Board of Education and each city until later in the year. The estimates also do not take into account pending changes to exemptions.

Approximately 60 percent of all properties will see a change in value from the previous year due to market changes in property values. Overall, the typical increase is less than in 2016, reflecting a market where values continue to increase, but at a slowing rate.  Taxpayers are reminded that the estimated amount of taxes cannot be appealed. According to state law, only the current year value can be appealed.

Kerwin becomes Gwinnett Tech’s 2017 Distinguished Student

Crystal Kerwin, a nursing student,  has been named  as Gwinnett Tech’s 2017 Distinguished Student at the 32nd annual awards ceremony of the college.

Kerwin, surrounded by her family.

Rebecca Alexander, vice president of academic affairs, told of the winner’s background:

“In addition to homeschooling her three children, working and going to school, she is a true leader among her peers. She is described by her instructors as exceptional, both academically and in the clinical setting caring for patients. She consistently goes above and beyond with volunteering both at school and in the community.”

Crystal’s story is inspiring. She earned her GED degree at Gwinnett Tech in 1999. Years later she found her way back, determined to earn a nursing degree while working and raising her three boys. She has a 4.0 GPA and membership in the Phi Kappa Honor Society. Crystal serves as an officer in the GTC Association of Nursing Students, a student admission representative for the nursing department, and a student life volunteer. She also shares her skills and talents throughout the community with organizations such as the City of Auburn, American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity’s Brush of Kindness, and Save the Horse Rescue. For the award, she gets a medal and a check for $500.

Crystal’s education and work ethic earned her a position at Gwinnett Medical Center-Duluth in the surgical orthopedics department.

The other finalists for the competition were Bharat Bhatia (Health Information Technology); Amanda Goode (Bioscience Technology); Pauline Jeffrey (Marketing Management); and Raevin Jones (Early Childhood Care and Education).

Bowser is new fellow of American Council on Education

The American Council on Education (ACE) announces that Dr. Rachel Ann Bowser, assistant dean, associate professor of English and 2015-2017 Georgia Gwinnett College Faculty Senate President, has been named an ACE Fellow for the 2017-18 academic year.

Bowser

The ACE Fellows Program, established in 1965, is designed to strengthen institutions and leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing faculty and staff for senior positions in college and university administration. Nearly 1,900 higher education leaders have participated in the ACE Fellows Program over the past five decades, with more than 80 percent of Fellows having gone on to serve as senior leaders of colleges and universities. The 2017-18 class will kick off its work this fall as ACE prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2018.

GGC President Staś Preczewski says: “Dr. Bowser has demonstrated a strong commitment to literary education and has inspired a new generation of creative thought leaders. The only person to have served two consecutive years as Faculty Senate President, the ACE program will hone her leadership skills even further and position her for additional contributions upon returning to GGC.”

Bowser earned her Ph.D. in English from Emory University and her master’s in English from West Virginia University. She is a native of Pittsburgh, Pa. and obtained her bachelor’s degree from Grove City College in Grove City, Penn. She taught composition and literature at both universities as well as at the University of South Carolina Beaufort before joining the faculty of Georgia Gwinnett College.

Georgia Backroads magazine

Reviewed by Elizabeth Neace, Dacula  |  Georgia Backroads is a magazine I would like to recommend to your readers.  It highlights Georgia of long ago, and includes many little-known facts. A recent story told of the first single-wing flight in America, which took place in Athens.  Stories and pictures of historic rural churches and cemeteries call to you to take a road trip to see them.  A piece on turpentiners was very close to my heart, reminding me of my grandfather who, as a young man, was a woods rider for a turpentine business in South Georgia.  Another tells of Byron Herbert Reece, poet and farmer, and his farm and Heritage Center outside Blairsville. This is the perfect magazine for those who love The Empire State of the South.  Unsolicited manuscripts/photographs are encouraged. It is published quarterly. Subscribe for $27/1 year, $40/2 years; or  $56/3 years out of P.O. Box 585, Armuchee, GA 30105-0586 or georgiabackroads.com.

• An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (100 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. –eeb

Smith held his own against baseball superstars of another era

Although he was not the greatest professional baseball player ever to come from Georgia, the early-20th-century pitcher Sherrod “Sherry” Smith more than held his own in what many baseball aficionados consider the sport’s first era of superstars, which included Babe Ruth, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and Tris Speaker.

Smith

Sherrod Malone Smith was born in Monticello to Zipora Permelia and Henry Smith on February 18, 1891. He went on to play14 years in the major leagues for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1911-12), the Brooklyn Robins (later Brooklyn Dodgers) (1915-17, 1919-22), and the Cleveland Indians (1922-27). He compiled a pitching record of 114 wins and 118 losses, with a lifetime earned run average (ERA) of 3.32. Prior to the start of his major league career, the 6-foot-1-inch left-hander played on semiprofessional teams in such Georgia towns as Elberton, Madison, Mansfield, and Newborn.

Despite his sub-.500 mound record, Smith’s place in baseball history was cast through his play in the 1916 and 1920 World Series. In the 1916 series Smith, pitching for the Brooklyn Robins (named after manager Wilbert Robinson), faced Pitcher Babe Ruth in the second game, with both pitchers going a phenomenal 14 innings before Ruth’s team, the Boston Red Sox, won 2-1 en route to winning the Fall Classic.

In 1920 Smith pitched in two World Series games, defeating the Cleveland Indians in game three by a 2-1 score and then four days later losing 1-0 in game six. In his 30 innings of World Series pitching, Smith posted an ERA of 0.89, the fifth-best in major league history, ahead of such luminaries as Sandy Koufax (0.95) and Christy Mathewson (0.97).\

Smith’s greatest big-league season came in 1915 during his first full year in the major leagues, with Brooklyn. That season he compiled a 14-8 record with a 2.59 ERA. In the World Series season of 1916, Smith was 14-10 with a 2.34 ERA as the Robins went 94-60; in 1920 Smith was 11-9 with a career-best ERA of 1.85 as the Robins recorded a 93-61 record.

At the age of 33, Smith was the workhorse of the 1924 Cleveland Indians staff, going 12-14with 27 starts, 20 complete games (the translation being he completed more games than he won, unheard of in modern-day baseball), 247.2 innings pitched, and 1,050 batters faced. A sportswriter during the era characterized Smith as “strong as a horse and tireless as a Missouri mule.”

Smith was also an excellent defensive pitcher, completing the 1923 and 1926 seasons without committing an error. In 1927, his last season, Smith compiled a 1-4 record with a 5.45 ERA.

Smith also served in the U.S. Army during World War I (1917-18) and was sent to France. He ended his baseball career in 1932 as the coach of the Macon Peaches in the Southeastern League. Later, he became police chief in the Georgia towns of Porterdale and Madison. Smith died on September 12, 1949, at the age of 58, in Reidsville. He and his wife, Addilu, are both buried in Mansfield, in Newton County.

In 1980 Smith was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. In 1994 he was honored with a state historical marker (“Mansfield’s Famous Southpaw”) on Georgia Highway 11 south in Mansfield.

You may be fooled by where this Southern mansion is

Today’s Mystery Photo looks like an ordinary Southern mansion, but many will tell you that it is more than that. See if you can figure out where it is. Send in your thoughts to elliott@brack.net and be sure to include your hometown.

There’s a reason no one guessed the mystery photo of the last edition. It was sent in by George Graf of Palmyra, Va., and he was automatically eliminated if he had attempted to identify his own submission.  What George sent in was a vintage photo of the Belle Brown Northcott Memorial – also known as the Luray Singing Tower in Luray, Va.  “The photo was taken by my mom in 1948 with my dad in the photo on their honeymoon.  The tower is still standing and looks the same.

“According to Wikipedia, the Luray Singing Tower, officially known as the Belle Brown Northcott Memorial, was erected in 1937 in memory of Colonel Theodore Clay Northcott’s wife (Northcott was the owner of the Luray Caverns). At 117 feet high the Luray Singing Tower contains a carillon of 47 bells from John Taylor and Co. of Loughborough, Leicestershire, Great Britain. The largest bell weighs 7,640 pounds and is six feet in diameter. The smallest weighs a mere 12½ pounds. Recognized as one of the country’s major carillons, regularly scheduled recitals are held, free of charge, through the spring, summer and fall. The carillon is situated in a park opposite Luray Caverns.”

An exhibit of the works of Frank Sharp is at Tucker Library

An international exhibit of the travel photos of GwinnettForum’s Roaming Photographer Frank Sharp is now on display at the library in Tucker. The exhibit will be on display through April 28.

Literary Summit at 10 a.m. April 12 at the Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) Auditorium in Lawrenceville. Join Gwinnett County Public Library, in partnership with GGC, for a literary summit with bestselling author Thomas Mullen, author Richard Hoard, professor and publishing entrepreneur Dr. Steven Brown, author and CEO and founder of Deeds Publishing Bob Babcock, and Gwinnett Daily Post sports editor Will Hammock. For more information, please visit www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.

Ribbon Cutting and grand opening at 4 p.m. April 12 for new Eastside Urgent Care Center, at 3641 Centerville Highway, Snellville. For more information, email Hope.Moeck@hcahealthcare.com.

Social Media Marketing Workshop, on April 13 at 6 p.m. at the Grayson Branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library.  Learn how to market your business and gain attention through the use of social media sites.  This workshop will cover basic strategies you can use to drive traffic to your website and more effectively promote your products or services.  Workshop topics include website design and strategy, branding, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. For more information, please call 770-978-5154 or visit www.gwinnettpl.org.

Pete the Cat’s Author, Eric Litwin, will be at the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville on Saturday, April 15, for two shows, at 10 a.m. and 11.30. Litwin is a “guitar-strumming, book-writing, harmonica-blowing, banjo-picking, song-singing, five-time national award-winning, folksy, fun type guy.” Join Gwinnett County Public Library for a delightful morning.  All ages are welcome.  Books will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of Books for Less.  Tickets are $7.00 each for ages two and over.  Tickets available at www.auroratheatre.com.

Developmental Disabilities Benefits Workshop will be April 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the Five Forks Branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library. It is sponsored by Gwinnett County Public Library, in partnership with All About Developmental Disabilities. If you are the parent or caregiver of a child who is approaching 18 years old and living with an intellectual/developmental disability, this is the perfect time to explore resources that promote greater independence.  This workshop will provide you with hands on instruction for family support services, DD/ID services, Social Security benefits, Medicaid waivers, transition planning, and more. Be sure to bring copies of your child’s IEP, transition plan, psychological evaluations, and medical records. For more information, please visit www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.

Rep. Scott Hilton will address the Peachtree Corners Business Association on April 20 at Ippolito’s in Peachtree Corners. The meeting will start at 5:30 p.m. Cost is $25 for drinks and appetizers. For registration visit membership@peachtreecornersba.com.

Lilburn Relay for Life Rally, Friday, April 21 at 5 until 9 p.m. at Lilburn City Park. Come to enjoy the fun-filled evening of games, food and fun. Entertainment will be provided. Have a team or be a sponsor. Sponsored by the Lilburn Woman’s Club. A survivors lap around the park will be at 6 p.m. For more details, email bdsnookybell@gmail.com.

Free paper shredding at Coolray Field from 9 a.m. until noon April 22 at Coolray Field, home of the Gwinnett Braves,  in Lawrenceville. This event will feature on-site paper shredding with a limit of five copier boxes per vehicle. This event is sponsored by Gwinnett County’s Solid Waste Management Division and Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful to promote sustainability while bringing awareness and encouraging residents to appreciate Mother Earth.

Free recycling in Lilburn is coming soon.  Each year the City of Lilburn asks a variety of recycling vendors to offer their services at one great event — the Great American Cleanup. This year’s event will be Saturday, April 22, from 8 a.m. until noon in the Greenway parking lot across from Lilburn City Park. This is an opportunity to clean out your garage, filing cabinet, etc.

Community Clean-up in Peachtree Corners will be April 22. Join with the United Peachtree Corners Community Association and Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful in making the city more attractive. Volunteers will work in small teams alongside city officials to clean up various litter and illegal signs around various roads in the city of Peachtree Corners. All supplies including bright safety vests, gloves, bags, large grippers and water will be provided. Adults and children 12 years old and older (accompanied by an adult) are invited and encouraged to participate. For more information or to organize your subdivisions group, please contact Matt Lombardi at mattlombardiupcca@yahoo.com

(NEW) DISCUSSION on April 23 at 3 p.m. at the Norcross Cultural and Community Center on Georgia  and Gwinnett politics and the recent election. Join Gwinnett County Public Library for coffee, questions, and a discussion on the changing face of Georgia and Gwinnett.  Professor of political science at Georgia State University, Dr. Robert M. Howard, will be leading this seminar. He is the executive director of the Southern Political Science Association and co-author of the latest edition of Politics in Georgia. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please visit www.gwinnettpl.org or call 770-978-5154.

HANDYMAN SERVICES: Whatever your home maintenance problem is, Isaias Rodriguez can help. An experienced painter, he is dependable in installing or repairing siding, gutters, ceramic tile, plumbing, garage doors, or any other problem around your home. He’ll even fix your bike! He is originally from Mexico and has been in Georgia since 1996. He is legally allowed to work in the United States and is insured. Give him a call at his home in Norcross at 404-569-8825 or email him at rodriguez_isais@yahoo.com. Visit his Facebook page at Neza construction and home repair to see some of his past work

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• Managing editor: Betsy Brack
• Roving photographer:  Frank Sharp
• Contributing columnist: Debra Houston
• Contributing columnist: George Wilson

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