Recent editorials from Georgia newspapers:
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Dec. 9
Valdosta Daily Times on identity theft:
Tis the season of giving - and taking.
What thieves are taking is your identity - and your money.
In the past two years, one in four Georgians has been the victim of identity theft or fraud, according to a recent AAA Consumer Pulse survey.
The auto club said credit card accounts, Social Security numbers and e-commerce accounts are top targets for identity thieves.
In 2017, $16.8 billion was stolen from a record 16.7 million U.S. consumers (Javelin Strategy & Research, 2018 Identity Fraud Study).
So, AAA conducted a study to gauge consumer confidence in how information is used and stored.
What did they find?
The majority of Georgia consumers - 88 percent - are worried about being an identity theft victim.
Where do consumers worry the most about using their credit cards or sharing personal information? Mostly gas stations and online retailers. Of course, we know those are not the only places that your ID can be compromised.
About 70 percent of Georgia residents said they only have EVM (chip-based) credit cards, yet half of consumers reported shopping at a store in the past three months that did not have an activated or working chip card reader, the survey said.
“Identity thefts are on the rise and fraudsters methods to gain access to your personal information is becoming more sophisticated,” said Garrett Townsend, Georgia Public Affairs Director, AAA - The Auto Club Group. “It is vital for consumers to take steps now to keep their financial and personal information secure.”
In addition to its own credit monitoring services, AAA offered a few tips to help prevent identify theft:
- Review your credit card statement, bank account and credit report regularly. Be on the lookout for any unauthorized transactions and report them immediately to the affected account.
- Do not respond to unsolicited requests for personal information. Identity thieves utilize “cold calling” or “phishing” schemes to solicit personal information including your name, birthdate, Social Security number and bank account number over the phone, by mail or online.
- Securely store your bank, credit and medical card information. Select PIN numbers that are easy for you to remember and don’t let anyone else see the number when you are entering it. Do not carry any record of your PIN number in your wallet. Shred credit card statements, receipts or any medical records containing sensitive information before disposing of them. Also, ensure your credit cards and debit has been updated to include EMV or “chip” technology.
The bottom line is we all have to be vigilant. The thieves and scammers just keep getting more and more sophisticated.
We hope your holiday season is not marred by the crooks.
Online: https://www.valdostadailytimes.com/
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Dec. 8
The Savannah Morning News on seismic surveying:
The oil explorers are readying their seismic air guns to sound out deposits off the Georgia coast.
As our time to sound off against the practice runs short, we must pump up the volume.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries division recently issued incidental harassment authorizations to five seafloor surveying firms. The NOAA endorsement removes the first of two bureaucratic obstacles to offshore exploration.
The permitting requests now lie with the final approvers at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The body denied the permits in 2017, but that was prior to the Trump administration prioritizing offshore energy exploration to establish “a new path for energy dominance in America,” as described by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke.
Expect the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, to act on the requests quickly. NOAA Fisheries authorizations require that surveyors begin their work within one year and complete it within two.
Considering the size of the exploration area - from Cape May, N.J., to Cape Canaveral, Fla. - the geologists will be lobbying hard for quick action.
Local residents and officials must counter that push.
The geophysical surveying is disruptive and potentially harmful to marine life. More than that, though, the geologists are searching for places to drill. Should they find oil deposits off our barrier islands, rigs will follow.
And offshore drilling represents a threat to the coastal Georgia shore environment and our economy.
Coastal residents have a new ally in the stand against offshore drilling in Governor-elect Brian Kemp.
Kemp responded to the NOAA authorizations by stating his opposition to “drilling off the coast of Georgia.” That should clear the way for the Georgia General Assembly to pass resolutions that express support for the state’s fishing and coastal tourism industries, extensive salt marsh and marine mammals and oppose offshore oil and gas exploration.
The 2019 session opens Jan. 14.
Similar measures sponsored by Savannah-area legislators Sen. Lester Jackson and Rep. Carl Gilliard and supported by the local delegation failed last year. The legislative defeat was due in no small part to Gov. Nathan Deal’s reluctance to take a position on offshore drilling.
Kemp’s strong stance is significant. While elected officials in municipal and county leadership roles have denounced the notion of energy exploration along the coast, Kemp is the most influential Georgia leader to voice opposition.
Deal remains silent on the issue and our congressman, Buddy Carter, supports exploration. As he’s fond of saying, he’s an “all-of-the-above type of person” when it comes to developing energy resources.
Georgia’s U.S. senators, Johnny Isakson and David Perdue, likewise back exploration from the standpoint of increasing U.S. energy independence. Perdue is a Sea Island resident.
Kemp is coastal Georgia’s best hope at an 11th hour charge against exploration. Opposition from Florida’s governor, Rick Scott, convinced the Trump administration to take the state “off the table” for new offshore oil drilling earlier this year.
The agreement was informal, and Scott is leaving office to join the U.S. Senate. But it shows the federal government’s hesitancy to go against state officials, particularly those who, like Kemp, represent the president’s party.
We encourage coastal Georgians to show support for Kemp in his opposition to offshore drilling and to continue to lobby Rep. Carter and Sens. Isakson and Perdue to exert their influence on the process.
Speak loud, before the first air gun is fired.
Online: https://www.savannahnow.com/
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Dec. 9
The Augusta Chronicle on the tasks that lie ahead for runoff election winners:
The runoffs featured state elections that under normal circumstances wouldn’t have attracted too much attention.
Not this year.
The races - to elect a new secretary of state and to fill a seat on the Public Service Commission - had national implications.
Former Democratic congressman John Barrow lost the secretary of state’s race to Republican Brad Raffensperger. Barrow’s dignified concession included this:
“Though the outcome was not what we had wanted, what we’re working for is more important than ever: elections that are as fair and as accurate as they are secure. In these polarized times that may seem like a never-ending struggle, but it’s a struggle that’s always worth the fight.”
This moment could be historic: We actually agree with John Barrow.
So does Raffensperger. That’s precisely what he’s striving for, and what Georgians deserve: fair, accurate and secure elections.
Because of how Georgia’s governor’s race was pushed into the national spotlight, media across the country likely will now put Raffensperger’s every professional action under a microscope.
Between that, and lawsuits now facing his office claiming spurious charges of how the recent elections might have been mishandled, Raffensperger will have a lot on his plate. He may even need a second plate.
One issue deserving close attention is new voting machines, to replace the 16-year-old models that voters used to elect Raffensperger.
Folks in this area got the first public look at six kinds of voting machines in August. That’s when the state’s Secure, Accessible and Fair Elections Commission convened in Grovetown. The SAFE commission, by the way, is co-chaired by one of our area’s veteran legislators - state Rep. Barry Fleming, who represents part of Columbia County.
Raffensperger likely will take a close look at those machines, too, because all of them offered a feature he and a lot of voters have been calling for - a paper trail.
Whatever options ends up being selected, it better be soon. A big election looms in 2020, and an entirely new system will need several dry runs to work out the bugs.
As far as we’re concerned, Raffensperger’s new work clock has started.
But we mentioned two races. The Public Service Commission race, for the District 3 seat, might not sound like it concerns our area. District 3 represents Fulton, DeKalb, Rockdale and Clayton counties, in and around Atlanta.
But the PSC helps regulate public utilities, particularly their rates. And a huge public-utility project is taking shape in our back yard - the addition of two nuclear reactors at Burke County’s Plant Vogtle.
It’s attracted national attention because it’s the first nuclear-plant project to be undertaken in America in decades. How this project gets done - and how well - could provide a template for future projects elsewhere, depending on the nation’s commitment to reliable zero-carbon energy.
Vogtle’s cost overruns and lagging construction timeline made it a flashpoint in the PSC race. But with incumbent Chuck Eaton keeping his seat, the Augusta area is keeping on the commission an extra voice fully supportive of Vogtle’s mission.
Online: https://www.augustachronicle.com/
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