Olens to Speak at Cobb GOP Breakfast

The breakfast begins at 8:15 a.m., with the program to follow at 8:45 a.m.

Georgia Attorney General and former Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens is the guest speaker at the Cobb Republican Party's monthly breakfast meeting on Saturday. The breakfast begins at 8:15 a.m., with the program to follow at 8:45 a.m. Admission is $3 per person, which includes coffee, and a full country breakfast is $7 more per person.  The event takes place the Cobb GOP office at 799 Roswell Street in Marietta. For more information, please contact Cobb GOP chairman Joe Dendy at 770-820-6545.

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John McNeil's Wife, NAACP to Discuss Next Steps in Case

The NAACP has scheduled a press conference for 3 p.m. today in Virginia, site of the group's national board meeting.

Anita McNeil, the wife of a Kennesaw man convicted of killing an armed trespasser in 2005, is expected to join the NAACP this afternoon when leaders of the organization outline "next steps to secure" her husband's release. The nation's oldest civil rights organization made the announcement Thursday, one day after Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens said he would ask the state's highest court to reject a ruling that could have freed John McNeil. McNeil is serving life in prison for aggravated assault and felony murder in the Dec. 6, 2005, shooting death of Brian Epp. Olens had 30 days from the date of Baldwin County Superior Court Judge Hulane E. George's Sept. 25 ruling to respond. If Olens had done nothing, McNeil could have been retried …

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Kennesaw 'Self-Defense' Killing Heads Back to Supreme Court

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens Wednesday filed a notice of appeal in Baldwin County in the case of John McNeil.

Olens Speaks to the GOP

Watch the Georgia Attorney General's remarks on Wednesday in Tampa.

Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens had to share his one shining moment on the Republican National Convention stage Wednesday night.  Along with his Florida counterpart, Pam Bondi, Olens criticized the Obama Administration's health care law as an example of government overreach, a prominent convention theme in Tampa and in the GOP campaign.  They were among the Republican state attorneys general who filed suit against "Obamacare," which was ultimately upheld in a 5-4 vote by the Supreme Court.  Olens, an East Cobb resident and former Cobb Commission Chairman, has been an early supporter of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who gives his acceptance speech tonight.  Some of the reaction to the speech: Jim Galloway, AJC:  "All in …

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Olens Gets Prime Time Audience

The former Cobb Commission Chairman speaks tonight at the Republican National Convention.

Sam Olens appears to be ready for his moment in the national spotlight, after fine-tuning his remarks last night and rehearsing them on stage this morning. His moment will be far less than 15 minutes.  And he won't have the podium to himself.  But the former Cobb Commission Chairman and current Georgia Attorney General welcomes the opportunity to address delegates at the Republican National Convention in Tampa tonight.  Around 8 p.m., Olens and Florida attorney general Pam Bondi will speak about federal government overreach, and what they claim is the expansion of government under President Obama.  Olens was an early supporter of GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who will deliver his acceptance speech Thursday.  Olens' fellow East …

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Olens to Speak at GOP Convention

The former Cobb Commission Chairman, now Georgia's Attorney General, was an early supporter of Republican nominee-in-waiting Mitt Romney.

Sam Olens' national political profile has gotten a major boost. The former Cobb Commission Chairman, serving his first term as Georgia's Attorney General, has been chosen for a speaking role at the Republican National Convention later this month.  The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported that the day and time of Olens' speech has not been announced.  Olens was an early supporter of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who will be formalized as the GOP presidential nominee at the convention in Tampa Aug. 27-30. In the summer of 2011, Olens and Romney appeared together in Smyrna on a campaign stop. Jim Galloway of the AJC speculates that Olens may speak on health care, since he led Georgia's legal challenge against President Obama's…

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Child Abuse Reporting Rules to Go into Effect

Starting on July 1, volunteers who work with children will be required to report suspected child abuse.

Georgia Attorney General and former Cobb County Commission chairman Sam Olens is alerting Georgians that beginning July 1, volunteers who work with children will be required by law to report suspected child abuse, according to a news release. The new mandatory reporting requirement is a provision in HB 1176, the criminal justice reform bill signed by Gov. Nathan Deal on May 2. Specifically, HB 1176 changes the definition of “child service organization personnel” to include volunteers. The new law defines “child service organization personnel” as follows: ‘Child service organization personnel' means persons employed by or volunteering at a business or an organization, whether public, private, for profit, not for profit, or voluntary, that …

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Parents Skeptical of School Board's Openness

The Cobb County Board of Education approves a memorandum promising to comply with state laws on records and meetings without admitting past violations.

A Georgia senior assistant attorney general focused on the Cobb County Board of Education’s future rather than past “serious accusations” during a training session Thursday on open records and public meetings. Stefan Ritter said the allegations of open meetings violations weren’t bad enough to warrant more than the training and a memorandum of understanding to ensure compliance with state laws. “We did not think this was as egregious as some of the violations we’ve seen” elsewhere, Ritter told Patch. “Nonetheless, we look at this in a forward way. Our goal is not so much to punish people, but to seek compliance to the law.” The memorandum of understanding says that if no evidence of new open records or open meetings violations comes up in …

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School Board to Sign Openness Memo

Cobb Superintendent Michael Hinojosa will present a new calendar committee proposal at tonight’s meeting.

It took almost six months to receive a response, but parent Tricia Knor will get it in a roundabout way when Georgia Senior Assistant Attorney General Stefan Ritter discusses open meetings and open records with the Cobb County Board of Education at 5 p.m. today in the Central Office boardroom at 514 Glover St. Knor filed a complaint June 27 with Attorney General Sam Olens regarding email messages sent using private accounts among board Chairwoman Alison Bartlett of Post 7, located south and west of Marietta; Vice Chairman Scott Sweeney of East Cobb’s Post 6; and members Kathleen Angelucci of North Cobb’s Post 4 and Tim Stultz of Smyrna’s Post 2. Senior Assistant Attorney General Russell Willard forwarded Knor’s 67-page complaint to the …

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