By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Sunday sales being reformulated
Economic arguments put foward
Placeholder Image

On the net

To read S.B. 16, go to www.legis.ga.gov

ATLANTA - Sunday sales is back for another round.

Backers of a measure to allow Georgia stores to sell booze on the Sabbath launched a fresh push on Wednesday, arguing the state's struggling economy could use the extra revenue. They are also looking to link the bill this year with one that would crack down on those who sell alcohol to minors.

But opponents told a Senate panel that the bill would represent "one more tear" in the state's moral fabric.

"The majority of our citizens still have Sunday as a day or worship, a day of rest," the Rev. Ray Newman, of the Georgia Baptist Convention, told the state Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee. "It's a further encroachment on the Lord's day."

Grocery store owners say Georgia customers have been clamoring for the change.

Officials with the Kroger Co. say that Sunday is now the second-busiest shopping day of the year.

Henry Colley, vice president of Sprint Foods, said for him it is a simple issue of business. Colley said his customers in East Georgia frequently cross the border into South Carolina, where stores may sell alcohol on Sundays. If Colley expands he said he'll do so in South Carolina.

"We must maximize sales potential and that includes alcoholic beverage sales to any legal customer," Colley said.

"Local option is all we ask for; let the community decide," Colley said.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Seth Harp, a Midland Republican, would give local governments the option on whether to permit Sunday alcohol sales. Voters in those areas would have to approve the change at the ballot box.

Georgia is one of only three states that don't allow stores to sell alcohol on Sunday. The other two are Connecticut and Indiana.

The Sunday sales bill has failed to win passage for the past two years. It faces opposition from Gov. Sonny Perdue, a teetotaler and Christian conservative.

Perdue has argued that Sunday sales would lead to more alcohol-fueled traffic fatalities.

Supporters of the bill dispute his numbers.

But the argument was heard frequently at Wednesday's hearing from Sunday sales opponents.

A day after a coalition of young Democrat and Republicans came out in favor of Sunday sales, more than a dozen young people gathered at Wednesday's hearing to speak out against the bill.

"The Bible for one thing says that alcohol can be harmful and I think that's the greatest authority you can have," said 14-year-old Abby Davis, of Peachtree City.


Sign up for our e-newsletters
Book review: Author digs into mining's complicated past and present in 'River of Lost Souls'
95ea3fecbc0a64e4f05e88f3376fb1889a1fe7caae34e3144ec2b2c8665a17dd
Jonathan Thompson will speak about his book "River of Lost Souls" at the King's English Bookshop on Tuesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. - photo by Amanda Olson
"RIVER OF LOST SOULS: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Spill," by Jonathan Thompson, Torrey House Press, 275 pages (nf)

Plenty has been written about the very small world of a mining town and the very broad reach of a beleaguered industry. From Loretta Lynns iconic song "Coal Miners Daughter," to the 2010 nail-biting coverage of 33 trapped Chilean miners, to the hit Broadway musicals "Paint Your Wagon" and "Billy Elliot," mining is a global story, and its one of heartbreak, hard work and hard times.

Jonathan Thompsons "River of Lost Souls" examines the many facets of risk involved in taking resources from below the earths surface. An environmental journalist, Thompson has reported on southwest Colorado for over 20 years. This book is special, however, because the Four Corners area of Colorado is his current and ancestral home. Thompson is writing about minings ecological, social, financial and political impact on his land, his landscape, his water, his people. That makes "River of Lost Souls" more than a regular reporting job.

Thompson begins with the Gold King Mine wastewater disaster of 2015, which the EPA caused while attempting to drain water near the mines entrance. The spill sent 3 million gallons of waste and tailings into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River and part of the San Juan River watershed which drains into the Colorado, affecting the Utah, Colorado and New Mexico parts of that watershed as well as the Navajo Nation.

From there, Thompson jumps into far stretches of time to 1765, when a Spanish explorer named the Animas River; to 10,000 years earlier, when Paleo-Indians roamed the rivers valley; to the meridian of time, when the ancestors of the Zuni, Hopi and Rio Grande Pueblo people inhabited the land for 500 years; to the mid-1800s and the Swedes who came to Silverton, Colorado, to mine.

Its a grand scope, but telling any story of landscape is telling a very grand story.

It also makes a complex story difficult to follow. Thompsons time warps are important, but they are jarring. His time jumps need clear dates, and Thompson doesnt always make them available. A map would also be useful. Thompsons writing is good, but his sentences can be dense and require readers to do their own mining for the riches the writing embeds. The work is worthwhile, however, as there are many moving parts in any story about mines land, culture, policy, history, money, inevitable disaster and Thompson works to examine all of them.

"River of Lost Souls" is a thoughtful read, but not a quick one. Because Thompsons writings come from 20 years of his newspaper reports, the overall feeling can be disjointed and sparse, which is distracting if one is expecting to follow a tenable thread. This is not a typical narrative with a cast of characters and a traditional story arc. Readers should approach this text as the investigation it is: puzzle pieces of a larger-than-life story that is eons old. If you are the kind of reader who wants it laid out cleanly, this is not that book. But, to Thompsons point, nothing is clean about mining that has never been the case.

Thompsons best writing is in his descriptions of people and places. His telling of how he came to Silverton is familiar and engaging. If readers approach the book with care and attention, they will be rewarded with savoring these descriptive passages when they happen.
Latest Obituaries