The Ron Show

With seven city council seats (eight if you count the Council presidency) and the mayor's office up for grabs in 2025, the otherwise sleepy "off cycle" calendar has some intrigue in Georgia's most populous city. To lean into it, I'm hosting a series of 'meet the candidate' shows between now and election day in November. Each announced candidate and incumbent will be (...

With the passing of Pope Francis comes a litany of American and global tributes - Marjorie Taylor Greene's awful tweet notwithstanding. Among them are the thoughts from DignityUSA's executive director Marianne Duddy-Burke , who joined me to opine on his somewhat-progressive papal legacy and provide some insights into where the Catholic Church will go, ideologically, next. ------ I've m...

A south Georgia woman had a miscarriage, and to some in law enforcement, that necessitated an arrest. No, that's not a plot line from an episode of "The Handmaid's Tale," that's reality for women in their reproductive years while living in Georgia. With me to discuss the fallout of that miscarriage (of justice by local law enforcement) is Melita Easters of the Georgia WIN Lis...

Despite her office's best efforts , Marjorie Taylor Greene had to come within shouting range of - get this - hecklers at her staged town hall. What's rich, according to the AJC's Patricia Murphy , is that she's a well-known heckler, herself, but had the audacity to amp up Acworth PD to pounce on anyone even so much us uttering a simple "boo." Credit to the Cobb County Dem...

Atlanta-based immigration law firm Kuck & Baxter have stepped up to take on a "mass action" suit on behalf of more than 130 international students whose student visas have suddenly (and in many cases, inexplicably) revoked for flimsy causes (if any cause(s) even exist). On today to discuss his firm's work and what his clients are dealing with, Dustin Baster from Kuck & Baxter...

An Atlanta-based law firm is taking up the plight of more than a dozen college students who've had their student visas revoked by the Trump administration in recent days. Between this and people "disappearing" to el Salvador ( admittedly by mistake!) ... with the Oval Office now ignoring a unanimous Supreme Court they largely crafted to be so conservative-leaning, has it sunk in yet...

A new 'Morning Consult' poll of Georgia voters - weeks before his tariff antics even took form - shows Georgia voters were already weary of his fomenting economic uncertainty. Georgia Recorder commentary guru Jay Bookman twice ( twice!) forewarned of Trump's tariff antics potentially negatively impacting Georgians and now the pundits on yesterday's "The Georgia Gang" find...

In normal election years its hard to get voters engaged in public service commission races. In 2025, Georgians have the rare opportunity to elect two to the five-seat PSC board, and the candidates are adding up . With data centers potentially impacting your utility bills (and why should they?) and rates continuing to climb while Georgia Power rakes in eye-popping profits , these two races could be...

Wednesday was the rare reprieve from Wall Street hemorrhaging so naturally President Donald Trump felt the need to take a victory lap. Thank goodness Trump saved us from Trump when he put the pause on most tariffs, after realizing people were "getting yippy." So what's wild about all the suffering Americans and their 401(k) accounts are enduring is, it may all come down to Trump lean...

University of Georgia professor emeritus Peter Smagorinsky penned an op/ed in the Atlanta Journal Constitution last week that caught my attention: "How Trump’s battle with U.S. colleges is making Canadian universities great." Like 'Handmaids Tale" ex-pats, America's distinguished scholars are seeking "safe haven" to continue doing their work outside the U.S., and C...

The "period of mourning" we've all sleep-walked through since election night last November may be subsiding for most of us, but Sunday's '60 Minutes' segment - detailing the callous disregard for due process and lack of contrition (let alone empathy) for those wrongly sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison - was, for me anyway, a setback. I kept telling myself "this i...

It's been a minute since 'Atlanta Voice' editor-in-chief Donnell Suggs and I last spoke, and with so much to discuss, today seemed like as good a day as any to reconnect. Suggs got to spend a wire-to-wire day with Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens recently, so naturally, I had questions. With his re-election campaign's coffers brimming with cash, is that positive or negative in the eyes...

It's easy to punch down after the results of the 2024 election left Americans wondering if Democrats can rebound, but The more we wade into this disastrous second Trump presidency, the more I contend the American people are realizing they got duped more than Democrats fell short. That doesn't absolve the party of their shortcomings and flaws, but you have to give credit where it's due,...

Who among us isn't a little "Ferris Bueller," right? Outside of those rare, constantly driven and meticulous types, we all take little breaks and skirt by when we believe we can. The second Trump presidency seems like a lot of that - Donald and company just gliding by without putting in much effort to "show their work" but definitely there to hand in their assignment anyway...

Jason Cecil - like all of us - is defined by more than just a job; he's a husband, Dekalb County Ethics Board alternate , President of the LGBTQ+ recovery community-serving GALANO Club , to name a few of his attribuets. His job at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) was really important, too, though. Until yesterday, he had been a Public Health Analyst in Globa...

Outgoing state senator Brandon Beach - because he can fog a mirror - knows Donald Trump and Trump's seventeen co-defendatns were all guilty as hell in conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. How he sleeps at night after filing a bill to allow Trump to recoup legal fees from Fulton County taxpayers is beyond me, frankly. The ironic twist on it being that he was recen...

Senator Max Burns grew up attending segregated schools, but deems himself something of an expert on the necessity of deiversity, equity and inclusion in public schools and colleges in the state of Georgia. The fact that he can't even enunciate the word "ethnicity" should already be a 'red flag,' but here we are. Thursday, while struggling to say "ethnicity" correctl...

Remember the four years of noise from the right about Joe Biden being the doddering, senile old man who wasn't really "in charge" of his presidency? So now that we're all aware of the Signal app "klatch" (read the dialogue here ) ruminating over clearly classified information (except, "nuh-uh!") the question that came up for me, mostly recently is "where...

A Georgia legislator hailing from a county of less than 15,000 people thinks it's a perfectly fine idea to limit early voting to one day and one centralized location per county . Voting rights advocates and Democrats, notably potential gubernatorial candidate Jason Esteves, made a lot of noise in opposition - and dozens more spoke out this afternoon at a Senate subcommittee hearing on the bill...

Group texts are the scourge of modern communication technology, sure, but when you find yourself somehow looped in on a juicy conversation you know you're not meant to be privy to, who wouldn't stick around to see how it continues? That's the situation Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg (likely "JG" in Mike Waltz' phone or Signal app contacts) found himself in two...

Governor Brian Kemp got the 'tort reform' he wanted this legislative session, and there were three House Democrats among the 91 votes he can thank for it. One of those votes came from Rep. Dr. Michelle Au (GA 50) , who penned a two-page letter-explanation to share on her social media . She's catching a lot of heat from her base for it. So are the handful of Republicans - including one...

George Chidi, journalist with The Guardian, Rolling Stone and the man behind The Atlanta Objective , sat in on recent town halls hosted by Reps. Nikema Willilams and Hank Johnson and came away with more questions than answers - not unlike their constituents. He and I had a free-wheeling conversation about a lot of what's going on, politically. Preparing the American population for Medicaid cut...

Governor Brian Kemp got what he ( and his 'dark money' donors) sought: legislation to try and limit lawsuits and suppress massive jury verdicts ( rare as they actually are , actually) . On today to discuss the kinds of impact this bill will have on everyday Georgians and particularly plaintiffs seeking damages, my good friend Nick Utley with Utley Law Firm took my call. ------ Columnist Ja...

Senator Nabila Islam Parkes joined me today to talk 'tort reform' with me, and actually has personal background.on the matter. While she was in high school, her mother was injured at a warehouse job. She saw, firsthand, the failures of both the American healthcare system and the challenges in getting justice in the legal system when taking on 'big business.' We discussed Governor B...

When Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth carried out President Donald Trump's will to end "the tyranny of so-called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies " one initiative in particular - a planned two-day workshop nd performance with gifted high school musicians of color and the U.S. Marine Corps Band - got whacked. The workshop & concert was salvaged, somewhat, thanks in large...