Mumbles

Eyes right! It is my pleasure to introduce you to Tom Crawford, who will be sharing his politial columns with us weekly.

Tom is the editor-incharge of the Georgia Report, an internetbased news service that has been covering state politics for nearly a decade. The Georgia Report is required reading among legislators and capitol insiders for its insightful coverage of the latest developments under the Gold Dome. He is also a political writer for Georgia Trend and frequent guest on GPTV's "The Lawmakers."

With a new administration in Washington and an important race for governor coming up next year, Tom's columns, based on 30 years of experience covering Georgia politics, will provide fresh insights into state politics for all of us.

The Bulldog Nation among our readers will be pleased to learn Tom is a 1972 UGA graduate and former Red and Black editor.

Retiring from our editorial pages is longtime Georgia political sage Bill Shipp. Actually he's not retiring, he will still appear in a number of papers across the state.

Shipp's been a regular on our editorial pages for over 15 years, and we appreciate the insight he's provided our readers. We just decided it was time for a change, time for a fresh insight. We wish him well!

Short notes... CGH having a permanent base at camp E-Tu-Nake could be a very good thing for Early County... Swine flu scaring the heck out of you yet? Didn't think so. Thought we'd give you an update anyway... just in case.