Elections for Peachtree City council are coming up and there are five candidates total. Two are running for post two and three are on post one . Here are the candidates:

Laura Plauché Johnson, Eric Imker and Tamara Allen Moore are on the ballot for post one, and Suzanne Brown and Vic Painter are on the post two ballots. 

Laura Plauché Johnson is married and a mother to five children enrolled in schools within Peachtree city schools. She is an active part of the community and owns her own business. Johnson wants to promote public safety and wants to check where our taxes are going and fix how people are going out of town for water parks and splash pads. She also wants to keep the founder’s goals going in regards to property taxes and traffic and road concerns. 

Eric Imker worked as a substitute teacher for Fayette county schools, is an active part of the community and advocates voting for other active members. Imker had run for mayor in the last election. He is against high density housing and expresses that he voted for council members who shared the same idea. Imker also hopes to regulate traffic and road concerns, and prevent the never ending tax increases. 

Tamara Allen Moore worked for Delta Airlines for nearly 15 years while securing a degree and a Specialist degree in Human Resource certification. She was part of the first graduates from McIntosh High School. She has two kids who also graduated from McIntosh High School. Moore plans on bringing economic development into the city and wants to be a fresh voice in the community. 

Suzanne Brown is an active part in the community, she started attending Council meetings two and a half years ago. She has two children and three grandchildren all living in Peachtree city. Brown wants to lower the rate that residential developments are built and she wants to roll back the millage rate for property tax. 

Vic Painter is Senior Vice President and Commercial Banking leader at Wells Fargo. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. Painter and his wife have an 8 year old daughter and Painter coaches on his daughters soccer team. He plans to look into traffic issues and keeping the community safe, and wants to invest in departments including the parks, police department and fire department. 

In Jan. of 2023, only hours after the University of Georgia’s football team won the national championship, the lives of offensive lineman Devin Willock and team recruiter Chandler LeCroy were ended in a deadly car accident. 

The accident was attributed to the driver participating in a street race with another vehicle. 

The driver, Jalen Carter, was charged with reckless driving and street racing. He was sentenced to 12 months probation, 80 hours of community service and a fine of 1,000 dollars.

Willocks family filed a lawsuit on May 10 against the University of Georgia and Jalen Carter on the basis that the car being driven was specifically for recruiting purposes and that Carter had a history of reckless driving. This lawsuit is now underway. 

The lawsuit is seeking 40 million dollars in damages. 

Speaker of the House Candidate, Jim Jordan, an Ohio congressman, has not paused his bid and will not pursue a third party vote. 

On Oct. 17, 20 of Jordan’s fellow Republicans opted to vote against him, and in the second ballot it was raised to 22 according to BBC News.

According to the Washington Post, the Republican group that is preventing Jordan from becoming speaker includes more moderate members such as those that don’t affiliate holy with one house and some from the House Freedom Clause. Senior Democrats are in support of the plan to let him remain as speaker vote at any time. 

While this election goes on, Patrick T. McHenry is holding the Speaker of the House seat. Congress is waiting for a new speaker as it cannot do its normal duties without a set Speaker. According to CBS News Oct. 23 the house voted 216 to 210 to remove the old  Speaker of the House Republican Kevin McCarty.  

On Oct. 7, a terrorist group labeled “Hamas” attacked Israel, managing to get past Israeli borders. Officials are still working to uncover how the group managed to achieve the invasion.

U.S. President Joe Biden traveled to Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel on Oct. 17th to show support from America and contact Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to provide assistance. 

While Israel has multiple lines of defense, one being the “Iron Dome,” the dome fell from the number of missiles being fired upon it. 126 people were held hostage by Hamas in Gaza after they launched the cross border attack. Video footage was released showing Mia Schem, one of the hostages, injured but still alive.

Schem’s mother, Keren Schem, came forward with a statement in a CNN video about how seeing her daughter gave her some sort of relief, since she didn’t know if her child was dead or alive until the video footage was shown.

“We are begging the world to bring my baby home,” Schem said in her statement.

Keren believes in the Israeli government.

“I know that the Israeli government and the Israeli Army are doing all they can to bring Mia and all the hostages back home,” Schem said in her statement.

On Oct. 18, over 1400 Palestinian civilians were killed in a hospital bombing.

“Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups have fired more than 4,500 rockets toward Israel since Saturday’s deadly attack, according to Israel Defense Forces. Most of those rockets have been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system,” a source says from cbsnews.com. 

In hopes of avoiding bombs, hundreds of Palestinians fled and took refuge in al-Ahli, Gaza City. They are currently still hiding to take cover from the attacks.