AC repair inTownsend, GA

The author of a bill to make kratom a Schedule 1 drug in Georgia says his legislation will draw supporters and opponents to a hearing today in the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee.

A hearing on House Bill 181, sponsored by state Rep. Rick Townsend, R-St. Simons Island, is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in the Capitol in Atlanta. HB 181 would make mitragynine and hydroxymitragynine, as well as the mood enhancer Kratom, illegal in Georgia.

“I’m looking forward to presenting it,” Townsend said, having noted in the past that law enforcement is supportive of the measure. “I know I will have someone representing the GBI there...and basically some moms will be there whose kids suffered from it.”

Advocates are urging opponents via a popular website to rally against the legislation.

“There’s no consistency of the substance they sell...no guarantee of the potency or what the chemical makeup is,” Townsend said. “It’s like the Wild Wild West. You don’t know what you’re going to get.”

Kratom is banned in at least one state, Alabama, and others are considering it.

According to the Mayo Clinic, kratom is unsafe, ineffective and causes some users to develop cravings severe enough that they require treatments similar to ones given to people with opioid use disorder.

“We’ve had some people (in Glynn County) with some member of the family who was either addicted or suffered from it,” Townsend told The News in an earlier interview.

The Judiciary Non-Civil Committee hearing can be viewed by going to the website of the Georgia General Assembly, https://www.legis.ga.gov.

Schedule 1 drugs in Georgia include LSD, heroin and ecstasy.

Townsend also is the author of House Resolution 131, which congratulates and commends Marshes of Glynn Libraries for its selection as Georgia Public Library’s 2022 Service Library of the Year.

He is a co-sponsor of a number of bills, including House Bill 87, legislation that would change the funding formula for the multi-county Coastal Plains Charter High School. The new formula would resolve the program’s funding woes.

Townsend is a co-signer of House Bill 56, which provides educational grants to the children of fallen first responders, and of HB 180, which exempts food banks from having to pay taxes on purchases.

He also believes in the protection of the Okefenokee Swamp, which is why he co-signed House Bill 71, the Okefenokee Protection Act. The bill would ban mining along Trail Ridge.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Denver’s Daniel Sancho Arbizu and Taylor Melville claimed the TicketSmarter Summit League Men’s and Women’s Peak Performers of the Week awards, League officials announced on Tuesday.

Sancho Arbizu moved to the No. 1 spot for the first time in his career and garnered a three-set win against Wichita State. The Zaragoza, Spain native claimed a win against the No. 97-ranked ITA player, Kristof Minarik in comeback fashion, doing so with a 6-7 (5), 6-1, 5-1 when Minarik retired in set three.

Melville, the No. 73-ranked ITA player in Division I, improved to 4-1 in singles play with a straight-sets win over Utah’s Katya Townsend at the No. 1 spot. After a 7-5 win in set one, the Duluth, Ga., native prevailed with a back-and-forth battle in set two for a 7-6 (12) win for the sweep. Additionally, Melville teamed with Claudia Martinez de Velasco for a 6-3 win at the No. 2 doubles spot.

FanMaker Enter the promocode AceTheSummit within Fan Rewards section of the Summit League app for 200 reward points! If you don’t have the free app, download now at thesummitleague.org/app.

Men’s Peak Performer of the Week Daniel Sancho Arbizu, Denver So. | Zaragoza, Spain

Also nominated: Ignacio Vinas (Oral Roberts), Ryoma Mishiro (Omaha), Riley Odell (North Dakota), Oliver Johansson (Drake). Women’s Peak Performer of the Week Taylor Melville, Denver Gr. | Duluth, Ga.

Also nominated: Kate Miley (Kansas City), Maria Rybka (Western Illinois). 2023 Peak Performers of the Week

January 17 M: Gerhard Sullwald, North Dakota W: Jule Schulte, North Dakota

January 24 M: Cian McDonnell, North Dakota W: Andrea Burguete Beltran, Denver

January 31 M: Jeremy Schifris, Drake W: Taylor Melville, Denver

February 7 M: Markus Bolin, Drake W: Britt Pursell, Denver

February 14 M: Daniel Sancho Arbizu, Denver W: Taylor Melville, Denver

#SummitTEN

ATLANTA, February 13, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UBS Wealth Management USA announced today that six advisor teams in the firm’s Southeast Wealth Management Market have been named to the Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Management Teams list for 2023.

"Congratulations to these advisors and their teams on this industry achievement," said Robert Tamarkin, Southeast Market Director at UBS Wealth Management USA. "Together, they leverage the full spectrum of UBS’s capabilities to provide their clients with holistic financial advice and personalized services."

"These advisors and their teams exemplify the highest standards of integrity, professionalism and commitment to their clients, and it’s truly gratifying to see them acknowledged for their success and long-standing dedication to clients," added Sterling Zerbe, Southeast Market Director at UBS Wealth Management USA.

The Wealth Management teams named to the list in the UBS Southeast Market include:

Compass Financial Advisors: Robert Goldstein, Amanda Levi Goldstein, Brian David, Todd Kennedy & Ernie Moncrieff (Atlanta, GA)

Harbor View Wealth Management: James Malatos, Daniel Emerson, Angelo Esposito, Scott Emereson & David Randall (Atlanta, GA)

The 770 Group: Bill Pahl, Scott Serafin, Casey Jones, Jake Pace & Christine Lizaso (Atlanta, GA)

The Stephenson/Baun Wealth Management Group: Hugh Stephenson & Cromwell Baun (Atlanta, GA)

OakRing Wealth Partners: David Saltzman, Kevin Haynes, Kevin Townsend King, Peter Stephen Knoop II, Nicklus Caplenor (Alpharetta, GA)

The inaugural Forbes/SHOOK Best-In-State Wealth Management Teams list features more than 2,800 teams with cumulative assets of roughly $4 trillion. The ranking, developed by SHOOK Research, is based on an algorithm of quantitative and qualitative criteria, including telephone, virtual and in-person interviews.

For the full list and further information visit: https://www.forbes.com/lists/wealth-management-teams-best-in-state/.

In Sunday night’s Super Bowl matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, Chiefs kicker and Georgia native Harrison Butker launched a 27-yard field goal with eight seconds remaining to put the Chiefs on top. Butker is a graduate of Georgia Tech and Atlanta’s Westminster school. When the Westminster Wildcats were looking for a kicker, Butker made the transition to football from soccer. With me now is the high school coach who helped him do that. Westminster assistant football coach Joe Sturniolo spoke with GPB's Peter Biello.

Peter Biello: But let's talk about Harrison a little bit. How did you first get to know Harrison?

Joe Sturniolo: When Harrison was a freshman, he was actually playing just soccer. He had not started playing football yet, and we were having spring practice that year and we were looking for a new kicker. And our senior kicker from the year before I had talked to about finding a replacement. And he said "Coach, there's a guy that's in the band with me that's a soccer player. I think he might be pretty good." But Harrison came out at the end of his freshman year and had never really kicked a football before, had just been a soccer player, decided he wanted to give it a try. And ironically, I was in the soccer press box and his mom was outside the press box talking to another mom. And I heard her say they want Harrison to play football "but I'm just not sure about football. You know, he's always been a soccer player. He's never been a football player. I'm just worried a little bit." And I stuck my head out and said, "Let me introduce myself," and had a conversation with Elizabeth. She consented. Now, she's an absolute huge football fan. I know she was enjoying the Super Bowl as well.

Peter Biello: So what's it like for soccer players who want to be kickers to transition? And did Harrison sort of follow the traditional role or was there something different or special about the way he did it?

Joe Sturniolo: Well, what he did was work harder than anybody else I've ever seen. His work ethic was unbelievable. The transition for a soccer player, it's a little bit of a different kick. Obviously, that the eye-foot coordination, the ability to kick, the strength in the leg, all of that transfers over from soccer well. But the motion of kicking a soccer ball and the motion of kicking a football are different. Your hip's in a different place. You make contact at a different place. And it's all because of the trajectory that you want on the ball. Some people make the transition well, some are not very good at it. Harrison worked very, very hard, not just in season but in the off-season as well. He was constantly looking for for ways to improve. That meant going to camp somewhere, spending extra time where he and I [were] out there. There was many a night that he and and Izzy, who's now his wife, spent on the field with him, kicking and Izzy chasing footballs down by the goalpost while I was critiquing it along the way.

Peter Biello: So Harrison was a football player. He's a kicker. He was a soccer player. He was also in band. He played the tuba in band. How did he juggle all those extracurricular activities?

Joe Sturniolo: He is a very dedicated person, a very committed person. Doesn't worry a whole lot about social media, social activities, things along those lines. He focuses. His focus is tremendous. That's part of what's made him such a great kicker in the NFL ... I mean, last night, obviously he missed the first kick. One of the things that we try to teach kickers: "There's nothing less important than the last kick and there's nothing more important than the next one." His ability to just set aside whatever happened and say, "Okay, that happened, what did we learn from it? Now let's go get ready for the next one."

Peter Biello: So you must be feeling some measure of pride right now.

Joe Sturniolo: Oh, absolutely. But you know, somebody asked me last week, "How would you feel if he kicks a game winning field goal?" And I said "I'll be tremendously proud." But I'm proud of Harrison, whether he made a field goal or whether he didn't, the man that he has become is tremendous, phenomenal father, phenomenal figure in the Kansas City area. And he serves as as an altar assistant in Latin Mass and teaches kids how to do that as well.

Peter Biello: Have you kept in touch with him over the years?

Joe Sturniolo: Absolutely. I texted with him last night.

Peter Biello: What did he have to say last night?

Joe Sturniolo: We kept it short last night. I talked a little bit with him before the game and then after the game. It was right after the game. So he was still on the field when I sent my last text and I said, "I got a few questions, but obviously I'll wait till later. I want you enjoy the night and we'll talk later this week." And he just said, "Thanks, coach. Love you."

Patrick Mahomes was magical when the Kansas City Chiefs desperately needed him to pull off another Super Bowl comeback.

Playing on an injured ankle, Mahomes threw two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter and scrambled 26 yards on the go-ahead drive before Harrison Butker kicked a 27-yard field goal with 8 seconds left to give the Chiefs a 38-35 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night.

The Chiefs won their second NFL title in four years and two-time NFL MVP Mahomes earned his second Super Bowl MVP award.

"I thought guys just embraced the moment," Mahomes said about rallying from a 10-point halftime deficit. "In that first half, we were playing and doing some good stuff, but I felt like the guys were getting consumed by everything around us."

Mahomes and Jalen Hurts excelled in the first Super Bowl matchup featuring two Black starting QBs. But Mahomes turned it up in the second half after reaggravating a sprained right ankle.

"It took everybody to win the game," Mahomes shouted as red and yellow confetti littered the field.

Coach Andy Reid, who couldn't win the big game in Philadelphia, beat his former team to earn his second ring with Mahomes and the Chiefs.

"We wanted to get this so bad for him," Travis Kelce said. "His legacy in Philly lives on forever. ... There's a lot of pride in knowing that he's had success in two different organizations, but this was the better one."

With the score tied at 35-35, the Eagles tried to let the Chiefs score a touchdown with under two minutes left so they could get the ball back after a defensive holding call on cornerback James Bradberry on third-and-8 gave Kansas City a first down. But Jerick McKinnon slid at the 2, forcing the Eagles to use their last timeout.

"It was holding. I tugged his jersey. I was hoping they would let it slide," Bradberry said.

After Mahomes took a knee twice, Butker nailed his kick, sending thousands of red-clad Chiefs fans into a frenzy.

"It feels amazing just to see the confetti," said Butker, who missed a 42-yarder in the first quarter. "I just tried to focus on one kick and focusing on the process."

The Chiefs won their second Super Bowl following the 2019 season, 50 years after the first one. Mahomes led them back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter against San Francisco in that one. It took just three years to get another Lombardi.

Chiefs fans were outnumbered in the stadium, but did their part to silence the boisterous Philly fans with the tomahawk chop chant.

Down 24-14 with a limping Mahomes, the Chiefs (17-3) followed up Rihanna's electrifying halftime performance with a sensational offensive outburst.

Mahomes, who suffered a high ankle sprain in the divisional round, hurt it again on a 3-yard scramble late in the second quarter. He limped off the field but showed no ill effects on Kansas City's next possession.

"I knew it was pretty bad when he got up limping but I knew it wasn't gonna be bad enough to where he was gonna pull himself off the field," Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy said. "If we would've pulled him off, I would've had to fight him. He would've probably fought me. And so it wasn't worth entertaining."

Mahomes slipped — several players lost their footing on the natural grass surface — in the pocket yet somehow regained his balance and scrambled 14 yards to the Eagles 4, setting up Isiah Pacheco's 1-yard TD run that cut the deficit to 24-21.

Mahomes then tossed a 5-yard TD pass to a wide-open Kadarius Toney to give Kansas City its first lead, 28-27, early in the fourth quarter.

After the Chiefs tightened up their defense, forcing Philly to punt, Toney returned a line-drive kick 65 yards to the Eagles 5 for the longest punt return in Super Bowl history.

On third down from the 4, Mahomes connected with Skyy Moore to extend their lead to 35-27. Moore also was wide open on the play.

But the Eagles wouldn't go away.

Hurts hit DeVonta Smith for a 45-yard gain to the Chiefs 2 and ran in for his third score of the game. He also ran in for the 2-point conversion to tie it at 35-35 with 5:15 to go.

As "Fly! Eagles! Fly!" reverberated throughout the stadium, Mahomes and the Chiefs went back to work.

The 27-year-old Mahomes became the third player to win his second NFL MVP award before age 28. He also became the youngest QB to start three Super Bowls. Mahomes finally broke the MVP curse, becoming the first player to win the Super Bowl the same season after nine straight players lost.

Just five years after winning the first Super Bowl in franchise history, the Eagles (16-4) came close with a different coach and new quarterback. Nick Sirianni replaced Doug Pederson in 2021 and Hurts took over for Carson Wentz in late 2020.

Hurts set a Super Bowl record with 70 yards rushing and tied a record with three rushing scores. He also threw for 304 yards and one TD.

"We use this pain, we use this failure to motivate us so we can make it a strength," Sirianni said.

Hurts, who missed two games late in the season with a shoulder injury, had TD runs of 1 and 4 yards in the first half along with a 45-yard TD pass to A.J. Brown.

But Hurts also made a rare mistake when he fumbled without being hit while scrambling away from pressure. Nick Bolton picked it up and raced 36 yards for a score that made it 14-14. Hurts had just eight turnovers this season, six picks and two fumbles.

Mahomes finished 21 of 27 for 182 yards with three TDs and no turnovers. He ran for 44 yards.

Mahomes connected with Kelce on an 18-yard TD pass in the right corner to tie it at 7-7 in the first quarter. The Chiefs' All-Pro tight end and Eagles All-Pro center Jason Kelce became the first set of brothers to play against each other in the Super Bowl.

Their mom, Donna Kelce, wore a half-red, half-green jersey with No. 87 on the front for Travis and No. 62 on the back for Jason. She sat in a suite between NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Damar Hamlin.

Eagles fans turned State Farm Stadium into a sea of green, chanting "E-A-G-L-E-S!" and singing the team's fight song after each score. But they left disappointed.

Reid won more games than any coach in team history during 14 seasons with the Eagles but the one knock against him was that he couldn't win the big one. Reid finally earned his ring in his seventh season with the Chiefs. They went back the next year and lost to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Reid, who turns 65 next month, ended any speculation about his potential retirement.

"If they'll have me, I'll stick around," he said.

The first Super Bowl involving both No. 1 seeds since the Eagles beat the Patriots 41-33 in February 2018 lived up to its hype. It was the third-highest scoring Super Bowl and the Eagles scored the most points by a losing team.