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From Sinclair Marina to Coopers Road and everything in between, we’ve got you covered. We focus on it all, from the Courthouse, City Hall, Crimes & Courts all the way to 100-year-old birthday parties and piano recitals! …www.baldwin2k.com

08/27/2025

HEADLINE: Baldwin County School District makes progress in reading, no longer in the gutter

The Baldwin County School District received its report card last week.

Data from the 2024-2025 Georgia Milestones Assessment System "end of grade" standardized test scores showed improvement in the district.

Test scores in the district sort of bottomed out in 2022, especially at Oak Hill Middle, where a majority of the 353 eighth graders at Oak Hill tested were "reading below grade level," according to the school's Milestone scores. That percentage – 51.3 – ranked 198th out of 210 school systems in Georgia (the 6th percentile), as well as 152nd out of 159 "county school systems" in Georgia.

That year, out of the 80 Georgia school systems to test at least 300 eighth graders, the Baldwin County School District finished dead last in reading in 80th place. Furthermore, BCSD eighth graders that year finished one spot ahead of the Georgia Fugees Academy, which is "public charter school designed to meet the needs of refugee and new American students."

Gradual progress has followed, however. In the new data from the 2024-2025, a majority of Oak Hill eighth graders were reading at grade level – 56.1 percent. This ranked 125th out of 159 county school districts in Georgia, which equates to the 21st percentile. While the 21st percentile still isn't great, obviously, it's a way better place to be than the 6th percentile, which is where the BCSD finished in eighth grade reading in 2021-2022.

The most recent third-grade reading scores also showed progress and improvement. Out of the 320 county third graders who were tested, 54.7 percent were reading at grade level, which ranked 122nd out of 159 county school districts. In 2021-2022, only 41.5 percent of BCSD third graders were reading at grade level.

08/22/2025

(Baldwin2k News op-ed) // A video of Milledgeville Mayor Mary Parham-Copelan giving a campaign pitch from the driver's seat of her car now has been viewed on Baldwin2k's page more than 67,000 times, which is more than triple the population of Milledgeville. WMAZ/Channel 13 also picked up the story, further expanding the story's reach.

In the video, the mayor touches on a number of topics, ranging from Milledgeville's Jim Crow past to the importance of solidarity within the black community.

So, is the video a "good" thing or a "bad" thing, or is it somewhere in the middle? Well, it's likely all in the eye of the beholder and depends on which parts of the video that a person chooses to focus on.

Many may see the video as an important history lesson and one that shouldn't be forgotten. The sins of Jim Crow are unforgivable, and the goal was to strip African-Americans of their dignity and "keep them in their place."

Others may focus on other parts of the video, alongside the pronouns and the language that the mayor uses. The mayor frequently uses the word "us," referring to other black people. Thinking of "we" and "them" and "us" and "they" in the construct of race is a divisive mentality, as well as the mentality of the Jim Crow era, which is the thing that the mayor was condemning in the first place. When you're the mayor, "us" is supposed to mean everybody who lives in Milledgeville, regardless of who you were trying to reach in a certain video, because inevitably many different people will watch it. The mayor had to have known this.

"We're going to be knocking door to door...and not just in my neighborhood. I'm bold enough to go into the enemy's camp," the mayor further elaborates.

If the mayor is implying that the "enemy" is white people, that's just extremely unfortunate. In theory, how can a mayor of a town govern successfully when she considers 50-something percent of the people who live in the town as "the enemy?" The mayor's primary duties are to promote the city of MIlledgeville in a positive light and bring people together. In the video, she failed at both.

Imagine being a business owner or factory owner who's been thinking about relocating to Milledgeville. Watching the video and then going down the rabbit hole of comments, especially the ones with name-calling and the run-on sentences and terrible grasp of the English language, wouldn't leave a very positive taste in your mouth about Milledgeville.

"There are many who look like us who have already sold out," the mayor continues in the video. "They don't care. A dollar means more to some people than doing the right thing."

The idea of voting for a candidate based solely on their skin color will never not be unfortunate. Implying that any black person who votes for a candidate of a different skin color is a "sellout" will never not be unfortunate.

It also creates a double standard. If any white political candidate in Milledgeville ever took to Facebook and told other white people "either vote for me because you're white or you're a sellout," it would create a much larger storm. "Who's that huge bigot" is basically what people would be asking. Also, if any white candidate ever used pronouns like "us" and "we" to describe other white people, it'd come across as incredibly bigoted and divisive.

The mayor ultimately removed the original video and issued a statement, one of positivity and unity.

"I assure you, my intention was never to create concern or negativity. Each word I spoke was meant to foster unity, not division. I have a blended family, and I cherish the bonds that tie us all together," the mayor wrote. "I recognize the powerful impact of words and their potential for misinterpretation, and for that, I sincerely apologize. Please understand that my ultimate goal is to nurture understanding and bring us closer as a community. I live, work, shop, worship, and dine with you all, and I am wholeheartedly committed to listening, learning, and collaborating with each of you so that we can move forward stronger than ever."

To her credit, the mayor's two terms have been marked by positivity and unity, which is why the video may have caught some people off-guard and surprised those who have followed her tenure as mayor.

Election season doesn't always bring out the best in candidates, and some may defer to a "divide in order to conquer" strategy by rallying their base voters and portraying others as "the enemy." The mayor didn't do anything that thousands of other political candidates in America did before her. But, that doesn't make it any less disappointing and unfortunate when it happens right here at home.

08/19/2025

Here are excerpts from the now-deleted social media video from Milledgeville Mayor Mary Parham-Copelan (August 2025).

After reading through the 200-something comments and also the conclusion from one of our new AI overlords, Baldwin2k New...
08/08/2025

After reading through the 200-something comments and also the conclusion from one of our new AI overlords, Baldwin2k News suggests building a new "4 over 1" at the Duckworth property, with commercial on the ground level and apartments for college kids on the upper levels, just so you could charge out the w***o for rent, giving you some wiggle room financially and allowing you to borrow some more money from a friendly bank. The centerpiece would be a Society Garden-style business with indoor seating and outdoor patio/garden seating.

In terms of parking, either ask City Hall nicely to convert the grassy area between Duckworth and the Golden Pantry into public parking, or buy the adjoining Gumby property with money that you borrowed from a friendly bank.

2025 is about to be revenge tour for JMA’s football program, and payback is a you-know-what!
08/08/2025

2025 is about to be revenge tour for JMA’s football program, and payback is a you-know-what!

The county government apparently has put out the road re-paving bat signal on Lake Laurel Road, which is good, because L...
08/07/2025

The county government apparently has put out the road re-paving bat signal on Lake Laurel Road, which is good, because Lake Laurel Road currently looks like an old-school Tetris board.

Tomorrow, if someone gave you the deed to the Duckworth property, 3 million dollars and the instructions to "build somet...
08/05/2025

Tomorrow, if someone gave you the deed to the Duckworth property, 3 million dollars and the instructions to "build something that everyone can use but also will be profitable," what would be your business plan?

07/23/2025

This is SPECTACULAR!

…

The Circle K on 49 looks like it started taking Ozempic and stopped taking care of Itself. What on earth happened, lol?
07/22/2025

The Circle K on 49 looks like it started taking Ozempic and stopped taking care of Itself. What on earth happened, lol?

The Milledgeville City Council is set to vote next week on whether or not to place a moratorium (press pause) on new con...
07/02/2025

The Milledgeville City Council is set to vote next week on whether or not to place a moratorium (press pause) on new convenience stores and vice marts in the city.

For anyone who thinks that all of these "lottery stores" and "to***co stores" and "food stores" make Milledgeville look more sketchy, this is probably welcome news.

Then, there's also the fact that so many of these vice marts set up shop near low-income neighborhoods and parts of town. For example, why are there two vice marts where people can play the machines right beside the Boddie projects? Why are so many of the vice marts concentrated on the southside of town? Why aren't there vice marts on Log Cabin Road or around Lake Sinclair?

Vice marts basically exploit the people who need the money the most but can least affort to lose it, and local advocacy groups (NAACP, etc.) have never seemed to have a strong opinion about this problem one way or the other. How does this fit into the concept of "economic justice?"

It will be interesting to see how the vote count turns out. We'll let you know how each City Council member voted after the meeting next week.

CLIFF'S NOTES of GBI press release – Thirteen people with Baldwin County addresses, just about all of them in their 40s ...
05/21/2025

CLIFF'S NOTES of GBI press release – Thirteen people with Baldwin County addresses, just about all of them in their 40s or 50s, arrested and charged with one count of racketeering, and "further indictments are expected." Not much detail offered in terms of what they were doing, aside from law enforcement "conducted this investigation to make an impact on the current street level drug distribution within Milledgeville, Baldwin County." Waco sheriff, Dublin PD and Warner Robins all helped out in some form or fashion.

ACTUAL GBI PRESS RELEASE: The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has arrested and charged multiple people in Milledgeville, Georgia, following a joint drug investigation involving the GBI Middle Georgia Gang Task Force (MGGTF), the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, the Milledgeville Police Department, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the Dublin Police Department, the Warner Robins Police Department, Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC), Georgia Department of Community Supervision (DCS), and the Georgia State Patrol.

After a 13-month investigation, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, GBI MGGTF executed arrest warrants on 13 individuals in Milledgeville, Baldwin County, GA.

The following people were arrested and charged:

Bobby Dean Dewberry, age 39, of Milledgeville, GA

Joseph Lee Harrison, age 46, of Milledgeville, GA

Cedeki Latredd Harris, age 51, of Milledgeville, GA

Tom Burgess III, age 50, of Milledgeville, GA

Akito Lajuan Brezial, age 51, of Milledgeville, GA

Kadarius Tra-von Marquis Wilson, age 21, of Milledgeville, GA

Cornelius Goodman, age 56, of Milledgeville, GA

Eric Dixon, age 47, of Gordon, GA

Dominique Cannie, age 34, of Irwinton, GA

De’Andre Derelle Morris, age 23, of Milledgeville, GA

Altouise Migule Harris, age 52, of Milledgeville, GA

Stacey Lynn Spires, age 52, of Milledgeville, GA

Nikia Eitchie Pinkston, age 44, of Milledgeville, GA

All individuals were charged with 1 Violation of the Racketeer Influence & Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act and further indictments are expected.

All individuals were booked into the Baldwin County Jail following their arrests.

The following 2 individuals are NOT in custody.
Tony Alfonso Wright, age 55, of Milledgeville, GA

Tyree Deshon Havior, age 33, of Tony Alfonso Milledgeville, GA

GBI-MGGT, the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, the Milledgeville Police Department, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the Dublin Police Department, the Warner Robins Police Department, GDC, DCS, and the Georgia State Patrol, conducted this investigation to make an impact on the current street level drug distribution within Milledgeville, Baldwin County and promote a safer place for productive citizens.

If you have information related to drug/gang activity, please call GBI-MGGTF at (478) 207-1301. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS(8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app. All tips are welcome, but keep in mind detailed information is needed in order to act.

The Middle Georgia Gang Task Force covers Middle and South Georgia.

31SNOW61: Sampling of snow storm January 2025 pics from around Milledgeville and Baldwin County...
01/22/2025

31SNOW61: Sampling of snow storm January 2025 pics from around Milledgeville and Baldwin County...

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