Sam Olens covers a lot of ground during his visit to Gilmer including where we are on Obama Care-Foreclosure Fraud-Water Litigation in Georgia and also informs us on the issue of Sex Trafficking citing Metro Atlanta as the hub for the Southeast.
fetchyournews.com brings you video coverage segments on topics covered by our Attorney General during his time spent with us in Gilmer County. The next subject was health care and Sam Olens said “I specifically stated that upon becoming your Attorney General we would join the lawsuit of Florida and we did, in fact six new states joined that lawsuit.” He went on to explain several parts of the health care bill were found unconstitutional. One of the main unconstitutional issues with the health care bill was the mandate that would tax citizens for failure to buy a product. Since there were expedited appeals in this case, Mr. Olens believes this has potential of sending a loud message in the fall months in 2012.

Attorney General Sam Olens – Part 3 from Fetch on Vimeo.

Mr. Olens spoke about HB200 telling us that “Metro Atlanta in Georgia is the hub of sex trafficking for the Southeast.” He told us a story about man at a car dealer in Dodge County making a deal for a man to have sex monthly with a 14 year old in lieu of a $281 dollar car payment. For the moment that carries a maximum sentence for sex trafficking of ten years and right now it doesn’t matter if the child is kidnapped or suffers at the hands of parents, its sex trafficking either way.

Another bill HB237 addresses foreclosure fraud, Mr. Olens said “as we sit here today the Attorney General and the District Attorneys do not have authority to handle foreclosure fraud.” “In 2005 we were given authority for “mortgage fraud” but no one thought in 2005 about foreclosure fraud.” So they have introduced a bill that has passed the house and had a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee that passed 8 to 2. The bill would give the Attorney General and District Attorneys subpoena authority to assist them with those cases. A third bill they are currently working on is HB181 regarding property rights. Mr. Olens told us “we are doing well with the legislative agenda.”

The water litigation has been a huge issue for Georgia and Mr. Olens told us “we had the oral argument about 2-3 weeks ago in the 11th Circuit and while you hesitate to comment on a case prior to reading the decision the Judge’s questions were very good for Georgia” “two of the Judge’s literally looked to the Corp of Engineers’ attorney and said would you be upset if we remanded this case back to the trial court and ask the trial court to direct the Corp of Engineers to do it’s job which is to update the water manuals that date to when I was 2 years old.” “The water is in our State, the question is do we get to use the water that’s in our State and that’s a huge issue.”

Sam Olens speak to Gilmer County