[Reporting for News Team One]

Georgia – It was very recently that I received some news that a transgender guy who wore wigs and heavy makeup had committed suicide while in-patient at a mental health facility in Lawrenceville, Georgia and that the entire episode was covered-up so that the local newspeople could not get ahold of the details about the suicide and who was to blame, besides, of course, the decedent him or herself.

I understand HIPAA violations and the rights of the family of the deceased regarding his personal medical history.

The part I didn’t get is how the State of Georgia was able to help the hospital cover up the entire story and shove it under a blanket, especially since this hospital does collect federal funds in the form of Medicaid and Medicare and should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The First Amendment does not give the Media or the Press any special ‘rights’ to freedom of expression, speech, or to information that is not available to the general public. Check.

In the State of Georgia, the Open Records Act states “The [Georgia] General Assembly finds and declares that the strong public policy of this state is in favor of open government; that open government is essential to a free, open, and democratic society; and that public access to public records should be encouraged to foster confidence in government and so that the public can evaluate the expenditure of public funds and the efficient and proper functioning of its institutions. The General Assembly further finds and declares that there is a strong presumption that public records should be made available for public inspection without delay.

This article shall be broadly construed to allow the inspection of governmental records. The exceptions set forth in this article, together with any other exception located elsewhere in the Code, shall be interpreted narrowly to exclude only those portions of records addressed by such exception.”

Nope, no ability to demand the records in that Act.

This is what the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in November of 2011: “Georgia’s Open Records Act does not exempt the hospital reports from public disclosure requirements. But rather than seek a change in the law, a state regulatory board instead declared the reports confidential by adopting administrative rules — an approach that open government advocates find of questionable legality. “The public has a keen interest in this kind of data,” said Hollie Manheimer, executive director of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, “and the public needs to be informed.”

The AJC also stated: “If such reviews were made public, “nobody would investigate anything,” said Evelyn Baram-Clothier, executive director of the American Medical Foundation for Peer Review and Education, based in Philadelphia. “They’d bury everything under the carpet.

This gives an opportunity for fresh air to get into the system.”

The illustrious Governor of Georgia, Nathan Deal, has been the lone ranger behind numerous shady acts involving money in this state since before he was elected, and this, too, this cover-up happened on his watch.

It isn’t that far-fetched to discover that he has his hands in the pot at some privately-owned hospitals and facilities, too — probably one of the biggest reasons they don’t want any “federal revenoo-ers” nosing around in Georgia’s high-falutin’ insurance business with the “Obamacare” Act.

They could really care less about healthcare one way or the other — when it becomes that important for a state government to help shut down an investigation of this kind, somebody’s hand is in the multi-million dollar pot of gold on the other side of the rainbow.

If you find Nathan “In-A-Deal’s” name connected to this private hospital entity which is entirely snatching up their portion of Medicaid and Medicare funds, also; don’t even bother acting shocked.

The Republican’s president, Massachusett’s own Mitt Romney with his Bain Capital issues, should have been in prison a long time ago for doing the same thing.