Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) was recently elected by members of the State Legislative Leaders Foundation to serve as the first National Chairman of the Majority Leaders Conference. The Majority Leaders Conference is part of the State Legislative Leaders Foundation. By way of position, 99 Majority Leaders will participate in the conference, which is slated to be held in 2013.

Public pension liabilities, long-term debt commitments, accounting and compliance issues, and pension fund returns will be discussed during a day-long event, “Tragedy (or Not?) of the Commons: Have State and Local Governments Over Committed to Pensions, OPEB (Other Post Employment Benefits) and Debt?” on Thursday, June 2, at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State. The event runs from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the school’s 7th Floor Seminar Room, 14 Marietta St., NW, in downtown Atlanta. The event is free and open to the public, although reservations are required. Contact mdoers@gsu.edu for reservations.

In recent months, the terrain of political transitions in Africa has changed dramatically. Popular, people-power movements, and peaceful demonstrations have toppled long-reigning regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, and the 40-year old dictatorship of Muammar al-Gaddafi is on the verge of collapse.  Diplomats, international electioneers, pro-democracy advocates and conflict management scholars will convene May 13 at Kennesaw State University to discuss some 40 elections that  will take place in at least 25 African countries this year. Kennesaw State’s Center for Conflict Management will host the all-day symposium which is free and open to the public, but registration is encouraged.

“It is appropriate and overdue that the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee is probing how the tax-exempt AARP stands to reap a billion dollar reward over the next decade as Obamacare destroys the competition to the products it endorses,” says Phil Kent, the CEO of the American Seniors Association (ASA) representing millions of members nationwide.

Karl Gerth, a renowned historian of modern Chinese history at Oxford University, will speak April 18 on the transformation of the Chinese consumer as the country grows in size and impact on the global stage. The conversation between Gerth and GSU President Mark Becker will be held at 3 p.m. in the Speakers Auditorium of the university's Student Center located at Courtland and Gilmer streets. The event is free and open to the public.

The World Affairs Council of Atlanta will host a conversation between Richard W. Fisher, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and Dennis P. Lockhart, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, at Georgia State University's Student Center on Monday, April 18, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Lockhart is chairman of the council. The topic of the event is "Making Monetary Policy in a Globalized World." Fisher and Lockhart will examine the role of globalization in the financial crisis and recovery, and how the process of deepening economic integration between countries alters the environment in which U.S. monetary policy decisions are made.

Health care reform and immigration laws will be among the many topics explored at the the UGA School of Law’s sixth annual Working in the Public Interest Law Conference, on Friday and Saturday, April 1 – 2, in Athens. The conference will get underway on April 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the Melting Point in downtown Athens. The Saturday morning plenary will focus on the current backlog of judicial nominations in the U.S. Senate. Other topics to be discussed that day include the impact of the new heath care legislation, the regulation of illegal immigrant hiring, criminal defense attorneys and immigration laws, video games’ potential affects on childhood violence, discrimination against the elderly, and improving postsecondary school success.

The University of Georgia Center for International Trade and Security will host “The Human Dimension of Nuclear Security” on March 30, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m., at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Ave., Washington, D.C. At the recent Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, the human element of nuclear security was emphasized as a critical contributing factor to better nuclear security. This event is open to the public. Space is limited. To RSVP, contact Andrea Pries at a.pries@cits.uga.edu. For more information, see http//:uga.edu/cits.

The UGA School of Law’s 107th Sibley Lecture will explore the aftermath of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 as well as the current vulnerability of the U.S. financial system. Featuring Columbia University’s John C. Coffee Jr., the lecture will take place March 28 at 3:30 p.m. in the law school’s Hatton Lovejoy Courtroom. The event is free and open to the public. Coffee, who will present "Death, Taxes and Systemic Risk: Dealing with the Inevitable," is considered a legal authority on numerous financial subjects and is the Adolf A. Berle Professor at Columbia Law School as well as the director of the school’s Center on Corporate Governance.

A new Georgia State University report shows how Georgia’s tax structure has evolved over time and changes in the state and local tax burden per capita. Georgia ranks 49th in the nation in terms of total taxes per capita as compared to other states and 50th – lowest in the nation – in “own source” revenues that exclude federal grants and fees from utility operations.

Legal and environmental issues currently affecting the Georgia coast will be the focus of the University of Georgia School of Law's 23rd Annual Red Clay Conference. Titled "Coastal Change: A ‘Shore' Thing," the conference will take place March 4 beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Larry Walker Room of Dean Rusk Hall. This conference will address a variety of significant legal and environmental issues affecting the Georgia coast, with a focus on the tension between increasing development and its environmental impacts, said second-year law student and conference co-chair Lindsey M. Green.

A University of Georgia researcher has found that Georgia’s forestlands provide essential ecosystem services to the state worth an estimated $37 billion annually. This is in addition to the value of timber, forest products and recreation. This is the first time these indirect benefits of Georgia’s private forests have been estimated. The study was conducted with funding from the Georgia Forestry Foundation. The findings of the study were announced at the state Capitol this morning.

UGA will report its findings on the value of Georgia forests to Gov. Nathan Deal at Georgia Forestry Day at the Capitol on Wednesday, Feb. 9, at 10:30 a.m. in the north lobby of the state Capitol. Scheduled to be unveiled are findings by Rebecca Moore, an assistant professor in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources,who recently completed a three-year study on the value of the ecosystem benefits Georgia’s forests provides to the state. This is the first report of its kind on Georgia forests. Deal is scheduled to speak during the media briefing.

Indian Ambassador to the United States Meera Shankar will be among an array of business leaders, foreign policy, government and medical experts to address future ties between India and the United States at the second annual Emerging India Summit Feb. 24-25 at Emory University. Shankar will deliver the keynote address on “Why India Matters" at the summit, which is organized by a team of Emory faculty and students from across the university to help showcase the paradigm shift in the world from developed to emerging economies. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Five collections from veteran policy makers—congressional and state office holders and the previous mayor of Athens—have been given to the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at the University of Georgia. Tommy Irvin and Michael Thurmond, former Georgia commissioners of agriculture and labor, respectively; former congressmen John Linder and Jim Marshall; and Heidi Davison, the former mayor of Athens, have donated documents and memorabilia to the Russell Library, which houses materials from more than 300 politicians, political parties, public policy organizations, federal and state appointees, and political observers and activists from modern Georgia (1900-present).

The University of Georgia School of Law’s Dean Rusk Center and the Terry College of Business will sponsor a daylong conference titled “The Future of International Trade: An American Perspective” on Feb. 18. The event will explore where the United States currently stands and its future with regard to international trade. Free and open to the public, the conference will be held in the Larry Walker Room of Dean Rusk Hall.

Jerome H. Schiele, associate dean and professor in the University of Georgia School of Social Work, released Social Welfare Policy: Regulation and Resistance Among People of Color this January. The book, edited by Schiele, is a collection of manuscripts by various authors who frame social welfare policy in the United States from a racism-centered viewpoint and discuss how people of color have organized to resist those policies.

Leading experts on Haiti and international development will convene at Georgia State University at 8 a.m. Feb. 2 in the Troy Moore Library on the ninth floor of the General Classroom Building. The one-day Haiti conference will include more than 20 scholars, who will share and assess the psychological responses and trauma in the country after the catastrophic 2010 earthquake, the cholera epidemic that ensued, the quality of global governance in response to the crisis, the economy, and politics. The speakers include Robert Fatton, the Julia A. Cooper professor of government and foreign affairs at the University of Virginia.