Latest Stories By Willoughby Mariano

Trust your Truth-O-Meter and Deal-O-Meter to master topics as different as fiscal responsibility, President Ronald Reagan and landfill waste.

Last week, the Truth-O-Meter examined an attack that blamed two Democratic congressmen from Georgia for the nation’s fiscal problems.  

It also performed a second check of former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s knowledge of Reagan history. The Republican presidential candidate keeps name-dropping the conservative hero. Now, he’s comparing himself to him.

To top it off, the Deal-O-Meter rated a promise by Gov. Nathan Deal that he will reduce landfill waste.  

Watch out. PolitiFact Georgia’s a quick study.

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PolitiFact Georgia sent the Truth-O-Meter on assignment last week. Its destination: the past.

It traveled to the civil rights era to assess whether Birmingham was truly the "cradle of the civil rights movement." It visited President Ronald Reagan’s successful 1980 campaign to check a claim by former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and stopped during Reconstruction’s early days to look at similarities between current Georgia immigration laws and the infamous Black Codes.

Then our gizmo, ever tireless, roved the fields of current-day South Georgia to check out a pilot program that uses probationers to ease a labor shortage. Abbreviated versions of those fact-checks can be found below.

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Presidential campaign politics put the Truth-O-Meter on overdrive.

Two of Georgia’s sons are angling for the 2012 Republican nomination for president, and they  gave us plenty of fodder last week. We took on statements by former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich on government waste and right-to-work states, and former radio host and Godfather’s  Pizza CEO Herman Cain on Islamic law.

We also marked a milestone. The Deal-O-Meter handed Gov. Nathan Deal his first "Promise Broken." Deal accepted a perk from Delta airline, which broke his policy on accepting gifts.

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Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich keeps on calling President Barack Obama the "food stamp president."

Never mind that the Truth-O-Meter rated this label Half True in May.

PolitiFact Georgia kept our Truth-O-Meter handy for Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s appearance at the Atlanta Press Club Wednesday.

It served us well. The former U.S. House speaker made claims during the breakfast talk that the Truth-O-Meter previously checked.

U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston of Savannah recently dusted off an old talking point to argue for cuts to the Food and Drug Administration's budget.

Unfortunately for him, that talking point nearly flunked the Truth-O-Meter test back in January.

Opponents think the cuts Kingston supports will set back a historic tightening of food safety rules, said a Washington Post article published Thursday.

Kingston argued that federal budget cuts are necessary, but the safety rules are not.

From the pizza trade to sports management, the Truth-O-Meter was up to all sorts of business last week.

We began with a fact check on the corporate track record of Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain at Godfather’s Pizza. We followed with checks on wages in Georgia’s agriculture business and economic recovery data.

To wrap up the workweek, we covered crime and the business of football. Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, welcome to the Truth-O-Meter. 

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The truth was scarce in Georgia politics last week.

PolitiFact Georgia’s scribes struggled to find scraps of truth in statements on the reapportionment process, Gwinnett schools, Muslims in a potential Cabinet for presidential candidate Herman Cain, and trauma centers.

But it was nearly for naught. We gave three Barely Trues and one Pants on Fire. It was the second time Cain’s britches have burned since he began hinting at his presidential ambitions.

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Break out the bubbly. Despite the best efforts of politicians, PolitiFact Georgia has made it to its first birthday.

The Truth-O-Meter had a colorful inaugural year. We covered 2010 midterm election high jinks, the struggling economy, the Georgia immigration debate and even a claim about zombies at the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Political luminaries such as former Gov. Roy Barnes registered their discontent publicly.

You were kind enough to read our work- - especially on zombies and presidential candidate Herman Cain, according to our top five list of fact checks by Web page views:

1. The Walking Dead: In the case of a catastrophic event, the Atlanta-area offices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will self-destruct. Dec. 5, 2010

2.  NFL Players Association: A National Football League lockout would cost Atlanta $160 million in lost jobs and revenue. Nov. 22, 2010

3. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: "Very, very, very few people get a pat-down" when they go through airport security, May 7, 2011

4. Herman Cain: In the U.S. Constitution, "there’s a little section in there that talks about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." May 21, 2011

5. Herman Cain: Said Planned Parenthood’s early objective was to "help kill black babies before they came into the world." March 15, 2011

And now, to celebrate, here’s a sampling of a few of our more memorable fact-checks. 

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With the entry of former pizza CEO and talk show host Herman Cain into the 2012 presidential race, our fair state now boasts two presidential prospects.

This means PolitiFact Georgia has the pleasure of checking both of them.

Newt Gingrich, whose campaign offices are in Buckhead, earned a True on health care. Cain scored a Mostly True on his claim about food stamp use and False on a gaffe about the U.S. Constitution. 

Not to ignore national politics, we gave U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi a Pants on Fire for a chart she posted about the national debt. Her Republican counterpart, U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, earned a Mostly True for a statement he made on U.S. coal to the Atlanta Press Club.

Run, Georgia, run!

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PolitiFact Georgia has you covered on homeland security.

The Obama administration trumpeted its reputation on border security recently, so last week, we checked claims about Transportation and Security Administration pat-downs and the border fence.

We also switched on our Deal-O-Meter to check whether Gov. Nathan Deal’s signature on Arizona-style immigration enforcement legislation means he kept a campaign promise.

For variety, we checked Deal on a claim about the cost of childhood obesity and presidential prospect Newt Gingrich on President Barack Obama and food stamps.

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Truthiness was in critical condition at PolitiFact Georgia last week.

Our team published three fact checks in a row on health care. The first from presidential hopeful Herman Cain on CT scans flat-lined. One by U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia on Internal Revenue Service agents and the health care overhaul was DOA.

Another by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about hospital care survived and is in good condition.

Even on issues outside of health care, truthiness looked at least a little bit puny. A claim by Donald Trump that the U.S. no longer builds bridges needed major surgery, as did a statement by MARTA’s chairman that the transit system is getting safer.

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