Georgia lawmakers will likely consider legislation requiring social media companies to help crack down on cyberbullying.
Lt. Governor Burt Jones and Senate Majority Caucus Chair Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, plan to introduce legislation for lawmakers to consider during the 2024 legislative Session to require social media companies to take “concrete steps” to verify their users’ ages.
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Atlanta received a failing grade for its charter school funding gap.
A new report from the School Choice Demonstration Project, an educational research project within the University of Arkansas’ Department of Education Reform, examined funding disparities between traditional public schools and public charter schools in 18 cities nationwide.
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The State of Georgia broke records for the third year in a row in regards to economic development as total investments in facility expansions and new locations totaled more than $24 billion during fiscal year 2023 (FY23).
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Earlier this year, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed House Bill 118 and House Bill 622 to triple Bartow County’s homestead tax exemptions for school and county ad valorem taxes.
But property owners across the Peach State have seen their property tax bills balloon. State Rep. Matthew Gambill, R-Cartersville, spoke with The Center Square recently about property taxes and what action state lawmakers might take.
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Students that attend Fulton County Schools and DeKalb County Schools were met with new security improvements including weapon detection systems and push-button alert systems.
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An inmate who was in charge of coordinating a shipment of methamphetamine from Atlanta into Western North Carolina and the leader of a Savannah-area drug trafficking conspiracy were both sentenced to federal prison this week
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A Fulton County grand jury has indicted eight former state employees on unemployment insurance fraud charges.
Prosecutors say the eight submitted false claims and weekly certifications to the Georgia Department of Labor during the COVID-19 pandemic to receive unemployment insurance benefits when employed by the state. According to the State of Georgia Office of the Inspector General, the eight received $170,931 in unemployment insurance benefits and federal supplements.
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South Korean company Duckshin Housing announced this week it will invest more than $15 million to establish its first U.S. manufacturing presence in Athens.
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The family of Lashawn Thompson reached a $4 million settlement with Fulton County in the death of Thompson, who was found dead in a cell on the county jail’s psychiatric floor covered in bed bugs and insects last year.
Fulton County commissioners voted six to zero to approve the family’s settlement, 11 Alive reported. The outlet noted that the settlement comes two months after the family released the results of a private autopsy of Thompson, which showed that he died from “severe neglect.”
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Throughout the United States, it takes three times as many hours of training to become a nail technician, a barber, or a plumber as it does to become a police officer.
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Election security will likely remain a hot-button issue in Georgia when lawmakers return to the Gold Dome in January and heading into the 2024 election.
Last week, Lt. Governor Burt Jones met with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans, to discuss a 2021 report by Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer science and engineering professor. The Georgia Republican Party has raised concerns about the report, which it said uncovered vulnerabilities.
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Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday was indicted as part of a special counsel Jack Smith’s federal grand jury probe into his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results and the former president’s role in the subsequent Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
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The Georgia Republican Party announced on Wednesday that it has launched a website defending the contingent electors for former President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election as they have been targeted by the Fulton County district attorney’s investigation.
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While Georgia public school students’ Georgia Milestones scores are improving, state officials said results have not yet reached pre-pandemic levels.
According to officials, results improved or remained steady in 13 of 21 assessments.
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Georgia lawmakers are likely to pass school choice legislation when they reconvene, one expert predicts.
School choice has taken on new resonance after Rep. Mesha Mainor of Atlanta, an ardent school choice supporter, announced she was switching to the Republican Party.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has filed an amicus brief in a highly visible U.S. Supreme Court case that could overturn a standing practice that gives federal agencies the power to interpret statutes.
Kemp, a Republican, filed his brief in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which seeks to overturn the so-called Chevron deference established by the 1984 decision in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. It compels federal judges to defer to federal agencies’ interpretations in “ambiguous situations” as long as the interpretation is “reasonable.”
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Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani concedes that he made “false” and “defamatory” statements about two Georgia election workers who filed a lawsuit against him in an effort to resolve the case and to satisfy a judge who has considered issuing sanctions against the former New York City mayor.
The court document filed late Tuesday evening states that Giuliani “does not contest” four allegations made in a defamation case brought by Georgia election workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Wandrea “Shaye” Moss against the former Trump attorney and the conservative outlet One America News Network.
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A 68-year-old woman who was fired from her job at Lowe’s for attempting to stop an active robbery has been reinstated, according to a statement by a Lowe’s spokesperson.
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The Northern District of Georgia U.S. Attorney’s Office organized an initiative to provide law enforcement training for more than 40 police officers from school systems in the northern district of Georgia to prevent and reduce delinquency, youth violence, and gang membership.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office partnered with the Georgia Alliance for School Resource Officers and Educators, the Georgia Public Safety Training Center, and the Georgia Gang Investigators Association to provide the officers with Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.).
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Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office is warning Georgians affected by the recent severe weather of scammers trying to exploit the disaster.
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Special Counsel Jack Smith has contacted Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp regarding the investigation of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
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A Japanese probiotic beverage company recently announced it will establish operations in the Peach State by building a production facility at a Georgia Ready for Accelerated Development (GRAD) Certified site in Cartersville.
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Georgia’s unemployment rate continues to remain lower than the national rate.
On Thursday, officials said the Peach State’s June rate was 3.2%, the same as May’s revised rate and lower than the national average of 3.6%.
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recently announced the removal of 191,473 voter registration records that have been in an “inactive” status for two general elections and have failed to update their records within that time.
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Atlanta officials want state lawmakers to punish railroads for blocking grade crossings, but a leading state lawmaker says there is nothing the state can do.
The Atlanta City Council’s Transportation Committee passed a measure to advocate for punishing railroads that block grade crossings for prolonged periods. The measure, which the city council will consider the measure during its Aug. 7 meeting, calls on the Georgia General Assembly and Congress to pass legislation limiting how long freight trains can block a grade crossing.
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VoterGA, a nonprofit election integrity organization, has launched an effort urging voters to call on Georgia State lawmakers to call a special session and vote to unplug the state’s Dominion Voting System before the next election.
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The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday unanimously rejected a bid from former President Donald Trump’s legal team to block an investigation from Fulton Country District Attorney Fani Willis into his efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential election results in the Peach State.
Trump’s team filed the request on Friday, after previously filing a similar bid in the Fulton County Superior Court, The Hill reported. That the lower court has yet to decide the matter formed the basis of the Supreme Court’s refusal.
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Georgia’s Supreme Court has denied a request to hear an appeal challenging the bond agreement state officials used to lure a controversial electric vehicle manufacturing project to the state.
At issue is a deal the Georgia Department of Economic Development and the Joint Development Authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton and Walton struck to give $1.5 billion in incentives to electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian Automotive. The company is building a $5 billion plant in Morgan and Newton counties.
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Georgia reported decreased monthly tax collections for the fourth consecutive month.
Georgia’s net tax collections of more than $2.8 billion in June decreased 0.4 percent, or $10.9 million, compared to a year ago. The Peach State reported decreased tax collections in March, April and May.
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An Atlanta City Council committee has passed a measure to advocate for punishing railroads that block grade crossings for prolonged periods, the latest salvo in an ongoing dispute between railroads and communities nationwide.
The Atlanta measure calls on the Georgia General Assembly and Congress to pass legislation limiting how long freight trains can block a grade crossing.
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A U.S. senator from Georgia is introducing legislation to crack down on fentanyl trafficking.
On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, announced the Fentanyl Trafficking Prevention Act, which could slap social media companies with criminal penalties of up to $10 million for facilitating the illicit distribution or dispensing of cocaine, methamphetamine, opioids and synthetic opioids. According to a news release from Ossoff’s office, these actions already run afoul of service providers’ terms of service.
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Kia plans to spend more than $200 million to accommodate the assembly of its new electric SUV at its west Georgia facility.
State officials said the project will create roughly 200 new jobs at Kia’s West Point plant, Kia Corporation’s first manufacturing site in North America. When assembly of the EV9 starts in the second quarter of 2024, it will be the fifth model to be assembled at Kia Georgia.
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The election integrity group VoterGA has announced its support for the recently-introduced American Confidence in Elections (ACE) Act in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Georgia State Representative Mesha Mainor (R-Atlanta) announced Tuesday her decision to leave the Democrat Party and join the Republican Party.
Mainor said her decision was based on morals, not politics, adding, “I will NEVER apologize for being a black woman with a mind of my own.”
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Georgia’s Qualified Education Expense Tax Credit (QEEC) could save the state and local school districts millions of dollars in expenses.
However, the Georgia Department of Audits & Accounts could not determine the exact fiscal impact because the “switcher rate” — the number of scholarship recipients who would have attended a public school without a Student Scholarship Organizations scholarship — is unknown.
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The Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice should improve its data collection and analysis and increase its management oversight.
Those are among the findings of a new audit from the Georgia Department of Audits & Accounts.
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Miami-based agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, working with Border Patrol agents, arrested 18 criminal foreign nationals who they say pose a danger to their communities.
The four-day operation was conducted from June 26 to June 30 by officials working in ICE ERO Miami Stuart suboffice. The majority arrested are Guatemalan citizens, followed by citizens of Mexico, Honduras, Brazil and Saint Lucia.
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South Fulton, Georgia, Mayor Khalid Kamau was arrested and charged with first-degree burglary and criminal trespass after entering a home that he says he thought was abandoned. Kamau (pictured above) was booked into the Fulton County Jail on Saturday and released that same day after posting $11,000 in bond, records show.
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