Thirteen of 14 incumbents representing Georgia in the U.S. House of Representatives have leads in fundraising with 101 days to go.
None of the seats occupied by nine Republicans and five Democrats are forecast to impact the party majority in the chamber.
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While property taxes continue to rise in many jurisdictions across Georgia, voters will have a chance to cap how much home values can rise for property tax purposes.
“Monthly costs for Georgians, from the north Georgia mountains to the coast, continue to rise,” Lt. Governor Burt Jones said in a statement last month. “During record high inflation, skyrocketing debt and expenses rising every day, local governments should be focused on bringing costs down – not letting them increase.”
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A poll released Thursday and conducted after President Joe Biden dropped his bid for reelection shows former President Donald Trump leading Vice President Kamala Harris in the battleground states Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Michigan, while the former president is tied with the vice president in Wisconsin.
The New Emerson College pollsters found Trump enjoys his greatest lead in Arizona, where they determined 49 percent of voters support him while just 44 percent back Harris.
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The trial against a former Colorado elections clerk over her efforts combating election fraud is set to begin on Monday.
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As Georgia Democrats rally around Vice President Kamala Harris to replace President Joe Biden on the Democratic presidential ticket, Republicans say democracy is threatened.
“They got him. Not today democracy, not today,” posted U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, a Republican, immediately following Biden’s announcement.
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Georgia Democrats have filed a federal lawsuit against Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, saying a measure he signed three years ago that allows him to effectively “sidestep” campaign finance restrictions.
Kemp signed Senate Bill 221 into law in May 2021. Under the so-called “LC Law,” some politicians can chair leadership committees and receive contributions from their members or supporters.
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Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) revealed on Friday that U.S. Secret Service whistleblowers approached his office to inform him the agency assigned Department of Homeland Security (DHS) personnel who were not part of the Secret Service to protect former President Donald Trump during the Pennsylvania rally where he suffered an assassination attempt.
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Georgia plans to spend about 40% of the $1.5 billion in additional transportation funding lawmakers approved on increasing the Georgia Department of Transportation’s capital construction program.
In January, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp announced a plan to include an additional $1.5 billion in the state’s amended fiscal 2024 budget for the Georgia Department of Transportation for projects that “directly help move commuters and freight.”
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Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper during his failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last Saturday, was reportedly diagnosed with major depressive disorder prior to his death.
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A sniper from one of the local law enforcement agencies providing assistance at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 14 saw Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old shooter who was killed at the scene, and photographed the would-be assassin immediately prior to his attack, a Wednesday report claims.
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The U.S. Secret Service last Saturday “created the conditions” for 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks to climb onto the roof of a building and take aim at former President Donald Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally “deliberately and with malice aforethought,” argued The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis, who led a series of criticisms against the agency on Tuesday.
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Federal lawmakers from Georgia announced legislation they said would help pay for Atlanta’s water infrastructure upgrades.
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both D-Georgia, introduced the City of Atlanta Water Infrastructure Enhancement Act. U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Georgia, introduced a companion piece in the U.S. House.
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The Democratic National Committee confirmed the transfer of $15 million to battleground states after former President Donald Trump selected Senator JD Vance (R-OH) to serve as his vice president on the Republican ticket for president in 2024.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the party claimed the transfers to local parties would increase state coordination and give President Joe Biden a better shot at retaining the White House in November.
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Conversations by The Pennsylvania Daily Star with around two dozen neighbors near the house where Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump, lived painted a picture of a family that mostly keeps to itself and a young man who had little interaction with the neighborhood.
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A federal judge sentenced Georgia’s former state insurance commissioner to more than three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges that he participated in a health care fraud scheme.
U.S. District Judge Steve C. Jones sentenced John W. Oxendine, 62, of Port St. Joe, Florida, to three years and six months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The former elected official must also pay $760,175.34 in restitution and a fine of $25,000.
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An attendee at former President Donald Trump’s Saturday rally in Butler, Pennsylvania told The Pennsylvania Daily Star that attendees feared the shooter stood among the crowd, and they felt relief only when Trump rose to his feet and raised his fist.
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Tony Bendele, a social media creator and trained firefighter in Pennsylvania, claimed he resigned his position as a captain in the Sunbury Fire Department on Monday after he expressed disappointment when an attempted assassin failed to kill former President Donald Trump at the Saturday rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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The founder of Coalition for Liberty, the organization funding a lawsuit brought by a Georgia realtor who was fired after making a public speech about sexually explicit materials in public libraries, told The Georgia Star News that cancel culture will be defeated when activists learn “everyday Americans” have the support of groups like his.
Coalition for Liberty is funding the lawsuit filed by Julie Mauck against LGBT activists and an activist organization, which she states made false claims about her July 2023 speech in opposition to the reading materials.
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Georgia realtor Julie Mauck was fired by her broker and accused by the Georgia Association of Realtors of engaging in discrimination after she claims a group of cancel culture activists made false claims about her remarks at a July 2023 open meeting at a public library, where she discussed the availability of sexually explicit reading materials for children.
Mauck eventually found a new broker and secured the backing of Coalition for Liberty, a nonprofit that partners with other organizations to help individuals respond to cancel culture, and successfully won an appeal to maintain her license.
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The independent presidential campaigns of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West had both submitted thousands of signatures by Tuesday to secure a place on the 2024 presidential ballot in Georgia, meaning Peach State voters may see six choices on their ballot in November.
While the West campaign claimed on Monday it had already submitted the required number of ballots, Kennedy’s campaign was photographed submitting thousands of ballots on Tuesday, when Georgia Secretary of State official Gabriel Sterling confirmed the signatures have yet to be verified.
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Atlanta officials are considering a new tax to target neglected properties that result in “blighted conditions and disinvestment” in some Atlanta neighborhoods.
Mayor Andre Dickens, working with Councilmember Byron Amos, announced legislation to create a “blight tax.” If approved, the legislation would allow the municipal court to tax neglected properties, which officials said would change the “economics of neglectful land speculation.”
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Democrats could face legal challenges in Georgia should they attempt replace President Joe Biden on the November ballot, according to an analysis of state election laws published ahead of his poor debate performance against President Donald Trump on June 27.
The analysis, published to the social media platform X by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project days prior to the debate, notes Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin “have specific procedures for withdrawal of a presidential nominee,” with each state differing on when a withdrawal must be filed and who can replace the nominee.
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Georgia’s Secretary of State’s office should take additional action to ensure it meets federal reporting and inventory requirements tied to federal election grants.
The Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts included the finding in a new audit following a March 2022 examination.
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A panel of five New York appeals court judges this week unanimously disbarred former President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, over statements he made about election illegalities in the 2020 presidential election.
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Georgia Democratic Party chair and U.S. Representative Nikema Williams (D-GA-05) stated in a Wednesday interview that President Joe Biden is ultimately the “only person” who will determine whether to step down and allow another Democrat to face former President Donald Trump in November.
Williams was asked about Biden’s political future in the aftermath of his poor debate performance during an interview with 11 Alive, when the Democrat explained, “Biden is the only person who can make the decision,” and confirmed she will support the 81-year-old president until he makes such a choice.
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A federal judge on Friday afternoon halted part of a new state law barring charitable bail from taking effect while a legal challenge proceeds.
U.S. District Judge Victoria Marie Calvert issued a temporary restraining order for 14 days following a Friday hearing. The ACLU of Georgia and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center filed the lawsuit asking a judge to declare Section 4 of Georgia Senate Bill 63 unconstitutional.
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A federal grand jury has indicted the Newton County Board of Commissioners chairman and a commissioner-elect on federal charges of conspiring to launder money obtained from wire fraud and honest services wire fraud.
A federal grand jury indicted Marcello Banes, 48, of Covington, the board’s chair, and Stephanie Lindsey, 52, of Covington, a real estate broker and attorney who was elected to the county commission earlier this month, on conspiracy to launder money obtained from wire fraud and honest services wire fraud and money laundering. The grand jury also indicted Lindsey for federal income tax fraud and Banes for making materially false statements to FBI special agents.
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A federal judge is weighing whether to grant a preliminary injunction to halt a Georgia law targeting organized online retail crimes set to take effect on Monday.
Earlier this month, NetChoice filed a lawsuit over Senate Bill 472, the “Combating Organized Retail Crime Act.” Proponents of the measure, which Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed on May 6, say it protects businesses against organized online retail crimes.
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The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta remains “quite optimistic that things are heading in the right direction.”
In a video message posted Thursday alongside a longer-form piece, Raphael Bostic, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said that after the inflation rate declined rapidly in the second half of 2023, it seemed to stall early this year.
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A Monday poll found former President Donald Trump holds a five-point lead over President Joe Biden in Georgia ahead of the Thursday presidential debate in Atlanta, which will mark the first time the presidents have shared a stage since their final debate prior to the 2020 election.
The poll found Trump has the support of 43 percent of Peach State voters, giving him a five-percent lead over Joe Biden, who had just 38 percent of support.
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The Georgia Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that Douglas County Probate Judge Christina Peterson should be removed from the bench following a recent nightclub arrest.
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Two groups have filed a federal lawsuit to stop elements of a state law they say bars charitable bail activity.
The ACLU of Georgia and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University Law Center filed the lawsuit on Friday, asking a judge to declare Section 4 of Georgia Senate Bill 63 unconstitutional and issue a temporary restraining order barring the law from taking effect on July 1.
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The fiscal 2025 budget, which Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed, includes $9.2 million for the Child and Parent Services Program and pay increases for direct care workers.
According to a national organization of family caregivers, the rate increases lawmakers passed are $6 per hour for direct care workers helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and $3 per hour for direct care workers supporting older adults.
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Georgia’s unemployment rate increased slightly in May, hitting 3.2%, up from a revised 3.1% in April, and a leading Georgia business group said inflation is still challenging many businesses.
However, the Peach State’s unemployment rate was lower than the national unemployment rate of 4%, Georgia officials touted.
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Georgia continues to report tax collections lower than a year ago, with May’s collections down by more than 1% as the state heads toward the end of the fiscal year, new numbers reveal.
Georgia officials said the state’s net tax collections in May surpassed $2.4 billion. However, that is a decrease of 1.1% or $26.3 million compared to last May, when net tax collections approached $2.5 billion.
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Georgia owns several railroads, thanks to a 1977 law allowing the state transportation department to financially help railroads to continue rail service that would otherwise be abandoned. The Georgia Department of Transportation’s Intermodal Division manages the state-owned short lines, including the contracts with lessees and administers taxpayer funding.
The Georgia Department of Transportation’s 2021 State Rail Plan executive summary said the state “serves as the epicenter of rail in the Southeast with connections throughout” the country.
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Georgia continues to report tax collections lower than a year ago, with May’s collections down by more than 1 percent as the state heads toward the end of the fiscal year, new numbers reveal.
Georgia officials said the state’s net tax collections in May surpassed $2.4 billion. However, that is a decrease of 1.1 percent or $26.3 million compared to last May, when net tax collections approached $2.5 billion.
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Voters in two metro Atlanta counties will decide on a tax to support transit when they head to the polls for November’s presidential election.
On Tuesday, Cobb County commissioners voted 3-2 to place the 1% 30-year Mobility SPLOST on the Nov. 5 General Election ballot. Officials previously said a 1% SPLOST could generate $10.9 billion in tax revenue for the county over 30 years.
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Georgia transportation officials appear to be letting fewer road projects and paying more for them, a possible sign of inflation’s toll on construction spending.
Georgia Department of Transportation officials previously sounded the alarm that inflation was driving up the cost of projects.
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Staffer and his friend have a watch stolen, punch another attacker in the robbery
Georgia GOP Rep. Mike Collins says a member of his congressional staff was robbed at gunpoint this past weekend in Washington D.C’.s Navy Yard neighborhood.
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A federal judge has sentenced a former assistant Atlanta city attorney to prison following her conviction on charges she fraudulently applied for and received Paycheck Protection Program loans.
In December, a jury convicted Shelitha Robertson, 62, of Atlanta, of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of money laundering and three counts of wire fraud. U.S. District Judge Steven D. Grimberg sentenced Robertson to seven years and three months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
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A Georgia state lawmaker who says she was silenced when she switched parties last year convened a hearing to showcase how social media companies can de-platform people to manipulate messaging.
Rep. Mesha Mainor, R-Atlanta, said she called the “First Amendment, Free Speech Rally” at the Georgia State Capitol to showcase what she sees as a lack of respect for dissenting opinions.
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Georgia officials approved $16.9 million in loans and grants for five transportation infrastructure projects across the state
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and the State Road and the Tollway Authority Board of Directors approved the funding from the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank. The latest round of funding includes the fourth-largest loan amount in the program’s history.
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Several Georgia study committees will explore various agricultural issues facing the Peach State, including the potential impact of sustainable aviation fuel.
The Senate Advancing Forest Innovation in Georgia Study Committee, created by Senate Resolution 786, will examine how public policy can encourage continued investment in facilities that create sustainable manufacturing components, practices, energy sources and other high-demand products derived from Georgia’s forest products.
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The Atlanta City Council has unanimously approved a more than $2.7 billion fiscal 2025 budget, which officials termed “historic.”
The spending plan, passed as the city grappled with a series of water main breaks, is roughly 8.8% more than the fiscal 2024 budget the council adopted and about 9.2% higher than the actual fiscal 2023 budget.
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Georgia’s attorney general wants a federal agency to lift its ban on cell phone jammers that bars state officials from using the devices to block contraband cell phones in jails and prisons.
The Federal Communications Commission currently bars cell phone “jammers” within prisons and jails, a prohibition Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office said extends to state and local governments. Carr made his request to reconsider the prohibition in a Tuesday letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.
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The federal government announced a pair of airport grants for Georgia, including money for an airport in middle Georgia and a statewide grant program.
The funding is part of nearly $187 million in taxpayer-backed grants for 90 airport-related projects in 34 states that the Federal Aviation Administration announced on Friday. The funding was included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which some call the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
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Georgia could see a more than $1 billion reduction in how much federal money it receives for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
According to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2024 includes a $30 billion reduction in SNAP funding. The group pointed to a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finding that Georgia would see a nearly $1.1 billion reduction over a decade.
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The man accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley pled not guilty during an arraignment hearing on Friday.
Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan national living unlawfully in the United States, pled not guilty to charges that he killed Riley during his arraignment hearing in a Clarke County courtroom, according to local reporters on the scene. The not guilty plea now means the case will head to trial.
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The global news organization Reuters claimed on Friday that women voters in Pennsylvania may now have second thoughts about voting for former President Donald Trump after he was convicted in the controversial New York hush money trial on Thursday.
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