Category: Georgia

New Georgia Law Allows Parents to Opt Their Children Out of School Mask Mandates

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday signed a bill giving parents the option to choose against masking their children at school. Dubbed the Unmask Georgia Students Act, the Republican-backed bill passed the state legislature on a largely party-line vote. It states that school officials should not impose any mask mandate on students, unless they make sure…


Trump Holds Rally in Georgia, Expresses Support for GOP Candidates

Former President Donald Trump held a rally in Commerce, Georgia on Saturday where he criticized the President Joe Biden’s leadership and reiterated his support for several GOP candidates ahead of the state’s primary on May 24. “You could take the five worst presidents in American history and put them together and they would not have…


Maryland, Georgia Temporarily Suspend State Gas Taxes as Price at Pump Continues to Soar

The states of Maryland and Georgia have halted collection of gas taxes in an effort to provide relief to Americans who have been left paying more at the pump as fuel prices soar across the nation. Maryland was the first state to enact an immediate suspension of the gas tax, Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, wrote on Twitter….


Georgia Senate Kills School-Choice Bill

The Georgia Senate has killed a bill that would have allowed Georgians to put taxpayer money toward the cost of private school tuition. Senate Bill 601, the Georgia Educational Freedom Act, would have created state-funded Promise Scholarships of up to $6,000 a year. Families of the roughly 1.7 million K-12 students in Georgia could use…


Lone Star Tick Carrying Heartland Virus Found in Georgia: Researchers

Lone star ticks carrying a virus that could potentially prove fatal to humans have been discovered in Georgia, a new study reported Wednesday. The Heartland virus is an emerging infectious disease that can cause symptoms such as fever, diarrhea, fatigue, muscle or joint pain, headache, nausea, and a loss of appetite, according to the Centers for Disease Control and…


Giant Asian Invasive Spider Likely to Spread Along East Coast: Study

The Joro spider, an invasive arachnid species that is native to eastern Asia and first spread across Georgia in 2013, is expected to “colonize” through most of the East Coast, according to a new study. The good news is that the bright yellow spider, which is about the size of a child’s hand and has blue-black…


Georgia Gov. Kemp Says He Plans to Temporarily Suspend State Gas Tax

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday announced that he plans to suspend collections of state motor fuel taxes amid rising pump prices. The Republican governor’s office said in a press release that in the past year, average gas prices in the state have risen more than 50 percent. Georgia’s gasoline price includes a federal tax…


Supreme Court Declines to Hear Georgia Death-Penalty Appeal

By Bill Rankin From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider Georgia’s standard that lawyers contend makes it all but impossible for intellectually disabled capital defendants to prove they are intellectually disabled. Georgia is the nation’s only state with the death penalty that requires defendants to clear the highest legal…


3 Men Convicted in Ahmaud Arbery’s Murder Found Guilty of Federal Hate Crimes

The three men convicted in 2021 in the death of Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty on Feb. 22 of federal hate crimes. A jury convicted Gregory McMichael, his son Travis McMichael, and their neighbor William Bryan after deliberating for about four hours. All three men were found guilty of violating Arbery’s civil rights by attacking…


Biden Administration Urges Court Not to Allow Release of ‘Secret Report’ on Dominion Voting Machines

Top officials at a U.S. federal cybersecurity agency are urging a judge not to authorize at this time the release of a report that analyzes Dominion Voting Systems equipment in Georgia, arguing doing so could assist hackers trying to “undermine election security.” The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was recently provided an unredacted copy of…