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1 week ago | 
thegeorgiasun.com | Ty Tagami |Capitol Beat
A federal judge in Atlanta is weighing whether to order the government to restore the immigration status of 133 current or former college students, 26 of them in Georgia, who recently received word that it had been revoked. Judge Victoria M.
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1 week ago | 
thegeorgiasun.com | Ty Tagami |Capitol Beat
The Georgia Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in cases that could decide in the near term whether large oceanfront houses can be built on a sleepy island while in the long term reverberating far from the coast. The dispute is over the preservation of the Gullah-Geechee way of life lived in small bungalows on Sapelo Island, where officials in McIntosh County have voted to allow the construction of larger houses.
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2 weeks ago | 
thegeorgiasun.com | Ty Tagami |Capitol Beat
Georgia legislators clocked out unusually early Friday night, leaving behind stacks of unfinished bills, many of them torn into pieces for the ceremonial throwing of confetti that marks the final moments of a legislative session. Among the abandoned bills were several that had seemed to be a priority for Republican lawmakers. They had devoted many hours of hearings to them, to the consternation of Democrats, who called the measures “hateful” and a waste of time.
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3 weeks ago | 
thegeorgiasun.com | Ty Tagami |Capitol Beat
After lengthy debate that plumbed the depths of racism in American history, Georgia’s Senate Democrats were unable to convince their Republican colleagues to drop legislation that would ban preferential treatment in public colleges and schools based on race and other factors. With this year’s legislative session ending Friday, Republican senators were rushing their measure through.
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4 weeks ago | 
roughdraftatlanta.com | Ty Tagami |Capitol Beat
Transgender student athletes would be banned from female sports under two bills in the Georgia legislature, and the version from the state Senate has taken the lead. A committee of the Georgia House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 1 Tuesday after it was amended to mirror some elements of the version from the House of Representatives, which awaits a Senate hearing. Both measures passed their own chambers largely along party lines.
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1 month ago | 
thegeorgiasun.com | Ty Tagami |Capitol Beat
Drivers in Georgia would be able to leave home without their wallet, so long as they bring their smartphone, if legislation that seeks to require police to accept a digital version of drivers’ licenses becomes law. House Bill 296 passed the Georgia House of Representatives by a wide bipartisan majority last week, and on Monday a Senate committee hit the accelerator on the bill. “I think it’s a great and smart use of technology,” said Sen.
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2 months ago | 
roughdraftatlanta.com | Dave Williams |Capitol Beat
One of the world's leading battery manufacturers will establish its new Global Headquarters for Research and Development in Atlanta, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday. Duracell will invest $56 million in the project, which will create 110 jobs. The company has a manufacturing facility in LaGrange that has been in operation since 1980 and a logistics and distribution plant in Fairburn that opened in 2020.
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2 months ago | 
roughdraftatlanta.com | Dave Williams |Capitol Beat
Tax relief bills targeting victims of Hurricane Helene cleared both chambers of the General Assembly Tuesday. The Georgia House unanimously passed legislation exempting from taxation disaster relief payments, grant funds, or crop insurance proceeds provided to victims of the massive storm that struck South, Middle, and eastern Georgia last September. "This storm was bad.
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2 months ago | 
waltontribune.com | Dave Williams |Capitol Beat
Legislation named in honor of a Georgia nursing student murdered by an illegal immigrant Wednesday became the first bill signed into law by President Donald Trump. The Laken Riley Act requires federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest, detain and deport illegal immigrants who commit nonviolent crimes including theft, burglary, larceny or shoplifting. Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was murdered last February while jogging on the campus of the University of Georgia.
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2 months ago | 
roughdraftatlanta.com | Dave Williams |Capitol Beat
The signs are clear as Georgia lawmakers prepare to resume the 2025 General Assembly session on Monday after a weeklong recess: Gov. Brian Kemp is making tort reform a high priority. Even before the session began two weeks ago, Kemp issued a call for tort reform in a speech to newly elected and returning legislators in a December speech at the University of Georgia. He returned to the theme Jan.
