Arizona Expected to Receive Over $800 Million in 2024 Political Advertising, Most of Any Battleground State

Arizona is projected to be the recipient of nearly $1 billion in political advertising during the 2024 cycle, meaning the Grand Canyon State will receive the highest share of spending of any battleground state, and the second highest of any state in the union, should the projections be correct.

The state is expected to see about $821 million in advertising over the 2024 political cycle, according to a new report published by AdImpact. Arizona will receive almost $100 million more than the second highest battleground state, Pennsylvania, which is estimated to receive $725 million.

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Police Chiefs, Lawmakers Explain Issues with New SRO Law

Center of the American Experiment hosted a panel discussion with police chiefs and state representatives last week to discuss the ongoing controversy surrounding a new law impacting school resource officers (SROs).

The law prohibits SROs in cases where there is no threat of bodily harm or death from using the prone restraint or any force that “places pressure or weight on a pupil’s head, throat, neck, chest, lungs, sternum, diaphragm, back, or abdomen.”

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Pro-Trump Lawyer Gives Court Transcript He Claims Proves Georgia’s GOP Electors Broke No Laws

A transcript of a December 2020 meeting among those who became the Republican slate of alternative electors in Georgia appears to directly contradict claims levied by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in her August indictment of former President Donald Trump and 18 others involved with his efforts to contest the 2020 election.

Attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who is among those indicted in the Georgia racketeering case against former President Donald Trump, submitted the transcript to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAffee in a filing that seeks to dismiss charges related Republican slate of alternative electors.

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Virginia U.S. Rep. Wexton Won’t Seek Reelection Due to Health Battle

Virginia Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton said Monday she will not be seeking reelection, citing health concerns. 

The third-term Democrat previously announced she was battling Parkinson’s Disease and receiving treatments. After further testing amid unresponsive treatment, Wexton disclosed she had been diagnosed with Progressive Supra-nuclear Palsy, type-p. The congresswoman said the disease is characterized as “’Parkinson’s on steroids.’”

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Commentary: Alzheimer’s Disease Is Partly Genetic − Studying the Genes That Delay Decline in Some May Lead to Treatments for All

Diseases that run in families usually have genetic causes. Some are genetic mutations that directly cause the disease if inherited. Others are risk genes that affect the body in a way that increases the chance someone will develop the disease. In Alzheimer’s disease, genetic mutations in any of three specific genes can cause the disease, and other risk genes either increase or decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

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Music Spotlight: Heartland

Heartland is back and better than ever says People Magazine and I couldn’t agree more. The ACM, CMA nominated, and platinum-selling group returns for the first single in over a decade with “No Tomorrow.” The “live-for-today anthem” (MusicRow), is available now from Yellowhammer Music Group.

When I sat down and spoke with the band, comprised of Craig Anderson, Todd Anderson, Mike Myerson, and new lead vocalist Lance Horton,  I remembered meeting Craig and Lance at CRS 2022 when they were promoting new music for Madison Station.

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Arizona State University Releases Report over Conservative Event Backlash

After Arizona State University released a report suggesting there was “no evidence” of a campaign to smear an event featuring conservative speakers, one Republican state senator is not satisfied with the outcome.

The T.W. Lewis Center at the school hosted an event in February with conservative media personalities Dennis Prager and Charlie Kirk, as well as financial author Robert Kiyosaki. The event sparked backlash from some faculty at Barrett, the Honors College, and some students. Following the intense backlash, Tom Lewis pulled funding for the center and its executive director, Ann Atkinson, lost her job, alleging she was fired.

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Soros-Funded Organization ‘Gen Z for Change’ Is Fueling Joe Biden’s ‘TikTok Army’

An organization largely funded by left-wing billionaire George Soros’ philanthropic network is bankrolling a “Gen Z” group that works to advance Democratic priorities and President Joe Biden’s agenda on social media, the New York Post reported.

Accelerate Action, Inc. received over $5.5 million in 2021 and 2022 from the Open Society Foundations, a group founded by Soros and currently run by his son Alexander Soros, according to the Foundation’s website. That group gave, among other grants, $300,000 to “Gen Z for Change” a non-profit activist group that produces left-wing content uploaded onto social media websites such as TikTok and Instagram for voters to consume, according to its tax forms.

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Goldman Sachs Quietly Scrubs Race-Based Eligibility Criteria From Diversity Program After Legal Experts Raise Concerns

Goldman Sachs quietly scrubbed references to race from its eligibility criteria for a two-day “diversity symposium” after legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation the program could run into problems with federal civil rights laws.

The eligibility criteria for Goldman Sachs’ 2023 MBA Diversity Symposium previously restricted the program to students “that identify as Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American, or women,” according to a web archive from Sept. 13. The eligibility requirements no longer include race or gender, the current webpage shows, a change that follows a Saturday DCNF report on race and gender-restricted opportunities for college students offered by top Wall Street investment banking firms.

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Screaming Eco-Activists Blockade Doors to New York City Federal Reserve Building

A crowd of climate activists blocked the doors of the Federal Reserve building in New York City on Monday morning, footage posted to Twitter shows.

Scores of protesters locked arms in front of the building to deny employees and officials entry, and the activists chanted protest slogans while blocking the exits, footage posted to Twitter shows. Numerous groups, including Climate Defiance, were reportedly involved in the protest, which came ahead of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly meeting in NYC to discuss climate policy  set to occur this week.

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Commentary: Jack Smith’s Real-Life Bogeyman

Special Counsel Jack Smith

One must wonder if Special Counsel Jack Smith checks under his bed every night to make sure a large man wearing an oversized blue suit, long red tie, and MAGA hat isn’t there.

Smith, the public has been assured, is a nerves-of-steel prosecutor who has taken on some of the world’s most dangerous criminals during his time at the U.S. Department of Justice and The Hague. Following Smith’s appointment in November 2022, one former colleague swooned to the New York Times how Smith “has a way about him of projecting calm” and that “people look to him for steady guidance.”

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FBI Received Evidence from Second Informant in Biden Case but Shut Him Down, Ex-Agent Testifies

A retired FBI supervisor has revealed to Congress that the bureau’s Washington field office had a second “politically connected” informant providing information relevant to the Biden family investigation, but was asked to shut down the source in the fall of 2020 shortly before Joe Biden was elected president, Just the News has learned.

Retired Special Agent Timothy Thibault, the former No. 2 supervisor in the FBI’s Washington field office, told the House Judiciary Committee last week in a transcribed interview he was somewhat taken aback when he received the request from the lead agent in the Hunter Biden tax case in October 2020 to shut down the confidential human source (CHS).

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Mark Levin’s ‘The Democrat Party Hates America’ Tops Amazon’s Best-Seller List

Television host Mark Levin’s new book has topped the Amazon best-seller list, according to the website on Saturday.

Levin is an attorney and the host of “The Mark Levin Show,” a syndicated radio show, “Life, Liberty, and Levin” on Fox News as well as editor-in-chief of The Conservative Review. His book “The Democrat Party Party Hates America” (Threshold Editions, $30) has topped the Amazon list of Best Sellers in Books, according to the website’s rankings Saturday.

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Trump’s Lawyers Argue Judge’s Failure to Recuse Will Cause ‘Irreparable Damage’ to Judicial System for ‘Generations’

Former president Donald Trump’s lawyers doubled down on their call for the judge hearing his 2020 election case to recuse in a Sunday court filing, arguing that her failure to do so would cause “irreparable damage” to the judicial system for “generations to come.”

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office made a fiery defense of U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee, in a Friday filing, where they slammed Trump’s recusal request as having “no valid basis” and accused him of cherry-picking statements that don’t actually show “improper bias.” Trump based the initial call last week for Chutkan to recuse on remarks she made during sentencing hearings for two Jan. 6 defendants that allegedly suggested Trump should be prosecuted and imprisoned.

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Hunter Biden’s IRS Lawsuit Appears to Misquote Whistleblower, Altering Facts About FBI

Just the News Hunter Biden’s lawsuit filed against the IRS on Monday appears to misquote IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, altering the facts regarding testimony from an FBI official about the Hunter Biden investigation. During an interview that aired Aug. 1, 2023, on Fox News, “Mr. Shapley alleged that FBI General Counsel, Jason Jones ‘was given a letter the Sunday before [his July 17 deposition before the House Oversight Committee] from DOJ basically telling him not to talk,’” the lawsuit states. The entire quote from Shapley on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom“ is: “For example, the FBI SSA that testified for the House Ways and Means Committee, he was given a letter the Sunday before from DOJ basically telling him not to talk. And I know that he could have confirmed additional material facts on this investigation.” READ THE FULL STORY

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EXCLUSIVE: Matt Gaetz Says Vivek Ramaswamy’s Plan to Slash Federal Employment by 50 Percent Will Survive Legal Challenges

Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01) told The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network at an event in Nashville on Saturday that Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s bold plan to reduce the number of non-military federal employees by 50 percent in one year–a net reduction of 1 million employees from the current level of 2 million – is legally sound and will survive the expected legal challenges.

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House Republicans Balk at Temporary Spending Bill

Numerous House Republicans have voiced opposition to the continuing resolution (CR) brokered by the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) and the Main Street Caucus on Sunday evening to avoid a government shutdown.

Members of the conservative HFC and moderate Main Street Caucus agreed to fund the government for another month, and the bill also includes the Secure The Border Act minus e-verify, a near 8 percent cut of non-defense discretionary spending and other provisions. Several conservative members, including Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, took to Twitter following the announcement to say they won’t support the CR.

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Appeals Court Rules Firearm Bans for Non-Violent Felons Are Constitutional

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that federal bans on convicted felons owning firearms are still constitutional despite a recent Supreme Court decision.

Melynda Vincent, who brought the case to court, is currently banned from possessing a gun because she was charged with fraud after writing a fake check at a grocery store in 2008, according to the ruling. The 10th Circuit Court ruled that although the Supreme Court had released a new decision on gun rights, Vincent still does not have the legal right to own a gun.

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Vanderbilt Professor: Climate Change Stories ‘Cater to the White Consciousness’

A professor of English at Vanderbilt University recently gave a talk about how the genre of climate fiction, or “cli-fi,” has a problem with “its intersection [of] race and genre.”

Teresa Goddu (pictured above), whose advocacy led to the creation of Vanderbilt’s Environmental and Sustainability Studies minor, told an audience at the Novel Seminar Series that climate fiction in the United States “depicts the climate crisis as a whiteness crisis,” The Hustler reports.

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‘Grade Grubbing’ Takes Root as Educators Capitulate to Students’ Pleas for Better Scores

More students are asking for better grades than earned — and a vast majority of educators questioned in a recent survey admit they’ve given in to those demands in a trend now dubbed “grade grubbing.”

Intelligent.com surveyed nearly 300 educators in late August, including high school teachers and professors who work with both undergrads and grad students.

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Commentary: The Migrant Surge is Coming to the Classroom

Democratic politicians and the liberal media made the first day of school all about welcoming migrant children. That’s sheer propaganda. Parents deserve the truth. The migrant surge is a disaster for their kids.

The surge will worsen our education system’s twin failures: plunging math and reading scores, and the failure to ensure newly arriving kids learn English so they can succeed, too.

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Virginia Joins State Attorneys General to Challenge Financial Service Providers ESG Alliance

Twenty-three attorneys general, most recently including Virginia’s Jason Miyares, have banded together to challenge the Net Zero Financial Service Providers Alliance’s (NZFSPA) commitment to a net-zero future by 2050, saying that the alliance may violate state and federal antitrust and consumer protection laws. 

The alliance is a global group of 21 heavy-hitting financial services corporations, including BDO, Bloomberg, the Big Four and S&P Global, that have jointly committed to operating by the terms of the Paris Agreement and achieving its goals. 

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Georgia’s Infant Mortality Rate Remains Among the Nation’s Worst

Georgia’s infant mortality rate may be improving, but it remains among the worst.

“The infant mortality rate in Georgia is not good,” Seema Csukas, vice president & chief medical officer at CareSource Georgia, told The Center Square. “We’re typically in the bottom quartile of states in terms of the infant mortality rate. We’ve made a little progress over the past decade, but not really. We’ve gotten a little better, then gotten a little worse — so not that much change.

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Ohio Lawmakers Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Freeze Property Taxes for Seniors

A bipartisan group of Ohio lawmakers introduced a bill to the Ohio House of Representatives to freeze property taxes for eligible seniors.

The legislation, known as the 70 Under 70 Plan, sponsored by State Representatives Thomas Hall (R-Madison Township) and Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati), would freeze property taxes for Ohioans 70 years or older who make less than $70,000 a year and have owned their home for 10 years or more.

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Rep. Bob Good Warns If McCarthy Uses House Democrats Again His Speakership ‘Unsustainable’

The Memorial Day Weekend debt deal Speaker Kevin O. McCarthy negotiated with President Joseph R. Biden Jr. may turn out to be his political Katrina, as House Freedom Caucus member and Virginia Republican congressman told radio host John Fredericks McCarthy had driven House conservatives to begin preparations for forcing a vote on the California Republican’s job security.

“The next two weeks, the next three weeks will be more intense,” Rep. Bob Good said. “More challenging, I believe, than the speaker battle. The stakes are extremely high; the pressure’s going to be tremendous.”

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TSMC Reportedly Delays Equipment Deliveries to Arizona Semiconductor Factory

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is reportedly asking vendors to delay deliveries of major equipment to its facility in Arizona. This comes after TSMC delayed the opening of its Arizona chip facility until 2025, and amid reports the company will not manufacture complete semiconductors in the United States.

TSMC is asking manufacturers of high-end semiconductor equipment to hold off on deliveries to its Arizona facility, according to a report released Friday by Reuters. The Taiwanese semiconductor giant is reportedly concerned about decreasing costs, and is “increasingly concerned” about cooling consumer demand, though the company referred to the report as a “market rumor” in a statement to Reuters.

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Commentary: Will a Three-Way Race in Arizona Deliver the U.S. Senate to Republicans?

Of all the low-hanging senatorial fruit in 2024 — see red states with blue senators in West Virginia, Montana, and Ohio, to name three — if not the ripest for conservative pickup, then at least the juiciest might be the three-way contest that is liable to heat up in the Arizona desert.

There, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat-turned-independent incumbent, if she decides to defend her seat, will face an extreme progressive challenger on the left and, possibly, one of the Trumpiest of Trumpists on the right, Kari Lake, who may find herself in a primary battle with a slightly lesser Trumpist in Blake Masters, who lost the other Senate seat in 2022 to Mark Kelly.

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Lithium Mine Reopening on Strength of $239.7 Million in Federal Grants

Mineral mining

A Kings Mountain lithium mine shuttered since 1988, estimated capable of supporting the production of 1.2 million electric vehicles annually for 30 years, will reopen.

Charlotte-based Albemarle, the world’s largest producer of lithium, received a $90 million grant from the Department of Defense this week to expand domestic production of the raw mineral used to manufacture electric vehicle batteries. The grant follows a $149.7 million grant Albemarle received from the Biden administration last year for a North Carolina processing facility.

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Commentary: 20 Historical Hobbies for $20 or Less

New hobbies can seem intimidating and—worse—expensive. The internet offers complicated lists and costly supplies for even the most basic of skills. We might feel that we can’t invest too much into a hobby—who knows if we’ll be good at it anyway?

In reality, many hobbies—particularly those that rely more on building a skill than on collecting items—begin with very few supplies. In fact, there’s a wealth of historical skills we can practice for entertainment, self-improvement, and practicality!

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A Closer Look at Vivek Ramaswamy’s Bold Plan to Take Down the Administrative State

President Calvin Coolidge once said, “unless bureaucracy is constantly resisted it breaks down representative government and overwhelms democracy.”

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy wants to pick up where old Silent Cal, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump left off, proposing a plan to halve the size of the federal administrative state in his first year in office — should he be elected.

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GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Says He’d Win a Legal Challenge to His Plan to Slash the Administrative State

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy knows there would be legal challenges to his sweeping plan to drastically reduce the size of the administrative state. The 38-year-old political outsider knows the big government left won’t give up the heart of the D.C swamp without a bruising fight.

Ramaswamy’s good with that.

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Kinder, Gentler Iowa Cattle Call of GOP Presidential Hopefuls Sees Ramaswamy, DeSantis, Haley Generate Most Buzz

The latest cattle call of GOP presidential contestants — sans former President Donald Trump — mainly maintained Iowa nice, a departure from last month’s first fiery primary debate and a similar Christian conservative event in July hosted by conservative talk show host lightning rod Tucker Carlson.

The 10 presidential candidates who appeared at Saturday’s Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Annual Fall Banquet and Presidential Town Hall took relatively few direct shots at their rivals.

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Swing State Poll Results Could Spell Big Trouble for Joe Biden

Former President Donald Trump appears to have an advantage against President Joe Biden in 2024 among key battleground states in the 2020 election, according to a Friday poll.

The states that had the narrowest margin of victory for either candidate last cycle were Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, with Biden winning all but North Carolina. Across those key swing states, Trump is ahead of Biden 41% to 35%, and 24% of voters remain undecided, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

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Nebraska Detransitioner Sues Medical Providers for Removing Her Breasts at 16

Detransitioner Luka Hein is suing the medical providers who surgically amputated her breasts at the age of 16 in 2018, “leaving her physically and psychologically scarred.” 

“Proceeding straight to breast amputation in a depressed, anxiety-ridden, gender-confused adolescent, who was incapable of understanding the lasting consequences of her decision, constitutes negligence for which Defendants are jointly and severally liable,” Hein’s lawsuit states.

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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee Launches Grant Program to Support Expecting Mothers and Families

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) opened applications this week for the Tennessee Strong Families Grant Program to support expecting mothers and families.

According to the press release, the $20 million program aims to increase resources for moms, kids, and families while improving maternity healthcare access. It aids local nonprofit organizations across the state, including pregnancy centers.

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University of Wisconsin Enrollment Up for First Time Since 2014

There are a couple of hundred more students at University of Wisconsin schools this fall after the university released its fall 2023 enrollment numbers.

“The estimates show an enrollment of 161,322 for fall 2023, an increase of 540 over fall 2022. For new freshman students, the estimates indicate an increase of 592 students in fall 2023 at UW System universities not including UW-Madison, which deliberately sought to reduce the number of incoming first-year students after last year’s incoming class was slightly larger than anticipated,” the university said in a statement.

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Minnesota Sheriff Announces New Initiative amid 378 Percent Increase in Opioid Deaths

Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt announced a new “Focus on Fentanyl” initiative Thursday aimed at increasing the public’s awareness of the dangers of fentanyl and connecting them with resources.

Witt, who said her own family has been impacted by the fentanyl crisis, plans to release a series of videos profiling Minnesotans who were killed by the highly potent synthetic opioid. The first video chronicles the life of Seth Carlson, a 17-year-old athlete from Bloomington who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2022.

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Ohio Republican Lawmaker Introduces Legislation to Close Primary Elections and Update the Voter Registration Process

A Republican lawmaker introduced legislation last week into the Ohio Senate to move Ohio’s primary elections to a closed system and to allow voters to update their party affiliation at any time up to thirty days before a primary election.

Senate Bill (SB) 147, known as the Voter Registration Modernization Act, sponsored by State Senator Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester), attempts to allow voters to be more civically engaged by allowing them to declare their political party affiliation in real-time increasing data, accuracy, and integrity of the voter registration process.

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Report: COVID Learning Loss Could Cost Arizona 18,000 High School Grads by 2032

Arizona students have been majorly impacted long-term by virtual learning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new report from the Common Sense Institute Arizona estimates a possible 18,419 fewer high school graduates by 2032 and 26,281 fewer college graduates in 2026 in Arizona stemming from poor standardized testing scores in the aftermath of the pandemic.

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Nearly Four in 10 Georgians Out of the Workforce

While state officials continue to tout the state’s low unemployment, numbers show nearly 39% percent of Georgia’s working-age population isn’t participating in the workforce.

On Thursday, state officials said Georgia’s August unemployment rate was 3.3%, a slight increase from July’s revised 3.2% rate. The state’s rate is lower than the 3.8% national unemployment rate.

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