U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly said Tuesday that he wants Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA-14) to become “more involved” with the House Republicans on the heels of a “productive meeting” the two shared last week.
According to journalist Jordain Carney, who reports for German-owned Politico, Johnson told reporters on Tuesday that he and Greene discussed her role in the next Congress during a meeting held last week.
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Jose Ibarra, the alleged murderer of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, traveled from New York City to Georgia after requesting a humanitarian flight, his roommate testified Monday.
Ibarra is currently standing trial after being charged for the murder of Riley, who died in February from blunt force trauma to the head outside of the University of Georgia’s campus. Ibarra’s roommate, Rosbeli Elisber Flores-Bello, testified that she and the suspected murderer arrived at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City and requested a humanitarian flight to Athens, Georgia, in September 2023.
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The report issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) condemning the abysmal conditions at the Fulton County Jail comes as Fulton County faces a backlog of more than 40,000 cases, which may have contributed to the concerns raised in the report about the lengthy jail stays experienced by those incarcerated at the troubled facility.
The 97-page report containing the findings from the DOJ investigation that began last year accused the jail of violating the U.S. Constitution through the physical conditions at the jail, the county’s inability to guarantee the safety of inmates, and alleged violations of laws designed to protect Americans with disabilities, but also noted inmates “spend long periods detained in the Jail.”
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The deaths of at least four Georgia men with mental disabilities at the Fulton County Jail are “symptomatic of a pattern of dangerous and dehumanizing conditions,” the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The 97-page investigation also said inmates were not protected from harm by other inmates and the living conditions were “unsanitary and dangerous.” The conditions violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Justice Department said in a release.
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced “Georgia Plan” for Congress to establish national election rules on Thursday, arguing the Peach State should serve as a model for to establish nationwide regulations that enhance election integrity.
“Voters nationwide deserve to participate in elections that have both security and integrity, along with easy access for eligible voters and quick and accurate reporting of results,” said Raffensperger in a statement, after citing Georgia’s successful early voting period for “a record turnout election that was safe, secure and accurate.”
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Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday renewed her call for President-elect Donald Trump to pardon those prosecuted under the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) for participating in their civil unrest on January 6, 2021, in remarks delivered as attorneys representing January 6 defendants are reportedly filing to have trials moved or frozen due to Trump’s prior promises of pardons.
Greene confirmed in Tuesday remarks to CNN, which her team recorded and posted to the social media platform X, Greene confirmed she’s previously spoken with Trump about the release of January 6 defendants, and noted his campaign trail promises to pardon them.
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A Georgia Democrat who was recruited to run for state office in a rural district revealed on Tuesday that the state party had specific criteria for the selection of its delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He explained that as a “white male heterosexual,” he did not fit these criteria.
Jack Zibluck explained in a column published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that made the observations about the party’s delegate selection process when he was nominated to serve as an alternative delegate at the RNC during his campaign against State Representative Mike Cameron (R-Rossville) to represent Georgia’s First district. Zibluck ultimately received less than 20 percent of the vote.
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Former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan on Monday urged other “disgruntled” Republicans who opposed President-elect Donald Trump to give the incoming administration “a chance” in the wake Trump’s electoral landslide and popular vote mandate.
Duncan, who is facing expulsion from the Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP) over his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris during the presidential election, made his remarks during a Monday interview with WABE.
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The Georgia man who pleaded guilty to making multiple death threats to Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA-14) was reportedly sentenced on Friday to supervised released and five months of confinement, which will be credited against his time spent in custody while his case was determined, meaning no additional prison sentence was imposed.
Sean Patrick Cirillo was sentenced to three years of supervised release and five months, credited against the time he already spent in federal custody, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in its Friday reporting of the sentencing. Law360 confirmed no additional prison sentence was imposed beyond the five months Cirillo already spent in custody.
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Former President Donald Trump’s win on Tuesday puts a question mark on his upcoming criminal case in Georgia.
Trump was indicted on 18 counts accusing him of interfering with the 2020 presidential election. Two of the charges against Trump were dismissed in September. He has pleaded not guilty to the rest.
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Georgia was one of the first states to be called for President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday, and the Georgia Secretary of State reported Wednesday that Peach State voters cast a record 5,287,085 million ballots recorded at press time, breaking a the last turnout record set during the 2020 election.
In total, Georgia saw more than 4.1 million voters cast their ballot before Election Day, though just over 3.75 million Georgians chose to cast their early votes in person, compared to under 350,000 who voted with an absentee ballot.
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Just like in 2016 and 2020, former President Donald Trump outperformed the polls in Georgia, and many other swing states.
Going into Election Day with a 0.8% lead in the polling average, Trump ended up beating Vice President Kamala Harris by 2.24% of the vote.
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The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that Cobb County may not accept absentee ballots after Election Day.
Last Thursday, the Cobb County Board of Elections said that it had not sent out more than 3,000 absentee ballots in a timely manner and would mail them via express shipping or overnight delivery the next day, according to Democracy Docket. Three voters sued, arguing that there was not enough time to ensure the ballots would be received in time to be counted.
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A tax on strip clubs that goes into a fund to help child sexual exploitation victims is constitutional, the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled.
Georgia voters approved the tax through a ballot question. The collections go to the Safe Harbor Commission, which helps child exploitation victims and raises awareness of trafficking.
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center sued a Georgia county on Friday, over allegations that it failed to send out approximately 3,000 absentee ballots by a requested deadline.
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The Georgia Supreme Court blocked a Republican effort Tuesday to require poll workers to hand-count the number of ballots cast, upholding a lower court’s decision.
A Georgia judge previously blocked a state election board rule that would have required counties to hand-count ballots on Election Day. The Republican National Committee (RNC) and Georgia GOP appealed to the state’s highest court, requesting a quick reinstatement of the rules during their ongoing legal challenge, Politico reported.
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Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon on Tuesday called for an election nonprofit to dissolve or distance itself from the fundraising email sent by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on its behalf.
McKoon issued his statement after Women for America First Executive Director Kylie Kremer surfaced the email written by Raffensperger. The email revealed that the secretary used a personal email to solicit funds for the Election Defense Fund, Inc., a purported nonprofit 501 (c) (4), a distinction that allows it to raise money without revealing its funding sources.
McKoon issued his statement after the email written by Raffensperger was surfaced by Women for America First executive director Kylie Kremer, revealing the secretary used a personal email to solicit funds for the Election Defense Fund, Inc., a purported nonprofit 501 (c) (4), a distinction that allows it to raise money without revealing its funding sources.
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Nathan Wade, the former special counsel appointed to prosecute former President Donald Trump in Georgia, told the U.S. House Judiciary committee he’s had “minimal contact” with the office District Attorney Fani Willis, but police cameras recorded the attorney joining the district attorney during a traffic stop where her daughter was arrested.
In his opening remarks during his October 15 deposition, Wade told the committee he has, “had minimum contact with the Office of the District Attorney of Fulton County,” since he resigned after Judge Scott McAfee issued a “distasteful dicta” that required he or Willis to resign from the case against Trump and those who helped him contest the 2020 election results in Georgia.
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Former President Donald Trump is leading Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia as election day draws closer, according to a Tuesday poll from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC).
Trump is leading at 47% while Harris is at 43%, which is outside of the poll’s margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, according to the AJC. Of likely voters that were polled, 8% said that they are still undecided.
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As the vice president and Chief Financial Officer of a Middle Georgia ambulance service, I’ve seen firsthand how the exorbitant cost of healthcare is a heavy burden on Georgians from all walks of life. This isn’t just a problem for the sick or the elderly, it’s a shared struggle we must all confront together.
A recent study ranked Georgia as the worst state in the nation for healthcare, a stark reminder of the urgent need for change. The study cited high costs, the lack of doctors (particularly specialists), and unaffordable insurance as the prime reasons for this designation. Nearly fifteen percent of Georgians deferred seeing a doctor within the last twelve months due to concerns about costs, and almost one in seven residents lacked health insurance.
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The Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Georgia Republican Party on Thursday appealed a judge’s decision that invalidated seven election rules passed by the state’s election board.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox on Wednesday determined that the new rules are “illegal, unconstitutional and void,” because the state board did not have the authority to create such orders.
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The Biden-Harris Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) doled out billions of taxpayer dollars in August to a left-wing nonprofit consortium linked to Democratic voter mobilization efforts, including a Stacey Abrams’ get-out-the-vote initiative based in Georgia.
The EPA announced that Power Forward Communities (PFC) received $2 billion under the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) on Aug. 16. The PFC is partnering with an array of Democratic Party-affiliated groups in addition to the two-time Georgia governor candidate Abrams’ Fair Count, including the nation’s largest teachers union—a major contributor to Democratic candidates—and a prominent climate activist group, according to a review of the PFC’s website.
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After weeks of chaos surrounding the Georgia State Election Board, a judge blocked its order requiring all ballots be counted by hand.
Judge Robert McBurney of the Superior Court of Fulton County issued the stay on Tuesday, just weeks after the Election Board first approved the measure. He said the additional step of counting ballots by hand as well as electronically would lead to “administrative chaos.”
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Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night urged Georgia residents to turn their ballots in early, after the state counted a record-breaking 300,000 votes cast during the first day of early voting and a state court blocked a hand-counting ballot rule.
Georgia Secretary of State Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Sterling confirmed the number in a social media post, saying the number was “123% higher than the old record for the 1st day of voting.” Tuesday was the first day of in-person early voting in the Southern state, and the first day voters could return absentee ballots.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis late Tuesday asked the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate three election subversion charges against former President Donald Trump, and three against his allies.
Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six charges against Trump and his allies over their alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in March. McAfee determined at the time that there was not enough evidence of an underlying crime that that the group was soliciting from a public officer.
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Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) special agents offered new information about Colt Gray, the 14-year-old accused of killing four at Apalachee High School on September 4, during a Wednesday hearing in the case against the teen’s father, Colin Gray, who is faces second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, and cruelty to children charges for allegedly giving his son the rifle authorities say was used at the school.
Investigators stated that Colt Gray left a note for his family at his father’s home, owned at least four notebooks with drawings and writings that related to school shootings or the September 4 attack, and created a “shrine” with more than a dozen photographs and news clippings from previous attacks on schools.
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Local election officials in Georgia cannot delay or refuse to officially certify election results, according to a state court ruling on Monday.
“Election superintendents in Georgia have a mandatory fixed obligation to certify election results,” wrote Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney in the ruling. “Consequently, no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.”
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The Georgia State Election Board has faced backlash and lawsuits over the last few months, especially after passing a number of election rules just weeks before Election Day.
The Republican-majority board had a win this week though when a Fulton County judge dismissed a lawsuit on Wednesday put forward by Democrats.
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The Georgia State Election Board voted to subpoena Fulton County’s 2020 election records amid a legal fight over election monitors.
The board voted 3-2 on Tuesday to subpoena all election records from the 2020 election in Fulton County, the Associated Press reported. The vote came a day after Fulton County filed a lawsuit claiming that the board does not have the authority to make the county “accept, and Fulton County to pay for, additional monitors for the 2024 election that have been hand-picked by certain State Election Board members.”
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Former Fulton County special counsel Nathan Wade is reportedly scheduled to testify before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on next week, narrowly affording the Congress the opportunity to hear from Wade prior to Election Day.
Wade will be deposed, offering closed-door testimony to the committee led by Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) on October 15, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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Stoppage of Georgia’s abortion law banning abortion after six weeks has been stayed by the state Supreme Court, giving time for the attorney general’s appeal to be heard.
The General Assembly passed a ban on abortion after six weeks, or when a fetal heartbeat is detected, in 2019. Once the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, returning authority to the states, the law took effect.
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The former leader of a nonprofit named Black Lives Matter (BLM) of Greater Atlanta was sentenced to over three years in prison on Thursday after he was found guilty of financial crimes for using his charity’s money to live a luxurious lifestyle after raising more than $400,000 following the death of George Floyd.
Tyree Conyers-Page, who used the name Sir Maejor Page when representing BLM of Greater Atlanta, was sentenced in Ohio on Thursday to 42 months in federal prison, or three-and-a-half years, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, over what prosecutors successfully argued was a scheme to defraud donors to Black Lives Matter.
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The teen accused of killing four at Apalachee High School on September 4 reportedly used a rifle to force his mother out of his bedroom just three weeks before the devastating attack, his grandmother said in a report published Thursday.
Just weeks before authorities say 14-year-old Colt Gray attacked Apalachee High School, the teen apparently used a rifle to force his mother out of a bedroom during a fight, his grandmother Debbie Polhamus told The Washington Post.
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Former President Donald Trump has widened his lead in Georgia over Vice President Kamala Harris, according to data released by Quinnipiac pollsters on Wednesday that also shows more Georgians now hold a favorable view of the Republican than his Democratic opponent.
The Quinnipiac University Poll data for Georgia found Trump now leads with the support of 50 percent of likely voters in the Peach State, while Harris trailed at 44 percent, with an additional 3 percent supporting other candidates.
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The Harris-Walz campaign reportedly drew more than 100 black farmers and supporters in Byromville, Georgia on Sunday as it targets rural voters in the Peach State in a bid to repeat the party’s 2020 victory.
Huffington Post deputy editor Philip Lewis reported the Harris-Walz occurred at Jibb’s Vineyard, which he described as a black-owned vineyard, and said it focused “on rural Black farmers.”
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A county superior judge declared on Monday that Georgia’s six-week abortion ban is unconstitutional and unenforceable under the state’s constitution.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled that the law breaches the Georgia Constitution, arguing that it’s protection of liberty includes allowing women to obtain an abortion up to the point the child is viable outside the womb, free from state interference, according to The Associated Press. The law, which had been effective since 2022, limited abortion access by prohibiting the procedure once fetal cardiac activity could be detected, often around six weeks into pregnancy.
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A GOP-led U.S. House panel subpoenaed former special prosecutor Nathan Wade as part of an investigation into his romantic relationship with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
The House Judiciary Committee was unable to find Wade for days, but on Thursday was able to subpoena him and require that he come to Washington, D.C., for a hearing, according to AJC Politics.
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At least seven polls that started sampling after the presidential debate on Sept. 10 are in for battleground Georgia, and Republican former President Donald Trump has yet to trail.
He’s yet to fully eclipse the margins of error, thus remaining statistically tied with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
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A speaker at a recent Emory University anti-Israel rally put up an Instagram post regarding a group of counter-protesters that many are labeling “antisemitic.”
The post (pictured above), shows counter-protesters with Israeli flags and reads “Started smelling like pennies on the quad…”
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Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are virtually tied in a new poll of likely voters in Georgia.
According to the American Greatness/TIPP poll of 835 likely voters conducted from Sept. 16-18 in conjunction with TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy and Politics, Trump holds the slightest of leads, 47.9% to 47.6%, over Harris, well within the poll’s ±3.5% margin of error. An additional 3.6% of respondents said they were unsure and 0.8% said another candidate.
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The Supreme Court of Georgia dismissed a challenge by the Catoosa County Republican Party to keep four candidates off the primary ballot, as the primary and the runoff election have already occurred.
Republicans challenged the candidacies of Steven M. Henry, Larry C. Black, Jeffrey K. Long and Vanita C. Hullander, saying their views did not align with the party.
The case was appealed to Georgia’s highest court.
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The Georgia Institute of Technology is cutting ties with a “blacklisted” Chinese university associated with the country’s military, according to the U.S. House Education Committee.
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The 14-year-old police say is responsible for killing four and injuring nine at Apalachee High School reportedly sent a text message to his father apologizing, a Friday report claimed emergency services dispatch records showed.
Existence of the the purported message from Colt Gray to his father, Colin Gray, was revealed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which reported the maternal aunt of the accused killer called law enforcement about an hour after the shooting.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis defied a subpoena Friday issued by a Georgia state senate committee investigating her alleged misconduct.
Rather than testify before the committee, Willis is scheduled to attend the annual legislative conference for the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington, D.C. An agenda for the Georgia Senate Special Committee on Investigations hearing stated Willis would provide “sworn testimony,” but state Republican Sen. Bill Cowsert began the meeting by announcing Willis would not appear.
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Colt Gray, who authorities say killed four at the Apalachee High School on September 4, missed nine days of school after enrolling two weeks after classes commenced for the 2024 school year, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) revealed on Friday.
The GBI confirmed Colt Gray was enrolled at the high school on August 14, indicating he began attending two weeks after the Barrow County School System calendar indicates classes began.
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The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) on Thursday revealed alleged Apalachee High School attacker Colt Gray, who is accused of killing four and injuring nine at the school on September 4, was allowed to leave his classroom by a teacher after he asked to speak with someone at the front office.
According to a GBI web page about the Apalachee High School attack, the teacher allowed Colt Gray to leave a classroom after he requested to “go to the front office and speak someone.”
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Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee on Thursday dismissed two counts against former President Donald Trump in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s election case.
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Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith reportedly offered new details about how authorities believe accused Apalachee High School killer Colt Gray obtained the rifle used during the attack and managed to conceal it at the campus where he allegedly killed four and injured nine.
Smith reportedly told Fox 5 Atlanta the rifle used during the attack was purchased legally after a background check was completed by Colin Gray, the father of Colt Gray. The purchase was made at a gun store just miles away from Apalachee High School, which the outlet reported is now cooperating with law enforcement.
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Barrow County School System Superintendent Dr. Dallas LeDuff was previously the Associate Superintendent of the Oconee County School System, which last year rebuffed calls from parents to station School Resource Officers (SROs) at its schools.
LeDuff was working for the Oconee County School System during the April 2023 push for it to adopt SROs at it schools, which Oconee County Observations reported occurred during an Oconee County Board of Education meeting.
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Marcee Gray, the mother of accused Apalachee High School shooter Colt Gray, who allegedly killed four and injured nine last week, claimed in a Monday interview a school counselor emailed on the morning of the shooting to report her child made “references to school shootings,” prompting her hurried call to warn of an “extreme emergency” involving Colt Gray.
The mother revealed in a Tuesday interview with ABC News that she was contacted by an Apalachee High School “counselor” shortly before the attack, which helped prompt her decision to call the school in advance of the shooting, which police say her son confessed to committing.
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