The metro Atlanta area has some of the highest inflation rates of any city in the country.
WalletHub, a personal finance website, compared 23 major Metropolitan Statistical Areas using two key Consumer Price Index-related metrics.
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Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) announced on Friday that Georgia has purchased an additional $10 million in Israel bonds to support the country’s “defense efforts against the militant Hamas regime,” which began horrific surprise attacks against Israel on October 7.
Kemp announced the purchase on Friday morning in a press release that revealed $10 million “was the highest available on the market.” The latest buy brings Georgia’s total investment in Israel bonds to $25 million, and the governor noted Georgia has “purchased an aggregate of $50 million in bonds, with half the bonds now matured,” since he took office.
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A federal judge denied a preliminary injunction request from President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice on Wednesday after the administration sought to stop enforcement of the 2021 Georgia voting law they claim discriminates against black voters.
United States District Judge J.P. Boulee ruled the Department of Justice is unlikely to prove any of its claims at trial, and denied the Biden administration’s request to pause portions of the law.
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Another letter sent by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) to U.S. Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) was obtained by the media on Thursday. In the letter, Willis again rebuked Jordan’s requests for information about her case against former President Donald Trump, and denied the U.S. Constitution gives Congress oversight of her work.
In her letter, which is dated October 11, Willis accused Jordan of either being “ignorant of the United States and Georgia Constitutions and codes” or using his “authority as Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary to attempt to obstruct and interfere” with her case against Trump.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis revealed three new witnesses she intends to call in the trial of pro-Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell in filings made on Tuesday. Willis’ office named Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Infowars radio host Alex Jones, and former Wisconsin Republican Party chairman Andrew Hitt in documents requesting their testimony.
Hitt was a Republican alternative elector in Wisconsin, and Willis claims he received an email from Chesebro on December 10, 2020, then met with Chesebro on December 14, as Wisconsin Republicans signed a document identifying themselves as Republican Electoral College electors.
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Walmart and Archer Aviation both announced plans to invest in Georgia on Wednesday, and the companies’ plans will ultimately create more than 1,400 new jobs throughout the state.
A new milk processing facility was announced in the south Georgia city of Valdosta, and Walmart said the $350 million location will employ nearly 400 Georgians. Products bottled at the facility will include gallon and half gallon varieties of whole, 2 percent, 1 percent, skim, and 1 percent chocolate milk for the Great Value and Sam’s Club Member’s Mark brands, and they will be sold to 750 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores in Georgia and across the region.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis argued in a legal filing on Tuesday that attorney-client privilege should not be extended to legal memos and emails written by pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who she indicted in August for the legal strategies he gave former President Donald Trump and his campaign in support of their 2020 election contest in Georgia.
In response to Chesebro’s request to have a handful of memos and emails stricken, citing his attorney-client privilege with the Trump campaign, Willis and Fulton County argued the “documents formed the bases for a criminal conspiracy” to “unlawfully overturn” the 2020 election results, and thus “cannot receive the protections afforded to lawful attorney communications or documents.”
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A new report published Tuesday reveals Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office has repeatedly failed to charge alleged criminals within a 90-day window from their arrest, forcing judges who previously denied them bail to renege and grant it, with at least 20 separate instances identified by 11 Alive.
Georgia law requires those who are arrested and refused bail to be formally indicted within 90 days, or else given bail, and 11 Alive claims court documents prove the county has failed to do this nearly two dozen times.
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Eight Georgia Senators have filed a formal ethics complaint against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, alleging she prioritized cases based on her political ideology. The senators, all Republicans, filed the complaint on October 1 with the new Prosecuting Attorneys Qualification Commission.
The complaint, which was first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has the support of Republican leadership in the Senate. The senators allege Willis “prioritized cases that align with her political party’s interests,” and ““improperly cherry-picked cases to further her personal political agenda,” according to The Messenger. While the complaint does not name former President Donald Trump, who was indicted by Willis in August, it does reference the 10 detainees who have died this year at Fulton County Jail while awaiting trial.
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Georgia Institute of Technology must pay half a million dollars in civil penalties for running a job recruitment platform that included postings that excluded non-citizens.
The settlement came after a “lawful permanent resident” student filed a complaint with the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
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Georgia Power Co. agreed to pay more than $400 million to settle a lawsuit on Friday, after Oglethorpe Power Corp. accused the utility company of failing to follow its financial commitments regarding maintenance of nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta. The company said it would take longer for the facility to become fully operational as a result, even as Georgia energy rates continue to increase.
The lawsuit was filed last year, reported The Associated Press, with Oglethorpe Power accusing Georgia Power of sticking them with nearly $700 million in additional costs by unilaterally changing a contract to make itself immune to cost overruns at the Plant Vogtle nuclear facility that is seven years behind schedule and $17 billion over budget.
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A new Georgia program to grant academic eligibility for direct admission to Georgia’s 22 technical colleges is a “win for Georgia,” a leading business group said.
On Thursday, Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, and state leaders announced GEORGIA MATCH, which they touted as “one of the largest state-run direct admissions initiatives.”
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The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar, John Eastman, wrapped up its seventh week on Friday, with more testimony from Kari Lake’s attorney Kurt Olsen, and Eastman resuming the stand briefly at the end. Olsen discussed several laws he said he believes were violated by state election officials in Wisconsin, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Olsen began testifying about a Motion for Leave to File a Bill of Complaint that he and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking to stop Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin from certifying their 2020 election results due to multiple violations of state law and constitutional problems. One of the reasons he said he brought the complaint was that signature verification was halted in the 2020 election in Detroit.
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In a pair of legal filings submitted Friday, attorney Kenneth Chesebro claims the case levied against him by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be dismissed based on First Amendment protections, and that she has failed to prove the racketeering charges against him. Chesebro, an attorney who assisted with former President Donald Trump’s effort to contest the 2020 election, requested Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee hold a hearing for arguments related to the latest filings.
The pair of filings were submitted by Chesebro’s attorneys on Friday afternoon, which The Messenger notes is the final day for parties to file written responses, and follow McAfee’s decision to toss a separate motion to dismiss the indictment earlier that morning.
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Prosecutors are recommending zero charges for the Georgia State Patrol (GSP) troopers who responded to civil unrest at the future site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Facility, according to a Friday report from the Mountain Circuit District Attorney’s Office. The report concerns the January 18 incident that saw one trooper shot by activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán, which prompted the troopers to return fire and fatally shoot Terán.
The report includes testimony from troopers who responded to the future site of the public safety training center on January 18, and prosecutors ultimately ruled that use of lethal force by GSP was “objectively reasonable under the circumstances of this case,” and thus requires no criminal charges.
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The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar John Eastman is in the middle of the seventh week. On Wednesday, retired Department of Defense analyst Ray Blehar returned to the witness stand, discussing his findings that “large injections of votes” were added during the U.S. Senate runoff in Georgia in January 2021. He was followed by Dr. Stanley Young, a statistician who appears to be the only one of Eastman’s witnesses who California Bar Disciplinary Court Judge Yvette Roland has allowed to be designated as an expert witness.
Eastman’s attorney Randy Miller asked Blehar about an email exchange he had with Eastman regarding the runoff, in which Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican incumbent David Perdue. Blehar told Eastman that “large injections of votes (over 10,000) were added” on five occasions during the Georgia Senate runoff race overnight. Roland cut him off, stating that it wasn’t relevant to the charges against Eastman and was “wasting time.” The bar disciplinary charges state that Eastman “made false and misleading statements regarding purported election fraud.”
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) is seeking testimony from lawyer and political consultant Boris Epshteyn in the trial of lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, according to a court filing made public Thursday.
Willis wants a Washington, D.C. judge to force Epshteyn, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, to testify about actions taken by Chesebro and Powell during Trump’s challenge of the 2020 election results. Fulton County promised Epshteyn will not be prosecuted for any information gleaned from his testimony.
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A Georgia high school teacher in Cobb County was arrested on October 4 and charged with sexual assault by a teacher and solicitation of sodomy over an alleged inappropriate relationship with a student.
Harrison High School social studies teacher Eric Taylor Butler was arrested for an alleged inappropriate sexual relationship with a student that began in June. The alleged abuse reportedly and continued until October 2, according to Atlanta First News, which reported the 28-year-old teacher allegedly carried on a relationship with a 16-year-old student.
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The Georgia Senate announced a new subcommittee to probe severe overcrowding and dangerous conditions at the Fulton County Jail on Thursday, with news breaking on Wednesday that State Senators John Albers (R-Alpharetta) and Randy Robertson (R-Cataula) will lead the probe.
The probe was revealed as activists gathered to protest Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat’s plan to relocate inmates to other facilities, including ones in South Georgia and Mississippi.
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Since 2022, the Georgia Republican Party has paid more than $1 million in legal bills for current and former officials embroiled in the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and those who helped him contest the 2020 election in the state.
Public records reveal the Georgia Republican Party has spent more than $1 million for the legal defense of State Senator Shawn Still (R-Johns Creek), former Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer, and former Coffee County GOP Chair Cathy Latham since 2022. The three Republicans were indicted as part of Willis’s case against Trump for their role as alternative Republican electors during the 2020 election contest.
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Former President Donald Trump recorded a video heaping praise on Georgia State Senator Colton Moore (R-Trenton) for his legislative petition to force a special session for the purpose of defunding or impeaching Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Moore announced his petition effort after Willis indicted Trump and 18 other defendants in August, but received intense pushback from Georgia Republicans. Moore, a member of the Georgia Freedom Caucus, then arranged for activists to door-knock in Republican stronghold districts held by senators who oppose his petition, which ultimately lead to his expulsion from the Georgia Senate Republican Caucus.
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Clayton County Commission chair Felicia Franklin claims she was given the date rape drug while attending a live music event in Morrow, Georgia last weekend.
Franklin claimed in a post on Facebook that medical professionals believe she “was drugged with a GHB pill, more commonly known as the ‘date rape pill,'” and said the experience had “shaken me to my core.”
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An Atlanta-based venture capital firm’s grant program that is exclusively available to businesses owned by black women was blocked by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in a Saturday injunction that prevents funds being dispersed for the “racially exclusionary” grant program.
The 11th Circuit voted 2-1 to grant the injunction requested by the non-profit American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), a project of conservative legal strategist Edward Blum, which is suing the venture capital Fearless Fund over its race-based Fearless Strivers Grant.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) subpoenaed Bernie Kerik, demanding he testify in her racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and those who helped him contest the 2020 election. A lawyer for Kerik reportedly replied to Willis on Monday, declaring the former New York Police Department (NYPD) commissioner and alleged unindicted co-conspirator would not testify under oath without assurances he will not be prosecuted.
Kerik was previously identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against Trump and his allies by CNN, and the outlet now claims to have reviewed a Monday letter from lawyer Tim Parlatore, who represents Kerik, that rebukes Willis’s demands.
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SK Battery announced layoffs for its Jackson County, Georgia plant this week despite previously expanding rapidly in Georgia. The layoffs came just months after a local business owner blamed the company for a fire that destroyed his recycling company and launched a lawsuit.
The battery company announced layoffs last Tuesday, with a spokesman describing them as “job reductions” when speaking to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The spokesman stressed the company is “not disclosing the number” of cut jobs, and the plant still employs 3,000 Georgians.
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The sixth week of the disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar, John Eastman, wrapped up Friday with testimony by two witnesses from Eastman’s team. Attorney Kurt Olsen, who is representing Kari Lake in her election challenge, testified first. Next, Ray Blehar, a retired Department of Defense analyst, testified, discussing his findings that 280,000 to 300,000 votes in Pennsylvania were “vote laundered” through the electronic tabulating machines.
Olsen began his testimony explaining why he decided to become involved in an election lawsuit over the 2020 election. He said, “I believed that something was not right.” He listed what concerned him: video clips of poll workers not allowed to watch tabulation, the controversy in Michigan’s Antrim County, results that didn’t make sense such as the stopping of counting ballots overnight in key counties, and “clear violations of law.”
Georgia rarely houses foster children in hotel rooms, a reversal of a controversial practice that caught the attention of federal authorities.
The news that the state no longer uses hotel rooms follows reports of widespread, systemic breakdowns within Georgia’s foster care system. Last year, the state spent $28 million to house children in hotels, sometimes for months.
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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee cautioned prosecutors working for District Attorney Fani Willis against calling witnesses not specifically outlined in their witness list. McAfee made his warning during a procedural hearing on Friday for the trial of attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, who face charges for their alleged part in what Willis claims was a racketeering scheme meant to illegally influence the 2020 election in Georgia.
Responding to a discovery notice filed by prosecutors, which sought to notify the court of their intention to call additional witnesses who provided testimony to the special grand jury but are not identified as witnesses, McAfee told special prosecutor Nathan Wade he expects “the state to be adhering to witness list rules, and if there are witnesses that are buried in discovery somewhere that don’t make it on that list, we’re going to have an issue and we’re going to have to talk through it.”
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Polling released on Friday reveals the majority of Georgia voters support the new Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, with only 12 percent of poll respondents expressing support for the controversial “Stop Cop City” petition to force a public referendum on the project.
60 percent of Georgia voters back the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, agreeing with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, according to polling by 20-20 Insight. An additional 28 percent of Georgia voters are not sure, and just 12 percent support the “Stop Cop City” petition.
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The Georgia Senate Republican Caucus voted on Thursday to oust State Senator Colton Moore (R-Trenton) after he circulated a legislative petition calling for a special session to impeach or defund Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and sent activists to door-knock in districts of senators who publicly opposed the petition.
Moore announced a petition for a special session to defund or impeach Willis following her indictment of former President Donald Trump and 18 current or former allies who helped him contest the 2020 election, sparking support from the grassroots and caution from Republican leadership. Since then, activists working with Moore have door knocked in Republican districts to lobby voters against Republican senators who refused to back the petition.
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A former guard at the Fulton County Jail, who was charged on Thursday after allegedly strangling a detainee to the point of losing consciousness, appears to be a biologically female person who identifies as a transgender male.
An indictment was returned by a federal grand jury on Thursday, charging former Fulton County Jail detention officer Monique Clark with using excessive force when allegedly strangling a female detainee until she fell unconscious and was injured. Conflicting reporting about Clark’s gender appears to indicate Clark was born biologically female, but now identifies as male.
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Greater Georgia, a nonprofit organization focused on voter engagement in the state, announced Thursday it is partnering with the Georgia Center for Civic Engagement to launch a new voter registration contest for high school students across the Peach State.
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Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP) Josh McKoon recently announced his appointment of Dennis Futch to serve as vice chairman of the GAGOP Finance Committee and chairman of a new initiative launched by the party.
“As we remain laser focused on firing Joe Biden next year, we know that improved margins and increased turnout in rural Georgia is a key component to victory,” McKoon said in a statement. “Dennis Futch is the right man to help us build out the strategy to win big in rural Georgia next year. The Rural Mobilization Initiative is all about development and execution of a strategy to both improve our margins and increase voter turnout. I’m very excited to work with Dennis on this effort!”
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A lawyer and author renowned for his critiques of former President Donald Trump publicly criticized Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her case against the former president, calling it “unnecessary” and “partisan” in a podcast appearance on Tuesday.
Elie Honig, a former U.S. Assistant Attorney for the Southern District of New York, questioned whether Willis’s charges serve “the greater good” or “promote public confidence in the fairness” of the cases against Trump on the “CAFE Insider” podcast.
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Conservative litigation group America First Legal (AFL) asked for a federal investigation into the Georgia Institute of Technology, better known as Georgia Tech, over alleged discrimination against men in its new Rising Stars program that only accepts students who are biologically female, identify as female, or do not identify as any gender, in a letter sent Tuesday.
AFL alleges Georgia Tech is violating Title IX of the Higher Education Act of 1972, which prohibits gender-based exclusion in “any education program or activity receiving federal Federal financial assistance,” and sent a letter to the Department of Education asking it launch an investigation based on the legal group’s evidence.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) told the audience at the Atlanta-based hip hop festival, Revolt World, that she and members of her family have received threats as a result of her office’s prosecutions of former President Donald Trump and rapper Young Thug.
Willis attended the festival, held in Atlanta beginning on September 22, and delivered remarks about her high profile prosecutions of Trump and Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams. At one point Willis told the audience that her father, daughters, and ex-husband have all received threats due to the high profile cases, in addition to threats she personally received.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) accused former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows of abusing his federal position to interfere with Georgia’s 2020 elections, according to a filing her office submitted to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday.
Meadows has repeatedly sought to have his case removed from Fulton County to a federal court. That attempt was stymied by a federal judge, but an expedited appeal was granted to the 11th Circuit. Meadows’ lawyers submitted their filing last week, arguing that Willis was committing unforced constitutional “errors” in her “unnecessary” effort to prevent his case’s removal.
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Local jurisdictions might need to rethink their minimum lot and home size requirements given the state’s growing population and apparent need for “adequate workforce housing.”
That’s the upshot of a new Georgia Public Policy Foundation report.
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Governor Brian Kemp (R) said he believes former President Donald Trump “can win Georgia” during an interview last Friday. Kemp added that he would support Trump, should he become the Republican nominee for president, despite the public feud between the men.
Kemp said he is willing to support the former president during the 2024 general election during an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Kemp described Trump as “a lot better than Biden,” adding that those “serving in the administration would be a lot better” than those tapped by the Biden White House.
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Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP) Josh McKoon recently announced his appointment of Julianne Thompson to serve as special advisor to the chairman.
Thompson previously served the GAGOP as communications director and press secretary. In addition, she served as a legislative aide to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on the Constitution, received two Gubernatorial appointments, and has been listed in Who’s Who Among Outstanding Young Women in America.
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Georgia is likely “the most important state in American politics” heading into the 2024 election, a leading intellectual historian said.
Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams in 2018 and decidedly defeated her in a rematch in November to win a second term. He won despite drawing former President Donald Trump’s ire for his response to the 2020 election.
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Lt. Governor Burt Jones promised lawmakers would work to cut Georgia regulations during next year’s legislative session.
“One of our main initiatives this upcoming session is going to be — we’re calling it the ‘red tape rollback,'” Jones, a Republican, said to applause during Americans for Prosperity-GA’s inaugural Pathway to Prosperity Summit.
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An investigator working for the Fulton County District Attorney’s office shot herself on Friday while at the Fulton County Courthouse. The investigator, who works in the office of District Attorney Fani Willis, was not critically injured in the accidental discharge.
News first broke on Friday morning that a shooting incident occurred at the Fulton County Courthouse, with the sheriff’s office reporting there was “no active threat” at the time. Within an hour, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office confirmed “an accidental discharge” by an “investigator who wounded herself” but was not critically injured.
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Attorney Kenneth Chesebro argued that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis may have violated his privileged communications with clients during her blanket search of his email account, according to legal filing made by his lawyers on Thursday.
Chesebro, who is among those indicted by Willis in her racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and those who helped him contest the 2020 election, alleged that Willis and her office violated Georgia law when it gained blanket access to Chesebro’s email account in July, according to his lawyers’ filing. Chesebro is asking Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to suppress any evidence gathered from those emails.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis revealed about a dozen witnesses she plans to call in her racketeering case against former President Donald Trump in a legal filing on Wednesday. Willis named the witnesses to illustrate potential conflicts of interests for defense attorneys.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), and his wife Patricia, will both be called as witnesses by the prosecution, according to Willis’s filing.
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The family of a deceased Fulton County Jail detainee who was stabbed to death announced its intention to sue the jail on Wednesday but will first offer the facility a 30-day window to “address the situation appropriately” before the lawsuit is filed. During a Thursday press conference, the family’s lawyers provided details surrounding the stabbing death.
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Georgia Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA-14) and Mike Collins (R-GA-10) received failing grades from Republicans for Ukraine, a group that lobbies for the Republican Party to continue its support for the Eastern European country.
Greene and Collins both received “F” grades from the Republicans for Ukraine, while Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA-09) received a “C” grade for his allegedly lukewarm support.
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Georgia Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA-09) is championing two budget amendments this week, with both aimed at preventing congressional funding for the Department of Justice, or any state or local government, from being used to prosecute a declared candidate for president, particularly former President Donald Trump. Clyde, who is reportedly willing to allow a government shutdown to force spending cuts from Democrats, is expected to submit the amendments as part of the annual budget process.
The two amendments championed by Clyde, which were originally written by The Article III Project, would specifically forbid federal funding for the Department of Justice’s prosecution of Trump, and would prevent federal dollars from funding local prosecutions in Georgia and New York.
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The City of Atlanta has approved legislation to scan more than 115,000 petition signatures calling for a referendum on the Atlanta Public Safety Safety Training Center on Monday. After scanning the petitions, Atlanta will make them available to the public, but will not determine the validity of the signatures at this time.
Activists claimed to deliver 116,000 petition signatures on September 11, nearly doubling the 58,232 required to force a public vote on the future of the training center for law enforcement and first responders. However, a legal ruling briefly extended the petition deadline from August 21 to late October, before it was stayed by a higher court. Atlanta ultimately accepted the petitions, but said it would not begin processing them until it received guidance from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Mark Meadows, the former White House Chief of Staff for the Trump administration, argued in a Monday legal filing that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis “committed errors” that raise “serious constitutional concerns” in her “unnecessarily complicated” attempts to prevent his case from being removed to a federal court.
Meadows has repeatedly asserted the case brought against him by Fulton County should be tried in a federal court, citing his position as a government employee who answered directly to former President Donald Trump when his alleged offenses were committed. U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones denied various attempts from Meadows to remove the case, but late last week the 11th Circuit announced it would hear his appeal and grant it expedited status.
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