ATLANTA – Environmental advocates are calling into question Georgia Power’s plan for closing ash ponds adjacent to coal-burning power plants. Jennette Gayer, director of Atlanta-based Environment Georgia, cited a recent decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency denying an Ohio utility’s request to leave coal ash at a closed pond in contact with groundwater. As part of its ash-pond closure plan, Georgia Power is proposing to leave coal ash in contact with groundwater at plants Scherer, McDonough, Yates, and Hammond.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A teenager campaigning in a neighborhood for U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia was shot and wounded on the doorstep of a Savannah home, according to police. “At this point, there is no indication the shooting was politically motivated,” Savannah police said in a statement Friday.

ATLANTA – Georgia is adding two college and career academies to the 55 already serving more than 45,000 high school students across the state, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday. The Technical College System of Georgia’s governing board has approved $3 million in bonds and a $100,000 cash investment to each of the two new academies, to be located in Monroe and Dooly counties.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A second former Army soldier has pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from the 2020 killing of a fellow service member found dead from dozens of cuts and slashes in his barracks at a Georgia base. Jordan Brown, 21, pleaded guilty before a U.S. District Court judge Tuesday in Savannah to charges of assaulting a military service member and intimidating a witness, according to court records. Prosecutors say Brown plotted with a former sergeant to kill Army Spc. Austin Hawk.

MACON, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia man has been sentenced to serve nearly three years in federal prison for sending a letter threatening to kill President Joe Biden and to blow up the White House, prosecutors said Thursday. Travis Ball, of Barnesville, was ordered Wednesday to spend two years and nine months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and also to pay a $7,500 fine, the office of U.S. Attorney Peter Leary said in a news release. Ball, 56, had previously pleaded guilty to making threats against the president.

ATLANTA – Georgia’s two U.S. senators have landed $250 million in federal pandemic relief funds to expand high-speed internet access across the state. Broadband providers in 33 primarily rural counties will be eligible to apply for grants through the program.

ATLANTA – Growing up, Linda Smith enjoyed swimming in the Canoochee River and resting on one of its white sandbars near her family home. But by the 1990s, she and her family could no longer swim there because the water was covered with a thick, dark algal bloom – the product of runoff from Claxton Poultry, a chicken processing facility located upstream.  

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A former Georgia prosecutor charged with hindering the police investigation into the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery is scheduled to make her first court appearance in the case next month. A superior court judge on Tuesday ordered a Dec. 29 arraignment for former District Attorney Jackie Johnson. More than a year has passed since Johnson was indicted on misconduct charges alleging she used her office to try to protect two of the white men who chased and fatally shot Arbery after he ran past their home on Feb. 23, 2020.

Eighteen people died in traffic incidents in Georgia over the Thanksgiving travel period, the Georgia Department of Public Safety said in a statement issued Tuesday.

ATLANTA (AP) — The parents of a Georgia high school basketball player who collapsed while practicing outdoors in sweltering heat and later died announced that they have agreed to a $10 million settlement with the school district. Their lawyers said Tuesday that, as part of the settlement, the Clayton County school system agreed to rename the gymnasium at Elite Scholars Academy for Imani Bell. The 16-year-old was a junior at the school when she died.

ATLANTA – Georgia voters are destroying the old political adage that runoff elections are plagued with low voter turnouts. More than 300,000 Georgians cast ballots Monday, the first day of statewide early voting in the runoff contest between Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker. That easily broke the daily record for early voting turnout in Georgia of 233,000.

ATLANTA – State Senate Democrats reelected their top leadership team Monday. Sen. Gloria Butler will return as Senate minority leader during the 2023-24 legislative term starting in January.

EAST POINT, Ga. (AP) — An Atlanta-area woman has been arrested on murder charges after investigators say she killed one of her twin 4-year-old daughters and set fire to her apartment to conceal the death. The second twin was injured in the fire. East Point investigators say 27-year-old Nicole Jackson told them her daughter was already dead, but didn't say how they believe the girl died. The other daughter was burned on her hands, arms and parts of her face.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The FBI has confirmed that the bones found in a Georgia landfill are those of a toddler who had been reported missing last month. The agency said Monday that it used DNA analysis to confirm that the bones belonged to 20-month-old Quinton Simon. Chatham County police said on Nov. 21 that they had arrested Leilani Simon, 22, on charges of malice murder, concealing the death of another person, false reporting and making false statements involving her son.

BLUE RIDGE, Ga. (AP) — Georgia House Speaker David Ralston is being remembered as a powerful politician whose care for others transcended partisan boundaries. Hundreds gathered in the Republican’s hometown of Blue Ridge Sunday for Ralston's funeral after he died on Nov. 16 at age 68. Rep. Randy Nix of LaGrange says “people were more important” to Ralston than politics.

ATLANTA (AP) — A shooting in an Atlanta neighborhood Saturday evening killed on person and wounded five, police said. The Atlanta Police Department said several shots were fired during a dispute around 8 p.m. on the 17th Street bridge in Atlantic Station, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

MACON, Ga. (AP) — A Macon hospital authority wants its local government to start sharing local property tax collections to help pay for indigent care. The Macon-Bibb County Hospital Authority discussed its plans earlier this month, The Telegraph of Macon reports.

ATLANTA (AP) — Yes, they've nicknamed the baby “Nugget," after a woman delivered a girl at an Atlanta McDonald's. Alandria Worthy tells WXIA-TV that her labor was intensifying and her fiancé was driving her to the hospital Wednesday morning when they stopped so she could use the bathroom at the fast food restaurant.

MACON, Ga. (AP) — Three people have died after an interstate crash in central Georgia. Bibb County Coroner Leon Jones tells local news outlets that a 27-year-old man was driving a Chevy Tahoe north in the southbound lanes of Interstate 75 in Macon on Thursday when he hit another vehicle head-on.

RICHMOND HILL, Ga. (AP) — South Korean automaker Hyundai has announced a second large supplier for its new electric car plant on the Georgia coast. Hyundai Mobis plans to invest nearly $1 billion in a new facility in Bryan County that could employ around 1,500 workers, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said in a news release.

ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court Wednesday reinstated the state’s ban on abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy. In a one-page order, the high court put a lower court ruling overturning the ban on hold while it considers an appeal. Abortion providers who had resumed performing the procedure past six weeks after the lower court ruling will again have to stop.

ATLANTA – Legislators from across Georgia and across party lines gathered underneath the Gold Dome Tuesday to pay tribute to former House Speaker David Ralston, who died last week and will lie in state at the Capitol until Wednesday morning.  

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The mother of a toddler reported missing Oct. 5 in Georgia has been arrested in connection with the child's disappearance and presumed death, authorities said Monday.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Five people from Georgia, including two children, were killed in Alabama on Friday when their car entered the highway going the wrong way and hit an 18-wheeler, authorities said.

ATLANTA – A state senator and state representative-elect have joined forces to form the General Assembly’s first Hispanic caucus. Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, who was elected Senate majority caucus chairman last week, and Rep.-elect Rey Martinez, R-Loganville, announced the creation of the Georgia Hispanic Caucus Thursday.