ATLANTA (AP) — A trial to determine whether Georgia can continue to ban abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy is set to begin in an Atlanta courtroom Monday. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney has scheduled two days of testimony in a lawsuit that seeks to strike down the law on multiple grounds.

ATLANTA (AP) — The city of Atlanta will spend $39 million to buy a 41-story downtown office tower from Georgia’s state government. Mayor Andre Dickens says the city will redevelop the aging tower to include mixed-income housing and other uses. The 2 Peachtree Building was the tallest building in Atlanta when it was built for a bank in 1968. The state was already moving government agencies out of the tower after budgeting $45 million for the moves.

SOUTH FULTON, Ga. (AP) — Authorities Thursday continued to search for two people missing after a deadly house fire in Georgia. Firefighters recovered two bodies _ a man and a woman _ on Wednesday, but Eric Perry told news outlets his 7-year-old daughter, Hailey Harris, and the child’s grandmother may still be inside the rubble.

ATLANTA – Unemployment in Georgia held steady last month for the third month in a row at a record low 2.8%, while the number of jobs hit an all-time high, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. The state’s unemployment rate for September was well below the national rate of 3.5%

WASHINGTON (AP) — Police at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday arrested a Georgia man who they say had several guns in his van and claimed to be in Washington to deliver documents to the Supreme Court.

ATLANTA (AP) — Two former detainees at a Georgia jail say sheriff's deputies kept them strapped into restraint chairs for hours without pause, causing them to urinate on themselves. Both men testified before a federal jury Tuesday in Atlanta during the trial of Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill. The sheriff is charged with violating jail detainees' civil rights by using restraint chairs as a form of punishment.

ATLANTA – After eclipsing the 2018 midterm elections turnout on the first day of early voting this week, Georgians surpassed the turnout ahead of the 2020 presidential election on the second day of early voting. More than 134,000 voters cast early ballots across the Peach State Tuesday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reported. That’s a 3.3% increase over the second day of early voting two years ago. Historically, voting in midterm elections falls off substantially from voting in presidential elections.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Authorities say they plan to search a Georgia landfill for the remains of a toddler reported missing nearly two weeks ago. Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley said Tuesday that investigators have evidence that leads them to believe 20-month-old Quinton Simon's body was dumped in a trash bin that had its contents deposited at the landfill outside Savannah. The boy was reported missing Oct. 5 by his mother. The police chief now says she's a prime suspect in the child's death and disappearance, though she hasn't been arrested or charged.

STATESBORO, Ga. (AP) — Authorities say a college student died after being struck by the propeller of a small plane at an airport in southeast Georgia. Bulloch County Coroner Jake Futch says the 21-year-old man had just stepped out of the single-engine Cessna after it landed in Statesboro on Sunday night and was hit in the head as he walked toward the front of the plane. The coroner identified the man as Sani Aliyu, of Atlanta, a student at Georgia Southern University.

ATLANTA – More than 131,000 Georgians turned out on Monday for the first day of early voting ahead of this year’s midterm elections, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reported Tuesday. That’s 85% higher than the number who showed up to vote on the first day of early voting before the last midterm elections four years ago and fell just short of the 136,739 who cast ballots as early voting kicked off ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Two men face attempted murder charges for allegedly firing into each other’s vehicles on a busy Florida highway and wounding each other’s daughters, who were passengers in their back seats. William Hale, of Douglasville, Georgia, and Frank Allison, of Callahan, Florida, were charged last week with attempted second-degree murder in the Oct. 8 confrontation on U.S. Highway 1 in Nassau County, which is in Florida’s northeasternmost corner.

ATLANTA – Republican Gov. Brian Kemp pledged Monday to turn up the heat on criminal gangs and reform the system for granting no-cash bail if he wins a second term next month. Kemp released a public safety platform that calls for increasing penalties for gang recruitment of minors, implementing a database for gang research and prevention, and requiring judges to consider criminal history when issuing “own recognizance” bonds.

ATLANTA – The long-delayed, over-budget nuclear expansion at Plant Vogtle is heading toward commercial operation during the first quarter of next year. Georgia Power officials announced Friday that fuel loading has begun at the first of two new reactors being built at the plant south of Augusta. The milestone marks the first new nuclear unit to be built in the U.S. in more than 30 years.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Police say a Georgia toddler reported missing by his mother last week is believed to be dead and his mother has been named a suspect in the boy’s death. In a tweet late Wednesday, the Chatham County Police Department said: “We are saddened to report that CCPD and the FBI have notified Quinton Simon’s family that we believe he is deceased. We have named his mother, Leilani Simon, as the prime suspect in his disappearance and death.”

Jenna Jambeck, a specialist in plastic waste management at the University of Georgia, was one of 25 winners of this year's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation prestigious"genius grants." Jambeck, a professor of environmental engineering at UGA, received the award for accomplishments like calculating the amount of plastic created since 1950 and identifying that 8 million metric tons of plastic enter oceans each year.

JASPER, Tenn. (AP) — A finalist on “American Idol” has died in a vehicle crash in Tennessee. News outlets report the Tennessee Highway Patrol says 23-year-old Willie Spence died Tuesday after hitting the rear of a tractor-trailer near Chattanooga. An accident report from the agency says the truck was stopped on the shoulder of Interstate 24 East when the crash happened. Spence was from Georgia.

ATLANTA – Georgia high school students earned an average ACT score of 21.6 this year, beating the national average of 19.8, according to new data from the state Department of Education.  This is the sixth year in a row that Georgia’s average ACT score has topped the national average. The ACT is a standardized college admissions test similar to the SAT. 

ATLANTA (AP) — An Atlanta-area sheriff stands accused of punishing detainees by having them strapped into a restraint chair for hours even though they posed no threat and obeyed instructions. Now it will be up to a jury to decide whether Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill violated the men’s civil rights. Prosecutors say putting the seven men in restraint chairs was unnecessary, was improperly used as punishment, and caused pain and bodily injury.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Gopher tortoises — burrowers whose extensive homes shelter many other animals — are generally doing well and need federal protection only in the small area where they were declared threatened 35 years ago, the government said Tuesday. Thanks to extensive conservation work and recently discovered populations, Georgia's state reptile is no longer a candidate for protection in the bulk of its range.

VIENNA, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia mayor helped a mother and three children escape from a sport utility vehicle that was stalled on railroad tracks with a train approaching. Vienna Mayor Eddie Daniels was headed to work Saturday when he saw the SUV. He says he couldn't let the family get slaughtered. He helped the mom out first, then got out a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old. As he was helping a 6-year-old, the train hit the vehicle and knocked it off the tracks. The second-term mayor has a broken ankle and eight stitches on his head. He says he’s thankful the family is alive.

ATLANTA – The state Department of Revenue collected almost $3.1 billion in taxes in September, an increase of $279.2 million – or 9.9% – over the same month a year …

ATLANTA – Georgia’s high-school graduation rate increased to 84.1% in 2022, the highest it’s been since the state began using a federally required method to calculate the rate.  This year’s rate is just a bit higher than last year’s rate of 83.7% 

ATLANTA – The state Supreme Court Thursday heard arguments about the power of local referendums to change county government decisions – such as Camden County’s decision to purchase property to build a long-planned spaceport – under the Georgia Constitution.  The case pits Camden County voters opposed to the spaceport against their own county government in a case that could influence both the future of the plan and voter oversight of local elected officials in Georgia. 

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Police are searching a coastal Georgia neighborhood for a toddler whose mother called 911 saying the boy was missing when she woke up. Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley said the mother told officers that 20-month-old Quinton Simon had been in his playpen before he went missing Wednesday morning. Hours later the toddler still had not been found in the neighborhood just west of Savannah. Police closed down several streets as officers searched with a tracking dog and a helicopter hovered overhead.

ATLANTA –  Industrial facilities released more than 5 million pounds of toxic chemicals into Georgia’s waterways in 2020, putting Georgia in 13th place nationwide, according to …