ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has renewed his call for a constitutional amendment prohibiting non-U.S. citizens from voting in elections in Georgia. Raffensperger said a recent surge in illegal immigrants crossing the nation’s southern border makes stopping non-citizens from voting more important than ever.

ATLANTA – The Biden administration is stepping up federal funding of three planned intercity passenger rail projects in Georgia. The Federal Rail Administration has awarded $1.5 million in grants to explore linking Atlanta with Savannah; Charlotte, N.C.; and Chattanooga, Tenn. The grants are part of $8.2 billion in new funding for passenger rail projects announced Thursday.

ATLANTA – State tax collections rose slightly last month compared to November of last year, the Georgia Department of Revenue reported Friday. The state brought in $2.32 billion in November, up 1.5% over the same month a year ago.

ATLANTA (AP) — A shooting in Atlanta killed three people and left one victim wounded Saturday evening, police said. The Atlanta Police Department said officers responded to an address on Peachtree Road NE in the city’s Buckhead district Saturday.

ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta police have arrested a woman who's accused of trying to burn down the birth home of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta. Officers arrested the 26-year-old woman around 5:45 p.m. Thursday after responding to a report of vandalism in process at the two-story home in the historic Auburn Avenue Historic District, according to a police statement.

ATLANTA – The Georgia House gave final passage to a new congressional map for the state Thursday, the final act in a weeklong special legislative session called after a federal judge declared the current map violates the Voting Rights Act. The Republican-controlled House approved the map 98-71, voting along party lines, sending the map to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.

CHICAGO (AP) — The U.S. Soccer Federation's new training center will be built in Fayetteville, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta about a 30-mile drive from downtown Atlanta. The USSF announced the specific site adjacent to Trilith Studios on Thursday after saying on Sept. 15 it intended to construct a complex in the Atlanta area. Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank is contributing $50 million for the project. The complex will be more than 200 acres.

ATLANTA – The General Assembly’s Republican majorities gave final passage to new legislative district maps Tuesday over objections from minority Democrats that the state House and Senate maps violate the Voting Rights Act. Voting along party lines, the Georgia House of Representatives adopted a new state Senate map senators had passed late last week.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Air Force Special Operations Command said Tuesday it has identified the eight service members lost when their Osprey crashed off the coast of Japan last week and was now focused on recovering all of their bodies and the aircraft debris. The CV-22B Osprey crashed on Nov. 29 during a training mission.

ATLANTA (AP) — Two of three people charged with arson in the burning of the Wendy's restaurant in Atlanta where a police officer fatally shot Rayshard Brooks in June 2020 have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors. Chisom Kingston, Natalie White and John Wade were arrested on arson charges within weeks of the fire, which came in the midst of weeks of upheaval and protest across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Power Co. is urging the state's utility regulators to approve a deal to pay for the company's new nuclear reactors as a few holdout opponents keep fighting to try to get the Public Service Commission to keep the utility from collecting any cost overruns for the two reactors at Plant Vogtle.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's Republican governor and legislative leaders want to speed up an already-planned cut in the state income tax rate. Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and House Speaker Jon Burns said Monday that they support a plan to create a flat income tax rate of 5.39% starting Jan. 1. “We're keeping government streamlined and we're giving taxpayers back their hard-earned money,” Kemp said.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Republicans on Thursday pushed forward new legislative maps that would preserve their majorities in the state House and Senate, while still not revealing how they want to redraw Georgia’s 14 congressional districts.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — County commissioners in Georgia are asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit by Black residents descended from slaves who fear new zoning changes will force them to sell their island homes in one of the South's last surviving Gullah-Geechee communities. Residents and landowners of the tiny Hogg Hummock community sued in October after McIntosh County commissioners voted to weaken zoning restrictions that for decades helped protect the enclave of modest homes along dirt roads on largely unspoiled Sapelo Island.

ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp’s chief of staff is resigning to become senior vice president over external affairs for Georgia Power, effective Jan. 15. Kilpatrick will lead the company’s strategy and engagement in economic development, legislative and regulatory affairs, region external affairs and corporate communication. 

ATLANTA – A combination of legislation and spending increases are needed to improve Georgia’s foster care system, according to a report a legislative study committee adopted Monday. The state Senate Study Committee on Foster Care and Adoption unanimously recommended legislation to shorten the time it takes children entering the foster care system to reach a permanent status – either reunification with parents or adoption – and to provide free photo IDs to foster kids.

ATLANTA (AP) — It's a fight over land in one of rural Georgia's poorest areas, but it could have implications for property law across the state and nation. A hearing is scheduled to begin Monday to help determine whether a railroad can legally condemn property to build a rail line 4.5 miles long that would serve a rock quarry and possibly other industries.

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter could not remember their first meeting. She was a newborn. He wasn't long out of diapers himself, a would-be U.S. president peering down at the future first lady his mother had delivered a few days earlier. What flourished in the near-century to follow was a partnership that won the Georgia governor’s office, the White House and then propelled the Carters through four decades as global humanitarians.

ATLANTA (AP) — Multiple dogs living at animal shelters in a county just south of Atlanta could be euthanized due to overcrowding if they aren't adopted before Nov. 30, a Georgia animal control group said.

ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp is assigning Georgia National Guard troops and other state resources to help with the “logistical challenges” associated with ceremonies and services to honor the late former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Kemp issued an executive order Tuesday activating the State Operations Center to coordinate the state assets that will assist next week in the final farewells and interment of Mrs. Carter, who died Sunday at her home in Plains.

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — The Washington chattering class, often unsure what to make of outsiders, dubbed Rosalynn Carter the “Steel Magnolia” when she arrived as first lady. A devout Baptist and mother of four, she was diminutive and outwardly shy, with a soft smile and softer Southern accent. That was the “magnolia.” She also was a force behind Jimmy Carter’s rise from peanut farmer to winner of the 1976 presidential election. That was the “steel.”

DAWSON, Ga. — Between wavering crop prices and high production costs, financially, farmers are dealing with a lot right now. Now, many in Georgia and other farming states are raising the alarm about white-tailed deer, which can cause millions of dollars' worth of damage to the state’s most profitable crops. “This year has been, by far, worse than I've ever seen,” said farmer Neil Lee, who lives and works in Dawson.

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter is in hospice care at home in Plains, Georgia, joining former President Jimmy Carter, who has been receiving end-of-life care since February, their family announced Friday.

ATLANTA (AP) — The National Park Service announced Thursday that it has delivered to Congress its long-awaited study on whether the Ocmulgee River corridor in central Georgia meets the criteria to be managed as a national park and preserve. The answer: Not quite, not yet.

FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) — Four family members were found dead inside a home at Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia, the U.S. Army said Thursday. Military police discovered the bodies of a soldier, her husband and their two children Wednesday afternoon after members of the soldier’s unit requested a welfare check, according to the statement from Fort Stewart officials.