ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia would strengthen penalties against false reports of shootings and bomb threats at homes, known as swatting, under a bill passed Monday by the state House. The measure would also define a drive-by shooting as a separate crime.

ATLANTA (AP) — Naomi Barber King, a civil rights activist who was married to the younger brother of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., has died at age 92. She died in Atlanta on Thursday, according to family members who issued a statement through the A.D. King Foundation.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia House Republicans are backing a bill that would require every eligible police and sheriff’s department to help identify undocumented immigrants and detain them for possible deportation. The House voted 97-74 on Thursday for House Bill 1105 after police accused a Venezuelan man of beating a nursing student to death on the University of Georgia campus. The measure moves to the state Senate for more debate.

ATLANTA (AP) — Some Georgia senators want to punish cities and counties that they say are illegally harboring immigrants who are in the country without permission by cutting off most state aid to the local government and removing elected officials from office.

The first confirmed baby right whale of the year has been found dead from a collision with a ship, a devastating blow for the vanishing species. North Atlantic right whales number less than 360 and they are vulnerable to ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. Federal authorities were notified of a dead right whale stranded off Georgia on Sunday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's 2024 elections kicked into high gear Monday with the start of qualifying for state and federal offices. Dozens of candidates from the Republican and Democratic parties streamed to the state Capitol to sign papers and pay their qualifying fees, while those running for nonpartisan posts and as independents lined up across the street to qualify with the secretary of state's office. Candidates have until noon Friday to sign up.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A federal agency is asserting legal rights to waters that feed the Okefenokee Swamp and its vast wildlife refuge, setting up a new battle with a mining company seeking permits to withdraw more than 1.4 million gallons daily for a project that critics say could irreparably harm one of America's natural treasures.

ATLANTA – The Port of Savannah set a record for rail traffic last month at the port’s Mason Mega Rail Terminal, the Georgia Ports Authority announced Monday. The rail terminal handled 46,890 containers in February, an increase of 39% compared to the same month last year.

RISING FAWN, Ga. — The doors of the 245-room Cloudland at McLemore Resort hotel were officially opened to its first guests Thursday, Feb. 29, a milestone in the development of Lookout Mountain’s luxury golf resort in Rising Fawn. “As of today, we are now open, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, hopefully forever,” Duane Horton, president of McLemore, said to a crowd of about 100 before the hotel’s ribbon-cutting.

ATLANTA – The second of two additional nuclear reactors being built at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle has begun generating electricity and connecting to the electric grid for the first time. Connecting to the grid is part of ongoing startup testing for Unit 4 at the nuclear plant south of Augusta. Next, operators will continue raising power at the reactor to 100%.

AUSTELL, Ga. (AP) — A 15-year-old boy was critically injured in a shooting near Six Flags Over Georgia, a popular amusement park in suburban Atlanta, after police exchanged gunfire with a group of people, authorities said Sunday. Cobb County Police Department officers were assisting with crowd control near the amusement park's entrance on Saturday “after several fights had taken place” among people who were leaving the park, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a press release.

Georgia's largest county is still repairing damage inflicted on its government a month ago by hackers who shut down office phone lines, left clerks unable to issue vehicle registrations or marriage licenses and threatened to publicly release sensitive data they claimed to have stolen unless officials paid ransom.

WOODSTOCK, Ga. (AP) — Hundreds of mourners lined up Friday at a church outside Atlanta to pay respects to the family of Laken Riley, the nursing student killed by an illegal immigrant after she went out for a morning jog on the University of Georgia campus.

DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — A current Georgia police officer and a former one have been indicted in the 2022 shooting death of a man inside his home in suburban Atlanta, authorities said Wednesday. A grand jury handed up charges of felony involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor reckless conduct against former DeKalb County Police Officer Russell Mathis, 30, and charged Officer Jordan Vance, 30, with reckless conduct, county prosecutors said in a news release.

RINCON, Ga. (AP) — Authorities in Georgia discovered an estimated $1 million worth of stolen cargo inside a warehouse a few miles from Savannah’s busy seaport. Investigators with a search warrant found pallets of consumer goods including cellphones, food and Peloton exercise equipment, the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Wednesday.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's lawmakers are moving not only to regild the iconic dome on state Capitol, but the entire complex. Lawmakers on Monday with little dissent agreed to spend $392 million to build a new legislative office building for themselves and to renovate the 1889 Capitol building.

ATLANTA (AP) — The illegal immigrant suspected in the killing of a nursing student on the University of Georgia campus used an object as a weapon in the crime according to newly filed arrest affidavits.

The family gathering at the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office headquarters had the hugs, tears and the whispered, comforting words of a funeral. But instead of a recent loss, about 10 members of the Croft family came together Thursday, Feb. 22, to seek justice for Kim Croft, who was raped, beaten and strangled in Ringgold nearly four decades ago at the age of 19.

ATLANTA – The General Assembly gave final passage Monday to a $37.9 billion midyear budget loaded with $5.5 billion in new spending. The midyear budget, which covers state spending through June 30, provided an additional $5 billion in spending when it emerged from the state House and Senate.

ATLANTA – Legislation that criminalizes the use of “deepfakes” generated by artificial intelligence to impersonate candidates in political campaign ads cleared the Georgia House of Representatives last week.

ATLANTA – The nonprofit health-care organization CareSource is donating $1 million to a program that helps young people aging out of Georgia’s foster care system.

ATLANTA – Georgia Power executives gave state energy regulators chapter and verse last month on why the company needs a huge increase in electrical generating capacity to serve its 2.7 million customers. Soon, environmental and consumer advocates will get their turn.

Carol Capps runs regularly in the forested area of the University of Georgia campus, where the body of a 22-year-old nursing student was found earlier this week after she was reported missing from a morning run. Capps, 24, said the trails around Lake Herrick always seemed safe, a place where she could get away from traffic and go into the woods for some mental clarity.

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — A 26-year-old illegal immigrant was arrested Friday in the killing of a nursing student whose body was found on the University of Georgia campus, and police said he apparently did not know the victim, he acted alone and there was no further threat to the university community.

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — A woman was found dead Thursday on the campus of the University of Georgia after a friend told police she had not returned from a morning run, authorities said. The woman was not a student at the university, the school's police chief said. Police Chief Jeff Clark did not provide details on how the woman died, citing the ongoing investigation.