CANTON, Ga. (AP) — A woman who was headed to a dinner party with friends over the weekend but vanished has been found dead. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office told news outlets that Laura Ann Linden, 65, texted friends at 6 p.m. on Feb. 11 that she was headed their way, but never made it.

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A suburban Atlanta police officer has been charged with concealing the death of a teenage girl whose body was found six months after she went missing.

ATLANTA – The state Senate Tuesday approved a proposal to place a statue of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on the grounds of the state Capitol.  

ATLANTA – Georgia’s “tripledemic” — the simultaneous outbreaks of flu, COVID, and RSV — is on the decline, state epidemiologist Cherie Drenzek said Wednesday. 

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia senators are backing Gov. Brian Kemp's push for long prison sentences for gang members and even longer sentences for anyone convicted of recruiting minors into a gang. The Senate voted 31-22 for Senate Bill 44 on Monday, mostly along party lines. The measure, which moves to the House for more debate, would add a mandatory five years to prison sentences for anyone convicted of a gang crime and 10 years for anyone convicted of recruiting minors into a gang.

ATLANTA – Georgia tax collections rose slightly last month, as a decline in individual income tax receipts was offset by gains in sales and corporate income tax revenue. The state Department of Revenue brought in nearly $3 billion in January, up 1.1% over January of last year. However, individual income tax collections fell by 4%, due in large part to a 198.4% increase in refunds issued by the revenue agency.

ATLANTA — Doctors would be prohibited from subjecting children or teens under 18 from undergoing hormone therapy or surgery to alter their gender under legislation filed  in the House on Friday. “The state has a compelling interest to protect all young Georgians from harm,” said Sen. Clint Dixon, R-Gwinnett, the bill’s main sponsor. “Allowing Georgians who cannot legally vote, smoke, or purchase a firearm to make a high-stakes decision with irreparable consequences is dangerous and must be addressed immediately by the Georgia General Assembly.” 

ATLANTA – Legislation to increase the limit on commercial truck weights in Georgia cleared a state House committee Thursday over the objections of local government officials, traffic safety advocates, and the Georgia Department of Transportation. The House Transportation Committee approved the bill 18-11 following an afternoon-long hearing that lasted more than five hours. House Bill 189 would raise the legal limit on commercial truck weights in Georgia from 80,000 pounds to 90,000.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The Port of Savannah received a massive delivery Thursday: four towering ship-to-shore cranes built to load and unload larger classes of cargo ships at the fourth-busiest U.S. container port. The giant ocean carrier Biglift Baffin sailed Thursday afternoon past Savannah’s downtown riverfront on the final stretch of its voyage to the busy seaport. All four cranes were strapped across its deck, protruding from each side like a giant set of wings.

GLENNVILLE, Ga (AP) — A Georgia prison warden has been jailed on charges stemming from a state investigation of corruption inside the penitentiary he supervised. Brian Dennis Adams was arrested Wednesday and charged with bribery, conspiracy to violate Georgia’s anti-racketeering law, making false statements and violating his oath of office, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

ATLANTA – The interim commissioner at the Georgia Department of Revenue will take over the position on a permanent basis. Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday. Kemp appointed Frank O’Connell interim commissioner of the revenue agency last November when then-Commissioner Robyn Crittenden left state government to take a job in the private sector.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia could convict more people of dogfighting-related crimes and send them to prison for longer stretches under a bill advancing in the state Senate. The Senate Public Safety Committee voted 6-3 Wednesday to approve Senate Bill 68, which would apply Georgia's racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations law to dogfighting. Applying the state RICO law would result in prison sentences of five to 20 years for convictions, up from one to 10 years now.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia senators voted Tuesday to permanently block schools and most state and local government agencies from requiring people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The Senate voted 31-21 in favor of the bill, which would make permanent what had been a one-year ban enacted in 2022. Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Republican from Cumming who is sponsoring the measure, said that when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine at least, the government shouldn't be able to force anyone to get it, or refuse services to people who are unvaccinated.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Georgia's highest court Tuesday upheld an election in which coastal residents voted overwhelmingly last year to block their county government from building a launchpad for blasting commercial rockets into space. The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously rejected a legal challenge by Camden County commissioners who sought to have the referendum last March declared invalid. The officials argued Georgia's state constitution doesn’t allow citizens to veto decisions of county governments.

ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urged the General Assembly Monday to pass legislation aimed at preventing the financial exploitation of Georgia seniors. Senate Bill 84, sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, would authorize financial advisors to delay transactions involving their elderly or disabled clients if they suspect fraud. Financial exploitation of seniors has been on the rise since the pandemic struck nearly three years ago, Raffensperger said Monday during a news conference at the state Capitol.

ATLANTA – Georgia political leaders including Gov. Brian Kemp Monday condemned a weekend outbreak of antisemitism in Atlanta’s northern suburbs. Residents of neighborhoods in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody awakened Sunday morning to find antisemitic flyers in their driveways. Kemp offered the aid of the state’s law enforcement resources to help the Sandy Springs and Dunwoody police departments investigate the incident if requested.

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia Senate committee is advancing a bill that would instruct an agency to examine qualifications for state government jobs and not require a college degree unless truly necessary. The Senate Government Oversight Committee on Monday voted for Senate Bill 3, sending it to the full Senate for more debate. The bill calls for the state Department of Administrative Services to try to reduce training, experience and educational requirements for jobs and reduce jobs that require a four-year college degree.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A former Army sergeant has been sentenced to life in federal prison for fatally slashing and stabbing a fellow soldier dozens of times in his barracks at a Georgia base. A U.S. District Court judge in Savannah sentenced Byron Booker, 29, on Thursday. Booker pleaded guilty last fall to a federal charge of premeditated murder of a member of the U.S. military in the killing of 21-year-old Army Spc. Austin Hawk at Fort Stewart, Georgia.

ATLANTA – An effort that could lead eventually to the elimination of runoff elections in Georgia has surfaced in the General Assembly. State Rep. Joseph Gullett, R-Dallas, introduced a bill into the Georgia House this week that would allow Georgia cities to experiment with instant runoff voting in nonpartisan municipal elections. “This legislation promotes local control,” said Gullett.  “If passed, it gives cities the option to avoid the cost of expensive runoff elections while maintaining the principle of majority rule.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's elected prosecutors could face disciplinary sanctions, removals or easier voter recalls for declining to bring charges for misdemeanors under two bills introduced Thursday. Although one of the bills, which would set up an oversight commission, has failed before, Republicans have reintroduced it as Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp criticizes prosecutors for not doing enough to prosecute all crimes — which sets the stage for GOP majorities to take action in 2023.

ATLANTA (AP) — Bunnie Jackson-Ransom, a former first lady of Atlanta and ex-wife of former Mayor Maynard Jackson, has died, city leaders said Thursday. Current Mayor Andre Dickens said in a statement that Jackson-Ransom “was an incredible force of her own.” “She was a PR wiz and marketing pro, an educator and an author,” Dickens said. “But perhaps most importantly, she was a wife, mother and grandmother.”

ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia House on Thursday approved money for a $1 billion property tax break and $1 billion income tax break as part of a plan to amend this year's budget to spend another $2.4 billion in projected revenue. The Republican-controlled House voted 170-1 on Thursday to approve House Bill 18, sending it to the Senate for more debate.

ATLANTA – Newly elected Lt. Gov. Burt Jones says he is “laser-focused” on the well-being of Georgians.  The Jackson Republican and businessman ran for lieutenant governor after a decade as a state senator because he wanted a new challenge and thought he could help ordinary Georgians, Jones told Capitol Beat this week.  “I have always been of the mindset that you shouldn’t stay put for too long,” he said. “You either move up or move on. "

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — A New York man has pleaded guilty to making threatening phone calls to Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, federal prosecutors announced. Joseph Morelli, 51, admitted to threatening to harm Greene in several March 2022 calls to her Washington, D.C., office, the U.S. attorney's office in Syracuse said in a news release Wednesday.

ATLANTA (AP) — Some Georgia senators want to permanently block schools and most state and local government agencies from requiring people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. In 2022, lawmakers put a one-year ban into law, part of a broad conservative nationwide backlash against mandates meant to prevent the spread of the respiratory illness. But that ban expires on June 30 in Georgia if lawmakers don't act.