Mira Ugwuadu felt anxious and depressed when she returned to her high school in Cobb County, Georgia, last fall after months of remote learning, so she sought help. But her school counselor kept rescheduling their meetings because she had so many students to see. “I felt helpless and alone,” the 12th grader later said.

ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate rose slightly last month but remained below the national jobless rate, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. Unemployment in Georgia stood at 2.9% in October, up from a record-low of 2.8% set during the previous month but below the national rate of 3.7%.

ATLANTA (AP) — A judge overturned Georgia’s ban on abortion starting around six weeks into a pregnancy, ruling that it violated the U.S. Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court precedent when it was enacted three years ago and was therefore void.

WOODBINE, Ga. (AP) — Attorneys for a Georgia jail detainee are demanding the firings and arrests of guards recorded by security cameras repeatedly punching the inmate in his cell. Lawyers and two sisters of Jarrett Hobbs, a 41-year-old Black man from North Carolina, spoke to reporters Wednesday in Camden County near the jail where the beating happened Sept. 3.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia House Speaker David Ralston died Wednesday at 68, spokesperson Kaleb McMichen said, less than two weeks after he announced he was stepping down because of health concerns.

ELLABELL, Ga. (AP) — An apparel company is opening a factory and distribution center in coastal Georgia. Komar Brands of New Jersey announced Monday that it's investing $87 million with plans to hire 294 workers. The facility will be in a booming area of Bryan County just inland from Savannah. The privately owned company sells sleepwear and underwear under a variety of brands.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Security video from a Georgia jail shows a detainee being repeatedly punched in the head and neck after guards storm into his cell and push him against a wall. The video was made public Monday by civil rights attorney Harry Daniels, who says 41-year-old Jarrett Hobbs was attacked without justification by jailers in Camden County, Georgia, after Hobbs was booked on traffic and drug possession charges Sept. 3.

ATLANTA (AP) — Steve Webber, who guided the Georgia Bulldogs to a national championship in baseball and was the winningest coach in school history, has died at the age of 74. The university announced that Webber died Saturday at his Atlanta home after a lengthy illness.

ATLANTA, Ga. (AP) — A commercial flight from Cincinnati to Tampa was diverted to Atlanta on Friday night after a disruptive passenger was seen with a box cutter. The Frontier Airlines flight made an unplanned landing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where one person, not identified by police, was taken into custody.

Tropical Storm Nicole’s northward approach brought a 3.7-foot storm surge to the Golden Isles during Thursday morning’s high tide, the highest surge measured since Hurricane Irma’s passing caused massive flooding in September 2017, according to the National Weather Service in Jacksonville, Fla.

ATLANTA – Georgia is continuing to attract suppliers for its growing renewable energy industries. FREYR Battery, a Europe-based producer of next-generation battery cells, will build a manufacturing plant in Coweta County, a $2.57 billion investment that will create 723 jobs during the next seven years, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday.

ATLANTA – A European-owned ammunition maker will build a new manufacturing, assembly, and distribution facility in Bryan County, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday. Norma Precision, which established its North American headquarters near Savannah earlier this year, will invest $60 million and create 600 jobs with the Bryan County facility.

ATLANTA (AP) — Current Georgia House Majority Leader Jon Burns is lining up support to become state House speaker. Several other potential contenders to lead the chamber have bowed out and endorsed the Newington Republican. The official vote won’t come until the new House convenes on Jan. 9. However, House Republicans are scheduled to choose their nominee Monday. That person is likely to win.

ATLANTA – A Georgia Senate committee focused on addressing homelessness heard Wednesday from a variety of Georgians who have directly experienced living on the streets. Those who testified came from diverse backgrounds but shared the common experience of homelessness. They described in frank terms the challenges they faced in trying to bounce back.

ATLANTA – Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker will square off in a Dec. 6 runoff that could decide whether the Senate will continue to be controlled by Democrats or whether the GOP wins a majority.

ATLANTA – Georgia voters have overwhelmingly ratified all four legislative proposals on the statewide ballot this year. Three of the four received support from more than 75% of the electorate Tuesday, while the proposal garnering the least “yes” votes still won by 18 percentage points.

ATLANTA – Republican Gov. Brian Kemp won a second term in office Tuesday in a rematch of the 2018 gubernatorial race. Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams called Kemp late Tuesday to concede the race, before going on stage and congratulating the governor. And Republicans were headed toward sweeping the races for Georgia’s constitutional offices, leading all seven down-ballot contests from lieutenant governor down to insurance and labor commissioner.

ATLANTA (AP) — Sen. Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker were locked in a tight race night in Georgia as elections officials continued to count ballots in the state that determined partisan control of the Senate nearly two years ago and could do so again in these midterm elections. The question is whether either contender can win the contest outright or head to a Dec. 6 runoff.

ATLANTA (AP) — Republicans retained their majorities in Georgia’s legislature and were seeking to maintain their lock on statewide offices in Tuesday's elections. Republicans won 96 seats in the 180-member House and were leading in five other races. In the 56-seat Senate, Republicans won 32 seats.

ATLANTA – Enrollment on University System of Georgia (USG) campuses has declined for the second year in a row. Total enrollment for the fall semester at the system’s 26 colleges and universities stands at 334,459 students, down 1.2% from the 340,638 who were attending classes a year ago.

ATLANTA – A newly unsealed federal indictment charges nearly three dozen defendants for their involvement in a drug trafficking conspiracy centered in South Georgia and reaching into the Caribbean.

ATLANTA – Georgia voters turned out in full force during the state’s early voting period, with about 2.5 million people voting early in person or by absentee ballot. The vast majority of those ballots – about 2.3 million – were cast through early voting in person at polling stations.

ATLANTA – Georgia tax collections continued strong last month, the state Department of Revenue reported Monday. The state agency brought in nearly $2.71 billion in October, an increase of $230.2 million, or 9.3%, compared to October of last year.

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — Voters who never received absentee ballots because election officials in a suburban Atlanta county failed to mail them have filed a lawsuit seeking an emergency solution so they can still vote. Election officials in Cobb County acknowledged Friday that the county failed to mail out more than 1,000 absentee ballots to voters who had requested them. As a result, 1,036 voters never received the ballots they requested.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Authorities are evacuating neighborhoods near a chemical plant where a large fire is burning in coastal Georgia. Glynn County commission Chairman Wayne Neal estimated roughly 100 households had been ordered to evacuate, mostly because of potential smoke hazards. Evacuated neighborhoods were within a one-mile radius of the Symrise chemical plant. The plant outside the port city of Brunswick produces fragrance ingredients for perfumes, detergents and household cleaners.