At a Capitol press conference Wednesday, members of the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus said the proposed maps do not meet the goal of protecting Black voters and giving them a fair chance to elect the candidate of their choice. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder The redrawn legislative maps floated by Georgia Republican leaders have quickly found pushback from Democrats and voting rights advocates as a special redistricting session – the second in two years – gets underway. A proposed state Senate map was released Monday, and a state House map was unveiled Tuesday afternoon, just one day b ..read more

A soldier looks at a tank near the border with the Gaza strip on November 28, 2023 in Southern Border, Israel. Israel and Hamas agreed to a two-day extension to their initial four-day truce, which promised the release of more Israeli hostages held in Gaza, as well as the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. Amir Levy/Getty Images WASHINGTON — Democrats in Congress are divided on whether to set guardrails on additional military aid to Israel as that country responds to the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks with airstrikes and a ground war in Gaza. It’s not yet clear what those ..read more

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 29, 2023, the day he delivered a major speech condemning the rise of antisemitism in the United States. Ashley Murray/States Newsroom WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the nation’s highest-ranking Jewish official, spoke from the chamber on Wednesday about the rise of antisemitism in the United States since the attack by Hamas militants on Israel and that nation’s airstrikes on Gaza. Schumer, speaking to a mostly empty chamber, an unlikely setting for what he described as a “major address,” sought t ..read more

Members of the community gathered at the City of Uvalde Town Square for a prayer vigil in the wake of a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022 in Uvalde, Texas. Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats on Tuesday discussed how to treat gun violence as a public health crisis, in hopes of building upon last year’s federal gun safety legislation. “Across the country, gun violence is a public health epidemic,” Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, the chairman of the committee, said in his opening remarks. Senate Republicans pushed back again ..read more

Well-wishers laid flowers at the sign of the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta in honor of former first lady Rosalynn Carter. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder The museum at the Carter Center in Atlanta typically echoes with the oohs and ahhs of tourists and the banter of field tripping schoolchildren, but all was silent Monday night as hundreds of well-wishers walked through the colorful displays to honor a flower-draped casket. Rosalynn Carter, former first lady of Georgia and the United States, is set to make her final journey to her Plains, Georgia home Wednesday after fans across the st ..read more

Sen. John Kennedy, who chaired the Senate Redistricting Committee, argued during a 2021 special session that the GOP-drawn maps are fair to all Georgians. State lawmakers have been directed by a federal judge to draw new maps. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder A federal appeals court ruling last week is the latest sign in a shifting national landscape limiting the ability of minority voters to challenge voting laws on claims of racial discrimination.  The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling of a federal district judge who dismissed a lawsuit filed by organizations representi ..read more

Trucks carrying aid await an opportunity to enter Gaza via the Rafah crossing on November 22, 2023 in Arish, Egypt. Early Wednesday morning, Israel and Hamas announced a four-day truce that would pause fighting in the war that’s raged since Oct. 7. Media reports indicate that, as part of the deal, 200 aid trucks, four fuel tankers, and four trucks carrying gas, will be able to enter Gaza via Egypt’s Rafah crossing on each of the four days. Ali Moustafa/Getty Images WASHINGTON — Israel and Hamas have reached a deal for a short-term humanitarian ceasefire that will allow the release of some hos ..read more

Every winter, state lawmakers gather in Atlanta and decide how to spend taxpayer dollars and vote on issues affecting Georgians' daily lives. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder When state lawmakers meet next week to redraw Georgia’s political maps, a national audience will follow the debate over the creation of an additional court-ordered majority Black district in west metro Atlanta. But Georgia political observers say the forced reworking of the state’s legislative maps could also prove consequential. Lawmakers have until Dec. 8 to redraw the state’s district lines after federal District Court Jud ..read more

Defendant Harrison Floyd, left, a leader in the Black Voices for Trump organization, listens on Nov. 21 as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis addressed the court during a bond revocation hearing related to the Georgia election indictments. (Dennis Byron/Hip Hop Enquirer via AP) The former director of Black Voices for Trump Harrison William Floyd avoided jail on Tuesday after a Fulton County judge approved a temporary bond order that allows him to publicly comment on the 2020 presidential election racketeering case as long as he does not refer to witnesses or his remaining fourteen co ..read more

Booking photos from the Fulton County conspiracy case charging Donald Trump and allies with trying to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results. Top row, from left Jeffrey Clark, Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Michael Roman, Ray Smith, David Shafer, Sen. Shawn Still. Center row, from left, Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro. Bottom row from left, Robert Cheeley, Harrison Floyd, Stephen Lee, Scott Hall, Misty Hampton, Cathleen Latham, Trevian Kutti. As of Oct. 24, Powell, Ellis, Chesebro and Hall have pleaded guilty to various charges; the rest are awaiting t ..read more