Tag: georgia

Georgia Antidoxing Bill Could Criminalize Everyday Criticism

Will publishing someone’s name or workplace online soon be illegal in Georgia? Last week, the state Senate overwhelmingly voted to pass an antidoxing bill that would punish a wide range of common online speech by up to a year in jail. While the bill aims to protect individuals from having sensitive information—like their Social Security numbers or addresses—published without their consent, it goes far beyond such private information.

The bill is a “law against criticism of any kind,” Andrew Fleishman, a criminal defense attorney who testified against the bill, told Reason. “It means that if I act with reckless disregard for the possibility that it might cause you mental anguish or economic harm of $500 or more, I am criminally liable, up to a year in jail. And that’s for using not just your name, not your Social Security number, not your address, but anything that could lead someone to that.”

The bill passed on March 6 in a 52–1 vote. The bill defines doxing as a crime that occurs when a “person intentionally posts another person’s personally identifying information without their consent and does so with reckless disregard for whether the information would be reasonably likely to be used by another party to cause the person whose information is posted to be placed in reasonable fear of stalking, serious bodily injury or death to oneself or a close relation, or to suffer a significant economic injury or mental anguish as a result therefrom.”

According to the bill, prohibited personal information includes anything from posting a person’s name, birthday, workplace, “religious practices of affiliation,” and “life activities” to their biometric data or a “sexually intimate or explicit visual depiction.” As a result, the bill is incredibly overbroad in terms of what speech it prohibits. 

“So if I said ‘Emma Camp is a crappy journalist,’ yes, that makes me liable under law. But if I just said ‘there’s a lady at Reason I don’t like,’ that could also do. That’s crazy,” said Fleischman. “This is a law that has a million bad applications and maybe one good one.”

Fleishman isn’t the only one concerned that the bill violates the First Amendment.

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Georgia Senate Passes Bills To Expand Medical Marijuana Access And Limit THC In Hemp Beverages

Three bills changing the way Georgia regulates hemp and medical cannabis have cleared the Senate ahead of Thursday’s Crossover Day deadline. The votes on the bills are some of the only ones this session that didn’t fall cleanly along party lines, with Senate Republicans divided over expanding medical access to cannabis and members of both parties split over new regulations on recreational hemp products.

Medical cannabis

Senate Bill 220, also known as the “Putting Georgia’s Patients First Act,” passed in a contentious 39–17 vote after more than an hour of debate in the Senate. Like its counterpart in the other chamber, House Bill 227, the bill replaces the term “low-THC oil” with “medical cannabis” in Georgia code, removes requirements that certain medical diagnoses like cancer or Parkinson’s disease be “severe or end stage” and adds lupus to the list of qualifying health conditions.

Unlike the House version, SB 220 removes an existing prohibition against vaping cannabis oil and raises the percentage of THC that medical cannabis products may contain from 5 percent to 50 percent.

The bill was amended on the floor to include a provision allowing caregivers to pick up medical cannabis from pharmacies. Three other amendments aimed at reducing the amount of THC allowed in medical cannabis, removing the provision that allows for vaping, and removing PTSD and intractable pain from the list of approved diagnoses failed during a series of floor votes.

Hemp bills

Two bills aimed at strengthening hemp regulations in Georgia passed the Senate in decisive votes on Crossover Day, seeking to limit recreational use of marijuana as the chamber simultaneously eased restrictions for medical use.

Marietta Republican Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick’s SB 33 subjects chemical compounds like delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC, hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) and other cannabinoids to testing and labeling regulations that were added last year under SB 494. It passed in a 50–6 vote.

In her speech from the well, Kirkpatrick said her bill is aimed at cutting down on unregulated hemp products from China and other countries.

“This bill is not a ban,” Kirkpatrick said. “It’s a consumer protection bill that is not intended to impact processors that are already testing and labeling their products appropriately. It’s intended to make sure that consumers buying these products are clear on what they’re buying.”

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Georgia Senate Launches Investigation Into Stacey Abrams and Her Nonprofit For Committing Election Fundraising Crimes

The Georgia Senate launched an investigation into Stacey Abrams and her nonprofit The New Georgia Project for illegal fundraising activity.

“Abrams and the New Georgia Project, from which she is no longer affiliated, are being investigated by the same Senate panel that has been examining Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ historic indictment of Donald Trump during the time he was out of the Oval Office,” Atlanta News First reported.

“The Senate committee will focus on alleged campaign finance violations and possibly the recent New Georgia Project firings allegedly tied to efforts to unionize the voting rights organization,” the outlet reported.

As previously reported, Francys Johnson, the head of Stacey Abrams’ nonprofit The New Georgia Project, announced he is resigning from his post after the firm was hit with a massive fine for committing campaign fundraising crimes.

Twice-failed Democrat Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams created the nonprofit in 2013 to get out the black vote.

Abrams has repeatedly claimed, without providing any evidence whatsoever, that Georgia Republicans engage in black voter suppression. She blamed her previous crushing election loss to Brian Kemp on black voter suppression.

The New Georgia Project was slapped with a $300,000 ethics fine for illegal campaign fundraising in January.

“The [State Ethics Commission’s] investigation, which lasted five years, revealed that the organization raised $4.2 million in dark money and spent $3.2 million on campaign activities,” Fox 5 Atlanta reported last month.

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Head of Stacey Abrams’ Nonprofit Resigns After Firm Slapped with $300,000 Ethics Fine For Illegal Campaign Fundraising

Francys Johnson, the head of Stacey Abrams’ nonprofit The New Georgia Project, announced he is resigning from his post after the firm was hit with a massive fine for illegal campaign fundraising activity.

Twice-failed Democrat Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams created the nonprofit in 2013 to get out the black vote.

Abrams has repeatedly claimed, without providing any evidence whatsoever, that Georgia Republicans engage in black voter suppression. She blamed her previous crushing election loss to Brian Kemp on black voter suppression.

The New Georgia Project was slapped with a $300,000 ethics fine for illegal campaign fundraising in January.

“The [State Ethics Commission’s] investigation, which lasted five years, revealed that the organization raised $4.2 million in dark money and spent $3.2 million on campaign activities,” Fox 5 Atlanta reported last month.

Francys Johnson said he will be resigning from the nonprofit in a recorded phone call obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“I’ve probably done all the good I can do, and my presence is a distraction to our mission,” Francys Johnson said in a phone call on Monday according to the AJC. “It’s unfortunate, and it’s a reality I can recognize. It’s time to let the organization move forward beyond all this.”

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Mayor of South Fulton, Georgia Under Fire for Spending $26,000 on City Credit Card, Including Trip to Africa – Councilwoman Slams Mayor for Crying Victim: “You Took Your Black Behind to Africa for 20 Days”

The City Council of South Fulton, Atlanta, has voted to audit South Fulton Mayor Khalid Kamau’s expenditures after making over $26,000 worth of purchases, including a trip to Africa. 

The Mayor, who plans to legally change his name to Kobi, was previously arrested while serving as Mayor in 2023 on charges of first-degree burglary and criminal trespassing. Kamau reportedly entered somebody’s lake house before 7 am one morning and got into a heated confrontation with the owner of the house before police arrived.

Upon being arrested for trespassing and attempted burglary, he told a reporter, “I just wanted to see the house… I thought it was abandoned.” He continued, “I hope that the spotlight that is on our city right now will highlight some of the inequities that have been happening.”

“I think that’s for the voters to decide,” he responded when asked if he was guilty.

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Shocker: ‘First Black Lives Matter Mayor’ Accused of Spending Taxpayer Funds on Himself

South Fulton, Georgia Mayor Khalid Kamau — who once went by the name Mayor Khalid but apparently goes by the name Mayor Kobi now — likes to tell people he’s “America’s first Black Lives Matter organizer elected to public office.” It’s even a part of his official bio on the city’s website, complete with a hashtag, odd lowercase spelling, and somewhat racist mission statement:

America’s first #BlackLivesMatter organizer elected to public office, Mayor khalid (pronounced cuh-LEED) is leading a generation of young activists from protests to politics. This self-proclaimed Elected Activist has been featured by CBS, The Nation, Jacobin, Governing Magazine and other national media.  

With a population that is 92 percent African-American, South Fulton, Georgia is now the blackest big city in America. khalid is a mission to make America’s Blackest City Black.  On Purpose — which means a city that is not just unapologetic about its demographics, but moving on purpose to be a laboratory for economic, housing and restorative justice policies aimed at improving the lives of African Americans.

Of course, we all know by now that BLM leaders are the griftiest of grifters, and if the accusations prove correct, Kamau is following in their footsteps. But rather than donations, he’s doing it with public funds. Specifically, he’s doing it with $26,000 worth of public funds.

Members of the public in South Fulton, along with City Councilwoman Helen Willis, believe Kamau used a city-issued card to make what appears to be thousands of dollars of personal purchases between October and December 2024. According to WSB-TV, he used the card for multiple Amazon purchases, a $1,300 drone, and travel expenses, including over $5,000 in airplane tickets. Most notably, Kamau spent 20 days in Ghana in December — what’s with all these majors going to Ghana lately? — and it’s believed that he may have used taxpayer money to fund the trip.  

Some of the mayor’s trip has been documented on Instagram. 

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Nonprofit Founded By Ex-Georgia State Rep. Stacey Abrams Slapped With Largest Fine In State History Over Election Violations

Failed gubernatorial candidate and former Georgia State Representative Stacey Abrams, a prominent Democrat, is back in the news after a nonprofit she founded was hit with the largest fine in Georgia’s history this week.

Abrams’ “New Georgia Project” spent $3.2 million trying to get her elected as Georgia governor in 2018, but failed to disclose the spending in violation of state law.

Georgia’s ethics commission found the group and its affiliate the “New Georgia Project Action Fund” engaged in 16 instances of illegal election work on behalf of Abrams and others.

The shady group, once headed by current Democrat Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, was ordered to pay a $300,000 fine.

Both groups failed to register as independent campaign committees before taking electioneering contributions and did not file campaign finance reports of the donations or spending.

If Abrams won her 2018 gubernatorial election against Brian Kemp, it’s likely the illegal activity would have been swept under the rug.

Popular 𝕏 account @amuse questioned why Democrats like Abrams and Hillary Clinton only received fines for finance law violations when President-elect Donald Trump received over 30 felonies for “mischaracterizing” $140k in campaign funds.

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Georgia Judge Who Took His Own Life Sent a Cryptic Message to Governor Brian Kemp Before Dying

A new development of sorts has emerged regarding the incident where a Georgia judge shocked the nation after killing himself inside his own courtroom.

As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, 74-year-old Stephen Yekel was found dead inside Effingham County Court back in late December. He had recently lost a re-election bid, and speculation has swirled about whether this has played a role in the tragedy.

Now, The Daily Mail has revealed that Yekel sent Governor Brian Kemp a message shortly before he killed himself which will raise a few eyebrows given how cryptic and chilling it is.

According to the outlet, the message reads as follows: “Now they will have to appoint someone.”

It’s unclear what the total meaning behind this message was, but Georgia Virtue journalist Jessica Szilagyi, who first obtained the message, speculates that it referenced Yekel’s attempt to overthrow his election loss supposedly.

Yekel’s legal assistant, Charlene Kessler, accused Szilagyi of hacking the court’s emails to obtain the message. The journalist, however, maintains she used legal methods to obtain the message.

It’s not clear at this point who is telling the truth.

Yekel was appointed to the bench by Kemp in June 2022 after serving as a lawyer for more than 45 years. WSAX notes he worked as a special agent for Georgia’s Alcohol & Tobacco Tax Unit and was an investigator at the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office.

The judge previously tried to quit his position before killing himself, but Kemp refused to accept his resignation.

In addition to his loss last November, Yekel suffered personal challenges, including the loss of his best friend and dealing with a wrongful termination lawsuit.

Yekel and his ex-wife Lisa also had financial problems due to a failed daycare business. They divorced last year.

“He did everything he could to avoid bankruptcy,” Lisa Yekel said. “Unfortunately, I had used his life savings to keep the daycare open.”

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Georgia appeals court disqualifies DA Fani Willis from Trump election interference case

The Georgia Court of Appeals voted 2-1 on Thursday to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from the 2020 election interference case involving President-elect Donald Trump.

The court did not go as far as throwing out the indictment.

“After carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office,” Judges Todd Markle and Trenton Brown wrote in their majority ruling. 

“We reverse the trial court’s denial of the appellants’ motion to disqualify DA Willis and her office. As we conclude that the elected district attorney is wholly disqualified from this case the assistant district attorneys — whose only power to prosecute a case is derived from the constitutional authority of the district attorney who appointed them — have no authority to proceed,” they wrote.

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Archaeologists found a mysterious stone tablet in Georgia that contains an unknown language

Archaeologists have unearthed a basalt tablet with inscriptions in an unknown language near Lake Bashplemi, in the Dmanisi region of Georgia. Although the tablet’s exact age is uncertain, researchers believe it was created in the Late Bronze or Early Iron Ages (first millennium BCE) based on related artifacts such as stone mortar and pottery fragments.

Made of local vesicular basalt, it measures 24.1 x 20.1 cm and records 60 different symbols, 39 of which have no exact equivalent in other known ancient writing systems. The symbols, created using a conical drill and smoothed with rounded tools, reflect a high degree of craftsmanship.

Lake Bashplemi is located on a volcanic plateau surrounded by hills and fed by small tributaries of the Mashavera River. The region is known for its wealth of archaeological discoveries, especially in relation to human remains dating back as far as 1.8 million years.

Researchers discovered ceramic fragments, a mortar stone, and pieces of obsidian on the surface, indicating that the area may have had substantial human activity even though it had not been thoroughly investigated from an archaeological standpoint.

The basalt tablet contains 39 unique symbols arranged in seven horizontal lines or registers. Some of these symbols repeat, allowing for a total of 60 characters on the stone’s surface. The arrangement and frequency of some of the characters suggest that they may have been used to denote numbers or punctuation marks.

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