Georgia will distribute more than $552 million in federal coronavirus relief aid to landlords and tenants affected by the pandemic, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday.

Illegal street racing in Georgia faces toughened penalties and repeat offenders could have their cars confiscated under legislation pushed by Gov. Brian Kemp.

Legislation legalizing online sports betting in Georgia cleared a committee in the state House of Representatives for a second time Monday.

Stricter identification rules for voting by mail in Georgia inched closer to law with the state Senate’s passage of a controversial bill on Tuesday.

Legislation to extend the statute of limitations for Georgians who were sexually abused as children to sue their abusers years later as adults advanced in the state House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The Winder City Council will head to the north Georgia mountains this week to hold its annual planning retreat, where council members, the mayor, city administrator and other city officials will discuss the future vision, goals and direction for the city.

State lawmakers are working this year on legislation to change Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law, ban no-knock arrest warrants and lower employment barriers for residents on probation.

Members of the Statham City Council are pushing to quickly formulate a plan for repaving and re-striping portions of several city streets and implementing other various sidewalk, crosswalk and stop sign upgrades around town aimed at improving traffic and pedestrian safety.

Georgia House lawmakers rehashed a bill Tuesday aimed at pushing back the deadline when voters can request and send in absentee ballots before elections.

Legislation extending COVID-19 liability protection to Georgia businesses and hospitals until July 14 of next year cleared the state House of Representatives Tuesday.

Another seven Barrow County residents died over the past week from COVID-19 as the countywide death toll topped 100.

A bill pushing back the deadline when Georgia voters can request absentee ballots before elections has cleared a state House committee, marking the first of many voting-focused bills to face legislative debate after the 2020 election cycle.

A state Senate committee debated a measure Monday to limit terms for Georgia House and Senate members to 12 years total, as well as doubling the term for state senators from two to four years.

The American Red Cross has the following upcoming blood donation drives in Barrow County:

The Auburn City Council on Thursday, Feb. 4, approved a guaranteed maximum price of $3.8 million for site construction at the future municipal complex on the eastern edge of the city limits

The Jackson EMC Foundation board of directors awarded a total $92,808 in grants during its December meeting, including $35,000 to organizations serving Barrow County.

The Barrow County Board of Education, at its Tuesday, Feb. 2 meeting, approved a guaranteed maximum price of $3 million to finish up three summers’ worth of renovation work at Apalachee High School once the 2020-21 academic year comes to an end.

Legislation environmental advocates fear would prohibit Georgia cities and counties from setting clean-energy goals for their communities has been introduced in the General Assembly.

A push from some Winder City Council members to temporarily halt property annexations into the city limits failed last week — three weeks after the council narrowly approved a highly-contested annexation on the eastern edge of town to allow for a subdivision of more than 200 homes.

Georgia has not yet reached the halfway point in giving first doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the roughly 2 million people currently eligible more than a month after the state’s distribution program began, Gov. Brian Kemp said last week.

The Georgia Lottery generated a record $731.3 million in profit during the first half of the last fiscal year, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday, Jan. 28.

Georgia voters would need to provide copies of their photo identification two separate times to cast absentee ballots under a bill introduced in the General Assembly.

Georgia House Speaker David Ralston ejected a Gwinnett County lawmaker from the House floor last week for refusing to take a COVID-19 test.

Georgia would observe daylight saving time all year long subject to congressional approval under legislation that cleared a committee in the state House of Representatives Thursday, Jan. 28.

Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan became the latest high-ranking Georgia Republican to oppose ending no-excuse absentee voting following the state’s 2020 election cycle.

Georgia lawmakers again are considering whether to legalize casino gambling in the Peach State.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, on Monday, Feb. 1, announced that Daniel Edward Rampey, owner and CFO of the family-owned Magnolia Estates personal care home and independent living community in Winder, has been appointed to the State Board of Long-Term Care Facility Administrators.

The City of Auburn was recognized as a 2021 Visionary City by the Georgia Municipal Association and Georgia Trend magazine during the GMA’s virtual Cities United Summit on Jan. 25.

Barrow County has moved past 7,000 total coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic.

Full funding of student enrollment growth after a year of budget cuts would come as a great relief to Georgia’s public schools, the state’s top K-12 education official said last week.

The battle for votes in Georgia is set to leap from the ballot box to the state Capitol as legislative Republicans look to clamp down on vote-by-mail rules Democrats have championed amid recent electoral wins.

Online sports betting would come to Georgia under legislation recently introduced in the state House of Representatives.

Georgia officials overseeing the state’s COVID-19 vaccine program are awaiting word from the new Biden administration on whether more doses will head their way amid an early shortage.

The developer of the Suttons Landing subdivision in southeastern Barrow County is planning changes to the mixed-use development that will scrap an assisted living facility that was part of the original site plan, cut down significantly on the number of planned town homes and add more than 40…

The American Red Cross will hold a blood donation drive in Auburn from 1-6 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Perry-Rainey Center, 16 College St.

In-person high school equivalency, English as a Second Language and citizenship classes through Adult Literacy Barrow have resumed in Barrow County.  

Seven more deaths from COVID-19 in Barrow County were confirmed over the last week, even as the overall coronavirus trends throughout the county and the state improved slightly during the same timeframe.

Barrow County is planning a wide-range review of and potential updates to its highway corridor overlay and future land-use map and has hired an outside consultant to help with those services.

The American Red Cross will hold the following upcoming blood drives in Barrow County:

At least 75 Barrow County residents have died from COVID-19 since the start of the coronavirus pandemic last March, with the state reporting eight additional deaths in the county since Dec. 31.

Residents across northeast Georgia who are 65 years or older can now schedule an appointment to receive a coronavirus vaccine at one of several events hosted by Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS).

The four public hearings that had been scheduled to be held during the Barrow County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 12, have been postponed until the board’s next regularly-scheduled voting session on Feb. 9.