by Dave Williams | Jun 30, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Warner Robins woman has been indicted in federal court for allegedly engaging in a scheme to defraud the Georgia Medicaid program of more than $5.4 million.
Elizabeth Sue Ivester, 62, was charged in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia with conspiracy to commit health-care fraud, health-care fraud, and aggravated identify theft.
As alleged in the indictment, Ivester, the owner and operator of Liberty Medical Inc., used Medicaid recipients’ identification numbers to submit fraudulent claims representing 77,095 pieces of durable medical equipment that were not ordered by a physician nor supplied to recipients.
“Defrauding Medicaid is the same as stealing taxpayer dollars,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said Monday. “We will hold violators accountable.”
The charges Carr announced on Monday are part of a coordinated nationwide law enforcement effort that has resulted in criminal charges against 324 defendants.
“This administration will not tolerate criminals who line their pockets with taxpayer dollars while endangering the health and safety of communities,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
Georgia’s Medicaid Fraud and Patient Protection Division of Carr’s office has secured more than 90 convictions for Medicaid fraud and the abuse, neglect, and exploitation of older adults since Carr took office in 2019, resulting in more than $19 million in restitution orders in criminal cases and more than $108 million in civil judgments.
Ivester was arraigned on the charges two weeks ago following the return of the indictment by a federal grand jury in May.
by Ty Tagami | Jun 30, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A hand count of ballots in a primary election race for the Georgia Public Service Commission found a discrepancy, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger determined it was not a problem.
The audit of results in all 159 counties for the District 2 Republican contest found one batch of 328 audited ballots had a discrepancy, but it was within an expected margin of error for a hand count, Raffensperger said Monday.
There was no deviation from candidate vote totals, he said.
“County election offices are in great hands,” he said. “Georgia’s system works. This is exactly why I’m leading the push to see our reforms instituted on a national level. This audit shows that our Georgia leads the nation in free, fair, and fast election results.”
Incumbent Republican Commissioner Tim Echols won the June 17 primary with 75.76% of the vote, easily dispatching challenger Lee Muns of Columbia County. Echols, who lives near Hoschton in the Athens area, will take on Democrat Alicia Johnson of Savannah in November.
Raffensperger, who attributed the discrepancy to human error, said the audit was supported by Voting Works and their Arlo auditing software.
Confidence in election integrity continues to be an issue among Republicans. At the state GOP convention in early June, a faction expressed discontent with party leaders when they announced that voting for party positions would be conducted with electronic “clickers” rather than the paper ballots that some wanted.
Some of the nearly 1,700 assembled delegates booed and yelled from the floor that the clickers were not working during practice votes before the real internal elections. Norine Cantor, who lost her bid for a party position, alleged that the convention was “rigged.”
by Ty Tagami | Jun 30, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A program that was intended to improve Georgia’s ranking on indicators of child “well-being” has produced mixed results, according to a state audit.
Georgia lawmakers asked for an examination of the Georgia Family Connection Partnership, which received $30 million in funding in fiscal year 2024, more than a quarter of it from the state.
The special examination by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts found evidence of positive impact on the high school graduation and teen birth rate measures. But the agency found no evidence of a positive impact on three others: child abuse and neglect, low birthweight babies and children in poverty.
The partnership told auditors that the results should be characterized as “promising” instead of “mixed,” but the auditors disagreed, saying it would be “misleading” to do so.
“We also considered that there is limited support in the academic literature to demonstrate collaborative-type entities lead to improved outcomes,” the auditors wrote.
The review was requested by the Georgia House Appropriations Committee, which has a leading role in writing the annual state budget.
Georgia Family Connection (GFC) is a statewide initiative that was established in 1991 after Georgia ranked 48th out of 50 states on the child well-being indicators created by an organization called Kids Count.
The GFC grew as state lawmakers allocated funding. Then, in 2001, a new state-level organization called Georgia Family Connection Partnership was created. By the next year, all 159 Georgia counties had joined the partnership.
In addition to state funding — $8.3 million in fiscal 2024 — the program gets federal, local and private money.
“Although the Partnership and collaboratives receive a state appropriation, there is no statute outlining their responsibilities,” the auditors noted. They found that the partnership’s strength is also a weakness: it operates on a unique, decentralized model. This allows for local decision making but “creates challenges for ensuring impact,” the auditors wrote.
Their report makes no recommendations to state lawmakers. It notes that the program is unique in the United States, but three states have programs with similar elements: Alabama, Florida and Tennessee.
by Ty Tagami | Jun 27, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — On Tuesday, Georgians will reap what their state lawmakers sowed when a slew of new laws take effect, from divisive limits on transgender student athletes to a broadly popular guarantee to keep in vitro fertilization legal.
In addition to keeping options to start life, the General Assembly gave Georgians a new way to say goodbye to loves ones when life ends.
They addressed technology that is changing how we live, letting Georgians use a digital replica of their driver’s license on their phone during traffic stops while at the same time banning cellphones in elementary and middle schools.
They also passed laws affecting the justice system, food safety and taxes.
Senate Bill 1 was the first item on the Republican-led state Senate’s agenda. It generally prohibits student athletes in private and public schools and colleges from competing in interscholastic and intercollegiate sports on teams that do not match their birth gender.
Lawmakers spent many hours debating whether transgender athletes were a threat to the safety of girls and women during competition, and whether there were enough of them to merit a legal ban.
Democrats called it unnecessary and dangerous. Republicans called it necessary for safety, asserting that female athletes could be injured when competing against transgender opponents.
“This common-sense legislation is about what is fair and safe for our children,” said Gov. Brian Kemp, when he signed the measure into law in April. “Girls should not have to share a playing field, a restroom, or locker room with boys.”
Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said the legislation would ensure “no young woman is ever forced to face a biological male on the field, on the court or in a locker room.” It wasn’t an ideological issue, but one of “right or wrong,” he said.
Critics fear the new law will encourage bullying of transgender youths. They also worry that girls with a masculine appearance will face unwanted scrutiny. The law allows parents to challenge their gender.
“It’s legalizing discrimination,” said Lynn Green, of Rome, whose transgender son, Ash, was born female.
Green said there are no documented incidents of transgender athletes playing on Georgia school teams, but Ash, 17, corrected her.
While not interested in playing sports himself, Ash has heard about a female high school athlete who is transitioning to male. Under this law, he must still compete on a girls’ team.
“That would be stupid,” Ash said, adding, “There are definitely trans athletes in Georgia. I just don’t think they’re as big of a deal as the bill is making them. They’re not going to affect anyone. They’re not beating people up.”
There were plenty of laws that were not so controversial.
For instance, House Bill 428 passed with just one “no” vote in the Senate and no opposition in the House, as Republicans and Democrats found a rare moment of solidarity in support of protecting in vitro fertilization. The legislation was prompted by an Alabama Supreme Court ruling last year that declared frozen embryos had to be treated as children. Since some embryos are destroyed during the procedure, it was ruled illegal, raising concerns about legality in Georgia. Now, by near unanimous consent, it is clearly legal.
Read on for highlights about new laws on other important topics.
TECHNOLOGY
- House Bill 340: no more cellphones in public schools, at least from kindergarten through middle school. The proponents of this ban on devices that are widely viewed as a distraction stopped short of prohibiting them in high schools. But ban backers said high schools could be next. In the meantime, the law gives elementary and middle schools until fall 2026 to figure out how to stop their students from using their phones at school.
- House Bill 296: think of this one like chocolate meets peanut butter; nearly everyone has a smartphone and nearly everyone has a driver’s license. So why not put them together? This law goes into effect Tuesday but gives police two years to prepare. Apps to carry and read a digital license already exist. For instance, flyers can present their license in Apple Wallet at select Transportation Security Administration checkpoints. But the digital licenses are otherwise limited until July 2027, when Georgia drivers will be able to present their phones to police if they don’t have a physical license handy. Officers will not be authorized to take the phone or rifle through it, but they will have to be equipped to scan the digital license.
JUSTICE
- Senate Bill 244: this law was backed by Republicans but drew support from some Democrats. It gives money to people whom a court determines were wrongfully convicted, awarding them $75,000 per year of imprisonment. It also reimburses defendants for attorney fees and court costs when a prosecutor is disqualified due to improper conduct and the case is then dismissed. Those indicted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in connection with her criminal case against President Donald Trump stand to benefit.
- Senate Bill 79: far too many people, young people in particular, have died because they have taken fentanyl, sometimes unknowingly. The drug is used as a painkiller in medical settings, but it has found its way to the streets — often contaminating other drugs, such as Adderall, Oxycodone and Xanax. And it is 100 times more potent than morphine. This law imposes mandatory minimum sentences on those convicted of trafficking fentanyl.
- House Bills 85 and 86: these two measures update the way judges are paid, the former striving to equalize local supplementary pay for superior court judges and the latter indexing pay for state supreme court justices, appeals court judges and a statewide business judge to what federal judges make.
- House Bill 161: this law expands the authority of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to secure subpoenas without asking a court. With the attorney general’s approval, the GBI will be able to compel telecommunications companies to turn over customer information, including name, address and connection records, such as service usage times and durations. The types of investigations that will warrant these extrajudicial subpoenas include crimes against children, crimes facilitated by a computer and, crucially when it came to securing lawmaker support, the crime known as swatting, which, according to testimony, is happening more frequently against politicians; swatting is when someone calls police to an address on false pretenses.
FOOD
- House Bill 398: home bakers and other makers, it’s time to go to market. This new “cottage food” law will allow home cooks to sell their goods online, by mail, in grocery stores and at restaurants. The food must be stable without temperature control, so refrigerated items are not included. But breads, cakes, cereals, jams, jellies, preserves, pasta, produce, dried fruits, herbs, nuts, seasonings, vinegar, dill pickles, dry soup mixes and roasted coffee beans generally are included.
- Senate Bill 144: any pesticide with a federally-approved label shall be deemed adequately labeled in Georgia and will satisfy the state law duty to label the substance.
DEATH and TAXES
- Senate Bill 241: this is another one that passed with big bipartisan majorities. It allows the composting of human corpses and inspired gallows humor at the Capitol that eased discomfort about the topic. The new law offers grieving families some measure of comfort, proponents noted: it will let them plant flowers in soil that came from a departed loved one.
- House Bills 111 and 112: the former is a tax cut and the latter is a taxpayer rebate. The cut will reduce the state income tax rate from 5.39% to 5.19% retroactive to the beginning of the current tax year. The rebate will give taxpayers a one-time bonus: $250 for single income tax filers, $375 for single filer heads of household and $500 for married couples filing jointly.
by Dave Williams | Jun 27, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A grand jury in Lowndes County this week indicted 10 alleged members of a criminal gang based in Valdosta in the shooting deaths last November of two men and an assault on two Lowndes sheriff’s deputies.
The 10, accused of being members of the gang 923/BangKrew, are charged with targeting a rival gang in a shootout in front of a strip of bars in the city of Remerton, the same location where Valdosta State University student Brianna Long, 21, was shot and killed almost exactly a year earlier.
The November shootings claimed the lives of Jastain Darrisaw, 20, and Lajoespet Wells, 31. Shots also were fired in the direction of two responding officers who were working security that night. One of those deputies was shot in his protective vest and was treated at a local hospital and released.
The case will be jointly prosecuted by the Georgia Attorney General’s Gang Prosecution Unit and the Southern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.
“When shots were fired in a crowded area, these two deputies risked their lives to keep people safe,” Attorney General Chris Carr said Friday. “Now, we’re fighting to ensure those responsible are held accountable because this cycle of violence cannot continue. … Violent offenders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The 10 defendants, all of whom are from Valdosta, are charged with felony murder and aggravated assault on a public safety officer. They also are accused of violating Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act and use of a firearm during commission of a felony.
Nine of the 10 are in custody. The 10th, Jailen Bryant, is actively being sought by law enforcement.
Carr, working with Gov. Brian Kemp and the General Assembly, created Georgia’s first statewide Gang Prosecution Unit in 2022. Since beginning its work that summer, it has secured more than 100 convictions following indictments in 15 counties across the state.
