ATLANTA — The Georgia Senate adopted legislation Tuesday that would increase the fine for protesting in streets.
Senate Bill 443 started as a measure that would have allowed felony charges against protesters who block roads.
But the author, Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, agreed to amendments that reduced the significantly enhanced criminal charge he had proposed. Currently, the offense is a misdemeanor, but SB 443 would increase that to a high and aggravated misdemeanor.
Both could net the perpetrator up to a year in jail. But the maximum fine for a high and aggravated misdemeanor is $5,000 while the maximum fine for a misdemeanor is $1,000.
Summers said protesters who block roads are preventing the passage of ambulances, firetrucks and parents trying to get to their child’s school.
“It is a simple common-sense bill,” he said. “It is something that parents should have taught people a long time ago: Don’t block the streets.”
The measure passed 35-17 and now goes to the House.
ATLANTA — Georgia lawmakers declined to tighten regulations for clinics that administer Ketamine and other drugs used for psychedelic therapy, but the debate is not over yet.
The 73-88 vote against House Bill 717 on the House floor Tuesday was a rejection of a request by the Georgia Composite Medical Board to require that only specially trained physicians be allowed to have majority ownership of such clinics.
“Ketamine is a very, very dangerous drug. It is FDA-approved only to use as an anesthetic,” said Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, who introduced the bill.
In addition to ensuring safe use of Ketamine, said Cooper, a licensed nurse, her bill would prepare Georgia for the future, “because there are more psychedelic drugs coming that are under study now that are even more dangerous. How about Ecstasy? Or magic mushrooms?”
Two medical doctors who serve in the House also backed the measure.
Rep. Michelle Au, D-Johns Creek, an anesthesiologist who said she has administered Ketamine, said the legislation was needed to increase safety.
So did Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, an emergency physician.
“If your hip’s out of joint, if your child has a bad facial laceration, this is a great medicine,” he said, adding that he and Au were probably the only two representatives in the House “who’ve seen people stop breathing because of this medicine … and know how serious a drug this is.”
Critics saw HB 717 as an attempt by doctors to corner the market.
Rep. Lauren McDonald III, R-Cumming, said he supports regulating these clinics. “But House Bill 717 simply does not regulate clinics. It restructures ownership and clinical authority in a way that prioritizes title over training and control over competency,” he said, adding that the legislation would reduce growth in the sector and public access to such clinics.
Cooper could offer nothing when another lawmaker asked if she had data showing majority physician ownership was safer.
After the measure failed, a lawmaker motioned to reconsider, and Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, announced another vote on HB 717 would occur when the House meets again Wednesday.
In addition to the physician ownership mandate, the measure would require the Georgia Composite Medical Board to establish rules and regulations for safe clinic operations.
At 22, Georgia Rep. Akbar Ali, D-Lawrenceville, is the state’s youngest lawmaker. Whether he was organizing climate marches in high school or rechartering the Gwinnett Young Democrats, Ali has long been civically engaged.
The driving force behind Ali’s desire to serve the community dates back to 2010 when the Gwinnett County mosque he grew up in, Dar-e ‘Abbas, became what he described as the center of a hate crime movement. The mosque wished to expand its property but its rezoning applications were denied by the Lilburn City Council multiple times.
Ali said threats of arson and other violence spread throughout his community, ending only after former President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice stepped in.
Ali said that experience led him to believe “that good governance is about looking out for all people and that’s exactly the promise that I made to my district when I ran.”
Rep. Akbar Ali, D-Lawrenceville, shakes hands with Juan Estrada, a candidate running for House District 109, at the quarterly Gwinnett Democrats Breakfast event on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026 at D’Floridian in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Lawrenceville is a part of District 106, which Rep. Akbar Ali represents. (Ashtin Barker/Capitol Beat)
On Dec. 2, 2025, he won the runoff election against Democrat Marqus A. Cole by 155 votes. Ali claimed the seat previously occupied by Rep. Shelly Hutchinson, D-Snellville.
Following her retirement from public office in September to care for her father with Alzheimer’s disease, Hutchinson endorsed Ali. She knew Ali as a Gwinnett Democrat and had seen him at political events.
Hutchinson said she saw him as a promising successor. When she decided to step down, Hutchinson gave Ali a call.
“I’d never seen somebody so prepared yet so young,” she said.
Ali turned 22 in February. Hutchinson said she was impressed by his maturity and his ability to lead discussions.
“He knows how to command a room without pissing everybody off,” Hutchinson said.
Ali’s age brings a fresh perspective to the Legislature and a channel to young voters and potential future leaders. Ali said his colleagues in the House tell him they have received an increased number of calls from younger people interested in running.
Ali believes many politicians have tried and failed to garner attention from Generation Z voters by using methods like partnering with celebrities. He said this is not what young voters want.
“If I can speak for a generation for a second,” Ali said. “What my generation and what the younger voters want is just foundational change and to see ourselves within government.”
Ali defines foundational change as “things that we can all get behind, stuff that is common sense.” To him, these things include expanding health care, affordability and small business development.
Ali ran on these policies during his campaign and plans to keep them at the forefront of his work in office.
Ali said he brings interpreters who speak English and Spanish during visits within his district.
“With so many minority owned businesses and with so many communities that English may not be the first language, I still want them to be able to get the services that we offer,” Ali said.
Ali campaigned on a few different policies, including more funding for public schools. However, being in the minority Democratic party in Georgia, Ali said he must work across the aisle to get things done.
Ali has signed onto multiple bipartisan bills, including the first one he introduced, House Bill 1244. It aims to guarantee teachers get their duty-free lunch and planning periods. He also signed onto bipartisan House Bill 496 that, if passed, would prohibit a law enforcement officer’s ability to search a motor vehicle or the people in one based on the scent of marijuana.
Ali said his parents, who immigrated from Pakistan, taught him to value family, neighbors and community prosperity.
“That’s really the immigrant experience so to speak,” Ali said. “Where you’re very grateful to be where you are, you love your country and you want to see it improve.”
Ali described his family as his backbone, providing support throughout his campaign.
Hutchinson was with Ali and his family when he won the election. She said she felt like a proud mother.
“I would say it’s like feeling like a parent,” she said, “but I can’t take anything away from them.”
ATLANTA — Georgia Senate Republicans pushed last-minute amendments to the state’s election procedures through a committee hearing Monday in an effort to meet their self-imposed deadline to use hand-marked ballots this year.
Critics noted that the two-year delay since the Legislature passed the law to use paper ballots without QR codes has pushed implementation into a busy election year, making implementation challenging. But proponents said the change was needed to instill faith in the outcome when every elected state office is on the ballot, in addition to the Congressional midterms.
The main problem with an overhaul this close to the election is acquiring the necessary equipment, which would include ballot printers, said Tate Fall, former election chief for Cobb County.
Because of the overlap of local, state and federal elections, larger jurisdictions would have to preprint an “astronomical” number of ballots tailored to each precinct, she said, so on-demand ballot printers must be acquired.
But there may only be one vendor capable of outfitting the state in time for the November elections, Fall said.
“Without ballot-on-demand printing,” she said, “it would cause significant consequences and chaos for our election officials, our poll workers, and our voters.”
Senate Bill 568 was introduced late last week and amended over the weekend.
Senate Democrats accused their Republican counterparts of rushing the bill. Friday is the deadline to move legislation between chambers.
In addition to paper ballots, the measure would require that local election officials publish voter lists before the election and give the Secretary of State a list of who voted by midnight after polls close, which the secretary must then upload into a permanent database within an hour.
The legislation would also require that advance voters cast ballots within an assigned precinct rather than countywide. And it would authorize the State Election Board to fine county registrars up to $10,000 for each violation of a process allowing voters to challenge the qualifications of people applying to vote.
Brad Carver, a metro Atlanta district chairman of the state Republican Party and an advocate for changes to the election procedures, praised Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, for introducing the bill.
“If we have transparent elections that everyone can trust, that is exactly what the Georgia Republican Party supports,” Carver said.
Dolezal pushed back against concerns around the timing, saying Georgia’s voting machines were insecure and had to be replaced. Robb Pitts, a Democrat who chairs the Fulton County Commission, said Dolezal’s bill would make it more difficult for people to vote.
Democrats tried to amend the bill to delay implementation until next year, but they could not muster enough votes. The measure passed 8-4 and awaits a vote on the Senate floor.
ATLANTA — Concern about the effects of algorithms and artificial intelligence has been driving an onslaught of legislation at the Georgia General Assembly.
Lawmakers have unleashed more than half a dozen bills that would hold companies or individuals to account for the way they deploy these computational tools, especially when used to connect children with obscenity, erode privacy or exploit identities.
“There are artificial intelligence platforms that allow a person to take an ordinary photograph of someone — your wife, your daughter, your coworker, your friend — and with a few clicks digitally remove their clothing to fabricate an explicit image,” said Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, while presenting his artificial intelligence restraint bill on the Senate floor last month. “It’s being used as a bullying tactic in schools. It’s being used for revenge, and it’s being used to destroy reputations. As a father of daughters, I cannot ignore that.”
Senate Bill 398 would make “virtual peeping” a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The maximum prison term would double when a manipulated image depicts a minor.
The Senate passed it 48-1 last month. It was a rare bipartisan vote that revealed the depth of concern about the tools that tech companies have been handing the public.
Georgia lawmakers have been trying to address child safety online since at least 2024 when they passed a law to limit social media companies’ access to children.
The industry sued in federal court in Atlanta and convinced a judge to block enforcement, asserting the law violated First Amendment speech protections.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones backed that measure. The Republican then empaneled a bipartisan Senate committee to study the issue.
Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, co-chaired the committee with a Republican senator. She said she became concerned after watching her own children interact with social media on the smartphones they had gotten in middle school, back when the devices and platforms were new and parents were less wary.
“I think the way the algorithmic feed works is damaging to kids, and I know that it fundamentally changed my kids,” she said during a hearing last week on Senate Bill 495, her attempt to tame social media. “It leaves a pit in my stomach.”
At that hearing, Angela Flanigan, the executive director of the Georgia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said social media platforms had been linked to disrupted sleep, reduced academic achievement and weakened emotional regulation, raising the risk of anxiety, depression and eating disorders.
The algorithms must be regulated because the companies will not change their designs voluntarily, Flanigan said. “They’re irresponsible.”
SB 495 sought to regulate how platforms harvest personal data and use it to feed algorithms that then drive “addictive” usage. It would have applied special restrictions to platforms that could gauge from their user data that at least 2% of their audience comprised minors.
The committee did not vote on the bill, making passage unlikely. The deadline to move bills from the Senate to the House and vice versa is Friday. Some committees, including the one charged with reviewing Harrell’s bill, do not plan to meet this week.
Senate Bill 467 suffered a similar fate. The measure by Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, sought to give parents more control over their children’s access to phone apps.
Other bills have emerged from committee hearings and still have a chance.
Senate Bill 540 by Sen. Jason Anavitarte, R-Dallas, the Senate majority leader, passed a committee last week and could get a vote on the Senate floor before “crossover” day on Friday.
It would empower the state attorney general to fine owners of any “conversational artificial intelligence” application or service that fails to clarify to users that they are not communicating with a human or that fails to implement guardrails against sharing sexually explicit material with children.
Senate Bill 418 by Sen. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, also got the nod from a Senate committee last week. Like Hatchett’s bill, it would hold people to account if they were to manipulate and distribute a person’s image in a sexually explicit way. Senate Bill 488 by Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, also passed out of committee last week. It would allow liability lawsuits against product sellers who expose minors to artificial intelligence that was “not merchantable and reasonably suited to the use intended.”
And the House could pass its own measure by Friday.
House Bill 566 by Rep. Soo Hong, R-Lawrenceville, would ban artificial intelligence knockoffs of licensed voices and likenesses.
Many of the measures found support from religious groups but opposition from free speech advocates and technology companies.
Industry lobbyists complained about cost and asserted that the legislation would put users’ private information at risk of exposure.
Justin Hill, a representative from the tech trade association NetChoice — the group that tied up Georgia’s 2024 law in court — said at a hearing about the app store age legislation that companies want to do more to protect children.
“They recognize this has been a problem,” he said. “They’re making it a priority, and I would just encourage you to allow the free market to fix this problem.”
Harrell, the Democrat who led the committee that studied how to protect children online, said the Legislature has not fielded strong enough measures.
“We did nothing to help parents monitor their kids’ online activities, we did nothing to make social media and gaming less addictive for kids, and we did nothing to address design features that promote connecting kids with adults who might use them for sexual exploitation,” she said. “There is so much more to do, but we are up against some serious monied interests.”
At a hearing last week, Anavitarte was clear-eyed about the opposition to his bill and the others that would restrain the tech industry. He was the lead co-sponsor of the legislation that established the 2024 law that NetChoice blocked with a lawsuit.
“All these laws are going to get caught up in federal court just like when we wrote Senate Bill 351,” he said. “If I think that it’s not, then I’m being foolish.”
