Former President Jimmy Carter died on Sunday, Dec. 29 at his home in Plains, Ga., according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

As the border crisis escalated under the Biden administration, a record number of Venezuelan illegal border crossers, more than one million, were reported and TdA violence expanded nationwide. Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang members are known for violence, murder, kidnapping, extortion, bribery and human and drug trafficking and are linked to more than 100 law enforcement investigations nationwide.

Ohio’s nurses had two big asks for lawmakers in the most recent legislative session. They got one of them. Assuming Gov. Mike DeWine signs the bill into law, hospitals will have to start developing security plans and reporting workplace violence in the coming year.  But nurses’ bigger ask — codified minimum staffing standards — will have to wait.

More calls are coming for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to veto part of a bill passed in the closing hours of the legislative session to allow for higher fees to be charged for certain public records. The higher fees for specific public records were part of House Bill 315, a 441-page bill introduced on the last day of the legislative session and quickly passed by the Republican-dominated House and Senate.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram gave District Attorney Fani Willis until Jan. 13 to respond to an order that requires her to honor a subpoena from a Georgia Senate committee. Willis refused to appear before the Senate Special Committee on Investigations that wanted to question her about her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump.

The Highland County Press is recapping some of the top stories from 2024. The following is Part 1 of the series.

These incidents have been reported by the HCSO.

Hillsboro City Council members approved the 2025 budget ordinance, a collective bargaining agreement for the police department and three tax increment financing (TIF) ordinances during their Monday, Dec. 23 meeting.

Highland County commissioners David Daniels, Brad Roades and Terry Britton officially closed out the 2024 calendar year with their final end-of-year approvals, including appropriating more COVID-19 recovery dollars, during a meeting Monday, Dec. 23.

The US Department of Defense spent nearly $11 million on “Orwellian cat experiments” that have nothing to do with training the U.S. military or national defense.

The November 2024 general election resulted in several extremely close votes, resulting in either a tie or were decided by three votes or fewer. In total, 23 local races triggered automatic recounts.

In honor of the life and service of Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction Officer Andrew Lansing, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has ordered that the flags of the United States and the State of Ohio shall be flown at half-staff upon all public buildings and grounds throughout Ross County and at the Ohio Statehouse, Vern Riffe Center, and Rhodes Tower as well as at all Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction facilities now until sunset on the day of his funeral.

A year ago, the U.S. national debt amounted to more than $33.8 trillion, according to Senate Republican Joint Economic Committee data. As of Dec. 24, 2024, the debt has climbed to nearly $36.3 trillion, a $2.5 trillion increase within the past 12 months.

People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operatives and spies continue to be arrested in the U.S. The latest include two Chinese spies in California and several arrested in Guam near a U.S. military installation on the same day as an historic live ballistic missile interception test.

Through painstaking work of police investigators and prosecutors, and voicemail recordings used as evidence, recent cases reveal that American women and girls raped and murdered by foreign nationals illegally in the U.S. fought back against their attackers, struggling for their lives before they were overpowered, violently assaulted and killed.