Latest news with #GeorgiaState
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
SC Solicitor pushing for gang statute, RICO law to fight crime
BEAUFORT COUNTY, SC (WSAV) – A push for tougher penalties to fight gang violence is gaining momentum in South Carolina. Local prosecutors said what they have now isn't enough to stop organized crime which is why they said a new law could help keep communities safer. 'Take out the organization that that allows the fentanyl to get on the streets to begin with,' 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone said. 'That's an essential tool that prosecutors in South Carolina need.' And a tool that 14th Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone said he and other prosecutors have been asking for, for three years. 'We have a statute basically now that no one uses,' Stone said. 'Which is a five-year felony, for either enticing somebody to join a gang or trying to keep them from leaving a gang. And I don't know that anyone's ever prosecuted anybody for that. The penalty is not stiff enough for it to make any difference. And the second thing is that no one's going to testify that they were forced into a gang.' What Stone wants is a RICO or Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law. Something 33 other states, including Georgia, already have in place. 'It began as a federal law to go after organized crime and arrest people for big conspiracies, but it was written much broader than that,' Eric Segall, Georgia State Professor, chair of College of Law said. Officially, it provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. In broad terms, the statute would allow prosecutors to connect suspects to each other and to their crimes. A group of three or more can be a 'gang' and face an additional charge and up to 20 more years behind bars. It's a statute that Stone's office is already preparing for. 'We now have an investigator, a prosecutor and an intelligence analyst focused on nothing but gang members in our in our office,' Stone said. 'We did that several months ago. And we are collecting data now to determine how many individual gang members we have. I see gangs operate from Jasper County into Buford County and vice versa Collison County into Hampton County. It already has exceeded over 100 gang members in the 14th circuit.' 'Every time you hear about a drive by shooting, generally speaking, that is a that's gang activity, whether it's drive by into a car, into a house, into a crowd of people, it almost always is three or more people getting together to maybe retaliate against people who had shot at them or something like that.' 'By definition, if you choose to be a gang member, you're probably a career criminal. So, part of our intelligence is determining who those people are and making sure that that we treat them accordingly.' Stone said the SC General Assembly currently has three versions of potential gang or RICO statutes waiting for debate. He said they hoped they will bring them to the floor and pass them next session. 'They're very good bills. I've seen all three of them, and they're very they're very good,' Stone said. 'But they're going to have to pass it for us to be able to use it. Prosecutors throughout South Carolina have been pushing for this for a number of years, and the people in this District or in the Circuit would see the difference almost immediately. I think a lot of I know cases that I would be able to use that statute on now.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Mistreatment and abuse': Ossoff steps up heat on corporate landlords as investigation continues
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff continued his investigation into corporate landlords on Tuesday, saying he has heard stories of 'mistreatment and abuse.' Ossoff launched his investigation earlier this month. Atlanta is a hot spot for corporate landlords. These owners are often national corporations that own more than 50 homes in the metro area. 'As part of this investigation, my staff has interviewed more than 160 witnesses and sources,' Ossoff said. 'Georgians have reported to my office being charged undisclosed junk fees, being charged for maintenance and repair.' Last week, Ossoff focused on the results of a recent study by Georgia State Professor Taylor Shelton that found corporate landlords now own 30% of all single-family rental homes in the metro area. Shelton told Channel 2's Michael Doudna that three corporations own nearly 38,000 homes in the Greater Atlanta metro area. 'This is ultimately unlike anything we have ever seen before in American history,' Shelton said. 'And so that means that these companies are able to get away with a lot more than they would otherwise because there's no competition.' TRENDING STORIES: 'It just smelled funny': Uber drivers unwittingly used as drug mules in metro Atlanta Cobb Co. teacher, wife accused of denying their children food and bathroom, confining them Parents sue after they say 6-year-old daughter was racially attacked at school: 'It's disturbing' On Tuesday, Ossoff was flanked by two renters who shared their horror stories with the media. Shana Brooks Wilhite said her problems began in early December, when her stove and fireplace were leaking carbon monoxide. 'So, I immediately just opened all of the doors, all the windows, and I panicked because I'm like, 'I know it can kill you,'' Brooks-Wilhite said. The gas company turned off the gas line that night. However, when she went to her corporate landlord to fix the problem, they said the earliest appointment she could have was three weeks later. 'I just told you I had a carbon monoxide leak in my house. And she was like, 'That's all we have,'' Brooks-Wilhite said. According to a Georgia Tech study, which Channel 2 Action News covered last year, landlords owning more than 50 homes in the metro area were four to five times more likely to have code complaints than rental homes owned by a single individual. Doudna asked Ossoff when he expects this investigation to turn into legislation, but he didn't have a firm timeline.
USA Today
29-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Michigan State football lands commitment from Georgia State edge rusher Cam Williams
Michigan State football lands commitment from Georgia State edge rusher Cam Williams The Spring transfer window is in full effect and it is going to shake waves across college athletics. The Spartans are using the window to add within positions of need, and they have done just that. After adding Texas Tech edge transfer Isaac Smith, MSU has added another edge rusher from the portal. Georgia State edge rusher Cam Williams has made the move to commit to Michigan State on Tuesday night. The Spartans will be his fifth school of his college career. The 6-foot-5, 240 pound edge rusher started his career at Miami (FL) before making stops at Troy and Jacksonville State, before rounding out at Georgia State. In his college career he has accumulated 46 tackles, 9 tackles for loss and 2 sacks. Williams will provide the MSU defense with a strong veteran presence that is desperately needed to improve the play on the defensive line. Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Cory Linsner on X @Cory_Linsner
NBC Sports
28-04-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Bucs guarantee undrafted free agent Ben Chukwuma, a Nigerian native, $300,000 to sign
Georgia State offensive lineman Ben Chukwuma, a native of Nigeria who moved to the U.S. at 17, did not begin playing football until 2020 when he showed up for an open tryout. Chukwuma knew nothing about American football. Five years later, Chukwuma has the most guaranteed money of any undrafted free agent as the Bucs offered him $300,000 after the draft. 'My potentiality is what makes the NFL teams excited,' Chukwuma told Greg Auman of Fox Sports on Sunday. 'They see with my little experience what am I able to do.' He did not see any game action until 2023 before starting 11 games in 2024. He has played only 23 games in his career. The 6-foot-6, 310-pounder is a project with potentially a big upside. 'He's just a big piece of clay that you can make however you want,' former NFL coach Hue Jackson, now Georgia State's offensive coordinator, told Auman. 'Somebody can really pour the right things into him. His growth over the next several months [should be a lot]. He'll be around NFL guys, and they'll take him under their wings and let him be what he can be. He's athletic. He's long. He's tough, and he loves football, and he's going to work hard at it.'
Fox Sports
28-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Meet Bucs OL Ben Chukwuma, NFL-bound two years after his first football game
TAMPA, Fla. — In February 2020, the football program at Georgia State held an open tryout for potential walk-ons, and about 40 students showed up to run through drills. But only one made an assistant hurry into head coach Shawn Elliott's office. "He said, 'I don't know if this guy can play, but he's massive,'" Elliott recalled. "I said, 'Where is he?' and he pointed him out on the field. I said, 'Tell that dude he doesn't have to go through tryouts. We're going to take him, regardless. He's got a roster spot.'" That was the first step for Ben Chukwuma, who moved to Georgia from his native Nigeria when he was 17, loving soccer and basketball but knowing nothing at all about American football. The past five years have been a slow but persistent journey, but the result, amazingly, is the same: He has a roster spot in the NFL. After the NFL Draft concluded on Saturday, Chukwuma got a call from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and impossible as it seems, the undrafted free agent who got the most guaranteed money from any NFL team this year — $300,000 — had never played in a football game at any level until two years ago. "My potentiality is what makes the NFL teams excited," he said Sunday. "They see with my little experience what am I able to do." At that Georgia State workout, Elliott made a point to introduce himself to Chukwuma, who was towering at 6-foot-6 and weighed about 240 pounds then. He had listed himself as a defensive end at a friend's suggestion, but Elliott, a longtime offensive line coach, knew his future was there. "Very lean, athletic-looking, strong. I could tell this was going to be a whole new ballgame for him," Elliott said. "I told him he looked like an NFL tackle right now, and we were going to teach him everything we could, help develop him and see if we could get him to the NFL." While most NFL rookies have played close to 100 football games between high school and college, Chukwuma has only played in 23, total. He has a profile on LinkedIn, touting his degree in computer information systems and cybersecurity, and this time last year, he was interning with the Fulton County government, working on cyberattack response plans. So he's equal parts IT and OT, an absolute firewall of an NFL prospect. "He's just a big piece of clay that you can make however you want," said former NFL coach Hue Jackson, now Georgia State's offensive coordinator. "Somebody can really pour the right things into him. His growth over the next several months — he'll be around NFL guys and they'll take him under their wings and let him be what he can be. He's athletic, he's long, he's tough and he loves football, and he's going to work hard at it." Chukwuma had the size and athleticism to play football, but had to learn the sport from a fundamental level. This wasn't about stance or hand placement, but how big the field is, how many players are on the field at a time, literally everything. "People will use the term a lot that he's raw. Ben was so raw, it was incredible," Elliott said. "I would try to communicate with him about defensive fronts and techniques, he would look at you and just say that he didn't know what you were talking about. If you had given him a basic test on football, how big the field was, where do you kick off from, what's an extra point, he would have smiled and said, 'I have no idea.' It was from the ground up as far as teaching him the game." So before they got to footwork, blocking assignments, how to avoid penalties, it was just basic mission statements. Elliott remembers a blocking drill when he just told him: "Do me a favor: Don't let this guy move." Chukwuma's default expression in practice was a very serious look, but teammates knew they were in trouble when he suddenly cracked a huge smile, because it was in recognition of picking up a new skill like a kickstep or another piece of technique. His path from walk-on to even getting on the playing field at Georgia State wasn't easy. His first season's progress was essentially derailed by COVID, and even as he learned the sport and grew — 280 pounds by his third season — he hadn't played a snap. The biggest thing he'd done was win the team's hot-dog eating contest — with nine — in the summer of 2022. At one point, his father, who has Parkinson's, needed back surgery, and since Ben was his primary caretaker, he had to move home to take care of him, going to Elliott one spring and telling him he'd have to leave the team. About a month later, his father was healthy enough that Chukwuma could return, though Elliott typically did not allow players back after they left. He asked the leaders on his team, and they agreed they wanted him back, so he was. Chukwuma got into his first college games in 2023, but he didn't get to start until an injury pressed him into duty in the final game of the regular season. He played well enough that Georgia State moved him to left tackle for its bowl game, and the team rushed for 386 yards in a 45-32 win over Utah State in Boise, Idaho. Elliott resigned and took a job as an assistant at South Carolina, but under new coach Dell McGee, Chukwuma, now 310 pounds, started 11 games this past season. "He's new to football, but you definitely see the size, the length, the quickness, and the upside that he's going to potentially show in the NFL in due time," said McGee, who came to Georgia State from the University of Georgia, where he coached with current Bucs receivers coach Bryan McClendon and knew Todd Bowles because his son, Todd, was a Bulldogs safety. "Tampa Bay did a good job of doing their research on Ben and evaluating him. You're going to get someone who's going to work hard and be an outstanding pillar in the community. His ceiling in regard to offensive tackle is very high." Chukwuma's username on Twitter is "odogwu," a word in the Igbo language of his native Nigeria that translates to "strong man" or "warrior." He helped himself in the draft process with a strong game last October against Marshall, where edge rusher Mike Green led the nation with 17 sacks and ended up a second-round pick of the Ravens on Friday. Green had sacks in all but three games last season, but one of them came against Georgia State and Chukwuma, who stepped up to meet a big challenge. "When the game started, my main goal was to try to be more physical than him," Chukwuma said. "I tried to be so physical that it disrupted his game and got in his head. Once I had that game, I just tried to build from that." Tampa Bay sent scout Tony Hardie to Georgia State's pro day, and Chukwuma participated in the Falcons' local pro day, so other teams also had their eyes on him. The Bucs went out of their way to make sure they got him. He received a $55,000 signing bonus — late seventh-round picks get around $80,000 — and they took the extra step of guaranteeing him $245,000 in salary, which in the least amounts to close to a full season on the practice squad. "I knew this guy had the talent. He just needs the years of experience," Elliott said. "He's just going to continue to grow and get better, and it's great to see him now playing at such a high level and seeing him enjoying the game like I knew he would. He's still so new to this game that the sky's the limit." Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman . Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? 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