ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia on Monday imposed new restrictions on the sale of hemp products, required some basic standards for rented residences, cut income taxes and required cash bail for dozens of new crimes.
Those are among many laws passed earlier this year by the General Assembly that took effect on July 1.
Part of the bail law, which limits the ability of individuals and charitable groups to post bail for others, was put on hold Friday by a federal judge after a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality was filed.
Another law that would require online sites to gather data on high-volume sellers who collect payment in cash or some other offline method also was challenged with a lawsuit, and a federal judge temporarily barred its enforcement Sunday following a Friday hearing.
Other laws took effect when Gov. Brian Kemp signed them, including a measure signed May 1 that compels jailers to check the immigration status of inmates. That already has been law in Georgia but Republican supporters say some jailers are flouting their obligations.
The immigration law was passed after the killing of a nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus. Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan man, has pleaded not guilty to murder and kidnapping charges in Riley's death.
Here's a look at some of the Georgia's new laws:
An already-planned state income tax cut is being accelerated under House Bill 1015, giving the state a flat 5.39% income tax rate retroactive to Jan. 1. As of that date, Georgia gained a flat income tax rate of 5.49%, passed under a 2022 law that transitioned away from a series of income brackets that topped out at 5.75%.
The income tax rate is supposed to drop 0.1% a year until reaching 4.99% if state revenues hold up. The state will forgo an estimated $300 million by dropping the rate from 5.49% to 5.39%. That’s on top of the $800 million the state is projected to forgo as part of the earlier tax cut.
A separate law will drop the corporate income tax rate from 5.75% to 5.39%. Under the bill, the corporate income tax rate would keep falling along with the personal income tax rate until reaching 4.99%. The corporate income tax cut would cost $176 million in its first full year.
Retailers can only sell hemp products such as CBD to people 21 and older under Senate Bill 494. Manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers must buy permits from the state Department of Agriculture. Products can only be sold if they have been tested, with state agriculture officials also regulating testing labs.
Hemp products must include results of testing and a warning sticker if they contain THC, the substance in marijuana that produces a high. Officials have said products they tested in the past had illegally high levels of delta-9 THC and said labels didn’t accurately reflect a product’s ingredients.
The measure bans the sale of hemp products within 500 feet (152 meters) of a K-12 school and bans hemp products that look like existing snacks or candy, trying to make them less attractive to children. That could ban hemp-infused brownies, cookies and candy, but experts say gummies and hemp-infused beverages are still legal.
The measure limits how much delta-9 THC a product can contain, aiming to also eliminate the sale of products with chemicals that can be turned into THC. Other CBD substances such as Delta-8-THC and Delta-10-THC remain legal in Georgia.
Landlords in Georgia would be legally required for the first time to maintain rental properties in a state that is fit for human habitation under House Bill 404. The bill also adds air conditioning as a utility that can't be shut off before an eviction notice is filed, along with the existing requirements to provide heat, light and water.
The law requires a landlord to give a tenant three days' written notice before starting eviction proceedings when a tenant doesn't pay rent or some other required fee, while also requiring that an eviction notice be posted “conspicuously” on the door of rental property.
The measure limits security deposits to two months' rent.
Cash bail would be required for 30 additional crimes, including some misdemeanors, under Senate Bill 63.
The measure erodes changes in 2018 allowing judges to release most people accused of misdemeanors without bail. Proponents argue people who leave jail without paying bail are less likely to show up for court, although national studies contradict that claim.
Judges would still have the discretion to set very low bails, but opponents say that’s unlikely. They warn the move could strand poor defendants in jail even when they're accused of crimes for which they are unlikely to ever go to prison.
A federal judge on Friday put on hold for at least 14 days part of the law that would limit charitable bail funds or individuals from bailing out of jail more than three people in a year. Only those who meet legal requirements to be bail bond companies could do so.
Opponents sued on June 21, alleging that part of the law is unconstitutional.
FILE - Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announces a plan for a further cut to Georgia's state income tax rate, Dec. 4, 2023, at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta. That plan, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2024, will take effect on Monday, July 1. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy, File)
LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Thousands of people at a religious gathering in India rushed to leave a makeshift tent, setting off a stampede Tuesday that killed at least 116 people and injured scores, officials said.
It was not immediately clear what triggered the panic following an event with a Hindu guru known locally as Bhole Baba. Local news reports cited authorities who said heat and suffocation in the tent could have been a factor. Video of the aftermath showed the structure appeared to have collapsed.
At least 116 people died, most of them women and children, said Prashant Kumar, the director-general of police in northern India's state of Uttar Pradesh, where the stampede occurred.
More than 80 others were injured and admitted to hospitals, senior police officer Shalabh Mathur said.
“People started falling one upon another, one upon another. Those who were crushed died. People there pulled them out,” witness Shakuntala Devi told the Press Trust of India news agency.
Relatives wailed in distress as bodies of the dead, placed on stretchers and covered in white sheets, lined the grounds of a local hospital. A bus that arrived there carried more victims, whose bodies were lying on the seats inside.
Deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with shoddy infrastructure and few safety measures.
Police officer Rajesh Singh said there was likely overcrowding at the event in a village in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of the state capital, Lucknow.
Initial reports said organizers had permission to host about 5,000 people, but more than 15,000 came for the event by the Hindu preacher, who used to be a police officer in the state before he left his job to give religious sermons. He has led other such gatherings over the last two decades.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to the families of the dead and said the federal government was working with state authorities to ensure the injured received help.
Uttar Pradesh's chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, called the stampede "heart-wrenching” in a post on X. He said authorities were investigating.
“Look what happened and how many people have lost their lives. Will anyone be accountable?” Rajesh Kumar Jha, a member of parliament, told reporters. He said the stampede was a failure by the state and federal governments to manage large crowds, adding that “people will keep on dying” if authorities do not take safety protocols seriously enough.
In 2013, pilgrims visiting a temple for a popular Hindu festival in central Madhya Pradesh state trampled each other amid fears that a bridge would collapse. At least 115 were crushed to death or died in the river.
In 2011, more than 100 Hindu devotees died in a crush at a religious festival in the southern state of Kerala.
Pathi reported from New Delhi.
Police tape cordons off the scene a day after a fatal stampede, in Fulrai village of Hathras district about 350 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of the state capital, Lucknow, India, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Thousands of people at a religious gathering in India rushed to leave a makeshift tent, setting off a stampede Tuesday that killed at least 116 people and injured scores, officials said. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Members of a forensic team investigate the scene a day after a fatal stampede, in Fulrai village of Hathras district about 350 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of the state capital, Lucknow, India, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Thousands of people at a religious gathering in India rushed to leave a makeshift tent, setting off a stampede Tuesday that killed at least 116 people and injured scores, officials said. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Members of a forensic team investigate the scene a day after a fatal stampede, in Fulrai village of Hathras district about 350 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of the state capital, Lucknow, India, Wednesday, July 3, 2024. Thousands of people at a religious gathering in India rushed to leave a makeshift tent, setting off a stampede Tuesday that killed at least 116 people and injured scores, officials said. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Relatives and volunteers carry the bodies on stretchers at the Sikandrarao hospital in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of Lucknow, India, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. A stampede among thousands of people at a religious gathering in northern India has killed at least 105 and left scores injured, officials said Tuesday, with many women and children among the dead. (AP Photo/Manoj Aligadi)
Relatives mourn next to a body lying covered at the Sikandrarao hospital in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of Lucknow, India, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. A stampede among thousands of people at a religious gathering in northern India has killed at least 105 and left scores injured, officials said Tuesday, with many women and children among the dead. (AP Photo/Manoj Aligadi)
Relatives mourn next to the bodies of their relatives outside the Sikandrarao hospital in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of Lucknow, India, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. A stampede among thousands of people at a religious gathering in northern India has killed at least 105 and left scores injured, officials said Tuesday, with many women and children among the dead. (AP Photo)
People stand around the bodies lying covered on stretchers outside the Sikandrarao hospital in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of Lucknow, India, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. A stampede among thousands of people at a religious gathering in northern India has killed at least 105 and left scores injured, officials said Tuesday, with many women and children among the dead. (AP Photo/Manoj Aligadi)
Relatives mourn next to the bodies of their relatives outside the Sikandrarao hospital in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of Lucknow, India, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. A stampede among thousands of people at a religious gathering in northern India killed at least 60 and left scores injured, officials said Tuesday, adding that many women and children were among the dead and the toll could rise. (AP Photo)
An injured arrives in an ambulance at the Sikandrarao hospital in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of Lucknow, India, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. At least 60 people are dead and scores are injured after a stampede at a religious gathering of thousands of people in northern India, officials said Tuesday.(AP Photo/Manoj Aligadi)
A religious gathering in northern India turned into a stampede Tuesday as thousands of people rushed to leave the event, killing at least 60. (AP Graphic)
People carry a woman on a stretcher outside the Sikandrarao hospital in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of Lucknow, India, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. At least 60 people are dead and scores are injured after a stampede at a religious gathering of thousands of people in northern India, officials said Tuesday.(AP Photo/Manoj Aligadi)
Women mourn next to the body of a relative outside the Sikandrarao hospital in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of Lucknow, India, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. At least 60 people are dead and scores are injured after a stampede at a religious gathering of thousands of people in northern India, officials said Tuesday.(AP Photo/Manoj Aligadi)
Relatives carry body of a man on a stretcher outside the Sikandrarao hospital in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of Lucknow, India, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. At least 60 people are dead and scores are injured after a stampede at a religious gathering of thousands of people in northern India, officials said Tuesday.(AP Photo/Manoj Aligadi)
Women mourn next to the body of a relative outside the Sikandrarao hospital in Hathras district about 350 kilometers (217 miles) southwest of Lucknow, India, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. At least 60 people are dead and scores are injured after a stampede at a religious gathering of thousands of people in northern India, officials said Tuesday.(AP Photo/Manoj Aligadi)
