ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Hours before Vice President Kamala Harris makes history Thursday night, Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance will speak in south Georgia on an issue he and Donald Trump are making a central part of their campaign to return the 45th president to the White House.

Vance will speak at the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office in Valdosta at 1 p.m. on border security and immigration.

“An average of 5,000 illegal immigrants are being released into the U.S. every day,” the Trump-Vance campaign said in the announcement. “In FY 2023 alone, more than 900,000 illegal immigrants were released into the interior of the U.S. and now await future immigration court dates. Experts say the likelihood U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will remove them is ‘virtually nonexistent’ and that they ‘are here indefinitely, if not forever.’”

Harris was given the issue of border security and immigration as her responsibility in President Joe Biden’s administration.

This is Vance’s second trip to the battleground state of Georgia since becoming the GOP’s vice presidential nominee. In early August, Trump and Vance made their first joint appearance in Atlanta at the Georgia State University convocation center, the same site where Harris held a rally only days earlier.

Before their Georgia appearance and fresh off last month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump and Vance had appeared at one rally together, in Michigan. That rally came exactly one week after Trump would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Atlanta News First and Atlanta News First+ provide you with the latest news, headlines and insights as Georgia continues its role at the forefront of the nation’s political scene. Download our Atlanta News First app for the latest political news and information.

Copyright 2024 WANF. All rights reserved.

The Georgia high school softball season is underway and so is the voting for the first SBLive Georgia High School Softball Player of the Week winner of the 2024 season.

Please review our list of nominees and then cast your vote for the athlete you find most deserving.

SBLive voting polls are intended to be a fun way to create fan engagement and express support for your favorite high school athletes and teams. Unless expressly noted, there are no awards for winning the voting. Our primary focus is to highlight the abilities and accomplishments of all the athletes and teams included in our poll. You can vote as often as you wish and are encouraged to share our polls with others. The use of voting bots and other forms of automated voting are not allowed. Individuals will be removed from the poll if any form of automated voting can be verified. – SBLive Sports

Voting closes at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 25th. The winner will be announced in the following week’s poll. Here are this week’s nominees:

Here are this week’s nominations.

In five games played last week, Broome helped her team go 5-0. She went 8-for-13 with a double, triple, home run and six RBIs. 

Hernandez did it all last week helping her team to a 5-0 record. At the plate she went 12-for-15 with six RBIs and in the circle, she had two six inning shutouts. In those two outings she left with a 2-0 record, 18 strikeouts, only four hits allowed and only two walks. 

In two games last week, Mill Creek went 2-0 thanks in part to Brookshire’s hot hand at the plate. Against West Forsyth she went 2-for-3 with a double, home run and three RBIs, then the next game went 3-for-4 with a triple, home run and four RBIs. 

Hill picked up where she left off last season, in three games last week she went 3-0. Versus Collins Hill she completed a seven-inning shutout with 11 strikeouts. Show allowed a total of three runs in the other two contest with 20 strikeouts.

Abernathy showed off her power at the plate in a two-game sweep over Adairsville. In the series she picked up three hits, two being homers, and had six RBIs. 

Rackley earned the win in the circle versus Walnut Grove, and she finished with a career-high 13 strikeouts.

Buford scored 14 runs in the seventh inning versus Walnut Grove and that was spearheaded by Stanton, as she finished with two homers and seven RBIs in that game alone. 

Byrd was a big part of North Cobb’s 15-0 and 23-0 wins over Marietta. She really made her impact with a grand slam in game two. 

The sophomore has started off her season hot. In her first three games she is 5-for-10, with seven RBIs, a double, triple, and a homer. 

Paley had a seven-inning complete game shutout versus Sequoyah and only allowed four hits. 

Whitt went 3-for-4 with a triple, home run, and four RBIs in a win over Walnut Grove. 

Huckaby went 2-0 last week with two amazing performances. She pitched a seven-inning complete game shutout versus Union County and struck out 18 batters while only allowing one hit. In her other outing she again went seven innings with 11 strikeouts and only allowed two hits. 

Thompson got the win in the circle versus Sandy Creek. She pitched a seven-inning complete game and struck out 14 batters as she helped LaGrange maintain its perfect record. 

Jade was lights out versus Duluth as she went seven shutout innings and struck out nine. 

In two games last week, Young went 6-for-8 with two doubles, a home run and six RBIs.

The mayor of a small town in Georgia faces felony charges alleging that he illegally stashed a bottle of gin in a ditch for a state prison work crew to access.

Thomson Mayor Benjamin “Benji” Cary Cranford, 52, was indicted on Wednesday and arrested by Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents on felony charges of furnishing prohibited items to inmates and attempt to commit a felony, WRDW-TV reported.

The indictment, issued in McDuffie County Superior Court, accuses Cranford of driving to a store on June 3, purchasing a bottle of Seagram’s Extra Dry Gin and leaving it in a ditch along Cobbham Road in Thomson, Georgia, in the path of a work crew of state prisoners from the Jefferson County Correctional Institution.

Thomson Police asked the GBI on June 6 to investigate allegations that Cranford provided alcohol to inmates.

PATIENT SUES EMORY HOSPITAL IN ATLANTA AFTER IT ALLEGEDLY LOST PART OF HIS SKULL

Cranford was taken into custody at Thomson City Hall by GBI agents following a city council meeting and booked into the McDuffie County Jail, according to WRDW-TV. He was released Wednesday on $5,000 bail.

“As we understand the charges in this case are not related to Mr. Cranford’s duties as an elected official, we do not have a comment,” city spokesperson Jason Smith said in a statement.

Cranford could be subject to suspension from office until the charges are resolved if a panel recommends to Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp that the charges could hinder Cranford’s ability to serve as mayor. Some other officials had previously been suspended when they were slapped with felony charges that were not directly related to their office.

GEORGIA DEPUTY KILLED IN ‘AMBUSH’ ATTACK AFTER RESPONDING TO DOMESTIC DISPUTE CALL

Cranford was taken into custody at Thomson City Hall by GBI agents following a city council meeting. (istock)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The mayor took office earlier this year after defeating incumbent Kenneth Usry in the election last year.

Earlier this month, Cranford, a former paving contractor, settled a lawsuit filed months before he ran for office accusing him of attempting to hide assets from a bonding company that was stepping in to pay some of Cranford’s company’s debts amid financial troubles to ensure large-scale projects undertaken by Cranford’s company would be completed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.