Georgia
Georgia man arrested for Texas fraud scheme, facing multiple charges
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Ke-Juan D’Shon Studdard
LITHONIA, Ga. – A 24-year-old Georgia man has been arrested in connection to a large-scale fraud scheme targeting victims in Texas.
What we know:
Ke-Juan D’Shon Studdard, a 24-year-old from Lithonia, has been arrested in connection with a large-scale fraud scheme targeting victims in Texas. Law enforcement officials from the Lithonia Police Department, Snellville Police Department, and the Collin County Sheriff’s Office in Texas collaborated to track and apprehend Studdard.
Studdard is accused of using fraudulent bank schemes to steal funds through multiple financial institutions, including Cash App, Wells Fargo, and Chase Bank. He has been charged with:
- Breach of Computer Security – Identifying Information from Computer/PC (Second Degree Felony)
- Online Impersonation (Third Degree Felony)
- Felony Theft
Authorities located Studdard after tracking him for several hours across metro Atlanta. He was ultimately arrested in a Walmart parking lot in Snellville, where officers from Snellville PD, Lithonia PD, and a Collin County Sheriff’s investigator apprehended him. Studdard will be extradited to Texas to face the charges.
What they’re saying:
Lithonia Police Chief Dejarnette emphasized the importance of inter-agency cooperation in making the arrest.
Why you should care:
Fraudulent financial schemes are becoming increasingly sophisticated and widespread, putting individuals’ bank accounts and personal information at risk. Authorities warn residents to remain vigilant against scams involving unexpected calls, emails, or text messages requesting sensitive details.
What you can do:
Law enforcement officials urge the public to take precautions to protect themselves from financial fraud:
- Never share personal information unless you verify the sender’s identity.
- Hang up immediately if you receive an unexpected call requesting sensitive details.
- Contact banks or institutions directly using official phone numbers—not the one provided in the suspicious message.
- Monitor financial accounts regularly for any unauthorized transactions.
What’s next:
As the investigation continues, police are working to determine whether additional suspects are involved in the scheme. Authorities encourage anyone with relevant information to come forward.
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Georgia
Georgia Tech Participates in National Survey of Student Health and Wellness
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Georgia Tech is participating in the 2025 National College Health Assessment (NCHA) of student health and wellness. This nationally recognized survey assists universities in collecting precise data about students’ health habits, behaviors, and perceptions.
All currently enrolled Georgia Tech undergraduates are invited to participate and have received a participation link from NCHA via their Georgia Tech email address. A representative population of graduate students (50%) has also been invited to take the survey. The survey must be taken online and can be completed in approximately 20 to 30 minutes. All survey responses are anonymized upon submission to protect student privacy. The survey will remain open for participation until March 18.
Student perspective and input are critically important to helping Student Engagement and Well-Being promote health and wellness through campus resources. Initiatives like the Cultivate Well-Being Action and Transformation Roadmaps are examples of work undertaken to enhance the institutional attributes that promote health and mitigate the elements of campus culture that may adversely affect student well-being. The results of the 2025 NCHA survey will provide critical data to guide the development of future resources.
Faculty and staff are also vital to the success of well-being initiatives in Georgia Tech classrooms and are asked to share the NCHA survey information with students and encourage them to participate.
If you would like to learn more about the impact of the NCHA survey on campuses across the country, visit the NCHA website.
Writer(s): Brittany Aiello, Executive Communications, Institute Communications
Ashlie Bowman, Student Engagement Communications, Student Engagement and Well-Being
Georgia
Recent data shows that Georgia Southern’s research efforts are soaring | Newsroom
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Data shows that Georgia Southern University has recently broken University records in research. According to 2024 year-end data published by Elsevier’s research performance assessment tool, Scival, the University set institutional records in three key areas.
“This data reflects a research enterprise headed in the right direction, but more importantly, it indicates a culture driven by innovation, discovery, and the commitment of our faculty and students to continue serving the University, their community, and beyond,” said Vice President for Research and Economic Development David Weindorf, Ph.D.
In the area of total scholarly output, Georgia Southern achieved a record high of 780, an 11% increase from 2023’s total of 701. This metric includes peer-reviewed research papers, refereed conference proceedings, books, and book chapters.
Under that same umbrella, Georgia Southern also made strides in peer-reviewed research papers, totaling 599, a 21% increase from 492 in 2023.
Additionally, the University saw a significant increase in Quartile 1 journal publications. Quartile 1 journals are among the top 25% of research publications in any field of study. 2024’s tally of 389 is a 30% increase from 2023’s total of 298 and a University record.
Georgia
Georgia’s pro-Kremlin authorities intensify crackdown on opposition
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The Georgian authorities presented new legislation in early February that critics say will increase pressure on the country’s civil society and independent media while also placing additional restrictions on public gatherings. The move comes amid a wave of anti-government protests that began following Georgia’s disputed October 2024 parliamentary elections and escalated weeks later when the government took steps to suspend the country’s EU accession efforts.
The current crisis reflects widespread tensions in Georgian society, with the governing Georgian Dream party accused of attempting to turn the country away from decades of Euro-Atlantic integration and return to the Russian orbit. Government officials deny the charges, claiming instead that they seek to guard against undue Western influence while avoiding any involvement in the geopolitical confrontation over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Georgian Dream officials announced in early February that the party planned to draft legislation that would tighten restrictions on foreign-funded media outlets and establish a new code of journalistic ethics to be monitored by a government body. Similar legislative initiatives are being prepared targeting Georgian civil society organizations. Opponents have likened these steps to the draconian measures introduced by the Putin regime over the past twenty-five years to silence domestic opposition inside Russia.
With anti-government protests still taking place in cities across Georgia on an almost daily basis, the authorities have also recently introduced new laws limiting public gatherings and criminalizing minor protest actions such as placing stickers on public property. Since protests flared in late 2024, hundreds have been detained, with many reporting human rights abuses while in custody including beatings and torture.
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Critics say these latest steps serve as further confirmation of the Georgian government’s intention to establish a Kremlin-style authoritarian state. In early February, Transparency International Georgia executive director Eka Gigauri told the Associated Press that she believed the authorities were using the same tactics employed by the Putin regime against opponents. “There is nothing new in how they attack civic activists,” she said. “This was happening in Russia years ago.”
Similar sentiments have been expressed by international human rights watchdogs monitoring the current crisis. “The government is relentlessly taking the country into a repressive era that is uncharted for Georgia but all too familiar in authoritarian states,” commented Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia Director Hugh Williamson in January 2025.
In recent months, Georgia’s Western partners have become more vocal in their criticism of the country’s increasingly authoritarian policies and apparent turn toward Moscow. This Western response has included imposing sanctions against a number of Georgian officials including billionaire Georgian Dream founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, who is widely seen as the country’s de facto leader and architect of Georgia’s current pro-Kremlin policies. On February 13, the European Parliament adopted a resolution questioning the legitimacy of the current Georgian authorities and calling for fresh elections in the coming months monitored by international observers.
Eurasia Center events
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Meanwhile, relations with Russia continue to improve. Georgia has won favor in Moscow in recent years by refusing to participate in Western sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Instead, Georgia has welcomed Russian businesses and has been accused of helping the Kremlin bypass international restrictions put in place in response to the war.
Members of the Georgian Dream party have positioned themselves as the only political force capable of establishing pragmatic relations with Russia. With around twenty percent of Georgia currently under Russian occupation, the threat of renewed Russian military aggression is a highly sensitive issue for Georgian society. In the run-up to Georgia’s October 2024 parliamentary election, Georgian Dream sparked controversy by using campaign posters contrasting peaceful Georgia with war-torn Ukraine as part of election messaging that sought to position the vote as a choice between war and peace.
With international attention now firmly fixed on developments in and around Ukraine, the political crisis in Georgia has slipped out of the headlines. However, this small nation in the southern Caucasus has a geopolitical significance that far outweighs its size. For the past two decades, Georgia has been widely seen in Western capitals as a post-Soviet success story, but the country’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations now hang in the balance. This represents a significant foreign policy challenge for the new Trump administration and for Europe.
Recent repressive measures indicate that the Georgian authorities are intent on escalating their clampdown against domestic opponents and strengthening ties with the Kremlin. If they succeed, it would represent a major victory for Vladimir Putin in the confrontation between the democratic world and an emerging alliance of authoritarian powers including Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.
Mercedes Sapuppo is an assistant director at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.
Further reading
The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.
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The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.
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Image: For the 80th consecutive day of protests, demonstrators gather at Europe Square for a rally to the Parliament called ”No to Russian Dictatorship,” for the release of political prisoners and new elections, as the Georgian government postpones European Union accession talks until 2028, in Tbilisi, Georgia, on February 15, 2025. (Photo by Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto)
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