Bryan Pirkle

Cannon Place, LLC has reached a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over alleged stormwater violations at its construction sites along Bald Ridge Marina Road in Cumming. As part of this settlement, Cannon Place agreed to pay a civil penalty of $110,253.

A political gambit by an endangered Senate Democrat broke loose long-stalled legislation to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline as the lame-duck Congress returned to a Capitol where results of last week's GOP blowout are still sinking in.

Opponents of ``Obamacare'' are asking that an appeals court case on the Affordable Care Act be delayed because the Supreme Court is stepping into a separate case covering the same legal ground.

The Department of Public Safety at the University of North Georgia (UNG) has three new faces in its ranks and is refining the department's efforts in emergency preparedness training.

President Barack Obama's determination to act alone to change the immigration system promptly drove a wedge Wednesday into the post-election commitment from the president and Republican leaders to find common ground under the new political alignment.

Republicans took giant steps toward controlling the Senate on Tuesday, ousting Democratic senators in Colorado and Arkansas, and replacing retiring Democrats in three other states.

After 10 years in Congress, Democratic Rep. John Barrow of Augusta has been defeated by a Republican challenger.

Republicans are retaining Senate seats in Tennessee, Mississippi, Maine and Oklahoma.

Veteran Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas lost his seat Tuesday to a freshman House Republican, putting the GOP a step closer to its goal of controlling the Senate for the first time in eight years.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been re-elected to his Senate seat from Kentucky. And he will now be waiting to learn whether he might be the majority leader in the new Congress.