Georgia Trend Daily – May 23, 2019
May 23, 2019 WABE 90.1
Southern Company’s Tom Fanning Talks Carbon Emission Reduction, Plant Vogtle At Annual Meeting
Emma Hurt reports that the Southern Company is the largest producer of electricity in the Southeast, and the parent company of Georgia Power. At its annual stockholders’ meeting Tom Fanning, its president, CEO and chairman spoke about his confidence in the business’s future and answered nearly three hours of questions from shareholders.
May 23, 2019 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Sustainable Georgia Roundup
Mary Ann DeMuth reports, in February, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia approved the only graduate degree in the state completely dedicated to sustainability. The new master’s degree in sustainable energy and environmental management (MSEEM) will be offered at Georgia Tech, with full-time, part-time and online options to accommodate working professionals.
May 23, 2019 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia job growth slowing this year, predicts GSU forecaster
Michael E. Kanell reports that Georgia’s economy is slowing down as the global worries confronting international companies seep down to local businesses, according to the quarterly outlook by the Georgia State Economic Forecasting Center. Job growth in the state will continue this year, but less energetically than the recent past, said the center’s director Rajeev Dhawan.
May 23, 2019 Atlanta Business Chronicle
Athens, Ga., commits to 100% clean energy by 2035
Dave Williams reports that Athens, Ga., has become the fourth city in the Peach State to commit to 100% clean energy. The Athens-Clarke County Commission voted Tuesday night to set a community-wide goal of getting all of its power from renewable sources by 2035. Athens joins Atlanta, Augusta, Ga., and Clarkston, Ga., in making a commitment to transition away from fossil fuels to clean energy.
May 23, 2019 Athens Banner-Herald
UGA economists: Trade agreement would hurt rural Georgia counties
Lee Shearer reports that University of Georgia economists say the Trump administration’s proposed trade agreement with Canada and Mexico could be disastrous for south Georgia fruit and vegetable growers and some rural Georgia counties. In a few counties, losses “will likely reach economic damage rarely seen since the Great Depression,” according to the policy brief by Jeffrey Dorfman, Julian Worley and Sharon Kane of the UGA Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
May 23, 2019 GPB
Georgia First In Nation To Tackle Senior Hunger Head On
Josephine Bennett reports that research shows that when seniors eat together they are more likely to finish their meal. It’s a scene playing out in more than 200 senior centers across the state and a lifeline for older people who may not have enough to eat.
May 23, 2019 Georgia State University
Federal Reserve Pauses Rate Actions During Economic Transition
Jennifer Shockley reports that the U.S. economy is transitioning to a new growth path and production-level shocks in the system can derail its momentum, according to Rajeev Dhawan of the Economic Forecasting Center at Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business. “Shocks become a problem when the economy transitions to a new equilibrium, as it is now,” Dhawan wrote in his “Forecast of the Nation” released yesterday.
May 23, 2019 Cartersville Daily Tribune
Dixie Highway 90-Mile Yard Sale returns June 7-9
Marie Nesmith reports, fondly referring to its one-of-a-kind finds as “funky junk,” Ellen Archer underscores the Dixie Highway 90-Mile Yard Sale’s ability to draw shoppers off the beaten track. Established in 2006, the yard sale was implemented to celebrate the road’s revitalization after the Georgia Legislature designated the Dixie Highway as a historic driving route.
May 23, 2019 Rome News-Tribune
Sports tourism contributes $2.37 million to local economy for first four months of 2019
Doug Walker reports that the start of construction of the new indoor tennis courts at the Rome Tennis Center couldn’t come at a better time for Ann Hortman, director of the Rome Sports Commission. She told members of the Georgia’s Rome Office of Tourism Board on Wednesday bidding for the next five years of NCAA regional and national events opens in August, and the indoor courts are necessary to bid for the tennis competitions.
May 23, 2019 Georgia Health News, Albany Herald
Study: Medicaid expansion cuts infant mortality rate
Andy Miller reports that a new study says Medicaid expansion has helped reduce states’ numbers of uninsured women of childbearing age – and cut their infant and maternal mortality rates. States that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act saw a 50% greater reduction in infant mortality than non-expansion states, according to the report from the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, which was released Wednesday.
May 23, 2019 GlobalAtlanta.com
Georgia Leaders Applaud Trump’s Removal of Steel and Aluminum Tariffs From NAFTA Partners
Trevor Williams reports that Georgia lawmakers are praising President Trump’s decision to exempt Mexico and Canada from steel and aluminum tariffs, which some legislators have seen as a precursor to a congressional vote on the renegotiated North American free-trade agreement. The so-called U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement was reached as a successor to NAFTA earlier this year, but it has yet to be ratified in the three countries.
May 23, 2019 New York Times
Hollywood Invested Big in Georgia. A New Abortion Law Is Causing Some Tensions.
Cara Buckley reports, from the former stay-at-home mom who now has a steady job as a zombie to the farm boy who was a paid extra on “Stranger Things” and now leads movie tours, to the once sleepy, postcard-perfect town of Senoia, which has served as a giant set for the “The Walking Dead,” so many Georgia workers, property owners and service industries rely on film and television income that the region has adopted a cutesy nickname: “Y’allywood”
May 23, 2019 Dalton Daily Citizen-News
‘Nothing unethical about that’: Area lawmakers stand behind Ralston amid controversy
Charles Oliver reports that State Rep. Steve Tarvin’s voice rose as he discussed allegations that House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, has abused the state’s legislative leave law, which in the past has allowed members of the General Assembly to continue court cases in which they serve as an attorney if the cases interfere with their role as a legislator. “When you are doing your job within the law, there is nothing unethical about that,” Tarvin said.
May 23, 2019 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Jolt: Georgia is home to 4 of the most politically segregated cities in U.S.
Greg Bluestein reports that the more densely populated the city, the more Democratic the voters. The last few election cycles have shaped that trend, but as a recent FiveThirtyEight analysis shows, there are solid Republican enclaves even in the bluest cities.
