Georgia Trend Daily – Aug. 23, 2019
Aug. 23, 2019 Albany Herald
Georgia AG Carr leads 10-state coalition, obtains victory in blocking WOTUS rule
Staff reports that Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has announced that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia granted summary judgment in favor of Georgia and nine other states in their lawsuit challenging the Obama Administration’s 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) Rule.
Aug. 23, 2019 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Sustainable Georgia Roundup
Mary Ann DeMuth reports that Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A has completed a two-year food-composting pilot that originated as a partnership with Athens-based Let Us Compost. The goal is to help reduce some of the 11.4 million tons of food waste the U.S. restaurant industry creates each year.
Aug. 23, 2019 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Digging deeper: Fulton County to invest millions in expanding airport
Arielle Kass reports that the blighted Airway Motel on Fulton Industrial Boulevard wasn’t an enticing gateway to the Fulton County airport, which houses corporate aircraft from the likes of Home Depot and Coca-Cola. So the county bought the building, and plans to tear it down. It’s the first of many expected changes at the south Fulton airport.
Aug. 23, 2019 Atlanta Business Chronicle
Atlanta is becoming the nation’s esports capital
Eric Jackson reports, touted as the Hollywood of the South, Atlanta’s booming film industry has garnered much praise over the last decade, and for good reason. But there’s another part of the entertainment industry that is making significant contributions to Georgia’s economy — esports.
Aug. 23, 2019 GlobalAtlanta.com
Korean Firms Break Into U.S. Government Sales Through Atlanta
Trevor Williams reports that Korean investment and trade may be going strong in Georgia, but there’s one sales channel that can always be problematic when you’re crossing the world to enter a new market: procurement. Even the closest trading partners of the U.S. like Canada and Mexico face challenges netting lucrative federal or state contracts.
Aug. 23, 2019 Augusta Chronicle
TechNet puts innovations on display
Damon Cline reports, drones that can hover over disaster areas for 16 days straight. Surveillance-proof cell phone covers. “Smart” street lights that can broadcast 5G signals and help police triangulate gunfire. Tomorrow’s defense and commercial technology was on display this week in downtown Augusta during the AFCEA TechNet 2019 conference that wraps up on Friday .
Aug. 23, 2019 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Transformation at Zoo Atlanta
Mary Ann DeMuth reports that the African Savanna, the first completed phase of Zoo Atlanta’s three-part, $50-million transformation is open for visitors. The all-new habitat includes new and expanded environments for African elephants, giraffes, zebras, ostriches, warthogs and meerkats.
Aug. 23, 2019 Saporta Report
Could ‘100 Great Ideas’ help Atlanta shed its affordable housing crisis?
Sean Keenan reports that, unfortunately, there is no silver bullet to vanquish Atlanta’s daunting affordable housing crisis. The best way to approach these matters might just be to ask the people most impacted by them. So says Tim Brock, program director of Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit focused on housing affordability.
Aug. 23, 2019 Georgia Health News
Don’t confuse care sharing ministries with insurance, state warns
Andy Miller reports that Georgia’s insurance commissioner is warning consumers of the potential financial risks of joining a Health Care Sharing Ministries program as an alternative to regular insurance. In these organizations, members agree to share one another’s health care costs. Members of an HCSM typically have a particular religious faith in common, and make monthly payments to cover expenses of other members.
Aug. 23, 2019 Atlanta Business Chronicle
Georgia lawmakers weighing legalized sports betting
Dave Williams and Eric Johnson report, after pushing in vain for years to bring casinos and betting on horse racing to Georgia, supporters of legalized gambling in the Peach State are turning to sports betting. A state Senate study committee on legalized gambling holding its first meeting Aug. 27 will spend part of its time exploring the feasibility of legalizing sports betting in Georgia, said Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, the committee’s chairman and a longtime supporter of legalized gambling.
Aug. 23, 2019 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Inside the Georgia political split over how to curb toxic gas pollution
Greg Bluestein reports shortly after a tense town hall meeting about cancer-causing pollution at the Sterigenics factory in Cobb County ended, Democratic lawmakers renewed their demands that Gov. Brian Kemp shut down the plant until more testing is complete. A day later on the other side of metro Atlanta, most of the politicians representing the BD Bard plant in Covington had a decidedly different response: A call for more air-quality sampling, but no insistence that the plant be shuttered.
