Georgia Trend Daily – April 17, 2020
April 17, 2020 Savannah Morning News
Georgia unemployment claims reach record high in March
Katie Nussbaum reports that the Georgia Department of Labor has processed over 861,000 unemployment claims since March 14, which accounts for about 10% of the state’s population, and claims could top 1 million by the end of the week, according to Georgia Labor commissioner Mark Butler.
April 17, 2020 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
40 Under 40 nominations extended
Karen Kirkpatrick reports, whether you know someone who’s making a difference on the national stage or is a mover and shaker in his or her corner of the state, if they are under 40 years old as of Oct. 1, 2019, we want to hear about them. The 40 Under 40 nomination period has been extended by one week to May 1, 2020. Please make your nominations here.
April 17, 2020 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For coronavirus-hit Atlanta, echoes of 1918 Spanish flu pandemic
Tamar Hallerman reports that the five-column headline that greeted readers of The Atlanta Constitution roughly a century ago is an eerie reminder of the parallels between the coronavirus and another debilitating pandemic that swept across the state. “Public gathering places closed by city council for two months,” announced the front page of the Oct. 8, 1918 edition.
April 17, 2020 Atlanta Business Chronicle
Why one of Georgia’s biggest manufacturers says facing COVID-19 made it stronger
Jessica Saunders reports that one of the nation’s largest wire manufacturers says facing the COVID-19 crisis is making it stronger. Southwire Company LLC, based in Carrollton, Ga., is a privately held $6 billion company that produces wire and cable used in homes and businesses, including hospitals, utilities and other infrastructure critical to the fight against the global coronavirus pandemic.
April 17, 2020 Georgia Southern University
Parker College of Business has experts in business and logistics
Staff reports that the coronavirus COVID-19 situation is certainly new to all of us. As guidance from the CDC has changed and instructional methods transition, there are experts at the Parker College of Business who can help to answer questions.
April 17, 2020 Georgia Recorder
Ga. farmers feel pain of coronavirus shutdown ahead of harvest
Jill Nolin reports that restaurant dining rooms across the state are closed, school cafeterias are empty, and those once hurried after-work trips to the grocery store – and the impulse purchases made along the way – now feel like an extravagance from bygone days. And the sidelining of the food service industry brought on by COVID-19 has caused ripple effects that are already painfully felt down in southwest Georgia, where dairy farmers have poured their milk down the drain and produce growers are uncertain they’ll have buyers for their crops once they harvest them.
April 17, 2020 WABE 90.1
Plant Vogtle Construction Cuts Back Workforce By 20% Due To Coronavirus Concerns
Emma Hurt reports that Plant Vogtle, the only nuclear power plant under construction in the country in Waynesboro, Georgia, is reducing its workforce by about 20%, or roughly 1,800 employees, to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Georgia Power’s parent company, Southern Company, announced the news Thursday.
April 17, 2020 Saporta Report
Would-be Sandersville coal plant loses state construction permit
Maggie Lee reports that the would-be builder of the last coal-fired power plant in the U.S. just lost its state permit to build a proposed Sandersville facility. The Georgia permit revocation is a formal obituary for an idea that never got much further than planning, a sign on a part-graded site and talk.
April 17, 2020 GlobalAtlanta.com
Tracking Tech Provider Raises $6.6M, Nets Former UPS Exec for Board
Trevor Williams reports that while much of the world has shut down, Atlanta-based LocatorX, which provides tracking technologies for goods in transit, has experienced an eventful few weeks. In early April, it capped off a year of fundraising at $6.6 million and announced that former United Parcel Service Inc. CFO Kurt Kuehn would join its board of directors.
April 17, 2020 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Sustainable Georgia Roundup
Mary Ann DeMuth reports that Atlanta-based software startup Cloverly is providing an application program interface (API) for ecommerce businesses that will offer carbon offsets at checkout, enabling customers to have carbon-neutral experiences.
April 17 2020 GPB
Coronavirus Dampens Georgia Port, Tourism Activity
Emily Jones and Rickey Bevington report that the state’s seaports are a major economic driver and support some nine percent of jobs in Georgia, while tourism is a key industry on the coast. Georgia’s ports are feeling the impact of the coronavirus, with a more than 18% drop in activity in March.
April 17, 2020 The Center Square
Georgia’s teachers pension system may be resilient enough to withstand COVID-19 economic fallout
Nyamekye Daniel reports that despite an initial $15 billion loss, Georgia’s teacher retirement system is still in a “good spot” to withstand the economic downturn brought on by the response to COVID-19, according to a local analyst. Stephen Owens, Georgia Budget & Policy Institute’s education analyst, estimated the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia (TRS) by now has recovered half of what it lost last month when the stock market crashed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
April 17, 2020 Capitol Beat News
Small business loan program aimed at coronavirus impacts out of money
Dave Williams reports that small businesses in Georgia and across the country were left in limbo Thursday when the U.S. Senate adjourned without approving a new round of economic stimulus funding to help offset losses from the coronavirus pandemic. Almost $350 billion in Small Business Administration (SBA) loans Congress passed last month as part of a $2.2 trillion package has run out, as has a $10 billion SBA program meant to get fast cash to affected businesses.
April 17, 2020 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Jolt: Raphael Warnock outraises Kelly Loeffler, Doug Collins in U.S. Senate contest
Jim Galloway, Greg Bluestein and Tia Mitchell report that U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler and U.S. Rep. Doug Collins essentially matched each other in fundraising for the first quarter of the year. They were both surpassed, however, by Democrat Raphael Warnock, the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
