Georgia Trend Daily – April 21, 2020
April 21, 2020 11 Alive
Kemp announces plans to incrementally reopen Georgia | Here’s what that includes
Donesha Aldredge reports that Gov. Brian Kemp is working to get Georgia’s economy back rolling again. The governor held a news conference Monday afternoon with other state officials to discuss Georgia’s response to COVID-19 and how they plan on slowly reopening the state.
April 21, 2020 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Savannah| Chatham County: Multifaceted Momentum
Betty Darby reports that Savannah’s River Street is where the area’s multifaceted economy intersects. The street’s string of souvenir shops, nightclubs and restaurants is a mainstay for the 14.5 million tourists that Visit Savannah estimates arrive annually. The massive container ships passing by, just a stone’s throw from that revelry en route to the Port of Savannah, represent the muscle and brawn of the local economy.
April 21, 2020 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Portman plans $300 million luxury hotel, apartment tower for Buckhead
Andy Peters reports that a long-neglected site in the center of Buckhead could become a $300 million luxury hotel-apartment development, although the coronavirus shutdown is delaying its arrival. Portman Holdings recently reached an agreement on a long-term lease of a three-acre site at the corner of Peachtree Road and Pharr Road.
April 21, 2020 Atlanta Business Chronicle
Coca-Cola expects ‘significant impact’ from COVID-19 pandemic
David Allison reports that Coca-Cola Co. said Tuesday it expects a “significant impact” on its business from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Atlanta-based softdrink giant (NYSE: KO) reported its first quarter results, saying it entered 2020 with solid momentum, coming off strong results in 2019. Net revenues for the first three months of 2020 declined 1% to $8.6 billion.
April 21, 2020 Athens Banner-Herald
AU/UGA Medical Partnership to begin COVID-19 mobile testing for underserved
Lee Shearer reports that Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership will turn its mobile health clinic into a mobile COVID-19 testing lab. Beginning two years ago, faculty and students at the medical partnership have been wheeling the Athens Free Clinic van out to high-poverty areas of Clarke County, where the numbers of uninsured and underinsured people are highest, and where health care access is lowest.
April 21, 2020 Marietta Daily Journal
Cobb to consider giving nonprofits $1 million to help feed the needy during crisis
Aleks Gilberts reports that Cobb nonprofits are asking the county for a lifeline as requests for food surge during the crisis caused by the coronavirus. Next week, the Board of Commissioners will vote on whether to give them $1 million to help feed people.
April 21, 2020 University of Georgia
Professor moves closer to possible COVID-19 vaccine
Lisa Hermann reports that an engineered dog virus shows promise to promote an immune response. A team of researchers at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine has developed a COVID-19 vaccine candidate that has proven successful in promoting an immune response in early test models.
April 21, 2020 Saporta Report
Trees and seedlings come up $3.4 million short in Atlanta spending, say advocates
Maggie Lee reports that Atlanta tree advocates say the city spent $3.4 million in the last decade on salaries that should have been spent on planting trees and buying forested land. The figure comes from a report put together for The Tree Next Door, an Atlanta advocacy group, and it draws on legal and accounting experts and data obtained from the city via open record requests.
April 21, 2020 Augusta Chronicle
Augusta business makes sneeze guards to stop spread of coronavirus
Jozsef Papp reports that Dana Keen Phillips knew her business Keen Signs & Graphic could do two big things during the coronavirus crisis: help stop its spread and help out local businesses. That why she shifted its operations to making sneeze guards.
April 21, 2020 Brunswick News
Public comment period for proposed mining extended
Gordon Jackson reports that the public comment period for a proposed mining operation near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge has been extended until May 28. It was scheduled to end earlier this week until the six-week extension announced by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
April 21, 2020 LaGrange Daily News
Kia Motors producing protective face shields at U.S. manufacturing plant for use by healthcare workers across the country
Jenna Oden reports, in response to a nationwide shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Kia Motors Monday announced that production of face shields1 has begun at its manufacturing plant in West Point, Georgia. Initial donations of medical use face shields assembled at Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG) will be made in Georgia, Alabama, New York and California.
April 21, 2020 GPB
Georgia Could See $4 Billion Shortfall Due To Coronavirus
Emily Jones reports that Georgia could face a $4 billion budget shortfall by next summer because of the coronavirus, according to new figures from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. The nonpartisan institute projected Monday that state revenue will be short by $1 billion at the end of this fiscal year, June 30. With unemployment expected to remain high, the shortfall next fiscal year could top $3 billion.
April 21, 2020 Capitol Beat News
Vidalia lawmaker tapped as powerful appropriations chair in Georgia Senate
Beau Evans reports that State Sen. Blake Tillery has been tapped for a powerful position overseeing budget negotiations in the Georgia Senate, replacing the late Sen. Jack Hill as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Now in his second term, Tillery, R-Vidalia, will head up one of the General Assembly’s most influential committees that is tasked with crafting a state budget each year before sending it to Gov. Brian Kemp.
April 21, 2020 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jon Ossoff blasts health insurers in first Senate TV ad in Georgia
Greg Bluestein reports that Jon Ossoff became the first Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Georgia to launch a TV ad with the debut of a 30-second spot that focuses on his wife’s role in the fight against the coronavirus before pivoting to an attack on insurance firms. “We’ll get through this together, but it’s never been clearer we need to stand up to the health insurance companies that have bought off Congress,” Ossoff said in the spot, adding: “I’m not taking their money, and I won’t stop fighting until everyone has great health care.”
