Georgia Trend Daily – May 22, 2020
May 22, 2020 Capitol Beat News
Working groups formed to plan school reopenings in Georgia
Dave Williams reports that six working groups of educators, public health officials and representatives of state agencies and nonprofits will lead the effort to safely reopen Georgia schools closed by the coronavirus pandemic. Gov. Brian Kemp and State School Superintendent Richard Woods formed the six K-12 Restart Working Groups Thursday to help provide guidelines for the safe reopening of schools for the 2020-21 school year.
May 22, 2020 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Organizations: City of Refuge
Candice Dyer reports that City of Refuge got off to an inauspicious start. Pastor Bruce Deel was dispatched to close a small church with a dwindling congregation. “I was only supposed to be there for six months to tie up loose ends,” he recalls, “but then this lady in crisis showed up.”
May 22, 2020 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hartsfield-Jackson airport delays some projects, speeds others up
Kelly Yamanouchi reports that Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport will delay a couple of major projects but speed up others as travel remains depressed due to the coronavirus pandemic. An already long-delayed project to build a Hilton hotel next to the domestic terminal will be on hold longer, said airport general manager John Selden.
May 22, 2020 Brunswick News
Commission votes to accept CARES Act funding for Brunswick airport
Taylor Cooper reports that Glynn County commissioners voted Thursday to accept a little under $1.7 million in federal aid to keep the Brunswick Golden Isles Airport running. Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, the airport has seen traffic shrink to as low as 5 percent of normal air travel.
May 22, 2020 Savannah Morning News
Georgia Supreme Court restarts cases, filing deadlines in face of COVID-19 outbreak
Jan Skutch reports that Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton is restarting cases and reinstating filing deadlines in the state in an order designed to keep the court operating to the fullest extent possible during and after the statewide judicial emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the court said in a press release.
May 22, 2020 Georgia Tech
Researchers Receive NIH Funds for Adjuvant Research to Boost Coronavirus Vaccines
John Toon reports that researchers have received funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to screen and evaluate certain molecules known as adjuvants that may improve the ability of coronavirus vaccines to stimulate the immune system and generate appropriate responses necessary to protect the general population against the virus.
May 22, 2020 GPB
Georgia County’s Only Early Voting Site Closed After Voter Tests Positive For Coronavirus
Stephen Fowler reports that the Appling County Board of Elections office, which serves as the county’s sole early voting location, will be closed Friday for cleaning after a voter tested positive for COVID-19. According to the secretary of state’s office, the southeast Georgia elections board office will reopen on Tuesday.
May 22, 2020 Georgia Health News
Financial pain from COVID-19 hits Georgia health agencies, hospitals
Andy Miller reports, besides its deepening medical toll, COVID-19 is taking sizable chunks out of the budgets of hospital systems and government health programs in Georgia. Hospitals have lost surgical, diagnostic and outpatient revenue during the pandemic, and industry leaders say recent federal grant funding has not been enough to offset those losses.
May 22, 2020 Atlanta Business Chronicle
Emory Healthcare to cut hours, furlough up to 1,500 employees as it faces $660M shortfall due to pandemic
Dyana Bagby reports that Emory Healthcare, the largest healthcare system in the state, announced May 21 it would be cutting hours and furloughing up to 1,500 employees as it faces a $660 million revenue shortfall due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
May 22, 2020 Georgia Recorder
‘Loeffler’s boat has taken on a lot of water.’ Can she recover?
Robin Bravender reports that Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s opponents are reveling in the recent headlines. The Republican senator confirmed last week that she had sent documents about her recent stock trades to federal investigators.
May 22, 2020 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Opinion: The GOP fight over a House seat – and the Alabama backstory
Jim Galloway writes, we complain about the constant sniping between Democrats and GOP forces. But really, there are few things more brutal than a Republican-on-Republican battle over Georgia real estate. Last fall, Marcy Westmoreland Sakrison lost a special election runoff to fellow Republican Phil Singleton for House District 71, which covers most of Coweta County and a smidgen of Fayette County.
