Georgia Trend Daily – Oct. 14, 2020
Oct. 14, 2020 University System of Georgia
University System of Georgia state economic impact grows to $18.5 billion
Staff reports that the University System of Georgia (USG) recorded a statewide economic impact of $18.5 billion for fiscal year 2019, a 4.5 percent increase from fiscal year 2018. USG also generated 157,770 jobs. Additionally, a Class of 2019 graduate is predicted to earn $888,563 more over the course of their career as a result of their degree from a USG institution.
Oct. 14, 2020 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Political Notes: The Ups, Downs and In-betweens
Susan Percy reports that Gov. Brian Kemp announced that Georgia has again earned the highest AAA ratings from each of three top credit rating agencies: FitchRatings, Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings. Of the states that issue general obligation bonds, the governor’s office said in a statement, only nine achieved this rating.
Oct. 14, 2020 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Delta Air Lines reports $5.4 billion quarterly loss
Kelly Yamanouchi reports that Delta Air Lines booked a net loss of $5.4 billion in the third quarter as the company spent billions on buyouts and early retirement packages to cut its workforce and remove hundreds of airplanes from its fleet.
Oct. 14, 2020 WABE 90.1
Atlanta City Council Asks Norfolk Southern To Alter Chattahoochee Brick Plans
Molly Samuel reports that Atlanta City Council and other local officials are asking Norfolk Southern railroad to change its plans for a fuel terminal near the Perimeter. The site of the proposed industrial development has an ugly history that neighborhood advocates want to see memorialized.
Oct. 14, 2020 GlobalAtlanta.com
Atlanta Cold Storage Firms to Merge in $1.7B Deal With Global Implications
Trevor Williams reports that Americold Realty Trust, the country’s largest publicly traded real estate investment trust focused on temperature controlled storage, is acquiring a Dutch firm with a metro Atlanta headquarters for about $1.74 billion in a deal with global implications. Atlanta-based Americold was attracted to the deal with Agro Merchants Group, which runs North American operations out of Alpharetta, due to its global reach as the No. 4 cold-storage warehouse provider in the world with 2,900 customers.
Oct. 14, 2020 Marietta Daily Journal
Thousands of county businesses get Federal relief after board vote Tuesday
Aleks Gilbert reports that Cobb Commissioners Tuesday awarded more than 3,000 businesses coronavirus relief grants totaling more than $40 million, a measure aimed at helping those businesses retain or rehire employees. East Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott, who authored the program, hailed it as a “prime example of how this board, together — all five — came together to help the citizens of this county by making sure the businesses survived.
Oct. 14, 2020 Law.Com |Daily Report Online
Will SCOTUS Take Up Case About Georgia Lynching and Grand Juries?
Jonathan Ringel reports that the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are set to consider Friday whether to take up a case stemming from a historian’s efforts to learn about the 1946 lynching of four Black people in Georgia. The matter comes from the Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In March the court ruled by an 8-4 vote that a lower court judge was wrong to release records from the grand jury that investigated the killing of the two Black couples at the Moore’s Ford Bridge in Walton County.
Oct. 14, 2020 Georgia Recorder
Federal judge dismisses lawsuit over Georgia’s long voting lines
Stephen Fowler reports that a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging long lines at the polls in Georgia for being too vague and not presenting enough evidence that long lines were “all but certain” to occur. Judge Michael Brown issued a 78-page order Tuesday that also denied a request to make several changes to in-person voting for the November election.
Oct. 14, 2020 Capitol Beat News
PSC debates focus on Plant Vogtle, pandemic-driven suspension of service disconnections
Dave Williams reports that the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) is holding the line on electric rates by aggressively pursuing renewable and nuclear power while de-emphasizing coal, two Republican commissioners seeking reelection said Tuesday. But their Democratic challengers said the PSC is letting Georgia Power Co. keep too much of the profits from its operations while passing on too much of the financial burden to customers.
Oct. 14, 2020 GPB, Capitol Beat News
McBath And Handel Trade Blows In 6th Congressional District Debate
Beau Evans reports, it was a dog fight from the start in a debate Tuesday between U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, a Democrat, and Republican challenger Karen Handel ahead of the Nov. 3 general election. McBath, who beat Handel in 2018 to win the once-heavily conservative district in the suburbs north of Atlanta, led off with a quick jab at Handel for moving to cut funding for cancer screenings to the pro-life group Planned Parenthood.
Oct. 14, 2020 The Center Square
Georgia U.S. Senate special election: Loeffler, Collins, Warnock tops among 21 hopefuls
Jason Schaumburg reports that twenty-one candidates are on the ballot to fill the Georgia U.S. Senate seat vacated by Johnny Isakson in the Nov. 3 special election, but three candidates have emerged in recent polls as being atop the race. U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican businesswoman and co-owner of Atlanta’s WNBA franchise, was appointed in December by Gov. Brian Kemp to fill the seat vacated by Isakson, who retired.
Oct. 14, 2020 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Collins invokes insider trading complaints in TV attack on Loeffler
Greg Bluestein reports that U.S. Rep. Doug Collins unleashed one of his most scathing TV attacks yet on U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler with a 30-second spot that frames the fellow Republican as a greedy insider who used her public office to boost her financial bottom line.
