Georgia Trend Daily – Nov. 20, 2020
Nov. 20, 2020 Capitol Beat News
Georgia unemployment rate drops significantly in October
Dave Williams reports that Georgia’s unemployment rate fell to 4.5% last month, the lowest since the coronavirus pandemic broke out last March, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. Joblessness, which hit a record low of 3.1% before the pandemic, has plummeted from an all-time high of 12.6% last April.
Nov. 20, 2020 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Georgia Ports’ 75 Years of Success
Mary Ann DeMuth reports, when the state legislature created the Georgia Ports Authority (GPA) in 1945, it would have been difficult to predict the ports’ phenomenal success all these years later. But legislators laid the groundwork for growth, and GPA’s original goal of operating the state-owned facilities to foster and encourage domestic and foreign commerce has never wavered.
Nov. 20, 2020 Saporta Report
Women’s disproportionate setbacks in Covid economy subject of ATL Fed’s webinar
David Pendered reports that the gender wage gap is expected to widen during the coronavirus pandemic – and persist. The Atlanta Fed’s webinar on Friday is to expand on this topic as part of Raphael Bostic’s call for a more inclusive economy. The title of Friday’s program says it all about women in the workforce: This Time It’s Different: The Role of Women’s Employment in a Pandemic Recession.
Nov. 20, 2020 Augusta Chronicle
Augusta’s economic developers to scale back in 2021
Damon Cline reports that Augusta’s industrial-recruiting agency plans to cut nearly 17% from its 2021 operating budget to account for the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which reduced site visits and other economic activity for most of this year. The Augusta Economic Development Authority on Thursday presented board members with a budget projecting revenues at $2.161 million next year, down from this year’s $2.596 million.
Nov. 20, 2020 Atlanta Business Chronicle
Marietta-based High Road Craft acquires Wisconsin plant
Jessica Saunders reports that Marietta-based premium ice cream maker High Road Craft has purchased a shuttered plant in Sheboygan, Wisc. High Road Craft didn’t disclose the price it paid for the former Three Twins Organic Ice Cream plant at 816 Michigan Ave. in Sheboygan in an announcement.
Nov. 20, 2020 Savannah Morning News
Southwest Airlines announces five new routes to Savannah
Katie Nussbaum reports that Southwest Airlines on Thursday announced five new nonstop routes from Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, which will start March 11, 2021. The upcoming service was initially announced on the airport’s social media last month.
Nov. 20, 2020 Georgia Recorder
State school board reverses course, backs deflating high-stakes tests
John McCosh reports that after a large majority of Georgians surveyed supported a proposal to make high-stakes standardized tests essentially meaningless for public school students this year, the State Board of Education voted Thursday to withdraw its recommendation to count the end-of- year exams as 10% of a course grade.
Nov. 20, 2020 The Current
Citizens question relaxed permit proposal for Ogeechee River Milliken plant
Laura Corley reports, bewilderment, heartfelt concern and exasperation were among palpable sentiments Ogeechee River stakeholders expressed in a live-streamed public hearing by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division Tuesday, Nov. 17. The agency is set to consider granting a relaxed wastewater permit for a textile mill in southeast Georgia that was at the center of the state’s largest fish kill on record in 2011.
Nov. 20, 2020 Georgia Health News
Georgia gets another ‘F’ on preterm births
Andy Miller reports that Georgia has earned an “F’’ grade for its rising rate of preterm births, according to a newly released report. The 2020 March of Dimes Report Card, released this week, said the state’s rate of preterm births, often called premature births, climbed to 11.7 percent in 2019, continuing a steady climb from a bottom of 10.7 percent in 2013.
Nov. 20, 2020 The Center Square
Hand recount, audit results in Georgia confirm Biden won state
Nyamekye Daniel reports that Georgia’s original results in the U.S. presidential election align with the hand recount and audit results, with both showing presumptive President-elect Joe Biden won the state. According to the hand count results released Thursday night by Georgia elections officials, Biden secured a 12,284-vote win over President Donald Trump.
Nov. 20, 2020 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Senate runoffs add wrinkle to negotiations on defense bill, base renaming
Tia Mitchell reports that the annual defense policy bill has six decades of success becoming law, but 2020 politics could end the streak. Georgia’s two U.S. Senate runoffs, which will determine if Republicans maintain control of the Chamber, are further complicating an already tense debate that centers on bases named after Confederate generals.
