Georgia Trend Daily – Feb. 28, 2023
Feb. 28, 2023 Georgia.gov
Sam’s Club to Create 600 New Jobs at Douglas County Fulfillment Center
Staff reports that Gov. Brian P. Kemp on Monday announced that Sam’s Club will create 600 new jobs and invest more than $142 million in a new fulfillment center in Douglas County.
“Sam’s Club is a valued partner in that ever-growing field of opportunity, and we’re excited to see the impact these new jobs will have on Douglas County,” he said.
Feb. 28, 2023 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Beyond Heart-health Basics
Mary Ann Dunkin reports, even if we don’t always heed them, most of us know the traditional risk factors for heart disease and what we can do to minimize at least some of them. A few years ago, the American Heart Association summed up the risk factors we can change and called them Life’s Simple Seven: cigarette smoking, obesity, hypertension or high blood pressure, high cholesterol, physical inactivity, poor diet and diabetes.
Feb. 28, 2023 Atlanta Journal Constitution
$800M Clayton high-rise project ‘The Roman’ remains in limbo
Leon Stafford and Zachary Hansen report that six months ago, Clayton County officials rubbed elbows and dined on salmon sliders and red wine at a party celebrating the groundbreaking of “The Roman,” a massive $800 million high-rise project on the site of a dilapidated grocery store in Lake City. Today, the rusting former Ingles grocery store remains. The only thing that’s changed is the rented backhoe present during the project’s unveiling in August is nowhere to be seen.
Feb. 28, 2023 WABE
Northeast Georgia Medical Center becomes Level 1 trauma center
Jess Mador reports that Georgia is now home to another Level 1 trauma hospital after Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville has secured the highest designation. The almost 600-bed hospital applied to become a Level 1 facility a few months ago.
Feb. 28, 2023 Saporta Report
BGCMA ‘Rising Together’ campaign gets $10 million boost from Whitehead Foundation
Maria Saporta reports, thousands of children in our region will benefit from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta’s $27.5 million capital campaign – which has received a $10 million grant from the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation – part of the Robert W. Woodruff family of foundations.
Feb. 28, 2023 Georgia Recorder
Sierra Club study finds Georgia Power’s Bartow County coal-fired plant among country’s dirtiest
Stanley Dunlap reports that a new Sierra Club study estimates that coal-fired power Plant Bowen in Bartow County is one of the nation’s most out-of-control polluters with its smokestacks to blame for 59 premature deaths in the last few years. The Sierra Club report ranks Bowen as the 17th most dangerous in the nation, primarily caused by the soot-emitting coal power plants that the organization says have led to 3,800 premature deaths across the nation.
Feb. 28, 2023 Marietta Daily Journal
Deal for better wages, lower insurance costs to impact 2,000 Marietta Lockheed employees
Jake Busch reports that a deal between a labor union and Lockheed Martin will raise wages and lower health insurance costs for about 2,000 aerospace and defense workers in Marietta if approved by union members. International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers members will vote on the deal at their local sites on March 5, according to the union’s release about the deal.
Feb. 28, 2023 Augusta Chronicle
Augusta Regional Airport soaring with $3 million grant, Masters plans, upcoming changes
Miguel Legoas reports that Augusta Regional Airport offers thousands of flights each year, and the amount of passenger and planes really soar just before, during, and after the Masters tournament. In order to meet those needs, the south Augusta airport is continuing to grow in size and services.
Feb. 28, 2023 Valdosta Daily Times, CNHI News
Dems back cop accountability bills
Asia Ashley reports that Georgia Democrats are pushing for laws to increase police accountability following the death of Tyre Nichols. “We cannot continue to watch our loved ones be abused or killed by law enforcement officers because of the color of their skin,” Ga. Rep. Sandra Scott of Rex said earlier this month.
Feb. 28, 2023 State Affairs
Mental health legislation remains top of the agenda for Dems and Republicans
Jill Jordan Sieder reports, in a debut reminiscent of the high regard paid by lawmakers to HB 1013, the bipartisan mental health parity bill championed by late Republican House Speaker David Ralston last year, the sequel to that bill, HB 520, was announced at a press conference by his successor, Republican House Speaker Jon Burns, flanked by the bill’s bipartisan co-sponsors.
Feb. 28, 2023 The Center Square
Georgia lawmakers to reconcile amended fiscal 2023 budget
T.A. DeFeo reports that Georgia state lawmakers have signed off on varying versions of a revised budget for fiscal 2023. On Monday, the House disagreed with the Senate’s substitute version of the budget, while the state senate won’t budge on its version. A conference committee to weigh the various versions of the budget could be appointed as soon as Tuesday.
Feb. 28, 2023 Capitol Beat News
Georgia Senate passes bill exempting rural hospitals from CON
Dave Williams reports that legislation exempting most rural hospitals from Georgia’s certificate of need law cleared the state Senate Monday. Senators voted 42-13 to no longer require proposed new acute-care hospitals in counties with populations of fewer than 50,000 residents to have to prove to the state that the medical services they plan to offer are needed in their community.
Feb. 28, 2023 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Analysis: An ‘incredibly insulting’ Buckhead split gains new traction
Greg Bluestein reports that the supporters of Buckhead’s proposed secession often mention that lawmakers have approved a flood of new cityhood measures since Republicans took control of the Legislature nearly two decades ago. But dismantling an existing city is far more complex than creating a new one, and cleaving Atlanta into separate municipalities has presented structural, political and financial challenges that supporters of Buckhead cityhood have so far failed to address.
