Georgia Trend Daily – July 31, 2023
July 31, 2023 Georgia Dept. of Education
Georgia Milestones scores improve in 2022-23, with notable improvement in early literacy
Staff reports that Georgia students continued to show improvement on the 2022-2023 Georgia Milestones assessments. Scores increased or held steady on 13 of 21 assessments, compared to the 2021-2022 school year, with clear improvement displayed in the critical area of third-grade reading.
July 31, 2023 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Jackson County: Tidal Wave of Growth
Jennifer Hafer reports that Nick Geiman, the newly elected mayor of Pendergrass, compares the tidal wave of growth headed out I-85 into Jackson County to a river: You can adjust how a river flows and in which direction, but you can’t stop it from flowing.
July 31, 2023 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SBA leader highlights partnership with Black Greek organizations
Mirtha Donastorg reports, U.S. Small Business Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman during a Friday stop in metro Atlanta commended the work her agency has done with Black Greek organizations and for Black entrepreneurs. “We want to ensure that our economy is inclusive,” Guzman said to a room full of multiple generations of men dressed in brown and gold, brothers of Iota Phi Theta, Inc.
July 31, 2023 Rome News-Tribune
National Park Service awards preservation grant for Chickamauga Battlefield
Staff reports that the National Park Service has awarded a $172,133 grant to preserve just over four acres of Civil War forest at the Chickamauga Battlefield in Catoosa County. During the Civil War, the mountainous terrain of southern Tennessee and northern Georgia was a landscape of concern for both armies of the North and the South as they competed for access to supplies, reliable communication, as well as control of the rail hub and iron works of Chattanooga, a press release notes.
July 31, 2023 GlobalAtlanta.com
English Premier League Matches Show Atlanta’s Rising Profile in International Soccer
Trevor Williams reports, the story couldn’t have been scripted better for the English Premier League. During stoppage time as the first half wound down, Miguel “Miggy” Almirón netted an equalizer for Newcastle United FC that would make the difference between a loss and a 1-1 draw with Chelsea FC during the Summer Series match in Atlanta Wednesday.
July 31, 2023 Marietta Daily Journal
Marietta weighs renewal of tax-sharing agreement with Cobb Galleria authority
Hunter Riggall reports, as the government body which manages the Cobb Galleria Centre and Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center looks to secure a steady revenue stream to fund redevelopment, there’s one holdout — the city of Marietta. The Cobb-Marietta Coliseum and Exhibit Hall Authority has inked 30-year contracts with Cobb County and the cities of Acworth, Austell, Kennesaw, Powder Springs and Smyrna to renew tax revenue-sharing agreements.
July 31, 2023 Dalton Daily Citizen
Downtown Dalton park could become monument to the founder of the local bedspread industry
Charles Oliver reports, in 1893, a 12-year-old girl from Whitfield County was visiting a cousin and saw a tufted bedspread that had been in the family for years. Intrigued, Catherine Evans began teaching herself how to make such bedspreads, preserving and eventually improving the process.
July 31, 2023 Valdosta Daily Times
Capacity Expansion: CJB Industries invests in $4M upgrade
Brittanye Blake reports that CJB Industries Inc. recently invested $4 million in a 6,500-square-foot addition at its Gil Harbin formulation plant. The added capacity gives CJB Industries customers the ability to produce herbicides, plant growth regulators and industrial products in bulk, as well as packaged finished goods.
July 31, 2023 Capitol Beat News
Thomasville showing the way to rural workforce development
Dave Williams reports that rural Georgia has benefited disproportionately from a wave of unprecedented economic development across the state during the last four years, with more than three-quarters of projects going outside metro Atlanta. But there’s a downside to the progress: With a statewide unemployment rate of just 3.2%, there aren’t enough workers to fill the 400,000 job openings expected in the next decade.
July 31, 2023 The Brunswick News
Cleanup continues at LCP site
Terry Dickson reports that come the end of October, there will be only one major cleanup left at LCP Chemicals Georgia, the sprawling former industrial site that an EPA official once termed the poster child of Superfund sites. The 800-acre site, most of it marsh, was declared a Superfund site in 1994 after the state Environmental Protection Division ordered it closed over continuing contamination of the 123 acres of uplands and adjoining creeks and marsh.
July 31, 2023 State Affairs
The bulging lottery jackpot is once again feeding players’ dreams and education coffers
Joy Walstrum and Jill Jordan Sieder report that the Georgia Lottery just closed out its fiscal year touting that the Lottery raised more than $1.5 billion for education during the fiscal year that ended June 30. FY23 marks the eighth consecutive year that the Lottery has surpassed $1 billion in profits for education, exceeding FY22 profits by $42.4 million.
July 31, 2023 Augusta Chronicle
Federal bill would give Fort Gordon Cyber Center $80 million for classrooms
Abraham Kenmore reports that the U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024, which currently includes $80 million in funding for the Cyber Center at Fort Gordon. The bill, H.R. 4366, passed the House on a near party-line vote, with 219 Republicans and no Democrats voting in support, while 209 Democrats and two Republicans voted against it.
July 31, 2023 GPB
Taxpayer dollars at work: What your U.S. senators from Georgia are doing for the week ending July 27
Ambria Burton reports, this week, Ossoff and Warnock worked with legislation focused on financial protections for service members; A.I. protections for children; protecting journalists globally; and stopping partisan inference in elections.
July 31, 2023 Gainesville Times
Transportation sales tax battle may wind up in Georgia legislature next year
Jeff Gill reports that a bill changing Georgia’s transportation special purpose local option sales tax, or TSPLOST, law could be coming in 2024 as result of a referendum on the tax failing to make it to the Nov. 7 ballot in Hall County.
July 31, 2023 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chris Carr tells Republicans he plans to run for Georgia governor in 2026
Greg Bluestein reports that Attorney General Chris Carr has told a growing number of Republican activists and elected officials that he will run for governor in 2026 to succeed incumbent Brian Kemp, a close political ally who can’t run for a third term.
