Georgia Trend Daily – March 26, 2024
March 26, 2024 Savannah Morning News
Gov. Kemp, trio of U.S. Congressmen, support study of Savannah Harbor deepening during Port visit
Evan Lasseter reports that three U.S. Congressmen accompanied Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on a visit to the Georgia Ports Authority on Monday to show unified support for funding a new study on deepening the Savannah River channel less than two years after crews finished dredging the channel to 47 feet. U.S. Reps Buddy Carter (R-St. Simons), Mike Collins (R-Jackson), and Sam Graves (R-Missouri) all serve on the U.S. House Committee that authorizes the Water Resources Development Act, which authorizes U.S. Army Corps of Engineers activities.
Promoting Attractions: Gary Wheat, president and CEO of Visit Macon, Matt Odom.
March 26, 2024 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Macon | Bibb County: Forward Together
LeeAnn Dance reports that Macon-Bibb County is experiencing a renaissance – in tourism, business, education, housing, you name it. There’s pride for the past, excitement for the future. And yet no one individual or group is angling for credit.
March 26, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Home Depot, others can ignore Okefenokee resolutions, agency says
Drew Kann reports that a federal agency has dealt a blow to efforts to secure commitments from Atlanta-based Home Depot and other major companies to reject products that could be made with titanium from a mine planned near Georgia’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Last year, shareholder proposals targeting Home Depot, paint retailer Sherwin-Williams and the chemical and materials manufacturer Chemours were submitted by Green Century Capital Management, the investment adviser to Green Century Funds, an environmentally-friendly mutual fund manager.
March 26, 2024 Delta Air Lines
Learn more about Delta’s impact in your state
Staff reports that Delta’s family is more than 90,000 strong, and our culture is committed to supporting the communities where we live, work and serve. A spirit of service is the foundation of everything we do, whether it’s taking care of our customers, our colleagues and our communities.
March 26, 2024 WSB TV
Here are the Georgia counties that saw the highest increase in wealth over the last 10 years
Staff reports, there’s no doubt that several counties across Georgia have boomed over the last 10 years. According to data released by the Bureau, the metro Atlanta area is the sixth most populated metro in the country, earning its middle-of-the-pack status with an estimated 6.3 million people living in the Georgia capital.
March 26, 2024 Capitol Beat News
VA Regional Office renamed for Johnny Isakson
Dave Williams reports that the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Regional Office was formally renamed in honor of the late U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson Monday during a ceremony at the building in Decatur. Isakson, who died in 2021, served as chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee from 2015 until he retired from the Senate in 2019.
March 26, 2024 Rome News-Tribune
What’s In the New Rome Ethics Ordinance? Here’s What We Know
John Bailey reports that Rome City Commissioners approved a revised ethics ordinance unanimously Monday after fatal flaws in the city’s ethics complaint process were revealed in 2023. In its 20-plus year history the ordinance hadn’t been used once, that is until 2023 when four ethics complaints were filed — and later dismissed.
March 26, 2024 Albany Herald
Federal funding for Valdosta food bank will expand capacity in 26-county service area
Alan Mauldin reports that a $2 million federal outlay to construct a new food bank with a new facility with expanded dry- and cold-food storage and a larger kitchen, will help south Georgia residents struggling to meet their nutritional need. Second Harvest of South Georgia serves 26 counties, including Baker, Colquitt, Cook, Decatur, Early, Grady, Irwin, Miller, Mitchell, Seminole, Sumter, Thomas, Tift and Worth counties.
March 26, 2024 Marietta Daily Journal
Disqualified Cobb Commission Candidate Appeals to Superior Court
Jake Busch reports that a former Republican candidate for Cobb Board of Commissioners District 2 who was disqualified from running for the seat is asking the Cobb Superior Court to reinstate her candidacy and put the brakes on the May 21 primary election. The petition Alicia Adams and her attorneys from the firm Robbins Alloy Belinfante Littlefield filed Friday argues the Cobb Board of Elections illegally used the “home rule” map passed by the commission’s Democratic majority at the end of 2022 for candidate qualifying during the first week of March.
March 26, 2024 11 Alive, Rome News-Tribune
Life After Exoneration: Measure To Compensate Wrongfully Convicted Floyd County Man Stalled in Senate
Savannah Levins and Darrell Pryor report, Joey Watkins was 20 years old when he was sentenced to life in prison for a murder he did not commit. More than two decades later, the 42-year-old walked out a free man. Thirty-eight states and Washington, D.C., have laws in place to compensate wrongfully convicted citizens. Georgia isn’t one of them.
March 26, 2024 Georgia Recorder
Anglers and paddlers closely watch bill intended to make some streambeds off limits in Georgia
Jill Nolin reports that conservationists and environmental groups are sounding the alarm over a measure that they say will unravel the protections for fishing and hunting in Georgia that were fast-tracked last session. The bill, sponsored by Waycross Republican Rep. James Burchett, has been presented as a follow-up fix after the agriculture industry and private property owners objected to changes made in the final hours of last year’s legislative session.
March 26, 2024 The Current
Lawmakers take up proposal to honor Clarence Thomas in state Capitol
Craig Nelson reports that lawmakers in the Georgia House of Representatives are set to take up a proposal on Tuesday to honor U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the state Capitol. Rep. Jesse Petrea (R-Savannah) will shepherd the attempt to win approval of a statue or other monument to the conservative icon inside the Capitol or on its grounds.
March 26, 2024 State Affairs
Thursday is Sine Die: Do-or-die deadline for bills this Legislative session
Jill Jordan Sieder reports that some bills that didn’t move last year have resurfaced this session, to be considered along with new legislative priorities of the governor, leadership in the House and Senate, and Democrats and Republicans. Tomorrow and Thursday are the last two legislative working days, and the last chance for dozens of bills that leadership and lawmakers want to get passed for their constituents back home. Wednesday lawmakers will be in committee hearings.
March 26, 2024 Georgia Recorder
Georgia House panel set to vote whether to create a path for legalized online sports betting
Stanley Dunlap reports that a Georgia House committee is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to advance online sports betting legislation to the House Rules Committee, which would determine whether proposals to expand Georgia’s gambling industry makes it to the House floor before the 2024 session wraps up on Thursday. On Monday, the House Higher Education Committee members spent an hour debating how sports gambling revenue should be spent on education in the event Georgia voters legalize sports betting at the ballot box in the November election.
March 26, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PG A.M.: Biden administration floats Medicaid expansion workaround
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Van Brimmer report that President Joe Biden is pressing a different tack to urge Georgia and other states that have not yet expanded Medicaid to add more residents to their public health care rolls. The president’s recently released budget proposal includes incentives for the states to embrace the expansion, something his proposal called “critical” for rural communities in particular.
