Georgia Trend Daily – Aug. 5, 2024
Aug. 5, 2024 Savannah Morning News
Gov. Kemp issues state of emergency for Georgia due to Tropical Storm Debby
Miguel Legoas reports that Georgia’s leaders are getting ready for some very dangerous weather coming soon. Gov. Brian Kemp issued a state of emergency over Tropical Depression 4 on Saturday, which strengthened and was relabeled “Tropical Storm Debby.”
Aug. 5, 2024 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Resurrecting Hope in Mental Health in Georgia
Kenna Simmons reports, Kevin Tanner, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, remembers that when the historic Mental Health Parity Act was passed in 2022, the chief champion of the legislation, the late House Speaker David Ralston, stood at the rostrum in front of cheering legislators and said, “Hope won.”
Aug. 5, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Soccer taps bond market for $200M to build HQ near Atlanta
Zachary Hansen reports that the United States Soccer Federation plans to use bond financing to raise most of the funds needed to build its new National Training Center and headquarters in Fayette County. The county’s development authority will issue $200 million in tax-exempt bonds later in August on behalf of the sports organization, allowing investors to buy the municipal debt and provide U.S. Soccer with its construction financing.
Aug. 5, 2024 The Brunswick News
Debby expected to bring historic rainfall, flooding to the Isles
Michael Hall reports that heavy rainfall and flooding remain the primary concern for local emergency management officials as Tropical Storm Debby heads for landfall, likely as a hurricane, in the Big Bend region of Florida on Monday. Debby is expected to strengthen into a hurricane over the warm waters of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico early Monday morning before sweeping across South Georgia and North Florida, the National Hurricane Center models show.
Aug. 5, 2024Capitol Beat News
Environmental groups oppose biomass plant’s air permit
Dave Williams reports, environmental groups are challenging a state-issued permit to allow a wood pellet manufacturing plant in Telfair County to double its pollutant emissions without meeting federal requirements. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) approved a modification of Telfair Forest Products’ air-quality permit last month without requiring the company to install legally required pollution controls or conduct air impact analyses.
Aug. 5, 2024 Augusta Chronicle
College football helps award grants to teachers through Georgia Teachers Initiative
Miguel Legoas reports that the Atlanta Football Host Committee, the College Football Playoff Foundation, and the Georgia Foundation for Public Education have partnered up to create the Georgia Teachers Initiative to support, engage, connect, and provide resources to Georgia’s PreK-12 teachers. One of the biggest ways it’s helping is the Teacher Grants for Innovations, awarding between $500 and $2,500 to Georgia’s public school teachers working on projects that will improve learning outcomes and make a measurable impact on their students’ lives.
Aug. 5, 2024 The Current
Brunswick DA’s office over budget by $880,000; county defers vote to help
Jabari Gibbs reports, the Glynn County Board of Commissioners deferred a vote to give District Attorney Keith Higgins a supplemental budget request of $362,000 after members of his financial staff made consequential financial blunders. On July 16, 2024, at a special called meeting for the Glynn County Board of Commissioners, the board received a presentation from DA Higgins.
Aug. 5, 2024 Albany Herald
Arlington trying to make its downtown a ‘Rural Zone’ with hopes of a boosting business development
Lucille Lannigan reports, Arlington is ready for a change in its downtown, and city leaders are hoping a Rural Zone designation could help bring about change. Ten Georgia cities per year are designated “Rural Zones” or rural downtown areas that have economic development incentives.
Aug. 5, 2024 Macon Telegraph
Trump says Georgia’s governor is hampering his efforts to win there
Neil Vigdor reports that former President Donald Trump suggested without evidence on Saturday that Georgia’s Republican governor was hampering his efforts to win the battleground state in November, a claim that carried echoes of Trump’s attempt to overturn his defeat to President Joe Biden there in 2020.
Aug. 5, 2024 GPB
Warnock to introduce Senate bill calling for 3 million new housing units, increase to estate tax
Benjamin Payne reports that Georgia U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock announced Thursday that he will try to revive a scuttled bill on affordable housing that failed to advance past a congressional subcommittee in 2022. The American Housing and Economic Mobility Act of 2024, which he plans to introduce as a lead sponsor alongside Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, would spend over $500 billion over 10 years to build nearly 3 million new housing units in the U.S., as the nation faces a housing shortage, rising rents and high home prices.
Aug. 5, 2024 Capitol Beat News
State lawmakers mulling switch of university system to quarters
Dave Williams reports that Georgia lawmakers are having second thoughts about switching the University System of Georgia from a quarter to a semester system back in 1999. A state House study committee will begin meeting soon to take a fresh look at whether both the university system and the Technical College System of Georgia – which moved to semesters in 2011 – should switch back to quarters.
Aug. 5, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A new $1M campaign aims to help Georgia House Republicans in swing districts
Greg Bluestein reports that a coalition of groups aligned with Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns plans to spend roughly $1 million to mobilize voters of color, women and new voters to back Republicans in competitive state legislative districts in November. The surge of spending reflects the increasingly close races for legislative seats in suburban Atlanta and middle Georgia where Republicans are fighting to hold their districts or topple Democratic incumbents.
