Georgia Trend Daily – Feb. 20, 2025
Feb. 20, 2025 Georgia.gov
Gov. Kemp: Duracell Selects Georgia for New R&D Headquarters
Staff reports that Gov. Kemp, on Wednesday, announced that Duracell, one of the world’s leading battery manufacturers, will establish its new Global Headquarters for Research and Development at Science Square in Atlanta, creating 110 jobs and investing approximately $56 million. Duracell currently has a manufacturing facility in LaGrange, Georgia, that has been in operation since 1980 and a logistics and distribution plant in Fairburn, Georgia, that began operations in 2020.
Feb. 20, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
A New Marker for Black History
Tharon Johnson writes, Black History Month is one of my favorite times of the year. While there is no bad month to reflect on and commemorate the many contributions and achievements of Black Americans, there remains something special about making a meaningful effort to spread the word of oft-uncelebrated icons.
Feb. 20, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Delta offers $30,000 to each passenger aboard plane that crashed in Toronto
Kelly Yamanouchi reports that Delta Air Lines is offering $30,000 to each passenger who was on board the Delta Connection plane that crashed in Toronto on Monday. “Delta Care Team representatives are telling customers this gesture has no strings attached and does not affect rights,” according to Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant.
Feb. 20, 2025 Savannah Morning News
It’s electric! EV industry event at Savannah Tech asserts Georgia’s role in global market
Joseph Schwartzburt reports, after combing the Savannah Technical College campus twice, LG Energy Solution North America Executive Vice President Robert Lee could not find an electric vehicle (EV) charging station. With a “leading-edge EV plant” and the “number one global battery maker…just up the street” he appeared surprised, especially since Savannah Tech has partnered with Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America on an EV Production certification program.
Feb. 20, 2025 Marietta Daily Journal
Wanted: Public Comment on Conserving Georgia’s Wildlife
Staff reports that from Feb. 19 to March 21, a draft of Georgia’s revised State Wildlife Action Plan can be reviewed at https://georgiawildlife.com/WildGeorgiaSWAP. Created 20 years ago and updated each decade since, the plan guides work statewide to keep native animal and plant species from becoming more rare and costly to conserve.
Feb. 20, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Senate confirms Loeffler to run U.S. Small Business Administration
Dave Williams reports that the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate confirmed former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Wednesday as director of the federal Small Business Administration, the Associated Press reported. The 52-46 vote will put Loeffler in charge of an agency that oversees federal loans and grants to small businesses and provides counseling to entrepreneurs trying to start one.
Feb. 20, 2025 Augusta Chronicle
Ossoff, Warnock urge Secretary of Agriculture to release funds for Georgia farmers post Helene
Miguel Legoas reports, Georgia was recently denied an extension from FEMA, but two state leaders are working on another funding source to help Hurricane Helene victims. On Wednesday, U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins asking her to quickly distribute federal disaster assistance to Georgia farmers.
Feb. 20, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Georgia Lt. Gov. Jones advances plan to reset regulations billed as state-level DOGE effort
Stanley Dunlap reports that a so-called red tape rollback bill as coined by Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones to be a state-level version of the Elon Musk-led federal Department of Government Efficiency cleared its first legislative hurdle Wednesday despite some opposition from Democrats.
Feb. 20, 2025 Savannah Morning News
Georgia House Heath Committee unanimously passes bill to help dental schools recruit faculty
Maya Homan reports that a bill aimed at helping dental schools in Augusta and Savannah recruit new faculty members passed unanimously out of the House Health Committee Wednesday. HB 322, which was authored by state Rep. Lee Hawkins (R-Gainesville), would allow dentists from other states, countries and territories to apply for an instructor’s license that would allow them to teach at accredited dental programs in Georgia.
Feb. 20, 2025 Fresh Start Georgia
Augusta University nursing students push for right to administer anesthesia
Zaire Breedlove reports, on Tuesday, Feb. 18th, 2025, about 100 Augusta University Student Registered Nursing Anesthetists (SRNA) visited the Georgia Capitol to push for changes in health policy to allow them to operate without physician oversight in certain settings like rural hospitals and delivery units. The goal is to make anesthesia services more accessible to patients.
Feb. 20, 2025 Capitol Beat News
House panel approves easing burden of proof of intellectual disability in capital cases
Dave Williams reports that legislation that would make it easier for defendants in death penalty cases to establish intellectual disability as a defense cleared a Georgia House committee Wednesday. “Georgia is the only state in our nation that is executing those with intellectual disabilities,” Rep. Bill Werkheiser, R-Glennville, chief sponsor of House Bill 123, told members of the House Judiciary Committee (Non-Civil).
Feb. 20, 2025 WABE
Georgia publicly touts its Medicaid experiment as a success. Numbers tell a different story
Margaret Coker reports, in January, standing before a cluster of television cameras on the steps of the state Capitol, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp promoted his experiment in Medicaid reform as a showcase for fellow conservatives seeking to overhaul safety net benefits around the country. “What we are doing is working,” Kemp boasted about Georgia Pathways to Coverage. The federally subsidized health insurance program is supposed to cover nearly a quarter-million low-income Georgians who can prove they are working, studying or volunteering.
Feb. 20, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Georgia House panel OKs bill to bar trans girls from playing school sports on girls’ teams
Ross Williams reports that a House subcommittee moved forward a bill that would bar transgender girls from playing sports on girls’ teams in schools of all grade levels, including college. “All we’re attempting to do through this legislation, Mr. Chairman, is simply provide a level playing field for the girls in Georgia,” said the bill’s sponsor, Fayetteville Republican Rep. Josh Bonner.
Feb. 20, 2025 GPB
Cuts to federally funded health care agencies drive outpour of support for affected workers
Sofi Gratas reports, more than 100 demonstrators gathered at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in North Decatur on Tuesday. Retired workers from federal agencies and state public health, among others, cheered in support of current CDC employees as they left work to go home.
Feb. 20, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Georgia Senate backs bill to increase state child care tax credit
Ty Tagami reports that Georgia Senate unanimously backed a bill Wednesday that would give parents of young children a bigger tax break. The goal of Senate Bill 89 is to help more parents stay in the workforce, said the chief sponsor, Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough.
Feb. 20, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jon Ossoff warns GOP about Medicaid cuts: ‘Voters will be watching’
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report that Democrats have been sounding the alarm on the Republican-led plan to drastically reduce spending on safety net programs like Medicaid as part of a sweeping package that also includes tax cuts and money for new border security efforts. But U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is framing the debate as potentially devastating not just for the Medicaid recipients who may lose access to health care but for the GOP lawmakers who back the effort.
