Georgia Trend Daily – March 10, 2025
March 10, 2025 Calhoun Times, Rome News-Tribune
Small Brewers Fight Against Distribution Monopoly
Adam Carey reports that a bill designed to modernize and update rules for Georgia’s small breweries failed to advance in the state Senate last week — disappointing some venues in Northwest Georgia. Senate Bill 122, the Craft Beer and Local Economy Revitalization Act, failed to move out of committee in time receive a vote by the Crossover Day deadline.
March 10, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Georgia’s Fintech Evolution
Tom Oder reports, a lesser-known story, but one with drama of its own, is how modern-day Atlanta turned a business defeat – losing the title of Banking Capital of the South to Charlotte, North Carolina, in the 1980s – into an opportunity, creating a new industry. In the early 2000s, a heady time after the 1996 Olympics, there was a lot of talk about how Atlanta could become an innovator.
March 10, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Legislation aimed at rising power bills, data center costs fizzles at Georgia’s Gold Dome
Drew Kann reports that two pieces of legislation pushed by consumer advocates in response to Georgians’ ballooning power bills and the influx of data centers were not called for votes on Crossover Day on Thursday, likely dooming both measures this session. The first bill, Senate Bill 94, was sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, and would have revived the Consumers’ Utility Counsel’s office to advocate for customers in cases affecting rates charged by utilities, including Georgia Power.
March 10, 2025 GlobalAtlanta.com
Metro Export Challenge Grant’s 10-Company Cohort Announced
Trevor Williams reports that a new cohort of 10 Atlanta-based exporters has netted $5,000 grants toward efforts to grow their international sales. The Metro Atlanta Chamber last week announced winners of this year’s Metro Export Challenge, a collaborative economic development initiative that has doled out almost $900,000 in export development funding to metro-area companies since its creation nearly a decade ago.
March 10, 2025 Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
‘An aggressive goal’ Columbus groups and elected leaders create office to reduce poverty
Brittany McGee reports that a coalition of community organizations and the Columbus Consolidated Government announced Friday the creation of an office within the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley that will work to reduce poverty. Georgia state Rep. Teddy Reese (District 140) will lead the new Office of Poverty Reduction, which plans to organize a community-wide effort to reduce poverty by 50% over a 10-year period, said Belva Dorsey-Mott, CEO of the Enrichment Services Program.
March 10, 2025 The Brunswick News
Ceremony marks grand opening for Golden Isles Veterans Village
Buddy Hughes reports, on an overcast Saturday morning, a dream officially became reality as a ceremony was held to officially open the Golden Isles Veterans Village at the corner of G Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The ribbon cutting marked years of work from the village’s board of directors and volunteers, to local rotaries and even elected officials.
March 10, 2025 Marietta Daily Journal
GOP Commissioners say Unified Development Code Raising ‘Red Flags’
Annie Mayne reports, last week, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners got an update about the Unified Development Code: a document being pitched as a one-stop-shop for all county development, zoning and design guidelines. It’s an overhaul of Cobb’s zoning code that was first proposed in 2021 and began in 2022, when the county tapped consulting firm Clarion Associates to develop the UDC for $500,000.
March 10, 2025 Cherokee Tribune
Canton City Council Considering Land Bank Resolution
Ethan Johnson reports that Canton leaders are mulling whether to support the creation of a land bank in Cherokee County, which would seek to redevelop blighted and delinquent properties for new purposes. On March 6, the Canton City Council heard a presentation from Housing Initiatives Director Ken Patton about a resolution that, if approved March 20 by the city council, would express the city’s support for creating the proposed Cherokee Regional Land Bank Authority.
March 10, 2025 Augusta Chronicle
VA Sec. Doug Collins of Georgia confirms 70,000+ layoffs. Who is he? Here’s what we know
Miguel Legoas reports that Veteran Affairs will be seeing some big changes soon under the command of a Georgia leader. U.S. Secretary of the VA Doug Collins recently confirmed news from a leaked memo that more than 70,000 employees will be laid off in according with DOGE.
March 10, 2025 The Brunswick News
Rep. Townsend disappointed Jamal’s Law stuck in House
Hank Rowland reports that State Rep. Rick Townsend says he is proud of the overall work of the House so far, but he is disappointed that Jamal’s Law is hung up in the House. Jamal’s Law, named after 18-month-old Jamal Bryan Jr., who choked to death on a piece of watermelon at a Brunswick day care center last year, did not crossover to the Senate by the deadline Thursday because the House has not voted on it.
March 10, 2025 Savannah Morning News
Trump wants to dissolve the Department of Education. Here are benefits Georgians would lose
Vanessa Countryman reports that the potential dismantling of the Department of Education (DOE) by the Trump administration is a subject of intense debate and questions. How could this affect the state of Georgia? While some argue it would reduce federal overreach, others warn of devastating consequences for education, particularly in states heavily reliant on federal funding.
March 10, 2025 WABE
What Trump’s CDC, health program cuts could mean for Atlanta’s role in disease research
Jess Mador reports that Georgians in public health are reeling as the administration also slashes tens of thousands of current workers at federal agencies, including the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. Some fired CDC employees are now being told they can return to work, at least for now.
March 10, 2025 GPB
Georgia Senate passes the Georgia Anti-Doxxing Act
Ambria Burton reports, on Thursday, the Georgia Senate passed the Georgia Anti-Doxxing Act, legislation to create criminal offenses for doxxing in Georgia, as a part of Crossover Day. Roswell Republican Sen. John Albers, sponsor of the bill, defined doxxing as publicly revealing one’s private information using social media with “malicious intent.”
March 10, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Georgia Senate unanimously passes bill requiring panic buttons in all schools
Chris Pae reports that last September, the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office was bombarded with alerts of a shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder. The school had issued panic buttons to its teachers a week earlier, which allowed them to alert officers within minutes after a 14-year-old gunman first opened fire.
March 10, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Marijuana inspires debate in Georgia Senate, with three bills passing before this year’s deadline
Ty Tagami reports that marijuana has been a major topic in the Georgia Senate this legislative session, with three bills passing the chamber just ahead of the deadline Thursday to keep them in play this year. Two of the measures, Senate Bill 33 and Senate Bill 254, seek to restrict what’s legally available at convenience stores and smoke shops.
March 10, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
How Georgians are shaping Donald Trump’s overhaul of the federal workforce
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report, Georgians whom President Donald Trump tapped to join his cabinet are quickly becoming the faces of the federal government’s overnight overhaul largely led by adviser Elon Musk. On Sunday, The New York Times reported that mass layoffs at the Department of Veterans Affairs have disrupted everything from clinical trials for veterans with cancer to a local facility’s ability to answer incoming phone calls.
