Georgia Trend Daily – April 3, 2025
April 3, 2025 Marietta Daily Journal
‘The Future of Law Enforcement’: Drone Manufacturing Facility Opens in Smyrna
Annie Mayne reports, promising to change the way policing works, Atlanta-based security technology company Flock Safety opened its largest drone manufacturing facility in the Jonquil City Wednesday, alongside local leaders and Gov. Brian Kemp. Inside the 97,000-square-foot facility, more than 200 employees will build solar panels, repair damaged products and make three different kinds of drones, which CEO Garrett Langley called “the future of law enforcement.”
April 3, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Deportations Will Hurt Farmers
Ben Young writes, this issue’s Economic Yearbook showcases Georgia’s premier economic development projects region by region, the fruits of decades of hard work on the part of the state’s business and community leaders to make it the national destination for employers, jobs and prosperity. Part of the success of Georgia’s economy is due to its diversity.
April 3, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stock futures drop, including several top Georgia firms, in wake of tariffs
J. Scott Trubey reports that stock futures sunk overnight, including for several big Georgia companies, and a major business group urged world leaders to reach accords on trade amid fears of likely economic disruption from President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs. Global markets tumbled early Thursday and Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures were all in the red as of about 5 a.m. as the gravity of the sweeping tariffs and the prospect of likely foreign retaliation sunk in.
April 3, 2025 The Brunswick News
State employment rates unchanged from a year ago
Gordon Jackson reports that Georgia’s unemployment remained at 3.6% for the month of February, which is unchanged from a year ago. The national unemployment rate is 4.1%, in comparison, according to officials with the Georgia Department of Labor.
April 3, 2025 Savannah Morning News
More than meets the eye awaits Hyundai Meta Pros at its Savannah region metaplant
Joseph Schwartzburt reports, with almost as many robot workers as human workers, Chief Administrative Officer Brent Stubbs assured that the plant had been designed with humans in mind. He referred to the skylights and lamps that emulate natural light as intentional for the workers’ benefit.
April 3, 2025 Augusta Chronicle, Savannah Morning News
These 12 Georgians make Forbes’ Billionaires list 2025. They combine for $81.8 billion
Vanessa Countryman reports, Forbes recently released its list of the richest people in the World in 2025 and a dozen of those billionaires hail from Georgia. These people made their fortunes across a variety of industries, including tech starts ups, fast food companies and even pest removal.
April 3, 2025 The Brunswick News
New system seeks to help warn vessels of nearby whales
Gordon Jackson reports that a new system to warn ocean vessels of North Atlantic right whales in their vicinity has been activated on St. Simons Island. The Center for a Sustainable Coast office on the barrier island is among numerous sites designated as a “stationkeeper” along the Atlantic Coast with the MotionInfo Automatic Identification System network.
April 3, 2025 WABE
Georgia Gov. Kemp signs bill allowing local bodies to rescind opting out of statewide homestead tax exemption
Meimei Xu and Rahul Bali report that governments and school districts in Georgia can now rescind their decisions to opt out of a statewide homestead tax exemption approved by voters last November. Georgians voted to pass a state constitutional amendment to cap yearly property tax increases by basing property value on an annual assessment of the consumer price index.
April 3, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Long-stalled ‘religious freedom’ legislation gets Georgia GOP blessing
Ross Williams reports, on the penultimate day of the 2025 legislative session, some religious Georgians had their prayers answered. A so-called religious freedom bill is on Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk after the House approved it 96-70 along mostly party lines late Wednesday night.
April 3, 2025 Capitol Beat News
State Senate passes bill to double family compensation when teachers killed at school
Ty Tagami reports that families of teachers killed in mass shootings and other violent acts at school would get double the money under legislation that has passed both chambers of the Georgia General Assembly but still awaits final approval after some changes. House Bill 105 passed the state Senate unanimously on Wednesday after unanimous passage by the Georgia House of Representatives.
April 3, 2025 GPB
Proponents say prioritizing recovery services over punishments may reduce fentanyl overdoses
Ellen Eldridge reports, in Georgia, Senate Bill 79 is awaiting the governor’s signature as a law requiring mandatory minimum sentences for fentanyl possession. Some say the law will slow the flow of the drug, but others worry it may also send drug users to prison instead of toward help.
April 3, 2025 State Affairs
House Democrats walk out before vote on transgender bill
Beau Evans reports that nearly all of the 80 Georgia House Democrats walked out before a vote on a bill to bar prisons from using state funds for inmate sex-change treatments. The mass walkout came shortly after the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, acknowledged that only five prisoners have sought sex-change treatments in Georgia.
April 3, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Georgia GOP legislators push 11th hour surprise to further shield themselves from open records law
Jill Nolin reports, a late-emerging proposal in the Georgia Legislature would limit what the public can access in police reports and communications with state lawmakers. The proposed changes to Georgia’s Open Records Act were tacked onto another bill, Senate Bill 12, late in the day Wednesday in the gatekeeping House Rules Committee, bypassing the usual legislative committee process and shortcutting public debate on the measure.
April 3, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Senate Republicans approve big changes to Georgia election law
Ty Tagami reports that Georgia’s Senate Republicans passed multiple changes to state election law Wednesday after rushing amendments into a bill from the House of Representatives. The overhauled House Bill 397 would remove the State Election Board from oversight by the elected secretary of state, giving the board custody of investigative reports and communications between the secretary and local election superintendents.
April 3, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia House Republicans embrace Trump’s playbook as session winds down
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report, for years, the Georgia House has acted something like a safety valve, bottling up some of the most controversial Senate measures that might ignite public backlash or alienate middle-of-the-road voters. But on Wednesday that firewall shattered in a major way.
