Georgia Trend Daily – May 12, 2025
May 12, 2025 Capitol Beat News
State eyeing Atlanta-to-Savannah passenger rail line
Dave Williams reports that by the middle of the next decade, Georgians may be able to travel between Atlanta and Savannah by high-speed rail, avoiding traffic and expensive air fares. The state Department of Transportation has launched a study of the feasibility of connecting the two urban centers with an intercity passenger rail line.
Program of Leadership:
Stephen Craft, dean of Oglethorpe University’s Hammack School of Business. Photo credit: Daemon Baizan
May 12, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Georgia MBA Programs: Pushing Forward
Amber Jones Barry reports, extra letters after a name are never a bad thing. And getting a Master of Business Administration can be a strategic next step in furthering a career by learning new management skills, no matter the field or industry. “Without question, the MBA is the program of leadership,” says Stephen Craft, dean of Oglethorpe University’s Hammack School of Business.
May 12, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Delta, Korean Air to acquire 25% of WestJet
Emma Hurt reports that Delta Air Lines is buying a 15% stake in Calgary, Canada-based WestJet for $330 million, the company announced Friday. Another Delta partner, Korean Air, is also acquiring 10% of WestJet for $220 million. Both are purchasing their stakes from Onex Group, a Canadian private equity firm.
May 12, 2025 WABE
Georgia business leaders are confident going green will continue making the state money
Marlon Hyde and Marisa Mecke report, Georgia’s business leaders aim to make development more sustainable in the coming years. They are confident that going green will continue to make the state money.
May 12, 2025 GPB
Lawmakers Huddle: State legislators work on a new deal
Donna Lowry reports that some Georgia legislative leaders are learning beyond the Capitol to enhance their effectiveness when the General Assembly reconvenes next year. The NewDEAL Forum, a national group that leans center-left, held its annual summit in Atlanta and invited a few Democratic leaders to participate.
May 12, 2025 Gwinnett Daily Post
Trump nominates Duluth High grad to be assistant HUD secretary
Curt Yeomans reports that the latest list of nominees for federal government appointments includes a Gwinnett County native. President Donald Trump nominated Duluth High School graduate Ronnie Kurtz to be an assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Department, according to a copy of the Congressional Register released on Tuesday.
May 12, 2025 Rome News-Tribune
Rep. Greene Says She Won’t Run for Senate Against Ossoff
Diane Wagner reports, in a lengthy diatribe posted on social media, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, said she will not be seeking the seat held by U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga. “Someone once said, ‘The Senate is where good ideas go to die.’ They were right. That’s why I’m not running,” she wrote.
May 12, 2025 Savannah Morning News
U.S. Senator Warnock’s report says manufacturing jobs at risk if IRA is repealed
Joseph Schwartzburt and Evan Lasseter report, Sen. Raphael Warnock wants the entire U.S. to know that Georgia has shown that “the future is green, the future is clean.” Unless, that is, the U.S. republican-led Congress decides to cut clean energy tax credits created by the President Joe Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
May 12, 2025 Walton Tribune
Doherty seeks rematch with Collins in 10th District
Chris Bridges reports that Lexy Doherty is set to try again in her quest to unseat Mike Collins as 10th District Congressman. Doherty was the Democratic nominee in 2024 and has now announced she will run again next year. Doherty gained 37% of the vote in the heavily Republican district and feels like she can do even better in a potential rematch.
May 12, 2025 State Affairs
Kemp signs $37.7B budget as Georgia braces for federal cuts
Beau Evans reports that Gov. Brian Kemp signed a $37.7 billion state budget Friday amid uncertainty over the potential fallout from the White House’s proposed cuts to billions in federal funding. The fiscal year 2026 budget — which funds schools, road repairs, prisons, Medicaid, mental health treatments and other state services starting July 1 — shrinks spending from last year’s record $40.5 billion after lawmakers approved more than $2 billion in income tax cuts and rebates.
May 12, 2025 Valdosta Daily Times
Governor signs major hurricane relief package
Staff reports that Gov. Brian Kemp signed landmark legislation Thursday at the Georgia Forestry Association (GFA) headquarters delivering urgently needed relief to forest landowners and rural communities impacted by Hurricane Helene — a storm that caused more than $1.28 billion in timber losses across Georgia’s most productive forestlands.
May 12, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Long simmering dispute over Georgia political maps drawn after 2020 Census returns to federal court
Ross Williams reports that we’ve passed the halfway point between the 2020 U.S. Census and the 2030 U.S. Census, but the battle over redistricting maps based on the last national headcount is still underway in Georgia. On Thursday, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments about whether or not to enact new maps.
May 12, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Court fight over 2021 Georgia mass voter eligibility challenges heads to federal court
Stanley Dunlap reports that a federal appellate court is set to hear a case Tuesday centered on a five-year debate over whether the national right-leaning group True the Vote used mass voter challenges to intimidate minority voters. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit will hear arguments in a case in which plaintiffs, including a voting rights group founded by Stacey Abrams, contend that the case has national implications.
May 12, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Kemp signs bill targeting foreign adversaries
Dave Williams reports that Gov. Brian Kemp and his allies in the General Assembly say they’re determined to prevent foreign adversaries from doing business with state agencies. Toward that end, Kemp signed legislation Friday requiring the Georgia Technology Authority to establish and maintain a list of companies and products produced and/or sold by citizens or governments the U.S. Commerce Department has designated as foreign adversaries.
May 12, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Insurance chief John King jumps into Georgia’s Senate race
Greg Bluestein reports that Insurance Commissioner John King launched his campaign for U.S. Senate on Monday, stressing his military background and law enforcement experience as he cast Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff as too liberal for Georgia. King, the first Hispanic elected to statewide political office on Georgia, is aiming to bridge the divide between the party’s more establishment wing and the Donald Trump loyalists who dominate the GOP base.
