Georgia Trend Daily – July 30, 2025
July 30, 2025 Georgia Ports Authority
Georgia Ports container trade up 8.6 percent in fiscal year 2025
Staff reports that the Georgia Ports Authority moved 5.7 million twenty-foot equivalent container units in fiscal year 2025 (July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025), an increase of 8.6 percent or 450,000 TEUs compared to the previous fiscal year. FY2025 was the Port of Savannah’s second busiest year on record, and the rate of growth shows continuing strength in Georgia’s logistics trajectory.
July 30, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Catching up with… Christian Fischer
Rachel Wallenstein reports that Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific is a leading manufacturer and marketer of bath tissue, paper towels and napkins, tableware, and more. German-born Fischer has served as president and CEO since 2017.
July 30, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trump’s next trade deadline looms. Georgia’s ports aren’t nervous.
Adam Van Brimmer reports that Georgia’s ports leaders, President Donald Trump’s original “Liberation Day” tariff list read like a nightmare who’s who list of the state’s biggest trading partners. Top port client China topped the president’s colorful chart at 84%, a rate that escalated to 145%, while No. 2 customer Vietnam was to face a 46% levy.
July 30, 2025 WABE
Atlanta real estate developer and philanthropist Tom Cousins dies
Sam Gringlas reports that Atlanta real estate developer and philanthropist Tom Cousins has died, a source close to the family confirmed late Tuesday night. He was 93. Cousins built a real estate empire in Atlanta.
July 30, 2025 Saporta Report
Deal announced on proposed acquisition of Norfolk Southern by Union Pacific
Maria Saporta reports, if Union Pacific Corp. is successful in acquiring Norfolk Southern, Atlanta would lose the headquarters of one of its newest Fortune 500 companies. Both companies announced Tuesday morning that they intend to merge both railroads to create “America’s First Continental Railroad.”
July 30, 2025 WSB Radio
UPS reports decline in second quarter revenue and profit
Staff reports that Sandy Springs-based UPS reports a decline in its second quarter revenue and profit. The company reports a nearly 9% drop in net income from a year ago, as it has seen decreased shipping volumes from some of its largest customers like, Amazon.
July 30, 2025 Macon Telegraph
Hundreds decry new data center in Monroe County. Local board rejects it. Now what?
Lucinda Warnke reports that a new data center development proposed in Bolingbroke is in question after the Monroe County Planning & Zoning Board voted unanimously Monday evening against rezoning nine parcels of land for the project. The sweltering July heat was only matched by the heat inside the Monroe County Conference Center — where the board met — as nearly 300 residents gathered largely in opposition to the project.
July 30, 2025 Augusta Chronicle
Augusta nonprofit’s afterschool funding restored after disputed cuts
Joe Hotchkiss reports that Augusta will have afterschool after all. Weeks after a federal funding cut threatened to shutter the Augusta area’s afterschool and summer learning programs, the Trump administration released $1.3 billion intended to further fund the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative.
July 30, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene labels Gaza crisis a ‘genocide’ in break from GOP colleagues
Ross Williams reports that Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene became the first congressional Republican to use the word “genocide” to refer to Israel’s actions in Gaza Monday, and a Democratic member of the Georgia delegation followed suit Tuesday. “It’s the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza,” the Rome Republican posted on social media Monday.
July 30, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Georgia elections agency initiates voter roll scrub, audits PSC runoff count
Ty Tagami reports that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is initiating a four-year process that could delete the registrations of nearly a quarter million inactive voters. “Clean voter rolls mean clean elections,” Raffensperger said Tuesday. “My promise to Georgia voters is elections that are free, fair, and fast – and we’re doing just that.”
July 30, 2025 Albany Herald
As Medicaid support shrinks, rural Georgia braces for health care fallout
Lucille Lannigan reports that emergency services are stretched thin in rural southwest Georgia, where counties often share ambulances and the nearest hospital may be 40 miles away. Georgia is one of ten states that didn’t expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and rural providers say their hospitals have suffered because of it.
July 30, 2025 Georgia Recorder
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’ll skip Georgia’s 2026 race for governor
Ross Williams reports that Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she will not run for governor, just weeks after taking a pass on entering Georgia’s U.S. Senate race. Greene, a close ally of President Donald Trump, announced Tuesday she will not run for governor in 2026, citing a desire to focus on her district and distaste for what she called Georgia’s “good ole boy” political system.
July 30, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Georgia lawmakers hear conflicting views about hemp and marijuana
Ty Tagami reports that products from marijuana and hemp are either dangerous and should be banned or amazing and should be accessible to those who need and want them, a Georgia House study committee heard Tuesday. Lawmakers heard conflicting assertions and opinions during their first hearing ahead of possible changes to state policies for medical marijuana and hemp derivatives.
July 30, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia educators wait and see how federal cuts will hit schools
Cassidy Alexander reports, as the new school year kicks off in metro Atlanta, school officials are facing a tidal wave of changes from Washington, D.C. Despite new information coming out nearly every day about how the Trump administration is changing education in the U.S., state and local school officials are still in a wait-and-see mode.
