Georgia Trend Daily – Dec. 2, 2025
Dec. 2, 2025 Georgia.gov
Gov. Kemp: Georgia Lottery Reaches Over $30 Billion for Education
Staff reports that Gov. Kemp, on Monday, announced that the Georgia Lottery Corporation (GLC) has raised over $30 billion for education in the State of Georgia since its inception in 1993. These funds have enabled millions of Georgians to receive essential early learning through the Georgia Pre-K program and provided the opportunity for higher education through the HOPE Scholarship and Grant programs.
Dec. 2, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
The Proof Is in the Cornbread
Jana Lawrence reports that cornbread has officially been crowned the state bread of Georgia – and for two Atlanta-born sisters, that recognition is long overdue. Like many Southerners, Sheila Tiller-Tooks and Toshia Tiller can’t resist a slice of piping hot, buttery, moist cornbread. But what started as a family tradition has risen into a full-blown business.
Dec. 2, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia-based parent of Sharpie and Yankee Candle to lay off hundreds
Mirtha Donastorg reports, Newell Brands, the Sandy Springs-based parent company of dozens of well-known consumer brands, announced Monday it plans to lay off more than 900 global employees and close 20 Yankee Candle stores in the U.S. and Canada, citing artificial intelligence as one of the reasons behind the moves. The layoffs will impact about 10% of the company’s professional and clerical staff, but have limited impact on the manufacturing and supply chain side.
Dec. 2, 2025 The Brunswick News
748-unit development considered by MPC
Gordon Jackson reports that a change of zoning request to allow up to 748 residential lots on a 211-acre site at 1572 Buck Swamp Road will be considered at tonight’s Glynn County Mainland Planning Commission meeting. The applicant, Weyerhaeuser Forest Holdings Inc., is requesting the tract be rezoned from forest agricultural to general residential.
Dec. 2, 2025 Valdosta Daily Times
Children’s Imagination Station receives $500,000 from the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation
Staff reports that the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts has received a transformative $500,000 grant from the Atlanta-based Lettie Pate Evans Foundation to advance the development of the Meta Shaw Coleman Children’s Imagination Station—an innovative community resource designed to spark creativity, learning, and exploration for children and families throughout South Georgia.
Dec. 2, 2025 CBS News
Forsyth teens may have come up with a new way to detect, treat Lyme disease using CRISPR gene editing
Bill Whitaker and Henry Schuster report, America’s future as a science leader may depend on students like the teenagers from Lambert High School in suburban Atlanta. They may have just found a better way to detect and treat Lyme disease, which affects nearly a half million Americans annually.
Dec. 2, 2025 Access WDUN
Jackson EMC announces executive leadership changes
Staff reports that Jackson Electric Membership Corporation announced numerous executive leadership changes, effective Jan.1, 2026. The corporation said Monday that Chief Operating Officer Roy Stowe will transition into the role of Special Advisor to the CEO before his planned retirement in April 2026. In this advisory role, Stowe will provide strategic guidance and leverage his decades of experience to ensure a smooth leadership transition, Jackson EMC explained.
Dec. 2, 2025 Savannah Morning News
Motion hearing scheduled for lawsuits against Tybee Island’s STVR ordinances
Destini Ambust reports that Tybee Alliance, a group of property management companies and STVR owners, filed a motion of summary judgement in August 2025, seeking a decision on the claim that Tybee’s STVR ordinance is unenforceable because it violates state codes limiting municipal powers on regulation of residential rental properties.
Dec. 2, 2025 WSB Radio
State authority provides update on late November cyberthreat
Staff reports, the state authority which manages real estate filings across Georgia says there’s no evidence any data was stolen during a cyberthreat that forced it to take defensive measures for several days in late November. The Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority says the attack was interrupted before any encryption, destruction, or alteration of data occurred.
Dec. 2, 2025 GPB
Georgia farmworker and justice groups sue the Trump adminsitration over new labor rule
Sofi Gratas reports, a national farm worker union and other plaintiffs, including one anonymous farmworker in Georgia, are suing the Trump administration over a new rule that effectively lowers the wages of most foreign-born farm workers working in the U.S. under a temporary visa. The new rule, adopted in October, creates two tiers of wages based on skill for workers with an H-2A visa.
Dec. 2, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Massive Burt Jones-backed project among wave of data centers proposed for Georgia
Alander Rocha and Ross Williams report, a massive data center project backed by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and his family could be coming to Butts County, but many of the project’s details are still unknown. Jones, a Republican, is running to be Georgia’s next governor.
Dec. 2, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Drones a threat to prison security
Ty Tagami reports that drones powerful enough to lift a human have become a routine tool for delivering contraband in Georgia prisons. At a hearing Monday about the budget for prisons, Tyrone Oliver, the commissioner for the state Department of Corrections, said drones have been used to drop drugs laced with fentanyl and other goods, including power saws made by the company Dremel.
Dec. 2, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Democrats hope today’s runoff races will build momentum for 2026 midterms
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report, Georgia Democrats insist that last month’s ouster of two Republicans on the Public Service Commission is a preview of the midterms. Today, they’ll get another chance to prove the flips were no fluke.
