Georgia Trend Daily – Feb. 19, 2024
Feb. 19, 2024 Georgia Recorder
Georgia Power objections cast long shadow over state lawmakers’ efforts to expand solar energy
Jill Nolin reports, a push to expand community solar in Georgia is running into opposition from the state’s largest electric utility, which has been under pressure in recent years to increase rooftop solar. Proposals filed in both chambers have sparked interest at the committee level, with those talks set to continue this week.
Feb. 19, 2024 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Local nonprofit Construction Ready holding CareerEXPO February 22-23
Susana Hills reports that Construction Ready was created by construction employers to meet the high need for skilled workers across Georgia. Their primary goal is closing the “skills gap” between the retiring and emerging workforce. Construction Ready’s career expo educates children and college students on the industry skills needed to enter into professional trades.
Feb. 19, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Different kind of union campaign targets Waffle House
Michael E. Kanell and Michelle Baruchman report, it looks and feels like a long-odds, union organizing drive. Workers, coordinated by a union, are holding rallies, signing petitions and making demands for higher wages, better safety and improved work conditions at the nearly 2,000 locations operated by Norcross-based Waffle House across dozens of states in the South and Midwest.
Feb. 19, 2024 Savannah Morning News
Unemployment claims in Georgia declined last week
Staff reports, initial filings for unemployment benefits in Georgia dropped last week compared with the week prior, the U.S. Department of Labor said Thursday. New jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, fell to 5,391 in the week ending February 10, down from 6,244 the week before, the Labor Department said.
Feb. 19, 2024 Rome News-Tribune
Get Ready to Grow: Northwest Georgia Regional Commission Expecting Significant Growth Over The Next Decade
Adam Carey reports, with recent announcements from Qcells, Microsoft and SOLARCYCLE regarding their construction of facilities in Northwest Georgia, if you’re surprised by the amount of growth coming to the region, you’re not listening to the Northwest Georgia Regional Commission. “Growth is definitely heading this way,” NWGRC Executive Director Boyd Austin said.
Feb. 19, 2024 The Current
Yearling whale likely killed by vessel strike, federal officials say
Mary Landers reports that a young north Atlantic right whale found dead about 20 miles off Tybee showed evidence of blunt force trauma consistent with a vessel strike before it died, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries service reported Friday. Working on the beach at Tybee Island Thursday, scientists completed a necropsy of a yearling female whale.
Feb. 19, 2024 The Brunswick News
Fast charging ports for EVs coming
Gordon Jackson reports that direct current fast charging ports for electric vehicles are coming to the Golden Isles. The Georgia Department of Transportation announced the first round of charging ports at five locations, including Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, Inc. at 2766 U.S. 17 near the Interstate 95 interchange at Exit 29.
Feb. 19, 2024 WABE
Advocates again push for repeal of law protecting Stone Mountain’s status as Confederate memorial
Jim Burress reports that the State of Georgia purchased Stone Mountain in the late 1950s in the face of the growing Civil Rights Movement. It later passed legislation preserving several elements memorializing the Confederacy, backed by the efforts of the Daughters of the Confederacy and supported by the KKK.
Feb. 19, 2024 Capitol Beat News
Georgia House committee passes fishing rights bill
Dave Williams reports that a state House committee has narrowly approved legislation guaranteeing Georgians the right to fish in navigable rivers and streams over the objections of representatives of recreational boating interests who complained the bill is overly restrictive. House Bill 1172, which cleared the House Judiciary Committee Thursday by just one vote, is a follow-up to legislation the General Assembly passed on the last day of last year’s session.
Feb. 19, 2024 State Affairs
Relief for new parents, protections for renters and distinction for cornbread
Jill Jordan Sieder and Tammy Joyner report that Georgia lawmakers spent week six of the legislative session fashioning bills that would double leave time for parents, provide more protections for renters and make cornbread the official state bread. The House passed HB 1010, which would increase state employees’ paid parental leave to six weeks from three following the birth, adoption or foster care placement of a child in their home.
Feb. 19, 2024 GPB
‘Lawmakers’: Members debate student loan forgiveness and sexual assault crisis centers on Day 22
Sarah Kallis and Tristan Smith report, in the House, members approved House Bill 872. It would give student loan forgiveness priority to dentists practicing in rural areas. Dental students would learn they were accepted into the program while they are still in school. The bill passed 150 to 3.
Feb. 19, 2024 WABE
A controversial Georgia bill is back. It would prevent teachers from talking about gender in schools
Juma Sei reports that lawmakers, lobbyists and members of the public packed into an upstairs room at the Georgia State Capitol this week to discuss a bill years in the making: Senate Bill 88. Republican state Sen. Carden Summers sponsored the legislation, bringing it before his chamber’s committee on education and youth.
Feb. 19, 2024 Gwinnett Daily Post
Gwinnett Lawmakers Files Freedom to Drive Bill
Curt Yeomans reports that State Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, D-Duluth, is pushing legislation that would increase a non-U.S. citizen’s ability to get a driver’s license in Georgia. Islam Parkes recently filed Senate Bill 478, also known as the Freedom To Drive Act, to give immigrants greater access to “government-issued identification and driving authorization cards.”
Feb. 19, 2024 Capitol Beat News
Major changes looming for Georgia’s film tax credit
Dave Williams reports that Georgia legislative leaders’ pledge to rein in some of the state’s generous tax breaks to industry is starting with the most expensive on the books: the film tax credit. A bill introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives earlier this month would require film production companies to meet at least four of nine criteria to qualify for an additional 10% tax credit on top of the 20% base credit the General Assembly enacted in 2008.
Feb. 19, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
PG A.M.: What to watch for in the rest of Georgia’s legislative session
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Van Brimmer report, Crossover Day, the quasi-deadline for bills to pass at least one chamber in order to be considered during the session, is Feb. 29. Key Republicans signaled they were open to a substantive debate on Medicaid expansion for the first time in more than a decade, but odds are long on meaningful legislation passing this year.
