Georgia Trend Daily – May 1, 2024
May 1, 2024 Capitol Beat News
Augusta aircraft repair company to expand operations
Dave Williams reports that a leading provider of business aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul services has begun a $33 million expansion in Augusta that will create 90 new jobs, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday. StandardAer currently supports more than 170 jobs in the area, servicing about 425 aircraft and 500 turbine aircraft engines each year.
May 1, 2024 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Small But Mighty
Karen Kirkpatrick reports that Georgia is home to its share of Fortune 500 companies – 35 have headquarters here. That’s a testament to the state’s status as No. 1 in the country for business. But small businesses are what really keep the economy humming here and around the nation.
May 1, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coca-Cola sees sales grow despite currency, inflation headwinds
J Scott Trubey reports that Coca-Cola on Tuesday said it sold more beverages and was able to increase prices at a greater clip than inflation, boosting profits during the first three months of the year. Sales of traditional Coca-Cola products were up, as were milk and juices, though the company saw some softness in sports drinks, coffee and water.
May 1, 2024 Augusta Chronicle
Augusta cardboard factory changing owners soon in $700 million deal. Here’s what’s next
Joe Hotchkiss reports that the likely new owner of Augusta’s third-largest manufacturer predicts a bright earnings future for the company that’s buying the bleached-paperboard factory off Mike Padgett Highway. Graphic Packaging Holding Co. and Spokane-based Clearwater Paper Corp. announced the signing of a “definitive agreement” for Graphic to sell the longtime manufacturing facility to Spokane, Washington-based Clearwater, The Augusta Chronicle first reported in February.
May 1, 2024 Marietta Daily Journal
First Hydrogen-Powered Golf Cart Unveiled in Kennesaw
Annie Mayne reports that vehicles of the future have arrived in Cobb. The first ever hydrogen-fueled golf cart was unveiled by Yamaha’s U.S. Marine Business Unit at its Kennesaw facility, taking travel one step closer to carbon neutrality.
May 1, 2024 Gwinnett Daily Post
Dacula Man Files Lawsuit To Stop Mulberry Referendum – Here’s What We Know
Curt Yeomans reports that Stephen Hughes believes his fellow residents of northeast Gwinnett County are being mislead about the proposal to create a city of Mulberry and he’s asking a judge to stop a May 21 referendum on cityhood from taking place.
May 1, 2024 GPB
‘Orange Crush is not going away’: Activist says more Tybee Island policing won’t end festival
Benjamin Payne reports that an activist and recent graduate of Savannah State University is describing the police presence on Tybee Island as “overbearing” during this year’s Orange Crush spring break gathering, after the city’s police department deployed more officers despite a smaller turnout than last year’s record turnout. Jaydon Grant, a 2023 graduate of the HBCU whose students in 1988 originated the gathering, organized a cleanup of Tybee Island’s beach afterward.
May 1, 2024 Albany Herald
Ossoff works to bring funds for healthy food to southwest Georgia
Staff reports that U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is delivering resources to expand access to fresh fruits and vegetables for children in southwest Georgia. Ossoff announced Tuesday he is delivering new federal funding for Flint River Fresh to support the agency’s farm-to-school programs in Dougherty County and increase access to fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables.
May 1, 2024 Valdosta Daily Times
Austin’s Law signed by governor in Valdosta
Terry Richards reports, with a flourish of pens, Georgia’s governor signed a number of bills into law during a visit to Valdosta Tuesday, ranging from an anti-fentanyl law spurred on by a Lowndes County family’s tragedy to a law restricting foreign ownership of Georgia agricultural land. About 100 people attended Gov. Brian Kemp’s signing event at the Lowndes County Civic Center, including city, county and state officials.
May 1, 2024 Georgia Recorder
Governor approves Georgia law to restrict farmland ownership by ‘foreign adversaries’
Jill Nolin reports that the governor has signed off on a controversial measure that bans agents of China and other countries labeled as foreign adversaries from buying up farmland or property near military installations in Georgia. The legislation is part of a wave of similar bills that have moved through statehouses across the country in the wake of a 2021 federal report that found that foreign investors held about 40 million acres of U.S. agricultural land, or about 3% of the total amount.
May 1, 2024 Capitol Beat News
Kemp signs farm package
Dave Williams reports that Gov. Brian Kemp signed a package of bills Tuesday aimed at improving agriculture, by far Georgia’s No.-1 industry. Kemp touted the economic development successes his administration has brought to rural communities throughout the Peach State since taking office in 2019.
May 1, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fulton reprimanded for missed votes in initial 2022 primary count
Mark Niesse reports that election workers in Fulton County initially failed to count 1,326 votes during the 2022 primary because they weren’t loaded from memory cards, according to an investigation report. The State Election Board reprimanded the county, which corrected its vote totals and recertified the election in June 2022.
