Georgia Trend Daily – May 5, 2025
May 5, 2025 Augusta Chronicle
Big care package: This Augusta hospital plans $150 million in improvements
Joe Hotchkiss reports that Doctors Hospital will be the Augusta area’s newest medical facility to become a teaching hospital to help overcome Georgia’s continuing shortage of health professionals. The $6.7 million to develop new Graduate Medical Education programs is part of more than $150 million in renovations and improvements to the HCA Healthcare facility, the hospital has announced.
May 5, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Empowering Entrepreneurs in Georgia
K.K. Snyder reports, in the vibrant and diverse economic landscape of Georgia, small businesses serve as the backbone of local communities and the state’s economy at large. These entrepreneurial ventures, ranging from family-owned shops to innovative tech startups, play a crucial role in fostering economic development, creating job opportunities and driving innovation in Georgia.
May 5, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Slowdown in global shipping will soon hit Georgia. Are layoffs, shortages next?
Emma Hurt and Adam Van Brimmer report, global shipping is slowing a month after President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” escalation of the trade war. Georgia companies, workers and consumers could soon feel that softening.
May 5, 2025 Capitol Beat News
UGA research farm breaks ground in Perry
Dave Williams reports that the University of Georgia officials broke ground Friday on a research farm next to the Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry. The 250-acre Grand Farm will serve as a hub for research, education, and sustainable farming practices. Innovative technology including precision agriculture, robotics and data analysis will be used to increase productivity while conserving resources.
May 5, 2025 Georgia Recorder
NE Georgia community ruffled over planned poultry processing plant’s potential for river pollution
Stanley Dunlap reports that agriculture is Georgia’s top industry, and broilers are the state’s top farm product. But the mess that large-scale poultry farming causes can create tensions between residents and corporate owners.
May 5, 2025 Newnan Times-Herald
Palmetto residents fight rezoning for massive data center, urge commissioners to rescind decision
Jeffrey Cullen-Dean reports that Palmetto residents hope to have the Coweta County Board of Commissioners rescind its vote regarding the rezoning of property from rural conservation to light industrial for a data center. At their April 15 meeting, commissioners voted to rezone approximately 320 acres for a 2.1 million-square-foot data center campus near Palmetto.
May 5, 2025 Marietta Daily Journal
Cobb Confirms Data Breach was Ransom Attack
Annie Mayne reports that Cobb County confirmed the March data breach that compromised the information of at least 10 people was a ransom attack. The county said it declined the ransom demand made by hackers, instead taking systems offline.
May 5, 2025 Georgia.gov
Gov. Kemp Signs Bills Improving Healthcare and Supporting Coastal Communities
Staff reports that Gov. Kemp, joined by First Lady Marty Kemp, Speaker Jon Burns, constitutional officers, members of the Georgia General Assembly, and local leaders, signed legislation helping promote access to quality, affordable healthcare for hardworking Georgians and supporting the continued growth of coastal communities.
May 5, 2025 Rome News-Tribune
Lumsden’s Fertility Preservation Bill Signed Into Law; Local Lawmakers Have Other Health Measures Pending
Diane Wagner reports that legislation sponsored by state Rep. Eddie Lumsford, R-Armuchee, is among the slate of healthcare bills signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp. House Bill 94 requires health benefit policies to provide coverage for standard fertility preservation services when certain medically necessary treatments may cause infertility.
May 5, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Confusion, concern over the future of Medicaid management in Georgia
Ty Tagami reports that the future oversight over Georgia’s multi-billion-dollar Medicaid program is in limbo as companies battle over new management contracts after a lengthy bidding process. The medical safety net covered 2.5 million children, pregnant woman, low-income adults, seniors and people with disabilities in Georgia last year.
May 5, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Georgia Dems pick former AG candidate Bailey to lead party back to win column
Stanley Dunlap reports that Charlie Bailey, a former attorney general and lieutenant governor candidate, was elected as chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia Saturday, replacing Atlanta U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams. Bailey becomes the Democratic Party of Georgia’s first full-time chair as the party intensifies its efforts to fundraise and campaign for candidates and reenergize a base after setbacks following the 2020 historic elections for U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
May 5, 2025 Capitol Beat News
International students win another legal decision against Trump administration’s immigration actions
Ty Tagami reports that a federal judge in Atlanta ordered the Trump administration on Friday to maintain the legal status of 133 current and former international college students who were legally admitted into the United States for school only to have their status suddenly revoked. The preliminary injunction by Judge Victoria Marie Calvert of the Northern District of Georgia was anticipated after she issued a temporary restraining order in favor of the plaintiffs last month.
May 5, 2025 WABE
Georgia will have special statewide elections along with city races in 2025
Rahul Bali reports, Georgia will have off-cycle statewide elections this year, along with regularly scheduled municipal elections. Those statewide races come after a long legal challenge to the Georgia Public Service Commission’s (PSC) election structure, which led to no PSC elections in 2022 and 2024.
May 5, 2025 State Affairs
What did DOGE do? Layoffs, lost grants and other fallout from federal funding cuts
Beau Evans reports that the email hit her inbox like a hammer. Gilda Pedraza, executive director and founder of the nonprofit Latino Community Fund Georgia, was working late on April 22 when the U.S. Department of Justice notified her that she was about to lose another federal grant.
May 5, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Cherokee County could soon prove new bellwether for Georgia’s northern shift from red to blue
Ross Williams reports that Cherokee County hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter was on the ballot. Tucked in between the conservative, rural north Georgia mountains and the more liberal Atlanta suburbs, Cherokee has a relatively large population that is relatively conservative, which makes it a gold mine for Republicans running statewide races.
May 5, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Survey: Georgia OB-GYNs say state abortion law risks mothers’ health
Maya T. Prabhu reports that a survey of 38 of Georgia’s OB-GYNs found that nearly half of doctors participating said they have personally encountered cases where care had to be delayed, causing death or health complications for the mother, as a result of ambiguity in the state’s abortion law. The survey, done by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology in conjunction with Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, aimed to get a collection of narratives on the impacts of Georgia’s abortion law.
