Georgia Trend Daily – June 9, 2025
June 9, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Kemp visiting Canada to discuss future of trade relations amid tariff uncertainties
Dave Williams reports that Gov. Brian Kemp will lead a three-day trade mission to Canada amid an atmosphere of uncertainty prompted by a series of tariffs President Donald Trump has imposed on the United States’ northern neighbor. Kemp, joined by Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp and state Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson, will attend the 2025 Southeast U.S.-Canadian Provinces Alliance conference in Saint John, New Brunswick, which will run from June 8-10.
June 9, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
The Importance of Literacy
Ben Young writes, as summer begins, consider all the books you may read – whether by the pool, at home or on vacation – and remember how lucky you are to be able to read them. In Georgia, recent data shows some 36% of elementary students reading below grade level.
June 9, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Qcells to launch solar recycling venture at Cartersville facility
Allison Mawn reports that Qcells, which operates the largest solar panel manufacturing operation in the Western Hemisphere from its factories in northwest Georgia, is expanding into a new part of the business. The company said Monday it is launching a new business arm, EcoRecycle by Qcells, at its Cartersville plant, to recycle end-of-life solar installations to decrease waste, reduce the industry’s environmental footprint and repurpose key materials like aluminum, silver, copper and glass.
June 9, 2025 WABE
Steel and aluminum tariffs doubled as Georgia businesses face price increases
Marlon Hyde reports that Georgia businesses that rely on steel and aluminum will face higher costs after import taxes on these metals were doubled to 50% on Wednesday. This all comes within a week following a trade court blocking a bulk of President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs.
June 9, 2025 The Current
Twin Pines’ financial woes stall mining permits near Okefenokee Swamp
Mary Landers reports that Twin Pines Minerals, the company waiting for more than a year for permission to mine near the Okefenokee Swamp, has not submitted evidence of financial reserves required to receive its permits, state regulators disclosed this week. The news offers the latest window into the legal and fiscal challenges facing the Alabama-based company.
June 9, 2025 Fox 5 Atlanta
Georgia braces for more storms after weekend’s severe weather
Staff reports that Georgia is bracing for another round of severe weather after the weekend’s storms left one person dead and many trees down on homes and power lines. Many across metro Atlanta are still picking up the pieces after Saturday night’s heavy winds and rain.
June 9, 2025 Macon Telegraph
Compost site unique to Macon could soon divert millions of pounds of trash, waste
Margaret Walker reports that Macon is the home of a new compost facility, and hopefully by the end of the year, an adjacent recycling facility, making it the first and only of its kind in the state. Complete Resource Management’s Macon facility is designed to accept green waste such as tree debris, limbs and plant vegetation, along with food waste and industrial wood waste such as pallets and crates.
June 9, 2025 Savannah Morning News
New 46,000-square foot park in Richmond Hill to cost $27 million
Latrice Williams reports that Stephen Nottingham is bringing his vision for an interactive park to Richmond Hill. CEO and founder of the FREN Foundation, Nottingham plans to develop a $27 million park to promote traditional play, STEM activities and more.
June 9, 2025 11 Alive
‘An alarm bell should be going off’: University of North Georgia to study unusually high rates of thyroid cancer in northeast Georgia
Savannah Levins and Darrell Pryor report that state lawmakers, health leaders and epidemiologists are coming together to investigate what might be causing unusually high thyroid cancer rates in northeast Georgia. In a first-of-its-kind state House committee meeting on May 29, state lawmakers and health leaders heard from experts about unusually high rates of thyroid cancer in six neighboring counties of northeast Georgia.
June 9, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Votes trickle in for low-turnout Georgia Public Service Commission primaries
Amber Roldan reports that Cobb County voter Barry Paulk stopped by the West Cobb Regional Library Tuesday afternoon to pick up a copy of “Election,” the 1998 novel by Tom Perrotta. When he walked through the front doors, a poll manager reminded him that there’s a Public Service Commission election going on right now and asked if he wanted to vote.
June 9, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Georgia GOP delegates go home, keeping their chairman despite grievances ahead of a big election year
Ty Tagami reports that by the time nearly 1,700 Republican delegates were driving away from their annual state convention, a vigorous storm had descended on Dalton, rocking cars, dislodging a glass door at the convention center entry and tearing a flag off one of the poles outside. Party stalwarts fear another kind of storm could tear at GOP unity as a momentous election year approaches.
June 9, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
GOP activists want to stop Brad Raffensperger from running as a Republican
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger might wind up running for governor or U.S. Senate next year. But last weekend’s Georgia GOP convention was a reminder he still must contend with an angry activist base.
