Georgia Trend Daily – June 30, 2025
June 30, 2025 WABE
Hearings over Georgia Power energy plan, rate freeze get contentious
Emily Jones reports that the Georgia Public Service Commission will make two major decisions next month, on a proposal to temporarily freeze Georgia Power’s rates and on the utility’s long-term plan to make and deliver energy. Hearings on both issues this week got heated at times. The rate freeze proposal comes after the commission approved six bill increases implemented over the last three years.
June 30, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Nominate Lawyers for Legal Elite
Julia Roberts reports, each December, Georgia Trend highlights the state’s most effective lawyers. Your chance to nominate someone for this honor ends July 11, 2025. The lawyer must live in Georgia, and be a member of the State Bar of Georgia.
June 30, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Corporate pullback from LGBTQ groups leaves Atlanta organizations in the lurch
Mirthda Donastorg reports, as national Pride Month comes to a sweltering close, the four weeks dedicated to celebrating the country’s LGBTQ community have seen a cooling of support from corporate America. The sudden and deep cut in funding is impacting some Atlanta organizations, which are reevaluating their programming and staffing ahead of Atlanta’s biggest events centered on celebrating the LGBTQ community.
June 30, 2025 Augusta Chronicle
PureCycle Technologies will expand its proposed “Generation 2” recycling facility
Joe Hotchkiss reports that an Augusta plastics recycler will use part of a $300 million infusion of capital to expand its proposed facility off Mike Padgett Highway. Construction is expected to begin in the second half of 2025 on Orlando, Florida company PureCycle Technologies’ “Generation 2” recycling facility next to Augusta’s Starbucks production plant, the company has announced.
June 30, 2025 GlobalAtlanta.com
Georgia Entrepreneur Inspires Connections to South African Wilderness, One Classic Land Rover at a Time
Trevor Williams reports, for Georgia-born Stebin Horne, a love of South Africa has gone beyond an obsession; it’s an inspiration for fostering a lifestyle connected to the land — and one another. Married a decade ago to a South Africa native he met while she was on holiday in Atlanta, Mr. Horne has seen his world open up and his entrepreneurial inklings take on an urgent new mission: connecting his home state with what he now considers his adoptive country, while creating community in both.
June 30, 2025 Newnan Times-Herald
Prologis defends data center as commissioners seek answers
Laura Camper reports that Prologis, the company that has promised to purchase the Project Sail data center property, has been hosting meetings with the residents in that area to talk about the project. This month, representatives of the company, including Prologis’ global head of data centers, attended a tour of a data center campus similar to the project that Prologis is proposing in Western Coweta County, along with Coweta County commissioners and two residents.
June 30, 2025 Marietta Daily Journal
Cobb D.A. launches chaplain program to support staff facing trauma
Abby Cope reports, during a luncheon held by Cobb District Attorney Sonya Allen’s office this week, Senior District Attorney Jared Horowitz spoke of the nightmares he’s had from the crimes he’s investigated and prosecuted. Scenarios such as Horowitz’s are not uncommon, and the constant violent crimes and heartache witnessed while working in the district attorney’s office is what prompted Allen to introduce a chaplain program.
June 30, 2025 Appen Media
Johns Creek council split on $40 million bond referendum
Jon Wilcox reports, tempers flared June 26 as the Johns Creek City Council passed a measure calling for a referendum on a $40 million bond to help fund creating a performing arts center. The vote was 4-3.
June 30, 2025 State Affairs
Federal judge strike down social media restrictions for children
Beau Evans reports that children can keep scrolling TikTok and Instagram after a federal judge blasted new requirements for parents to give permission to access social media sites in Georgia. In a ruling handed down Thursday, U.S. Northern District Court Judge Amy Totenberg halted a General Assembly-passed measure prohibiting anyone under age 16 from visiting social media platforms without a parent or guardian’s consent.
June 30, 2025 Rome News-Tribune
Colton Moore weighs U.S. Senate bid as challenger launches campaign
Staff reports, as state Sen. Colton Moore mulls a bid for a U.S. Senate seat, a university professor has thrown his hat into the ring for the seat Moore currently holds. Georgia Senate District 53 covers Chattooga, Walker, Dade, Catoosa and part of Floyd County.
June 30, 2025 Macon Telegraph
Your income, your kids’ school and your rights: GA laws are changing on July 1
Sundi Rose reports, starting July 1, dozens of new Georgia laws will go into effect, changing the rules on everything from your paycheck to your kid’s school to what you can carry in your pocket. This year’s legislative updates touch nearly every corner of daily life, from lower income tax rates, stricter drug penalties, new education mandates, expanded tenant rights, and beyond.
June 30, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Ignorance of the law is no excuse, so get ready for these new ones about to take effect
Ty Tagami reports, on Tuesday, Georgians will reap what their state lawmakers sowed when a slew of new laws take effect, from divisive limits on transgender student athletes to a broadly popular guarantee to keep in vitro fertilization legal. In addition to keeping options to start life, the General Assembly gave Georgians a new way to say goodbye to loves ones when life ends.
June 30, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Will Donald Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ be a 2026 turning point?
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report that Georgia may no longer host the South’s most dramatic U.S. Senate contest. And President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget and spending package might be even more of a defining issue in the 2026 elections than expected.
