Georgia Trend Daily – July 1, 2025
July 1, 2025 Macon Telegraph
Train derails in Fort Valley area amid a flash flood. What we know
Carly Lenhardt reports, a Norfolk Southern train traveling through the Fort Valley area was derailed Saturday during a flash flood, officials say. Twenty-three train cars derailed shortly after 3 a.m., but none contained loaded hazardous materials.
July 1, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
2025 TravelBlazers
LeeAnn Dance reports, tourism is in hot pursuit of agriculture to be Georgia’s top economic driver. The two are virtually tied, says Amanda Dyson Thornton, executive director of the Georgia Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (GACVB), and she’s eagerly awaiting the new numbers to be announced at the Governor’s Conference in September.
July 1, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Home Depot makes $5.5B acquisition to increase business with pro contractors
Kelly Yamanouchi reports, Home Depot announced an agreement for one of its subsidiaries to acquire GMS Inc., a major specialty building products distributor. Vinings-based Home Depot acquired specialty trade distribution subsidiary SRS Distribution last year for $18.3 billion, and now it plans for SRS to acquire Tucker-based GMS for $5.5 billion, based on total enterprise value.
July 1, 2025 GlobalAtlanta.com
New Flight to Connect Atlanta to Another Eastern Caribbean Escape in December
Trevor Williams reports, a new nonstop flight starting Dec. 20 is set to connect Atlanta with yet another Caribbean island aiming to deepen cultural connections with the city while drawing tourist traffic via Delta Air Lines Inc. The island of Grenada in early June undertook three events in Atlanta — a brunch at Barney’s, an evening soiree at Rock Steady Atlanta and a training session at The Capital Grille Buckhead — designed to give local residents along with travel influencers and professionals a peek at the culinary offerings and cultural heritage of the “Isle of Spice.”
July 1, 2025 Rome News-Tribune
AT&T expands fiber network in the Rome area
Staff reports that AT&T Fiber is now available to nearly 900 new residential and business locations in the Rome area. The expanded network will give more customers access to super-fast internet speeds up to 5-Gigs.1 “We appreciate AT&T’s continued investment in fiber internet in the Rome community,” Mayor Craig McDaniel said.
July 1, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
Rebecca Wilbert reports that Cobb County is stepping up to the plate to host Major League Baseball All-Star Week, starting with the HBCU (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) Swingman Classic on Friday, July 11. The five-day extravaganza also includes the Home Run Derby, interactive fan experiences and a 4.4-mile race honoring the late Braves slugger Hank Aaron.
July 1, 2025 Savannah Morning News
Liberty, Long and McIntosh counties form Tri-95 Georgia Joint Development Authority
Destini Ambus reports, at the end of the event held Thursday afternoon launching a tri-county partnership to drive economic growth along the I-95 corridor, Liberty County Economic Development CEO Brynn Grant wanted to highlight why it was such an important project to pursue: the human side of it. “[There are] people who are working hard everyday but can’t make basic household budgets work and in our communities, in Liberty County, that’s 45%,” Grant said.
July 1, 2025 Athens Banner-Herald
Georgia athletics partners with Learfield for massive upgrades to NIL atmosphere
Sara Tidwell reports, Georgia athletics and Learfield have launched a new Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) partnership, the university announced Monday afternoon, June 30. “This cutting-edge collaboration will function independently from the University as a comprehensive marketing and NIL agency, leveraging Learfield Impact NIL services to provide student-athletes with unprecedented tools to build their personal brands, connect with sponsors, and earn income beyond traditional revenue-sharing models,” according to the school-issued release.
July 1, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Audit of state program for kids produces mixed results
Ty Tagami reports, a program that was intended to improve Georgia’s ranking on indicators of child “well-being” has produced mixed results, according to a state audit. Georgia lawmakers asked for an examination of the Georgia Family Connection Partnership, which received $30 million in funding in fiscal year 2024, more than a quarter of it from the state.
July 1, 2025 The Current
Federal grant termination notices piling up across Georgia
Maggie Lee reports that on May 9, a federal notice arrived at a state office that cut millions of dollars earmarked for a bipartisan effort to get rural Georgians connected to high-speed Internet. The U.S. Department of Commerce declared it was canceling a $22 million federal grant promised to Georgia in 2021 that had included the words “digital equity” and “digital inclusion.”
July 1, 2025 Gainesville Times
Georgia advocates sound alarm on medical cannabis protections
Danny McArthur reports that the Georgia Medical Cannabis Society held an emergency town hall Monday, June 30, at the Spouts Springs branch of the Hall County Library to discuss potential threats to federal protections. Advocates for medical cannabis gathered to discuss the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) amendment.
July 1, 2025 Augusta Chronicle
Why have some pornography sites in GA disappeared? New law impacting adult entertainment
Miguel Legoas reports, if you’re from Georgia and are a user of Pornhub, you’ll need to find a new adult entertainment website. As of July 1, the site’s content has been pulled from the Peach State and anyone who visits it is now greeted by a message explaining this is due to new age verification laws.
July 1, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Judge blocks Georgia’s new social media age verification law just before it was set to start
Ross Williams reports, Georgia kids can continue liking, commenting and subscribing without notifying their parents this summer after a federal judge put a temporary hold on the state’s new social media age verification law while the case moves forward – but the bill’s author says a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling bodes well for the ban. Senate Bill 351, which was set to go into effect July 1, would require social media companies to get a parent’s permission before they allowed a minor to create an account.
July 1, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Georgia election chief: review finds discrepancy within margin of error
Ty Tagami reports that a hand count of ballots in a primary election race for the Georgia Public Service Commission found a discrepancy, but Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger determined it was not a problem. The audit of results in all 159 counties for the District 2 Republican contest found one batch of 328 audited ballots had a discrepancy, but it was within an expected margin of error for a hand count, Raffensperger said Monday.
July 1, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Geoff Duncan weighs whether to run for Georgia governor – as a Democrat
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report that former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is weighing a run for higher office as a Democrat. But is the party ready for him? In a conversation with the “Politically Georgia” podcast airing today, Duncan, an AJC contributing opinion columnist, expressed his ongoing exasperation over the direction of the Republican Party under President Donald Trump.
