Georgia Trend Daily – Aug. 6, 2025
Aug. 6, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Federal loan to help finance Georgia 400 toll lanes
Dave Williams reports that a plan to add toll lanes along Georgia 400 in Fulton and Forsyth counties is getting a big boost from the federal government. The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Tuesday announced a loan of up to $3.89 billion to help build the project.
Aug. 6, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Cities Get Creative
Rachel Wallenstein reports, stroll through downtown Douglasville and you’ll come face-to-face with more than a dozen hand-painted fiberglass hearts. The eye-catching, unique sculptures are part of a larger movement in Georgia’s historic Main Street cities, where public art has become a powerful tool for downtown revival.
Aug. 6, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ga. 400 toll lanes, state’s most expensive project, close on financing
Emma Hurt reports, the group that last year won a massive contract to build and operate the new Ga. 400 express lanes has closed on the record-breaking financing package needed to pull off the nearly $11 billion project. SR 400 Peach Partners expects to build the new 16-mile managed lanes by 2031 and collect tolls along the route for 50 years.
Aug. 6, 2025 Marietta Daily Journal
Lockheed’s C-130J advances to “Coolest Thing” competition semifinal
Jack Lindner reports that Lockheed Martin’s Marietta-made C-130J Super Hercules aircraft has added another honor to its resume: semifinalist in the Georgia Chamber of Commerce’s inaugural “Coolest Thing Made in Georgia” competition. The “Coolest Thing Made in Georgia” competition is a statewide knockout-style competition, launched by the Georgia Chamber and designed to celebrate innovators and their products.
Aug. 6, 2025 WSB Radio
New report finds major housing shortage across Georgia
Staff reports, a new report finds a major shortage of housing across metro Atlanta and Georgia. Chris Denson with the Georgia Public Policy Foundation says Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, and Gwinnett combined are short more than 200,000 homes.
Aug. 6, 2025 GlobalAtlanta.com
Experts: How Mexico Tariff Uncertainty Is Stalling North American Investment
Trevor Williams reports, when Diego Marroquín Bitar started his keynote speech in Atlanta Thursday, he held up his smartphone for the audience, advising them to keep theirs close by. “Don’t get distracted, but you might see a tweet from President Trump, and that might change the entire conversation. It has happened to me before,” said the expert on North American trade from The Wilson Center, visiting from Washington.
Aug. 6, 2025 WABE
PETA names Atlanta native as first new president in animal rights group’s 45-year history
Kendall Murry reports, animal rights organization PETA announced Friday that it is appointing a Georgia-born executive staff member as president, a position previously held by founder Ingrid Newkirk for the past 45 years. Atlanta native Tracy Reiman first joined the nonprofit in 1991 as a customer service representative, according to the group.
Aug. 6, 2025 Rome News-Tribune
Aviation business growing at Floyd County’s airport in Rome
Adam Carey reports, the runway isn’t the only thing growing at Floyd County’s Richard B. Russell Regional Airport, although it was recently extended to a full 7,000 feet. Kinetic Aviation, which formerly operated out of the Cobb County International Airport in Kennesaw, recently moved to the airport in Rome and is in the process of building a large hangar to house their operations.
Aug. 6, 2025 Macon Telegraph
Plans for Bolingbroke data center shot down by Monroe commissioners
Lucinda Warnke reports that after weeks of controversy, the proposal to rezone more than 900 acres of land near Bolingbroke died Tuesday evening after the Monroe County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to deny the proposal. The decision comes about a week after the Monroe County Planning and Zoning Board voted unanimously to recommend denying the proposal.
Aug. 6, 2025 Savannah Morning News
Forbes ranks Georgia second in nation for strictest traffic laws. What speeders should know
Vanessa Countryman reports, Georgia has landed among the toughest states in the country for traffic enforcement, ranking No. 2 nationwide in a new study published by Forbes. According to the report, based on research from Davidoff Law Personal Injury Lawyers, Georgia drivers face some of the steepest penalties in the U.S., especially for speeding violations and DUI offenses.
Aug. 6, 2025 The Brunswick News
Final public input session on bird island rule set for today
Staff reports that the state Department of Natural Resources is hosting the last of three public input sessions today on an expansion of the state’s bird island rule, which would add Brunswick’s Bird Island to the list of protected sites. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the Skidaway Island State Park group pavilion, 52 Diamond Causeway in Savannah. The DNR held two such sessions in Brunswick and St. Marys in July.
Aug. 6, 2025 WABE
Former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan switches from Republican to Democrat
Lisa Rayam and Lily Oppenheimer report that Georgia’s former Republican Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan grew up in a Republican household, in the deep-South, heavily-red Forsyth County. “That was the lens I looked through,” Duncan tells WABE’s “Morning Edition,” just hours after announcing that it’s official: he is now a Democrat.
Aug. 6, 2025 Capitol Beat News
PSC sets hearings on Georgia Power plan for more generating capacity
Dave Williams reports that Georgia energy regulators voted unanimously Tuesday to hold hearings this fall on a Georgia Power request to certify 9,900 megawatts of new power generating capacity environmentalists say would rely heavily on harmful fossil fuels. The plan calls for adding about 8,000 megawatts of capacity by building new gas-burning turbines at Georgia Power’s Plant Bowen near Cartersville, Plant Wansley near Carrollton, and Plant McIntosh near Rincon.
Aug. 6, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Michael Thurmond enters Ga. governor’s race pledging to be ‘bridge builder’
Greg Bluestein reports that Democrat Michael Thurmond said Wednesday he is running for Georgia governor, pledging to fight the fallout from a Republican-backed tax and spending law that cuts Medicaid and public health programs. The former DeKalb County chief executive told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he sees himself as a problem-solving “bridge builder” who can create bipartisan coalitions to counter President Donald Trump’s policies.
