Georgia Trend Daily – Aug. 28, 2025
Aug. 28, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Kemp: South American trade trip going better than expected
Dave Williams reports that the Georgia delegation on a trade mission to South America this week is working on prospective deals with three companies, Gov. Brian Kemp told Capitol Beat Wednesday in an exclusive interview from Brazil. “This trip has exceeded my expectations,” Kemp said from São Paulo, where he has spent the first part of the week before heading to Argentina on Thursday.
Aug. 28, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Catching up with… John Haupert
Rachel Wallenstein reports that John Haupert joined Grady Health System in 2011 and led transformational changes for the hospital. In 2023, he was named to the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s list of Most Admired CEOs.
Aug. 28, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Delta to pay $79 million to settle LA jet fuel dump lawsuit
Emma Hurt reports that Delta Air Lines has agreed to pay $78.6 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by homeowners and residents affected when a plane off-loaded jet fuel during an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport. Delta Flight 89 was leaving Los Angeles for Shanghai in January 2020 when it had an engine issue shortly after takeoff.
Aug. 28, 2025 Marietta Daily Journal
MetroAtlanta Ambulance CEO to Lead Cobb Chamber
Staff reports that Pete Quinones, CEO of MetroAtlanta Ambulance Service, will serve as the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s chairman in 2027, the chamber’s board announced Monday. Quinones will succeed Melissa Cantrell, president and CEO of CDH Partners, who begins her term as board chair in 2026.
Aug. 28, 2025 Rome News-Tribune
Rome Floyd Development Authority signs $5.7M data center deal for Battey Business Complex
Adam Carey reports that the Rome-Floyd Development Authority signed a term sheet Wednesday to sell the Battey Business Complex in a deal worth $5.7 million for the remaining 100 acres of the North Division Street site. The potential buyer is Atlas Development, which developed the Coosa and Dixon data center projects, also called Project Jazzy, outside Shannon.
Aug. 28, 2025 Macon Telegraph
EPA may change decade-old rules on cleaning coal ash. Could it affect Georgia?
Margaret Walker reports that the Environmental Protection Agency is planning to revise a coal ash cleanup rule from the era of former President Joe Biden, after the agency announced last month that it’s delaying key compliance deadlines. The EPA confirmed in an email to The Telegraph that it’s “evaluating opportunities to improve the federal CCR regulations,” which dictate how coal combustion residuals must be disposed of.
Aug. 28, 2025 Savannah Morning News
New $224 million factory in Georgia now open. Here’s which Japanese company is now in GA
Miguel Legoas reports that Georgia’s manufacturing industry is now in the toilet in a good way. Last week, TOTO plumbing company announced the opening of its new $224 million factory in Morrow about 10 miles south of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Aug. 28, 2025 Augusta Chronicle
Generator manufacturer could start generating tax dollars for Augusta with new facility
Joe Hotchkiss reports that a Wisconsin company that makes power generators and storage batteries could be another big economic generator for Augusta. City officials are scheduled to join representatives from Generac Power Systems to cut the ribbon on a 500,000-square-foot distribution facility at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at 3464 Mike Padgett Hwy.
Aug. 28, 2025 The Current
International Paper ignored local incentives to stay in Georgia
Robin Kemp reports, to many of the 1,100 workers at International Paper, news that the company was permanently shuttering its plants in Coastal Georgia came as a shock. Same for the normally savvy economic development leaders in Savannah.
Aug. 28, 2025 GlobalAtlanta.com
Finding the Flow: Atlanta’s Emrgy Aims to Unleash Distributed Hydro Power Around the World
Trevor Williams reports, with power demand skyrocketing around the world, proven low-carbon energy sources like hydro may seem like they’d be all the rage in 2025. But for all its established benefits, traditional hydro power has a few setbacks: Dams are expensive, and both regulation and community opposition make them challenging and time-consuming to build, especially in the United States.
Aug. 28, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Trump administration says CDC chief ousted, but her lawyer says she hasn’t resigned or been fired
Jennifer Shutt reports that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t appear inclined to leave her post, despite the Trump administration announcing Wednesday that she’s no longer running one of the country’s top public health agencies. Attorneys for Susan Monarez, who received Senate confirmation in late July, posted that she hasn’t been fired or resigned, but didn’t announce whether they plan to sue the administration.
Aug. 28, 2025 State Affairs
Social media rules for children focus of Senate panel
Beau Evans reports that new rules on how social media platforms can interact with children are in the works amid a Senate panel studying the mental and social effects of screen time on adolescents. The Senate Study Committee on the Impact of Social Media and AI on Children and Platform Privacy Protection kicked off its first hearing Wednesday with testimony on the dangers of social media for causing depression, addiction and stunted development in teens and younger kids.
Aug. 28, 2025 Capitol Beat News
A GOP candidate for governor holds his first campaign event
Ty Tagami reports that Lt. Gov. Burt Jones held his first gubernatorial campaign event Tuesday at a state park south of Atlanta, touting his endorsement by President Donald Trump, his record in the Senate of promoting conservative legislation and his background as a businessman. The evening event at Indian Springs State Park in Butts County featured several Republican state senators, and a former senator — Brandon Beach.
Aug. 28, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Judge calls for daily fines after Fulton County panel refuses to seat GOP picks for election board
Maya Homan reports that the Fulton County Board of Commissioners has been held in civil contempt of court after defying a court order mandating that they appoint two GOP nominees to the county board of elections. In a Wednesday ruling, Senior Superior Court Judge David Emerson said the board will be fined $10,000 per day until the panel agrees to approve Julie Adams and Jason Frazier’s appointments to the elections board.
Aug. 28, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia legislators aim to bring relief to family caregivers
Maya T. Prabhu reports, in 2019, Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones II’s father had a stroke. After spending some time in the hospital, doctors sent him home. That’s when Jones said he, his mother and his sister became caregivers for his father.
