Georgia Trend Daily – Dec. 5, 2025

Dec. 5, 2025 Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Major employer will invest $12.5 million to create 480 new jobs in Columbus

Jordyn Paul-Slater reports that Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday that BioTouch, a health care logistics company based in West Haven, Connecticut, will invest $12.5 million to expand its two facilities in Columbus. According to the news release, this investment will create an additional 480 new jobs over the next four years.

Dec. 5, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!

HCBUs Benefit During Season of Giving

Kathleen Conway reports, in October, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation announced it was donating $50 million to Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College and Spelman College – HBCUs in the Atlanta University Center. The money will be used to fund scholarships for students in good academic standing who are close to finishing their degree but have exhausted all other financial aid options.

Dec. 5, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Why Big Tech sees Georgia farmland as ripe for data centers

Drew Kann and Zachary Hansen report, for almost three decades, Nancy Lubeck and her husband, Paul, have lived in a home tucked in the woods off a gravel road 30 minutes south of Macon. For the Lubecks, there’s a lot to love about their slice of Middle Georgia, including the seclusion that life offers on 28 acres surrounded mostly by trees.

Dec. 5, 2025 Georgia Ports Authority

Vietnam now Port of Savannah’s fastest growing trade partner

Staff reports that Vietnam is emerging as the Port of Savannah’s fastest-growing trade partner, propelled by increased manufacturing and a strong push to expand the country’s logistics backbone. “With its strategic location and business-friendly policies, Vietnam represents an expanding logistics market,” said Georgia Ports President and CEO Griff Lynch.

Dec. 5, 2025 Augusta Chronicle

Columbia County data center ordinance passes after renewed objections

Joe Hotchkiss reports that Columbia County commissioners approved a zoning ordinance to govern data centers, over residents’ objections to both the ordinance and a massive development project that the new law anticipates. The board’s unanimous vote Tuesday enacts limits on data centers intended in part to limit their impact on surrounding property.

Dec. 5, 2025 Newnan Times-Herald

Environmental group urges delay on Coweta data center vote

Clay Neeley and Jeffrey Cullen-Dean reports that the Southern Poverty Law Center is urging Coweta County commissioners to delay a vote on the county’s proposed data center ordinance, arguing the current draft is incomplete and lacks key protections for residents. The letter, sent Nov. 18 to the Board of Commissioners through email and the county’s online public comment portal, has entered the public record.

Dec. 5, 2025 Macon Telegraph

Another big data center coming to Middle Georgia? 12M square foot facility proposed

Lucinda Warnke reports that as data centers make waves in Georgia, a developer is proposing a 12-million-square-foot data center project in Monroe County. According to documents submitted to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the developer — Atlanta-based Trammell Crow Company — is looking to rezone more than 1,600 acres of land near Johnsonville Road in Forsyth. The land is currently owned by H&H Timberlands, LLC.

Dec. 5, 2025 Macon Melody

Macon’s Uber-like public transit service heads south

Casey Choung reports that Rapid Transit, Macon’s pilot program that allows public transportation passengers to use an app to request specific pick up and drop-off locations, is looking to expand into southern Bibb County. The Macon Transit Authority’s rides-on-demand program rolled out its microtransit fleet of five colorful vans in July with service in a zone that included the downtown area and extended to Walmart on Gray Highway and as far south as MLK Jr. Boulevard and Mercer University Drive.

Dec. 5, 2025 Marietta Daily Journal

Cobb outlines long legislative wish list as lawmakers warn of ‘hot mess’ session

Isabelle Manders reports that Cobb County Board of Commissioners and other county leaders met with state lawmakers over breakfast this week to hash out a long list of priorities heading into the upcoming legislative session. The annual meeting between the commission and the Cobb Legislative Delegation touched on everything from 911 upgrades and transportation funding to annexation fights, evictions, special elections, school-zone cameras and commissioner terms.

Dec. 5, 2025 The Current

Georgia’s new law targets fraudulent temporary car tag market

Jasmine Wright reports that the lucrative illegal market of buying and selling temporary car tags in Georgia is expected to take a hit in January thanks to a new law designed to curb fraud by thousands of shell companies and unscrupulous used car dealers in the state. Legal car sales require the seller to provide a buyer the title of a car, as well as paperwork that allows the buyer to purchase a license plate.

Dec. 5, 2025 Georgia Recorder

Carr’s challenge to Jones’ $10M campaign loan dismissed by ethics panel

Alander Rocha reports that Lt. Gov. Burt Jones’ $10 million loan to his gubernatorial campaign didn’t violate the law, the Georgia State Ethics Commission ruled on Thursday, effectively putting an end to a legal fight from rival Republican gubernatorial candidate Attorney General Chris Carr. Jones made the loan through a financial structure called a leadership committee, which was created by a 2021 state law.

Dec. 5, 2025 State Affairs

Lawmakers probe Lottery amid drop in funding for preschools, scholarships

Beau Evans reports that House lawmakers have grilled top officials in the Georgia Lottery Corp. amid a recent drop in revenues for preschools and college scholarships. Questions over the Lottery’s operational costs from members of the House Regulated Industries Committee on Wednesday come as gaming officials hail a total $30 billion raised from ticket sales for educational programs since the Lottery’s creation in 1992.

Dec. 5, 2025 Capitol Beat News

Lawmakers seek Lottery money for need-based college scholarships

Ty Tagami reports that a record number enrolled in Georgia’s public colleges and universities this fall as the state’s lottery continued to produce a windfall for academic scholarships, but a bipartisan legislative committee thinks too many students are still being left behind. More than 2 million have received a HOPE Scholarship since the public lottery that funds them was established three decades ago.

Dec. 5, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Million dollar mystery: Who paid for ad attacking Burt Jones?

Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report, a group called Georgians for Integrity spent roughly $1 million on a 30-second ad attacking Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, the early front-runner among Republicans in the race for governor. But the intrigue is less about the content of the ad than who paid for it.