Georgia Trend Daily – Feb. 9, 2026
Feb. 9, 2026 Georgia.gov
Gov. Kemp: Preciball USA Invests $17 Million in Screven County
Staff reports that Gov. Kemp on Friday announced that Preciball USA plans to invest $17.6 million in a new production facility in Screven County, creating 65 new jobs over the next several years. “Preciball USA is one of the small-to-medium-sized manufacturers whose products are critical to entire industries that call Georgia home, and we are proud of their continued growth in the No. 1 state to do business,” said Kemp.
Feb. 9, 2026 Georgia Trend Exclusive!
2026 Legislative Guide
Christy Simo reports that Georgia Trend’s Legislative Guide provides contact information for legislators and other elected officials. Information that was not available at press time, including some committee assignments, is indicated by NA. All other information in the guide was correct as we went to press but may have changed since.
Feb. 9, 2026 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coca-Cola shifting sports drink business BodyArmor to Atlanta, report says
Amy Wenk reports that Coca-Cola will migrate its sports drink business BodyArmor Sports Nutrition from New York to Atlanta, an effort that brings several of the company’s hydration brands under one unit, according to trade publication Beverage Digest. The BodyArmor business, which includes the coconut water-based sports beverage along with the Powerade brand, operates today at a Whitestone, New York headquarters.
Feb. 9, 2026 Rome News-Tribune
Ga Chamber releases annual Redbook economic report
Staff reports that the Georgia Chamber Foundation has published its 2026 Economic Competitiveness Redbook, a comprehensive collection of statewide economic data, with digital copies available online. Now in the fourth year of publication, the Redbook is a guide to Georgia’s economic achievements and forecasted trends for informed business and legislative decision-making.
Feb. 9, 2026 Savannah Morning News
Hyundai’s Georgia metaplant to boost US production, EV sales
Latrice Williams reports that Ira Gabriel, senior group manager for Hyundai Motor Company, said the company’s mega facility in Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America will help the company reach its target goal to produce more than 80% of its vehicles sold in the United States domestically by 2030. Gabriel said that number stands at 40% today.
Feb. 9, 2026 Rome News-Tribune
Rock City seeks to add gondola system to take visitors up the mountain
Tamara Wolk reports that Rock City Gardens won approval from Walker County commissioners for a zoning change needed to move forward with a gondola system that will carry visitors up the mountain to the attraction. Company officials are turning next to the city of Lookout Mountain, asking it to remove a prohibition against chair lifts.
Feb. 9, 2026 GPB
Atlanta’s E-Bike Rebate Program gets renewed for second round trip
Amanda Andrews reports, Atlanta’s E-Bike Rebate Program will return this year for another round of applicants. Atlanta City Council recently approved $1 million in funding for the program.
Feb. 9, 2026 Capitol Beat News
Federal judge orders Trump administration to produce information that led to Fulton County elections raid
Ty Tagami reports that a federal judge in Atlanta has given the administration of President Donald Trump until Tuesday to give the court the documentation that led to the seizure of Fulton County ballots from the 2020 presidential election. The order signed Saturday by U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee also unsealed the court file for the subsequent lawsuit against the Trump administration that was brought by Fulton County Commission Chairman Rob Pitts.
Feb. 9, 2026 Georgia Recorder
Ossoff tells supporters ‘we will overcome this together’ as he blasts Trump for FBI raid
Maya Homan reports, for many Democrats, the mood during President Donald Trump’s first year back in office has been decidedly grim. But at a Saturday campaign rally in Atlanta, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff told voters that “the first light of dawn is on the horizon.”
Feb. 9, 2026 Georgia Recorder
Trump backs a candidate to replace Greene, a Georgia Senate race takes shape and more
Jill Nolin and Ross Williams reports, President Donald Trump has weighed in on the crowded race to replace former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in northwest Georgia. Trump gave his backing this week to Republican Clay Fuller, former district attorney for the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit.
Feb. 9, 2026 The Brunswick News
State lawmakers debate election reform
Gordon Jackson reports that state Republican lawmakers are scrambling to keep a promise to voters about election reform in Georgia after the controversy surrounding election results in recent years. They told voters several years ago they’d remove the QR codes that help read election results by July 1, 2026, but the state Senate failed to pass election reform legislation to address the issue last year.
Feb. 9, 2026 The Imprint
Georgia child welfare cuts called ‘unacceptable’: Budget boost proposed
Jordan Anderson reports, to resolve the ongoing controversy regarding state spending on foster care, the Georgia House of Representatives has approved an $82 million boost for the state’s child welfare agency — twice as much as what the governor pledged last month. On Thursday, the House voted overwhelmingly in favor of additional funding for the Division of Family and Children Services, a move intended to address a massive budget shortfall and restore controversial foster care service cuts made late last year by the agency’s director, Candice Broce.
Feb. 9, 2026 State Affairs
The Gold Leaf: Week four of the 2026 legislative session
Beau Evans reports, Rep. Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, remembers the days when passing the state’s midyear budget was a “little sleepy affair.” Lately, it’s been different. A surplus of tax dollars that has swelled to more than $14 billion is now the wishing well for Georgia’s most powerful state officials to fund expensive, headline-grabbing endeavors.
Feb. 9, 2026 The Current
House GOP’s property tax relief plan prompts debate over public service funding
Maggie Lee reports, Georgia state House Republicans have a proposal to help tame the affordability crisis: end property taxes for homeowners by 2032. But the proposed shakeup has municipal and county governments, as well as public school systems, struggling to understand how their traditional method of funding services will be affected.
Feb. 9, 2026 Capitol Beat News
Book ban versus parent control, lawmakers debate purpose of bill that could send librarians to jail
Ty Tagami reports, legislation to strip librarians of their criminal immunity from a law that makes it illegal to give “harmful” books and other content to minors is moving quickly through the Georgia General Assembly, after passing a House committee in a partisan vote Friday. Conservatives and religious advocates have been pushing for years to revoke the librarian exemption from a 1980s obscenity law that makes it a crime to knowingly give a minor a visual, written or recorded work depicting sex or sexuality in a way that offends the “prevailing standards” of a community.
Feb. 9, 2026 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Republicans unveil legislation aimed at support for working families
Michelle Baruchman and Maya T. Prabhu report, continuing this year’s theme of trying to make life more affordable for Georgians, House Republican leadership announced a package of bills aimed at addressing working families. The bills, all sponsored by Republican women, are likely to move forward in the GOP-controlled Legislature.
