East Central

Gary Haynes was one of the lucky ones who quickly found work when he lost his job in Washington County’s kaolin industry. After 24 years in the kaolin mines, Haynes had risen to the well-paying position of operations manager, but…

These days, Augusta’s economy is being driven by three powerful high-tech engines – healthcare, nuclear energy and the military. There is the rapidly growing Georgia Health Sciences University with its $112-million College of Dental Medicine building – one of the…

Folks in Jefferson County have gotten used to bad news over the years. With an unemployment rate hovering around 14 percent, this rural East Georgia region has been battered by a series of plant closures and layoffs. Since the 1990s,…

Folks in Emanuel County are apt to say they haven’t taken the kind of economic battering that their neighbors have been experiencing lately. Few businesses have closed up, and things seem to be ticking along as usual. Of course, the…

It is a pleasant summer morning near Metter on Candler County’s Silver Fox Farm, where a three-month-old colt is kicking up its heels on a playful gallop with the proud mother. In the nearby stables, other horses are whinnying and…

Business as usual in Augusta these days means $340 million in ongoing projects. It means new roads connecting to old ones, new companies investing in green building and new flight connections at Augusta Airport. It also means year-round tourism above…

Todd Manack is driving his SUV slowly past Statesboro Crossing, a two-year-old retail center just south of the downtown area of the Bulloch County seat. For Manack, the estimated $250-million investment that created Statesboro Crossing is evidence of the value…

It’s late on a still and sweltering afternoon at Lake Oconee, but a small sailboat has found just enough breeze to move it slowly toward shore and into the lengthening shadows. Nearby, a handful of Jet Ski riders are crisscrossing…

Augusta is known worldwide as the home of one of golf’s greatest tournaments, the Masters. However, there’s far more to this city, located some two hours east of Atlanta, than green fairways and green jackets. Augusta also is home to…

The drive from Grovetown to Harlem in southern Columbia County is only nine miles and the country scenery is straight off a feed and seed calendar – at least for the first few miles. Then the landscape becomes dotted with…