Southwest

On a Sunday afternoon, John Norton stands in the shop attached to his Albany home and holds a 15,000-year-old fossilized Siberian mammoth tusk in his hands. He’s surrounded by containers holding shredded currency, denim, exotic woods, shotgun shells, large-caliber ammunition,…

Last April when The Associated Press carried a story about the online monthly publication JobBait.com’s including Valdosta on its list of two dozen American “recession-proof” communities, the city’s residents received the recognition with the same mixture of joy and dread…

On more than a few occasions in modern times the people of southwest Georgia have resorted to prayer to bring rain for thirsty crops or provide other forms of relief for their economic woes. But those were times when almost…

In Thomasville these days, you can hardly turn around without running into a newly arrived Florida refugee. Not only are their numbers growing, several have brought their businesses and employees along with them. This story is repeating itself all across…

With a pelting rain falling from a sky the color of oatmeal, it wasn’t exactly a chamber of commerce day for announcing the arrival of 134 new jobs brought to Albany by the Senior Life Insurance Company at its new…

An expanded self-image can be a marvelous economic fertilizer. Throughout Southwest Georgia, cities and counties are striving for a “creative economy.” While not abandoning traditional models – that is, courting relocation-prospect companies with tax breaks and land deals – some…

Valdosta/Lowndes County: Growing Up