From Campus to Classroom: Stories That Shape Education
- Lectenz Bio spun out from Robert J. Woods’ glycobiology research, developing enzymes to detect disease biomarkers like early-stage cancer.
- BioTouch plans a $12.5 million expansion in Columbus, creating 480 new jobs over four years.
- National Park Service removed Juneteenth and MLK Jr. Day from free admission dates, affecting 11 Georgia sites.
- Sen. Jon Ossoff centers his reelection messaging on preserving health insurance subsidies for over 1 million Georgians.
Dec. 8, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Ty Tagami reports, in a nod to the spread of opioids, Georgia is installing overdose reversal kits at all 2,300 public schools in the state using money from a legal settlement with the pharmaceutical industry. Distribution began this fall in parts of metro Atlanta and in southwest and central Georgia. The initiative is expected to be completed statewide by spring.
Dec. 8, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Patty Rasmussen reports, in 2009, Robert J. Woods spun a startup out of his extensive research in glycobiology, which is the study of carbohydrates. A distinguished research professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Chemistry at the University of Georgia, Woods cofounded Lectenz Bio based on reagents he and his colleagues developed from enzymes used to detect glycans, complex carbohydrate structures that are important disease biomarkers, such as in the early detection of cancer.
Dec. 8, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Zachary Hansen reports that a medical logistics company that makes health care kits announced an expansion plan for its Columbus operations, which will add 480 new jobs to the region. BioTouch said last week it will invest $12.5 million to expand two existing facilities in Columbus over the next four years, according to a news release.
Dec. 8, 2025 The Street, Macon Telegraph
Daniel Kline reports that while Keurig has faced an enormous backlash over the waste produced by its K-Cups, and Starbucks, McDonald’s, and many other chains have faced criticism over plastic straws, Coca-Cola has largely gotten a pass on its wasteful packaging. That’s not to say that nobody has criticized the beverage giant.
Dec. 8, 2025 The Brunswick News
Michael Hall reports that, for the first time in a decade, the continental United States was not hit by a hurricane. “There was what we call a trough that sat over the Eastern United States through much of the season,” said Kirsten Chaney, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Dec. 8, 2025 Savannah Morning News
Jillian Magtoto reports that tropical storms in 2024 caused the most hours of sustained power outages in the country in a decade, according to an analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Hurricanes Beryl, Helene and Milton accounted for 80% of these nationwide outages. Of these storms, Helene knocked the lights out the longest—an outage especially grueling for rural residents.
Dec. 8, 2025 Augusta Chronicle
Joe Hotchkiss reports that quarry developers are ready to rock in Columbia County. For the second time in eight months, county officials have filed paperwork with the state for a major commercial property development – a rock quarry project valued at $40 million.
Dec. 8, 2025 The Current
Mary Landers reports that a team from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources was documenting the second North Atlantic right whale calf of the season about four miles offshore of the Florida/Georgia border on Wednesday when they received an urgent message. An aerial survey team out of Florida had spotted the distressed whale while conducting the first field day of this right whale calving season, which runs from December through March.
Dec. 8, 2025 Athens Banner-Herald
Vanessa Countryman reports that Canton has claimed the title of Georgia’s biggest boomtown, according to new research that examined nearly a decade of growth across the country. The city stood out among communities of similar size, posting some of the strongest population and income gains in the state.
Dec. 8, 2025 Marietta Daily Journal
Hunter Riggall reports that the city of Marietta is considering buying back a vacant lot it previously sold to IKEA, potentially paving the way for its use as a pro women’s soccer training facility. The mayor and City Council are scheduled to discuss purchasing the property at a special-called meeting Monday evening.
Dec. 8, 2025 WABE
Melissa Feito reports that the National Park Service has removed Juneteenth and Martin Luther King Jr. Day from its list of free admission days for parks, adding among other dates President Donald Trump’s birthday, which falls on Flag Day. The sites affected include the 11 NPS-managed sites in Georgia, like the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area and Kennesaw Mountain.
Dec. 8, 2025 State Affairs
Beau Evans reports, the first big swing of Josh McKoon’s career came when he was in the fifth grade. Elections were being held for student body presidents at Brookstone School in Columbus, and the young McKoon figured he’d put his hat in the ring for middle school president.
Dec. 8, 2025 GPB
Sarah Kallis reports, hundreds of people packed a town hall in Murray County on Thursday night to speak out against a proposed bio-waste facility. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene turned out in support of her constituents in one of her first district appearances since announcing her resignation from Congress.
Dec. 8, 2025 Georgia Recorder, Canary Media
Jeff St. John reports that big companies have spent years pushing Georgia to let them find and pay for new clean energy to add to the grid, in the hopes that they could then get data centers and other power-hungry facilities online faster. Now, that concept is tantalizingly close to becoming a reality, with regulators, utility Georgia Power, and others hammering out the details of a program that could be finalized sometime next year.
Dec. 8, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Ty Tagami reports that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene criticized President Donald Trump in a televised interview Sunday, saying he had abandoned his MAGA followers to help “major industries” and “big donors.” During her nearly 14-minute interview on the PBS news program 60 Minutes, the Rome Republican criticized Trump and gave one reason why she had decided to step down next month, a year before her term expires: safety.
Dec. 8, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report, the battle over whether to extend subsidies that make health insurance affordable for millions of Americans will come to a head in the U.S. Senate this week — and U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is working to make it a defining issue of his reelection campaign. Ossoff released a video this morning featuring voices of some of the more than 1 million Georgians who could see their insurance premiums rise if the subsidies lapse.
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