Feb. 18, 2025 GlobalAtlanta.com
Trevor Williams reports that having campaigned on lowering costs for consumers, President Donald Trump should keep an eye on the potential effects of tariffs on inflation, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said during a visit to the Munich Security Conference. “It’s not in anybody’s interest if we drive up cost,” Mr. Kemp said during an interview with Politico at the summit of mostly European leaders and policy makers.
Feb. 18, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Betty Darby, K.K. Snyder and Sara Haynes reports, what does it take to be honored as a visionary city? The Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) says visionary cities are ones that create positive change through effective civic engagement and collaboration.
Feb. 18, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Zachary Hansen reports that a proposal for an expansive data center campus in Bartow County is poised to become one of the area’s biggest projects — and largest electricity users. Preliminary plans for “Project Springbank” were disclosed Friday for a six-building data center campus an hour northwest of Atlanta, according to a Development of Regional Impact filing.
Feb. 18, 2025 Marietta Daily Journal
Staff reports that Wellstar Health System has named John Kerndl its new executive vice president and chief financial officer. Kerndl will replace Jim Budzinski, who announced his retirement earlier this month after over 15 years at Wellstar.
Feb. 18, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Dave Williams reports that Albany-based Phoebe Putney Health System and Atlanta’s Morehouse School of Medicine agreed Monday to enter a partnership aimed at improving health-care access in an area suffering from a shortage of medical providers. Southwest Georgia’s largest and most comprehensive health system and the historically Black medical school signed a memorandum of understanding to participate in multiple education, research, and community benefit initiatives.
Feb. 18, 2025 Augusta Chronicle
Joe Hotchkiss reports that a paper mill is crediting its move to Augusta for helping its net sales top $1 billion. Spokane, Washington-based Clearwater Paper Corp. bought Graphic Packaging Holding Co.’s bleached-paperboard manufacturing facility off Mike Padgett Highway in a $700 million deal that closed in May 2024, The Augusta Chronicle first reported.
Feb. 18, 2025 The Current
Craig Nelson reports that Coastal Georgia Congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter wants people to know he really means it when he says the U.S. should buy Greenland, the largest island in the world, and rename it “Red, White and Blueland.” That proposal, contained in a bill that Carter introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last week, would authorize President Donald Trump to enter negotiations to purchase the island, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark that is more than 14 times the size of Georgia with roughly the same number of people — 57,000 — as Valdosta.
Feb. 18, 2025 The Brunswick News
Hank Rowland reports that a bipartisan bill in the state House would require restaurants in Georgia with shrimp on the menu to reveal to the dining public if the crustaceans being served are imported and the country of origin. State Rep. Jesse Petrea, R-Savannah, is the author of House Bill 117.
Feb. 18, 2025 WABE, The Current
Maggie Lee reports that most members of the Georgia House and Senate in Atlanta approved 99% of the legislation they saw on the floor in the 2023-2024 term. Of nearly 1,400 votes in that term, the state House and Senate only said “no” 14 times.
Feb. 18, 2025 Athens Banner-Herald
Vanessa Countryman reports that a bill has been introduced in the state house that could eliminate school zone speed cameras in Georgia. House Bill 225, sponsored by Savannah State Representative Ron Stephens, aims to repeal the 2018 legislation that allowed for the installation of these cameras.
Feb. 18, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Stanley Dunlap reports that Georgia consumer utility office that fell victim to Great Recession-era state budget cuts in 2008 is getting another push this year from a bipartisan group of Georgia lawmakers to re-establish an independent advocate for residential and small business owners in utility rate cases. The Senate Rules Committee could decide in the coming days whether Senate Bill 94 advances before the full chamber for a vote to form an Office of Consumers’ Utility Counsel that would participate in utility proceedings before the Georgia Public Service Commission and other agencies.
Feb. 18, 2025 Capitol Beat News
Dave Williams reports that Georgia cities, counties and school districts are scrambling to meet a March 1 deadline for deciding whether to opt out of offering a property tax break the state’s voters approved last fall in a constitutional amendment. But legislation pending in the Georgia House of Representatives would extend that deadline by four years.
Feb. 18, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report that the Georgia GOP is in a legal feud with the organizers of the Smyrna Pride Festival over its decision to exclude the Georgia Log Cabin Republicans from the June event. It’s also a sign of how profoundly Georgia’s political landscape has changed in just a few decades.