From Campus to Classroom: Stories That Shape Education
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security abandons plan to convert warehouse into a 10,000-bed immigration detention center in Social Circle.
- Georgia lawmakers back away from redistricting, pause mandated voting machine changes, and pursue local homeowner property tax relief bills.
- Georgia's counties recount votes after tight District 3 Public Service Commission primary; Fitz Johnson narrowly leads, triggering recount under state law.
June 19, 2026 GlobalAtlanta.com
Trevor Williams reports that Atlanta is set to host up to 10,000 Czech visitors to the city as its national soccer team, a late entrant to the city’s World Cup slate, faces off against South Africa Thursday. The estimate came from the Czech embassy in Washington and the Honorary Consulate of the Czech Republic, which last week unveiled a comprehensive schedule for how to have a beer with them, capitalizing on the football fun to drive trade and investment engagements.
June 19, 2026 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Julia Roberts reports that DeKalb County has long been home to ambitious entrepreneurs, independent retailers, and growing service-based businesses. In a county defined by scale and resilience, building or growing a business can sometimes feel like trying to move Stone Mountain one rock at a time.
June 19, 2026 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Zachary Hansen reports, football and fútbol are built on different foundations, both as sports and as businesses. From the way they handle commercial breaks to the structure of their youth programs, there’s a reason why soccer is the world’s most popular sport while football is America’s most lucrative.
June 19, 2026 Savannah Morning News
Destini Ambus reports that Monday night Pooler staff presented an impact fee ordinance to council designed to hand infrastructure costs incurred from the area’s booming growth back to the developers who stand to profit most from it. The Department of Community Affairs and the Coastal Regional Commission is currently reviewing an impact fee study presented to council in February.
June 19, 2026 Marietta Daily Journal
Megan Jackson reports, during this week’s Mableton town hall, residents looked for answers about public safety as the city looks to establish its own police department. Mayor Michael Owens announced that the proposed public safety tax would be set at approximately 4.5 mills. That would cost the owner of a $350,000 home about $630 annually.
June 19, 2026 Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
Brittany McGee reports that former city manager Isaiah Hugley appearing to have won the mayoral runoff election, pending certification, some of the councilors who voted 7-3 to fire him last year have promised to move forward with unity. Hugley leads his runoff opponent, Councilor Joanne Cogle of District 7, with about 52% of the vote, based on Tuesday night’s last batch of results from the Muscogee County Board of Elections and Registration.
June 19, 2026 Tifton Gazette
Davis Cobb reports that an opera from an author and activist whose roots stem from South Georgia will be debuting at the Cincinnati Opera later this July. Lalovavi is an Afrofuturist opera crafted by Tifara Brown, a published poet, oral historian, and former Tifton resident with a deep passion for storytelling and performance.
June 19, 2026 Georgia Recorder
Ellie Fivas reports, after months of tension between the city of Social Circle and the federal government, the city announced in a press release Thursday that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will abandon its plan to convert an industrial warehouse into a 10,000-bed immigration detention center in the rural community. The department’s apparent decision to discontinue the detention center’s development comes a month after the city of Social Circle, which is about an hour east of Atlanta, filed a lawsuit against DHS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin and then-acting ICE Director Todd Lyons.
June 19, 2026 Gainesville Times
Jeff Gill reports that the ICE detention center in Oakwood may be no more. Late Thursday, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., cited New York Times reporting that the Department of Homeland Security plans to sell or give away warehouses it had bought in Oakwood and Social Circle.
June 19, 2026 The Current
Mary Landers reports that Georgia’s 159 counties are recounting votes cast in the May 19 Republican primary for the District 3 Public Service Commission. Fitz Johnson won that race, beating Brandon Martin by just 2,947 votes. That put the vote spread within the 0.5% margin that allows for a recount by Georgia law.
June 19, 2026 GPB
Peter Biello reports that Tuesday’s primary runoff election brought to a close heated contests for high-profile Republican nominations. For more on the results, GPB’s Peter Biello spoke with Zachary Peskowitz, professor of political science at Emory University.
June 19, 2026 State Affairs
Beau Evans reports that Georgia’s special session looks headed for more of a whimper than a bang as lawmakers avoid battles over redistricting and move to halt major changes to the state’s voting system. Capitol leaders tossed out the script for the short session that began Wednesday after results came in from the prior night’s runoff elections, giving Republicans in the General Assembly reason to ditch an issue that could drive up Democratic turnout in the Nov. 3 midterms.
June 19, 2026 Capitol Beat News
Ty Tagami reports that Georgia lawmakers advanced a bill on Thursday that would pause the mandatory voting machine changes they previously required for this year. The legislators, at the Capitol for the second day of a special session, also continued to line up more than 80 local bills aimed at reducing homeowner property taxes in communities across the state.
June 19, 2026 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report, even before Republican leaders abruptly backed away from redistricting, Wednesday’s special session felt unlike any other. It was part post-runoff hangover, part preview of Georgia’s political future. Hundreds of activists gathered outside the Capitol hours before lawmakers convened, waving signs and chanting “no new maps” as they protested a process that would weaken Black political power.
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