Sept. 20, 2024 Capitol Beat News
Dave Williams reports that Georgia’s unemployment rate rose in August for the fourth month in a row, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. The state’s jobless rate of 3.6% last month was up two-tenths from July’s 3.4% but still six-tenths lower than the national unemployment rate.
Sept. 20, 2024 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
Christy Simo reports, if there is one word that sums up Georgia’s higher education world in 2024, it’s partnership. From a statewide transfer agreement between the University System of Georgia (USG) and the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) to boost Georgia’s cybersecurity workforce, to apprenticeship agreements between local businesses and colleges, to hospitals partnering with colleges to boost the healthcare workforce throughout rural Georgia, collaboration is alive and well across the state.
Sept. 20, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Michael E. Kanell and Zachary Hansen report, economic matters still rate as the top issues on Georgia voters’ minds with a little more than six weeks to go before this year’s presidential election, but new polling shows that voters have tilted — tentatively — toward optimism. Views of the economy have grown rosier, with 58% of respondents saying they expect the economy to improve over the next 12 months, according to a poll conducted this month for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Sept. 20, 2024 WABE
DorMiya Vance reports that Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport will see the pilot of a new automated transit network of personal rapid transit pods from California-based company Glydways. The pods are a result of a 2019 feasibility study conducted by ATL Airport Community Improvement Districts (AACIDs), which uses private taxes from businesses within the district to improve public services and facilities.
Sept. 20, 2024 Macon Telegraph
Chelsea Madden reports, “Looking for the best place to celebrate Halloween? Head to Macon, Georgia,” Travel + Leisure writer Stacey Leasca says. According to Leasca, Macon is the “perfect place to celebrate this particularly ghoulish time of year,” for several reasons.
Sept. 20, 2024 Saporta Report
Delaney Tarr reports, Atlanta’s cycling community is gearing up for a “game-changing” municipal bike park after the Chestnut Family Foundation donated $8 million to the Atlanta Beltline, Inc. project. The park is set to be the first of its kind in Atlanta: an all-ages and all skill-level set of terrain and obstacles for mountain bikers, cyclists and hikers.
Sept. 20, 2024 Savannah Morning News
Joseph Schwartzburt reports, thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of aviation workers, teachers, and state employees in the greater Savannah area may need to reschedule healthcare visits or line up new care providers by Oct 1. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (BSBC) sent out a public notice in August that HCA Healthcare‘s Georgia hospitals and outpatient facilities intend to leave Anthem’s network when the current contract expires in less than two weeks.
Sept. 20, 2024 WABE
Kendall Murry reports, two Georgia congressmen introduced a bipartisan bill on Tuesday that would honor Georgia native former U.S. President Jimmy Carter with the Congressional Gold Medal, a prestigious civilian award honored by the federal legislature. Democratic U.S. Rep. Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. of Albany, Georgia, and Republican U.S. Rep. Austin Scott of Tifton, Georgia, teamed up with conservative New Jersey lawmaker David Norcross to introduce the legislation.
Sept. 20, 2024 Athens Banner-Herald, Savannah Morning News
Melissa Cruz reports, Rep. Mike Collins’ community was rocked by the deadliest school shooting in Georgia history on Sept. 4. Two days later, the Republican representative stood before a crowd of mourners in his district and declared: “I don’t think you can legislate evil and hate away.” But some residents of Winder, a rural town of 18,300 people that falls between Athens and Atlanta, disagreed with that sentiment.
Sept. 20, 2024 Georgia Recorder
Jill Nolin and Ross Williams report, the deaths of two Georgia women have reignited the debate over the state’s abortion restrictions that took effect two years ago and put a new focus on an exception in the law that purports to protect mothers when their own health is imperiled. Georgia’s abortion law, which bans most abortions after about six weeks, was passed in 2019 but did not take effect until one month after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion.
Sept. 20, 2024 New York Times
Nick Corasaniti reports, a showdown is brewing between the top election official in Georgia and the State Election Board over more than a dozen new rules and procedures scheduled to be voted on by the board at a meeting on Friday. A lawyer for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger sent a scathing letter to the State Election Board on Monday, criticizing “the absurdity of the board’s actions” while warning that new rules under consideration are dangerously late in the election process and most likely illegal.
Sept. 20, 2024 Capitol Beat News
Dave Williams reports, the General Assembly should take a carrot-and-stick approach to reducing gun violence in Georgia, a panel of pediatricians told members of a legislative study committee Thursday. Tax credits to incentivize Georgians to buy safe firearm storage devices and a law requiring safe storage of guns with penalties for violators were among the recommendations members of Georgia Clinicians for Gun Safety delivered to the state Senate Safe Firearm Storage Study Committee during a hearing at the Georgia Capitol.
Sept. 20, 2024 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report, a growing number of mainstream Republicans are joining Democrats in pushing back against the State Election Board’s tilt toward voting policies favored by former President Donald Trump and his allies while also promoting confidence in the election system. Two Republicans last week filed a lawsuit to block new election certification rules on grounds that the pro-Trump majority on the board exceeded its authority.
