Georgia Trend Daily
Georgia Trend Daily – March 26, 2025
March 26, 2025 Savannah Morning News
Hyundai on course to shape future of coastal Georgia’s economy, workforce, way of life
Parish Howard, Joseph Scwartzburt and Latrice Williams report, Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America―Georgia’s largest economic project-to-date―is on course to become the single most transformative influence on the Savannah region’s economy, workforce, public resources and way of life for the next half century. Though the plant’s physical address is in what has traditionally been rural Bryan County, the seismic impact of its $7.59 billion investment is rippling out across Chatham, Effingham and Bulloch counties and spreading across the state.
March 26, 2025 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
South Metro Atlanta | Region on the Rise
Jennifer Hafer reports, from its humble beginnings as an abandoned racetrack just south of downtown to its title run as the world’s busiest airport for 25 out of the last 26 years, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport continues to be the heartbeat of South Metro, fueling not just job growth, but innovation that’s transforming transportation, enhancing educational opportunities and bringing coveted live, work, play communities to the region.
March 26, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia ports book record trade, brace for slowdown as April tariffs loom
Adam Van Brimmer reports that trade through Georgia’s shipping ports continues to set records, but that could change as early as next month as President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and other business headwinds exact a toll. Marine terminals in Savannah recorded their best February on record last month and March looks similarly strong, Georgia Ports Authority CEO Griff Lynch told his board of directors Tuesday morning.
March 26, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Georgia Power rolls out new long-term plan, red carpet for more data centers
Stanley Dunlap reports that a panel of Georgia Power representatives testified for eight hours at Tuesday’s Public Service Commission hearing about its controversial roadmap for meeting large-scale, data center-driven energy demands over the next decade. The executives testified that the investor-owned utility’s 2025 Integrated Resource Plan would provide the right balance of energy capacity to meet the rising demands of a growing Georgia, largely based on the projected boom in data centers supporting emerging internet technologies and their voracious appetite for electricity.
March 26, 2025 The Brunswick News
Port of Brunswick sees slight dip in traffic
Staff reports that roll-on/roll-off traffic through the Port of Brunswick dipped slightly in February due to fewer ships calling on the port, the Georgia Ports Authority announced Tuesday. A total of 61,667 units of autos and heavy equipment, a 10% reduction from the same month in 2024, passed through the port last month, the GPA said.
March 26, 2025 Marietta Daily Journal
Cobb Staff Wants 290 More Employees, $93 Million Boost in 2026 Budget
Annie Mayne reports, though the Cobb County Board of Commissioners won’t vote on a proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year for a few months, members got a preview of staff’s proposal to raise spending by more than $90 million. Bill Volckmann, the county’s chief financial officer, told commissioners during a work session Tuesday that county staff’s request to increase the budget by $92.7 million from the adopted $1.27 billion comes largely from personnel requests.
March 26, 2025 Albany Herald
Ameris Bank donates $500,000 to Colquitt Regional Hospital
Staff reports that Ameris Bank has once again demonstrated its commitment to rural health care by presenting Colquitt Regional with a $500,000 donation. This contribution is part of the bank’s ongoing support through the Georgia HEART rural hospital tax credit program.
March 26, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Bill criminalizing ‘doxxing’ in Georgia advances in spite of free speech concerns
Jill Nolin reports that an attempt to crack down on so-called doxxing has been met with concerns from attorneys and First Amendment advocates who say the proposal is too broad and would hamper free speech. Senate Bill 27, which is sponsored by Sen. John Albers, a Roswell Republican, would make it a crime to distribute someone’s personal information – such as their home address – in a way that could cause more than $500 in economic losses or leave the victim scared of being stalked or hurt.
March 26, 2025 State Affairs
Lawmakers pass school cell phone ban for K-8th grades
Beau Evans reports that Georgia lawmakers on Tuesday approved a ban on students in kindergarten through eighth grade from using cell phones and other personal electronic devices during school hours. House Bill 340, sponsored by Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, would prohibit “bell-to-bell” student use of cell phones, tablets, smartwatches and headphones in an effort to curb distractions and promote better learning environments.
March 26, 2025 The Current
Shrimp bill hits rough waves in Georgia Senate
Craig Nelson and Margaret Coker report, with little more than a week remaining in this year’s meeting of the Georgia General Assembly, a bill to help protect the livelihoods of Coastal Georgia shrimpers from the deluge of imported foreign shrimp has run into uncertain waters. The culprit, says Coastal Georgia shrimp advocate John Wallace, is the restaurant industry.
March 26, 2025 GPB
‘This is the people’s house’: Students from farmworker families speak out at Georgia Capitol
Sofi Gratas reports that agriculture is Georgia’s leading industry, creating billions of dollars in revenue for the state every year, and bringing fresh food to the dinner table. That’s something family members of farmworkers wanted to remind lawmakers during a recent visit to the state Capitol.
March 26, 2025 Athens Banner-Herald
Georgia House Bill criminalizing abortion is advancing. What to know about HB 441
Vanessa Countryman reports that Georgia lawmakers are advancing a bill, HB 441, that would significantly restrict abortion access and could charge pregnant mothers for murder. The bill, introduced in February, 2025, has passed its second reading and is currently pending in the House Judiciary – Non-Civil Committee.
March 26, 2025 WABE
Maternal near-miss survivors, abortion-rights advocates speak out against Georgia’s 6-week ban
Jess Mador reports that proponents of H.B. 481 maintain that the abortion law is not intended to prevent access to maternal health care. The law bans abortion at roughly six weeks of pregnancy, when cardiac activity can be detected by an ultrasound exam.
March 26, 2025 Georgia Recorder
Political hardball got Georgia tort damage limits passed. Now comes the collateral damage.
Maya Homan reports that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s big 2025 legislative push to pass lawsuit damage limits is ready for his victory lap, but as the dust settles in the wake of Thursday’s razor-close House vote on Senate Bill 68, some legislators’ nerves are still frayed and one longtime lawmaker lost his job over his vote. Lawmakers in both parties are beginning to feel the fallout of their votes on the pivotal bill aimed at overhauling Georgia’s civil litigation system as party leaders and powerful business interests take note of who toed the party line and who crossed it.
March 26, 2025 Capitol Beat News
State Senate gives locals extra leeway on property tax relief
Dave Williams reports that legislation giving Georgia cities, counties and school districts until April 30 to decide whether to opt out of offering a property tax break voters approved last fall cleared the state Senate Tuesday. Georgians passed a constitutional amendment last November prohibiting local governments and school districts from raising residential property assessments in a given year by more than the annual rate of inflation, even if a home’s market value has gone up more.
March 26, 2025 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Stacey Abrams taps voter anger as she considers 2026 options
Greg Bluestein, Tia Mitchell, Patricia Murphy and Adam Beam report that eight years ago, Stacey Abrams delivered a speech at an Atlanta union hall that aimed to turn the outrage over Donald Trump’s first term in office into electoral energy. It also laid the groundwork for her own run for governor. Now Trump is in his second term in office and Abrams has yet to announce whether she’ll wage a third campaign for Georgia’s top office after two unsuccessful runs.
