TODAY’S FEATURED STORY
Here’s when drug prices will start to decrease for Medicare recipients
Georgia lawmakers shelve controversial proposals on electric vehicles
Federal coronavirus relief aid to deliver $250 million to help bridge Georgia’s digital divide
Warnock, Walker rally with closers as Georgians vote in droves to build Senate muscle
How title lenders trap poor Georgians in debt with triple-digit interest rates
Let’s get there together.
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georgia
Georgia Power’s campaign for 12% rate hike nears final showdown
First bill of next General Assembly session targets Georgia’s abortion ban
Georgia’s on-again, off-again abortion restrictions create doubt for future of fertility treatments
accountability
YOUR GUIDE TO RUNOFF VOTING IN COASTAL GEORGIA
Resource page for voter registration, absentee, early and on-site voting. Links to candidate campaign donations, debate recordings.
Georgia U.S. House District 1 Watch: Buddy Carter
Follow key votes, funding sources, speeches, social media, legislation
Georgia U.S. Senate Watch: Ossoff, Warnock
Follow key votes, funding sources, speeches, social media, legislation
WHERE’S THE MEETING? WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA?
Check the agendas for issues and votes so you can show up and let your elected and appointed representatives know what you want.
Support our publication
Your donation today supports in-depth journalism for Coastal Georgia.
PUBLIC SAFETY
Brunswick clinic seeks to clear criminal records for fresh start
A clinic in Brunswick last Saturday sought to jumpstart applications for Glynn County GA residents seeking to restrict and seal their criminal records, a process known as expungement.
Keep readingAmmunition maker expanding its Georgia operations in Savannah area
Report: Most people in rural Georgia jails there for low-level crimes
Savannah officer fired after DUI arrest while suspended for fatal shooting
What to know: New Savannah Police technology can ID suspects by clothes, license plates
Savannah surpasses other police departments in solving murders. Why?
Messy vetting process kept Savannah officer’s disciplinary history hidden when hired
ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE
Georgia restricts ownership of pythons, tegus, other reptiles
Georgia DNR votes to limit future ownership of large invasive reptiles; owners have 12 months to get pets registered and tagged.
Georgia school districts awarded federal grants for electric school buses
Georgia school systems will receive $51.1 million in federal grants for the purchase of electric school buses, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced in October. The Clean School Bus Program, announced last May, is aimed at accelerating the nation’s transition to zero-emission vehicles and produce cleaner air in and around schools and their communities.…
Georgia Power is pushed to expand solar program as state regulators consider 12% rate hike request
Georgia Power requests the first of several rate hikes while also proposing to curtail rooftop solar.
Georgia Power, environmental groups clash over coal ash
What does Symrise make at plant where fires forced evacuations?
Coal plant operators shirking responsibilities on ash cleanup, report contends
Convenience stores push for ‘level playing field’ in electric vehicle charging
ELECTIONS
Don’t vote for just one: Ranked choice voting is gaining ground
History repeats as groups bring racial fear into elections pitches
Can Warnock or Walker win over the 81,000 Georgians who voted for the Libertarian in November?
Georgians can vote Saturday after Thanksgiving with state Supreme Court ruling in GOP challenge
Appeals court denies Georgia election chief’s bid to ban early Saturday voting after Thanksgiving
Walker, Warnock ramp up campaigns as runoff nears
Court allows Saturday early voting for Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff
Chatham official says state shouldn’t squelch Saturday voting
PUBLIC HEALTH
Georgia COVID-19 daily statistics
High number of rural Georgians call in to new 988 suicide prevention phone line
How might law enforcement use digital tracking to enforce Georgia’s strict anti-abortion law?
Georgians’ high stroke rate combined with hospital closings hurts survival chances
Georgia has one of the highest rates of uninsured children. It’s about to get worse, study says
Analysts request funds to help nearly 12K Georgia children who lost a caregiver to COVID-19
Kids need mental health treatment more than ever. Schools are picking up the slack, but need help
politics
Your County Officials, Services
Want to give cheers or a complaints or a suggestion? Want to attend council or commission meetings, or just find out about garbage services or complain about potholes? Click on your county to get started.
DATA
Follow News Through Data with 538
Fivethirtyeight.com is a website that tells stories and news through statistical analysis using reliable, credible data to do it. Click here each day for new stories in politics, science, economics and more.
GOVERNING
Find Out What’s on the Agenda
Click here to see this week’s lineup of what’s being proposed and what’s up for discussion on various committees, boards and councils that represent you.
EDUCATION
Remote learning not ‘primary’ driver of academic losses, new analysis suggests
More than politics: New studies help explain why some schools reopened while others stayed virtual
Experts: Book bans reflect outdated beliefs about how children read
Rising tide of censorship, scrutiny has schools scrambling to avoid backlash
University system waiving standardized test scores for admission to most campuses
State Department of Education to pilot new teacher evaluation system
Math, reading scores plummet on national test, erasing 20 years of progress
Ga. lawmakers ponder adding poverty as factor in overhaul of state school funding formula
Community day honors Butler Island’s story
Butler Island’s nearly 900 slaves grew rice in Coastal Georgia before being sold to pay off their master’s debts. Residents gathered to pay homage to this past.
Gray’s Reef comes ashore
Opening in February, a new Gray’s Reef center in Savannah hopes to connect locals and tourists to the underwater park.
River Guide app makes it easier to explore Georgia by water
Eight years in the making, the app draws information from Joe Cook’s river guide books and Suzanne Welander’s river guide books as well as from the state’s…
Carter-Herring debate nights arrive
Coastal Georgia takes center stage today, as the candidates for the region’s seat in U.S. Congress — Republican incumbent Buddy Carter and Democratic challenger Wade Herring —…
New partnership opens Chatham County DA case files to data analysis
Chatham County DA Shalena Cook Jones allowing nonprofit Justice Innovation Lab to analyze prosecutor case files with goal of increasing public safety and fairness in court outcomes.
Hurricane Ian spins a cautionary tale for coastal politicians
Hurricane Ian prep: Need to know
It’s a good year for saw palmetto berries
EDITOR’S CHOICE
If Twitter dies, what do we lose? Eyewitness accounts, raw data on human behavior, and trolls
The Twitter archives allow for instant and complete access to every public tweet, which has positioned Twitter both as a archive of collective human behavior and as a credentialing…
Early screening for learning disabilities ‘would make a huge difference’
Children from low-income families often left out of screening for trauma, learning disabilities. 60% of adults who struggle to read and write have undetected or untreated learning disabilities.
Musk is wrong: Research shows content rules on Twitter help preserve free speech from bots, manipulation
Research provided evidence that Twitter has a conservative, rather than a liberal bias. On average, accounts are drawn toward the conservative side. Liberal accounts were exposed to moderate content,…
Loretta Lynn was more than a great songwriter – she was a spokeswoman for white rural working-class women
Lynn’s songs defied societal expectations by connecting her musical representations of working-class and rural women to broader social issues affecting women across the U.S.
Working together
FROM THE CURRENT
Some Georgia tax credit scholarships go to anti-LGBT schools
Websites of 100 SSO scholarship schools in Georgia and found 15 with explicitly anti-gay policies. Many others assert religious stances but do not specifically mention homosexuality.
Red flags about Savannah’s concrete industry reveals wrongdoing
Ten years ago a Savannah whistleblower alerted federal authorities to a cartel costing Georgia taxpayers millions of dollars. This month, U.S. attorneys won their first admission of guilt.
Scholarship Tax Credit Program: $600M with little oversight
With no data or complaint process to guide, Georgia’s School Scholarship Organizations have shifted more than $600 million from state coffers to scholarships at private schools around the state – including more than 40 in the Savannah area.
‘It seemed like our lives didn’t matter.’
Generations of Black residents in Brunswick and Glynn County moved away to find opportunity and equality. A Better Glynn wants to improve things at home instead.
Savannah spends $489K on ShotSpotter but doesn’t keep data on effectiveness
Savannah Police Department doesn’t keep statistics on effectiveness of ShotSpotter gunshot detection program in leading to evidence, stops, or arrests; months after city council approved expansion to more districts.
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