IT’S YOUR COAST AND THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE IT.
We break down complex threats and illuminate ways to keep Georgia’s treasure safe. Your donation to The Current will help us do more every day.
business
Georgia requests more time for Spaceport Camden review
Camden County is proposing to build a commercial spaceport on the coast in Woodbine, Georgia, featuring a rocket launch trajectory over salt marsh and tidal waters, as well as the Cumberland Island National Seashore. A spaceport operator license would not allow the county to actually launch rockets; each launch would still require an additional federal license.
Georgia’s next political battle: Redistricting
legislature
New state contracting option could help raise Savannah bridge for larger ships
The legislation authorizes the state to enter into public-private partnerships with the freight rail industry, a model that is proving successful in building a network of toll lanes in metro Atlanta.
Sierra Club challenges plan to charge Georgia Power customers for coal ash cleanup
georgia
Georgia traffic, broadband needs highlighted in Biden infrastructure plan
Bill to allow political donations during legislative session heads to Kemp
Glynn County Police, residents wrestle with racism
REFERENCE POINTS
Georgia COVID-19 daily statistics
Today’s cases, change, deaths, hospitalizations, testing, vaccination tracker
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
Georgia Legislature: Daily press releases, announcements
Follow a running list of links regarding Legislative committees, budgets, bills and appointments.
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ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE
States are growing fewer trees. Forest owners say that’s a problem.
The foresters association survey found that seedling production at state-run nurseries fell by 28% between 2016 and 2018. In 2018, state nurseries produced 123 million seedlings, about a tenth of the nation’s total
Coastal counties struggle with persistent flood threats
Coastal Georgia counties look for ways to protect communities from a steady flood pattern that doesn’t stop: rising seas and catastrophic weather.
After 20 years, flatwoods salamander gets a rescue plan
The government document is blueprint to save the endangered species, yet the federal agency delayed its publication for unknown reasons for nearly two decades.
Concerns about North Atlantic Right Whales grow as calving season ends
Biden reinstates migratory bird protections gutted under Trump
New study: Climate change weakening ocean currents that shape weather on Atlantic coast
Longer-term monitoring of Georgia coal ash ponds not enough for critics
elections
What does Georgia’s new voting law SB 202 do?
Georgia gun rights bill: The surprise was what didn’t happen
Election law controversy sinks sports betting in General Assembly
Legislators take aim at Delta after CEO statement on voting law
Breakdown: All the lawsuits challenging Georgia’s new voting law
Voting rights groups file federal suit challenging Georgia’s new voting law
Georgia lawmaker vows fight after arrest during protest of voting bill
PUBLIC HEALTH
COVID bill cuts insurance prices for many Georgians
The coal plant next door
How COVID and poverty have ravaged rural Georgia
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
Scholarship Tax Credit Program: $600M with Little Oversight
Bill opens public-school sports, clubs open to Georgia home-schoolers
Committee considers bill allowing pay for college athletes
Georgia House committee takes up new horseracing measure
Could frosted flatwoods salamander be Georgia’s climate change canary?
Ga. House schools panel passes voucher plan that could cost $250M
The Tide: Pecans with a side of horse racing
Pecans get some love this week in the Georgia Legislature as the Senate seeks to make them the state nut and the House considers horse racing to help diversify pecan farmer income.
The Tide: A fight to save the legacy of Savannah’s Virginia Kiah
Three stories this week take a look at the two-decade delay to settle the Civil Rights activist’s estate, imperiling the restoration of her house as a landmark.
The Tide: Mallow bill looks for change through education
Legislation would highlight African American achievements from ancient civilizations to current day as part of Georgia’s public school standard curriculum.
The Tide: Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff take power committee spots
Rookies don’t always get prime spots in the U.S. Senate committee lineup, but Georgia’s duo fared well.
The Tide: Buddy Carter gets a top fundraising post
U.S Rep. Buddy Carter got a prime position last week in the main fundraising arm for GOP House members.
The Tide: Watching your vote
The Tide: Social media and revolt
The Tide: Where Trump is on the ballot
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Mass vaccination faces uphill battle among Christian nationalists
While the majority of Americans either intend to get the COVID-19 vaccine or have already received their shots, getting white evangelicals to vaccination sites may prove more of a challenge – especially those who identify as Christian nationalists.
The broken front line: First responders weather a pandemic
As the winter’s surge of coronavirus cases overwhelmed Los Angeles hospitals, EMTs like Michael Diaz were forced to take previously unthinkable measures.
A surprising ending: All the 2020 election conflicts over absentee ballot deadlines
The number of ballots arriving too late to be valid was extremely small, regardless of what deadline states used, or how much that deadline shifted. The numbers were nowhere close to the number of votes that could have changed the outcome of any significant race.
Decades old, climate change could decimate South’s communication base
Storms in recent years have uncovered gaps in utilities that require serious intervention — researchers say climate change poses specific threats to the region’s interconnectivity.
Working together
The current originals
Thiokol explosion: 50 years later, families seek to be remembered
Those killed and maimed weren’t wearing uniforms like the thousands of Georgians deployed aboard during the war. They were mostly poor, Black women who worked for $1.65 an hour assembling trip flares for the U.S. Army at the Thiokol Chemical Corp. plant in Woodbine.
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.
Savannah Weighs Value of Art and History Amid COVID-19 Crisis
Savannah City Council needs a way to fund city services in a budget crunch, but hasn’t figured the value of assets selected for auction.
Corporate donors re-evaluate support for Carter, other objectors
Rep. Buddy Carter won’t be swayed by corporate donors’ decisions. “I don’t work for them,” he said. “I work for the people of the First District.”