Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026
Good Morning! In the news today: the hurdles for plans to build a nickel refinery in Bryan County; Glynn County is poised for new zoning regulations; and reactions to a vile video. Finally, we note some things you may have missed. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com.
EXPLAINER: GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
Hurdles, delays ahead
Westwin Elements founder and chief executive KaLeigh Long told a packed house at a town hall earlier this month that plans for a proposed nickel refinery in Richmond Hill were “90% finished.”
The Oklahoma company says it intends to spend $35 million to buy the abandoned Ceasarstone property off Belfast Keller Road, after spending millions more for consulting, lobbying and business and environmental studies. It hopes the refinery can be fully operational by August 2028 — and wants to overcome considerable public opposition before then.
The Current GA has identified five obstacles standing in the way of Westwin’s ambitions in Bryan County, The Current’s Margaret Coker, Mary Landers and Maggie Lee write.
NEWS: PLANNING
Glynn group sets priorities
The seven-member Glynn County Commission is poised to adopt a new set of zoning ordinances following a two-year review dominated by developers and realtors.
George Ragsdale, a 74-year-old retired lawyer and member of the Zoning Review Team, says the new ordinances, as they stand, favor business growth over other community values.
The Current’s Jabari Gibbs writes that the review, often held behind closed doors, shows that differences on environmental policy and government transparency, more than political affiliation, form the deepest divides among the county’s roughly 86,000 residents. A commission vote on the new ordinances is expected later this spring.
ANALYSIS: POLITICS
Reactions and no reactions
After a video was posted on Donald Trump’s website last week depicting former U.S. president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as apes, the outcry was loud, even among some of the president’s most fervid supporters.
Yet notably absent among the Republican critics of the artificial-intelligence-generated, 62-second video, which was taken down some 12 hours after it was posted on Trump’s Truth Social account late Thursday, were top Georgia Republicans and the Georgia GOP, The Current’s Craig Nelson writes.
Not a word on social media from Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Speaker of the House Jon Burns or state GOP chairman Josh McKoon. Not a word from Coastal Georgia Congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter or his two rivals for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, Mike Collins and Derek Dooley — even though Carter, Jones and Dooley, in particular, had extolled Martin Luther King, Jr., and his vision of racial justice to mark the civil rights leader’s birthday just two weeks earlier.
For their part, Georgia’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock lambasted Trump for the video’s use of a racist image of Blacks based in eugenics and dating back to the Jim Crow era, with Ossoff describing Trump as “a president posting about the Obamas like a Klansman at 1 a.m.”
NEWS: UPDATES
ICYMI
In news from the Gold Dome:
• A bill co-sponsored by Sen. Billy Hickman (Hinesville) would amend a current state law that exempts public school and university libraries from the ban on distributing obscene media to people under 18. Senate Bill 74, which is opposed by many librarians, would narrow the exemption.
• A measure backed by Sen. Ben Watson (Savannah), Senate Bill 142, that would make it easier for foreign-trained doctors to practice in Georgia passes a critical legislative hurdle.
• House lawmakers approve an $82 million boost for the state’s child welfare agency — twice as much as what Gov. Brian Kemp pledged last month.
• State Rep. Steve Sainz (St. Marys) is co-sponsoring a measure, House Bill 1076, that would make it a felony to obstruct a law enforcement officer with a motor vehicle.
In voting news:
• The FBI invites federal and state election officials to participate in a conference call on Feb. 25 to discuss “preparations” for midterm elections. Georgia election officials will attend.
• The Georgia GOP urges the General Assembly to take steps this session to transition from electronic voting in the state to hand-marked paper ballots. The state’s current system of voting “has lost the confidence of a large percentage of Georgia voters,” it says.
• J.P. Boulee, a Trump-appointed federal judge for the Northern District of Georgia, orders the administration to unseal by the end of business today background documents related to the FBI’s seizure last month of some 700 boxes of ballots and records from the 2020 election in Fulton County. In a speech Saturday in Atlanta, U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democrat, called the raid in Fulton an assault on the “political and spiritual heart of the civil rights movement.”
In other news:
• The St. Marys City Council votes not to renew the contract of City Manager Robby Horton and places him on administrative leave.
• State Rep. Carl Gilliard (Savannah) to host a 30-minute interview show on Nexstar called “Georgia on My Mind.”
• Former Georgia Public Service Commissioner Fitz Johnson, a Republican, announces he’s running to regain his seat on the commission. Johnson, a Republican, was defeated by Democrat Peter Hubbard in a special election last November.
• “Take the vaccine, please,” says Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, amid outbreaks of measles in South Carolina and several other states.
• President Trump endorses Clay Fuller from among 21 candidates, including Colton Moore, in the March 10 special election to select a successor succeed Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia’s 14th congressional district.
• “Less than 14% of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in President Trump’s first year back in the White House had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses,” CBS News reports, citing an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document.
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5 hurdles for Westwin refinery in Richmond Hill
Westwin Elements is planning to build a nickel refinery in Richmond Hill, but faces five regulatory and financial barriers, including site cleanup, pollution permitting, zoning, financing, and raw materials sourcing.
Lack of transparency in Glynn County zoning process raises concerns
Glynn County Commissioners are preparing to adopt updated zoning ordinances after a two-year review by a group dominated by developers and real estate agents, resulting in a future for the county that prioritizes business growth over other community values.
Georgia GOP leaders praise MLK, remain silent on racist Obama video
Georgia Republicans have remained silent on a video posted on Donald Trump’s website depicting Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as apes, while Georgia’s two U.S. senators and other Republicans have condemned the video as racist and offensive.
Georgia bill seeks to address rural doctor shortage by allowing foreign physicians
A bill to make it easier for foreign-trained doctors to practice in Georgia passed a Senate committee with a unanimous vote, potentially helping to ease the state’s rural physician shortage.
Georgia tax cut plan makes first $100K of a family’s income tax-free
Georgia Senate leaders have proposed a plan to reduce or eliminate income taxes for Georgians making less than $100,000, while increasing taxes on data centers, low-income housing, and yachts to make up for the loss in revenue.
New bill aims to shield Georgia residents from rate hikes caused by data centers
Georgia lawmakers are moving to protect electricity ratepayers from costs associated with data centers by ensuring that those costs are borne only by data centers.
Overwhelming vote backs efforts to investigate campaign money pumped into Georgia
The Georgia Ethics Commission has been granted the authority to subpoena out-of-state individuals and groups who are suspected of breaking Georgia campaign finance laws, allowing the state to hold outside actors accountable for their spending in Georgia elections.
Georgia librarians could face criminal charges for ‘harmful materials’
Senate Bill 74, sponsored by Sen. Max Burns, could cause Georgia’s librarians to self-censor controversial materials and lead to more challenges on books about LGBTQ people or issues, due to its broad definition of sexual conduct.
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