Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025
Good morning! In the news this Thanksgiving week: Hyundai is fined for safety lapses in the death of a Korean worker; the chairman of the Chatham County Commission sows bewilderment and anger; and the practice fueling illegal car sales up and down the coast. Finally, we some things for your radar. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com.
NEWS: BUSINESS
Accidents bring penalties
The federal agency that oversees workplace safety in the U.S. has fined three suppliers at Hyundai’s electric vehicle manufacturing complex in Bryan County about $27,000 for violations it found had contributed to the death of a Korean worker at the complex’s troubled battery plant in March.
The fines — which total less than the retail price of the electric vehicle model made at the plant — conclude one of the most gruesome chapters in the expansion of the Hyundai Motor Group’s Metaplant America facility, which has developed a checkered reputation for safety.
The incidents of fatalities and injuries fatalities are part of what safety managers and documents suggest has been a culture of lax workplace safety. A 2024 investigation by The Current GA, which found that approximately 10 serious accidents had not been reported by various Korean suppliers at the Ellabell facility between January 2023 and May 2024, The Current’s Margaret Coker reports.
Citing the need to “bring in talent” to the U.S., President Donald Trump appeared earlier this month to condemn the September raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel, which resulted in the detention and expulsion of more than 400 workers.
Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham there were not enough American workers to perform the “very complicated” and “dangerous” task of building the car batteries.
NEWS: GOVERNING
Transit moves draw questions
From the corridors of City Hall and the Old Courthouse on Wright Square to a sprawling ballroom at the Savannah Convention Center, the same question reverberated last week: What is Chester Ellis doing?
What prompted the bewilderment, among both critics and allies of Ellis, the chairman of the Chatham County Commission, is his Nov. 13 letter to the board of directors of Chatham Area Transit notifying them that the county will withdraw from the system on June 30, 2026, the end of the current fiscal year.
In the resulting furor, the CAT board described Ellis’ withdrawal plan as “unnecessary, shortsighted, and cruel folly.” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson warned that any county reduction of funding to CAT would “weaken the very lifeline that so many rely on to live, work, learn and thrive.”
By week’s end, though, Ellis showed no signs of relenting in his determination to change the CAT board’s “ways.” He accused unelected board members of mismanaging, even embezzling funds, and branded the panel “unconstitutional,” The Current’s Craig Nelson writes.
The outcry shows no signs of subsiding. State Rep. Anne Allen Westbrook (District 163) said Monday that she and other local Democratic and Republican lawmakers who sponsored the legislation earlier this year that reformed CAT’s governance were on solid constitutional and legal ground.
Still, she said, said she remained hopeful that all the parties could resolve their differences and focus on “serving a broad, diverse and growing constituency of transit riders.”
INVESTIGATIVE: BUSINESS
Buyer beware
Does the deal for a used car look too good to be true? If so, it probably is, The Current’s Jasmine Wright reports,
Among some of Georgia’s approximately 7,000 used car dealerships, the state’s loose rules for temporary car tags have become a way to defraud consumers of title to their vehicles.
That car title the dealer promises will soon be in the mail to replace the temporary tag? It never comes. Drivers then stuck with a vehicle they can’t legally drive.
The practice of promising car titles that never arrive has enabled illegal vehicle sales in the state to flourish. The question now is whether state lawmakers will step in to close a loophole that has help fuel it.
NEWS: UPDATES
7 things for your radar
• After the Centers for Disease Control changes its website to contradict the longtime scientific conclusion that vaccines do not cause autism, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock calls for the immediate firing of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. That longtime scientific conclusion “is not an evidence-based claim,” the website’s “Vaccine Safety” page now says.
• Georgia’s Department of Community Affairs announces new rules for data centers, reports The Current’s environmental reporter, Mary Landers. Meanwhile, state regulators in Utah say that state’s data centers must disclose their water use.
• Saying its residents “need to feel safe,” Coastal Georgia Congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter calls for “an enhanced ICE presence” in Atlanta. In reply, the city’s mayor, Andre Dickens, a Democrat, says homicides, shootings and motor vehicle theft have dropped since 2022. State Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes (D-Duluth) calls the move by Carter, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, “despicable” and describes it as the tactic of a “failed politician” scapegoating immigrants for the “affordability crisis.”
• The House Ethics Committee says it is reviewing a complaint against U.S. Rep. Mike Collins (R-Jackson) and will announce its course of action on or before Jan. 5, 2026. It does not disclose the nature of the complaint or who filed it, except to say it was submitted Oct. 7. The complaint also reportedly names Collins’ chief of staff, Brandon Philipps. A spokesman for the U.S. Senate candidate calls the complaint “bogus” and a desperate and baseless attack” by the congressman’s political opponents.
• Gov. Brian Kemp announces that Virginia Transformer Corp. will invest $40 million to expand its existing manufacturing facility near Rincon, creating over 400 new jobs in Effingham County.
• The Veterans Administration says it has terminated a Biden administration mandate to spend $77 million on electric vehicle charging stations at VA facilities. “The money will instead be redirected to critical health care construction projects,” it says.
• “Flooding from surging seas is likely to inundate thousands of U.S. hazardous sites in coming years as global temperatures rise, placing the nation’s most vulnerable at greatest risk,” Inside Climate News reports.
Walthourville council considers City Hall revamp
In recent meetings, the council also has discussed the possibility of eliminating part or all of its employee health coverage. The city pays 100% of its employees’ health insurance premiums. Walthourville is insured through the Georgia Municipal Association, which provides coverage to its member cities.
Hyundai suppliers fined by OSHA following worker’s fatal forklift accident
Three companies, including Hyundai’s battery plant in Bryan County, have been fined a total of $27,000 for safety violations that contributed to the death of a Korean worker in March.
Chatham chair’s move to leave county transit system baffles area officials
Chairman of the Chatham County Commission has proposed withdrawing from the Chatham Area Transit system by 2026, citing the board as “unconstitutional,” while commissioners say they were surprised by the move and worry about the impact on the community.
Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she will resign in January
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Rome Republican, announced her resignation from Congress in a video message, citing disillusionment with the political system and Trump, and predicting that if she were to stay in office, she would face and defeat a Trump-funded opponent while Republicans lose the midterms nationwide.
U.S. House committee opens probe of Senate candidate Mike Collins
The House Ethics Committee has opened an investigation into Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins and his chief of staff, though the panel has not yet detailed the reasons for the probe.
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