ATLANTA – While special prosecutor Nathan Wade’s romantic relationship with Fulton County District Attorney was “bad timing,” Wade said he doesn’t believe it is responsible for delaying the election interference case against former President Donald Trump.
“I’m very proud of the things we were able to accomplish under my leadership,” Wade told CNN Wednesday during an interview with the network’s Kaitlan Collins. “I would never have done anything I thought would jeopardize that hard work.”
Wade stepped down from the case in April after Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis could continue prosecuting Trump for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia only if Wade discontinued his role as special prosecutor. He resigned within several hours of the ruling.
Wade blamed Trump’s defense team for using Wade’s relationship with Willis to delay the case.
“It’s an interesting trial strategy to attempt to defend your client by attacking the prosecutors involved,” he said.
After a Fulton grand jury indicted Trump and 18 co-defendants last August, Willis was hoping to bring the case to trial by this summer. But the legal wrangling over a defense motion to remove Willis from the case because of her relationship with Wade has dragged on for months, making it a virtual certainty that the case won’t go to trial until after voters decide whether to reelect President Joe Biden or put Trump back in the White House.
In the latest development, the Georgia Court of Appeals put the case on hold last week pending the outcome of Trump’s appeal of McAfee’s ruling allowing Willis to remain.
On Wednesday, Wade said he believes the case could go forward after the November election even if Trump wins and becomes president again in January.
“I don’t believe it looks good to the rest of the world, but I don’t think there’s anything that would prevent that from happening,” he said.
At one point, the interview was interrupted when Collins pressed Wade for details on when his relationship with Willis began and ended. He started to answer, but took off his microphone and stepped away to talk with an aide. When he returned, he referred her question to previous testimony in court hearings on the case rather than answer directly.
Wade said he and Willis remain friends and keep in close contact. However, with him no longer on the case, he said they talk about other matters, including the death threats the two continue to receive.
ATLANTA – A strengthening retail market and new customers are combining to drive growth at the Port of Savannah.
The port handled 490,330 twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) last month, up 22% compared to May of last year, the Georgia Ports Authority reported Thursday.
In fact, the Port of Savannah has seen an increase in container volumes every month of this calendar year compared to 2023. So far this year, the ports authority has handled 2.2 million TEUs, an increase of 12.7% over the first five months of last year.
The port is benefiting from source shifting, as more manufacturers establish production facilities in Southeast Asia locations that favor delivery via Savannah, said Griff Lynch, the ports authority’s president and CEO.
“Major retail customers tell Georgia Ports they have increased their orders to rebuild inventories to meet rising consumer demand,” Lynch said. “Additionally, we’ve seen an increase in trade among … suppliers for the new Hyundai Meta Plant.”
May was also a good month for the Appalachian Regional Port in Northwest Georgia, which receives shipments of containers by rail and loads them onto trucks for transport to markets in the Mid-South and Midwest. The inland terminal moved a record 3,600 containers last month.
The ports authority is building a second inland port in Gainesville, a $127 million project due to be completed in 2026.
ATLANTA – Five Georgia communities will receive $10.3 million for infrastructure projects to support more than 300 housing units, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday.
The state Department of Community Affairs will distribute the funds as the fourth round of grants through Kemp’s Rural Workforce Housing Initiative, which the governor announced last year during his annual State of the State address to the General Assembly.
“We’ve already seen incredible results from our Rural Workforce Housing grants helping Georgians live where they work,” Kemp said. “This latest round of investments will further that impact in rural Georgia as our state sees even more historic opportunity and record economic development.”
The largest of the new grants – $2.5 million – will go to the city of Gainesville to improve drainage in conjunction with two residential construction projects. The Gainesville Nonprofit Development Foundation plans to build 17 to 23 single family homes, while the Norton Agency will construct 66 rental housing units.
The rest of the grants will go to communities in South Georgia. The city of Blackshear will receive $2.45 million to build water, sewer, street, and drainage improvements needed for 43 new homes in the Pinehurst Village development.
The Development Authority of Bulloch County will get $2.44 million for road and drainage improvements associated with 79 new single-family homes at the 78-acre Cornerstone Point development.
The city of Reidsville will receive $1.65 million for water, road, drainage, and sewer improvements needed to support 37 new single-family homes at the 14-acre Pine Ridge Subdivision.
The city of Sylvester will be awarded $1.32 million for water, road, drainage, and sewer improvements to support the completion of the 47-acre Quail Pines Subdivision. The developer is planning to build 20 to 64 new homes in two phases.
In each case, the local governments are contributing to the projects.
ATLANTA – University of West Georgia (UWG) President Brendan Kelly is leaving later this year for a new job as president of the Arkansas State University System.
Kelly began his tenure at UWG in March 2020 as the COVID pandemic was taking hold. During his time there, the university has broken records in student retention, fundraising, and degrees conferred.
West Georgia also elevated its athletic program to NCAA Division I on Kelly’s watch and established two new colleges and one new school.
“Serving as president of the University of West Georgia is one of the greatest privileges of my life and represents some of the best work we can achieve in higher education,” Kelly said in a statement he shared with the university’s faculty and staff last week.
“We have spent our time at this institution trying to plant seeds, knowing that others would enjoy the shade of the mature trees.”
Kelly’s start date in Arkansas has not been announced, but it will be no later than Oct. 1. An interim president for UWG has not been named.
ATLANTA – University System of Georgia Chancellor Sonny Perdue has named a former interim president at a historically Black university in Florida to serve as interim president at Albany State University.
Lawrence Drake II will succeed current Albany State President Marion Ross Fedrick on July 1, when she leaves to become executive vice president and chief of staff to the president of Georgia State University.
Drake is currently president and CEO of the Atlanta-based educational outreach organization LEADing for Life. He previously served as interim president at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Prior to joining academia, Drake worked at Coca-Cola for 21 years, where he served in several executive roles, including division president for Coca-Cola Africa.
“Dr. Drake has over 40 years of leadership experience, and his most recent work with both Bethune-Cookman and LEADing for Life demonstrates his strong commitment to student success in higher education,” Perdue said. “We are grateful for his commitment to build on Marion’s legacy in the interim as we undertake a national search for Albany State’s next president.”
“With my passion for expanding access to learning opportunities and helping individuals acquire 21st-century skills, I am honored to have this opportunity to work with Albany State’s faculty, staff and students in a time of positive transition,” Drake added.
“There’s so much momentum thanks to the work of President Fedrick, and I’m looking forward to doing my part for the legacy of the largest public HBCU (Historically Black College and University) in Georgia.”
A first-generation college graduate, Drake holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Georgia State and a second bachelor’s in elective studies from Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn. He earned a master’s degree from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Mo., and a master’s and doctorate – both in psychology – from Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Fedrick joined Albany State in 2017 and became the university’s 10th president a year later.
