by Dave Williams | Jul 29, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Freight railroad companies Union Pacific and Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern announced a merger agreement Tuesday that will create the nation’s first transcontinental railroad.
The merger, subject to the approval of the federal Surface Transportation Board, will connect more than 50,000 route miles across 43 states, linking about 100 ports.
“Railroads have become an integral part of building America since the Industrial Revolution, and this transaction is the next step in advancing the industry,” said Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena, who will become CEO of the combined company Union Pacific Transcontinental Railroad.
“This combination is transformational, enhancing the best freight transportation system in the world. It’s a win for the American economy, it’s a win for our customers, and it’s a win for our people.”
“Norfolk Southern, like Union Pacific, is a railroad integral to the U.S. economy, with a storied 200-year legacy of serving customers across 22 states in the eastern half of the nation,” Norfolk Southern CEO Mark George added. “Our safety, network, and financial performance is among the best we’ve had as a company, as is our customer satisfaction. And it is from this position of strength that we embark on this transformational combination.”
Under the agreement, Union Pacific will acquire Norfolk Southern in a stock-and-cash transaction. The deal will create a combined enterprise worth more than $250 billion. Executives with both railroads promised a job with the combined company for every union employee who wants one.
Originally based in Norfolk, Va., Norfolk Southern moved its headquarters to Atlanta in 2021. While the combined company will be headquartered in Omaha, Neb. – Union Pacific’s home base – Atlanta will remain a core location focusing on technology, operations, and innovation, among other priorities, according to a news release.
The companies expect to apply for the merger with the STB within six months. The two company’s boards already have approved the agreement.
The companies are targeting closing the transaction by early 2027.
by Ty Tagami | Jul 29, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is initiating a four-year process that could delete the registrations of nearly a quarter million inactive voters.
“Clean voter rolls mean clean elections,” Raffensperger said Tuesday. “My promise to Georgia voters is elections that are free, fair, and fast – and we’re doing just that.”
Raffensperger’s agency will mail notices to 218,951 registered voters who have not participated since 2019. They will be scrubbed from the rolls in 2029 if they fail to respond by mail or by going online to update their status, and if they do not vote in either the 2026 or 2028 general elections.
(Voters can update their registration at the agency’s Online Voter Registration portal and My Voter Page, where they can also check whether they appear on the inactive list.)
The elections agency will soon roll out an address verification tool for use during registration.
Raffensperger has been trying to shore up confidence in Georgia’s election process, which has come under heavy criticism from supporters of President Donald Trump, who claimed without evidence that he lost the 2020 election due to cheating in Georgia.
Toward that end, Raffensperger also announced that a hand count of 282 “batches” of ballots in the recent Democratic primary runoff for the Georgia Public Service Commission had confirmed Peter Hubbard’s win over Keisha Sean Waites for District 3.
A batch comparison is one of several methods of auditing election results. It involves a comparison of hand count subtotals from identifiable batches of votes, such as from precincts, against the digital count, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
A batch comparison differs from a ballot-level count, which involves comparing randomly selected ballots to the results recorded by machines.
Georgia’s PSC runoff hand count varied from the machine count by two votes out of 13,917 cast. The inconsistency occurred in two of the batches and was within the “expected margin of human variation” and did not affect the outcome, Raffensperger’s office said.
by Dave Williams | Jul 29, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Ports Authority moved 5.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) during the last fiscal year, an 8.6% increase over fiscal 2024, the agency reported Tuesday.
The Port of Savannah accounted for most of that growth, posting its second busiest year on record.
“Georgia ports continue to grow U.S. East Coast market share,” said Griff Lynch, the authority’s president and CEO. “With the shifting of trade patterns in Asia and India, that bodes well for our future.”
Savannah moved 410,400 TEUs in June, while averaging more than 475,000 TEUs per month for all of fiscal 2025. March, April, and May each came in with more than 500,000 TEUs.
At the Port of Brunswick, volume was flat compared to fiscal 2024, an all-time record year. Brunswick handled 870,775 units of autos and heavy equipment in fiscal 2025.
The ports authority completed $470 million in projects during the last fiscal year, including eight new ship-to-shore cranes at Savannah, the largest on the East Coast, and additional warehousing and storage space at Brunswick.
The coming fiscal year will see construction of a new berth at Brunswick’s Colonels Island Terminal designed to ensure future capacity keeps pace with demand. The $100 million berth is due to open in 2027.
The redevelopment of Savannah’s Ocean Terminal will add 1.5 million TEUs of annual capacity. The project will include a new overpass linking the terminal to Route 17 designed to keep terminal truck traffic away from local neighborhoods.
by Ty Tagami | Jul 28, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A Georgia man has been convicted in a Louisianna federal court for his role in a scheme that involved stringing along women online then extracting millions of dollars from them.
During a four-day trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Kenneth G. Akpieyi, 44, played a key role in defrauding women by connecting them with romantic partners on Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Louisianna said Monday.
The conversations then moved to encrypted platforms, including WhatsApp, where the perpetrators asked the women to send money for fraudulent reasons, such as for charity or to help with family illnesses, prosecutors said.
Eight victims testified to total losses exceeding $3 million, prosecutors said.
Michael M. Simpson, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisianna, praised the FBI in New Orleans for their work on the case. Simpson also thanked the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI in Atlanta.
Akpieyi, who lived in Marietta under the alias Phillip Anderson, used his company, KGA Autobrokers LLC, to obscure the movement of victims’ money, with funds reaching bank accounts in China, the United Arab Emirates and other countries, prosecutors said.
Akpieyi will be sentenced Nov. 5 and could get up to 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and 20 years for conspiracy to commit money laundering. He also faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
by Ty Tagami | Jul 28, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has launched an investigation into a company accused of operating a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors while funding political campaigns.
The announcement follows a lawsuit filed in mid-July by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Edwin Brant Frost IV and his company First Liberty Building and Loan.
“If you engaged with First Liberty and have not yet submitted a formal complaint with the Securities Division, you are encouraged to do so using the appropriate channels on the Secretary of State’s website,” the state agency said Monday. “Individuals who contact the office will be treated confidentially.”
The agency’s Securities Division regulates the securities industry in Georgia, including investment products.
Raffensperger has already called on politicians to return any campaign contributions from First Liberty or the Frost family, which has been active in state Republican politics.
The SEC lawsuit said Frost used investor funds for more than $570,000 in political contributions.
The Georgia Republican Party said last week that it had repaid nearly $37,000 in such income to the court-appointed receiver for First Liberty.
The company raised at least $140 million from about 300 investors, and the lawsuit said Frost also used their money to pay himself and his family at least $5 million.
Raffensperger said his agency was trying to reach First Liberty investors. In addition to asking them to file a complaint, the agency would like them to fill out an online survey to help with the “fact-finding” process.
“Your responses will be kept confidential,” the form says.
