by Ty Tagami | Nov 17, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A monthly slowdown in container units handled at Port of Savannah suggests an economic slowdown, though traffic is still up for the year.
The number of container units handled fell 8.4% in October compared with October 2024 but traffic is up 4% as of this point for the year compared with the same point last year.
The script was flipped at Colonels Island Terminal at Port of Brunswick, where auto and heavy equipment shipments were up 5.4% last month versus October last year but traffic fell 9% for the year.
Georgia Ports Authority President and CEO Griff Lynch hoped for more trade in 2026.
“We’ve been impacted by the trade downturn,” he said in a statement, “so we look forward to seeing more trade deals come together and we’re hopeful the market bounces back in the new year.”
The Port Authority is preparing for long-term growth. The Blue Ridge Connector, its $127 million rail facility 50 miles from Atlanta, is expected to open next spring.
When it does, Norfolk Southern “doublestack” trains are projected to eliminate 52,000 truck trips during the first year of operation, relieving Atlanta traffic and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 90%, according to the Authority.
It will serve northeast Georgia, a high-growth corridor known for exporting heavy equipment, forest products and poultry. The area to be served by trains is about a five-hour truck drive from the Port of Savannah.
by Ty Tagami | Nov 14, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A year from now people in the hemp industry expect booming growth in a black market for marijuana and illicit hemp consumables.
That is when beverages, gummies and other products made with THC from the hemp plant will become illegal.
Furloughed government workers will soon get their jobs back and low-income households will get food stamps, but the government shutdown that ended Wednesday with President Donald Trump’s signature on a funding bill places a time bomb under the hemp industry.
The new law will ban over 95% of hemp extract products, including most non-intoxicating products made with cannabidiol, or CBD, according to the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, an industry group.
It will have far-reaching effects on hemp businesses and their consumers.
Sen. Mitch McConnel, R-Ky. slipped language into the legislation to restrict hemp products to 0.4 milligrams of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the intoxicating, psychoactive compound found in hemp and in much greater concentrations in marijuana.
The law’s passage effectively closed an opening by Congress in 2018 that allowed a flourishing market for intoxicating products.
A year from now, hemp products will only be allowed to contain 0.4 milligrams of THC per container. In Georgia, state regulationsenacted after the 2018 federal law allowed 10 milligrams per 12 ounce beverage. Each gummy could also contain 10 milligrams, with a maximum of 300 milligrams per package.
“Our industry just got wiped out,” said Joe Salome, owner of The Georgia Hemp Company. “Anything hemp derived that has THC is no bueno anymore,” he said.
Salome said the impetus for the pending ban was growing concern about the proliferation of synthetic cannabinoid consumables, including poorly labeled products from China, made with potentially unsafe processes and grown from crops that might not follow U.S. pesticide standards. Children were getting their hands on them.
Salome and other mainstream operators shared those concerns, but he regrets that businesses like his are getting lumped with the bad actors.
“My dad always said, ‘You are who you hang out with,'” he said. “There are good actors and there are bad actors, but there are a lot more bad actors that brought this down.”
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, commonly known as the farm bill, made it legal to sell products containing 0.3% Delta-9 THC by “dry weight.” Georgia’s rules also speak to that compound.
That is the loophole that allowed synthetic, highly-intoxicating products to flood the market.
“The problem is that the hemp plant contains so much CBD,” said Gregg Raduka, a founding member of Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy. “Because the chemical composition of CBD is so close to THC, it doesn’t take all that much chemical engineering to change the CBD into THC, but you can still call it hemp-derived THC. And therefore because it’s not Delta-9, it’s legal.”
People in the hemp industry draw parallels between the coming crackdown and what happened when the country banned alcohol, leading to a boom in organized crime.
“This is a prohibition bill. This is trying to send it all into the underground and it’s going to be around no matter what,” said Chris Karazin, founder and chief executive of Carolindica, a company in Raleigh, N.C. that manufactures and sells hemp consumables.
“It’s not like people aren’t still going to go looking for this product. You just now force it to the black market,” said Karazin, who makes products for other companies and for sale at his own stores and online, with nearly a fifth of those sales in Georgia.
Raduka recognized an irony in banning hemp consumables.
“I’m guessing here that the marijuana industry is not interested in all the competition it’s been receiving from the very high THC hemp products,” said Raduka, who retired from a career in substance abuse prevention and treatment and has been testifying at the Georgia Capitol about risks of consuming hemp and marijuana.
The U.S. Hemp Roundtable says the ban threatens a $28.4 billion industry, jeopardizing more than 300,000 jobs.
“People are going to lose their jobs. People are going to lose their houses,” said Christopher Lackner, president of the Hemp Beverage Alliance. “I know several people have second mortgages on their house because they were following the rules of the 2018 farm bill and creating this category and working with states to create regulatory frameworks.”
Karazin said his business supports a network of suppliers, from makers of syrups, packaging and marketing materials, to landlords. Bottle shops and restaurants will lose revenue on sales of hemp products, he added.
But the industry has a year to work with Congress, and Lackner and other advocates are optimistic that they can find a way to allow the market to continue while eliminating unethical actors.
Salome was trying to be optimistic about that but worried about the future. He said he had at least 50 employees to pay and five retail leases to cover.
“We owe the bank a bunch,” he said. “I hope I can keep my house.”
by Ty Tagami | Nov 14, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The state agency that oversees election finance wants more power to investigate probable violations, and a key state lawmaker expressed interest in bestowing that authority.
The leader of a special Senate committee on election-related investigations said he wants to tighten state campaign finance laws to hold donors and recipients more accountable for reporting when they give and receive money.
“We’re wanting it to be transparent to the public so we can know who is pushing these different agendas,” Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, said Thursday. “And we also want to make the system fair so that big money doesn’t dominate our politics.”
Cowsert, who is running for state attorney general, is leading the Senate’s special committee on investigations. It heard Thursday about the years-long legal fight that led to the largest campaign finance fine in state history, when a nonprofit founded by two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams settled with the state early this year.
The New Georgia Project and a separate fundraising arm agreed to pay $300,000 for failure to disclose $4.2 million in contributions and $3.2 million in spending on behalf of Abrams’ 2018 campaign for governor.
A fine was not enough, Cowsert said, suggesting that Georgia should increase the penalties for campaign finance violations.
“No individual’s been held responsible,” he said.
Abrams did not respond to a request for comment. In the past, her camp had argued that the nonprofits were not technically political campaign organizations and did not have to file disclosures. The State Ethics Commission, which enforces campaign finance law, disagreed, leading to the negotiated settlement and the fine.
Democrats have accused Republicans of using the Senate committee — and the settlement — for political grandstanding. The committee can require production of documents and issue subpoenas.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who brought an election interference case against President Donald Trump and his allies, has become another target. She was supposed to testify at Thursday’s hearing after fighting in court against the committee’s efforts to subpoena her last year.
Cowsert said in October that she had agreed to testify, but she did not appear on Thursday because, Cowsert said, her lawyer had a scheduling conflict. Cowsert said Willis would appear before the committee in December.
So instead the committee heard from David Emadi, executive secretary of the State Ethics Commission.
Emadi addressed past accusations by Abrams allies that his agency had behaved in a partisan way, saying he had also pursued complaints against Republican-aligned organizations, such as the Georgia Republican Assembly. But his presentation Thursday focused on the New Georgia Project, its affiliate the New Georgia Project Action Fund, and the Abrams campaign.
He said his investigators cannot compel witnesses to talk under oath prior to establishing probable cause that a crime was committed. That makes it difficult to develop a case that will make it to court, he said, especially when the case involves suspicions of covert coordination between independent political committees and campaigns.
Independent committees can raise unlimited sums of money from individuals, corporations and other donors. Campaigns cannot. The two are not supposed to coordinate political advocacy activities.
The leaders of these organizations are typically too smart to put illegal activities in writing, Emadi said, so the power to subpoena correspondence does not go far enough.
“They lie to us, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Emadi said. “And if they tell us they refuse to talk to us, there’s nothing we can do about it.” The authority to depose witnesses under oath during the early phases of an investigation “would change that calculus,” he said.
Emadi said there is an open ethics complaint alleging that such communication occurred between the Abrams campaign and the New Georgia Project. He said he could not disclose much about it, but, he said, “I think I can say that at previous hearings we presented evidence, and some of that evidence certainly gave credence to that question of whether or not coordination occurred.”
Emadi agreed when Cowsert asked if the New Georgia Project had withheld information.
“I want to close that loophole,” Cowsert said.
Emadi also agreed when Cowsert asked if lawmakers should create new criminal offenses that could be used against individuals who intentionally violate campaign finance law.
The negotiated settlement between the Commission and the New Georgia Project did not address coordination. Nse Ufot, the former chief executive of the Project, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution two years ago that no coordination had occurred. Lauren Groh-Wargo, who was Abrams’ campaign manager, also said no rules on coordination were violated.
Emadi told Cowsert’s committee that the word “coordination” needs to be defined more clearly in state law so that alleged violations can be asserted more effectively in court. He also asked for more money for his investigative team.
by Ty Tagami | Nov 13, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — A mandatory cellphone ban could be coming for all public high schools in Georgia after the positive outcomes reported by schools that have already implemented such policies.
A new state law will require every public elementary and middle school in the state to lock up students’ phones and other personal devices starting next fall, but many already have such policies in place, including at high schools.
Teachers have reported strong support, with 92% backing an extension of the ban to high schools, according to a survey of 3,000 educators by Georgia Southern University detailed at a state Senate hearing Wednesday.
And educators and advocates who testified recounted similar enthusiasm at their schools and among parents.
Teachers and administrators have seen academic gains accompany the silencing of phone notifications. Studies show distractions bump minds off task, sending students’ minds careering. Banishing cellphones has also removed a tool used by miscreants to bully peers, coordinate fights and unleash other mayhem.
Students behaved better at Lakeside High School in DeKalb County when the phones were taken away last year, and they interacted with each other more, said Susan Stoddard, the principal there. “You heard the joyous fun of school in the hallways. They were talking to one another,” she said.
The district experimented with phone bans at several schools, then measured the impact.
“It was transformational academically, behaviorally and socially,” Stoddard said, noting that prior to implementation, classroom observers had counted an average of 16 notifications on each student’s phone every half hour.
That added up to nearly 300 disruptions per classroom each half hour, she said.
Similarly, Marietta City Schools banned phones in middle school last year. Superintendent Grant Rivera said district surveys found near-universal approval among teachers. He said the students themselves reported a 22% improvement in classroom behavior in the Georgia Student Health Survey, an annual questionnaire administered by the Georgia Department of Education.
Rivera’s enthusiastic testimony about the policy during the legislative session last winter may have helped to convince lawmakers to back the lower grades prohibition. House Bill 340 passed with broad bipartisan support.
Rivera said Wednesday that he needed a similar ban at the high school level but lacked community support for it. Too many parents had grown accustomed to reaching their teens, he said.
He wished lawmakers luck if they tried to extend the prohibition.
A refrain among critics of a high school ban is that parents need to be able to reach their kids if a shooter enters the building, a concern amplified by what happened at Apalachee High School last fall.
Police counter that cellphones make schools less safe in an emergency by distracting students from following instructions.
Stoddard said she routinely told parents that students drill to stay silent when an active shooter enters the building. The ding of an ill-timed text could draw the killer to the classroom, she would explain to parents who complained about Lakeside High’s ban. “I had to be very blunt,” she said, telling them, “It could be the difference between life or death for your child.”
The main sponsor of HB 340 had excluded high schools from his bill precisely because he worried about a backlash from parents. This was out of keeping with other states that prohibited phones from all schools, but Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, reiterated his concern about parent resistance at Wednesday’s hearing, counseling patience. He predicted that more parents and students would be receptive to the idea after rising high school students have experienced the benefits of phone-free middle school.
Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, a member of the committee, said he was “just wondering out loud” if that was a better course.
But Sen. Sally Harrell, D-Atlanta, seemed unwilling to wait.
The hearing was the last in a series by the bipartisan study committee that she has helmed with Sen. Shawn Still, R-Johns Creek.
The senators have been exploring the impact on children of electronic devices, social media and artificial intelligence. Harrell has been emphatic about introducing legislation that pushes back against the encroachment of technology companies into the lives of children.
“I have a feeling that this discussion is going to continue into the legislative session,” she said, “but with a bill in committee.”
by Ty Tagami | Nov 11, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — If Congress ultimately approves the legislation that the U.S. Senate adopted Monday to end the government shutdown, it could throttle the multibillion dollar hemp consumables industry.
A provision tucked into the nearly 400-page appropriations bill would close what critics consider a loophole in a 2018 federal law that legalized the sale and use of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, from the hemp plant.
THC is a psychoactive chemical present in both hemp and marijuana plants, and the law legalized a limited amount in consumable products when it is derived from hemp.
Chemists found ways around the limit, and highly intoxicating products quickly filled store shelves, including at gas stations and convenience stores. Children were getting their hands on the gummies, vape fluids and other substances, ratcheting up calls for a crackdown.
But THC from hemp also spurred a mainstream industry with known brands incorporating it into their products.
“The implications of the government shutdown are very significant,” said Christopher Lackner, the Colorado-based president of the Hemp Beverage Alliance. Food stamps, cancelled flights and other disruptions are the focus, he said. “What is being lost is that the fate of an entire $30 billion industry is also at stake.”
Among the potential casualties is Atlanta-based Scofflaw Brewing, a decade-old beermaker that introduced hemp beverages after alcohol consumption began to decline nationally a few years ago.
Co-founder Matt Shirah said he invested millions of dollars into making THC beverages under his own brand and for other companies.
Sales have exploded, already rivaling his beer revenue. Projections had his THC-infused beverages blossoming into a $100 million product line within a couple of years, he said.
If this legislation becomes law, it could threaten the livelihoods of a hundred employees and short circuit an expansion employing dozens more, he said.
“If they institute a ban, we would stay small, not hire anybody, start letting people go,” he said. “This is very bad.”
Critics of the industry argue that the 2018 Agriculture Improvement Act intended mainly to open a market for industrial uses of hemp rather than for intoxicating products.
“Intoxicating hemp-derived THC products have inundated communities throughout our states due to a grievously mistaken interpretation of the 2018 Farm Bill’s definition of ‘hemp’ that companies are leveraging to pursue profits at the expense of public safety and health,” said a letter to Congress last month that was signed by 39 state attorneys general, including Georgia’s Chris Carr.
The letter accused shady players in the new industry of marketing products such as psychoactive gummies to minors, and it cited an increase in pediatric exposures to THC after the law’s passage.
The 2018 law attempted to limit the intoxicating potential by capping hemp-based THC in products at 0.3% or less “on a dry weight basis,” which some have described as ambiguous.
Marijuana remains a Schedule 1 drug under federal law, making it illegal for consumer use. So chemists got to work and learned how to concentrate the intoxicating effects of hemp using different elements of the plant.
They extracted an Alphabet soup of alternative forms of THC, such as delta-8, delta-10, THC-O, THCP and HHC, then infused them at high concentrations into a multitude of highly intoxicating “Frankenstein” products, the attorneys general letter said.
Gregg Raduka, a founding member of Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy, heralded the Senate’s proposed cap as “wonderful news,” adding that he hoped the U.S. House of Representatives would approve it. He had testified at state legislative hearings about what he saw as a burgeoning and dangerous hemp consumables market in Georgia.
Shirah’s beverages contain THC at levels condoned under state laws that were established to regulate the industry after the 2018 federal law made it legal.
Scofflaw sells cans of lemonade and other beverages with five or 10 milligrams of THC. The legislation that passed the U.S. Senate would limit products like that to 0.4 milligrams per container. It would also apply to gummies and any other consumable with hemp-derived THC, whether in bags, bottles, cans, cartridges, packets or other enclosures.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture has tried to weed out bad actors who exceed the state’s legal limits while supporting compliant businesses. Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper even spoke at the Hemp Beverage Alliance’s convention in Atlanta in July, noted Lackner, the Alliance president.
Lackner likened the crackdown to a ban that takes out sugar and all other sweeteners when the target was just saccharine.
“I don’t know what the intention is,” he said. “All I know is that the end the result is going to be catastrophic for our industry.”
Lackner saw a silver lining in the legislation though. It includes language that would allow the industry to keep operating for another year, giving mainstream companies time to lobby for a law that would let them continue to exist while eliminating competitors with highly intoxicating products.
