by Ty Tagami | Jun 9, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Metro Atlanta’s transit system unveiled its new phone app Tuesday, touting the technology’s utility for planning and safety.
The announcement came the same day that federal prosecutors described the defendant accused in a third violent attack on Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority property in nearly as many weeks.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Anthony Gresham, 42, of Lithia Springs, in connection with the shooting Friday of a 17-year-old boy on a MARTA train.
“Gresham was allegedly undeterred by decades of prosecution for robberies, drug trafficking, and other crimes, which compounds the need for federal intervention in this case,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement Tuesday.
Gresham is accused of pulling a handgun from his bag and firing three times at the boy, Hertzberg said.
The boy had entered the train at the Midtown station. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for gunshot wounds to his left hand and leg.
The violence comes as MARTA updates its trains, stations and systems in preparation for visitors from across the globe for the FIFA World Cup, with the first match in Atlanta on June 15.
Gresham was charged with committing an act of violence with intent to cause serious bodily injury on a mass transportation system, possession of ammunition by a convicted felon, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
Hertzberg said Gresham had prior felony convictions in at least three different counties that would have precluded him from legally carrying a gun. The convictions included armed robbery, aggravated assault, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, burglary, theft, and robbery by force.
Many will probably ride a MARTA train from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, heading the same direction as Margaret Swan, 66, who was stabbed to death on May 30 as her train approached the Oakland City station on Atlanta’s south side.
John Elijah Matthews, 25, of Decatur, was arrested at that stop. He also was charged in federal court, in his case on June 2.
Hertzberg, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said the U.S. Attorney General would decide whether to seek the death penalty.
After Matthews was charged, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy ordered the Federal Transit Administration to investigate safety protocols and security spending because of the recent violence.
Prior to Swan’s death, a 40-year-old man survived being stabbed in an Atlanta MARTA station on May 24.
The transit agency said on Tuesday that its new app, available on phones running on Apple’s App Store and on the Google Play store, offers live train and bus tracking, trip planning and system alerts. It also allows riders to report safety concerns and incidents to MARTA police, and it works in several languages.
“MARTA is committed to improving the customer experience, whether it’s on our buses and trains, or when riders use our website or apps,” MARTA Interim General Manager and CEO Jonathan Hunt said.
The app was designed by the company Reflexions, which is also working on an update to the transit system’s website, itsmarta.com.
by Ty Tagami | Jun 8, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Thousands of students at Georgia’s public colleges will have new leadership when they return this fall after the University System of Georgia named new campus leaders.
On Monday, the system named three new presidents: Greg Tanner at South Georgia State College, Russell Crutchfield at Gordon State College and Kerry J. Palmer at Georgia Southwestern State University.
Tanner is not entirely new to the role: he has served as interim president at South Georgia State since February 2023.
Chancellor Sonny Perdue said Tanner “hasn’t missed a beat over the past three years” there, helping to increase enrollment as the campus recovered from Hurricane Helene.
Crutchfield moves from Gov. Brian Kemp’s office, where he has been chief operating officer, to lead Gordon State effective Aug. 1.
Perdue praised Crutchfield’s roots in the university system and his work for Kemp, saying Crutchfield knows how to develop a skilled workforce for Georgia’s economy.
Crutchfield has been with Kemp since January 2024. Previously he served in executive leadership at the University of West Georgia as chief of staff and associate vice president. He also held leadership roles at several state agencies.
Palmer will become president of Georgia Southwestern on Aug. 1 after nearly three decades in education at the university and K-12 levels. As chief academic officer at Troy University in Alabama, he oversaw an $80 million budget. Perdue called him a results-driven leader who understands the role universities play in communities and in the workforce.
Palmer succeeds President Michelle Johnston, who is departing to lead the University of Montevallo in Alabama. Crutchfield follows Donald J. Green, who was tapped last month to lead Valdosta State University.
by Ty Tagami | Jun 8, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Drivers are paying the 33-cent-per-gallon excise tax at Georgia gas pumps again, but the suspension that ended Tuesday saved them nearly $200 million in May.
Motor fuel tax collections fell by $199.6 million, or 99.5%, compared to May 2025, according to the Georgia Department of Revenue.
Georgia lawmakers approved a gas tax suspension from late March through May 19, the date of the primary election. But Gov. Brian Kemp, using his authority to declare a state of emergency, extended the suspension by two weeks, into June.
Last week, he amended his call for a special session to begin June 17, asking the Legislature to approve his emergency tax suspension retroactively. In May, Kemp had ordered the special session to redraw district lines.
Tax revenues for May would have fallen even without the gas tax suspension. Collections were down 12.6%, or $339.1 million, from a year earlier, for a total of $2.35 billion.
However, the year-over-year comparison is complicated by the lingering effects of Hurricane Helene, which delayed tax filings last year and shifted collections from April to May.
Kemp’s office noted that, taken together, collections from April and May this year were down 1.9% from a year ago but were up 2.5% when excluding changes to motor fuel taxes.
by Ty Tagami | Jun 5, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Google will spend $1 million on conservation work in a watershed in South Georgia near one of its data centers.
The donation, announced this week, is part of a $17 million commitment by Google to support seven waterway and infrastructure improvement projects nationwide.
In Georgia, the nonprofit Ducks Unlimited will be putting Google’s money toward the restoration of 35 acres of wetlands in the Flint River Wildlife Management Area.
Google has a data center nearby, in Douglas County.
Data centers often use a significant amount of water to cool computer servers, although the one in Douglas County uses recycled wastewater.
Google’s contribution announcement comes amid a backlash against data centers.
“U.S. data centers are using less than 1% of the water used to water Americans’ lawns,” Ben Townsend of Google said in an interview last week. “That doesn’t mean that folks’ fears about water should be dismissed,” said Townsend, the company’s global head of infrastructure and sustainability. “Let’s be honest, over the past 100 years, we’ve seen industrial water use go wrong in lots of different sectors. And here at Google we know that that can’t be us. It won’t be us.”
On Wednesday, the same day Google lifted its embargo on its announcement, voters in Monterey Park, Calif. overwhelmingly banned data centers, making it the first city in the country to do so by public vote.
Data centers are a hot topic in Georgia, too.
They need a lot of electricity to power their computer servers, so the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC), a state regulator, voted in December to let monopoly utility Georgia Power add nearly 10 gigawatts of power production, mostly for data centers.
That has raised concerns about ratepayers covering the cost of new gas turbines and utility lines to benefit big tech companies. Georgia Power has pledged not to shift costs like that.
Critics counter that those are short-term pledges and that long-term costs could still fall on regular ratepayers.
Data centers have become a talking point for Georgia politicians on both sides of the aisle.
Rick Jackson, the billionaire in the Republican primary runoff for governor against Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, has accused Jones of personally profiting from data centers, something Jones denied at a solo Atlanta Press Club debate on Monday. (Jackson skipped the debate.)
But Jones did vote for tax credits for data centers in 2018, something Jackson’s campaign has hammered him on.
In a similar debate on Sunday between two Democrats running to succeed Jones — Sen. Josh McLaurin and former Sen. Nabilah Parkes — Parkes said she would impose a moratorium on new data centers.
“People don’t want more data centers that are being built on the backs of working-class families because it’s now costing our energy bills,” Parkes said. “It’s now contaminating our water. We need to put a stop to these data centers and make sure that we pass regulations to hold them accountable and make sure that they’re paying their fair share.”
In the Republican debate for lieutenant governor that same day, the two candidates argued about who had the better policy to protect ratepayers from covering data center electricity costs.
State Sen. Greg Dolezal said a law was needed while former Sen. John F. Kennedy said he would let the PSC rather than politicians manage the balance.
Dolezal added that he would scrap data center tax credits.
Both agreed there should be more state-mandated transparency around proposed data center projects.
Google’s Townsend said the company is committed to transparency around water use, releasing annual disclosures. He said Google also is committed to expanding its water restoration and reclamation work so that it is replenishing more water than it uses by 2030.
“We have a really strong commitment to protecting watersheds,” he said, “but we can’t speak for everyone else in the space.”
by Ty Tagami | Jun 4, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Some homeowners could eventually see a rollback in their property tax bills after Gov. Brian Kemp revised his call for a special session.
Last month, Kemp ordered lawmakers back to the Capitol to redraw district lines and to address legal concerns with the state’s voting system.
On Wednesday he expanded his proclamation to allow lawmakers from each county to vote on a sales tax-funded subsidy for homeowners.
A 1% Local Homestead Option Sales Tax (LHOST) would go before voters in each county in November if their local legislative delegation approves a referendum at the special legislative session, which starts June 17.
The sales taxes, which would go into effect in 2028, would subsidize property taxes owed by homeowners.
The new sales tax was authorized by Kemp’s signature on Senate Bill 33, which will cap increases in county valuations of owner-occupied homes at the rate of inflation.
The law is aimed at restraining rapid rises in value that have been driving up property tax bills.
Any LHOST approved under SB 33 would apply to a variety of products and services, including food, alcohol and motor fuels up to $3 in retail sales price per gallon.
Kemp’s revised proclamation also calls on lawmakers to ratify after the fact his extended suspension of the 33-cent a gallon motor fuel tax.
After lawmakers temporarily waived that tax in March, Kemp extended it last month using his authority after declaring a state of emergency.
The gas tax suspension ended at midnight Tuesday.
It is unclear how many counties will call for an LHOST.
Clint Mueller, deputy director of ACCG, the association for county commissioners, said Thursday that he had heard of a few interested delegations.
