Gordon State College will offer a nexus degree in film production.
ATLANTA – Two institutions in the University System of Georgia are launching degree programs focused on two of the state’s top industries.
The system’s Board of Regents voted Tuesday to offer a new nexus degree in film production at Gordon State College and a new master’s degree program in epidemiology at Augusta University.
Gordon State College is located in Barnesville, 40 miles from the Georgia Film Academy’s flagship instructional site at Trilith Studios in Fayetteville. With six major film studios located in metro Atlanta, Georgia is now the third-largest state in film production.
Film production was the first area of study to offer nexus degrees in Georgia, an initiative that grew out of the College 2025 program system Chancellor Steve Wrigley introduced in 2017 to better tailor course offerings to the state’s 21st century workforce needs.
Columbus State University graduated the university system’s first two nexus degree holders last month, both in film production.
Gordon State is expected to draw many of its film production students from nearby Southern Crescent Technical College, which offers an associate’s degree in film.
Georgia is the third-highest employer of epidemiologists in the country.
The University of Georgia already offers an epidemiology masters degree, while Georgia State University and Georgia Southern University offer master’s in public health with a concentration on epidemiology. Still, many of the state’s undergraduates with epidemiology majors leave Georgia to attend the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Georgia students who graduate with a master’s in epidemiology can be recruited to work in a variety of governmental institutions within the state, the most prominent being with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The cooling tower of Plant Vogtle’s Unit 3 is under construction in the background.
ATLANTA – Georgia Power is putting off some of this year’s milestones in the construction schedule for the nuclear expansion at Plant Vogtle, citing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Atlanta-based utility expects to adjust the dates for fuel loading at Unit 3, one of two nuclear reactors being added at the plant south of Augusta, and for the start of “hot functional testing,” which measures the safety and operability of the reactors, Georgia Power announced Monday.
Georgia Power has made significant changes to work practices at the project since the coronavirus pandemic struck Georgia last March. The company laid off 20% of the project workforce last April, and the site has seen a significant increase in cases of the virus since October consistent with the broader national and regional increase.
However, Georgia Power still expects to bring Unit 3 into service this November, followed a year later by Unit 4, the second reactor.
The state Public Service Commission approved the project back in 2009 at an estimated cost of $14 billion and a schedule that called for completing the work in 2016 and 2017. However, the project has been plagued by a series of cost overruns and scheduling delays brought on in part by the bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric, the original prime contractor.
The project’s critics are predicting that further delays and overruns will occur, based on testimony last fall from engineers monitoring the work.
Georgia Power expects to provide additional updates next month during parent Southern Co.’s quarterly earnings call.
Georgia Senate members take the oath of office on the first day of the 2021 legislative session on Jan. 11, 2021. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – COVID-19 and last week’s storming of the U.S. Capitol loomed large in the Georgia General Assembly Monday as lawmakers were sworn in to begin the 2021 legislative session.
Eleven new senators and 20 new House members took the oath of office, as the two chambers – still controlled by Republicans following the November elections – elected their leaders for the next two years.
Besides a requirement that lawmakers wear masks on the House and Senate floors, they will be tested twice a week to discourage the spread of the virus, which has sickened hundreds of thousands of Georgians and prompted the General Assembly to shut down for three months during last year’s session.
At least one lawmaker recently tested positive for COVID-19 and was absent Monday, prompting state Sen. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, to criticize the slow rollout of Georgia’s vaccine program. Just one-third of the 555,800 vaccines shipped to Georgia so far have been administered, according to state Department of Public Health data.
“We must call on the leadership in the state … to step up,” Orrock said. “What we cannot do is tolerate this current level of being at the bottom in the nation for the levels of vaccine we’re getting out.”
The House overwhelmingly re-elected Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, to head that chamber for the next two years. In his acceptance speech, he condemned last week’s violet assault on the U.S. Capitol building by supporters of President Donald Trump that killed five people, including a Capitol police officer.
“Last week was a dark day in the history of our nation … to see American citizens storming our revered Capitol,” Ralston said. “There is no possible justification for this loss of life, bloodshed and damage. America is better than this.”
State Sen. Elena Parent, D-Atlanta, criticized Republican state senators who held hearings on Trump’s election fraud claims under the Gold Dome, which she said helped spark the riot in Washington.
“This, my colleagues, was a reckless decision,” Parent said. “We should not sow doubt, anger and faithlessness in the citizens who elect us.”
Proposals to change Georgia election laws including tighter voter ID requirements and limits on who can cast mail-in ballots look to feature prominently in this year’s session after President-elect Joe Biden became the first Democrat to carry Georgia since 1992 and Democrats flipped the state’s two Republican-held U.S. Senate seats last week.
“Our elections must be free, fair, free from fraud, secure and accessible,” Ralston said. “We must always tell our citizens the truth.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller, R-Gainesville, who was re-elected to that leadership post on Monday, urged collaboration between both parties and highlighted the tough challenges ahead on voting laws and COVID-19 bills.
“We’ve got to keep things in perspective,” Miller said. “This is a part-time job but with immense responsibility.”
Meanwhile, House members re-elected Rep. Jan Jones, R-Milton, speaker pro tempore, the chamber’s No.-2 leadership position. Like Ralston, she has served in House leadership since 2010.
ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers will begin the 2021 General Assembly session on Monday fresh off some positive news.
State tax collections rose by 7.7% last month compared to December of 2019, the Georgia Department of Revenue reported late Friday.
The strong December capped off a better than expected revenue outlook for the first half of fiscal 2021. State tax receipts for the first six months of the fiscal year were up 6.1% over the first half of fiscal 2020, despite the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on Georgia businesses and workers.
Individual income tax collections increased by 7.2% in December, driven in part by a 17.3% decrease in refunds issued by the revenue agency. Net sales tax receipts rose by 9.2%.
Corporate income taxes were up by 13.9%. As with individual income tax revenues, a major factor for the increase in corporate income tax receipts was a 17.4% drop in refunds.
The state’s healthy tax revenue outlook will make it easier for the General Assembly to avoid further cuts on top of the $2.2 billion in spending reductions lawmakers made last June to the current budget.
If possible, the legislature will look to build back the state’s rainy day fund, which lawmakers dipped into last year to make ends meet, as well as restore at least some of $1 billion in cuts to education.
ATLANTA – Georgia Chief Justice Harold Melton Friday extended the statewide judicial emergency that has been in effect since the coronavirus pandemic took hold across the state in mid-March.
Melton signed an order prohibiting jury trials not already in progress. As with previous orders, the chief justice’s 10th emergency order also urged all courts “to use technology, when practicable and lawful, to conduct remote judicial proceedings as a safer alternative to in-person proceedings.”
The order also reminded courts that any in-person proceedings “must be conducted in full compliance with public health guidance.”
Melton included a caveat that grand jury hearings and trials will not actually start until a month or longer after a process for resuming them has been put in place due to the time required to summon potential jurors.
The order also acknowledged substantial backlogs of unindicted and untried cases.
“Due to ongoing public health precautions, these proceedings will not occur at the scale or with the speed they occurred before the pandemic,” the order stated.
As a result, statutory deadlines for indictments and jury trials will remain suspended, Melton wrote.
Friday’s order extends the statewide judicial emergency until Feb. 7 at 11:59 p.m.
