ATLANTA — Farmers and other agricultural producers in Georgia will get financial aid to help with recovery from Hurricane Helene, the massive storm that wiped out crops and timberland more than a year ago.
Georgia and U.S. agriculture officials announced Tuesday that the state will receive $531,236,000 from the U.S. government for a Hurricane Helene Block Grant Program.
It is “funding to provide much-needed relief to impacted farmers and producers,” Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said in a statement, adding that the money “is absolutely essential to help our farm families bounce back” from the devastation.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture spent hundreds of hours in negotiations to secure the money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he said, praising Brooke Rollins, President Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary, for the collaboration.
Harper said the grants will cover infrastructure and timber losses as well as future economic losses. Gov. Brian Kemp said in a post on X that the proceeds will cover as many farmers as possible, calling the outcome “great news.”
Congress passed a bipartisan relief package in December earmarking $21 billion for affected farmers in Georgia and other states. The federal package also was in response to other natural disasters.
Kemp also redirected $100 million from a state capital projects fund to help farmers and timberland owners. Then, in March, the General Assembly set aside $867 million for disaster relief as part of the fiscal 2025 mid-year budget.
ATLANTA — A half dozen state lawmakers are now running for Georgia lieutenant governor, as another Republican senator joins the race, hoping to outflank his opposition on the right.
Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, a conservative from the northern Atlanta suburbs, joins a cast of fellow conservative senators, all from outside the biggest metro area — plus an Atlanta Senate Democrat and a GOP state representative from Buford.
Dolezal will campaign to succeed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, the Trump-backed Republican running for governor.
Dolezal’s campaign announcement on YouTube Tuesday focused on his right wing credentials as the chief sponsor of the Riley Gaines Act, a new law that bans students born male from participating on female athletic teams in schools and colleges.
Dolezal also said he would crack down on extremists who riot and burn cities, as well as illegal immigration, diversity equity and inclusion programs, and “soft on crime” prosecutors.
“I’m running for lieutenant governor because we’re at a turning point as the radical left continues to threaten our public safety,” Dolezal’s advertisement says, as a siren wails in the background.
The chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee and vice chair of the powerful Appropriations Committee is up against political powerhouses.
Sen. John F. Kennedy, R-Macon, stepped aside as president pro tempore of the Senate — the highest office in that chamber below lieutenant governor — to run for lieutenant governor. Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, stepped down as majority leader — the next highest office — to run for lieutenant governor. And Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, who outranks Dolezal on Appropriations as chairman of that budget-writing committee, is also running for lieutenant governor.
Add Rep. David Clark, R-Buford, who served in Afghanistan with the Green Berets, and next year’s Republican primary is shaping up to be a rowdy contest as the candidates attempt to differentiate themselves.
Clark said in his campaign announcement that “a world on fire” needs warriors not politicians. His entry came one day after Tillery announced his candidacy, both hitting similar notes about tax cuts, illegal immigration and transgender issues. Kennedy and Gooch are also running on platforms aimed to appeal to President Donald Trump’s MAGA base.
They would all likely appreciate an endorsement from Trump, but Dolezal was the only member of the bunch who got to speak at Jones’ gubernatorial campaign opener for governor at Indian Springs State Park in Flovilla.
Dolezal railed against Republicans who were silent on Trump when he was down politically.
“This is what I call political opportunism,” Dolezal said. “These politicians want a ticket on the Trump train, but they never paid the price.”
At least one candidate for lieutenant governor wants nothing to do with Trump.
Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs, regular ridiculed the president on the Senate floor during this past legislative session. He is the only state lawmaker campaigning for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, the office that sets the agenda for the state Senate and influences the fate of legislation in that chamber.
ATLANTA — Alex Willson knows how to grow a pecan and turn it into a cake, but he is not so great at analyzing shipping logistics.
The president and CEO of Sunnyland Farms in Albany is running an agricultural business that dates to 1948 — not the kind of operation one associates with cutting edge technology.
Yet Willson said he was able to harness artificial intelligence to boost his bottom line about 8%, even 10%.
He had help from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Sunnyland used to pay several shippers to send its candied or salted nuts to consumers across the country.
Willson felt like he could get a better deal, either by renegotiating with the shippers or opening a warehouse out West to consolidate costly shipments.
Then, an intern from Tech showed him the best move. The intern, with help from the federally funded Georgia AIM project, fed “reams and reams and reams” of his company’s shipping data into an AI-powered program that produced leverage for Willson. Knowledge is power, he said, and the Tech intern showed him how his shipping patterns could translate into a better deal with just one of the shippers.
The innovation also freed up time. Instead of staging pecan products at multiple locations for each of several shippers, the goods now go to one spot.
The project has subsequently helped with other data analysis that has, in turn, boosted sales and saved money and time.
“I’m thinking more strategically instead of just putting out little fires all day,” Willson said. He said his managers and workers also have more time to try out ideas for increasing revenue or reducing costs.
Georgia AIM stands for Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing, a program that started four years ago with $65 million in federal seed money.
State and private investment has increased that to $82 million, said Donna Ennis, a Tech administrator who is helping to lead Georgia AIM Week, a series of demonstrations across the state through Friday.
On Monday, middle and high school students visited Carrollton-based Southwire, a manufacturer of wire, cable, tools, electrical components and many other products.
On Tuesday, the show is moving to the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins. On Wednesday the topics include cybersecurity in Augusta and hydroponics and other agricultural advances in Albany. Thursday features robots at the University of Georgia, and career-related events for students in LaGrange, Dublin and Savannah.
The week culminates with manufacturing tours in Savannah.
“This is a program that is striving to make manufacturing cool again,” said Enis, who wants to disabuse people of the notion that factories are dull, dirty, dark and dangerous.
“That’s how people generally think of manufacturing, but manufacturing is not like that anymore,” she said.
ATLANTA — Nearly nine out of every 10 Georgia high school students in the class of 2025 earned a diploma within four years, setting a record.
With one exception, Georgia’s on-time graduation rate has increased every year since the class of 2011. That was the first class to earn diplomas under a new federally mandated counting system that required schools to account for students who transferred away and to base the grad rate on four years of high school.
State School Superintendent Richard Woods attributed the relentless gains to strategies such as credit recovery, wherein students retake failed courses. He also pointed to tutoring and extra services for those deemed to be at risk of failure.
“While more work remains to be done, more Georgia students are graduating than ever before – and they’re doing so prepared to pursue futures full of opportunity,” Woods said in a statement Monday announcing the 2025 rates for the state and for school districts.
The 2025 statewide average was 87.2%, up nearly two percentage points from the prior year when it was 85.4%.
It has climbed nearly every year since the new method of calculation was implemented in 2011, when 67.4% graduated on time. The only outlier was the class of 2021, which experienced half of junior year and all of senior year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their rate fell a tenth of a percentage point from the prior year to 83.7%.
Then, the statewide rate started rising again, first by several decimal points a year, then by a full point in 2024, leading to the relatively big increase last spring.
Under the federal “four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate,” schools must count all students who enroll into their class year during high school. Officials can only subtract students who transfer out after confirming they reenrolled at another school.
The biggest increase — more than 6 percentage points — occurred from 2014 to 2015, when the rate reached 79%. Experts at that time attributed the gains at least in part to improved tracking of students who disenrolled, with administrators becoming more adept at keeping records that showed their former students had landed at another school.
But the gains have been grinding since then, with an annual 1-point increase or less becoming the norm. Some researchers found evidence that similar gains nationally had resulted more from teaching than from bookkeeping, with tactics such as credit recovery and increased accountability contributing to the momentum.
Gov. Brian Kemp speaks at the Georgia Governor’s Tourism Conference in Savannah on Friday, Sept. 26. (Contributed/Explore Georgia)
ATLANTA — Tourists and business travelers continued flocking to the Peach State last year, injecting billions into the economy, according to new state numbers from Gov. Brian Kemp.
A record 174.2 million traveled across the country and the globe to visit Georgia in 2024 and spent $45.2 billion, up 4% from the year before, he said in a statement issued by his office Friday.
The governor traveled to Savannah for a state tourism conference where he revealed the numbers. He credited Georgia’s cultural attractions, its communities and its scenery — from coasts to mountains — for a third record-breaking year in a row.
The Georgia Department of Economic Development said more than 17 million of the visitors were domestic travelers here for business and conventions. Their numbers were up nearly 5%, accounting for $4.6 billion in spending.
Tourism is the state’s second-largest economic contributor, according to the agency.
The influx — more than 15 times the state population of 11.2 million last year — bolstered the bottom lines of hotels, restaurants and recreation and transportation businesses.
Government also took a $5.1 billion cut, with Kemp saying the state and local tax revenues saved each household an average $1,285 in taxes.
