Georgia

Video: Can This Georgia Factory Survive DOGE?

Published

12 months ago

March 9, 2025

Video: Can This Georgia Factory Survive DOGE?

“The U.S. government hasn’t actually paid us since the end of December. We have about $12 million that we’ve delivered. We wonder if that’s — is the U.S. government still good? Is their word still good?” Just weeks after he took office, President Trump took aim at U.S.A.I.D. “The whole thing is a fraud. Very little, very little being put to good use.” But his mission to cut foreign aid spending could cost thousands of jobs at home. “Here we have sugar coming out of Florida, sometimes from Tennessee. We have peanuts from Georgia, obviously. We have canola oil from North Dakota. We have milk powder from Texas right now.” This factory in Fitzgerald, Ga., makes peanut paste, which goes around the world to save the lives of starving children. “Kids who are literally starving, severely, acutely malnourished. 1.2 million kids a year.” Only two U.S. companies make it, and MANA Nutrition is one of them. Now, their nonprofit business, and the 112 jobs it provides here in Fitzgerald, are at risk. For more than a decade, the operation relied heavily on U.S.A.I.D. funding. “So last year, 90 percent of our funding came from U.S.A.I.D.” It’s unclear just how much money DOGE has saved from the federal budget. But in this very Republican county, workers could pay the price. “I was born here in Fitzgerald, raised here all my life. I was just looking for more money, better pay. But when I got here and found out what we do — the mission is to feed the kids. This place here is needed.” In the early 2000s, Fitzgerald lost a large car battery manufacturer and railroad jobs, and was reeling economically. “Really kind of got punched in the mouth. Unemployment went from probably 4 percent to about 15, 16 percent.” Then in 2011, MANA opened its first factory here. Two years ago, they announced plans to quadruple production. “We hoped to become the hunger solution capital of the world.” “This is not about getting rid of foreign aid. There are things that we do through U.S.A.I.D. that we should continue to do.” But in late February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio canceled a third of MANA’s contracts, saying they weren’t in the national interest. A week later, they were reinstated. The back-and-forth has left shipments stranded and MANA’s business partners on edge. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty. We’ve received a lot of calls. Peanut shellers, suppliers saying, ‘Are you still in business? Are you good for these contracts?’ Talking to our banks, ‘Is our line of credit still good to us if our one customer isn’t paying?’” It’s still unclear what the long-term effects might be for this community. “Well, even some of our employees, they voted with this administration. You can tell who did vote that way because they can’t hold it in now. They’re worried.” “I can’t help but think the president has a strategy, and we feel like we’re going to be taken care of. I surely hope so.” “My hope is that the administration will have the moral imagination to preserve the interests and the budget of the American people, but also continue to feed the world’s poorest.” “Are we worried? Somewhat. But we’re praying.”

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Georgia

Georgia’s Iranian community reacts to death of Ayatollah Khamenei

Published

12 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Georgia’s Iranian community reacts to death of Ayatollah Khamenei

ATLANTA – As conflict intensifies between the United States, Israel and Iran, reactions are pouring in across the Atlanta metro area after President Donald Trump confirmed the death of Iran’s supreme leader.

The president confirmed on Truth Social that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a joint strike led by the U.S. and Israel.

What they’re saying:

“I have been waiting to hear this news for the last 20 years,” said Dr. Sasan Tavassoli, an Atlanta-based pastor born in Iran.

“Ayatollah Khamenei has been responsible for the killing of tens of thousands of Iranians over the last three decades. He has been a very evil dictator and a very oppressive tyrant.”

Other local Iranians, like Shohreh Mir, expressed a long-standing desire for internal change rather than outside intervention.

“This was an imposed war,” Mir said. “We still very much would like for Iranian people to change the regime by themselves.”

What’s next:

Tavassoli said the Ayatollah’s death now creates a new issue.

“Ayatollah Khamenei never invested in raising a succession after himself,” he said, “so the crisis of the Iranian revolution and the Iranian regime is there is no legitimate successor.”

While the long-term duration of the conflict remains unknown, Iran has already begun launching retaliatory strikes following the attack.

“This is a huge development for day one, but the war is not over,” Tavassoli noted. “There are still many ways that things can become even more bloody and destructive in the coming days and weeks.”

The Source: Information in this article came from FOX 5’s Rey Llerena speaking with Iranian Americans across Georgia.

IranDonald J. TrumpNewsPolitics

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Georgia

Body found near Georgia Power dam on Radium Springs Road in Albany

Published

1 day ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Body found near Georgia Power dam on Radium Springs Road in Albany

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) – A person was found dead in the 5200 block of Radium Springs Road on Saturday morning, according to Dougherty County Coroner Michael Fowler.

Body recovered in early morning water rescue call(WALB NEWS 10)

Fowler said the call came in as a water rescue. The body was recovered early Saturday, Feb. 28.

The coroner confirmed the person found was male. His identity and age remain unknown.

Have a news tip or see an error that needs correction? Let us know. Please include the article’s headline in your message.

To stay up to date on all the latest news as it develops, follow WALB on Facebook and X (Twitter). For more South Georgia news, download the WALB News app from the Apple Store or Google Play.

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Georgia

Ga. lawmakers propose changes to state’s early voting process

Published

2 days ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Ga. lawmakers propose changes to state’s early voting process

ATLANTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – State legislators are considering more changes to Georgia’s voting law, proposing a new bill that would alter the way early voters cast ballots.

State Sen. Greg Dolezal, a Republican from Cumming, introduced SB 568 this week. The proposal would assign early voters to one precinct in their county. Currently, voters can cast early votes at any precinct in their county.

It would also move early voting to a hand-marked paper ballot system, where voters use a pen to mark their selections, instead of the currently used touchscreen system.

“So that we would not have to print so many permutations at the paper ballots, we would assign voters to an early voting location,” said Dolezal. “Most people are going to vote to the at the early voting location closest to their home anyway.”

The bill was immediately met with backlash from democrats as a barrier to the vote.

“I have no idea how voting on a piece of paper, marking it down with your pencil in any way suppresses the vote,” said Dolezal. “For most counties out of, you know, 140 call it out of 159, they just have one location.”

Dolezal’s proposal would also require local clerks to publicly post their entire voting rolls ahead of elections.

“Making public every single voter who is qualified to vote is to some extent, a little bit of an invasion of privacy for each individual voter,” said state Sen. Sonya Halpern (D-Atlanta). “We need to have trust in our election officials to run those elections.”

It’s the latest change the legislature has proposed to Georgia’s voting system.

“You have dirty, dirty voting rolls, you’re going to have dirty elections,” Dolezal said.

The bill would also shift responsibility for voter challenges from the counties to the State Elections Board. In addition, it would also move the threshold for an automatic recount in the state from a 1.5% margin to 2%.

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