Latest news with #Savannah
Forbes
2 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Benefits And Drawbacks Of RFK Jr.'s New COVID Vaccine Recommendations
SAVANNAH, GA - DECEMBER 15: A nurse shows off a vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine ... More outside of the Chatham County Health Department on December 15, 2020 in Savannah, Georgia. (Photo by) RFK Jr. and the HHS will no longer recommend annual COVID-19 vaccines for healthy pregnant women and young adults, according to a video announcement posted on X May 27 by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A few days later, the CDC took a slightly different stance and stated that children between the ages of 6 months and 17 years may get the COVID-19 vaccine through shared decision-making between parents and healthcare providers. The CDC also updated the adult immunization schedule to say there is 'no guidance' on use for pregnancy. These decisions have sparked much debate among public health experts, policymakers and government officials. Here are the pros and cons of such a policy shift. As Kennedy cited in his video announcement, the U.S. seems to be aligning its vaccine policy with other countries such as the U.K. and Australia that have stopped recommending routine COVID-19 vaccines for young healthy adults. In addition, according to the new recommendations, the focus of vaccinations will largely be on high-risk populations, namely those who are 65 years of age and older as well as younger individuals with at least one medical condition that puts them at high risk for COVID-19. This could allow resources and attention to be redirected to the populations that need the vaccine most. The new recommendations also demand evidence in answering important questions the public deserves to know. For younger healthy American adults, getting approval for the vaccine will require placebo-controlled trials to show a benefit for that particular population. As an example, does a healthy 31-year-old male with no medical problems need to get a COVID-19 booster every single year, even after having received several COVID-19 boosters in the past? These are the types of questions that all Americans would like to and deserve to know with respect to COVID vaccinations. On the flip side, the new recommendations have many public health experts concerned. Pregnant healthy females could be barred from getting the COVID-19 vaccine, since the CDC has failed to provide guidance on the issue. Without a strong recommendation from the CDC, many pregnant patients could face real barriers from insurance companies to cover the vaccine, according to The New York Times. Pregnant women are at high risk for COVID infection and complications because pregnancy results in a weakened immune system. As Dr. Steven Fleischman, President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states, 'The science has not changed. It is very clear that COVID infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability.' The new recommendations could harm vulnerable populations. In addition to potential decreased vaccination rates and adverse outcomes for pregnant females, children could also suffer. When pregnant females get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the third trimester, they are able to pass along antibodies and protection to their infants, who have not developed mature immune systems. If pregnant females do not get vaccinated, infants will lack these antibodies and could then go on to develop severe complications from the virus should they get infected. Finally, the new recommendations could limit access to the vaccine to those that want it. Private insurance companies usually require FDA approval and CDC recommendations to cover the vaccine as part of health insurance. The current CDC recommendations simply state young children may get the vaccine with shared-decision making, not outright stating that they should get the vaccine. In addition, the CDC falls short in explicitly recommending the vaccine for pregnant females. This could prevent private insurance companies from fully covering the vaccine. Ultimately, this may mean some pregnant women and those that cannot afford the vaccine may not have access to it. The new recommendations for the COVID-19 vaccine for children and pregnant females was made without the customary use of independent advisors, and could have important implications for public health. While aligning with international practices, the move could significantly limit the amount of vaccines available for millions of Americans.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Celebration of life for murdered teen
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — The family of a murdered teen held a celebration of life ceremony for him on what would have been his 18th birthday. Semaj Floyd was shot and killed in early December of 2023 near the intersection of Amaranth and Perth Streets. He was only 16 at the time. Today, friends and family came together at Summerside Park to honor his life. People joined in a ceremonial balloon release in honor of his legacy. Semaj's great-grandfather Christopher Floyd said, 'We choose to celebrate his life because we don't want to see his life go in vain. We feel that the Lord is in charge of everything. You know, when they bring us in, when they take us out. So I don't feel that. I feel that everyone else should benefit from his legacy of living. He was all about living. He was good to his family, friends and comrades. So therefore, we should celebrate his legacy rather than mourning.' Three people have been indicted on murder charges for the shooting deaths Semaj Floyd and 20-year-old Omarion Whitfield. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Hyundai just built a $7.6 billion EV factory in Georgia to compete with Tesla and GM — see inside
The Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America is an all-new $7.6 billion EV factory. HMGMA, located near Savannah, Georgia, opened its doors in March of this year. The factory will be able to build 500,000 EVs and Hybrids for Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis every year. The $7.6 billion Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, or HMGMA, is one of the newest and most technologically advanced car factories in the world. The plant, located near Savannah, Georgia, opened its doors in March and will be a key production facility for Hyundai's EVs and PHEVs, as well as those belonging to its Genesis luxury brand and sister company Kia. In a recent interview with Business Insider, Genesis North America COO Tedros Mengiste cited the investment as an example of Hyundai's track record for "visionary and strategic, and long-term thinking." I recently took a behind-the-scenes tour of Hyundai's new megafactory packed with autonomous robots and state-of-the-art tech. The Hyundai Metaplant is situated on a 3,000-acre campus in the south Georgia town of Ellabell. Located just 20 miles from the Port of Savannah, one of the busiest in the US, the plant not only gives Hyundai much-needed manufacturing capacity in the US to avoid import tariffs, but it also affords the company the flexibility to export vehicles abroad. It also gives Hyundai the production footprint to compete against rivals like Tesla, GM, and Rivian, which is also building a new factory in Georgia. Driving up to the factory, it's easy to be wowed by the sheer scale of the sprawling complex. It's Hyundai Group's second car factory in the state. The company also operates a $3.2 billion, 2,200-acre facility in West Point, Georgia, that builds Kia EV and ICE SUVs. I drove to the factory in a new 2026 Hyundai Ioniq 9 EV SUV, which is one of the vehicles assembled at the Metaplant. The only other model assembled at the plant is the Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV. My tour began in the plant's modern main lobby. Hyundai broke ground on the facility in the fall of 2022 and took just two years to complete construction on the main production buildings. The Metaplant site consists of 11 buildings totalling 7.5 million square feet of space. The Metaplant is a marvel of vertical integration, with the goal of having as many key components, ranging from battery packs to seats, made on-site. Here's a Hyundai XCIENT hydrogen fuel cell semi truck used to transport parts and supplies to the factory. It's one of 21 emission-free XCIENT trucks deployed around the Metaplant site. The production process starts in the stamping shop, where sheet metal is cut and stamped into parts that will make up the frame of the car. The sheet metal is supplied by the on-site Hyundai Steel facility. Stamped parts are transported by automated guided vehicles, or AGVs. The plant employs almost 300 AGVs to shuttle everything from spare parts to partially assembled cars. The stamped metal panels are then stored in these massive racks. The Metaplant was originally expected to produce up to 300,000 electrified vehicles annually. However, Hyundai announced at the plant's grand opening in March that its capacity will be expanded to 500,000 units in the coming years as part of a new $21 billion investment in US manufacturing. Here are parts of the Ioniq 9, Hyundai's new flagship three-row EV SUV. The plant is expected to start production of its first Kia model next year. The next part of the tour is the welding shop. Here, the stamped metal pieces are welded together by robot to form the body of the vehicle. The work done by the welding robots is then inspected by the plant's human employees known as Meta Pros. The Metplant employees more than 1,300 Meta Pros, nearly 90% of whom were hired locally. There are employee meeting and break areas located along the inspection and assembly areas. An employee cafeteria with remote ordering capability is located in the main assembly building. In addition to human eyes, the vehicles are also inspected by a pair of Boston Dynamics robot dogs called Spot. In 2021, Hyundai acquired an 80% stake in Boston Dynamics in a deal that valued the company at $1.1 billion. After the inspections are complete, a robot loads the partially assembled vehicles onto a conveyor system. Next stop, the paint shop. Unfortunately, my tour did not get access to the paint shop due to concerns that outside visitors may compromise the quality of the paint application. After receiving a fresh coat of paint, the vehicles travel through a bridge to the assembly building. Here, the painted bodies are married with their battery packs and skateboard chassis. Hyundai Mobis produces the skateboard chassis in a building next door to the general assembly facility. The Metaplant's on-site battery factory, operated in a joint venture with LG, is expected to come online next year. The plant currently sources its batteries from Hyundai's other facilities, including one in North Georgia that's a joint venture with SK. The vehicles' interiors are then assembled by hand. The further along the production process, the more you see human workers on the assembly line. Partially assembled EVs are shuttled through from area to area by the automated robots. The entire facility was immaculately clean, quiet, and felt beautifully choreographed. Assembled vehicles are loaded onto different AGVs that navigate the facility by reading the QR codes embedded into the floor. These AGVs shuttle the vehicles through the plant's various quality control tests. At the end of the assembly line, completed EVs are put through their paces at the on-site test track before being sent to the vehicle preparation center, or VPC, to get them ready for shipping. Vehicles destined for dealerships in the region are put on trucks, while those traveling more than 500 miles are shipped by rail at the Metplant's on-site train terminal. Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Want to see where Trump's tariffs are leading US business? Look at Georgia
If you want a bellwether to measure the broad impact of Donald Trump's tariffs on the economy, look south, to Georgia. The political swing state has a $900bn economy – somewhere between the GDPs of Taiwan and Switzerland. The hospitality industry is facing an existential crisis. Wine merchants wonder aloud if they will survive the year. But others, like those in industrial manufacturing, will carefully argue that well-positioned businesses will profit. Some say they're insulated from international competition by the nature of their industry. Others, like the movie industry, are simply confused by the proposals that have been raised, and are looking for entirely different answers. So far, it's a mixed bag. In a state Donald Trump won by two points and with yet another pivotal US Senate race in a year, Republican margins are thinner than those of the retailers with their business on the line here. Carson Demmond, a wine distributor in Georgia, finds herself looking at seaborne cargo notices for her wine shipments from France with the nervousness of a sports gambler watching football games. She's betting on her orders of French champagne and bordeaux getting to a port in Savannah before tariffs restart. It's a risk. Demmond put a hold on orders after Donald Trump enacted sky-high tariffs on European goods last month. When he paused the tariffs days later, Demmond began to assess what she might chance on restarting some purchases. But her wine isn't showing up on a ship in France yet, she said. 'I don't see them booked on ships yet, and normally they would already be booked, and I would already have sail dates,' she said. 'I see a lot of my orders now collecting in consolidation warehouses in Europe, which says to me that there's something wrong.' Demmond suspects that shipping is suffering from a bullwhip-like effect from uncertainty around tariffs and the economy: so many buyers are trying to get ahead of tariffs that there aren't enough shipping containers to go around to meet the short-term demand. 'It means that as strategic as I'm trying to be with regards to timing my orders so I don't get hit with lots of tariff bills at the same time, I feel like now all of that is out of my control,' Demmond said. 'I never want to face a situation where I have too many orders that all sail and land at the same time, and then getting hit with really large tariff bills in one fell swoop.' US courts, meanwhile, are vacillating on the legality of Trump's tariffs. The stock market rallied this week after the US court of international trade (CIT) ruled that Trump's use of extraordinary powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) exceeded his authority. Less than a day later, an appellate court lifted the lower court's block on the tariffs while the case plays out. Unpredictability is driving volatility, and volatility is poisonous to businesses built for stable markets and stable prices. Georgia's ports have not yet witnessed the massive slowdown occurring on the west coast. Shipping at the port of Los Angeles is down by a third as buyers cancel orders from China. But Savannah – the third-busiest port in the United States behind the Los Angeles area and New York/New Jersey ports – just came off its busiest month. 'We're still watching how this goes,' said Tom Boyd, chief communications officer for Georgia's ports authority. 'We still are having 30 to 32 vessels a week. Most everybody has been front loading to avoid any supply chain disruptions. Volumes are strong, but we expect volumes to decrease.' Savannah's port sees more ships from the Indian subcontinent, Vietnam and Europe than from China, because it's a few days shorter from India through the Suez Canal than across the Pacific, he said. Demmond, who runs the wine distributor Rive Gauche, watches the reports up and down the eastern seaboard carefully because many of the ships from Europe dock in New Jersey before coming south, she said. About 60% of her business is in French wine. Shipping volumes are making logistical planning difficult, she said. Amazon has hired away warehouse workers, which slows down unloading and can leave her wine on a ship for longer periods. She likened the logistical disruption today to the effects of Covid-19 shutdowns. 'There's going to be a crazy ripple effect through multiple industries,' Demmond said. 'In normal times, I could count on approximately eight weeks from the time I send my purchase order to the winery for them to prepare it, to the time that it arrives at port. Now, you know, I have no idea, because everything is different and unpredictable. I have a hard time quoting arrival times to people.' Demmond is a wine merchant, not a political economist. Predicting the course of trade negotiations has become a business hazard. She and other Georgia wine distributors met with the representative Hank Johnson last month to describe the effect of a 200% tariff on European wine imports on their business. Many restaurants derive half of their revenue or more from alcohol sales. If the cost of spirits triples, many people will change their dining habits. Domestic supply can't make up the difference, she said. A decision to expand a domestic winery made today wouldn't produce a bottle of wine for three to five years. By then, Congress or a new president may have rescinded the tariffs, blowing up the investment. If it were just European liquor, a conservative might dismiss the disruption as something affecting well-heeled wine snobs. But the problem has wide applicability, Demmond said. 'There are no American coffee growers. There are no coffee farms here,' she said. 'That's an impossibility. All you're doing is increasing prices. You're not helping create jobs by taxing that stuff. Some of it is impossible to re-shore.' Georgia calls itself the Peach state, but California has long eclipsed Georgia's peach production. Instead, the most widely exported Georgia peach has been the one moviegoers see at the end of the credits: Georgia had $2.6bn in film and television production in 2023. Georgia's tax incentive program is among the most aggressive in the US and the reason Georgia has become a rival to Hollywood. It's an economic development strategy that has unusually bipartisan support in a state famously split down the middle politically. Studios have invested billions in Georgia over the last 10 years. Between Disney's Marvel movies like The Avengers, Tyler Perry's studios in Atlanta and Netflix productions like Stranger Things, Georgia has overtaken Hollywood as a center for cinematic production. In any given year, studios spend $2-$4bn making movies in Georgia, according to figures from the Georgia Film Office. But the tax-incentive-chasing film industry is fickle. Acres of shiny new studio space springing up across the state have not prevented the movie business from slowing down a bit over the last couple of years. With the release of Thunderbolts*, for the first time in more than a decade no Marvel movies are slated for production in Georgia. Disney has shifted to studios in England and Australia. So when Donald Trump said he wanted a 100% tariff on foreign-produced films, Georgia Entertainment CEO Randy Davidson did a double take. 'It kind of took people by surprise,' Davidson said. 'You know, on the one hand, you have people that have been struggling with their jobs here already, thinking initially that was going to be like a quick-fix answer to get production back here. … And then there was the other side: how is politicizing movies into the tariff discussion beneficial? Because it doesn't make sense.' Trump's tariff talk emerged after a meeting at the White House with actor Jon Voight and independent film producer Steven Paul. Voight proposed to support the domestic film industry with federal tax credits and international cooperative production agreements, not with a tariff, said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, Sag-Aftra's chief negotiator and national executive director. 'You know, we haven't had a federal tax incentive in the United States,' Crabtree-Ireland said. 'It's quite common in a lot of major production centers around the world now, and I think it's definitely time for us to have that conversation.' Films are largely a digital service today. Setting aside the logistical difficulty of assessing a tariff on intellectual property, doing so would violate American law. Crabtree-Ireland suggested that Trump's rhetoric might be an aggressive negotiating ploy, starting out with an extreme stand that moves a compromise point to a more favorable position. But a workable plan would have more nuance, Crabtree-Ireland said: 'Which is what I think ultimately would be under consideration.' Crabtree-Ireland said he wouldn't expect a federal tax incentive to supplant state tax credits. But any international agreement to level the incentive playing field would have to address it. 'What Georgia can hope for is that this topic does not get entangled in a charged-up political atmosphere where it will have a shot to be an actual bipartisan effort and initiative that would actually be good for the country,' Davidson said. As Georgia companies try to manage inventory before a tariff deadline, warehouse space is only one issue. Capital is another. 'Most companies can't afford to get two years' worth of inventory to manage their business while we figure out what's going to happen, right? So, they're going to buy a little time, but not a lot,' said Carl Campbell, an executive director for business recruitment at the Dalton chamber of commerce. Not that there's a warehouse to be rented in Dalton right now. The north Georgia mill town of about 34,000 in far-right representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's district is a longstanding center of the carpet-and-flooring industry in the US. But it has had competition for warehouse and industrial space in recent years from solar panel manufacturers, spurred by state tax incentives, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and federal incentives for the semiconductor industry. 'Everything's full, you know.' Campbell said. 'We've got companies that are going to grow manufacturing capacity. They're currently deciding where to do it, and so the tariffs may swing it to the US. Sometimes that's swinging that our way. Sometimes it's making that decision happen sooner rather than later, and sometimes it makes it not happen at all.' Campbell notes that both Democrats and Republicans can lay claim to Dalton's industrial successes. Qcells, a solar panel manufacturer owned by the Korean conglomerate Hanwha, is an example, he said. 'When Trump was in office the first time, he implemented tariffs on goods from China,' Campbell said. 'They suddenly got very, very serious about doing panel production and assembly in the US. And they had to do that quickly and as fast as possible.' The same tariff regime began imposing costs on imported flooring from Asia, which boosted Dalton's flooring manufacturers. Three years later, the Inflation Reduction Act – enacted under Joe Biden – added incentives for clean energy manufacturing, and Georgia's two Democratic senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, worked to make sure some of the benefit landed in Georgia. About $23bn has been invested in clean energy production in the state since the act passed. Qcells used those incentives to expand in 2023, and employs more than 2,000 people today. 'Tariffs are sometimes a tale of winners and losers. And so, yeah, we won a little bit on that,' Campbell said. 'And of course, some of our companies got hurt, and they lost a little bit on that.' The problem, again, is uncertainty, he said. 'It can create an opportunity for folks like me and companies like ours, yeah, but it can also crush business plans – if you're reliant on foreign goods and suddenly you just took a 25% hit on your cost. It's made some people sit on their hands and not move forward on some efforts that we were thinking would happen soon. It's made some other folks, you know, escalate plans and have to do them faster.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Todd Chrisley Channels Donald Trump In First Press Conference
Todd Chrisley has wasted no time in entering fight mode after his release from prison. The Chrisley family patriarch shared a few thoughts with the public as he enjoyed the first few hours of his newly minted presidential pardon after spending 2+ years behind bars. Todd Chrisley and his wife, Julie Chrisley, got lucky on May 27 when President Donald Trump informed their prison reform activist daughter, Savannah Trump, about his decision to let her parents walk free. The Chrisley family and their legal team held a press conference in Nashville to discuss this development. The family appeared alongside attorneys Alex Little and Zack Lawson in Nashville on Friday. Savannah opened the event by describing her parents' pardons as delightful. As always, she expressed gratitude to the Trump administration and others who helped secure their release. But she minced no words for the Department of Justice, which she claimed has been politicized. As soon as the younger Chrisley was done, Todd began his speech by thanking everyone for their support. He shone the light on Savannah, who was at the forefront of their fight for freedom from prison, acknowledging the battles she fought while their situation went on. As reported by TMZ, Todd also reaffirmed his belief that he was wrongfully convicted. Todd wasted no time in hitting the ground running. During his press conference, the reality star expressed his intention to highlight the injustices federal inmates experienced nationwide. He specifically showed interest in the poor conditions Black inmates are subjected to, with a promise to expose every irregularity in the prison system. As the briefing went on, the reality star got chatty with a reporter who asked him if he felt any remorse for his actions, which got him locked up. In response, Todd jokingly suggested that a reporter who inquired about his remorse might be affiliated with CNN, echoing a familiar tactic used by Trump. Todd also shared bits from his daily prison life, revealing that he maintained a routine that included working out for over an hour, reading, and speaking with Savannah every day. While Savannah got the golden opportunity to speak with her doting dad every day, her mom could not enjoy the luxury. As reported by The Blast, Savannah revealed in a March episode of her podcast that her parents, who were serving time at separate federal prisons at the time, had not spoken to each other since their sentence began. Todd served his time in Florida, while Julie was held in a federal correctional center in Kentucky. Savannah described the situation as a challenge, noting that it should never be that way. The 27-year-old clarified that the lack of dialogue between her parents was absolutely not of their doing but instead a testament to the inefficiency of the prison system. She slammed the correctional facility for never making "anything easy" for inmates, including her mother and father. When news of Todd and Julie's presidential pardon landed on Savannah's table, she joyfully contacted her parents to inform them about their homecoming. "They didn't believe it. I think it literally just came in from nowhere," the podcaster detailed during the press conference. As shared by The Blast, Savannah recalled receiving the presidential call that her parents were coming home while she went shopping. Savannah expressed her gratitude to Trump and his administration, stating that she would always be thankful for their support. She shared her excitement about the preparations she and her siblings were making for their parents' return, including gathering clothes and organizing their room upstairs. Overwhelmed with emotion, she encompassed her feelings with a simple word: "speechless." The podcaster responded to her critics who alleged that she had used unethical means to obtain President Donald Trump's signature on the pardon documents. "I didn't have to do anything. I simply stood firm in my beliefs and convictions, fighting for my parents and what is right," she emphasized to the naysayers. The Blast shared last year that during her resentencing hearing last September, the matriarch of the Chrisley family became emotional as she addressed her family in court. Reflecting on her time behind bars, she expressed deep remorse for her actions that led to the family's current situation. In a heartfelt apology, she conveyed her feelings to the court and specifically to her older children, Savannah and Chase, who were present. Julie acknowledged the significant impact her incarceration had on her family, stating, "This has been the most difficult part of my life," and she lamented not being able to repay her children for their struggles. She concluded by sharing that she had been working on developing new skills to strengthen her bond with her family. Julie bagged a seven-year prison sentence alongside her husband in 2022, who got a twelve. She served her time at the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky, until her presidential pardon three days ago. Will Todd Chrisley live up to his promises on prison reforms?
