GNB Update

Hope the new work got off to a great start for you...Here's the news...

The struggling economy costs the foundations of the state's flagship university a lot of money. The Associated Press reports that the University of Georgia expects to see cuts in student scholarships, faculty travel, and other programs soon. The cutbacks come after two private foundations supporting the institution lost close to $180 million in assets last year. In June 2008, both the UGA and Arch Foundations combined for a worth of $730 million. That's a reduction of 25 percent of their assets. As a result, UGA provost Arnett Mace says the institution must make the necessary cutbacks to deal with that decrease.

Say goodbye to the Feds looking over Georgia's juvenile justice system. It was released from federal oversight after more than a decade on Monday. Governor Sonny Perdue told the Associated Press that the state has made major improvements since the juvenile justice system came under scrutiny from the U.S. Justice Department in 1998. The report back then showed found Georgia's juvenile facilities suffered from problems ranging from overcrowding to abuse of inmates. The state now houses nearly 3,600 children at 29 youth detention centers statewide.

The state's largest road builder takes on an activist role. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Bill Hammack of the C.W. Matthews Contracting Company recently called Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle in 2008 to stop a measure that would have allowed the the state Senate to raise the dollar to ease traffic congestion on state highways. Although Hammack says he made call to Cagle around that time, he claims that it wasn't the main reason for the bill's failure. Matthews hopes to win a huge portion of the $1 billion in upcoming projects paid for by the federal stimulus package.

That's the news. GNB is available online at georgianewsbeat.blogspot.com, and on Twitter at twitter.com/georgianewsbeat. Enjoy your Monday night.