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Dan Chapman

Dan Chapman writes about Georgia's economy and economic development. I've been with the AJC since 2000.

Latest from Dan Chapman

Rolls of sheet steel prepared for cutting and stamping are shown during a tour of the Sewon America auto parts plant in LaGrange. The plant makes parts for Kia and Hyundai cars and SUV’s.

Workers exposed to safety hazards at LaGrange auto parts factory

The sparks would burn through Kimberly Scandrick’s cotton work shirts, leaving pinprick-sized marks on her arms and chest. Freckles, she and a co-worker at Sewon America called them, laughing uneasily at the scars left by the robotic welder. Still, in the back of her mind, Scandrick worried that the sparks ...

Oystermen head out early Thursday morning Aug. 15, 2013, from Eastpoint, Fla., for a day of fishing in the Apalachicola Bay.

Florida asks Supreme Court to send more Chattahoochee water downstream

Florida, as promised, asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to order Georgia to let more Chattahoochee River water flow into the Panhandle to keep the state’s oyster industry afloat. Gov. Rick Scott, sidestepping the traditional, up-through-the-courts legal process, requested that the justices ultimately decide the thorny and protracted interstate ...

Big Atlanta law firm in merger talks

McKenna Long & Aldridge, one of Atlanta’s largest law firms, is in merger talks with Dentons, a legal behemoth with offices in 50 countries. In a statement released Monday evening, McKenna said: “While we continue to have discussions about the future, we do not have a relationship to announce.” Dentons, ...

Georgia lags in bringing down jobless rate

Georgia’s jobless rate never rose as high as neighboring states’ during the Great Recession and its desultory aftermath. But it’s also not falling as quickly as the recovery grinds on. Four years since the recession’s end, Georgia – with Atlanta as the one-time star of the New South economy – ...

LaGrange worker death attributed to natural causes

A 42-year-old woman who collapsed in May while working at a LaGrange auto parts factory cited for numerous safety violations, died of natural causes, the state’s medical examiner’s office has determined. Teresa Pickard, who worked the weld line at the Sewon America plant, “died of a heart attack due to ...

Zita Malaykhan, who plans to be an artist but currently works 20 hours a week at a fast food restaurant, works on her artwork at her home in Marietta. Photo: Hyosub Shin / hshin@ajc.com.

Low-wage jobs play outsized role in Georgia's economy

The U.S. economy churns out low-wage jobs — burger flippers, shelf-stockers, in-home caregivers — at an impressive clip. Three of every five U.S. jobs created since the end of the Great Recession are low-wage. Nearly 150,000 Georgians earn the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour or less. Their numbers are ...

Georgia’s ports prepare for slower, yet still-positive future growth

More than 635,000 Kias, Toyotas and Caterpillar tractors moved in and out of this brawny port last year. Wood pellets from Georgia’s forests flowed through en route to European power plants. Nearly 150,000 tons of imported corn was gobbled by Southern chickens. The port of Brunswick performed very well in ...

Enough blame to go around for decline of Florida’s oyster industry

Just about every oysterman putting a wooden skiff in the water last week agreed with Florida Gov. Rick Scott: Georgia — Atlanta in particular — is to blame for the economic and environmental devastation of the once-bountiful bay. Tuesday, Scott visited this picturesque fishing village to announce his plan for ...

Florida to sue Georgia over water use

Florida wants to take its “water war” with Georgia to the U.S. Supreme Court. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he will ask the high court to restrict Georgia’s water use, a not-so-surprising sign that more than two decades of negotiations among Georgia, Alabama and Florida have failed. Florida’s oyster ...

Changing tastes led changing fortunes in Georgia’s food industries

Americans may be eating more cheese than ever before, but their collective appetite wasn’t big enough to keep a cheese factory here from laying off 115 people last week with the plant’s shutdown scheduled for early next year. The cheesy paradox isn’t so surprising, though. Schreiber Foods makes processed cheese ...