Georgia on WACN 21 News

Georgia's film industry rebounds, but Atlanta's grip is slipping

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 13:00:00 -0400

Georgia’s film and TV production industry is in the middle of a strong rebound — but the growth is happening outside Atlanta for the first time in a generation.

The state booked $4.4 billion in film production spending in the first half of 2026, up 22 percent from the same period last year, according to numbers released by the Georgia Department of Economic Development on Tuesday. The full-year 2026 number is on track to exceed the all-time high set in 2022.

Atlanta's data center boom has a water problem nobody wants to solve

Thu, 25 Jun 2026 11:00:00 -0400

I want to talk about something the Atlanta metro’s data-center boom has been quietly doing for the past three years, and that nobody in a position to do anything about it seems to want to discuss in public.

Water.

Hyperscale data centers — the massive warehouses that run cloud computing and AI training — use staggering amounts of water for cooling. A single medium-sized facility uses as much water per day as a small city. The largest ones use more than some Georgia counties.

Brian Kemp endorses Burt Jones for governor. The primary is suddenly up for grabs.

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:00:00 -0400

Gov. Brian Kemp endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones for governor Tuesday afternoon, ending weeks of speculation and reshuffling a Republican primary that had been widely expected to be a smooth ride for the incumbent.

The endorsement came after a roughly 30-minute phone call between the two men, according to a Kemp senior adviser who confirmed the conversation to WACN 21.

What changed

Until last week, Jones’ path to the nomination looked nearly impossible. State Sen. Greg Dolezal of Cumming had been consolidating support from Kemp’s inner circle, and Attorney General Chris Carr had been quietly prepping for his own entry.