By Ross Williams | Deputy Editor
Georgia’s gubernatorial candidates have differing ideas about how to make life more affordable for Georgians.
Republican Rick Jackson’s economic agenda includes a 50% cut to the state income tax plus a sales tax exemption for some household utilities and an automatic gas tax suspension when fuel prices spike.
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms’ platform includes giving localities the option to suspend sales taxes on groceries and other essentials.
Reporter Alander Rocha finds that both plans could help working class Georgians, but practical questions remain — like where the money will come from.
And on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Tim Lambert, editor in chief of the Georgia Recorder’s sister publication, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, shares poignant memories of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought with hijackers to stop them from hitting what was believed to be their intended target: the U.S. Capitol.
As Lambert was reporting on the disaster, he learned that part of the crash site was on property owned by his family.
And from our partners at Stateline, a look at the ways 9/11 shaped today’s surveillance state, from the Patriot Act to Flock cameras.
Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks at a campaign event on on Aug. 27, 2026, and Republican Rick Jackson speaks at a press conference on Sept. 2, 2026, both in Atlanta. Alander Rocha/Georgia Recorder
AFFORDABILITY
By Alander Rocha
The two competing candidates for Georgia governor are both focusing on affordability but putting forward starkly different proposals aimed at easing household expenses.
The American flag flies at the entry to the pathway that leads to the Wall of Names at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania. The visitor center is in the background. (Photo courtesy of Tim Lambert)
SEPT. 11
By Shalina Chatlani
On a rural stretch of land in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, an open meadow filled with bright wildflowers, a memorial grove of trees and a giant boulder marks the spot where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.
States Newsroom’s Pennsylvania Capital-Star Editor-in-Chief Tim Lambert recently revisited the national memorial on this field — where he happened to own a piece of land that was part of more than three dozen acres that made up the crash site.
“It’s always hard to come back here, but it’s always a chance to remember the sacrifices made by the passengers and crew of Flight 93 on that day,” Lambert said. “I think it’s important 25 years later to remember what they did and why they did it. They decided to act on a day that America was under attack.”
People look out at Manhattan and beyond at One World Observatory at One World Trade Center in New York City. Twenty-five years after 9/11, the surveillance systems built in its aftermath continue to shape how Americans are watched and policed. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
PRIVACY
By Amanda Watford
Twenty-five years after 9/11, the surveillance infrastructure built and expanded in its aftermath has become part of a far larger digital ecosystem — producing tools that can collect and analyze information on a scale unimaginable in 2001.
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, did more than reshape the nation’s approach to terrorism. They changed the architecture of American intelligence and policing. They expanded how government agencies collect, share and analyze information, and brought national security tools deeper into ordinary law enforcement.
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