Savannah Morning News
SILENT STONES
Long before the United States declared independence from King George III, generations of Savannahians were laid to rest at Colonial Park Cemetery — a burial ground that witnessed the colonial era, the Revolution, epidemics and the city’s early growth....
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Report: Inflation surged in wake of Iran war
Prices for the goods and services Americans use the most spiked higher in March as the war with Iran unfolded. The Labor Department on April 10 confirmed that its Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, was 3.3% higher in March than a year ago....
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Warehouses approved despite residents’ concerns
Monday night, residents packed into Pooler City Hall, leaving standing room only, for the public hearings of proposed developments. Those included a zoning map amendment to allow for three warehouses near Tom Triplett Park, and a 303-home multifamily...
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Massive tire mound slated for removal
There is a type of tower hidden on Savannah’s Hutchinson Island, and not one of steel or architectural grandeur. It’s one of round rubber. A mound of tires taller than a typical man. It’s what those curious to find obscure urban attractions have...
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Council continues conversations on Memorial Park, STVRs
In addition to reviewing the safety plans for the spring break event now labeled as “Crush Reloaded” on April 18, the City of Tybee Island staff provided updates on two initiatives at a recent workshop: short-term vacation rentals and Memorial Park...
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Police debut upgraded 156-year-old headquarters
The Savannah Police Department (SPD) unveiled its newly renovated headquarters on 201 Habersham St. in the national historic landmark district Thursday morning. The 156 year old building is thought to be one of the oldest continually operating police...
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CANAL THREAT
Paths near the back of Tom Triplett Park lead to a dirt trail shrouded in pines, where the sounds of cars are lost to chirping of birds and rustling of leaves. Tiny frogs hop across feet, and large white waterbirds perch on tree trunks submerged in a...
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New graduates finding challenge in job market
In 2025, new college graduates wanted remote, high-paying jobs that aligned with their values. In 2026, they just want a job. With 89% worrying artificial intelligence could replace entry-level roles – up from 64% last year – 67% of graduates now say...
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Tybee Island, Rep. Carter get $5M for fire station
More funding has been secured for the construction of a new fire station on Tybee Island, the city and Rep. Buddy Carter announced Wednesday morning. Rep. Carter, who is currently running for Senate, sponsored the funding request for a $5 million...
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Oyster farmers hope to see more harvest hours
When Laura Solomon, with co-owner and husband Perry Solomon, opened Tybee Oyster Company in 2022, they spent the summer flipping oysters in floating cages about five miles off of Tybee Island, to prevent the overgrowth of barnacles and algae on their...
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Quirky party celebrates O’Connor’s 101st birthday
The winning Flannery O’Connor look-alike gets the privilege of blowing out the candles on the birthday cake during the Flannery O’Connor birthday celebration on March 29 at Lafayette Square. Flannery O’Connor look-a-likes compete during the celebration...
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Over 2,500 attend ‘No Kings’ protest
Beneath the Spanish moss in Emmet Park on Saturday afternoon, more than 2,500 people gathered for the third “No Kings” protest, listening to speakers encourage civic engagement and expound on the importance of voting before marching through downtown...
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Privatizing space brings COMPLICATIONS
Private companies are no longer peripheral participants in U.S. space activities. They provide key services, including launching and deploying satellites, transporting cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station, and even sending landers to...
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Savannah kids’ art to float at Lincoln Memorial
A few days before Memorial Health Dwaine & Cynthia Willett Children’s Hospital of Savannah celebrates its fifth birthday in its building, patients of the hospital gathered on the second floor to help America celebrate its 250th. Representatives with...
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‘Trump slump’ hit U.S. tourism in 2025
With an upcoming FIFA World Cup being staged across the nation, 2026 was supposed to be a bumper year for tourism to the United States, driven in part by hordes of arriving soccer fans. And yet, the U.S. tourism industry is worried. While the rest of...
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Residents raise support as demolition awaits approval
As the Housing Authority of Savannah’s demolition application for Yamacraw Village awaits response from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the public housing community’s official residents’ council is continuing to raise awareness...
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New mobile grocery store MoGro launches
Inside a small trailer, rows of canned food, pantry staples and paper products are organized along either wall. A bit further, refrigerators hold fresh produce, frozen meats, microwavable dinners and a checkout station where debit cards, credit cards...
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Tide to Town trail is almost complete
The City of Savannah plans to cut the ribbon on its latest portion of the Tide to Town trail in June, but you wouldn’t know it if you visited the trail on any day the sun is shining. That’s because the trail is already in use by bikers and runners...
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City crews clean up less trash this year
Armed with shovels and grabbers, about 200 City of Savannah workers took to the front lines for St. Patty’s Day parade trash pickup. The city estimates solid waste crews picked up nearly 90 tons of trash from Monday to Wednesday surrounding St....
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Spring arrives in Georgia
Spring has sprung! Georgia and the rest of the northern hemisphere are waving goodbye to winter woes. But for many plants, the first blooms of spring have already arrived, earlier than usual. Take the yellow jessamine, for instance. The bright...
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RESIDENCY BOOST
Doctors build a vast network during their residencies. They develop relationships with patients, build community connections that can strengthen their service and deepen their professional networks with other medical professionals, said MCG Savannah...
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Troops deployed to Middle East region
Despite President Donald Trump’s promises of the war with Iran ending soon and broad domestic disapproval of further involvement, the United States is sending more troops to the region, a defense official said. The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit,...
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OIL SITES HIT AS IRAN WAR ESCALATES
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth wants billions more from Congress to fund the war with Iran as gas prices hit $3.90 a gallon nationwide and global oil prices surged amid the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The national average price per gallon...
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$9M deal to stabilize building approved
Savannah City Council approved its first major expense of hotel/motel tax revenues designated for its tourismrelated capital projects Thursday. The council approved a $9 million contract to stabilize the historic Water Works building in the Canal...
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Spectacle spans 202 years of history
The streets of Savannah were flooded with waves of green Tuesday as the Hostess City of the South celebrated the 202nd anniversary of its annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Since 1824 when the parade was born as a small, but jovial affair, Savannahians...
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Irish Pipe Band takes in Savannah festivities
With a flick of their wrists, small mallets spun through the air rotating round and round in a blur. The fuzzy, hot pink, marshmallow shaped heads drove down for a swift rap on the tenor drum. Bum, bum, bum. Jade Crofton and Molly Fenton perform in...
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Five best spots to watch the parade
Irish pubs. Mass at the Basilica Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. Celebrations in the squares. There are no shortage of ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah. But it’s the parade that is truly the star of the show. The event features...
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‘A big concern this year’
Georgia’s four million acres of grasslands are just waking from their winter slumber, turning from a brittle yellow to a springy bright green. They make up nearly half of all of Georgia’s farmland, and provide hay and forage for the state’s one million...
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Plants losing their precious time to chill
In 2007, Stan Gray planted his first iris at the University of Georgia (UGA) Botanical Garden, south of Savannah. It was a bearded iris north from New Jersey, among the most popular irises gardeners plant, known by the purple petal hanging off of its...
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‘She was magnificent’
The sun shone on a memorial service celebrating the life of Dr. Linda Davis at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. People in purple garments passed by potted plants wrapped in purple ribbon. “That was her favorite color,” said a woman donning magenta...
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Bryan County ESPLOST returns to ballot
One year after Bryan County residents voted down extending its Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, the referendum will be back on the ballot May 19 for the General Primary along with a $200 million bond. According to the school...
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THE BIG DEBUT
With dirt underfoot and scaffolding overhead, the city of Port Wentworth, in partnership with the Oak View Group (OVG), and VyStar Credit Union announced the naming sponsor of the amphitheater in Anchor Park— Vystar Pavilion Tuesday afternoon. Three...
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Trump demands Iran’s unconditional surrender
President Donald Trump demanded Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” in a social media post the morning of March 6, insisting “there will be no deal” to end his 7-day-old war with the battered Persian Gulf power. The president added in a social media post...
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U.N. GROUP DECRIES ATTACKS ON IRAN
The United Nations’ Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran, a group that investigates human rights abuses in the country, issued a statement that “strongly condemns” the U.S. and Israeli strikes that launched the...
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GA’s severe drought impacts crops, soil
John Gentry, 79, has tended to a thousand pink and red camellia plants for about 15 years in his corner of the University of Georgia (UGA) Botanical Gardens in Georgetown, just south of Savannah. This winter, however, has been drier than usual. The...
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Grand reopening unveils $1M renovation
On Feb. 28, Gray’s Reef Ocean Discovery Center hosted a grand reopening block party to display its $1 million renovation, fashioned with new replica reefs, sandboxes, virtuality headset, shrimp-crackle soundscapes, model fish and invertebrate species,...
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‘Every year we must tell the story’
Inside a tiny fenced-in park off Augusta Avenue a small group gathered. Each person spoke a name; “Thomas, Daphney, Dido, three fingered Tony.” After each name, water poured from a plastic bottle. A historical marker stood nearby, commemorating the...
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Iran air strikes mark Trump’s biggest gamble
WASHINGTON – With his large-scale attack on Iran, President Donald Trump has seized a legacydefining moment to demonstrate his readiness to exercise raw U.S. military power. But in doing so, he is also taking the biggest foreign policy gamble of his...
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Vitriol. Profanity. Politics. Experts warn about role social media has played
WASHINGTON – Most of this story isn’t fit for a family newspaper. The country’s political discourse has deteriorated to the point – or become so robust – that the president can drop an f-bomb and get one lobbed back in return. Of course, caustic...
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Clinton depositions show changed Democratic Party
WASHINGTON – In late February 2016, Hillary Clinton cruised to an overwhelming victory in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary – an unambiguous statement of the former first lady and secretary of state’s dominance over her party as she...
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Carnegie Library ready to share city’s Black history
Live Oak Public Library Executive Director Lola DeWitt was at the Key West Literary Seminar in 2023 when she had an epiphany. h The seminar’s theme focused on Black literature and amplifying those stories, and her mind instantly went to Savannah’s own...
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Trump touts ‘roaring economy’ in speech
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump declared the country is booming, his opponents are “crazy” and his administration is engaged in unprecedented levels of “winning” in a marathon State of the Union address that comes as polls showed deep skepticism of...
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Woman’s ‘off ’ feeling leads to life-saving surgery
For Julie Warner of Savannah, Wednesday Aug. 20, 2025, started out like a typical day. Until it wasn’t. h That morning, with two of her four children already at school and the two others about to walk out the door, the busy 46-year-old wife and mom was...
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Survey finds likely human remains
A survey to determine if human remains are still located within Downtown Savannah’s Whitefield Square found multiple examples of burial remains. Whitefield Square encompasses an area formerly known as the “Negro Burial Grounds,” a cemetery for persons...
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Faith leaders pray for peace after death of teacher
Seeking to honor local teacher Linda Davis’ life while offering reassurance to the immigrant community, faith leaders from across religious traditions gathered Thursday afternoon near the site of Monday’s crash. Federal immigrations agents conducted...
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Savannah goes from ‘Best Kept Secret’ to 12M visitors
When Interstate 95 by Savannah was nearing completion, many in Savannah’s business community saw that north-south thoroughfare as both a risk and an opportunity. At the time travelers to Florida would cross the Talmadge Bridge and drive right through...
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Savannahians reflect on impact, legacy of Rev. Jackson
When Savannah native Ben Polote first heard that Rev. Jesse Jackson was considering a run for president, it was at an airport hangar in Washington D.C. As a friend of Jackson’s for about five years, Polote’s first reaction was a sense of alarm that...
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‘FROM DUST YOU CAME’
As the door to the Sentient Bean opened the scent of cooking food and coffee floated out. On the sidewalk, the Rev. Michael Chaney stood with a parishioner. “On this first day of Lent, remember that this life is transitory,” Chaney said as his thumb...
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Starland unveils new mixed-use development
Savannah’s Starland District is slated for its latest mixed-use development in a neighborhood that has become known for its options to work, live and play. The project team behind the transformation of the long vacant C&S Upholstery Supply building at...
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Civil rights icon ‘kept the dream alive’
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a towering civil rights icon who battled alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., negotiated global hostage releases and shamed corporations for their lack of diversity and failure to support voting rights, died on Feb. 17. He...
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Wood storks rebound
The wood stork, the pride of the southeastern United States and the only stork species native to North America, lives according to the rhythm of tides. As the tide falls and fish become trapped in small pools, white-feathered waders stir up the mud...
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Langley to lead Second Harvest in fighting hunger
Miriam Langley has long been passionate about ensuring everyone has access to nutritious food. And in her new position as CEO of the Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia, Langley hopes to continue pursuing this passion, and the mission of Second...
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Residents react
Tom Weight looked at the projection on the wall of the proposed site plan for what will be known as The District Pooler wearily. The renderings of what the developers wanted to build were beautiful: a massive pond, surrounded by a sleek-looking...
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Pride flag raised again at NYC’s Stonewall Inn
NEW YORK – In defiance of a Trump administration edict, New York City officials and activists raised the rainbow pride flag again on Feb. 12 at the Stonewall National Monument, the birthplace of the LGBTQ+ rights movement, after it was removed over the...
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Homan says Minnesota ICE operation will end
The Trump administration said it is ending the controversial immigration operation in Minnesota that sparked nationwide protests after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in January. White House border czar Tom Homan on Feb. 12 said he...
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Student informants spur academic freedom debate
Texas A&M University told philosophy professor Martin Peterson in early January that he could not teach some of Greek philosopher Plato’s writings that touch on “race and gender ideology.” The university’s local chapter of the American Association of...
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Savannah Police invest in high-tech precinct
By the end of the year, the Savannah Police Department (SPD) is slated to open its newest precinct in the Carver Heights neighborhood. On Monday morning, SPD officers and elected-officials stood at the site where a 24,000 square foot facility will...
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Irish Festival kicks off ‘green season’
After six years of being just a one-day festival because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Savannah Irish Festival is back to a two-day celebration for its 34th year to kick off “green season” in the Hostess City. “We invite everyone from every background...
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Social media reshaping research on substance use
When you think of tools for studying substance use and addiction, a social media site like Reddit, TikTok or YouTube probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Yet the stories shared on social media platforms are offering unprecedented insights...
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SMART EATING
Sean Alva, a registered and licensed clinical dietician at St. Joseph’s/Candler, counsels patients who have suffered heart attacks and strokes or who have been hospitalized with kidney disease and diabetes—all of which are among the 10 leading causes...
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Iran says talks with U.S. were good start
American and Iranian negotiators held indirect talks in Muscat, Oman, on Feb. 6 aimed at averting a fresh military confrontation between the two countries and dragging the region into another war. The discussions could lead to the first face-to-face...
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‘Strong but fragile’
The state of Tybee Island is strong, said Mayor Brian West in his State of the City address recently — but it’s also fragile. After various city staff members recapped everything the city had accomplished in 2025, such as improvements to...
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Pedestrian deaths by trains persisting
In 2018, high-speed passenger trains branded as Brightline started running along the formerly freight-only Florida East Coast Railway. Initial service from Miami to West Palm Beach was extended to Orlando in 2023. h Unfortunately, the southern end of...
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Officers in Minneapolis to wear body cameras
Human trafficking cases are rarely simple, and in Georgia, they often involve children, organized criminal networks and digital evidence scattered across multiple jurisdictions. “I can’t imagine the horror,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said,...
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‘I just want love in the community’
First-generation Mexican American Georgia Southern University Armstrong student Jaquelinne Castanon said she has carried copies of her birth certificate and Social Security card since November 2024, when President Donald Trump was reelected. Castanon,...
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Trump actions worry free-speech advocates
The FBI search of a Washington Post reporter’s home on Jan. 14 was a rare and intimidating move by an administration focused on repressing criticism and dissent. In its story about the search at Hannah Natanson’s home, at which FBI agents said they...
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‘Richmond Hill is in my blood’
Jan. 8 marked the last day of office for Russ Carpenter, who served as Mayor of Richmond Hill for two terms and eight on council prior to that. As he reflects on 16 years of service in South Bryan County, Carpenter said he is filled with gratitude....
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Shutdown still possible despite deal with DHS
Lawmakers appeared to be closing in on a deal endorsed by President Donald Trump to avoid an extended government shutdown, but a key player said a brief government closure may be inevitable as there still was work to be done Jan. 30 as funding was set...
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Can ‘Trump Accounts’ help boost savings ?
NEW YORK – “Trump Accounts” are tax-advantaged investment accounts designed to boost the savings of U.S. citizens under the age of 18. More than 500,000 families have signed up for the program. The government will launch the program in July. The U.S....
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Minnesota lawmaker attacked at town hall
President Donald Trump has said he will “de-escalate” immigration operations in Minnesota, but tensions remained high on Jan. 28 after a man attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, with an unknown substance and Trump warned that Minneapolis’ mayor was...
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‘More confidence in doing everything’
Dekesha McDonald said her daughter, Kay, walks differently since enrolling in Little Acorn Academy last year. Just 3-years-old, Kay oozes independence – every day she walks into Henderson E. Formey. Jr Early Learning Center like she owns it. She opens...
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Bitter cold follows deadly winter storm
Extremely cold weather isn’t going away soon for a swath of the United States from Texas to New England as impacts from a deadly winter storm linger. Authorities reported at least 13 deaths over the weekend as frigid temperatures expanded over the...
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‘They didn’t leave us anything at all’
DEIR DIBWAN, West Bank – The Jewish settler outpost of Or Meir is small. A handful of prefabricated white shelters, it sits at the end of a short dirt track on a hill leading up from Road 60, a major route that dissects the Israeli-occupied West...
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