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The Mississippi Braves, Atlanta’s Double-A affiliate, announced Tuesday that they will relocate to Columbus, Ga., following the 2024 season.

The Southern League franchise, commonly referred to as the M-Braves, have played at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss., since 2005. Previously owned by the Atlanta Braves, the M-Braves were purchased by Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH) prior to the 2022 season. DBH, a subsidiary of sports entertainment company Endeavor, currently owns 29 Minor League Baseball teams (including every team in the Atlanta Braves’ farm system).

The M-Braves’ announcement of their impending move came after a pair of significant votes by the Columbus City Council. Last month, the Council approved a funding plan for a massive renovation of Golden Park; on Tuesday, a Golden Park lease agreement with DBH was approved.

Golden Park’s impending renovation will bring it in line with MLB’s facility requirements for Minor League ballparks. Golden Park will also have the distinction of being one of the Minors’ oldest ballparks, as it opened in 1926. For nearly six decades, beginning in 1951, Golden Park regularly hosted a Minor League Baseball team. The most recent pro team to to play there, the Columbus Catfish, relocated to Bowling Green, Ky., following the 2008 season.

The M-Braves’ departure from Pearl -- located just outside of Jackson -- will leave the state of Mississippi with just one Minor League team, the Biloxi Shuckers. The Braves’ system, meanwhile, will become more consolidated with the addition of Columbus. High-A Rome and Triple-A Gwinnett are also based in Georgia, while the Single-A Augusta GreenJackets are located just across the Savannah River in North Augusta, S.C.

In an open letter posted on the M-Braves’ website, the team expressed gratitude to “Pearl, the surrounding Jackson community, and the state of Mississippi for the incredible support for the franchise over the past 19 years. …We are hopeful that is not the end of professional baseball in Pearl, and our organization will support any efforts to bring a team to Trustmark Park in the future.”

The M-Braves' 2024 home opener is scheduled for April 9, with the team taking on the Shuckers.

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Benjamin Hill covers the business and culture of the Minor Leagues for MiLB.com and MLB Pipeline. He has visited 177 ballparks.

A semiconductor manufacturer is bringing its headquarters to Columbus as a result of a local alliance dedicated to growing the industry in the region.

Micromize, composed of a team of MIT graduates, is a semiconductor manufacturer that specializes in energy-efficient electronics for wearables and mobile devices. The company chose Columbus for its inaugural manufacturing facility, according to a news release.

By establishing its headquarters and manufacturing facility in Columbus, Micromize plans to take advantage of the semiconductor packaging expertise at Georgia Tech, the release said. The facility is expected to bring 20 to 25 jobs to Columbus.

The move is a result of an alliance led by the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley. The alliance is officially named Chattahoochee Hub for Innovation and Production of Semiconductors, or more commonly known as CHIPS4CHIPS (C4C).

C4C mobilized public and private leaders in Georgia and Alabama to support the growth of the domestic semiconductor industry, including research universities, historically Black colleges and universities, community colleges and technical colleges to fill the workforce pipeline.

Growing the semiconductor industry in the United States has become a national priority as outsourcing manufacturing caused semiconductor and hardware education to stagnate, according to a report published by the Council on Foreign Relations.

In 2020, the U.S. had 12% of the global production capacity, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This is down from 37% in 1990.

In response, Congress passed the CHIPS Act in 2022, which allocated $39 billion in government funding for domestic semiconductor manufacturing facilities, research and development and workforce programs.

Increasing chip manufacturing in the United States is good for both national security and consumers, Deborah Kidder, dean of the Turner College of Business, told the Ledger-Enquirer.

“This industry is critical to basically everything we do,” Kidder said. “You have chips in everything — even a toothbrush.”

The decision to locate in Columbus was driven by several factors, Prashant Patil, founder and CEO of Micromize, said in the release.

Columbus’ proximity to a port and airport provides efficient shipping, he said. C4C’s workforce development efforts and the presence of Fort Moore was also a benefit in providing a skilled workforce, Patil said.

“Additionally, Columbus offers an appealing climate with abundant outdoor activities, making it an ideal place for both work and leisure,” he said in the release.

Bringing Micromize to Columbus was a collaborative effort between C4C, Georgia Tech, and Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) to harness innovations in semiconductor packaging at Georgia Tech’s Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN).

The collaboration with Micromize is a significant milestone for C4C, Ben Moser, president of and CEO of United Way and chair of C4C, said in the release.

“This announcement marks the first of what we believe will be many to come,” Moser said in the release. “And we are thankful that Micromize recognizes the potential of our region for this industry.”

This story was originally published January 23, 2024, 6:00 PM.

Severe weather rolling across Columbus overnight into Tuesday morning knocked out power to customers and brought torrential rain to the region, closing schools and causing widespread disruption.

The Georgia power outage map shows multiple power outages across Columbus affecting hundreds of customers.

One of the largest reported outages in the city is in the Walker Street and Mesa Street area in south Columbus with Georgia Power reporting an outage affecting 114 customers.

Another outage on the map is reported to be affecting an area encompassing 18th Avenue, Phelts Drive, 40th Street, and parts of other streets affecting 164 customers.

A couple outages have been reported in the Benning Hills area and scattered outages have been reported throughout east Columbus, according to the map.

A large outage has been reported near Midland near County Line Road and Central Church Road that is affecting 1,045 customers, according to the map.

Data reported from the Columbus Metropolitan Airport by the National Weather Service at 9:51 a.m. shows the airport received around 1.76 inches of rain within a three hour period.

Georgia power said in a statement:

“Today, as the storm conditions subside making it safe and efficient to work, Georgia Power crews will enter and remain in the field around the clock working until every service for every impacted customer is restored.”

The impending weather prompted multiple schools in the area to close or transition to virtual operations for Jan. 9.

The Muscogee County School District moved to virtual learning for Jan. 9 with other systems like Russell County also moving to virtual learning for the day.

Harris County School District moved to completely cancel all operations due to the weather.

Local colleges followed suit with Chattahoochee Valley Community College closing due to the weather and Columbus State University moving to virtual operations.

The storm was part of a larger system that caused havoc across the South and Midwest, according to reports by the Associated Press.

The violent storm with 55 mph (88 kph) winds and hail moved through the Florida Panhandle and into parts of Alabama and Georgia by sunrise Tuesday, along with at least several reports of radar-confirmed tornadoes, the National Weather Service said. A wind gust of 106 mph (171 kph) was recorded before dawn near the coast in Walton County, Florida.

“We still have potentially strong storms in that area through (Tuesday) morning and the potential for more severe weather and tornadoes,” meteorologist Lance Franck in Tallahassee said.

A section of Panama City Beach, Florida, showed parts of roofs blown away, furniture, fences and debris strewn about and a house that appeared tilted on side, leaning on another home, WJHG-TV reported.

In Panama City, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away, police early Tuesday asked residents to stay indoors and off the roads “unless absolutely necessary” as officers checked on damage from the storms, including downed power lines and trees.

A number of schools were closed in the region and more than 140,000 customers were without power in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia, according to the PowerOutage.us website, according to the Associated Press.

This story was originally published January 9, 2024, 11:34 AM.

A free transportation service is coming to downtown Columbus.

Starting Dec. 26, the Columbus Consolidated Government will deploy four electric carts called Uptown Shuttles. They will operate in the service area of Bay Avenue to First Avenue and Ninth Street to 14^th Street. But they won’t cross 13^th Street, the corridor with the most vehicle traffic in the area, so the carts will access 14^th Street via Front Avenue.

Uptown Shuttle hours will be Mondays-Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Fridays-Saturdays from 10 a.m. to midnight.

The CCG Metra website has two ways to request a ride:

A requested ride will be sent to an available shuttle driver’s computer tablet, then an email or text will be sent to the rider to confirm the trip and the estimated time of arrival. The cart will arrive at the nearest on-street pickup location.

This is a personalized, on-demand service, Columbus Metra Parking Division manager Terana Lewis told the Ledger-Enquirer. Customers won’t share the vehicle with strangers.

“It’s one person or group at a time,” she said. The carts fit five passengers.

These carts run on rechargeable electric batteries with supplemental solar power from a roof panel. Each cart is painted with a theme that celebrates Columbus: the art cart, the military cart, the music cart and the river cart.

CCG calls the vehicles carts, but these shuttles are more substantial than a golf cart. They are GEMs (Global Electric Motorcars), headquartered in Medina, Minnesota. These street-legal vehicles can reach 35 mph.

They are fully enclosed, but the doors are removable to allow for fresh-air rides in comfortable weather. Lewis said they also will have heating and air conditioning installed before the new year.

The startup cost for this program is approximately $400,000, Lewis said. She didn’t have an yearly cost estimate for operating the service.

“Future annual funding will depend on the level of demand for the shuttle service during the initial pilot phase,” she said.

Columbus Council unanimously approved the purchase of the four carts Feb. 28 and the purchase of application development services and software March 28. The additional staff positions to provide the shuttle service were approved as part of CCG’s fiscal year 2024 budget, Lewis said.

Downtown businesses and hotels have been asking for such a service “for a few years in an effort to connect people from one area to another within the district,” Lewis said.

VisitColumbusGa president and CEO Peter Bowden told the Ledger-Enquirer he isn’t aware of any other Georgia city having this service.

“It allows for another visitor experience,” he said. “It provides another amenity. Columbus is always sort of reinventing that experience. So this just provides that one more thing we can offer both for leisure travel and for meetings and conventions, another convenience feature. … Hopefully, this will lead to more things like this, as far as moving people around.”

Smoking and consumption of food or beverages in the Uptown Shuttles are prohibited.

For more information about the Uptown Shuttle, call the Metra office at 706-225-4584. Lewis noted Metra seeks to hire a fifth Uptown Shuttle driver. She welcomes folks interested in such a job to call her at that number.

This story was originally published December 15, 2023, 12:10 PM.

A storm front heading towards Georgia could bring severe weather conditions Monday night through Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service.

A post by the National Weather Service Atlanta on X states that the storm system is expected to impact north and central Georgia. The post said this system could bring strong severe thunderstorms and the potential for tornadoes.

The National Weather Service said the storms are expected to bring heavy rainfall and the risk for localized flash flooding and river flooding.

Columbus can possibly expect two to three inches of rain, according to a diagram from the National Weather Service Atlanta X page.

Multiple areas in the state can expect the same amount of rainfall while some locations east and northeast of Atlanta can expect up to four inches of rain, according to the diagram.

The storms will move from southwest to northeast Monday night, becoming more widespread on Tuesday, according to the post.

Columbus can expect rain to begin around sunset tonight and last throughout the night with thunderstorms starting around daybreak, according to a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Peachtree City.

The forecaster said the best severe weather chances will hit the area between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

Winds will also hit the area throughout the night with sustained winds around 10-20 mph with gusts around 30-40 mph, according to the forecaster.

The Muscogee County School District has announced that schools will go virtual for Jan. 9 due to possible inclement weather.

The school district said that all academic field trips are canceled for tomorrow along with all athletic, extracurricular and after-school activities.

St. Anne-Pacelli Catholic School will also move to virtual learning on Tuesday due to the predicted severe weather.

Chance Corbett, Emergency Management Director for the Columbus Consolidated Government, said the city is watching the severe weather and working with the National Weather Service to monitor the situation.

The storm is also expected to bring severe weather to parts of Alabama. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is encouraging people to avoid driving during severe events.

ALEA’s secretary Hal Taylor said the following in a statement:

“Forecasters continue to predict severe weather that could have dramatic impacts across our state, but especially the southern portion over the next 48 hours. Our Agency stands ready to assist with all divisions and units developing and implementing severe weather operation plans for this storm system. However, we strongly encourage and recommend that both citizens and visitors prepare now for the incoming weather. In the event conditions worsen, we urge motorists to adjust travel plans and avoid driving in severe weather if possible.”

The Russell County School District announced that schools will adjust to remote learning for Tuesday due to possible inclement weather.

The Harris County School District has announced it will cancel all operations on Jan. 9 in anticipation of severe weather.

“The safety of our transportation and school communities is our priority. Heavy rain and high winds could compromise travel conditions for buses and cars, raising concerns for student and staff safety,” said Justin Finney, HCSD assistant superintendent of business services and technology, in a statement.

Phenix City administrative offices will have a delayed opening until 11 a.m. EST on Jan. 9, according to a news release.

This story was originally published January 8, 2024, 12:52 PM.