*July sales tax collections in Georgia rose more than 13 percent during the just completed fiscal year. And Georgia News Network reports the state ended the year with a five-billion-dollar surplus.
*Something new at the Hall County landfill: a 90,000-pound compactor specially designed for landfills that, according to county officials, allows operators to spread waste more evenly and compact it to reduce volume, while creating more valuable airspace in the process.