Georgia Today: Election day in Georgia; Georgia-born Israeli officer killed; Graffiti mural project

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Tuesday, Nov. 7. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, it's Election Day and voters across Georgia are headed to the polls. An American-born Israeli police officer killed in Jerusalem is being honored by friends in the Atlanta area. And we'll share the story of how a bit of graffiti became an endearing symbol in a Northeast Georgia town. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

 

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Polls are open across Georgia today for municipal elections. Voters in many cities, including Savannah and Albany, will be choosing mayors. Tax issues, including those to fund millions of dollars worth of transportation, parks and other infrastructure projects, are also on many ballots. Atlanta voters will pick four members of their school board. Maureen Burgmueller voted in Savannah, where residents are electing a mayor and the city's eight aldermen.

Maureen Burgmueller: The local elections are critical for us because it votes on your local taxes at your schools. It's the roads that we drive on and it's very, very important that we have the right people in place that can help this city.

Peter Biello: Without any federal or statewide elections at stake, turnout during early voting was low. Polls will be open until 7 p.m.

 

Story 2:

Peter Biello: Friends of an American-born Israeli police officer killed in Jerusalem yesterday are remembering her as a hardworking student athlete from the Atlanta area. Elishiva "Rose" Lubin graduated from Dunwoody High School two years ago, became a member of Israel's border patrol and was killed in a stabbing attack. Israeli reports identified her attacker as a 16-year-old Palestinian who was shot dead by police. Chrystal Gates was her neighbor. She said Lubin was, quote, like electricity that sparked the light in so many people.

Chrystal Gates: It's just like her character just to be 18-years-old and to be so dedicated and passionate about something that she would be willing to move halfway around the world to support a cause that she believed in. And even when her post was up, she volunteered to stay to serve in the war zone because she believed it was the right thing to do. She really died just doing something that she passionately believed in. And that really makes her hero.

Peter Biello: While she was at Dunwoody High School, Lubin was on the flag football, wrestling and cheerleading squads. Montez Sweeney coached her in flag football and described her as the.

Montez Sweeney: Toughest person in the school, boy or girl. Sweet, a go-getter and just overall, a fantastic person.

Peter Biello: The attack came a month after Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 200 Israeli hostages. Neighbors are putting up blue and white ribbons on their mailboxes to honor her sacrifice.

 

Story 3:

Peter Biello: Public health leaders are working to reduce disparities and improve health outcomes in Black and brown communities across the state. GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports on one company's efforts in Georgia that includes house calls and 24 hour telehealth.

Ellen Eldridge: A new report finds the Peach State is one of the most dangerous places to give birth, particularly for Black women. To address this and other health disparities, one company is partnering with the Morehouse School of Medicine to improve health outcomes. Vonetta Daniels is the newly appointed executive director of Cinqcare, a Black-owned company focused on reducing preventable deaths.

Vonetta Daniels: The problems are huge and vast, but I do think education and advocacy are really — are really foundational to no matter what the health disparity conversation is, whether you're talking about the difference in HIV and AIDS, whether you're talking about maternal — maternal and infant mortality.

Ellen Eldridge: Daniels says she wants to develop a more holistic and comprehensive approach to health care. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.

 

Story 4:

Peter Biello: The Georgia Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case that could limit the state's authority over new medical facilities. At issue is Georgia's contentious certificate of need application, which health care providers need if they want to build a new facility or provide new services. A Lawrenceville hospital's application to establish a new radiation therapy service is currently at the center of the case. Lawmakers fought over certificates of need in this year's legislative session and likely will again in the next.

 

Story 5:

Peter Biello: A South Georgia lawyer who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has had his law license suspended. Georgia's highest court suspended the law license of William Calhoun Jr. of Americus. He was convicted in March on multiple felony and misdemeanor charges, including entering a restricted building. Calhoun walked through the Capitol with a group of people pounding on doors. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Story 6:

Peter Biello: For the past two years, Georgia State University volunteers have been gathering and preserving the life stories of transgender people who live in or have impacted the state. The Georgia Transgender Oral History Project is a series of interviews stored in the university archives. GPB's Amanda Andrews spoke to volunteers about the interview process and the importance of preserving trans history.

Amanda Andrews: It's mid-afternoon in the Georgia State University Library, eight stories above downtown Atlanta. Archivists Morna Gerard and Tracee McDaniel are digging through McDaniel's life.

Tracee McDaniel: I save everything, so it was just all packed away.

Amanda Andrews: In front of them are several boxes full of newspaper clippings and awards for McDaniel's life as a trans woman, including decades of activism.

Tracee McDaniel: It's interesting going back and looking through all of this stuff and remembering stuff and I'm like "Did I do that?"

Amanda Andrews: Even she hasn't seen this stuff in a long time.

Morna Gerard: Oh my gosh, is this you?

Amanda Andrews: Adorable.

Tracee McDaniel: That's my alter ego. Destiny Your Mistress of Illusion.

Morna Gerard: You look like Diana Ross.

Tracee McDaniel: Yep, that's my Diana Ross. Yeah, I was an entertainer for over 20 years.

Amanda Andrews: Gerard will file all of McDaniel's things as an official part of the library's Gender and Sexuality Archive, which is also home to the Transgender Oral History Project. McDaniel says she is more than happy to share.

Tracee McDaniel: So this project is an act of rebellion, an act of resistance against the system, politicians, religion, etc., etc.. So I love being in this rebellious state. That's why I'm enjoying this process.

Amanda Andrews: But McDaniel isn't just doing this work for her own pleasure. This is about the future and about saving lives.

Tracee McDaniel: And so if the younger generation can be inspired by my story, by my — by my path, then that's all worth it. That's why I do what I do. And that's why I think it's important for us to — to leave our history and let others know that, no, you're not the first.

Amanda Andrews: Oral histories range in age and life experience, from young college students to retired drag queens. Archivist Morna Gerard helped start the project in 2021. She says from the beginning she and the volunteers were clear: They wanted to highlight joy in the trans community.

Morna Gerard: We want to look at resiliency and community and, you know, people do sometimes want to talk about trauma and we're very happy to talk to them about that. But that's not necessarily the sole focus of our project.

Ashby Combahee: You thought about this a lot.

Tracee McDaniel: Good question.

Ashby Combahee: So much of what I see as an interview process is trying to pick certain...

Morna Gerard: Ashby Combahee says he needed an image of a joyful trans life growing up in Louisiana.

Ashby Combahee: Growing up as a queer child. I did not believe that I belonged in the South and the first thing I did when I grew up as an adult was leave the South. And doing that made me realize how Southern I am, how I relate to people. The slow pace of Southern living and the culture. I missed it deeply.

Morna Gerard: Like Tracee McDaniel, Combahee has both shared his own story with the project and collected others.

Ashby Combahee: I think so much of queer history is censored as adult material. However, we know that for any type of cultural-building, any type of identity formation, you know, knowing your history from a young age helps give you a sense of belonging.

Morna Gerard: And Combahee says he hopes these collected histories show young trans people they belong in the South, too. The latest audio interviews for the Georgia Transgender Oral History Project will be accessible online within a year. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: Atlanta United hosts the Columbus Crew tonight in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. They're down one game to none in a best of three. And if they win tonight and in Columbus, they'll go on to the semifinals. We've got Jon Nelson of GPB Sports here. He's been covering Atlanta United. He's going to break down what makes this team so special this year. Hey, Jon, welcome back.

Jon Nelson: Any time, my friend. It's great to talk about playoff time, postseason and chasing after trophies.

Peter Biello: Certainly is. Before we get into the circumstances of tonight's match, though, tell us a little bit about this team, Atlanta United. What makes this team so special this year?

Jon Nelson: It's it's been fun to watch. When you have two players who have been awarded postseason awards, one with Giorgos Giakoumakis, who was awarded Best Newcomer of the Year in Major League Soccer. And you also have the best young player of the league in Tiago Almada. When you have two players that are incredibly electric, when you see them, every moment is an anticipation of, of an action that will have you on the edge of your seat. You know, you look at the statistics for Giorgos Giakoumakis, who is up top in the attack for Atlanta United. The number of goals that he scored per 90 minutes is the best in the league. And he was in competition for what they call the Golden Boot, the trophy that they give the individual that scored the most goals in the season. And Giorgos Giakoumakis had not played in every game that he was available for because of injuries and such. So for him, with the 17 goals that he scored, when you have Tiago Almada, you know that every moment can give you something as a positive if you're a fan of the Five Stripes and seeing those two as a part of a larger picture. It's been a some great acquisitions by the front office and a great job by Gonzalo Pineda piecing this team together so the chemistry can be right at the right time here in the postseason.

Peter Biello: Tonight's elimination game; how did things get so tight?

Jon Nelson: You are in the the situation where you have nine teams in each conference making the playoffs. They have — this year, playoffs are a little different and we can get into that in a little bit —

Peter Biello: Sure.

Jon Nelson: But United was the sixth seed, so that meant that since they were a higher-numbered seed in these best-of-three series, that would start the opening round, you're going to play the majority of your games on the road. They're playing a very, very tough team in the No. 3 seed in Columbus Crew who really can come at you from a bunch of different ways. But that meant that the first game of the series was in Columbus and you didn't have Tiago Almada available because of a red card suspension that he had to serve. So Atlanta United loses. But the best thing about this best-of-three is that you can lose it 1-nil, you could lose it 7-nil and you still have this game at Mercedes-Benz tonight where you can get the equalizer and force it to a Game 3.

Peter Biello: So what is with this playoff format? My understanding is that some folks aren't really happy with it.

Jon Nelson:Yeah, there's there are a lot of folks that with this new playoff format, traditionalists would sit there and say, you know, "I'm used to a one-off. I'm used to best-of-two where each team gets one game," and then you sit there and you look at the aggregate score. And then if the score is tied after a game away in a game at home, then you play in extra time and then you might go to penalties. But right now in this opening round and the quarterfinal round, it's best-of-three. So you can lose by a large margin, you can lose by a short margin, but there's always that opportunity for the second team to come back, even things up, and then have to force a lot of pressure on the team that has the higher seed, the better record, to get that third game win at home. And, you know, folks are still trying to get adjusted to this new idea of the best-of-three in the first round. But at everything after this semifinals conference finals, MLS Cup, it's all one-off. So you've got to get it done. You've got to get it done starting tonight.

Peter Biello: And Atlanta United has home field advantage tonight. How much does that matter?

Jon Nelson: A lot. Atlanta United is at home. They have really turned Mercedes-Benz Stadium into a fortress and they're one of the more successful teams in Major League Soccer at home. In the playoffs, if my memory serves, 12 of the teams that have had their matchups have won games at home. The home team of 12 of the first 17 or 18, 12 of them have won at home in the postseason. Atlanta United in the regular season won 10 of the 17 games that they played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. So the surface, the speed, the way that Atlanta United plays leans in their favor tonight because of everything that they've been able to build at home at Mercedes-Benz.

Peter Biello: All right. Dare I ask you to make a prediction for tonight, Jon?

Jon Nelson: Oh, it's — it's going to a Game 3. Come on. You know this. I've got to look at this team and what we've seen from them. Yes, Columbus is a tough test. They are a tough out. They've got some tremendous offensive talents and some players that are, you know, known to Atlanta United fans from time in years past. But I've got to go with Atlanta United tonight. You've got Tiago Almada back. You've got your Giorgos Giakoumakis up top. You've got all of this. You have the board that is ready to go at Mercedes-Benz to force a Game 3 this weekend.

Peter Biello: All right. Jon Nelson of GPB Sports has been covering Atlanta United. Thanks so much, Jon.

Jon Nelson: Anytime my friend. 

 

Story 8:

Peter Biello: Georgia's film industry tax credit generated eight and a half billion dollars in economic impact last fiscal year. That's according to a study released yesterday by a consulting firm commissioned by the Georgia Screen Entertainment Coalition. The study found less than 8% of Georgia's film production would have occurred without the tax credit. The film tax credit costs Georgia about $1 billion in lost revenue each year, and the credits return on investment is expected to be an issue in the General Assembly that begins in January. State lawmakers are examining all of Georgia's tax credits to determine whether they're accomplishing their investment and job creation goals.

Caption

The city of Cornelia has come to celebrate what started out as graffiti. The message "Tim Loves Tink" is now practically iconic in the small Northeast Georgia community. It's also now the center of a planned mural project.

Credit: Lee Anderson / City of Cornelia

 

Story 9:

Peter Biello: No one in the small Northeast Georgia town of Cornelia quite remembers when it started. But sometime in the sixties, seventies or eighties — again, folks are very fuzzy about this — someone named Tim professed his love for someone named Tink by painting graffiti on a railroad underpass that leads out of downtown. The not-so-creative graffiti reads "Tim loves Tink." Every so often, the town would have to repaint the underpass and in the process, erase the unsightly vandalism. And every time they did that, within days it would reappear: a sloppily sprayed "Tim loves Tink." After decades of this cat-and-mouse game between upright town fathers and a determined vandal, the town decided to give in to this repeat offender and get one step ahead of him or her. The town repainted the underpass, but this time professionally stenciled the three words which by now had become well-known in the area. And there it remains on your way out of downtown Cornelia, one of George's more unusual roadside oddities. "Tim loves Tink" is now so beloved in Cornelia that the town has earned a grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts to start its first-ever mural project based around it. Audrey Davenport is coordinating the grant for the city. She told GPB's Orlando Montoya that she'd love to identify Tim, Tink and their love story. But in the end, it's all about art and community.

Audrey Davenport: So we've been collecting stories. We don't have as many so — as as we would like to have. And the way that I am positioned to gather stories is that you could tell us something that was real, factual, or even you can use your imagination to give us a story that you think about, you know, that might have existed because I don't really know if they are still around town or if they have any indication that the city has created this love affair with that message. I really don't know. So I would love to find Tim and Tink, but so far no one has — has reached out to me or to the city.

Orlando Montoya: So why do you think Cornelia has embraced this graffiti? This "Tim loves Tink."

Audrey Davenport: For me, the underpass is iconic because it's a tiny little town and we don't have a lot of really quaint things in downtown Cornelia. I think that is the most quaint, iconic thing that downtown Cornelia has, and it has become a symbol of — I think that the community is in love with the idea of Tim loves Tink, you know, and that it has stood the test of time. Like I guess we all hope the love — that love stands the test of time. So I think that is the intrigue with most people about that particular graffiti, that's what I think.

Orlando Montoya: Is it really graffiti at this point?

Audrey Davenport: You know what? I really don't see it as graffiti, you know? Because when I think of graffiti, I think of taggers or people who do a particular type of font. But I guess at the beginning, this thing must have looked like — I mean, if you could imagine someone went up to the top of the underpass, you know where there's enough space for a person to lay down next to the railroad track and paint that thing upside down, right? So I think that just the fact that someone even got up to the top of that underpass and had that much, I don't know, nerve to paint such a message is part of the intrigue. So I also wanted to explore all of those possibilities and hopefully get there to somehow be reflective and some of the type of activities or maybe even eventually in the final art design. This will be their first mural, proud to say. And then as we go along, we'll start to see more murals in downtown corner.

Peter Biello: That was Audrey Davenport of the Habersham County Historical Society and the regional African-American Museum of Northeast Georgia. She's spearheading a mural project in Cornelia. You can see a photo of the underpass for yourself at GPB.org/news. And if you have any stories about Tim or Tink, Davenport would love to hear from you. You can contact her by the story on our website.

And that is it for this edition of Georgia Today. If you want to learn more about any of these stories, visit GPB.org/news. And if you haven't subscribed to this podcast, do it now. That way we'll pop up in your podcast feed. Hopefully someday we'll have an update for you about Tim and Tink. If you've got feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Send us an email. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thank you again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.

---

For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news