Georgia Today: Election prepping for 2024; Plane charging stations; Stories you may have missed

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Friday, Dec. 29. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, elections officials prep for a busy 2024. Electric charging stations for airplanes have landed in Georgia. And we'll look back at some fascinating stories you might have missed throughout the year. That's on this edition of Georgia Today.

 

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Some lawmakers are renewing the push to create a state definition of antisemitism during the legislative session that begins next week. GPB's Sarah Kallis has more.

Sarah Kallis: The state House passed House Bill 30, which would create a state definition of antisemitism based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition. It could be used to determine motivations in hate crime cases but would not create a new criminal charge. State Rep. Esther Panitch, the only Jewish member of the state legislature, says a definition of antisemitism is necessary now more than ever.

Esther Panitch: What I have heard is that people's eyes have been opened up. So anybody who used to think or wasn't sure that sometimes anti-Zionism could be antisemitism really have gotten an education recently, since Oct. 7.

Sarah Kallis: The FBI has warned of increased antisemitic violence since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. For GPB News, I’m Sarah Kallis in Atlanta.

 

Story 2:

Peter Biello: Elections officials are already preparing for a busy 2024. Georgia voters will head to the polls several times this year. GPB's Stephen Fowler explains.

Stephen Fowler: It's always voting season for Georgia's local elections offices, and 2024 will be no different. The presidential primary will be on March 12, while primaries for other races will be May 21. All eyes will be on the Peach State for next November's general election, where about 5 million ballots are expected to be cast for president, every state lawmaker and Georgia's 14 U.S. House seats. There are three options to vote: requesting an absentee by mail ballot, during three weeks of in-person early voting, and on Election Day. Be sure to bookmark your MyVoterPage for all the details. For GPB News, I'm Stephen Fowler.

 

Story 3:

Peter Biello: Valdosta and Augusta have become the first cities in Georgia to get electric charging stations for airplanes. GPB's Orlando Montoya reports, a Vermont-based company called Beta Technologies is betting on electric aviation taking off.

Orlando Montoya: Beta so far has installed about 15 charging stations for its line of electric airplanes still awaiting FAA approval. Company CEO Blayne Newton says the planes could be used initially to ship parcels and medical supplies.

Blayne Newton: The rush to market is that there's this insatiable demand for our customers like UPS and the United Therapeutics to begin flying a zero-emission aircraft. And the reason to fly them is not because they're zero emission solely, primarily because they cost so much less to operate than a traditional-powered aircraft.

Orlando Montoya: A prototype aircraft recently flew up the East Coast charging in Valdosta and Augusta. Beta has about 70 more charging stations under development across the country. For GPB News, I'm Orlando Montoya.

Caption

A person walks into a mental health clinic.

Credit: File photo

Story 4:

Peter Biello: As we wrap up 2023, we're bringing you some of our most noteworthy stories of the year. And today, we bring you this story about six rural sheriffs in central Georgia who, overwhelmed with mental health calls, have made their own plan for a better response. GPB's Sofi Gratas has the story.

Sofi Gratas: Eurie Martin, 58, was walking alone on a rural two-lane road in Washington County in 2017, when three deputies from the county sheriff's office encountered him, responding to a suspicious person call. Police footage shows the situation quickly turned hostile.

Deputies (on video): Get on the ground! Get on the ground!

Sofi Gratas: The three deputies didn't know Martin had a history of mental illness and were not trained to handle people in crisis. During the interaction, Martin was tased for over a minute and a half. It was enough to stop his heart. Though an ambulance was called. Martin died at the scene. Washington County Sheriff Joel Cochran says this was a turning point for his community.

Joel Cochran: I think that was, y'know, an incident that really opened a lot of eyes to realizing that, you know, we have a — we have a crisis in general with mental health and law enforcement is just not trained and incapable of handling those types of situations.

Sofi Gratas: When he took office in 2019, Cochran made 40-hour crisis intervention training mandatory for all deputies. That training's helped his deputies to de-escalate situations which, as Cochran puts it, could have gone in a different direction. Even then, Cochran says his deputies are overwhelmed with calls about mental health crises. He's not alone. In neighboring Jefferson County, Sheriff Gary Hutchins says his deputies respond to calls about mental health crises every week.

Gary Hutchins: I would — I would say the last 10 years, it's got, y'know, worse. And it's getting worse and worse.

Sofi Gratas: Deputies might be out of the county for hours at a time transporting people in crisis to whatever health care facility might have room for them.

Gary Hutchins: We go a long way, sometimes. It could be Saturday night, Sunday morning, 2:00. And we don't have a big department. We have three men working per shift. You take one out, that means you got two.

Sofi Gratas: If there aren't beds available, people in crisis end up waiting in the county jail. Hutchins says many of these calls come from family members of people in crisis who need help. Like Brianna Greer's mother in nearby Hancock County, Greer had schizophrenia and died last year when she fell out of a police cruiser after being arrested instead of de-escalated. These are all examples of why last year, for the first time, Georgia created a legal framework for co-response, a model that's proven to help with these problems. Senate Bill 403 says that to decrease the risk of escalation, law enforcement should work with behavioral health specialists to respond to mental health crisis calls.

Shelby Roche: There's something to be said about someone who is a clinician that can be soothing, calming, comforting to someone who's in crisis versus maybe solely seeing an officer — well intentioned, but that already kind of elevates their level of anxiety about what to expect or what's going to happen.

Sofi Gratas: Shelby Roche is the director of the DeKalb Regional Crisis Center, which has paired clinicians with the local police department for 26 years. Roche says in her area, co-response is working to keep people in crisis from the worst case scenario.

Shelby Roche: We're able to assess and de-escalate a situation where a majority of the people that are reached out to don't have to be transported involuntarily.

Sofi Gratas: Georgia already has several co-response programs, but Senate Bill 403 is the first time lawmakers promised funding for it across the state. Earlier this year, Georgia's Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities said funding 10 co-response teams would cost $15 million. But after SB 403 became law, lawmakers only set aside $900,000. Washington County Sheriff Joe Cochran was left out of all that. So Cochran and sheriffs in five other neighboring counties found their own funding: a $1.5 million public safety grant from American Rescue Plan funds — more than all the state money combined.

Joel Cochran: We got together and felt like this was something that can benefit all of us.

Sofi Gratas: The plan is to hire five clinicians and support specialists to assist deputies on mental health calls in Jefferson, Hancock, Glasscock, Johnson, Wilkinson and Washington County.

Joel Cochran: Now, will we solve the problem? Obviously not. But our goal is to respond under these types of situations. It would be to, one, be able to de-escalate them so that they don't turn into something a lot worse.

Sofi Gratas: And so people in mental health crises live to get the help they need. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas in Macon.

 

Story 5:

Peter Biello: The water tank supplying a South Korean automaker's Metaplant in Bryant County, will sport a clean energy-themed design created by students from the Savannah College of Art and Design. GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.

Benjamin Payne: Hyundai Motor Group has enlisted the help of art students in Savannah to design a water tower at the automaker's electric vehicle plant being built in Southeast Georgia's Bryan County. Six teams of students from the Savannah College of Art and Design competed to create artwork for the roughly 200-foot tower along Interstate 16. The winning design depicts solar panels, a wind turbine, a car rolling off an assembly line toward a hand holding a light bulb, and, at the tip top, a cog. Industrial design student Jacob Pirone was part of the team behind it.

Jacob Pirone: I'm interested in the automotive field and I felt that Hyundai was a really great opportunity, especially since this water tower will be seen by millions of people going down the highway.

Benjamin Payne: Hyundai says it plans to power its Metaplant from 100% renewable sources, primarily through power purchase agreements. The factory is expected to begin production of electric vehicles in early 2025. For GPB News, I'm Benjamin Payne in Savannah.

 

Story 6:

Peter Biello: The state has one of the nation's largest military populations. And while most families can make ends meet without assistance, a new UGA survey shows about 13% are receiving help with food. Researchers say the next thing they want to look at is how much of an undercount that number could be. GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports.

Ellen Eldridge: About 1 in 8 families of active duty soldiers and airmen in Georgia used a food bank or pantry to make ends meet. That's according to new research from the University of Georgia. The state has one of the nation's largest military populations and while most families can make ends meet without assistance, a new UGA survey shows about 13% are receiving help with food. Researchers say the next thing they want to look at is how much of an undercount that could be. Mallory Lucier Greer is a coauthor on the study.

Mallory Lucier Greer: This 13% are the people who reached out for support. And that's really important. You know, I would like to continue to dig in, like, how did you know about this resource? You know? Was it a commander that said, hey, do you know about this happening over there?

Ellen Eldridge: She says the odds of a family needing help increased 35% with each new child. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: Students at Georgia State University are ready to make waves in the music industry. That's thanks to a new grant-funded program at the School of Music. The program is actually a record label called MTM Standard, aimed at teaching students about all aspects of the music industry from studio to stage. And as GPB's Amanda Andrews reports, the goal of the program is to measure success in Grammys, not grades.

Amanda Andrews: Thursday afternoons in downtown Atlanta, the usual noise of cars and crowds are now broken up by live music. MTM Standard showcases their artists with weekly outdoor concerts. Noah Holland is a senior at GSU. He says being on the stage is surreal.

Noah Holland: It's kind of like a dream come true because I remember when I first came to Atlanta four years ago and I was just kind of a starry-eyed kid from the Midwest, like with the whole, like, rock star dream. And now I perform downtown Atlanta, right in the center by Five Points on Peachtree and Auburn Ave., which is like super historical.

Amanda Andrews: Big dreams are something all the MTM artists have in common.

Noah Holland: I would say my goal creatively is to make classic music and timeless music.

Student 1: A Future for myself. I want to continue to put on events that's kind of like been my new niche. I've been really inspired lately.

Noah Freeman I want to be an influence on like, you know, little girls and they can look up to and stuff like that.

Student 3: I want to be the person who creates the music industry in my country, Ecuador. 

Amanda Andrews: The MTM label name is an acronym taken from the university's abbreviation for music classes. It also stands for Make the Music, Manage the Music and Move the Music — all services the label offers. GSU sophomore Noa Freeman just goes by Noah on stage. Growing up, she learned a lot from her parents who worked in Atlanta's music industry. But she says the label still offers her a lot as an artist.

Noah Freeman They're able to send songs to like managers and like CEOs to where, like they can put it on, like, movies and TV shows and stuff like that. So they'll help with that because I have no access to that.

Amanda Andrews: School of Music professors Al Thrash and Ben Yonas guide students through the ins and outs of the music industry. Yonas says MTM Standard goes beyond textbooks.

Ben Yonas: Do you have students who, like I said earlier, have been studying production, maybe haven't been part of the roll out of a release or, you know, overseeing a campaign or the build of all the content marketing that one needs to be successful in music.

Amanda Andrews: And now students like Owen Reece are doing the work.

Owen Reece: I've done more hands-on things in the past, four or five, six months than I've done in my entire life.

Amanda Andrews: But Reece says it doesn't feel like work. It's a passion, and he's glad he's getting a foundation in it now.

Owen Reece: It's definitely a learning process, but I think it's one that, like I said earlier, like if we didn't do it now, it would have been much later and we would have been worse off. So I'm glad we're doing it now. And yeah, I think — I think it's a good — today is like a good stepping stone to what's eventually going to be larger events and productions.

Amanda Andrews: And that's the goal. Professor Al Thrash says this label's work was never just a school assignment.

Al Thrash: We are literally, you know, we're here to compete. You know, we want playlisting. We, you know, we want to get the Grammy-nominated for some of these releases because our — our artist, our student artists are making some incredible music and — and we want to share it with the world the way that Sony or Columbia or any other major label would do so.

Amanda Andrews: This fall, more students will get out of books and into the music industry with a new course. Professors Jonas and Thrash will co-teach Record Label Operations I and II as a capstone for students in the music production and music business programs. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews in Atlanta. 

Credit: Peter Biello

Story 8:

Peter Biello: Pinky Cole is best known as the owner and founder of Slutty Vegan, a chain of vegan restaurants whose menu items feature mock shrimp, vegan cheese steaks and fries covered in a special blend of spices known as "slut dust." In her new book, The Entrepreneur is sharing the lessons she has learned that helped her build a multimillion dollar empire. It's called I Hope You Fail. And she's in the studio with me now. Pinky Cole, welcome.

Pinky Cole: Thank you for having me. Excited to be here.

Peter Biello: Excited to have you here. You did not set out in life wanting to be a restaurant owner, correct?

Pinky Cole: At all. I actually didn't know what I wanted to be, but I just knew that I wanted to be great in the world. And the vessel that happened to come through, it was by way of hospitality. So here we are.

Peter Biello: Yeah. So I imagine something as complicated as a restaurant. You're going to make mistakes.

Pinky Cole: Right.

Peter Biello: And so this whole book is about failure. So tell us a little bit about some of the failures that — that you, I guess, took in stride. I don't know. You tell me.

Pinky Cole: How much time do we have in this interview?

Pinky Cole: I've been through a lot. My father did 22 years in prison. I had a restaurant that caught on fire. It was a grease fire. My car got repoed, bad relationships, got kicked out of my apartment, wages got garnished. I lost everything at one point in my life. But then I also gained everything at another point in my life. I created a multimillion dollar business, became a wife, became a mother even when doctors told me that I wouldn't be able to be a mom. So this book is really showing what can happen when you re-engineer what failure looks like. You know, society tells you that failure is always bad. But I truly believe that failure is the stepping stone, a foundation to be able to get the things that you really want and find out the lesson in the process. And that's why I created this book.

Peter Biello: So tell me about an early failure, something that you learned from and turned into a win later.

Pinky Cole: So losing all of my money. When I lost my restaurant, my wages got garnished, and I had no idea that, you know, you had to get an accountant to close your sales and use tax accounting, all the stuff. I didn't know that. So I moved on  with my life and I wake up and my account is depleted. There's $0 in my account.

Peter Biello: This is the fire at your restaurant. The first one in New York.

Pinky Cole: Yeah, but this was after the fire. So after I recovered, I'm, like, getting back. I'm thinking I'm doing well and fixing my credit. And then I wake up one day and my money is gone.

Peter Biello: Huh

Pinky Cole: But I needed that to happen because guess what that taught me? It taught me that I needed to make sure that I had an accountant that was privy to the knowledge that I needed so that this wouldn't happen again, so that I would pay my bills on time to make sure that I closed out and finished business, especially when a business doesn't work out. So when I created Slutty Vegan, I made sure that I had the proper accountant. I made sure that the bookkeeping was done properly. And last but not least, I made sure that my sales and use tax was always paid so that I would never have to deal with that situation again. But it took for that failure to happen, for me to gain the experience, to know the difference.

Peter Biello: And what's the mindset that that requires as opposed to saying, "well, I'm just not good enough to do something like this, to start a business?" What mindset would you say is required in a situation like that?

Pinky Cole: You got to have a pivoting mindset. You got to have a mindset to know that, like, troubling times don't last always. You know, when bad things happen for us, it really is happening for a reason, right? And it's not bad at all. So anytime I'm faced with a challenge, an obstacle, I'm like, "okay, why is this happening for me?" It's happening for me to make me better, to make me stronger, to make me more relentless, to build my character. And then I become an expert and I can use my testimony to share with other people to help them build and be better.

Peter Biello: Where do you think that comes from for you? Were you born with it?

Pinky Cole: Not having a father in the household and watching my mother be an entrepreneur and work for somebody else all of my life and learning how to be independent at an early age. So it's like fight or flight. Like either you're going to sink or swim. And early on I really got those tools and it carried me throughout my whole life. And did I always get it right? Absolutely not. So through those failures, there were some times where, like, I missed the mark, which is why I'm still a work in progress. But what I do understand is, is I've been through enough to know that you will get past this. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and as long as I have that mindset to re-engineer those bad things, I'm going to be alright.

Peter Biello: So how do you define success for readers of your book, I Hope You Fail. Is it strictly a business book or is there success in other terms here?

Pinky Cole: So this is not just a book about business, right? So I want to be very clear: This is not just for the entrepreneur, this is the person working the 9 to 5. This is the person trying to figure out how to get out the rat race. This is the — for the person trying to get out of a bad relationship. This book is universally sound for anybody who has ever experienced what society tells you a failure is. So some of the topics in the book: "I Hope He Cheats On You."

Peter Biello: Oof!

Pinky Cole: I hope the people that love you don't believe in you. I hope you go flat broke. I hope your business burns down. Right? I'm sure that there's so many people that can relate to at least one of those things.

Peter Biello: Oh, sure, sure.

Pinky Cole: Yeah. And what it does is, it really shows you that, like, life happens, it's inevitable, but it's how you show up to when life happens is what makes the difference.

Peter Biello: Do the extremes need to be the lesson?

Pinky Cole: Sometimes.

Peter Biello: Sometimes.

Pinky Cole: Sometimes they do. Right? And maybe it's not always so extreme. Right? Like a failure could be something so small. And it depends on who's defining failure, right? We're just using failure, as is a catch phrase. Right? But failure is not failure at all. It's finding the aspiration in the losses. So no matter how big or small, you can really identify that "I can navigate through this" and it doesn't feel good today, but it's going to feel better later.

Peter Biello: There are particular challenges for opening any business, no matter who you are. Are there particular challenges for opening a business as a Black woman?

Pinky Cole: If I was a blue woman, I would still have challenges, right? No, no matter the color of my skin. The challenge for me is scaling culture.

Peter Biello: Scaling culture.

Pinky Cole: Scaling culture. And what that means is when you go to a Slutty Vegan, there's a certain energy that you get when you walk through the door. So we're going to scream at you. We gonna call you a slut. The music is booming through the speakers and it's just an infectious environment. So my challenge now is having to duplicate that in Texas and in Dallas and Birmingham and making sure that experience is the same, because at the end of the day, people aren't just buying the product, they're tapping into the experience and as a result of the experience, they purchase the product. So that's kind of my biggest challenge right now. You know, everybody wants to scale a business, but when it's really time to scale a business, there's a lot of headache that comes with it. Would I have it any other way? Absolutely not. But it's definitely not easy. But I'm always up for a challenge.

Peter Biello: So I got to ask you about the previous cookbook that you put out. I'm not sure I can say the name on the radio. Maybe I can.

Pinky Cole: Say it.

Peter Biello: Eat Plants, Bitch. We'll edit it out if we — if we have to per FCC regulations — but I've tried a few the recipes. Big fan of the Chickpea Sunrise. Big fan of the king oyster mushroom scallops which are not scallops. Is this sort of part of a series or is this going to be a one off?

Pinky Cole: You know, a lot of people ask me that they want me to create another cookbook. Maybe it might be like Eat Plants Again Bitch or something. I don't know.

Pinky Cole: But, you know, it was really fun making that cookbook because I wanted people, meat eaters, especially, to understand that you can eat vegan and you don't have to be vegan, right? There's this misconception that if you're not vegan, then you're going to Hell and like, you know, like I don't place judgment on people. My husband is not vegan and we get to coexist together even though we have different dietary lifestyles. So I wanted people to just feel good about eating good food, whether it was vegan or not. So who knows, maybe.

Peter Biello: Who does the cooking at home? Are you exhausted by the time you get home and no more cooking for you?

Pinky Cole: Sometimes my husband can cook better than me, but it's okay.

Peter Biello: Really. Okay.

Pinky Cole: He can, but you know, I do all the other things really well, so balance.

Peter Biello: All right. All things in balance. So I have to ask you about the lawsuits, because one was recently settled in New York, $10,000 paid to people who were claiming that they were not paid their bonuses. A lawsuit still pending from employees of Bar Vegan, your bar at Ponce City Market. Discovery still going on with that. Can you tell me a little bit about what happened at Bar Vegan?

Pinky Cole: So I can't talk too much about that, obviously, because there's some legalities behind it. But what I will say is that Pinky Cole and Slutty Vegan and Bar Vegan, we only operate with the highest level of integrity and it starts from the top down. Do certain things slip through the cracks in any business? Maybe, sometimes. But we're innocent until proven guilty in all things, and we move forward with best practices in everything that we do. And I make that my business because at the end of the day, my name means more to me than anything in the world. And, you know, that's what happens in business. There's going to be — as you listen, as you become a disruptor, there will be disruption, whether guilty or not. And I've learned to embrace that level of disruption on the road to success. And I'm sure that there will be more to come. Like, name me one business that hasn't gone through a legal battle. I'll wait. You understand what I'm saying? It's just that we're a high profile business, so it's a sexy story to talk about. But the more they're talking, the more that we're growing and getting better. We just won the the bid at the airport. So we only continue to rise to the top and continue to be a first-class business.

Peter Biello: I do want to ask you about the Hartsfield-Jackson location. I'm sure travelers are interested in that. But to ask about — we're talking about failures, right? And lessons learned from failures. Not saying that this is a failure or not. But I'm curious about what your knowledge is of tipping policies at places like Bar Vegan. Do you know what the policy is? And is there 25% going to the house?

Pinky Cole: So so I won't speak on that because I haven't speak publicly on it per my attorneys. I did that once before and that wasn't the best thing to do because obviously I'm an emotional CEO. But what I will say is this: best practices is how we operate, right? When it's all said and done, we'll see really what happened and we'll be okay.

Peter Biello: So tips all going to the servers at Bar Vegan now?

Pinky Cole: They are getting their money. They are getting their tips.

Peter Biello: Okay. And not talking about the previous people just currently.

Pinky Cole: If currently people are getting their money, people are getting their tips. There's not one employee that could ever say at Slutty Vegan or Bar Vegan. They've never gotten paid.

Peter Biello: And so I wanted to finish by asking about the Hartsfield-Jackson location because people are interested in that. As far as I know, no sense on when it's opening. When is it opening; do you know?

Pinky Cole: So we got to go through the construction phase. You know, airports take a long time, but hopefully next year and I'm excited about that because when you think about businesses that were born and bred in Atlanta, this is an Atlanta love story, right? So we must be doing something right. So you can hear the negative, but there's also so much positive that comes with that. And I'm excited that we can continue to grow despite the noise, despite the negativity, and continue to be a multimillion dollar brand. This brand is valued at $100 million for a reason, right? So obviously we're doing something right. And I'm excited about the growth and the potential that Slutty Vegan and Bar Vegan has, and I feel good about it. I'm in a really good place.

Peter Biello: Pinky Cole is the owner of Slutty Vegan and the author of the new book I Hope You Fail. Pinky Cole, Thanks again.

Pinky Cole: Thank you.

Peter Biello: That conversation with Pinky Cole first ran on GPB in October of this year, and since then, a half a dozen more former employees of Bar Vegan have joined the lawsuit seeking the payment of back wages for allegedly unpaid overtime and tip credit regulation violations.

And that's it for this edition of Georgia Today. If you want to learn more about any of these stories, visit our website. GPB.org/news. Do remember to subscribe to this podcast. We'll be back in the New Year with all the top stories from Georgia. And if you've got feedback or a story idea, let us hear it. The email address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We'll be back on Monday. This is your GPB news update for Friday, Dec. 29. I'm Peter Biello.

 

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