Georgia Today: Jimmy Carter remembered; New immigration law goes into effect; NYE events in Georgia

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Tuesday, Dec. 31. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, we continue our remembrance of former President Jimmy Carter. A new law strengthens ties between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. And it's New Year's Eve. We'll tell you all about some festivities scheduled for tonight in Georgia. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: A state court judge in Southeast Georgia's Effingham County has died by suicide inside the county courthouse. The county sheriff's office says Judge Steve Yekel was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted wound around 10:00 this morning. Investigators believe he died late last night or early today. Court business has been suspended and authorities are investigating his death. Yekel recently lost reelection and today would have been his last day on the bench.

Story 2:

Peter Biello: A new Georgia law aimed at strengthening the connection between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities goes into effect today. GPB's Grant Blankenship has more.

Grant Blankenship: HB 1105 was passed in the wake of the killing in Athens of Laken Riley. It requires Georgia law enforcement agencies to keep official relationships with a federal immigration agency, to publish reports on undocumented people in county jails, and it authorizes local officers to arrest under federal immigration law. Sheriffs like David Davis in Bibb County have been training to comply with HB 1105 for months. But he worries the law will make immigrants scared to report other serious crimes to his deputies. 

David Davis: Because they're worried about people coming in to check their immigration status and that sort of thing. That's not something that we plan to do.

Grant Blankenship: Davis says he and his peers may still look to the General Assembly in 2025 to clarify HB 1105. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: Former President Jimmy Carter will be buried alongside his wife in their family plot at a national historic park named for him, which includes his boyhood home and former campaign office. The National Park Service announced Carter would be buried next to Rosalynn Carter in the family plot at Jimmy Carter Historical National Park. Visitors to the park on Monday paid tribute to the late president. Amber DeJohn was visiting from Tallahassee.

Amber DeJohn: He tried really hard to hold himself to a high standard. There was a quote in in one of the museums about — he said, "if I ever lie, don't vote for me." And I feel like he really lived that throughout his presidency. And then when he was no longer in politics, I think he really tried to hold himself to a high moral standard.

Peter Biello: Congress authorized Jimmy Carter National Historical Park in 1987 to preserve Carter's legacy and story in Plains, according to the National Park Service. It's the only National Park Historical site besides the White House that includes an active presidential home.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: A bar in Savannah made famous by former President Carter, was packed to the gills yesterday at a special toast. GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.

Benjamin Payne: Pinky Masters might look like any old dive bar in downtown Savannah, if it weren't for the bronze plaque bearing Jimmy Carter's face. Bolted onto the wooden bar itself, the plaque marks the very spot where the president gave a surprise speech in 1978. It was St Patrick's Day when Carter snuck out of his hotel room across the street, absconding to Pinky's, where he hopped atop the bar to eulogize its founder, a man by the name of, you guessed it, Pinky Masters. Having died a few months earlier. Masters was a kingmaker in Savannah politics and an early supporter of Carter's before he became governor and later president. Now, nearly 50 years later, current owner Matt Garoppolo returned the favor, raising a glass from behind the bar on a busy Monday afternoon.

Matt Garoppolo: To President Carter, to Pinky Masters. And let's celebrate all the good things these guys did. Cheers!

Crowd: Cheers!

Benjamin Payne: For GPB News, I'm Benjamin Payne in Savannah.

Caption

Jimmy Carter

Story 5:

Peter Biello: Let's turn now to someone who has studied President Carter's legacy. Kai Bird, the author of The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter. Kai Bird, thank you so much for speaking with me.

Kai Bird: Well, thank you for having me, Peter.

Peter Biello: You've had a chance to interview former President Carter many times over the years. Can you tell us a little bit about what it was like to interview him? What was he like as an interviewee?

Kai Bird: No, he was a tough interview. People might be surprised to hear that. But, you know, he he was certainly in my book, he's certainly the most hardworking and decent and most intelligent man to have occupied the White House in the 20th century. And, you know, he was also very tough to interview. He was because he was so intelligent and so well read. And he was sharp and he was impatient with foolish or tired or old questions. And I had to really be on my toes. And furthermore, he was you know, here I was interviewing him about his four years in the White House in large part. And it was 40 years later. And, you know, he really wasn't interested. What he was interested in was the activities of the Carter Center wiping out Guinea worm disease in Africa and bringing peace to the Middle East and ending the Syrian civil war. And he was impatient with my my questions about ancient history. So he was a difficult interview.

Peter Biello: What do you think is the biggest misunderstanding about the Carter presidency?

Kai Bird: The biggest misunderstanding is that people seem to think it was a failure. In fact, in those four years, he accomplished an enormous legislative agenda. Let me just, you know, run down a sort of short list of things that he did on the domestic front. He eventually mandated seatbelts and airbags for car manufacturers. And, you know, this eventually saved 9000 to 10,000 American lives every year. He deregulated the airlines, making it possible for the first time for middle class Americans to fly in large numbers. He deregulated much of the natural gas industry, opening up the way for what we now have as an energy-independent economy. In foreign policy, he passed the Panama Canal Treaty, negotiated assault to arms control regime. He normalized relations with China. And most prominently, he negotiated the Camp David Peace Accords, taking Egypt off the battlefield for Israel and bringing at least a cold peace that still exists to this day between Israel and Egypt.

Peter Biello: Certainly a long list of accomplishments as president. He was also an effective campaigner. My understanding is that he helped put the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire presidential primary on the map. What can you tell us about his skill at campaigning?

Kai Bird: Sure. Yeah. He — he actually transformed the Iowa caucuses into a major campaign event. And it was a brilliant strategy because up until 1976, no presidential aspirant had taken the Iowa caucuses very seriously. But Carter did. And he did so very early on. And he went there repeatedly and slept on people's sofas and campaigned in every county and scored an upset surprise victory in the caucuses. And then that allowed him to go on to New Hampshire with his "Peanut Brigade" of Georgians who turned out to go in large numbers and to in busses to go all over New Hampshire and again, to door to door. He was very good at campaigning on a 1-to-1 basis and in small crowds and talking in an authentic fashion to small numbers of voters. He was he was good at it. He was relentless.

Peter Biello: You've spoken about how you wanted to be comfortable with your understanding of the American South before writing about Carter. Can you tell us a little more about that, about Carter as a Southerner and why that's important when it comes to understanding who he was?

Kai Bird: You know, Carter is very much a white Southern man, but very unusually so. He was a man, a Southern white man who understood race and felt entirely comfortable in Black culture. He was raised as a child in Archer just down the road from Plains, that tiny little hamlet where he was virtually the only white kid. All his playmates were African-Americans. And he was comfortable. There wasn't a racist bone in his body. On the other hand, his father was a white supremacist who held all the conventional attitudes of a Southern white man at the turn of the century. And yet Jimmy Carter didn't come out that way. And I think the reason is his mother, Miss Lillian, who was — you know, represented a different Southern tradition, the tradition of the eccentric Southern woman who could speak her mind and say what she thought. And she imparted these values to her son, Jimmy, and he became a politician who is important to this day as a president who attempted to heal the racial divide in this country.

Peter Biello: You've said recently that his presidency is particularly relevant today. Why would you say his presidency is particularly relevant now?

Kai Bird: Well, all the issues that he was grappling with in the 1970s are relevant today. Energy, race, religion, climate change, health care. And in the world at large, you know, we're still grappling with that issue. He devoted a lot of his time to Israel, Palestine and bringing peace to that terribly difficult conflict. We're also, to this day, grappling with revolutionary Iran and this xenophobic religious regime in Iran. That, of course, was the nemesis of the Carter presidency because of the hostage crisis. So all these issues are things that he dealt with on a day-to-day basis and was sort of prophetic about. And he was very present in dealing with energy and race and climate change. He put solar panels, famously, on top of the White House. And yet, you know, in 1980, partly because he was sort of ahead of his times and was unwilling to sort of do the politically correct thing and was always trying to do the right thing. In 1980, he lost the election and America sort of essentially rejected his vision. And in retrospect, 40 years later, you know, he's — he's actually looking pretty good.

Peter Biello: I would be remiss if we didn't talk about Rosalynn, because that relationship has been so important to him. I was wondering what you can tell us about that relationship and how it — how it has influenced not just his presidency, but everything he's done over the years.

Kai Bird: It was essential. She, you know, grew up in Plains like he did. And they knew each other from a very young age. But he didn't first begin to pay attention to her until she was 18, 19 years old and he was in the Naval Academy. And he fell for her quickly. And they got married. She was only 19. She was very shy. She had no idea that she was going to become, you know, the wife of a politician. But she, in fact, became over the years, his closest political adviser. And she was very astute in her political judgments, perhaps more astute than Jimmy. And they had, you know, famously, a wonderful marriage. I last saw them both in July of 2021 in Plains, when they gathered 350 friends and colleagues to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary. And, you know, it was a touching, a very touching and emotional event.

Peter Biello: Kai Bird, author of The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter. Thank you so much for speaking with me.

Kai Bird: Thank you, Peter.

Story 6:

Peter Biello: The Atlanta Braves are honoring the memory of former President Carter, who was an ardent baseball fan. From sitting front row during Hank Aaron's historic home run to throwing out the first pitch at the 1995 World Series, Carter's connection to the Braves spanned decades. GPB's Chase McGee has more on the bond between the former president and his favorite team.

Chase McGee: Carter was 42 years old when the Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966. He became an ardent fan and was in attendance at most of the team's historic moments. On April 8, 1974, when Hank Aaron broke the home run record with a 715th homer, then-Gov. Carter was sitting in the front row with a gift in hand.

Jimmy Carter: I had already prepared a license plate, a Georgia license plate HR715, and mine and Hank's photograph was in Encyclopedia Britannica with me handing him the tag.

Chase McGee: During the 1995 World Series, he threw out the first pitch in Game 6. The Braves went on to win that game, clinching their first World Series win in Atlanta.

Baseball announcer: Former Georgia governor, former President Jimmy Carter to throw out the first ball. And look at this pitch! You know, if the ump wants to give him the high strike that's right in there and with some hop on it.

Chase McGee: In the years since, Carter was often spotted with his wife, Rosalynn, at Turner Field in Truist Park, where they'd occasionally grace the kiss cam together. For GPB News, I'm Chase McGee.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: Georgia Power rates will be going up starting tomorrow. The new year brings a rate increase of about $5 a month for the average residential customer. The five elected members of the State Public Service Commission approve the rate hike at their meeting in December. A company lawyer told the commission the increase is needed to offset spending on new investments.

Story 8:

Peter Biello: About half of metro Atlanta renters and one-quarter of the region's homeowners are considered cost-burdened. That's when households spend more than 30% of their income on rent, mortgage or other housing needs. The U.S. Census Bureau released the numbers this month, and the Atlanta Regional Commission published a report analyzing them yesterday. The report says metro Atlanta has the sixth-highest rate of cost-burdened renters and the sixth-lowest rate of cost burdened homeowners among the nation's 20 largest metro areas.

Credit: GPB/ file photo

Story 9:

Peter Biello: The city of Atlanta is closing out the year with two events expected to draw large downtown crowds tonight and tomorrow. GPB's Amanda Andrew's reports on preparations for the Peach Drop and the Peach Bowl football game.

Amanda Andrews: The Atlanta Police Department, Fire Department, E911 one and Department of Transportation are working together to execute the city's safety plan. They're focusing on preventing firework accidents, celebratory gunfire, street racing or drunk driving that may take place around these events. ATLDot Commissioner Solomon Caviness says the best celebrations include everyone getting home safely.

Solomon Caviness: We want to make sure that MARTA is your first choice. We're here to make sure you skip the parking nightmare in the city and take advantage of MARTA and their resources.

Amanda Andrews: Peach Drop and the Peach Bowl are expected to draw crowds of over 60,000 people. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews.

Story 10:

Peter Biello: In addition to the Peach Drop, Georgians are dropping all sorts of things to ring in the new year. In the North Georgia mountains, Helen celebrates the new year with the dropping of the Edelweiss. That is the mountain flower you see adorning beer steins during Helen's Octoberfest.

South of Atlanta, there's another flower being dropped at midnight. McDonough rings in the new year with its Geranium Drop.

In Middle Georgia, you can celebrate New Year's Eve the Perry way with the nationally recognized Perry Buzzard drop. According to the AJC, the Buzzard Drop tradition in Perry started with a problem. More than a decade ago, buzzards were migrating to Perry for the winter to rest on the town's water tower. The birds caused damage to the tower, so the town took action. A plastic buzzard made with real feathers wards off the migrating birds as a practical form of pest control and it turned into a New Year's tradition in West Georgia.

You can visit Tallapoosa and its annual Possum Drop. Once named Possum Snout, Tallapoosa celebrates its heritage every year with the Possum Drop to welcome the New Year. The possum used in the New Year's Eve celebration is a taxidermied possum named Spencer, after Ralph L. Spencer, the businessman who is credited with creating the late 19th century boom in Tallapoosa.

And in South Georgia, there's the Gnat Drop in Tifton. Why a gnat? Well, Tifton County Commissioner Melissa Hughes told WALB-TV that she created the Gnat Drop as a way to bring people together in an odd but funny way. Hughes considers gnats the welcoming committee of the South. And what better way to welcome the new year than with a familiar face? And the mascot does have a name: Matt the Gnat.

Whatever you happen to be dropping this New Year's Eve, please celebrate safely.

And that is it for this edition of Georgia Today. Thank you so much for tuning in. We look forward to bringing you more news in the new year. You can always check for updates at GPB.org/news. And if you subscribe now, you can make it your New Year's resolution to stay on top of all the news in Georgia. We will pop up in your podcast feed every weekday afternoon once you subscribe. And if you've got feedback, we would love to hear from you. Email us. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next year. 

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