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Georgia Today: Georgia Senates passes mid-year budget; Ga. Power data center bill; Capoeira school
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On the Feb. 27 edition: The Georgia Senate passes a midyear budget; Georgia Power could be barred from passing the cost of data centers onto customers; and an Atlanta school teaches the art of capoeira.
Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. On this podcast, we feature the latest stories from the GPB Newsroom. You can send us feedback or story tips to GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. Today is Thursday, Feb. 27. I'm Orlando Montoya. Coming up on this episode: The Georgia Senate passes a midyear budget which prioritizes Hurricane Helene relief. A bill clears the Senate which prohibits Georgia Power from passing the cost of data centers on to customers, and an Atlanta school helps preserve culture by teaching the art of capoeira.
Nicole "Alta" Cooper: It isn't just learning the history in the culture in a cognitive way of like, "Hey, let me teach you something about the stories." There's an embodiment to living out some of those cultural principles in the group itself.
Orlando Montoya: These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.
Story 1:
Orlando Montoya: The Georgia Senate passed a midyear budget yesterday that prioritizes Hurricane Helene relief. Funds were shifted from a variety of programs to help pay for the $750 million needed for storm cleanup. Vidalia state Sen. Republican Blake Tillery led its 51 to 1 passage.
Blake Tillery: So the Senate's budget takes $10 million that was added by the House, adds $15 million to it and the Department of Community Affairs for individuals, victims of the storm who, through no fault of their own, nonetheless are still awaiting claims to be adjudicated or claims that were denied.
Orlando Montoya: Other budget line items include education, public libraries and infrastructure. The midyear budget covers state spending through June 30. It now goes back to the House.
Story 2:
Orlando Montoya: The Georgia House passed legislation today aiming to protect access to some fertility treatments. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports.
Sarah Kallis: Applause erupted in the House chamber as a bill codifying access to in vitro fertilization treatment received unanimous passage from both Republicans and Democrats. Rep. Lehman Franklin is the sponsor of HB 426. He and his wife are expecting a baby girl later this year, conceived through IVF after years of infertility.
Lehman Franklin: Challenge anybody in this room that no one here in this room has not been either directly influenced or affected by IVF, or indirectly affected by IVF. Everyone that I've come in contact with has had their own personal experience.
Sarah Kallis: Several other representatives rose to share their own personal stories with IVF. The bill now moves to the Senate. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis at the state Capitol.
Story 3:
Orlando Montoya: The Georgia State Election Board yesterday voted to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to enforce a subpoena against a conservative group that was unable to produce evidence to support its claim of ballot stuffing in the state. Texas-based True the Vote in 2021 filed complaints alleging ballot stuffing in 2020 and 2021. After the group refused to provide information about its sources, a judge ordered it to comply with the State Election Board's subpoena. The group then said it had no information to provide. Noting that that means the investigation would likely be unsuccessful, the election board voted Wednesday to dismiss the matter.
Story 4:
Orlando Montoya: Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian martial art originally created by enslaved Africans as a method of self-defense disguised as a dance. It's a combination of kicks, dodges, music, and acrobatics. In Atlanta, Filhos de Bimba is one of a few schools teaching the martial art and sharing the culture it comes from. GPB's Amanda Andrews spoke to students about what it means to be part of the capoeira community and connecting to its history.
Ricky "Malandro" Lawson: For someone who is looking and seeing a capoeira "roda," or people playing capoeira, you'll see a circle. You'll see people clapping and singing, playing instruments, and two people in the middle of that circle are attacking and defending — playfully, because it's not sparring. My name is Ricky Lawson, and in the capoeira world, I'm known as Profesor Malandro. "Malondro" means "street smart." Everyone eventually, over time, will receive a nickname that expresses the way they move, what they like to do, something that they'll be proud of.
Nicole "Alta" Cooper: My name is Nicole Cooper, but in the capoeira community, I am known as Alta, which means tall.
Ricky "Malandro" Lawson: You're most likely going to have to work a little bit harder than someone who's smaller than you, because —
Nicole "Alta" Cooper: I'm almost 6 feet tall, but actually, because I'm also very flexible, and then training with people that are a lot shorter than me, they seem to not be able to fully stretch me. So that's how I got the name Alta. I think what I really like about training with Malandro and Filhos de Bimba as a whole is that he's very passionate about the art. He's very knowledgeable. He's pretty much like a capoeira encyclopedia.
Ricky "Malandro" Lawson: Our capoeira school comes from a very specific lineage, which is the lineage of Mestre Bimba. Mestre Bimba, who is Black, who was poor, who was illiterate was able to take this form of expression — this art form that was being persecuted by law — and now it's a part of Brazil's nationality.
Megan "Soneca" Kazanksy: Capoeira is for everyone because it's so multifaceted. There's the musical components, the movement components, the historical components. There's something that everyone can be nourished by and everyone can contribute their own strengths to. My name is Megan Kazansky. My capoeira apelido is Soneca. It means "nap." I've been a part of a few different capoeira groups in my 10 years since I started. This group, Filhos de Bimba, I feel really aligned with their principles and methodologies. And so I'm excited to really be a part of a community where we're celebrating each other and growing together.
Ruth Evans: And I'm doing things that — and like getting strong in ways that I just would not have thought of, like, "Oh yeah, at 46 I'm going to be doing cartwheels all over the floor or handstands."
Nicole "Alta" Cooper: I'm going to do, and then you're going to do the kick and then you do the ...
Ruth Evans: I'm Ruth Evans and I have been training with capoeira for three months. It isn't just learning the history and the culture in a cognitive way of like, "Hey, let me teach you something about the stories." There's an embodiment to living out some of those cultural principles in the group itself.
Ricky "Malandro" Lawson: And with Black History Month, capoeira represents that regardless if the entire country that you are in, you know, has it in for you, doesn't see you as a human being, you are still going to fight. You're not going to hang your head low. You're going to sing, you're going to dance, you're going to resist.
Orlando Montoya: You just heard from students at Filhos de Bimba, a school of capoeira in Atlanta. This piece was produced by GPB's Amanda Andrews.
Story 5:
Orlando Montoya: A bill prohibiting Georgia Power from passing on the costs of providing electricity to data centers to residential and small business customers, has cleared a state Senate committee. Senate Bill 34 comes in the wake of six rate increases in less than two years that have driven up what homeowners and small businesses pay by 37%. The legislation now goes to the Senate Rules Committee to schedule a floor vote.
Story 6:
Orlando Montoya: Unionized dockworkers at the Port of Savannah agreed this week to a new contract through 2030. As GPB's Benjamin Payne reports, it puts an end to uncertainty over a potential strike.
Benjamin Payne: Rank and file members of the International Longshoremen's Association overwhelmingly approved the contract, which includes a 60% pay raise over five years throughout major ports along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. Speaking at a conference in Savannah this week, Georgia Ports Authority CEO Griff Lynch said the monthslong negotiations came with their costs as many customers diverted cargo last year to the West Coast. That included Savannah's rival port of Long Beach.
Griff Lynch: They grew by almost 20%. The major East Coast and Gulf ports grew by 9.3 %. Most years, that's pretty good. But L.A., Long Beach, doubled us. I hope they enjoyed it because it's all going to come back to us.
Benjamin Payne: In a statement, the head of the ILA called the new contract, quote, "the gold standard for dockworker unions globally." For GPB News, I'm Benjamin Payne in Savannah.
Story 7:
Orlando Montoya: The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation today listed 10 historic properties threatened by demolition, neglect, development or public policy. The nonprofit's annual Places in Peril this year include a circa 1900 peach-packing barn in Middle Georgia's Peach County, a historic Black church in Savannah, and the Southeastern Railway Museum in Duluth, northeast of Atlanta. Trust president and CEO Wright Mitchell says the museum is significant not for its building but for its historic train cars.
Wright Mitchell: Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Marco Polo sleeper train is there that he would take down to Warm Springs. And in fact, there are 90 pieces of — of rolling stock there at the museum.
Orlando Montoya: The small museum is struggling to care for the collection. Many of the trust's annual selections go on to be restored, while others languish and a few are demolished and lost forever.
Story 8:
Orlando Montoya: The new location for Mercer University's medical school in Macon has been finalized after a deal between the school and Macon's Urban Development Authority. Mercer will buy a strip of vacant, formerly industrial land in downtown Macon near the Ocmulgee River, which until recently was dominated by homeless encampments, and near where the city demolished an abandoned hotel on New Year's Day. The new medical school will be three miles away from Mercer's main campus and, according to the school, will be large enough to accommodate growing enrollment, which has more than doubled since the medical school opened 40 years ago. Macon city leaders are counting on the new medical school to help further expand the footprint of Macon's recent downtown economic resurgence.
Story 9:
Orlando Montoya: Frontier Airlines is expanding its presence at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The low-cost carrier today announced a 40% increase in departures from ATL, including nine new routes. And for those of you thinking to escape what we still have left of winter, I'll just mention two new routes: Aruba and Palm Beach.
Story 10:
Orlando Montoya: Doulas can offer vital and sometimes life-saving support before, during, and after a baby's birth. The nonprofit Atlanta Doula Collective was created to give Black families support, and it has to hundreds of them. As GPB's Sofi Gratas reports, the group recently screened a documentary that aims to share their doulas' stories.
Sofi Gratas: The film, Cradled in Culture: Reclaiming the Legacy of Black Doula Care, explores the many roles of doulas as companions, educators and allies. It also explores joy that producer and the collective's founder, Sekesa Berry says can be overshadowed by statistics of maternal mortality.
Sekesa Berry: That was an intentional goal, and we wanted people to feel empowered, uplifted.
Sofi Gratas: But the film is not without tension. Doulas are not licensed practitioners, but are there when moms give birth in hospitals.
Sekesa Berry: Many providers don't even understand what doulas are and what they do, which is a part of the prompt for this documentary. I was like, "They need to hear it from doulas themselves."
Sofi Gratas: Berry hopes the film can be a teaching tool for providers and aspiring doulas, as the collective plans to expand. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas.
Orlando Montoya: And that's it for this edition of Georgia Today. If you'd like to learn more about these stories, visit GPB.org/news. Please hit subscribe on this podcast — that will make sure that you always stay current with us in your feed. If you have feedback, send that to us at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Orlando Montoya. I'll talk to you again tomorrow.
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