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Georgia Today: Power bill increase for Plant Vogtle; Treating addiction; Bikes for school attendance
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LISTEN: On the Tuesday, Dec. 19 edition of Georgia Today: Georgia Power customers will soon take on more of the costs for Plant Vogtle. We'll look look at the difficulty of getting past stigma on the way to addiction treatment. And this holiday season, a Macon elementary school is giving kids a unique incentive not to skip school.
Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Tuesday, Dec. 19. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, Georgia Power customers will soon take on more of the costs for Plant Vogtle. We'll take a look at the difficulty of getting past stigma on the way to addiction treatment in this holiday season. A Macon elementary school is giving kids a unique incentive not to skip school. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.
Story 1:
Peter Biello: After almost 15 years of wrangling over who should pay for two new Georgia Power nuclear reactors, regulators voted on an answer today: Georgia Power customers. The Georgia Public Service Commission unanimously approved an additional 6% rate increase today to pay for Plant Vogtle. That means another $9 a month on a typical residential customers current monthly bill of $157. A smaller rate increase already took effect last summer. Brian Jacob of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy called the vote disappointing. He says residential and small business customers paid a disproportionate share of a financing charge that Georgia Power collected during construction, and today's vote piled on additional costs without giving customers credit for what they've already contributed. Jacob was not alone in his disappointment. Some opponents were asked to leave the meeting after holding up crime scene tape as a measure of their disapproval. Commission Chairman Jason Shaw said it was a, quote, "reasonable outcome to a very complicated process." This new increase would take effect after Vogtle's Unit 4 begins commercial operation, which is projected to be sometime in March.
Story 2:
Peter Biello: Federal law enforcement officials are warning Georgia pharmacies not to sell medical marijuana despite a state law that legalized it. GPB's Orlando Montoya reports a recent letter from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is causing some concern among Georgia pharmacists.
Orlando Montoya: When Georgia four years ago passed a law allowing pharmacies to sell low-THC cannabis oil to treat a limited set of ailments, it set about an inevitable collision. Federal law prohibits federally regulated pharmacies from possessing or dispensing cannabis products, and the DEA put Georgia pharmacies on notice of that fact in a recent, stern letter. Jonathan Marquess of the Georgia Pharmacy Association says he doesn't know where the conflict will lead.
Jonathan Marquess: You know, what we're doing right now is that we can find a path forward so that patients utilizing the low-THC oil for medical purposes have access to a pharmacist.
Orlando Montoya: More than 100 pharmacies already have applied to sell the oil. For GPB News, I'm Orlando Montoya.
Story 3:
Peter Biello: The state's newly drawn district maps are scheduled to have their day in court tomorrow. Federal Judge Steve Jones will hear arguments tomorrow on the Republican-drawn maps. They were drawn during a recent special legislative session held for that purpose. They create new majority-Black voting districts for state legislative seats and the U.S. House of Representatives, but maintain the Republican majority. Plaintiffs have asked the judge to reject the maps. If Jones does reject them, it'll be up to a special master to decide where those lines should go.
Story 4:
Peter Biello: Two Fulton County election workers are once again suing former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss want a judge to force Giuliani to stop lying about them. Giuliani lost a defamation case Freeman and Moss brought against him after he falsely claimed the two were engaged in election fraud following the 2020 election. A jury awarded them $148 million last week. But during and after the trial, Giuliani repeated the baseless claims. Giuliani political adviser Ted Goodman declined to comment on the lawsuit. It's unclear if Giuliani can pay the damages, as he is under considerable financial strain as he defends himself against costly lawsuits and investigations stemming from his representation of former President Donald Trump.
Story 5:
Peter Biello: 2,600 people in Georgia died from a drug overdose last year, almost double that from before the COVID-19 pandemic. For people living with addiction, it's been proven that access to treatment and support can help keep them alive. But as GPB's Sofi Gratas reports, access is only possible by grappling with the stigma around addiction.
Sofi Gratas: Jocelyn Wallace from Douglas County is a mom, former paramedic and is in recovery from an opioid addiction Six years clean, she remembers what it felt like to be waiting for placement in a treatment or detox center.
Jocelyn Wallace: And I'd be looking at my watch going, I mean, "15 minutes from now I'm going to be violently ill. Somebody's got to help me," you know. And — and then I would give up. And I would leave.
Sofi Gratas: Wallace says she walked away from treatment for a variety of reasons. Sometimes her insurance wouldn't cover it. Or wait times were too long. But for years, it was what she saw in her work that stopped her. While navigating her own addiction, Wallace would revive people who'd overdosed — often the same people every week.
Jocelyn Wallace: I didn't want to continue the life that I was living, but I was so terrified to be seen in that — in that light. I was so terrified of what that would look like for me.
Sofi Gratas: Wallace overdosed dozens of times and was in and out of prison before she ever asked for help. 46 million people were diagnosed with a substance use disorder in 2021, the last year of good national data. Though there's no cure for an SUD, there is effective treatment. But 94% of those diagnosed won't get treatment on their own. Some aren't ready to stop using or can't afford care. But for others, like Michelle Jackson from Macon, getting help when she was going through a stimulant addiction, just wasn't something her family supported or understood.
Michelle Jackson: Somebody dies? Get high, get drunk. No matter what happens in life, get high, get drunk. That — that was the answer. We don't embrace mental health help because otherwise you're crazy, you know?
Sofi Gratas: Jackson has a different perspective since starting recovery. She's now a mentor for people who have been incarcerated and who have a substance use disorder or other mental health issues.
Michelle Jackson: I come across people plenty of times in the five years that I've been doing this where their stories can almost line up to mine.
Sofi Gratas: While Jackson is helping people through their own addiction, substance use disorder researcher Dr. J. Aaron Johnson from Augusta University is trying to tackle the stigma that bleeds into health care. Take access to one of the most common and effective medication assisted treatments for opioid use disorder: buprenorphine, a main ingredient in Suboxone. Though it's easily available with a prescription, only a quarter of substance use treatment facilities in Georgia offer this medication. Johnson says:
Dr. J. Aaron Johnson: It could potentially be widely available if you had physicians and nurse practitioners, PAs, etc., that were more widely accepting of offering it.
Sofi Gratas: But many, especially in rural Georgia, aren't interested.
Dr. J. Aaron Johnson: They don't want to become known as the place where people go to get their buprenorphine or their their comment might be, "Well, we you know, we don't want those kinds of people in our practices," that type of thing. And, you know, the reality is that those people are already in their practices. They just don't necessarily realize it.
Sofi Gratas: Because even some doctors and nurses have stereotypes around addiction. Johnson says better training and universal screening for substance use can change that.
Dr. J. Aaron Johnson: Don't just skip over the screening because you assume that a 70-year-old female cannot misuse alcohol or drugs.
Sofi Gratas: Back in Douglas County, that's just the kind of myth that 68-year-old Cindy Barnett used to believe.
Cindy Barnett: I didn't start really drinking heavy till I was in my 50s. I kept saying to my husband, "I can't go to rehab. I'm a teacher." And never once did I think I could walk in my principal's office and say, "I have a problem and I need some help."
Sofi Gratas: Barnett did eventually get help through Alcoholics Anonymous. Now she works with former paramedic Jocelyn Wallace at the Never Alone clubhouse. This is one of 45 recovery community organizations in the state, more than double from five years ago.
Jocelyn Wallace: So this is where everybody comes and this is where that connection happens mostly.
Sofi Gratas: Wallace opened the clubhouse a couple of years back. It's a place for people who are finally ready to address their addiction and take next steps.
Jocelyn Wallace: We're able to, you know, continue to educate the community that recovery is real and we're going to normalize recovery. Right? It's expected. Let's — let's get better.
Sofi Gratas: Because Wallace wants everyone to know that for people with substance use disorder, getting better can be the normal thing to do. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas in Macon.
Story 6:
Peter Biello: Plans to drill for new drinking water Wells in Southeast Georgia's Bulloch County are drawing public concern and criticism. The wells are meant to supply almost 7 million gallons of water a day to the Hyundai Metaplant and associated development in Bryan County. At a meeting last week, residents and activists raised concerns about private and agricultural wells running dry and the state of nearby wetlands. Adding to the concern is the population growth of Bulloch County, which is putting pressure on the available water supply.
Story 7:
Peter Biello: Georgia's largest Ford dealership is partnering with an electric infrastructure energy company to build several new electric vehicle chargers and solar panels. GPB's Amanda Andrews has more.
Amanda Andrews: Akins Ford in Winder, Ga., will install 19 total charging stations to decrease the dealership's carbon footprint. Charge Enterprises will be overseeing the projects. Its CEO, Paul Williams, says the solar panels will support the electric charging.
Paul Williams: We can charge six vehicles simultaneously. So there'll be six parking spaces and there'll be covered solar panels above. And that's again, that's where we've got to have a convergence of both projects.
Amanda Andrews: Six chargers at the dealership will be for public use. The remaining 13 will be for service and maintenance. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews.
Story 8:
Peter Biello: Airbnb is once again cracking down on New Year's Eve parties by using artificial intelligence to block certain listings. The so-called anti-party measures block the booking of some entire homes meant for one- to three-night stays. The company says it blocked thousands of people last year from making such bookings, including more than 4,200 in Georgia, more than half of whom were in Atlanta. Guests who are able to make reservations will need to agree to the party ban and may be suspended or removed from the platform if they ignore it.
Story 9:
Peter Biello: Among the gifts children can dream for during the holidays, few loom as large as a new bike. For kids at one Macon school today, the dream came true. As GPB's Grant Blankenship reports, it was part of school efforts to get more kids in school more of the time.
Grant Blankenship: It's mid-morning on the last day before Christmas break when the kids' names are called over the intercom at Macon's Bruce.
Intercom: Haley Davis, Adam Angel....
Grant Blankenship: And when they get to the gym, they see their names hanging from the handlebar of their new bike.
Bruce Riggins: You got you a bike?
Child: I have a bike!
Grant Blankenship: Middle Georgia chapter of 100 Black Men made this happen. Chapter president Bruce Riggins says it's an extension of the volunteer work his group already does at the school, like their Saturday reading program.
Bruce Riggins: Last year, we gave the bikes out. Some of the kids in the program on Saturday, they rode their bike to the reading program. Bicycles are always exciting.
Grant Blankenship: Principal Kizzie Lott says she's been leveraging that excitement. To be eligible for the drawing for a bike today, kids had to have had good attendance. Attendance has been a problem after the COVID pandemic. Incentives like this help.
Kizzie Lott: And it kind of levels the playing field and it gives students an opportunity to be honored. Even if I'm not the highest-excelling student, but I'm coming to school and I'm making an effort.
Grant Blankenship: Jaimie Hatton says her daughter loves school. Still, the bike with her daughter's name on it meant a lot.
Jaimie Hatton: Because she's never won anything like that, and it made her happy.
Grant Blankenship: For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon.
Story 10:
Peter Biello: In sports, the Atlanta Hawks beat the Detroit Pistons 130 to 124 last night, handing the Pistons their 24th consecutive loss. The longest losing streak in NBA history within a single season is 26. Atlanta's Trae Young scored 31 points with 15 assists. Georgia junior quarterback Carson Beck says he will return for the 2024 season instead of entering the NFL Draft. Georgia announced Beck's decision on social media. The fourth-year junior will lead the Bulldogs against Florida State in the Orange Bowl on Dec. 30. Beck was considered a possible candidate to be drafted in the first or second round after he completed 72.4% of his passes, with 22 touchdowns and six interceptions. And the Atlanta Braves have hired Rangers analyst C.J. Nitkowski to serve on their main television broadcast team. The move will allow Jeff Francoeur to spend more time with his family. Also known as Frenchie, Francoeur will remain in his postseason broadcast role with TBS and is expected to work about 20 games during the season. Nitkowski pitched for ten years in the big leagues, including with the Braves in 2004. He'll serve as broadcaster Brandon Garden's primary analyst.
Peter Biello: And that is it for this edition of Georgia Today. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you want to learn more about any of these stories, visit our website, GPB.org/news. If you haven't subscribed to this podcast yet — highly recommend it. Take a moment and will be back on your podcast feed automatically tomorrow afternoon. And if you've got feedback or a story idea, 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 tomorrow.
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For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news
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