Georgia Today: Rivian plant on pause; Mental health app; Atlanta United opening weekend

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Friday, March 8. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, Rivian's plan to pause its Georgia EV plant is causing a lot of finger pointing among local officials. A new app aims to help health care workers care for their mental health, and it's home opener weekend for Atlanta United. We'll explain why expectations are so high. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

 

Story 1:

Peter Biello: The state House has approved a $36 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The spending plan, approved overwhelmingly yesterday, boosts outlays for education, health care and salaries for school teachers and state employees. House Appropriations Committee chairman, Dublin Republican Matt Hatchett, said many of the budget priorities are the same as last year's.

Matt Hatchett: The needs of Georgians haven't changed in the last year, so neither have our priorities. The budget is how we tell them, "We hear you."

Peter Biello: The budget also sets aside money to establish a behavioral health center at the University of Georgia. It now goes to the Senate for more debate.

Caption

Rivian

Credit: AP Photo/John Bazemore

Story 2:

Peter Biello: Opponents and supporters of Rivian's plans for a massive electric vehicle plant in Georgia are trading "I told you so's" and "wait, not yets" after the company said yesterday it's pausing its plans for a production facility east of Atlanta. Attorney John Christy represents opponents. He says Rivian's announcement is bittersweet, since he argued unsuccessfully in court that the project wasn't economically viable.

John Christy: The handwriting was kind of on the wall there. Most recent public report show they again lost near $1.5 billion in the preceding quarter, and their cash position was down to $9 billion and change.

Peter Biello: Meanwhile, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce released a statement today saying Rivian is just expanding its timeline for the project. In the state Senate, the majority leader, Dahlonega Republican Steve Gooch, urged state officials to, quote, "keep their eye on the ball."

Steve Gooch: You don't get every deal you go after in economic development. This one may be gone or it may not be gone. So let's focus on the future.

Peter Biello: Rivian promised to build a new model with more than 7,000 Georgia workers. It said yesterday that production would start at an existing facility in Illinois instead.

 

Story 3:

Peter Biello: The COVID-19 pandemic exposed gaps around how frontline health care workers get mental health care. A project underway at Georgia's Emory University hopes to explore opportunities for treating post-traumatic stress in those workers. GPB's Sofi Gratas has more.

Sofi Gratas: The first goal of Messy Memories, an app created at Emory, is to make psychotherapy more accessible to help treat symptoms of what professor and researcher Sheila Rauch calls sticky trauma memories. Those can be driven by burnout, workplace violence, and life-or-death experiences, all common in hospitals and emergency rooms. Now, Rauch, who helped develop the app, is using it in a clinical trial to study PTSD treatment for health care workers.

Sheila Rauch: It's out of necessity. We're — we're losing nurses. We're losing providers, critical occupations that we don't have enough people to fill. And we have lots of patients who need care.

Sofi Gratas: The clinical trial is nationwide and still looking for participants. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas in Macon.

 

Story 4:

Peter Biello: An unscripted clash at last night's State of the Union address, put the death of a Georgia nursing student in the national spotlight. Laken Riley was killed on the University of Georgia campus last month. A man from Venezuela who entered the U.S. illegally is charged with her murder. While President Joe Biden discussed border security and his address to a joint session of Congress. Rome congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted at him, "Say her name." Biden responded by holding up a button Greene and handed him on his way in to speak.

Joe Biden: Laken Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That's right. But how many of thousands of people being killed by illegals. To her parents, I say my heart goes out to you. Having lost children myself, I understand.

Peter Biello: Biden then pressed Congress to pass border security legislation. The State of the Union address was a chance for Biden to show himself to a national audience before hitting the campaign trail. Biden and his likely Republican opponent, Donald Trump, will be in Georgia tomorrow. Biden will be in Atlanta, Trump in Rome. Georgia's presidential primary election is on Tuesday.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: NPR's College Podcast Challenge invited students from across the country to submit their best journalism interviews and sound rich investigations. After sorting through more than 500 entries, NPR has chosen ten finalists. Among them is Eliza Moore. She's a former GPB intern and student at Mercer University. In her submission, she tells the story of one United Methodist Church in Georgia where members of the queer community are welcomed. She explores the value of acceptance in today's political and religious climate. Here's her story.

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Church

Eliza Moore: This is the story of a church. A church in Macon, Ga., a city with deep musical roots that's grown up in the shadow of Atlanta. Centenary is a United Methodist Church, the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination. The beautiful 19th-century brick building sits on the corner of a straight line with magnolia trees near downtown. But if you're driving down the street, what may seem odd to you about Centenary is the large sign in the front lawn with the words "all means all" painted against the backdrop of a rainbow flag.

Sara Pugh Montgomery: Well, good morning y'all. Good morning and welcome to our first Sunday of Advent here at Centenary...

Eliza Moore: That's Sara Pugh Montgomery, Centenary's senior pastor since 2021. Sara has a kind face. She tells me Centenary is unique because it's what she calls a radically inclusive church where all are welcome, with no exceptions.

Sara Pugh Montgomery: I think this really is a faith community and a group of people that because almost all of them have experienced some level of church trauma and some level of church hurt, that they come here with that hurt and with that trauma, and they just want to create this place to be a different space.

Eliza Moore: Centenary Church is known for its care for the community. The church has their own nonprofit that started a community garden, fridge and pantry, community breakfast, afterschool programs, financial aid and more.

Sara Pugh Montgomery: You know, in a lot of ways, I think this is also a place where people are able to relearn that they are loved by God. And so that in — in so many other church settings, that hasn't been what was taught or preached.

Eliza Moore: For most people at centenary, like Scott Mitchell, division or isolation is a part of their story. Scott is a business owner in the congregation, known for his love for his community. Despite being tremendously busy, he comes to talk to me at a table in his new dessert shop. He tells me he was raised Southern Baptist.

Scott Mitchell: I have been going to the altar since I was a kid, asking God to please forgive me for being homosexual. Of course, that never happened. And, even when I was going to Centenary, I would go down to the altar still, because I'm an altar person, and still be praying that same prayer. And, the senior pastor at the time, which was probably 10, 12 years ago, had asked me what I was praying about when I would go down there. And I told him and he said, "you don't ever have to pray that again. You're perfectly made exactly the way you are." And I've never prayed that prayer again.

Eliza Moore: Bethany Buck had a similar experience. Bethany sings in the choir. She's been a member of the church since 2012, when she and her girlfriend, who's now her wife, were looking for a church to join.

Bethany Buck: We researched churches on their website to see what they were all about. And then we emailed someone in the church to say, "hey, we're openly gay. Can we come to your church?" I mean, it was as blunt as that. And you'd be surprised at how many people said, "no, we don't feel like you'd feel comfortable here."

Eliza Moore: But Centenary welcomed them. Bethany says it's rare to have a church where people with different viewpoints congregate and learn from one another.

Bethany Buck: We felt totally comfortable, and there's not been a day since that I've ever been where I didn't feel like I could question something.

Eliza Moore: While many have found acceptance at Centenary, the church is part of a larger story, a more divided one. Even though Centenary is accepting of LGBTQ+ people, Bethany and her wife still weren't allowed to be married in the church. This is because of language in the United Methodist Book of Discipline.

Bethany Buck: That language has been in there since the 1970s, so I am, 45 right now. So it's maybe six years older than me. And so it's just been there in my whole life. And that language keeps people from — gay people and LGBTQIA people — from getting married in the church and from being ordained in the church.

Eliza Moore: Scott Mitchell is trying to change this. He's Centenary's lay delegate, which means he represents the church at the South Georgia Conference each year, the governing legislative organization for Methodists. He's one of only two queer people who attend the conference.

Scott Mitchell: In the past, it's been very difficult because a lot of times they vote on things and talk about things and do — make — take positions on things that are absolutely contrary to me as a human being. Not just my view of things, but against me personally.

Eliza Moore: In 2016, the South Georgia Annual Conference first voted to remove the language that was harmful to LGBTQ+ people, and they were unsuccessful.

Scott Mitchell: Thank goodness I have thick skin because I've been able to, like, sit through a lot of votes where I was the person being targeted. And, for a long time, feelings of being less than. Feelings of being not wanted.

Eliza Moore: In 2019, conservatives who disagreed with United Methodist's rising support of LGBTQ people left and formed their own church, now known as the Global Methodist Church. The church permitted others to leave as well, and within the four-year period allotted, 6,000 United Methodist churches disaffiliated. That's one-fifth of the denomination nationwide, and Georgia is the state with the second highest number of churches who have left. But despite the division, Scott is hopeful for the future of the conference.

Scott Mitchell: Many of those voices in the South Georgia Annual conference have now just disaffiliated. And so this last annual conference was really nice because it was one of the — it was the first time ever that I've been able to go to an annual conference and not feel like I was a person being targeted. And so it's changing slowly but surely.

Eliza Moore: In 2024, the conference hopes to vote again. It's clear the religious landscape of the nation is changing. The number of Americans who say they belong to a religious organization has dropped from 70% in 1999 to less than half today. And in 2023, only a third of millennials belong to a church at all. But while polarization continues to fracture communities nationwide and Methodists are no longer united, Bethany says that's not what it looks like inside Centenary Church on Sunday morning.

Bethany Buck: We also have judges and lawyers, and we have homeless people sitting next to each other in the pews. So it's just really a — I guess it's the closest image of what heaven will be like that we can have down here.

Eliza Moore: Centenary's story is for anyone who has nowhere to belong to. It's the story of what happens when we choose love over division and an open door instead of a closed one. Sara ends each service with a benediction.

Sara Pugh Montgomery: You are a beloved child of God. You are deserving of love and respect and God is gonna use you to change the world one piece and sign of hope at a time. Amen.

Peter Biello: And Eliza Moore is with me now. Eliza, thank you so much for joining me, and congrats on being a finalist in the NPR College Podcast Challenge.

Eliza Moore: Thank you so much. I was so excited to get the news.

Peter Biello: So what got you interested in this subject?

Eliza Moore: I grew up in the church, actually. And I had a lot of people who are close to me experience a lot of church — a lot of church hurt and being ostracized from their faith community. And I think that really impacted me growing up. So now, as a journalist, I think it's really important to seek out stories that are different from the dominant narrative. And so Centenary's story of acceptance is particularly powerful. I think we're in an age of extreme polarization right now, and the church is one of these areas where we really see these lines being drawn. And as a young person, a lot of — a lot of my peers, have kind of stopped going to church. And so I think this is a particularly interesting area of discussion right now.

Peter Biello: And when you say you grew up in the church, did you grow up in the United Methodist Church or a different church?

Eliza Moore: A different church, Presbyterian and then also Anglican, actually.

Peter Biello: Got it. Okay. So how did you go about finding someone like Scott Mitchell and Bethany Buck, who could be vulnerable about their stories?

Eliza Moore: Yes. So I started with talking with the pastor of Centenary, Sara Pugh Montgomery. And then from there, she was able to give me some contacts and recommendations of other people I could talk to, because I know it is a very, you know, sensitive subject. And I wanted people who would be willing to share and also just got to know them on a personal level, which is also wonderful.

Peter Biello: And how did you go about asking them difficult questions about painful memories?

Eliza Moore: I think just starting the conversation with, maybe, you know, lighter subject matter and then, you know, coming from a place of, like, making sure they knew what my goal was when I did this piece, and making sure they were comfortable. And then, you know, once we kind of realized we had a shared mission, and really valued acceptance in the church, too, then I think they were very willing to talk about their stories.

Peter Biello: Can you tell us a little bit about the reporting on this? What reporting challenges did you face along the way?

Eliza Moore: Yeah. I'm a full-time college student. And so, you know, I was definitely trying to balance doing all these interviews and research and getting quality audio and putting it together with just, you know, finals, and trying to do homework assignments. So I think being a student journalist and also just a student is definitely difficult sometimes.

Peter Biello: Right? Because you're the editor of the school paper there, aren't you? That — I imagine that in addition to your classwork takes up a lot of your time.

Eliza Moore: Yes, it definitely does.

Peter Biello: So you were an intern at GPB. What did you learn about reporting and reporting for radio that helped you produce this piece?

Eliza Moore: I learned so much at GPB. I wasn't even that interested in audio a year or so ago. I have always wanted to do, like, more writing and print journalism. So this was already outside my comfort zone when I started at GPB, but then I really fell in love with audio because I realized how creative you can be with it, and how you can really just invite the listener into the story, and help people, like, tell their stories for themselves. So that's why I'm actually pursuing a career in audio journalism after college.

Peter Biello: Well, that was my next question for you, because we're so excited for you and what you were able to do at GPB. Your future seems bright to me. What — what do you hope to do in particular?

Eliza Moore: That's still — still up in the air a little bit. I've applied to a lot of things right now. But audio journalism for sure.

Peter Biello: Audio journalism? That's great. Well, Eliza Moore, former GPB intern and student at Mercer University, thank you so much for speaking with me. And congrats again on being a finalist.

Eliza Moore: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Caption

Soccer!

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Atlanta United's new season is here as the team faces the New England Revolution in its home opener tomorrow. When the Five Stripes take the field at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, their fans are hoping for a return to winning ways in 2024. That's because their breakout success after launching in 2017 has been followed in recent years by disappointment in the playoffs. GPB's Orlando Montoya spoke with Jon Nelson of GPB Sports about the season ahead and what it could hold for coach Gonzalo Pineda and the rest of the team.

Orlando Montoya: So, Jon, how can Atlanta United recapture the glory of their early years?

Jon Nelson: Well, I will say this the Eastern Conference in MLS this season, Orlando, is going to be a fight. I mean, and it's going to be a fight in a phone booth. It is going to be the toughest conference of the two. And I think that with what Carlos Boca Negra and Garth Lagerwey and Gonzalo Pineda and the entire staff have constructed here, it is a team that is hopefully going to put a lot of goals in the back of the net. The stars that were brought in last summer, they got their first real training camp because last year when they came in in the summertime, they were coming off of their European schedules. They had to integrate, they hit the wall. They kind of tired out. But you got everyone with a full training camp that came in from last year, plus the new faces coming in.

Peter Biello: So let's talk about some of those new faces. How will these new players integrate? Will it be a collection of individual talent or an actual team.

Jon Nelson: Oh no, this will be a team. Bartow came in from Legia Warsaw and he has experience with European competition football. You got a guy like Derek Williams who is an MLS veteran. You've got another center back, Stian Gregersen, who came in from the second division in France. All of those guys started in match number one for Atlanta United to — to help out at the back. And that's going to hopefully help out Brad Guzan.

Peter Biello: The team revolves around Tiago Almada. But will he be with Atlanta United the whole season?

Jon Nelson: You know it's Tiago and it's also Giorgos Giakoumakis up top. If you were looking at published reports out of South America on Thursday, the American owner for one of the teams down there was ready to offer Tiago, Atlanta United, $20 million for Tiago Almada. I'm thinking that's probably just an opening salvo, because if it's low 20s, that's probably not going to cut it. Tiago has mentioned that he wants to — to tackle Europe, and it's understandable. And you never want to stand in the way of a talented player and Atlanta United has never been that way. The offers will come. The offers probably will increase in number and in price tag. But right now you focus on everything from here to the summer window.

Peter Biello: Veteran player Dax McCarty. Certainly a name soccer fans should know. Will he be a steadying presence on this team?

Jon Nelson: I think that when you look at Dax, Dax won't be starting every match. But because of the multiple competitions that Atlanta United will be in and hope to be making deep runs in, you're looking for Dax to have that, Ozzie Alonso role that you had hoped Ozzie would have in years past. You want Dax to be there to — to be a guiding force to the younger players. Having him around will definitely help. And having him there off the field will be there for the younger players; on the field, he'll be there to navigate and sometimes wouldn't surprise me if he's spot started every once in a while. But, you know, in Major League Baseball you got that closer. And so late in the match, say maybe 20 minutes to go, you really want somebody to to lock things down in the midfield. That's when you tap Dax. You bring him in and you want to lock things down so you get full points.

Peter Biello: Always appreciate your expertise and we'll see you at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Jon Nelson: Absolutely looking forward to it. It's going to be another great year for the Five Stripes.

Peter Biello: That was Jon Nelson of GPB Sports talking with GPB's Orlando Montoya about the new Atlanta United season. The team's first home game is tomorrow.

 

Story 7:

Peter Biello: Despite threats of inclement weather, there are many outdoor festivals happening around the state this weekend. The Valdosta Lowndes Azalea Festival started off as a small festival 24 years ago, but has become a major regional gathering, with attendees coming from all over the South. It's also, we should note, a major economic booster for Valdosta and Lowndes counties. You could also kick off spring this weekend with the Forsythia Festival on the square in downtown Forsyth. And for something a little more adventurous, the Evans County Wildlife Club is hosting the Rattlesnake and Wildlife Festival in Clayton, Ga.

And don't forget to spring forward an hour on Sunday as daylight saving time begins and brings an extra hour of daylight in the evening, but will mean we lose an hour of sleep come Monday morning. What a bummer.

And that's it for this episode of Georgia Today. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you want to learn more about any of these stories, visit GPB.org/news. And if you haven't subscribed to this podcast yet, take a moment, do it now. We'll keep current in your podcast feed if you do. And if you've got feedback or a story idea, we would love to hear from you. Send us an email. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you next week.

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