Georgia Today: Plant Vogtle expansion; Electric school bus rebates; MLB to count Negro League stats

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Wednesday, May 29. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, Georgia's Plant Vogtle celebrates the completion of another expansion in Augusta. Nine Georgia school systems are getting federal rebates for cleaner school buses, and Major League Baseball changes the way it counts. Statistics from the Negro Leagues, leaving one Georgia-born ballplayer with a significant stat. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Georgia Power officials celebrated the completion of the nuclear expansion at Plant Vogtle, south of Augusta today. GPB's Grant Blankenship was on hand for the ceremony.

Grant Blankenship: The long-anticipated completion of Unit 4 actually occurred a few weeks ago. Public fanfare waited —

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Grant Blankenship:  — for the ceremony, where Gov. Brian Kemp credited the promise of the completed Plant Vogtle, and the carbon free power that comes with it,as being key to landing new electric mobility industries to the state.

Brian Kemp: Bringing literally tens of thousands of jobs. One of the first questions on their mind is can we provide them what they need? We can confidently answer yes because of days like today.

Grant Blankenship: Southern Nuclear Vice President John Williams oversees Vogtle Units 3 and 4, which respectively, are the first and second Ap1000 units in the world. Williams says utilities, both foreign and domestic, have begun asking him how they can build their own. 

John Williams: They will use the Vogtle design as the standard design that will be implemented worldwide.

Grant Blankenship: and maybe in Georgia? To end his remarks, Gov. Kemp told the crowd:

Brian Kemp: And now let's start planning for Vogtle 5!

Grant Blankenship: For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Waynesboro.

Story 2:

Peter Biello: A Republican member of the Fulton County Board of Elections is suing the board, the county's election director and Fulton County over the certification of the May 21 primary. Julie Adams joined the board in February. She claims she's being prevented from performing her board duties and wants access to, quote, "essential election materials and processes." In a complaint, Adams says she voted against the certification in the March 12 presidential preference primary because her request for information from the board, chair and county officials was denied. The lawsuit has no bearing on primary results, as the Fulton County Board of Elections certified the May 21 primary yesterday.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: The state's highest court has reversed the murder conviction for a man who beat his cousin to death in 2017 outside of a gas station in Northeast Georgia's Elbert County. The Georgia Supreme Court's decision today finds the trial court erred in not instructing the jury on the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter against Sherman Lamont Allen. He's serving a life sentence and could be retried.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: The Libertarian Party has nominated an Atlanta political activist as its presidential nominee. GPB's Sarah Kallis has more on his candidacy.

Sarah Kallis: Chase Oliver secured the Libertarian presidential nomination at the Libertarian convention last weekend, despite appearances by former President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy, who is running as an independent. Oliver's campaign is directly appealing to Gen Z voters.

Chase Oliver: This is about not just the short-term gains that we can make in 2024, but also about how, long-term, we can build our party to be sustainable in the long run for the next generation.

Sarah Kallis: Oliver ran for Senate in 2022 against Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker, and for Congress in 2020. He has vocally opposed the construction of Atlanta's police training center and advocates for criminal justice reform. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis in Atlanta.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: 24-year-old Grant Martin couldn't make it to his college graduation, so graduation came to him. Over the weekend, Emory University Hospital held a graduation ceremony for Martin, who couldn't attend at Columbia State University earlier this month because he's waiting on a heart transplant. CSU confirmed that Grant had met all graduation requirements. Martin was born with a congenital heart defect and says he's hopeful about receiving a donor heart soon.

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Nine Georgia school systems will get $19 million to phase out diesel-powered school busses. The Environmental Protection Agency announced the funding today. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Natalie Quillen says the investment helps students and creates jobs for workers at the Blue Bird bus factory in Fort Valley, south of Macon.

Natalie Quillen: Just last week, those workers ratified their first union contract, which will deliver increased wages and major job quality gains.

Peter Biello: The funding comes as part of the EPA's 2023 Clean School Bus Program rebate competition. These rebates will help school districts by more than 3,400 clean school busses across the country, and 92% of those will be electric. It's part of the Biden administration's efforts to clean up the air around schools and disadvantaged communities. In Georgia, metro Atlanta's Clayton County is in line for the most funding, nearly $9 million.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: After a three-year-long process, Major League Baseball announced today it has incorporated statistics for more than 2,300 players from the Negro Leagues, a move that has placed West Georgia native Josh Gibson atop one of baseball's most significant rankings. Gibson is now baseball's career batting average leader. He hit .372 over his 19-year career, surpassing Northwest Georgia native Ty Cobb's .367. Gibson's .466 average for the 1943 Homestead Grays became the season standard as well. Gibson also became the career leader in slugging percentage and on-base plus slugging, moving ahead of Babe Ruth in each category. The move by MLB today follows the recognition of seven different Negro leagues that played between 1920 and 1948, which included, for a short time, the Atlanta Black Crackers.

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Baseball

Story 8:

Peter Biello: The Braves and the Nationals face off tonight after a strong showing by starter Max Fried last night. Fried threw eight innings in the 2-0 shutout, allowing seven hits and one walk and striking out six. Marcell Ozuna homered for the 16th time this year. Tonight, the Braves are debuting right-handed pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach, who's been called up from Double-A Mississippi after only two starts there this year.

Story 9:

Peter Biello: One of two Georgia students competing in the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee just outside Washington, D.C., has been eliminated in the competition's quarterfinals. 14-year-old Matthew Baber of Peachtree City, south of Atlanta, went out this morning tied with 89 spellers in 60th place on the word "BICTITAXI," meaning bicycle taxi or rickshaw. Speaking after his misspelling, he said he didn't mind going out just because being in the competition is a, quote, "pretty big accomplishment." That leaves 10-year-old Sarv Dharavane of Dunwoody, north of Atlanta, the only Georgian competing in the semifinals at 8:00 tonight. Dharavane got through the quarterfinals by correctly spelling "SOGUM," meaning a cloak made of coarse wool.

Peter Biello: And that is it for this edition of Georgia Today. If you want to learn more about any of these stories, visit GPB.org/news. And if you haven't subscribed to the podcast, I highly recommend you do it now. We'll be back with all the day's news tomorrow in your podcast feed. And if you've got feedback, send it our way. Our email 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