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Georgia Today: Entire police dept. suspended, Fighting opioids, Atlanta's worldwide soccer showcase
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LISTEN: On the Thursday, June 20 edition of Georgia Today: A Georgia town's entire police department has been suspended, new steps are being taken to fight the opioid crisis, and more than 70,000 soccer fans are descending upon Atlanta
Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB news. Today is Thursday, June 20. I'm Orlando Montoya. On today's episode, one Georgia town has suspended its entire police department. New steps are being taken to fight the opioid crisis, and more than 70,000 soccer fans will descend on Atlanta tonight. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.
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Orlando Montoya: The city of Warm Springs in west central Georgia, has fired its police chief and suspended its entire police department. That announcement yesterday comes amid an ongoing investigation into the department. A statement from the city did not provide any details on the probe, saying only it was about "recent events and emerging concerns regarding conduct and operations." Phone calls and messages placed to the mayor were not returned. City officials have named an interim police chief and are receiving assistance from neighboring law enforcement agencies to ensure public safety.
Orlando Montoya: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was in Atlanta this morning to unveil new steps by the Biden administration to fight the opioid crisis. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports.
Sarah Kallis: Yellen says the Treasury is imposing economic sanctions against eight cartel leaders in Mexico. She says cartels rely on banking systems to make payments, and that sanctions will disrupt the economic flow of fentanyl and other drugs.
Janet Yellen: Our sanctions will cut off the cartel leaders from their ill-gotten money, and make it harder for them to bring deadly fentanyl to our streets.
Sarah Kallis: Yellen says the Department of Treasury is also partnering with private sector financial institutions to stop cartels from laundering money through shell companies. She was joined by law enforcement leaders in Atlanta as she made the announcement. U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan also announced the indictments of two members of La Nueva Familia and Michoacan, a drug cartel in Georgia. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kalis in Atlanta.
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Orlando Montoya: An elected prosecutor in Northeast Georgia has been indicted on felony charges alleging she stole about $4,000 in public money. Hall County Solicitor General Stephanie Woodard was indicted Tuesday on 13 counts of false statements and writings and 11 counts of theft by taking. If convicted, Woodard would be removed from office. Her lawyer describes the prosecution as "misguided and wrong."
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Orlando Montoya: 13 hospitals in rural Georgia will receive $6 million in grants through a state program that will give them a choice of how to use the money. Gov. Brian Kemp announced the grants from the Georgia Department of Community Health on Tuesday. The largest of the grants, $1 million each, will fund graduate medical education at hospitals in South Georgia's Thomasville and Moultrie.
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Orlando Montoya: Abortion is set to loom large in the 2024 general election, with the issue increasingly motivating Democratic voters. A group that advocates for abortion access in Georgia is reaching out to voters in Macon, Athens and Savannah ahead of the November election. GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports.
Ellen Eldridge: Polls show a majority of Georgians believe that individuals, not the government, should make decisions regarding their health care. Roula AbiSamra is the state campaign director for Amplify Georgia Collaborative. It's a collaborative of several abortion rights groups.
Roula AbiSamra: "Deeply divided" is the words that we hear a lot of the times. In fact, there is a lot of agreement that the government does not need to be making decisions for us about abortion, birth control, in vitro fertilization, when we decide to have kids, or how.
Ellen Eldridge: She says there's also a lot of concern around the potential criminalization of both patients and providers in Georgia, where the law prohibits abortions around six weeks into pregnancy. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.
Story 6
Orlando Montoya: An Nevada-based cryptocurrency miner has acquired five bitcoin mining facilities in Georgia. The company, CleanSpark, said Tuesday it paid $26 million for the data centers, all located in rural parts of the state. Crypto mining operations have come under scrutiny in recent years from state and local officials because of their massive energy consumption.
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Orlando Montoya: Engineering students at Columbus State University soon will be able to test robotic systems in a 25,000-square-foot building at the U.S. Army's Fort Moore. Mahmut Rehyhanaglu is director of the robotics engineering program at Columbus State University. He says the agreement to use the space is an expansion of a partnership between the university and the post that he hopes will train a future robotics workforce in the area.
Mahmut Rehyhanaglu: Oh, the Army, is spending hundreds of billions of dollars, you know, for these military robotics activities and so on. Fort Moore wants most of that money to be spent in this region. For that to happen, of course, you have to have, you know, this qualified workforce development.
Orlando Montoya: He says he hopes to have everything ready in the new space by August.
Story 8
Orlando Montoya: Atlanta's popular pedestrian and biking trail, the BeltLine, has adopted its biggest budget ever for the next fiscal year. The $172 million budget adopted today is funded with the combination of government allocations, donations and grants. BeltLine CFO Nicole Kimes says in the coming year, users of the pedestrian path encircling the city will likely encounter construction projects on or near every section.
Nicole Kimes: Certain areas that appear to be vacant land they may not have necessarily realize, "oh, the BeltLine owns this," and is actively planning and designing and receiving bids from prospective developers.
Orlando Montoya: Next, BeltLine budget increases spending on affordable housing as such housing becomes harder to find — neighborhoods near the 22-mile loop, which is expected to be completed in 2030. The budget also accounts for accelerated progress on a U-shaped portion of the BeltLine from West End Park to Ponce City Market, which leaders hope to complete in time for the 2026 World Cup.
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Orlando Montoya: More than 70,000 fans are expected to be inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta tonight for the beginning of a worldwide showcase of soccer. GPB's Jon Nelson looks at Atlanta's place in the popular sport as the summer of soccer begins.
Jon Nelson: The oldest international soccer tournament in the world kicks off tonight in Atlanta. The Copa America determines the campéon de campéones in South American football, but in recent years, the tournament invites special guest nations to fill out their field of 16. This time, the United States gets to participate and host for the second time. Niko Moreno of Pulso Sports describes what it means as the tournament kicks off in Atlanta as a showcase of sporting talent, courtesy of the SDH Network morning show.
Niko Moreno: So I think it is a transcendent moment. I think that is, in a perfect step stool to the climax of the World Cup here. So I just think it's a huge moment, it's that historic moment for U.S. soccer in the U.S. soccer community.
Jon Nelson: The tournament goes from now until July 14, and the home team plays Panama at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in a week's time. For GPB News, I'm Jon Nelson.
Story 10
Orlando Montoya: City Schools in Marietta, north of Atlanta, are joining others around the state in banning student access to cellphones and smartwatches in classrooms. School board members approved the change for the coming school year on Tuesday, citing interruptions to student learning, stress and anxiety, and other problems associated with the devices. A school district in Southeast Georgia's Liberty County said earlier this month that student cellphones would have to be locked in pouches while on school grounds, and schools in Smyrna and Atlanta have made similar moves. The Marietta vote occurred on the same day Los Angeles Unified became the nation's largest school district to ban cellphones and social media during the school day.
Story 11
Orlando Montoya: As part of Juneteenth celebrations this week, Major League Baseball is honoring the Negro Leagues with several games at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala. Former home of the Black Barons. Built in 1910, it's the oldest professional baseball field in the country, and some call it a place that represented Black pride. Michael Fountain is the executive producer of the documentary Rickwood: The Soul of Birmingham. He spoke with GPB's peter Biello.
Peter Biello: In your film, you have a narrator speak as the voice of Rickwood Field. And I thought we could start with a little bit of how Rickwood Field describes itself.
Rickwood Field: I'm in a working class Southern community that has allowed me to be the center of change. People whose beliefs in the American dream are no different from anyone else's. This community continues to embrace me for what I am American history. American history.
Peter Biello: So, Michael Fountain, this field has meant a lot to a lot of people over the years. I wanted to ask you, can you tell us about your interest in Rickwood Field?
Michael Fountain: I had not heard about the field. Its tradition or its very rich history. But my first visit there — last October, I believe — sitting in the stands behind home plate and looking out: It's remarkable. I mean, you actually feel what it was like in the early 1900s. You feel the Negro League ballplayers, you feel the — the issues of segregation. You feel the just the essence of the Rickwood and what it meant to the city. It's amazing. It transports you back in time.
Peter Biello: What did Rickwood Field and the ball games played there mean to the people of Birmingham during Jim Crow segregation?
Michael Fountain: For those nine innings that the Birmingham Black Barons were playing, it was an escape from the rigors of everyday life, especially for the black community. They knew there was a safe haven they go, at least for nine innings. After nine innings? Unfortunately, they they went back to the their daily rigors of just trying to survive as a Black person in the Deep South. But during those nine innings, it was a cause for celebration.
Peter Biello: You're essentially quoting Roy Wood Jr, who you featured in your film. He's a comedian and an actor who played high school baseball at Rickwood Field. So not exclusively a field for the Negro Leagues. It had other purposes as well.
Michael Fountain: It still has other purposes. It hosted the Birmingham white Barons or the Birmingham Barons, which is the all-white club. It still today hosts high school events, high school baseball games. Local college teams play there. Believe there's Mills College will — uses it as their home field, in addition to some other local teams. It's used as for charity events and the big game this week. It's a chance for the world to see Rickwood and understand how special it is.
Peter Biello: Back when it was a quote unquote "escape" for — for Black people to escape the pain of segregation, there were signs of segregation inside the ballpark. There are people in your film who make note of the chicken wire fence that divided the white sections from the Black sections, and what was surprising to me was that Bull Connor was the public address announcer. He was the head of police in Birmingham who turned fire hoses on Black citizens who protested racial segregation. How do you make sense of of those two things? The fact that it was both an escape, but there were also signs of the segregation that existed throughout the South inside Rickwood.
Michael Fountain: I think that speaks to the desperation of people just wanting to be treated as — as normal, as fairly as they as they could be. And the fact that, they got a chance to go to a ballpark, which wasn't always open to them. It was a gathering. It was — it was a place to be, a place to be seen.
Peter Biello: This week, Rickwood's going to play host to a Major League Baseball game between the Saint Louis Cardinals in the San Francisco Giants. This is the marquee event. There's things happening all this week. The field's getting a huge makeover for this week's games. New grass, padded outfields, new lights, a dugout renovation. You spoke with former players from the Negro Leagues. I wonder if you spoke to them about what it means to have the Negro Leagues recognized in this way, with a major League Baseball game played at Rickwood.
Michael Fountain: It means the opportunity to be remembered. And it means that Rickwood is going to be around for 100 more years with these improvements that are being made. But for the players themselves, it is a chance for the stories to be told, for them to be recognized. Several of them will be at the game, and I think Rickwood will be a location that they can do something very special with. I'm excited to see it.
Peter Biello: Well, Michael Fountain, executive producer of Rickwood: The Soul of Birmingham, thank you so much for speaking with me about your film.
Michael Fountain: It's my pleasure, Peter. My pleasure.
Orlando Montoya: And you can find a link to Fountain's documentary on Rickwood Field at gpb.org.
And that's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. Peter Biello is actually in Birmingham, Ala., for those games celebrating the Negro Leagues. And I'm here filling in for our resident baseball fanatic here at Georgia Today. Glad to be here. If you'd like to find out more about these stories, please visit our website gpb.org/news. Please hit subscribe on this podcast; that helps you to keep us current in your feed. And if you have feedback, we'd love to hear that from you. Email us at Georgiatoday@gpb.org. I'm Orlando Montoya. Hope you had a pleasant Juneteenth and I'll be back with you tomorrow.
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