Georgia Today: Feds fund Qcells plant; More 2020 election challenges; Olympic weightlifter from Ga.

Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, Aug. 8. I'm Orlando Montoya. On today's episode, nearly 1.5 billion federal dollars are coming to Northwest Georgia. Three new state election board members want to reopen the investigation into Fulton County's handling of the 2020 election, and a Georgia native has become the first U.S. men's weightlifter to win a medal at the Olympics since 1984. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Orlando Montoya: The U.S. Department of Energy is loaning nearly $1.5 billion to support a South Korean company's effort to build a factory in Northwest Georgia's Bartow County. Qcells plans to turn polysilicon, refined in Washington state, into the building blocks of finished solar modules, helping to grow key parts of the clean energy economy inside the U.S. The plant in Cartersville currently has about 750 employees assembling solar panels, and is projected to have 2,000 when it's complete.

Story 2:

Orlando Montoya: Three new State Election Board members aligned with former President Donald Trump, are seeking to reopen a closed investigation into Fulton County's handling of the 2020 election. The 3 to 2 decision yesterday came over the objections of the board's lone Democrat and its nonpartisan chair, who warned that the action could put the board in legal jeopardy. Janelle King was one of the GOP board members Trump praised at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday.

Janelle King: We got to make sure we're not utilizing or not scared to make moves because of the fear of that, because in some cases, it's just the right thing to do.

Orlando Montoya: Nearly four years since the election, the vote continues to animate Republican activists.

Story 3:

Orlando Montoya: Atlanta City Council members want to know how many unhoused people are living in the city in the summer. GPB's Amanda Andrews reports council members voted this week to launch a summer point in time, or PIT count, to improve data on the city's rising unhoused population.

Amanda Andrews: Typically, Atlanta completes a so-called pit count of all unhoused people each year at the end of January and publishes the data in the summer. Starting in 2025, every odd year, the count will take place in the summer and results will be published within 90 days. Councilmember Liliana Bakhtiari says winter data is vulnerable to undercounting.

Liliana Bakhtiari: ...We should be doing a summer count. It's when the numbers are higher. It's when we know what numbers are more accurate, where people are not hiding and trying to find refuge from the cold. It gives us more of an accurate understanding.

Amanda Andrews: January data showed a 7% increase in homelessness in the city. The measure now heads to Mayor Andre Dickens desk to be signed. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews.

Story 4:

Orlando Montoya: The city of Albany broke ground today on a $4 million project that promises to bring more affordable housing into the market. The 32-unit complex, called Carroll Street Garden, is a first of its kind for the city. Albany's director of community and economic development, John Hawthorn, says it uses federal American Rescue Plan and private funding to build housing for people at risk for homelessness.

John Hawthorn: These are families who — who have been paying rent or have owned their homes, but have fallen onto hard times and to keep them from becoming homeless. These units are — they can occupy until they, you know, get themselves together and can find other housing on their own.

Orlando Montoya: Thirteen — or a little less than half — of the units are aimed at preventing homelessness. The others will be offered at market rates. Construction is expected to be complete by April of next year.

Caption

PFAS chemicals

Story 5:

Orlando Montoya: Environmental advocates and officials in the Northwest Georgia town of Calhoun have reached an agreement on how to make residents drinking water safer. GPB's Grant Blankenship reports, the deal involves cancer-causing so-called forever chemicals, or PFAs.

Grant Blankenship: The proposed agreement between the Coosa River Basin Initiative and the city of Calhoun describes how the city polluted local water by filtering industrial waste for fast and spreading it on land as sludge. The deal was approved by federal regulators. The city will be responsible for EPA-standard PFAs filtration at water treatment plants, for household filtration systems for Gordon County residents on well water, and for years of PFAs testing at people's taps. Hartwell Brooks grew up near a city sludge field.

Hartwell Brooks: I think it's a great first start. I call for a broad sampling of blood testing. Now we need to work on the public health response.

Grant Blankenship: Researchers from Emory University planned just such testing. A separate suit against the city of Calhoun and the larger carpet industry is still pending. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon.

Story 6:

Orlando Montoya: Chatham County Public Schools said today that students should return to classes tomorrow. The Georgia coast's largest school system had shortened or canceled school days since Monday because of Tropical Storm Debby. Meanwhile, just down the road, students in Southeast Georgia's Glynn County headed back to class today. The district is one of many across the state increasing access to free meals this year. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government conducted what turned out to be an experiment in free breakfast and lunch for all public school students. Glynn County School Nutrition Director Shelly Daniel:

Shelly Daniel: We saw an increase in our students eating breakfast and lunch with us. We decreased on those administrative tasks such as distributing, collecting, processing, mail applications.

Orlando Montoya: In the year since the pandemic emergency lifted, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has added more states, including Georgia, to a preexisting program aimed at increasing meal access. It uses Medicaid data to determine eligibility. Habersham and Bleckley counties are among the districts also implementing free meals for all this year.

Story 7:

Orlando Montoya: Hampton Morris, a 20-year-old weightlifter from Marietta, north of Atlanta, has become the first U.S. men's weightlifter to take home a medal of any color at the Olympic Games in four decades. Narrowly missing out on a world record that would have gotten him silver, Morris followed Mario Martinez and Guy Carlton from Los Angeles in 1984 as the most recent man to medal at the Olympics. Morris, who is coached by his father Tripp, was successful on the 172-kilogram lift. That's 379 pounds. With the bronze medal secure, he went for a clean and jerk world record attempt of 178kg, or 392 pounds, and came up just short of completing it.

Orlando Montoya: Congratulations to Morris and to all of our Team USA Olympians. We'll keep you updated on Georgia athletes in Paris as we find out about their accomplishments. And that's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. As always, follow us online. Go to GPB.org/news to find out the latest from all of our GPB reporters. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram at GPBNews. Subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode! Hit subscribe so you keep us current in your podcast feed. If you have feedback for us, send that to us at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Orlando Montoya filling in for Peter Biello today and tomorrow. I'll talk to you again on Friday.

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For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news