Georgia Today: Convicted murderer walks away; largest community solar project; Braves home opener

Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, April 6. I'm Orlando Montoya. On today's episode, the vice president makes a big solar energy announcement while visiting Northwest Georgia today. The search is on for a convicted murderer who apparently walked away from his transitional center yesterday. And today is the home opener for the Braves. Peter Biello joins us from Truist Park. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1

Orlando Montoya: A rapidly expanding solar panel manufacturer in Northwest Georgia will provide two and a half million panels for the country's largest-ever community solar project. Vice President Kamala Harris made the announcement today. GPB's Stephen Fowler reports from Dalton.

Stephen Fowler: Qcells is investing $2.5 billion to expand its Dalton factory and build another in Bartow County. Panels built at the factories will be used by Summit Ridge Energy for a project to power an estimated 140,000 homes and businesses nationwide. Vice President Kamala Harris:

Kamala Harris: Dalton, we see what you have accomplished and we see the path that you've laid. We see a future with more jobs, more factories and more opportunity.

Stephen Fowler: According to the White House. Georgia has seen more than $30 billion in private sector manufacturing investment since President Joe Biden took office, concentrated mainly in the clean energy and electric vehicle industries. Democrats and Republicans alike say their policies have contributed to these investments. And that's true, as these businesses say both state and federal legislation has made Georgia more attractive to them. For GPB News, I'm Stephen Fowler in Dalton.

Story 2

Orlando Montoya: The Georgia Department of Corrections has issued a statewide alert for a convicted murderer who apparently walked away from a transitional center in Atlanta yesterday. 52-year-old Charles Smith was convicted of a Clayton County murder in 1992. The agency didn't provide details on how he was able to disappear.

Story 3

Orlando Montoya: An outside report looking into how law enforcement agencies responded to a shooting hoax at Savannah High School last year found several problems, including major communications failures. The National Policing Institute looked into the events of Nov. 30 when a 911 caller made what turned out to be a false report of an active shooter. The group's report pointed out challenges from unclear command structure and radios that didn't talk to each other, to students and parents sharing false rumors. But Savannah-Chatham County School Board president Roger Moss says not all the news was bad. The report found agencies responded quickly, bravely and professionally.

Roger Moss: What I was very proud of our police force in doing was that they went directly in. There was no hesitation there.

Orlando Montoya: That's in contrast to the real and deadly school shooting and Uvalde, Texas, where police delayed confronting the shooter. School district officials say the findings will help them better prepare for future events.

Story 4

Orlando Montoya: A group of Black voters in Georgia says it's time for a federal judge to redraw the electoral map for the five-member Utility Regulatory Commission. The Public Service Commission regulates power and other utilities determining how much companies can bill ratepayers. Lawyers on Tuesday asked a federal judge to start the mapmaking process, even though there's an ongoing appeal of his ruling that the current system of statewide elections illegally dilutes Black votes.

Story 5

Orlando Montoya: The family that owns a Manhattan-sized piece of land in North Georgia's Bartow County says public access to the land will end on May 15. The Neal family is negotiating to sell the land, which for decades it has leased to the state as the publicly accessible Pine Log Wildlife Management area. Brian Foster of the Georgia Conservancy says he hopes the 14,000 acre site can be kept natural.

Brian Foster: With more people moving here, with more land being developed, places like Pine Log and other large contiguous tracts are really important not only to the ecology of the state and to our watersheds, but also for — for our — our people.

Orlando Montoya: An attorney for the family says they're seeking fair market value for the land. The family is negotiating with the State Department of Natural Resources and private developers.

Story 6

Orlando Montoya: An expanded program from Georgia's Department of Public Health will send recovery and harm reduction advocates door to door in neighborhoods near the location of opioid overdoses in Northwest Georgia. Called a post-overdose response team, it began as a pilot project in Paulding County last year. After an overdose, a pair of representatives from recovery community organizations will knock on doors near an overdose site or set up at a community gathering place like a gas station or store. The team drops off literature about harm reduction during the use of opioids, information on recovery programs and supplies like naloxone and fentanyl test strips. From 2010 to 2020, the number of opioid-related overdose deaths in Georgia increased by 207%.

Caption

A view of a flag at a hole on Augusta National Golf Course during The Masters Tournament.

Credit: File

Story 7

Orlando Montoya: The Masters Golf Tournament got underway today in Augusta. And according to Front Office Sports, the tournament is more exclusive than ever. On Wednesday, tickets for the storied event at Augusta National Golf Club started at four figures and jumped to almost $90,000, according to StubHub. Get-in ticket prices for a one-day pass today — the first day of the event — started at $6,600. Friday's session was slightly cheaper at around $2,700. Get-in prices for all four days at Augusta were just a few dollars shy of $12,000. The four-day pass topped out at a whopping $90,000. Prices for the Saturday-Sunday sessions will likely fluctuate depending on how the field narrows. If, for instance, Tiger Woods makes it to the later rounds of the event, prices will probably skyrocket. Right now, Saturday-Sunday sessions are already starting at $3,450 for a two-day pass. But you can still get a sandwich and a glass of wine for under 10 bucks. The Masters famous pimento cheese sandwiches are only $1.50 each, and the most expensive item on the menu is a glass of wine for $5.

Story 8

Orlando Montoya: The Atlanta Braves face the San Diego Padres tonight at Truist Park for the first home game of the season. The Braves are currently 5 and 1, having beaten St Louis yesterday afternoon on the road. GPB's Peter Biello is at Truist Park right now ahead of tonight's game and he's with me. Hi, Peter.

Peter Biello: Hey, Orlando.

Orlando Montoya: So set the scene for us. What does the park look like and what's different about it?

Peter Biello: Well, it is a beautiful day today. Players as we speak are warming up. And the park, if you've been last year, it won't look too, too different. They've put down some new grass. There's this hybrid Bermuda over seed with perennial rye grass. This is southern Georgia grass. 100,000 square feet of new grass here. And fans seem ready to — to come out here. This is a sold out game for tonight. It's also sold out tomorrow and Saturday. The players will look slightly different on Saturday home games this season: They're debuting the Nike City Connect uniforms on Saturday. It's also going to sound a little different. They've got a new announcer: Kevin Krause starts tonight. There's going to be some new items on the concession menu as well.

Orlando Montoya: Yeah, it's not just peanuts and Cracker Jacks anymore. What kind of offerings do they have?

Peter Biello: Okay, well, this one caught my eye when they sent out a list of new foods at the park. It's called The Cleanup Burger: four grilled all beef patties topped with golden hash brown potato, hickory smoked bacon, cheese and sunny side up fried egg, served with — get this — a buttermilk Belgian waffle with maple syrup. The suggestion is that it serves from one person to four. There's also something called The Closer, which is the all-beef hotdog wrapped in mozzarella, whipped potatoes and fried golden brown, served with spicy mayo. This is kind of great for your meat eaters, but there's also going to be Slutty Vegan this this Atlanta-based vegan restaurant. They've got a presence here as well.

Orlando Montoya: And so this is also the first game at Truist Park with new MLB rules that everybody's been talking about. Can you talk about those?

Peter Biello: Yeah, there are quite a few of them I'll try to run through. So there's the pitch timer, which is the pitcher essentially has 15 seconds to throw a pitch when there's no runners on base, 20 seconds when there are. There are shift restrictions, meaning when the pitcher releases the ball, you know, the shortstop's got to be on one side, the second baseman has got to be on the other side of second base. There's also bigger bases, too. The bases have increased just a little bit. That's to encourage a little more stolen bases. And that t— hat'll be interesting to see how that plays out. I'm certainly curious. All of this is in service of more athleticism, so says MLB and speeding up the pace of play. People have complained that baseball is just too slow, so this is meant to speed up the game a bit.

Orlando Montoya: And what's the consensus about what they're expected to do this year, their season ahead?

Peter Biello: Well, the outlook is very good. They've started strong in the National League East with a 5-1 record. They swept the Cardinals series. They've got a new catcher, Sean Murphy, who will share the duties with Travis Dano, who's been serving as the designated hitter when he's not catching. Ronald Acuna Jr. is back. So is Austin Riley, Matt Olson and Michael Harris II, last year's National League Rookie of the Year, he's back, too. Spencer Strider is on the mound tonight. He's been a much-anticipated also in the pitching roster Max Freed Charlie Morton's also on the pitching staff. That will certainly help fans might be mourning the loss of Dansby Swanson, who left the Braves for the Cubs in the offseason. But overall, it's a strong team. We're just getting started here. The first of 81 home games this season.

Orlando Montoya: Fair weather for tonight. So thanks for being our Braves reporter and have fun.

Peter Biello: Thank you, Orlando. Great to be here.

Orlando Montoya: And that's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. If you haven't yet hit subscribe on the podcast. Take a moment to do it now and keep us current in your podcast feed. If you have feedback, send it to us. We'd love to hear from you at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Orlando Montoya. I'll talk to you tomorrow.

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