Georgia Today: Hearing on marijuana; New Buford stadium; Columbus to host international kayak events

Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, a Georgia House committee is re-evaluating the state's approach to marijuana regulation, a high school in Georgia is opening a $62 million football stadium, and Columbus will host important international events in kayak and canoe. Athletes hope to recruit tomorrow's competitors.

Mason Hargrove: Being able to have the Center of Excellence open up and be able to go into the high schools and have these kids come out here and learn what kayaking is and fall in love with the sport that I fell in love at a young age is gonna be really amazing.

Orlando Montoya: Today is Wednesday, July 30. I'm Orlando Montoya, and this is Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Orlando Montoya: The U.S. Senate has confirmed Susan Monarez to be President Donald Trump's director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The 51 to 47 vote yesterday came with both Georgia senators, Democrats John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, voting against her confirmation. Monarez has been serving as acting CDC director since January. She was tapped as the nominee in March after Trump abruptly withdrew his first choice, David Weldon.

Story 2:

Orlando Montoya: Rome congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she won't run for governor. The staunch ally of President Donald Trump made her announcement yesterday in a long social media post, saying she is turned off by Georgia's quote," good ol' boy system," and alleging that it's endangering Republican control of the state. Greene chose earlier not to run for Senate under pressure from Republican leaders, who feared she would lose to Democratic incumbent John Ossoff.

Credit: Associated Press

Story 3:

Orlando Montoya: A Georgia House Committee is considering changes to an area of state law that's as complicated as it is divisive. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports.

Sarah Kallis: The Blue Ribbon Study Committee on Marijuana Policy will look into the effectiveness of the current medical marijuana program in Georgia and consider changes. It will also look at how the state regulates hemp products that may contain THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. Rep. Mark Newton is the chairman of the committee. He says the goal is to improve current policy.

Mark Newton: Many states have been trying to deal with how do we manage this in a safe way, in a way that makes sure there's not inadvertent toxicity or poisonings.

Sarah Kallis: Representatives on the committee heard from law enforcement, doctors, regulatory officials and members of the public. The committee will meet three more times before the start of January's legislative session and issue policy recommendations. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis.

Story 4:

Orlando Montoya: A real estate developer who helped shape Atlanta's skyline and identity has died. Tom Cousins died on Tuesday. He is perhaps best known for moving the Atlanta Hawks basketball team to the city from St. Louis in 1968 and building the Omni Coliseum, establishing Atlanta as a major sports hub. Cousin started his career selling houses with his father in the 1960s. A University of Georgia alum, Cousins talked about why he decided to get into real estate, speaking to business school graduates in 2011.

Tom Cousins: Lords of London had predicted that Atlanta was going to be the biggest city in the world by the year 2000. I thought, "wow." Now at that time, Atlanta was smaller than Birmingham. It was really not a large town. And I thought well, being brilliant, if it's going to be the largest city in world, there's going be a lot of real estate change hands, I'd better look into that.

Orlando Montoya: He developed the state's tallest building, the Bank of America building, along with the CNN Center and other iconic properties. Tom Cousins was 93 years old.

Story 5:

Orlando Montoya: Georgia has a new $62 million football stadium, and it's for a high school: Buford High, northeast of Atlanta. GPB's Amanda Andrews was among reporters who got a tour of it today.

Amanda Andrews: The Philip Beard Stadium is owned by the City of Buford. It holds 10,000 visitors and features 15 suites. This will be the fourth place Buford High School has used for football games since the 1930s. Tony Wolfe is the director of Buford's athletic facilities. He says the stadium's size matches the school's growth over the last few decades.

Tony Wolfe: My first year in '96, we had 400 students. We were a class A school and we had 28 football players. Today we're over 2,000 students and there's about 140 football players, to give you an idea about the growth.

Amanda Andrews: Buford is now a 6A school and has won 13 state championship titles since 2001. The new stadium will also host concerts and other events run by the city. Wolfe says the stands were designed to make fans feel close to the action.

Tony Wolfe: From hearing the field, the impact of the collisions, you should be able to hear the calls the quarterbacks are making or the defense and things like that.

Amanda Andrews: Buford will play their first game at the stadium against Mill Creek on Aug. 14. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews.

Story 6:

Orlando Montoya: A new study shows that 94 Georgia counties have housing shortages. The report, released yesterday by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, details county-by-county needs as the state adds new residents while housing construction hasn't kept pace. Metro Atlanta counties lead the list, with Fulton County needing over 75,000 more homes, but even fast-growing rural counties are falling behind. The report identifies barriers including zoning and permitting delays, labor shortages and rising costs. It suggests policymakers address those barriers and embrace a variety of housing options.

Story 7:

Orlando Montoya: The world governing body for canoe and kayak sports has selected Columbus as the host for the 2028 Canoe Freestyle World Cup and 2029 Canoe Freestyle World Championship. The Switzerland-based International Canoe Federation today also designated the city as its first-ever "center of excellence," promising new opportunities for amateur and elite competitors. Columbus has emerged as a leader in whitewater sports over the last 12 years, beginning with the multi-million dollar restoration and transformation of the Chattahoochee River. I asked a top athlete in the sport to talk about today's announcement. He is Team USA kayaker, junior world champion, vice world cup champion, and Columbus area resident Mason Hargrove.

Mason Hargrove: I am from Phoenix City, Ala., and Columbus, Ga, so I've grown up in this hometown my entire life. And to see this whitewater course grow from nothing to being the center of whitewater kayaking and whitewater freestyle for North America is absolutely amazing.

Orlando Montoya: How would you describe kayaking in Columbus?

Mason Hargrove: The kayaking in Columbus is actually really inclusive. It is where I learned, it's where I've taught a lot of people how to kayak and how to whitewater. So it has a really good progression from absolutely beginner to holding international competitions and having the best athletes from all over the world come here just to train and compete internationally.

Orlando Montoya: You know, we've kayaked all over the world. How does the Columbus site compare?

Mason Hargrove: The thing that's different between Columbus and everywhere else in the world is that it runs year-round. So 365 days a year you're going to have freestyle and kayaking to do no matter the weather, no matter what's going on, so that's really special. But also, having a wave here is not like a lot of other places in the world. It's a different style of freestyle, so imagine an ocean wave inside of a river instead of like a small hydraulic pool. That's what's really special is to have a wave that is dam released and we can count on the schedule to be correct and it to come on at a certain time so we can have training.

Orlando Montoya: Tell me what is freestyle kayaking? How would I describe that to people?

Mason Hargrove: Yeah. So freestyle kayaking is basically gymnastics in a kayak. You're surfing an ocean wave inside of the river and you have 45 seconds to do a bunch of different tricks. Each of these tricks have a predetermined point value and a definition you have to meet to score those tricks. There's three judges sitting up on the panel and they're watching for different angles, watching for height. So it's a really exciting fast-paced sport that is all risk and reward, depending on how big you want to go.

Orlando Montoya: Now today I understand there was two announcements that the International Group declaring Columbus to be a kayaking capital and the other announcement was the Kayaking World Cup in '28 and '29 coming to the city. What will this attention bring to Columbus?

Mason Hargrove: I think it's going to bring a lot of positive attention. Being able to have the Center of Excellence open up and be able to go into the high schools and have these kids come out here and learn what kayaking is and fall in love with the sport that I fell in love at a young age is going to be really amazing. And then to be able have the World Cup, the World Championships back in my hometown honestly means a lot. I get to bring all of my international friends back to my hometown, show them the waves, show them where I've grown up, but also compete in my — in front of my hometown crowd, which is a dream come true, again.

Orlando Montoya: What has kayaking done for you?

Mason Hargrove: For me, kayaking has shaped my entire life. I played travel soccer before I actually started kayaking. And then once I started kayacking, I said, I just want to go on the river and just travel all over the world. So I've been to 11 countries already this year for whitewater kayaking. Just being able to go to different places that no one else can go besides paddlers is amazing. It's definitely shaped who I am as a person. It's given me lifelong strength and it's taught me so many lessons on and off the water.

Orlando Montoya: Appreciate it sir, have a great day and thanks for talking, good luck.

Mason Hargrove: Thank you so much.

Orlando Montoya: That was Olympic kayaker Mason Hargrove.

Outro:

Orlando Montoya: And that's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. We remind you that many of the stories that you hear on Georgia Today are also on our webpage, gpb.org/news, in greater detail. If you haven't yet hit subscribe on this podcast, take a moment to do that now. That helps you to stay current with us in your feed. We welcome feedback: Send us story ideas and suggestions at georgiatoday@gpb dot org. I'm Orlando Montoya. I'll talk to you again tomorrow.

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