Georgia Today: Labor Day protests organized; Election Board fines paused; Peach Bowl CEO steps down

Sofi Gratas: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, groups organize Labor Day protests against President Donald Trump's administration. A judge holds back on requiring the Fulton County election board to face daily fines, and longtime president and CEO of the Peach Bowl, Gary Stokan, is stepping down. We'll talk with him about what college football playoff expansion means for Georgia.

Gary Stokan: Our goal is for the future to continue to be a part of the playoff system no matter what size it is, whether it is 12 or they move to 14 or 16 or even more.

Sofi Gratas: Today is Friday, August 29th. I'm Sofi Gratas and this is Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Sofi Gratas: A judge has paused his order for Fulton County to pay $10,000 a day until it appoints two Republican nominees to its election board. Superior Court Judge David Emerson found county commissioners in contempt for not complying with his earlier order. The county plans to appeal the order and Emerson wrote late Thursday that the appeal requires him to pause the fines, which were to begin Friday.

Story 2:

Sofi Gratas: Insurance rates are skyrocketing and state lawmakers are looking at ways to curb those costs. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports on yesterday's first meeting of a legislative committee examining the state's insurance industry.

Sarah Kallis: A house study committee is looking at ways to mitigate rising car and homeowners insurance rates in Georgia. Rep. Matt Reeves is the chairman of the committee.

Matt Reeves: Insurance is a major cost of living issue. It is a national problem right now to have insurance rates that are noticeably high and increasing. And like Georgia has done in so many areas, we are trying to take a national problem and offer Georgia solutions.

Sarah Kallis: The committee heard from several people, including Insurance Commissioner John King, a professor who studies insurance, and Georgians impacted by the increases. The committee was formed after the controversial tort reform law was passed last session, which supporters said would reduce insurance rates. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis.

Story 3:

Sofi Gratas: Labor rights groups and anti-Trump groups are organizing protests for Labor Day, dubbed "workers over billionaires." Indivisible North Metro organizer Laura Judge says the coalitions behind the protests are calling for more investment in worker protections, healthcare, and public education.

Laura Judge: This is a long-term organizing action, you know, it's not just one day of protest. We want to see a country where public dollars go to public good, not to billionaires profits.

Sofi Gratas: The protest is part of a wave of demonstrations taking place on Labor Day throughout the country and Georgia, including in Marietta, Gainesville, Dalton and Albany.

Story 4:

Sofi Gratas: Did you know that very little of the plastic that consumers recycle actually ends up back in circulation? A researcher at Georgia Tech is hoping a new method of construction will give recycled plastic a second life. GPB's Chase McGee has more.

Chase McGee: Around 10% of the 350 million tons of plastic we annually use is effectively recycled. That prompted aerospace engineering professor Christos Athanasiu to look at the molecular structure of a seashell for inspiration.

Christos Athanasiu: We have bricks and then we have mortar and we put them together and we can have a robust structure.

Chase McGee: That strong structure will allow future manufacturers to reuse single-use plastics like the cling wrap used to secure pallets to create durable construction materials like flooring. But Athanasiu says that's a ways off, and it'll take time to figure out how to make the material at scale. For GPB News, I'm Chase McGee.

​​​​​​​Story 5:

Sofi Gratas: The longtime president and CEO of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl is stepping down. The Atlanta-based Peach Bowl said last week that its leader, Gary Stokan, plans to retire at the end of the 2025-2026 college football season. Stokan has led the Peach Bowl since 1998, transforming the New Year's game into one of the nation's top sporting events and helping to brand Atlanta as a global leader in sports entertainment. It also drives millions of dollars in charitable contributions and spending in Georgia. GPB's Orlando Montoya spoke with Gary Stokan.

Orlando Montoya: Gary, thanks for being with me today.

Gary Stokan: Thanks for having us Orlando, appreciate your interest in us and great time of the season as college football gets ready to kick off.

Orlando Montoya: You've been part of Atlanta's evolution into a world capital of sports starting right after the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games. What were some of the major turning points in that evolution?

Gary Stokan: Well, we were coming out of the Olympics in 96 when I took the job in 1998. And Bob Costas had termed the phrase, Atlanta is becoming the sports capital of the world because we had just won the bid for the Super Bowl. My board and my staff, we endeavored to bring in all kinds of events. We brought in the NBA, major league baseball and NHL all-star games. We brought it in the NCAA men's and the NCAA women's final fours. We brought in WrestleMania. We had the Super Bowl. All the big sporting events that are in the United States we wanted to bring into Atlanta because we now had not only the facilities, but we had to volunteer corporate support and really the the strategy to go after all these sporting events. You know, we've been very blessed to do it in a city that has all the ingredients to make itself the sports capital of the world and also the football capital of world.

Orlando Montoya: The Peach Bowl was not always as big as it is now in terms of attendance, viewership, and national prestige. A major change happened in 2014 when it became part of the college football playoff, along with the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and others. What do you think were some of the major turning points in the evolution of the Peach Bowl?

Gary Stokan: Well, we had sold out all of our bowl games up into that point from 1998 to 2013. We also created the Aflac kickoff games, which were the Chick-fil-A kickoff games at the time in 2008, which changed the face of scheduling in the front side of the season because it was a huge game to kick off the season. And then we also endeavored to bring the College Football Hall of Fame from South Bend and relocated to Atlanta. I think the commissioners and the presidents saw all the things we were doing to give back to college football and decided that we deserved an opportunity to join the CFP playoff system.

Orlando Montoya: The Southeastern Conference is moving to a nine-game conference schedule beginning in 2026, ending years of debate and possibly easing a path toward another expansion of the college football playoff. How do you anticipate Atlanta being a player within an expanded playoff structure?

Gary Stokan: That's a great question. Our goal is for the future to continue to be a part of the playoff system no matter what size it is, whether it is 12 or they moved to 14 or 16 or even more. Just over the last six years we've hosted sellout games, we've hosted two semi-finals and we're second in viewership and second in attendance out of all the CFP playoff bowl games. Only second to the Rose Bowl and so we've proven that we can host these games in a first-class manner do a great job and that's the goal into the future.

Orlando Montoya: Since 1998, the Peach Bowl has helped to drive more than $65 million in charitable and scholarship contributions. One of those scholarship recipients is graduate of Druid Hills High School and current junior at the University of Tennessee majoring in psychology, a recipient of the John Lewis Legacy of Courage Scholarship endowed by the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, Stella Lakeborough.

Stella Lakeborough: It's really given me such an amazing opportunity just in college at UT. I feel like it's taken such a big financial burden off of me. I don't walk around worrying about just going out of state and things like that since I'm from Atlanta, but it's also truly pushed me pretty hard to work as hard as possible.

Gary Stokan: We were the first bowl game founded to give back to charity. Back in 1968, the Lions Lighthouse created the Peach Bowl, and we've maintained that as our mission. We've given $65 million back to Charity, our John Lewis legacy of courage, scholarships, and education, where we have 37 universities around the country with $10 million endowed in scholarships. And many of these kids are the first kids to get an education, college education in their families. So we're trying to create a new perspective in a lot of these families by giving opportunities to get their education paid for by Peach Bowl Inc. And so we're humbly proud to have these scholarships to honor John Lewis and to make sure that kids in Atlanta and Georgia get the opportunities they deserve to get an education.

Orlando Montoya: This weekend, we'll have the Aflac kickoff game featuring Syracuse versus Tennessee and Virginia Tech versus South Carolina. What are some of the important storylines going into this weekend's games?

Gary Stokan: On Saturday, August 30th at noon on ABC, we'll play Tennessee versus Syracuse. Both South Carolina and Tennessee are ranked and won at playing Atlanta three times this year. So this game is gonna have a huge impact on college football on the selection committee for the playoffs. And then 27 hours later on Sunday at three o'clock on ESPN, South Carolina will play Virginia Tech. These two games plus our Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl will bring over $100 million in economic impact to the city. And that translates to about $6 million in tax revenues that goes into the city coffers. As September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Peach Bowl Inc, we've donated over $23 million to create trials and cures, to find a way to give a kid another month, another year, maybe another lifetime. And so we're gonna donate $100,000 to that cause, and Aflac is going to match that. And then we're going to donate all of our 50-50 raffle for both games to that causes as well.

Orlando Montoya: Gary Stokan is retiring as president and CEO of the Peach Bowl after the upcoming college football season. Gary, thanks for speaking to me.

Gary Stokan: Thanks so much, Orlando.

​​​​​​​Story 6:

Sofi Gratas: Georgia added only 11,700 jobs in the first half of 2025. A Georgia State University economist says job growth is down sharply from recent years because of a host of factors. He said white-collar, mental management, service sector jobs are feeling a squeeze from artificial intelligence, that there's a, 'iffy world economic growth,' and that film and television production is seeing a slowdown. Rajeev Dhawan of the University's Economic Forecasting Center presented his twice yearly economic forecast on Thursday.

Rajeev Dhawan: If I take these three sectors, corporate, information, IT, and wholesale, which is 25% of the employment base, since January 2023, we have lost almost 37,000 jobs, no growth. This is what I call the white collar middle management job malaise.

Sofi Gratas: On the positive side, Dhawan expects construction trades to benefit from a boom in data centers coming to Georgia. And he expects the aerospace industry, including Lockheed Martin and Gulfstream Aerospace, to benefit a pledge by NATO nations to increase defense spending.

​​​​​​​Story 7:

Sofi Gratas: The Savannah Bananas are planning a $4 million expansion of their headquarters at Savannah's historic Grayson Stadium. A spokesperson for the baseball team that's lauded for its entertaining take on the game says the Bananas signed a lease agreement with the city of Savannah to add a new 10,000 square foot clubhouse to the stadium. The clubhouse will include a gym, lockers, showers, and an athletic training space to improve conditions for team members. The addition is not expected to change parking or the game day experience for fans.

​​​​​​​Story 8:

Sofi Gratas: The sport of girls' high school flag football continues to grow at all levels, including college. Mercedes-Benz Stadium and the Atlanta Falcons hosted its fifth annual showcase this week to help girls reach new heights in the sport. GPB's Ambria Burton has the details.

Ambria Burton: Two hundred high school athletes from across Georgia showed off their skills in front of college coaches hoping to secure offers to play at the next level. Terry Allen is a former NFL player and Emannuel University head flag football coach.

Terry Allen: We do have scholarships, we do have scholarships and that's one reason why I'm here because there's still some girls out there this year that haven't committed yet so I'm looking for girls that really want to continue their education, continue their flag career.

Ambria Burton: Kiarah Blackmon, a student at Druid Hills High School in Atlanta, put it all on the field at the combine.

Kiarah Blackmon: I'm looking to get like a lot of coaches to look at me and to realize how good I am in flag football.

Ambria Burton: In the past four years, more than 100 flag football scholarships have been given to Georgia students. For GPB News, I'm Ambria Burton.

​​​​​​​Story 9:

Sofi Gratas: Labor Day weekend is here, and we at the GPB newsroom hope you have great plans and know that a lot of folks are traveling. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport officials expect more than 2 million passengers to pass through ATL during the seven-day Labor Day travel period. And the Georgia Department of Transportation says it expects the busiest travel days on roads and highways to be today, Friday, and tomorrow, Saturday. Wherever you're going, even if it's just nearby, please be safe and enjoy the holiday.

That's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. Thank you for listening. If you would like to learn more about these stories, visit GPB.org/news. If you haven't yet hit subscribe on this podcast, take a moment right now and keep us current in your podcast feed. If you have feedback, we would love to hear it. Please email us at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Sofi Gratas and we'll see you next week.

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