Georgia Today: Effort to extend Affordable Care Act fails; Coca-Cola gets new CEO; Yaupon tea

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, an effort to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies fails in the Senate. Coca-Cola is getting a new CEO, and coffee is becoming more expensive and less sustainable. A native tea could be an alternative. 

Ben Long: We've been sitting here on this native delicious caffeine source for hundreds of years. I really wanted to do something that would some science that would help elevate this plant. 

Peter Biello: Today is Thursday, Dec. 11. I'm Peter Biello and this is Georgia Today. 

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Residents in metro Atlanta's DeKalb County voiced their opposition yesterday to a proposed data center during a town hall meeting. GPB's Amanda Andrews has more on the county's efforts to create regulations to address the growing number of data centers. 

Amanda Andrews: This is DeKalb's fourth town hall. Speakers included county commissioners Ted Terry and LaDena Bolton, as well as Peter Hubbard, who was recently elected to the Public Service Commission. The drafted regulation includes 500-foot buffers, noise limits, and bans on diesel generators. DeKalb resident Brandon Brown says leaders need to explain their legal limitations more clearly. 

Brandon Brown: If it were at all possible to do a permanent moratorium, I would be all for it. But in lieu of that I think having the strongest text amendment and regulations possible is — is a good thing. 

Amanda Andrews: The drafted regulations will be up for a vote again Tuesday when the county's data center moratorium expires. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews. 

Story 2:

Peter Biello: The Senate has rejected legislation to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, essentially guaranteeing that millions of Americans will see a steep rise in costs at the beginning of the year. Senators rejected a Democratic bill today to extend the subsidies for three years, and a Republican alternative that would have created new health savings accounts. More than a million Georgians rely on ACA plans. Jacqueline Nikpour, an assistant professor at Emory University's Neil Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, says consumers should compare premiums, deductibles, and provider networks carefully during open enrollment. 

Jacqueline Nikpour: Think about the providers that you anticipate needing to see, the prescription drugs you'll potentially need to take, and see what plans are going to give you the best coverage for those specific needs that you anticipate at the lowest cost. 

Peter Biello: Open enrollment runs through Dec. 15 for coverage starting on Jan. 1. 

Story 3:

Peter Biello: A federal judge in Georgia has declined to halt an execution scheduled for next week. An attorney for Stacey Humphreys argued yesterday in U.S. District Court that his scheduled Dec. 17 execution should be placed on hold because of an agreement the state reached during the COVID nineteen pandemic. But the state says it does not apply to Humphreys. The judge found that Humphreys failed to show his equal protection and due process rights would be violated. Humphreys was convicted of the 2003 killings of two women in suburban Atlanta. 

Story 4:

Peter Biello: About half of American adults love coffee. They drink on average three cups a day. But coffee is becoming more expensive, maybe even unsustainable. If that worries you, GPB's Grant Blankenship says there is an alternative called the Yaupon holly. 

Grant Blankenship: When Middle Georgia State University history professor Matt Jennings lectures about the people of North America around the time of European contact:

Matt Jennings: Like Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Muscogees, among others. 

Grant Blankenship: — There's a special way he likes to wrap up. 

Matt Jennings: Now this morning at 8:00 this was Screamingly hot. 

Grant Blankenship: It's a thermos of a drink people enjoyed for hundreds, maybe thousands of years before anyone brought coffee to this continent. 

Matt Jennings: Maybe what I will do is pour several of these for any students who would like to give it a shot. 

Grant Blankenship: The liquid is deep amber and steaming. 

Student 1: Smells like tea. 

Grant Blankenship: Because that's what it is. 

Ben Long: If you know, like, yerba mate or matcha.

Grant Blankenship: As Ben Long learned years ago when he first encountered Yopon Holly working at a native plant nursery in Florida. 

Ben Long: And after I figured out you could — you could make tea out of it, I went out and foraged some, brought it back, dried it, roasted it, and I was honestly shocked. 

Grant Blankenship: When he needed a research project for his doctoral program in plant genetics at the University of Georgia, he picked Yaupon, which has a scientific name of Ilex vomitoria. That's because European colonists maybe paid too much attention to indigenous purification rituals, with a drink in which Yaupon tea was likely just one part. But indigenous people drank Yaupon other times too, as did colonists before the British trade in Asian tea muscled Yaupon out. Because Yaupon is the only plant native to North America that makes caffeine, like coffee. 

Ben Long: Coffee — don't know if you knew this, but coffee is on the IUCN Red List. Almost all of the wild genetic diversity of coffee is extinct.

Grant Blankenship: That is to say, wild coffee is endangered and climate change is shrinking the zones where coffee can be farmed. Meanwhile, says Long:

Ben Long: We've been sitting here on this native delicious caffeine source for hundreds of years. I I really wanted to do something that would — some science that would help elevate this plant.

Ben Long: So — so these are actually the babies. 

Grant Blankenship: In his corner of a greenhouse at UGA, Long has tray after tray of baby yaupons. The leaves are deep green on top, lighter underneath, oval shaped with scalloped edges. He has older plants out back. 

Grant Blankenship: And what about and what what geographies are represented here with all these? 

Ben Long: Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas. Actually is some weird populations up in the mountains — the Wachita Mountains. 

Grant Blankenship: That's in the wild. Yaupon's also a very popular landscaping shrub. There's probably one planted not far from where you are right now. Long's compiling what's called a diversity panel, sort of a genetic roadmap for Yaupon. That means sequencing the genes of each plant to better understand which ones make the things we may want to drink. 

Ben Long: As in, you know, what is the caffeine gene? And can we take those plants that have the you know, the "good" caffeine gene, you know, quote unquote, and breed them with other things that we want. 

Grant Blankenship: Austin, Texas Varietal. The same way you have like a Northern California white wine or whatever. 

Ben Long: Exactly.

Grant Blankenship: And so one day you might order a Yaupon latte in a shop and have a reliable idea of what you're gonna get. Small companies selling Yaupon tea are popping up in a lot of places. There's even one in Georgia. Professor Matt Jennings bought the Yaupon he's serving his students. 

Student 2: It tastes like tea. This tastes like tea.

Grant Blankenship: And they kinda like it. 

Student 2: Pretty good, actually. I'm about to say it's pretty good. 

Grant Blankenship: That includes Mackenzie Burkett.

Mackenzie Burkett: Like, it's drinkable. I can't drink black coffee, but I could drink this just as is. 

Grant Blankenship: If plant geneticist Ben Long has his way, one day she may have lots of options to do just that. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship. 

Story 5:

Peter Biello: Coca-Cola is getting a new CEO. The Atlanta-based beverage giant said yesterday its chief operating officer Henrik Braun will become its next CEO on March 31. Coke's current chairman and CEO, James Quincy, will become executive chairman of the company. The 57-year-old Braun has worked at Coca-Cola for three decades. He has led operations in Brazil, Latin America, greater China, and South Korea. 

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Georgia lost about 3,000 jobs in September while its unemployment rate held steady at 3.4%. Numbers released by the Georgia Department of Labor today showed sharp declines in administrative and support service jobs. The University of Georgia's economic outlook released yesterday predicts the jobless rate rising to 4.1% in 2026, with slowing economic growth and an elevated risk of recession. 

Story 7:

Peter Biello: The state's four public engineering schools are joining Mercer University as academic members of the Georgia Aerospace and Defense Alliance. Mercer said yesterday the addition of Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, and Kennesaw State and Georgia Southern universities marks a major expansion in the state's approach to aerospace and defense workforce development. The alliance was launched earlier this year by the industry's major players in Georgia, including Gulfstream Aerospace and Lockheed Martin. 

Story 8:

The Georgia Ports Authority's Appalachian Regional Port moved a record number of containers in November. The agency today said the facility in Northwest Georgia's Murray County moved nearly 4,000 containers last month, a 35% jump from a year earlier. The Appalachian Regional Port, connected by rail to the Port of Savannah, opened in 2018, taking freight traffic pressure off Atlanta-area highways and contributing to job growth in Northeast Georgia. 

Story 9:

Peter Biello: Georgia State University has received the final go-ahead to build a long-anticipated baseball stadium at the site that was once home to the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Falcons, and many other landmark events, including Olympic baseball in 1996. The university's athletic department said today that the $15 million project has received its last required permit from the City of Atlanta. The former Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, located near downtown, is where Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record in 1974. Georgia State says it's committed to honoring the old stadium's history in the new stadium, scheduled for completion in the fall of 2026. 

Story 10:

Peter Biello: The Atlanta Braves are making moves in the off-season.The team announced yesterday it's signed outfielder Mike Yastrzemski to a $23 million, two-year contract that includes a $7 million  option for 2028 with a $4 million  buyout. He spent most of his career with the San Francisco Giants. His last name may be familiar to longtime baseball fans: He is the grandson of Carl Yastrzemski, who played for more than two decades with the Boston Red Sox. The Braves also signed a three-year contract with two-time All-Star reliever Robert Suarez. He is 22 and 13 with a 2.91 ERA in four major league seasons, all with San Diego. The moves come as the Braves try to put the disastrous 2025 season behind them by strengthening both offense and pitching. 

And that is a wrap on Georgia Today. Thank you so much for tuning in. Remember to subscribe to this podcast because we will be back tomorrow with all the latest news from Georgia. And if you're looking for updates on any of the stories you heard today, check gpb.org/news. And we are always open to your feedback and story suggestions. And the best way for you to reach us is by email. So send us a note to GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening and have a great day. 

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