Georgia Today: New laws will go into effect; Food-serving robots in ATL; 'No Taxes on Tips' proposal

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode: Dozens of new laws go into effect tomorrow in Georgia. Food-serving robots crawl the streets of parts of Atlanta. And will President Trump's "no tax on tips" proposal really help restaurant workers?

Jonathan Levens: For some of your, what I will call maybe higher earners, it certainly could have a measurable impact on their take-home pay and their after-tax cash flow.

Peter Biello: Today is Monday, June 30. I'm Peter Biello, and this is Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: It's that time of year. July 1 is around the corner, and with the new month, dozens of laws go into effect. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports on some new laws about to take effect in Georgia.

Sarah Kallis: The laws passed include a ban on transgender girls playing in female sports. The multi-year effort by the Legislature impacts athletes from middle school to collegiate sports. And in vitro fertilization, or IVF, will now be protected by Georgia law following overwhelming bipartisan support. Mandatory minimum sentences for fentanyl trafficking for certain amounts of fentanyl will also become law. In other criminal justice news, defendants will be able to claim attorney's fees in cases where the prosecuting attorney is disqualified and the case is dismissed. Another section of that law creates an easier process for wrongfully convicted Georgians to receive financial compensation. And the already planned income tax cut will accelerate this year, bringing the flat income tax rate to 5.19%. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis.

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Server

Credit: Adobe Stock

Story 2:

Peter Biello: If you are a tipped worker, you may have been watching President Trump's budget bill as it moves through Congress. Many in the restaurant industry, well, you will find some, but not all tipped workers are divided over the bill's no tax on tips proposal. Tax expert, Jonathan Levens of the Atlanta accounting firm, Moore Colson, says the provision would not apply to lower-income workers.

Jonathan Levens: Those individuals may not necessarily pay federal income taxes currently, so for them, the passage of this likely wouldn't have much of any impact on them. For some of your what I will call, maybe, higher earners, then it certainly could have a measurable impact on their take-home pay and their after-tax cash flow.

Peter Biello: The Independent Restaurant Coalition says the proposal leaves too many people out, while the National Restaurant Association backs it. Levens also says it raises an important question about the future of how tipped workers get paid.

Jonathan Levens: Does this incentivize employers to change how they pay individuals such that if there's this perceived benefit from a tipped income perspective, would they freeze or cap or change base wages that individuals may receive and sort of push them over to this tip Income regime?

Peter Biello: More than 400,000 Georgians are employed in food service. That's according to the Georgia Restaurant Association.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: If you were traveling through Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson International Airport this weekend, we hope you manage those delays with all the patience and understanding you can muster. And that might've been a tall order, considering the delays came on what was expected to be the busiest travel day of a 12-day Fourth of July travel period. Severe storms disrupted holiday travel over the weekend. Hundreds of flights were canceled. Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines says that storm caused an evacuation at the airport's air traffic control tower and hail from the storm required the airline to inspect more than 100 aircraft.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: The brain-dead pregnant woman who was kept on life support at a Georgia hospital for months so she could give birth has been laid to rest. 30-year-old Adriana Smith made headlines in the debate over Georgia's strict abortion law. She died a few weeks ago, after giving birth to a baby named Chance. At her funeral on Saturday, evangelist Triana Arnold-James vowed that her story would continue.

Triana Arnold-James: Adriana's life mattered. And we're gonna make sure from this house to the state House to Washington, D.C., that Adriana's voice will be heard.

Peter Biello: Friends and family remembered Smith for her kindness. Shortly after her story broke, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr argued that Georgia's abortion law did not require brain-dead women to be kept alive in order to give birth.

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Swimming pool

Credit: file photo

Story 5:

Peter Biello: About two dozen sites across Georgia participated last week in the World's Largest Swim Lesson. The annual event is part of a global campaign to prevent drowning, especially in communities lacking access to pools and swimming instruction. GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports from an Atlanta public pool working to change that.

Ellen Eldridge: A group of children are learning life-saving tips at the City of Atlanta Thomasville pool as part of the World's Largest Swim Lesson event. Lifeguard Kai Burton teaches campers how to swim and tread water.

Kai Burton: So some kids are excited and some kids want to know how to swim, but some kids are scared to learn the swim lessons because they haven't been in the water before.

Ellen Eldridge: The coalition includes Atlanta's Department of Parks and Recreation and other local partners working to raise awareness about drowning prevention. Dr. Rosalyn Marie Hicks is the medical director of the Greater Atlanta Water Safety She's also a water safety expert who treats patients at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

Dr. Rosalyn Marie Hicks: Drowning is silent, it's not like the movies. There's not all that splashing and thrashing, and probably not really any screaming or anything. It's just quiet, you kind of go under the water, and you just don't have the wherewithal to bring yourself up.

Ellen Eldridge: She says drowning is the number one cause of death for children ages 1 to 4, and it's 100% preventable. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Autonomous sidewalk delivery company Serve Robotics says it's now serving Uber Eats customers in three Atlanta neighborhoods. The California-based company said last week its robots have begun delivering food from restaurants to customers in the city's downtown, Midtown, and Old Fourth Ward. Atlanta is the nation's fourth city where Uber Eats and Serve now deliver by robots after Los Angeles, Miami and Dallas.

​​​​​​​Story 7:

Peter Biello: Over the last week, more than 6,000 students competed at the Georgia World Congress Center. As GPB's Chase McGee reports, they were showing off their skills in various trades.

Chase McGee: Culinary arts, welding, machining, animation — if you can think of it, students compete to be the best at it at the National Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta. It's hosted by SkillsUSA, a 60-year-old organization dedicated to giving students opportunities to develop into tomorrow's workforce. Chelle Travis is the program's executive director. She says that the competition's winners won't just leave with medals.

Chelle Travis: Many of the students that we see here today will also have tools of the trade that they will receive as their prizes when they're up there on the stage with their medals.

Chase McGee: The organization also announced that Atlanta would be the home for the Skills Conference for the next eight years, thanks to collaboration with the city of Atlanta and other city partners. For GPB News, I'm Chase McGee.

​​​​​​​Story 8:

Peter Biello: The Georgia Writers Association is recognizing outstanding literary talent in the 61st Annual Georgia Author of the Year Awards. The organization today announced its 2025 winners. In the biography category, Atlanta writer and Olympic campaign strategist George Herthler won for his biography of the founder of the modern Olympic Games. In the literary novel category, Alan Grostefan won for the Banana Wars, which follows a cast of characters enduring a brutal guerrilla war in 1990s Columbia. Among those on the final list are some names you've heard on GPB on another podcast, Narrative Edge, which is all about books with Georgia connections. Parul Kapoor won in the first novel category for her book Inside the Mirror. Michael Thurmond was named a finalist in the history category for James Oglethorpe, Father of Georgia: A Founder's Journey from Slave Trader to Abolitionist. And the finalist for the literary novel category was Melissa Pritchard for her novelization of the life of Florence Nightingale, Flight of the Wild Swan. You can find the latest episodes of Narrative Edge by searching for it wherever you get your podcasts.

Story 9:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Peter Biello: In sports, one of the world's best soccer teams overwhelmed one of game's greatest players at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium yesterday. European champions Paris Saint-Germain embarrassed Argentine superstar Lionel Messi in Inter Miami in a 4-0 route in the Club World Cup. Miami appeared helpless in most of the match, showing that even with aging international luminaries, it wasn't in the same league as PSG. Miami exits the competition and PSG advances to a quarterfinal match in Atlanta next Saturday. And two players in the Atlanta Braves farm system will compete in the All-Star Futures game next month. Augusta native Hayden Harris currently pitches for the Braves AAA affiliate, Gwinnett Stripers, and J.R. Ritchie pitches for the double-A Columbus Clingstones. Atlanta native Charlie Condon, who is currently in the Colorado Rockies farm system, was a first-round pick, No. 3 overall, and is slated as an infielder for the National League Futures team. The game is scheduled for Saturday, July 12, and is considered to be a showcase of future major league talent.

Peter Biello: That's a wrap on Georgia Today. Thank you so much for tuning in. We're going to be back tomorrow afternoon. We hope you will join us for the latest in all that's happening in the Peach State. Subscribe to this podcast so you won't miss a thing. And remember to check GPB.org/news for updates on any of the stories you heard today, as well as new stories. Our reporters are constantly writing and posting new stories there. Again, that's GPB.org/news. And if we're not reporting on something and you think we should be, let us know about it. It's a big state and you can be our eyes and ears. Send us an email. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Bielo. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you tomorrow.

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