Greetings, Georgia.

It's Thursday, Jan. 18, 2023.

We're following a story about a Georgia school district that lowered Black student's GPA after he reported racist Snapchats.

And some sad news for Atlanta United fans: Star Josef Martinez, who was the 2018 league MVP and centerpiece of Atlanta's rise to prominence in Major League Soccer, has been released by the club. Now, he's headed to South Florida.

Read on for Georgia Today.

TOP STORIES

✭ AAPI caucus lays out its legislative priorities

The new Georgia AAPI Caucus outlines legislative priorities. (Sarah Kallis, GPB News)

Members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander legislative caucus held a news conference Tuesday morning to outline their priorities for the upcoming legislative session. 

The caucus, which includes 11 voting members, is one of the largest AAPI caucuses in the nation. The caucus was formed in late 2022. 

Increasing AAPI voter turnout will be a key priority of the AAPI caucus, Rep. Soo Hong (R - Lawrenceville) said. The efforts will include education on the voting process and registration. 

• Rep. Long Tran (D - Dunwoody) said the caucus will also focus on expanding in-state tuition rates at public universities in Georgia to children of undocumented immigrants. Under current Georgia law, children of undocumented immigrants living in Georgia have to pay the out-of-state tuition rate at public colleges within the state. Tran said this effort will increase college enrollment and provide a pathway to higher-paying jobs for these students. 

✭ Solar power net metering got a boost. But incentives still lag for many homeowners

Getting solar panels installed on your home can decrease your carbon footprint, but it can be expensive. One way to lower that cost is by selling some of the excess power generated by those panels back to the grid. That's called net metering.

But there are limits on how much you can be paid for that electricity. And recently, clean energy advocates were disappointed by the Public Service Commission's regulatory decisions for net metering for the coming year. GPB's Peter Biello spoke with Dr. Marilyn Brown, a professor of sustainable systems in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech.

• Peter Biello: You were advocating recently for Georgia Power to pay people who generate electricity at home the same price per kilowatt as Georgia Power charges its customers. But that did not happen. Can you tell us what happened instead?
  
  Marilyn A. Brown: What happened is that the commission elected to settle on a value for the buyback rate of 6.68 cents per kilowatt hour, which is halfway between the old buyback rate of 2.3 cents per kilowatt hour and the current retail rate of perhaps 13 cents per kilowatt hour. So they settled on a kind of a in-between, middle-of-the-road approach because I think that they were not certain and they had to compromise.

GPB NEWS HEADLINES

• A staffer who worked for Herschel Walker's Republican Senate campaign filed a lawsuit against prominent conservative activist Matt Schlapp on Tuesday, accusing Schlapp of groping him during a car ride in Georgia before last year's midterm election.

• University of Georgia football player Devin Willock was not wearing a seat belt when he was ejected from the vehicle in a weekend crash that killed him and a recruiting staff member, police said.

• There's plenty of evidence of people testing positive for, say, COVID and the flu or flu and RSV simultaneously.

WHO KNEW?

✭ Bullriders buck into Georgia to 'Unleash the Beast'

(Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media)

Have you ever wanted to see a bull ride? Well, if you're in Duluth this weekend, you're in luck.

• "For two nights only, 35 of the best bull riders in the world will go head-to-head against the sport’s rankest bovine athletes, showcasing the ultimate showdown of man vs. beast in one of the most excitinglive sporting events to witness," a press release for the event reads.

Among the riders anticipated to compete in Duluth is Native American sensation Dakota Louis, who is chasing his career-first PBR World Championship in 2023.  

The PBR Gwinnett Chute Out will take place Jan. 21 and Jan. 22 at Gas South Arena. For tickets and information, click here.

Check out our Political Rewind podcast:
 

• MTG gets top committee assignments; Kemp in Davos; Lawmakers want a flat tax

See and discuss the film Accepted with us on Thursday, Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m.  

TM Landry Prep received national attention for sending its graduates to elite universities. But when an explosive New York Times exposé questions the school's legitimacy, the student's fates are left hanging in the balance. GBP’s Donna Lowry will be joined by Atlanta Journal-Constitution Education Reporter Vanessa McCray for a discussion after the film.