Greetings, Georgia.

It's Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023.

Gov. Brian Kemp is on a mission to make Georgia the undisputed electric vehicle capital of the nation, which could yield $23 billion dollars of investment and 28,000 new jobs. Here's why.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in court last week that decisions in a two-year 2020 election subversion probe were "imminent." Learn more.

See below to watch a documentary about Stone Mountain, catch up on Political Rewind's latest show and meet a nearly endangered tricolored bat.

This is Georgia Today.

TOP STORIES

✭ Atlanta Mayor Dickens announces 'Cop City' compromise as protestors fill City Hall

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens at a press conference at City Hall on Jan. 31, 2023. (Emma Hurt via Twitter)

On Tuesday afternoon, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond announced changes to the planned Atlanta Public Safety Training Center known as "Cop City." They said their compromise will protect the environment, spur local business and serve as a community resource.

But our GPB News reporter was among those in the press blocked from entering the conference room due to protesters attempting to attend as well.

In a live stream broadcast by 11Alive, Dickens outlined the agreement and its new recommendations.

• "We're here taking the recommendations to add a 100-foot tree buffer, the recommendations to add sidewalks, the recommendations to have the firing range moved further away from the residential area," the mayor said. He added: "Our development partner has committed to replace any hardwood tree that will be destroyed in construction with 100 hardwood trees for each one, as well as replacing invasive species with hardwoods."

Dickens said the facilities were necessary for officer training but would offer additional uses, including "a pavilion and accessible meeting spaces for the community."

• "The city of Atlanta has the most extensive training requirements in the Southeast," Dickens said. "Our training includes vital areas like de-escalation training techniques, mental health, community oriented policing, crisis intervention training, as well as civil rights history, education. This training needs space, and that's exactly what this training center is going to offer."

✭ A new documentary examines the world's largest Confederate monument

(Atlanta History Center)

Georgia's Stone Mountain is home to the largest Confederate Monument in the world — and controversy: To some it’s a monument to Southern heritage, but to others it’s a painful reminder of the South’s effort to hold onto slavery and the oppression of Black Americans.

A new documentary from the Atlanta History Center highlights both views but with an emphasis on remembering Stone Mountain’s difficult past and present. It’s called Monument: The Untold Story of Stone Mountain. Click here to watch it now. 

Kristian Weatherspoon is vice president of digital storytelling at the Atlanta History Center. She spoke with GPB’s Peter Biello.

• Peter Biello: What did you think was missing from the stories that have been told about Stone Mountain over the years?
  
  Kristian Weatherspoon:  I mean, a bit of context about myself. I am a Southerner, born and raised Mississippian. As a Southerner, I really thought that the voices of Southern people were really missing in the conversation. I mean, obviously, this is a hot-button issue at a national level that has been happening for a while. And so from the coverage and just the exploration that I'd seen, I thought like, wow, it's certainly an issue, but it's something that really plays a little bit differently in the South, in this place, like where you grow up with it, you know, many of us are steeped in it. And so I think that is the reason that all the voices that you hear in the film — the majority of the voices, I should say — are from the South and they are from Georgia really specifically.

GPB NEWS HEADLINES

Food delivery services may receive more regulatory oversight if new legislation is passed. (Capitol Beat) 

• Legislation establishing regulations for the fast-growing third-party food delivery industry in Georgia has been introduced in the General Assembly.
   
• The Georgia General Assembly looked ahead to the future of mental health legislation in the state on “Mental Health Day” at the Capitol. Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D – Decatur) and Rep. Todd Jones (R – Forsyth) spoke in the House about the importance of such legislation. 
   
• Representatives from 40 organizations that make up the Substance Use Disorder Policy Partnership met with lawmakers at the Capitol to advocate for more resources for substance abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery.
   
• Bob Born, a candy company executive known as the "Father of Peeps" for mechanizing the process to make marshmallow chicks, has died. He was 98.

WHO KNEW?

✭ Tricolored bat population at risk of endangerment in Georgia

Tricolored bats are one of many bat species found throughout Georgia. They are considered one of the smallest bats located in the east coast of the U.S., weighing an average of less than half an ounce.

Scientists have found that the population of tricolored bats has continuously decreased at an alarming rate in Georgia.

According to an article from Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resource Division’s blog, factors contributing to the decline of tricolored bats include, “degradation of their summer habitat, declining water quality and deaths caused by the whirling blades at wind farms.”

Emily Ferrall, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Natural Resources who works with bats in Georgia, surveys and monitors the bats via caves and culverts. She says the biggest threats to tricolored bats is white-nose syndrome, a fatal disease to bats.

Check out our latest Political Rewind podcast episode:

• Congress under pressure to pass police reform act; Southern Democrats push for DNC

Tune into GPB Radio and GPB.org at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. for Political Rewind.

Today's guests: University of Georgia professor of political science Dr. Charles Bullock, The Washington Post's Matt Brown, The Current's Margaret Coker, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Greg Bluestein.

Thursday: A special look at Atlanta's housing crisis with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Alan Judd, Willoughby Mariano, and Kevin Riley.