WABE's Week in Review: Dawgs win and voting in Georgia is on politicians' minds

January 14th, 2022

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart celebrates after the College Football Playoff championship football game against Alabama Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, in Indianapolis. Georgia won 33-18. (Darron Cummings/AP Photo)

The Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide 33-18 to win the College Football National Championship. It was just five weeks after Alabama soundly defeated them in the SEC Championship, and the game was a nail-biter.

This is the first national title for Georgia football since the 1980 season. And it was the first victory ever for Georgia coach Kirby Smart as a head coach against his mentor, Alabama’s Nick Saban.

“Anybody and everybody affiliated with the University of Georgia…it just makes you walk a little taller and hold your head up a little higher,” said Bill Bradberry, who was watching the game in Athens.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris came to Atlanta this week to amp up pressure on Congress to pass voting rights legislation.

They laid a wreath at Dr. Martin Luther King’s grave and then spoke from the Atlanta University Center. Biden said he supported changing filibuster rules to allow passage of voting legislation.

And elections did came up again at one of the biggest yearly gatherings of Georgia’s business and political elite. Voting was on the menu at the Georgia Chamber’s annual Eggs and Issues breakfast, where U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock said that businesses should get involved in protecting voting rights, and Republican House Speaker David Ralston defended Georgia’s new voting law.

Also in this episode:

— Sam Gringlas looks at the political jockeying around why Georgia hasn’t expanded Medicaid.

— Rahul Bali reports on raises coming to public school teachers in Georgia.

— Jim Burress talks to an economist about the reasons for empty store shelves.

— Susanna Capelouto updates the situation with the omicron variant stressing Georgia’s health system.

Stay safe out there with the winter weather on its way!