This year on WABE: Top 2021 news stories
Kavi Vu/Canopy Atlanta, Jasmine Robinson/WABE, Alphonso Whitfield/WABE, Emil Moffatt/WABE, Arvin Temkar/NPR
2021 marked another busy year for the WABE Newsroom. Below are some of the stories we think stand out from this past year.
Environment
A collaboration with Alabama Public Radio and WFSU Public Media to explore what’s at stake for all three states now that the U.S. Supreme Court has sided with Georgia — and how a group of stakeholders is pushing for new ways to share water.
In February, Norfolk Southern stopped work on a rail facility at the former site of the Chattahoochee Brick Company, which used forced prison labor around the turn of the 20th century. Now the city is moving to buy the property. Activists have long asked for the site to be turned into a memorial.
More than two years after the cargo ship, the Golden Ray, capsized off the coast of Georgia, the effort to remove it is nearly complete. According to the Coast Guard, it’s the largest wreck removal in U.S. history.
The Southeast has the highest rate of new home construction in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). It’s an area where human development and wild places meet and mix, and where wildfire is a big—and growing—problem.
Politics
A collaboration with Atlanta magazine that takes a deep dive into one of the most beleaguered election offices in the nation.
Georgia’s new voting law makes numerous changes to how elections will be administered, including a new photo ID requirement for voting absentee by mail.
The results of Atlanta’s runoff elections included quite a few shakeups. Most notably, Andre Dickens, who was once considered an underdog to lead Atlanta, is now mayor-elect.
Johnny Isakson, an affable Georgia Republican politician who rose from the ranks of the state Legislature to become a U.S. senator, died Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021. He was 76.
In Georgia, the party in power gets to decide political boundaries for congressional seats, state house and senate district.
Criminal Justice
A series of shootings in March left eight people dead, most of them women of Asian descent. In the days after, Georgia communities came together in faith and protest.
On Nov. 24, 2021, a Glynn County jury found Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William Bryan guilty of murder and other crimes in the slaying of Ahmaud Arbery.
In September, the last immigrants held at The Irwin County Detention Center had been transferred. The ICE facility drew international attention in 2020 as dozens of women detainees accused a doctor at the facility of performing unwanted medical procedures.
Health
Dr. Rochelle Walensky said she’s worried parts of the country with low vaccination coverage will remain vulnerable to COVID-19 for some time.
Governments and health agencies across the state turned to public messaging campaigns to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Gwinnett County hoped to find a convincing messenger in moms.
A local non-profit called Heads Up For Harry aimed to counteract the mental health-related emergency visits increases for children during the pandemic.
Housing
Juliet Brown is fighting to remain in the home she’s rented for 27 years. The owner is now giving her the option to buy the home.
Despite an order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protect most tenants from eviction during a pandemic, WABE found that a couple of Georgia judges refused to acknowledge the federal order in court. That left some tenants in those counties with no option but to move.
A handful of tenants organized for a voice at their federally funded Section 8 apartments in southeast Atlanta.
Sports
Hank Aaron, who broke records and barriers in Major League Baseball, died on Friday, Jan. 22, 2021, at the age of 86. The Hall of Famer had numerous career highlights, but his more than 30 years as baseball’s home-run king stands out.
In November, Atlanta beat the Houston Astros in Game 6 of the World Series. The Braves are only the second team in major league history to have a losing record at the All-Star break and end up winning the World Series the same year.
The Celebration Bowl is more than just a game — it’s an opportunity for Atlantans and those beyond to gather and celebrate the legacy, tradition and heritage of HBCUs.
Business
Faith leaders from across Georgia gathered earlier this year outside of a Home Depot location in DeKalb County as they continued calls for the company to speak out against the state’s new voting law.
Motus Nova is an Atlanta company that builds technology to allow for remote physical therapy.
Education
Metro Atlanta schools resumed in-person learning this year, but classrooms function differently now than they did before COVID-19.
To speed up hiring, most metro Atlanta school systems are offered financial incentives to bus drivers, substitute teachers, school nurses and other employees.
In our Suburban Schools series, WABE senior education reporter Martha Dalton looked at some growing tensions on Atlanta school boards as they become more racially diverse and representative of student populations.
Community
In collaboration with Canopy Atlanta, WABE looked at the Forest Park community of Vietnamese immigrants who established their own businesses and developed services to meet their needs.
It was only after the Braves moved to Cobb County four years ago that things began to slowly change in Summerhill. More businesses have opened up and more new residents are moving in.
Officials are proposing to use federal infrastructure funds to redesign or remove the barriers that cut through historic communities of color after the 1956 Federal Aid Highway Act. But some of those who study and preserve Atlanta history are skeptical.
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