On this week’s special Independence Day encore episode of “Plugged In: A WABE Politics Podcast,” politics reporter Sam Gringlas takes listeners on a summer road trip to a pair of towns that helped shape former presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Georgia’s own Jimmy Carter.

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A massive solar panel recycling facility called Solarcycle is coming soon to Cedartown, a small community in Northwest Georgia near the Alabama border.

Solarcycle got a $64 million tax credit through the Inflation Reduction Act to build a second facility that will make solar panel glass, but according to the company, the groundbreaking is on hold as Congress considers gutting the clean energy tax credits in the new federal budget.

On this week’s episode of “Plugged In,” hosts Sam Gringlas and Rahul Bali look at what this could mean for Cedartown and Georgia’s flourishing industries making electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels.

Plus, how the conflict between Israel and Iran is exposing divisions among Georgia Republicans and a look at the fall of the in-person campaign launch.

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Former Georgia Governor Nathan Deal drew national attention in 2016 when he vetoed a religious liberty bill that opponents said would lead to discrimination against LGBTQ people.

When a similar measure passed again this year, Governor Brian Kemp quickly signed it into law.

On this week’s episode of “Plugged In,” hosts Sam Gringlas and Rahul Bali discuss what’s changed over the past decade with WABE's Patrick Saunders, who has been leading WABE’s annual Beyond Pride series, which takes a close look at LGBTQ issues in Georgia.

Plus, Georgia Republicans and Democrats are charting the future of their parties as state lawmakers grapple with a heated political climate following the assassination of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband.

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Data centers are growing faster in Atlanta than anywhere else in the country.

That rapid growth has left communities grappling with how these new developments will impact the environment and their neighborhoods.

WABE has been taking a closer look at data centers as part of our series, “Server South.”

On this week’s episode of “Plugged In,” hosts Sam Gringlas and Rahul Bali are joined by WABE and Grist Climate Reporter Emily Jones and WABE Environment Reporter Marisa Mecke to talk about data centers’ massive demand for power and water and some possible solutions.

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Data centers are growing faster in Atlanta than anywhere else in the country.

That rapid growth has left communities grappling with how these new developments will impact the environment and their neighborhoods.

This week, “Plugged In” hosts Sam Gringlas and Rahul Bali are joined by WABE Business Reporter Marlon Hyde and WABE Southside Reporter DorMiya Vance for the first of two episodes exploring WABE’s series, Server South.

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Two Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) incumbents are on the ballot this year after a lengthy legal battle and their challengers are taking aim at the current commission’s performance.

Voting in the primary is already underway.

On this week’s episode of “Plugged In,” hosts Sam Gringlas and Rahul Bali speak with WABE and Grist climate reporter Emily Jones about the PSC and some of the challenges the statewide body is grappling with, like the influx of data centers, increasing energy costs and climate change.

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Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old nurse and mother, was about nine weeks pregnant in February when doctors declared her brain dead after she suffered a medical emergency.

Smith’s family says doctors at Emory University Hospital have been keeping her on life support because she is pregnant, citing Georgia’s restrictive abortion law.

In this week’s episode of “Plugged In,” hosts Sam Gringlas and Rahul Bali take a closer look at the case and its possible implications.

Plus, a former Atlanta mayor says she’s running for governor and some Republicans say they want to eliminate the state income tax.

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This week, judges heard appeals in two major Georgia voting cases.

One panel is considering whether conservative group True the Vote illegally intimidated voters when they helped file tens of thousands of voter challenges while another is reviewing Georgia’s political maps in the ongoing fight over redistricting.

In this week’s episode of “Plugged In,” hosts Sam Gringlas and Rahul Bali discuss what’s at stake for Georgia elections in these long-running federal court cases, which could have national implications.

Plus, a messy Republican primary in Georgia for the U.S. Senate is now underway and Governor Brian Kemp has finished vetoing and signing bills from this year’s legislative session into law, including one that could allow President Donald Trump to recover millions of dollars in legal costs from taxpayers in the Georgia election interference case.

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