Greetings, Georgia.

It's Thursday, May 25, 2023.

Ready for Memorial Day weekend?

Southern Living magazine says Columbus is a top spot to visit for its Chattahoochee Riverwalk, National Infantry Museum and the famous spaghetti at Mabella restaurant.

Flying somewhere? See our summer travel update below.

In Atlanta, more police officers are patrolling some of Buckhead’s busiest commercial thoroughfares thanks to a privately funded initiative to provide more security in the affluent north Atlanta neighborhood.

This is Georgia Today.

TOP STORIES

✭ Georgia's peaches knocked out by a 1-2 punch of climate trends and bad weather

Peaches ready for packing and shipping at Lane Packing, a peach farm in Fort Valley, Ga., in 2017. This year, a combination of too-warm a winter and a late cold snap has decimated the state's peach crop. (Grant Blankenship / GPB News)

Fans of Georgia peaches may have a tough time finding them this summer as a mix of long-term climate trends and a spate of bad weather added up to an almost entire loss of the state’s crop. 

First, the climate: Peach trees need what growers call chill hours, or time in which unopened blossoms are in sub-45-degree temperatures, before they can make fruit.

Data from the University of Georgia Extension Service describes how chill hours have been on a steady decline for at least 80 years. 

Even so, natural fluctuations in that trend still meant there were around 800 or so chill hours this year — just on the line of what is adequate, if not ideal, for some peach varieties grown in the state.

But then came the weather, said Lanier Pearson of Fort Valley’s Pearson Farms.

• “It was just kind of like a perfect storm of warm winter, warm February as they're trying to come out of hibernation,” Pearson said. 

✭ A record number of Americans may fly this summer. Here's everything you need to know

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson suggests passengers arrive two hours ahead of flight time and remember rules for what's not allowed (weapons) in carry-on luggage. (GPB/file)

Memorial Day weekend is upon us, kicking off the busy summer vacation season, and airlines are forecasting that this could be their busiest summer ever. Industry projections indicate that despite relatively high airfares, U.S. airlines could carry a record number of passengers this summer, even though they're still operating fewer flights than before the pandemic.

The coming months are likely to be a "stress test" for a national aviation system plagued by recent staffing shortages, antiquated technology, air traffic control problems, scheduling issues and labor disputes.

After widespread flight delays and cancellations last year, consumer advocates and some within the travel industry worry air travelers could face similar disruptions that will mess up their summer travel plans again.

If you're among those hoping to jet off to somewhere fun this summer, click "read more" for what you can expect.

✭ Warnock urges more insulin price relief while in Georgia during Senate recess

Georgia U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock makes the case for capping the cost of insulin for everyone as CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, right, looks on during her visit to Georgia. (Jill Nolin, Georgia Recorder)

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock’s push to cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 per month yielded pocketbook protection for seniors in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.

But he couldn’t convince his colleagues to go further and curb costs for the life-saving drug for people with private insurance.

The Georgia Democrat has since revived his original proposal to cap insulin costs for everyone, including those who are uninsured. And this time, he is co-sponsoring the bill with Louisiana U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican.

• “We will continue to work hard in the Senate until we get this over the finish line,” Warnock said Monday during a panel discussion at Southside Medical Center in Atlanta. “And I do this because I believe that health care is a human right. And it is certainly something the wealthiest nation on the planet can and ought to provide for all of its citizens.”

GPB NEWS HEADLINES

• Columbus resident and television writer Natalia Temesgen fears the inability of production studios to see eye to eye with writers will lead the current strike to drag on for months.
   
• Atlanta is moving forward to buy 46 acres in the South River Forest for the creation of parks and trails in Southeast Atlanta.
   
• Award-winning journalist, former Atlanta Voice reporter Maynard Eaton, has died at 73.
   
• The U.S. Department of Education just wrapped up an investigation into Forsyth County Schools' removal of certain books from libraries. 
   

WHO KNEW?

✭ How 'The Blues and Its People' made its way from New York's Apollo Theater to Atlanta Symphony Hall

Friday's one-night-only production of The Blues and Its People is some 15 years in the making. The May 26 event at Atlanta Symphony Hall will feature live music and spoken texts based on Amiri Baraka's seminal 1963 book, Blues People: Negro Music In White America.

And while the show originated at New York City's renowned Apollo Theater in February, it wouldn't be the lead-off event at this weekend's Atlanta Jazz Festival without the Georgians who brought it to life, including composer and trumpeter Russell Gunn.

The New York Times hailed the February 2023 Apollo performance of The Blues and Its People featuring Gunn and the Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra as "searching and soaring, alive with deep blues, church testifying and vigorous rump-shakers as it charts the path that Baraka laid out."

Atlanta audiences can expect the same Friday night, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Baraka's book.

Please note: The Blues and Its People is a ticketed event at Atlanta Symphony Hall on May 26. The Atlanta Jazz Festival in Piedmont Park runs May 27-29 and is free to the public.

On Political Rewind's latest episode: We turn inward and look at how journalists can cover the 2024 elections responsibly. We also talk about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' plan to announce his presidential run with Twitter's CEO Elon Musk.

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

Today on Political Rewind: Emory University's Paul Wolpe joins us to talk about AI.