The Brief for Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Confirmation clash. Nominees for top federal officials face a Georgia grilling. Atlanta's part in the 2026 FIFA World Cup is over. Was it worth it? And one scrappy now seasoned. The Chattahoochee Nature Center turns 50. Give us 10 minutes. We'll give you Atlanta. The brief is next. Support for WAB comes from Northside Hospital Cancer Institute with the most cancer center locations and board certified oncologist in Georgia, treating every type of cancer. Northside Hospital Cancer Institute is built to beat cancer. WABE's Insider Access Giveaways, sponsored by Live Nation, connect you with unforgettable experiences, amplifying Atlanta. You can win tickets to John Batiste at Cenovis Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park on August 23rd. Enter now at wabee.aB.org slash giveaway.

Well, as mentioned, Argentina has won the final FIFA match to be played here in Atlanta, capping off an eight-game run. Mayor Andre Dickens is taking lessons learned from the World Cup and looking ahead to the future. WABEs Raul Bally explains. Overall, Dickens says the cup has gone fantastic. He says the positive impression of the city goes beyond those who've come to downtown Atlanta. Folks around the globe are watching us digitally, even if they didn't make it into Atlanta, they're like, that place is special. It looks fun. They're loving our stadium, the 11-hour hospitality, and I'm excited by it. So how does the city keep up that momentum? Really showcase how great it went so that people are reminded that there's all these restaurants and activities they can do in Atlanta. And then I think we have to work harder with the Convention and Visitors Bureau and all of our folks to say, how do we get these conventioneers to go stay in Atlanta one more day? Some things will scale down during the World Cup. There was a noticeably large presence of law enforcement around Atlanta. Dickens says the city was able to use FEMA funds to pay for officers overtime. We will not have that level of $50-plus million of extra money for law enforcement, but we continue to recruit and retain officers, and we are being strategic about where we place them in the future. The next major sporting event to come to Atlanta is the Super Bowl in 2008. Raul Valley, W.A.B.E. News. Henry County in the Southeast Metro is expanding its local transportation access by launching the county's first fixed route public transit service. WABE's Dormaya JD Vance reports. This week, the Henry Connect Route 1 will see its first passengers. The bus provides rides with stops between McDonough and Stockbridge. Officials say the effort is being funded through a federal grant of $2 million a year for three years. Here's Talism Salters with Henry County's Transit Department. This is an attempt to get people introduced to mass transit. This is also giving people another option other than just giving their car and going. But there's also to those who don't have the means to get around our way of car or Uber, which sometimes cannot be affordable. The new fixed bus route adds to the existing Henry Connect on-demand service and McDonough-based micro-transit. Officials are encouraging residents to learn more while the service is free for the next 30 days. Dorma, ABA News.

The Chattahoochee Nature Center is turning 50 years old this summer. WAB's Marissa Mecki has more on the celebration of half a century of environmental education and wildlife rehabilitation. For some visitors, the 50th anniversary celebration in late June was their very first time here at the nature center's 127 acre property on the river in Roswell. Luke Moman is a rising sophomore at Georgia Military College, studying environmental science. It's a lot more than I expected. The butterfly exhibit's really nice, and we're going to the Beaver exhibit next. And it's just, yeah, it's just a lot more than I anticipated. For others, like Stas Samarin, the CNC is a regular spot for family outings to sit by the pond and hike the trails. That's amazing local. local protected area and you can see nature and kids can learn about animals and flora and Just learn about this beautiful world. Lots of Atlans come here as kids, for school field trips or volunteer days, or as campers at Camp Kingfisher, which I worked out while I was in college. For others, it's a spot for guided hikes, canoeing date nights, or volunteer days at the Unity Garden, which donates fresh produce to local food banks. But while celebrating this milestone, old staff and volunteers recount the CNC was a lot scrappier decades ago. Dotty Etris was one of the Nature Center's first ever employees. She says when it started, nobody really knew what a nature center was. You know, I tell the story about, I used to get the calls about people mad because they thought we were working to start a nudist colony on the Chattahoochee River. So we had a lot of educating to do. But over the years, that started to change as the Chattahoochee Nature Center became a hub for environmental education. Marcia Hammond worked at CNC from 1989 to 1999. I could spread the word about something that I was intensely interested in and wanted to help people understand and maybe bring them a little more over to not killing every insect or things like that. At first, the nature center was small and everyone had more than one job. She was a naturalist and worked in the wildlife clinic too. She worked alongside and celebrated the 50th anniversary with Lauren Gluzzo, who back then had just graduated from Georgia State University. Gloosso says that job was a huge building block for her career. She next went to Zoo Atlanta for several years. So it just catapulted me to that next level, and I will forever be grateful for my time here at the Nature Center. But after 50 years, the well-loved facilities here are in need of some updates.

Helen Bro's communications manager with the Chattahoochee Nature Center says they're working on a capital campaign now. Part of our capital campaign was to give our existing facilities a facelift because we wanted to improve our guest and visitor experience when they come to Chattahoochee Nature Center. Rose says they're refreshing old infrastructure like... bathrooms and buildings, and opening up the view from the entrance to the trails and ponds. She says it's so the spaces better serve the visitors and staff in getting outside and supporting all the programming that goes on here. Our community has placed incredible trust in us as an environmental educator, as a space where people can come and enjoy nature, and we've seen that trust. continue through generations. We've had people who came here as kids themselves, or adults, and now their kids are coming here, and their grandkids are coming here. Bro says the goal-headed forward isn't to be bigger or fancier, but for the next generation of Atlantans to explore and learn about the nature around us. And as they say in the Camp Kingfisher song, that I am of nature and she is of me. Marissa Mecki, W-A-B-E-News.

And that does it for the brief. More local news is always available online at wabee.org. Melissa Fato is our editor. I'm Jim Burris. Amplifying Atlanta? This is WABE. Hi, this is Bill Nygut. We've just dropped a special podcast bonus episode of In These Times, a conversation with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who responds to President Trump's ongoing efforts to falsely claim the 2020 Georgia election was rigged. Rappensberger explains how Georgia elections are really run. You can find our special edition wherever you get your podcasts. Each story you hear on Planet Money starts with a question. What happens if we refund tariffs? Why are groceries so expensive? At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious because the forces shaping our world can be hard to see. Follow NPR's Planet Money wherever you get your podcast and start seeing how the economy really works.