On Second Thought For Wednesday, August 17, 2016

We're three months away until the Presidential election, and Georgia is a key battleground state for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. A recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll shows Clinton with a slight edge over Trump. But there could be problems with voting, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University. It says most states rely on electronic voting machines that are at least a decade old and prone to failures and crashes. We talk about this with Merle King, the executive director at Kennesaw State University's Center for Election Systems.

Then, brain tumors once thought inoperable can now be removed without a single incision through Gamma Knife surgery. The procedure delivers small, highly precise doses of radiation to a brain tumor without damaging the surrounding areas. We speak with Dr. Shannon Kahn, radiation oncologist at Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta, and cancer survivor Lynn Wyatt about Gamma Knife surgery. Plus, there’s a special jam session that happens in Fayetteville, Georgia every Wednesday afternoon. The musicians are cancer patients who come together at Piedmont Fayette Hospital. They form a drum circle. The rhythms they make together helps relieve stress and create community. Producer Linda Chen dropped in on a drum circle session and brings us a head-bobbing audio postcard. 

And finally, a class-action lawsuit filed last week alleges thirteen cities in St. Louis County, Missouri put people behind bars because they couldn't afford to pay court fines. The fines included tickets for minor offenses like traffic violations. The Arch City Defenders is the nonprofit law firm behind the suit. The group compares the situation in Missouri to a modern day debtors' prison. It is illegal to jail people because they can't pay court costs, but it continues to happen across the country, including Georgia. We talk with VICE.com producer James Burns and ACLU attorney Nusrat Choudhury.