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Georgia Today: Family of dead inmate sues; Georgia Power price hikes; UGA Football's new mascot
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On the Monday, April 17 edition of Georgia Today: The family of a dead Gwinnett County Jail detainee files a lawsuit; Georgia Power is raising prices to cover fuel costs; and UGA's football team has a new mascot.
Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Monday, April 17. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, the family of a detainee who died at the Gwinnett County Jail has filed a lawsuit. Georgia Power has reached an agreement on price hikes to cover higher fuel costs. And the University of Georgia football team has a new mascot. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.
Story 1
Peter Biello: The family of a detainee who died in the Gwinnett County Jail is suing the company that provides detainee health care. The family of Deion Strayhon says Strayhorn died in his cell two years ago from a hemorrhaged ulcer, which a simple X-ray would have diagnosed. His mother, Sherry Strayhorn, says no one bothered to find out why. He complained for 24 days about abdominal pain, nausea and other symptoms.
Sherry Strayhon: He did not deserve this. He deserved medical care. He begged for medical care they didn't provide for him. And he never met his his daughter. She was born five weeks after he died. My granddaughter deserved to know her dad, to see her dad and know her dad. This is outrageous to me. And I have no answers of why — why they wouldn't provide him medical care. Not only him, but all human beings deserve proper medical care.
Peter Biello: The family's attorney says the jail's health care provider, Alabama-based Naphcare, outrageously violated medical standards. The company could not be reached and the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Story 2
Peter Biello: Police in Glynn County have arrested and charged five people in connection with the hazing incident that hospitalized a 19-year-old last month. Authorities have charged the two adults who own the upscale home where the abuse took place, Carlton and Loren Strother with maintaining a disorderly household and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. A 17-year-old, Edward Hobby, was charged with battery and two unnamed juveniles were charged with trespassing and other offenses. The abused teen, Trent Lehrkamp, was dropped off at a Brunswick hospital, barely breathing with near-lethal blood alcohol levels. At a news conference today, the Glynn County police chief wished Lehrkamp well in his recovery and thanked everyone who helped the investigation.
Story 3
Peter Biello: Gov. Brian Kemp this weekend made some of his strongest rebukes yet of former President Donald Trump. Speaking at a Republican National Committee meeting in Nashville, Kemp said swing state voters would not support a 2024 Republican presidential nominee if they talk about the 2020 election being stolen. He echoed those comments yesterday on CNN.
Gov. Brian Kemp: If we get distracted and talk about other things that the Democrats want to talk about, like these investigations, regardless of what you think about the politics of those, if we get distracted every day and let the media just talk about that, that only helps Joe Biden.
Peter Biello: Once a strong supporter of Trump, Kemp is now among party leaders urging the GOP to move on from the former president.
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Peter Biello: As Congress works on the once-every-five-year farm bill that guides America's agriculture policies and funding, Georgia farmers and researchers are hoping for more focus on technology. GPB's Stephen Fowler explains.
Stephen Fowler: Humans have been farming for centuries, and new technological advances are helping them grow things more efficiently. One of those technology fields is called precision agriculture. Here's Eric Elsner, who runs the University of Georgia's Phil Campbell Senior Research and Education Center.
Eric Elsner: Precision agriculture, in its most broadest terms, would be a system whereby we can deliver exactly what a set of plants needs when they need it. No more, no less.
Stephen Fowler: A bipartisan group of lawmakers in both the House and Senate support legislation to create standards for precision agriculture technology that could be included in the federal farm bill by the end of the year. For GPB News, I'm Stephen Fowler in Watkinsnville.
Story 5
Peter Biello: Georgia Power has reached an agreement with state utility regulators over how much the company will charge customers to recover higher fuel costs. The elected five-member Public Service Commission will have the final say in a vote next month, but if they agree with their staff, customers will be charged $2 billion or about $17 per month for the average residential customer.
Story 6
Peter Biello: Georgians' right to fish in navigable portions of the state's rivers and streams was safeguarded in the final seconds of this year's legislative session. No one was questioning what was thought to be a long-established public right in Georgia until a property owner along Yellowjacket Shoals, a small portion of the Flint River, asserted its exclusive right to control fishing from the bank on its side of the river to the center of the stream and banned public fishing there. The Georgia Wildlife Federation, the Southern Environmental Law Center, Flint Riverkeeper and other interested groups drafted Senate Bill 115, which passed in the last seconds of the legislative session. While the fishing Rights bill should take care of the issue for now, the House also unanimously passed a resolution during the last day of the session forming a study committee to examine the extent of the public's right to fish in Georgia's freshwaters and streams, including inconsistencies or conflicts in state law between that public rate and private property rights.
Story 7
Peter Biello: There will be a new English bulldog puppy roaming the Georgia sideline in the 2023 season. The G-Day Spring scrimmage on Saturday marked the transition of Georgia mascots as UGA X, named Que, retired as the winningest mascot in school history. UGA X had a 91-18 record since 2015, including back-to-back national championships the last two seasons. UGA X was two years old when he took over as mascot. Another English bulldog puppy named Boom was introduced as UGA XI in a collaring ceremony before the scrimmage. The line of solid white English bulldog mascots began in 1955.
And this final note: On this podcast on Friday, I asked you about the turns of phrase, the expression, the pearls of wisdom that you've heard over the years that you found endearing or enlightening or just plain amusing. Listen to last Friday's episode to hear the quote from Grant Blankenship's story that inspired this line of inquiry. We got this note from a listener whose name is Janice. She writes, "My mom, who turns 92 this month, always said this about my dad, who is 85. 'Even God gave a billy goat the sense to get out of the rain.'" Janice goes on to say, "I kind of think she was saying my dad needed better sense. I do know they have been married over 60 years. Must be doing something right." Janice, thank you so much. I'm going to try to use that in casual conversation as soon as possible.
All right. That's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. If you'd like to learn more about these stories, visit GPB.org/News. And if you haven't subscribed to the podcast, do it now so we will be there for you in your podcast feed tomorrow afternoon. If you've got feedback or a pearl of wisdom, we'd love to hear it. Email us. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thank you again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.
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