Georgia Today: Georgia air quality; Journalist sues Atlanta after arrest; Georgia debt ceiling

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Friday, May 19. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, a new study has good news about Georgia's air quality. A journalist arrested for filming near the site of a planned police training center in Atlanta is suing the city. And what does the national debt ceiling crisis mean for us here in Georgia? These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Georgia's carbon emissions are declining quickly, even as the state's economy and population grow. The study, released this week shows carbon emissions here dropped 5% over four years, ending in 2021. Georgia Tech's School of Public Policy professor Marilyn Brown says the state is on target to meet goals set out in the Paris Climate Accord, which were based on emissions from 2000.

Marilyn Brown: It turns out that in 2005 we were creating a lot of carbon in the state of Georgia. That's going to be an easy goal for us to meet. And in fact, I think that the state is going to surpass that goal.

Peter Biello: The report by a multi-university collaboration attributes the decline largely to utilities switching from coal to cleaner power sources such as natural gas and solar. One sector of Georgia's economy that increased its emissions was transportation. That was fueled in part by trucks carrying home deliveries during the pandemic.

Marilyn Brown: Ten years ago. 20 years ago, I was always criticized, saying, "oh, you want to have a clean a cleaner economy? Well then we can't grow," you know, "we can't grow our economy and also clean it up." Now, we've shown we can. We grow and grew our economy in Georgia 10% over that same five-year period while reducing our emissions by 5%. So that's really a revolutionary change.

Peter Biello: But overall, Brown says the report helps Georgians understand how climate solutions can work with a growing economy.

Story 2:

Peter Biello: Nearly four years after a newborn was left inside a plastic bag in the woods, an arrest has been made. That's according to the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office. Nicknamed Baby India, the little girl had offers from around the country to adopt her after she was found. Deputies rescued the baby and performed first aid until she could be taken to a hospital. She was later placed in state custody. Weeks after the incident, the sheriff said India was thriving, though investigators still searched for her mother.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: A journalist arrested for filming police near the site of a planned public safety training center in Atlanta is suing the city.  Michael Watchulonis has filed a case in a federal court Wednesday accusing the city of violating his rights under the First Amendment. His lawyer, Gerry Weber, says police also demanded his client hand over footage for police to review and delete.

Gerry Weber: And this really goes to the heart of a journalist being able to function in an area where there's a lot of — a lot of controversy.

Peter Biello: This is the seventh lawsuit Webber says he's filed over the right to film police. He's asking agencies to follow their own policies and the law. The training center has become a focal point for protests.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: A grand jury has indicted three former sheriff's officers in the beating of a Black jail detainee. The indictment Wednesday in Camden County charges ex-deputy Ryan Biegel and former jailers Braxton Massey and Mason Garrick with battery and violating their oath of office. Security video from the jail last September showed the officers rushing into the cell of Jared Hobbs and begin punching him. All three men were arrested last November. The indictment means a grand jury found sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to trial.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: A narrowly divided U.S. Senate has approved President Joe Biden's nomination of civil rights attorney Nancy Abudu to serve on the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Before the 49 to 47 vote in the Democratic-controlled chamber yesterday, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted that she would become only the third Black jurist and the first Black female jurist to serve on a court that hears cases from Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

Chuck Schumer: The daughter of Canadian immigrants who worked her way up to become one of the nation's leading civil rights attorneys, Ms. Abudu is an embodiment of the American dream, and she has dedicated her career to ensuring that dream is alive and well for everyone in this country. Throughout her career, Ms. Abudu has ensured our laws and our institutions work for all of us equally. She's dedicated herself particularly to the cause of democracy, protecting the right to vote, and has fought back against attempts to shut Americans out of the democratic process.

Peter Biello: Republicans characterized Abudu as a racially divisive, far-left activist. She previously worked at the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center. Abudu's nomination was held up in the Senate for weeks by the absence of California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who was absent from the Capitol for weeks because of an illness.

Caption

A person walks into a mental health clinic.

Credit: File photo

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Georgia's behavioral health leaders say staffing shortages are creating challenges for those needing mental health treatment. GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports from yesterday's Carter Center annual mental health forum.

Ellen Eldridge: The commissioner of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities spoke at the forum. He says lack of access to behavioral health care has to do with staffing shortages and they're looking for ways to retain and recruit workers, including higher pay. A recent analysis shows a 40% salary increase is warranted. Kevin Tanner is the commissioner of the DBHDD.

Kevin Tanner: We have a state of emergency when it comes to the workforce in this state, specifically around health care, and that is even more significant around the space that we operate in, in behavioral health.

Ellen Eldridge: Tanner says to pay for the raises, the General Assembly would need to approve a $107 million annually. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: More workers are looking for and finding jobs in Georgia as the state's unemployment rate remains low. Georgia's unemployment rate held at 3.1% in April for the ninth month in a row. That's up from the all-time low of 2.9% in April of 2022. After months of stagnation, the labor force added more than 10,000 workers for the second straight month.

Story 8:

Peter Biello: Predictions for what would happen if the debt ceiling isn't raised are dire. America's credit rating would drop. The stock market would lose trillions in value. A recession would spread not just across the U.S., but across the globe. And the government would then have to prioritize which of its bills it would pay. Creating what Michael Toma calls winners and losers. He's Fuller E Calloway Professor of Economics for Georgia Southern University in Savannah, and he's with me now. Thank you very much for speaking with me.

Michael Toma: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be on.

Peter Biello: People's eyes often glaze over when they hear about the debt ceiling. Now, we'll talk a little bit about the winners and losers situation you've discussed. But first, can you talk about what the debt ceiling is and why it matters to ordinary people?

Michael Toma: The debt ceiling places a limit on the outstanding obligations of the federal government by law. So once that debt ceiling is hit, the federal government is unable to borrow funds to pay its obligations. So if in the event that the federal government defaults on the debt that it has outstanding, which is a potential outcome under the current political standoff over raising the debt ceiling, right now, there are significant spillover effects on the economy and in people's lives.

Peter Biello: And there has been a lot of grandstanding from both the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Right now, there are two plans seem very far apart. So what are the chances that they'll come to an agreement before the country runs out of money in a couple of weeks?

Michael Toma: I think the probability of a default is very, very low. Even our politicians in Washington can understand that undermining the full faith and credit of the United States government in global financial markets is a really, really terrible idea.

Peter Biello: If the government does shut down, what impacts would we see on federal workers in places they work, like national parks, service sites, military bases, even airports where TSA workers and air traffic controllers work.

Michael Toma: There is a precedent in some senses already established in previous government shutdowns that were not debt default related, but appropriations shortfalls. Since the mid-seventies, there have been 21 shutdowns, ten of which have involved furloughs for federal government employees. So there's some standing practices in place. Typically, what we would expect to see is the division between essential and nonessential workers. Say, military defense, the armed forces, their pay would not be suspended, but federal civilian workers most likely would have their paid delayed nonessential government operations like the National Park Service. Those would be shut down. Fundamentally, the nature of some of the proposals about prioritizing which obligations the federal government might choose to meet under the circumstance of a default is a horrible idea.

Peter Biello: Essentially what you're saying, it's like a family saying, okay, we made all these decisions to spend, but now that the bills are due, we're going to prioritize two or three and let the rest gather dust.

Michael Toma: Right. It's like looking at your credit card bill and deciding which of those expenses that you charged off. Right. Are the ones that you're going to pay when the government is effectively picking winners and losers in terms of which bills are going to be paid. The losers in that scenario are going to bear a disproportionately higher burden as opposed to the winners in that scenario.

Peter Biello: So who would be the losers in this scenario that's playing out? Would it be those Georgians who are most economically insecure are the ones who are dependent on government assistance in some way?

Michael Toma: Fundamentally, the answer to that question depends on how the political process plays out as to whether or not Congress would prefer to pay off the obligations to debt holders or would prefer to prioritize payments to individuals, say, for example, Social Security checks. So I can envision a scenario in which both of those components would be part of a prioritization process. But that still doesn't reflect the underlying damage that would be done in financial markets or to the Social Security recipients, for example, in Georgia, whose other economic security payments might be undermined by a default, whether those are the form of food stamps or the snap payment programs or subsidization of insurance health insurance coverage under the ACA law, unemployment insurance benefits, the housing benefits, it's likely that some of those would fall by the wayside to prioritize Social Security. So I would imagine that even if Georgians' Social Security payments were protected, there might be other benefits that they are entitled to payments of which would be delayed by a default.

Peter Biello: Michael Toma, Fuller E. Calloway Professor of Economics for Georgia Southern University in Savannah. Thank you so much for speaking with me. Really appreciate it. 

Story 9:

Peter Biello: Spelman College has four valedictorians graduating tomorrow. Maya Blasingame is getting her degree in biology and Amaia Calhoun in economics, Sydney Dupree in theater and performance, and Chandler Natale in English. All four earned a GPA of 4.0. A Spelman spokesperson says it's standard practice for the college to name multiple valedictorians if they all have a 4.0. And this is not the first time the college has done this. The keynote address speaker for the commencement ceremony tomorrow is Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of the 1619 Project and a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine. An award-winning actress and producer, Tracee Ellis Ross, will receive an honorary degree, Doctor of Fine Arts.

Story 10:

Peter Biello: In sports, Atlanta United has agreed to sell Brazilian winger Luis Urrutia, who is heading back to his home country to play for Flamingo. The MLS club will receive a reported $10 million transfer fee from the deal announced yesterday. Urrutia will remain with Atlanta through its match against the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday. The 26-year-old has three goals and two assists for United this season, including a goal in the 4 to 0 victory over Colorado on Wednesday night. Atlanta technical director Carlos Bocanegra said the team will be actively seeking reinforcements during the summer transfer window to bolster a club that sits fourth in the MLS Eastern Conference. The Atlanta Dream start the season tomorrow with a game against the Dallas Wings in Texas. The Dream enter their 16th season with the WNBA, led by second-year head coach Tanisha Wright and general manager Dan Padover. The Dream's roster includes reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year Rhyne Howard, who averaged 16.2 points per game last season. And in baseball, the Atlanta Braves open a three-game series tonight at home against the Seattle Mariners. Bryce Elder will be on the mound for the Braves.

Peter Biello: And that is it for this edition of Georgia Today. Thanks so much for tuning in. We hope you'll be back with us on Monday. The best way to do that, of course, is to subscribe to this podcast. Take a moment right now and do that and we will be back with you Monday afternoon in your podcast feed. If you want to learn more about any of the stories you have heard about today, visit GPB.org/news. That's also where you can go for all the latest updates as they occur. Again, GPB.org/news. And if you've got feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Story ideas are welcome as well. Email us: The address is Georgiatoday@gpb.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening and have a great weekend.

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