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Georgia Today: Hearing on artificial intelligence; Medicaid unwinding; Savannah town square
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On the Wednesday June 14th edition of Georgia Today: Georgia senator Jon Ossoff leads a congressional hearing on AI's impact on human rights; A COVID pandemic policy ends, leaving millions at risk of losing health care; and Savannah has finalized a list of potential names for its historic square.
Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Wednesday, June 14th. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff leads a congressional hearing on his impact on human rights. A COVID pandemic policy ends leaving millions at risk of losing health care. And Savannah has finalized a list of potential names for its historic square. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.
Story 1:
Peter Biello:: Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff is leading a congressional probe into the impact of artificial intelligence on human rights. GPB's Donna Lowry reports on yesterday's Senate hearing.
Donna Lowry: Sen. Jon Ossoff used an AI generated voice to impersonate himself to draw attention to the technology.
A.I. Jon Ossoff: What does it mean for freedom, safety and opportunity?
Donna Lowry: As chairman of the U.S. Senate Human Rights Subcommittee, Ossoff asked for witnesses to testify on AI, including mother Jennifer DeStefano, the victim of a kidnaping extortion phone scam where her 13-year-old daughter's voice was artificially generated.
Jennifer DeStefano: It was her cries. It was her sobs. It was the way she spoke. I will never be able to shake that voice and the desperate cries for help out of my mind.
Donna Lowry: Others spoke about how the revolutionary technology can be used to suppress human rights and freedoms globally. Ossoff wants Congress to consider laws governing AI as its use becomes more widespread and risks associated with the technology go up. Donna Lowry for GPB News.
Story 2:
Peter Biello: An annual report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation finds Georgia's child care workers are among the lowest paid in the nation. GPB's Ellen Eldridge has more.
Ellen Eldridge: Caregivers here earn less money than 98% of professionals, leading to chronic shortages in the workforce. Roughly 7% of caregivers for preschool kids left the workforce in the first two years of the pandemic. Arianne Weldon is with the Georgia Family Connection Partnership.
Arianne Weldon: The annual pay for child care workers in 2021: $13.22 an hour. Retail workers hourly wages were $14. And customer service earned $17.75 an hour.
Ellen Eldridge: Weldon says despite the low pay, child care is expensive. The average cost of dayvcare here exceeds that of tuition at Georgia's public universities. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.
Story 3:
Peter Biello: Georgia animal shelters euthanized more than 16,000 animals last year, a 10% jump from 2021. Best Friends Animal Society released the numbers today. Catherine Wood of Macon-based Rock On Rescue says the past year has been especially hard for animal welfare organizations.
Catherine Wood: If you look at a year ago, most of the shelters would tell you that rescues keep their euthanasia rate down. And now the rescues are full of dogs, so we can't keep up.
Peter Biello: She attributes the increases to post-COVID return to work policies and higher pet food costs and recommends spaying and neutering to reverse the numbers.
Story 4:
Peter Biello: Right now, many people are at risk of losing their health coverage. That's because earlier this year, a pandemic-driven policy that kept millions of people on Medicaid came to an end. But the risk of losing coverage can be minimized. GPB's Sofi Gratas explains.
Sofi Gratas: It's a Saturday in Byromville, about an hour south of Macon. At a festival downtown, Kristen Keifer is talking to people about Medicaid.
Kristen Keifer: The reason we're here today is to talk to everybody about Medicaid unwinding.
Rosa Caldwell: About what now?
Kristen Keifer: Medicaid Unwinding.
Sofi Gratas: Medicaid Unwinding. The process where everyone on Medicaid will have their eligibility checked for the first time in three years. That's almost 3 million people in Georgia. The state started this process on April 1. That's news to Rosa Caldwell.
Rosa Caldwell: Thank you for telling us because we didn't know.
Kristen Keifer: Have yall heard about that at all?
Rosa Caldwell: No.
Sofi Gratas: Rosa Caldwell knows several people on Medicaid.
Rosa Caldwell: I know my husband is. He's 69. He needs to renew his.
Sofi Gratas: Keifer says she's here for people like Caldwell.
Kristen Keifer: I don't want anybody to miss their date because they didn't realize that it was coming.
Sofi Gratas: Because so far there's been a lot of confusion. Kiefer is with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, a non-government nonprofit. State officials are relying on groups like that to get the word out and report back with feedback on outreach efforts like official state ads on Facebook that tell people to stay covered. The ads are cute. There's a mascot, a peach with googly eyes named George A. Peach. Kiefer monitors the thousands of comments on these ads and reads things, like:
Kristen Keifer: "I just seen this and I don't know if I need to renew my Medicaid or not. I don't understand all of this." "Let them contact you. This is a scammer. It looks legit, but it's fake."
Sofi Gratas: There are hardly any comments from public health officials to clear things up.
Kristen Keifer: The kind of lack of public information or confusion around this issue leads to, you know, well-meaning people kind of misinforming them and replying to their comments seeking help. And it's just been kind of a challenge.
Sofi Gratas: According to officials from the State Department that oversees Medicaid and Peachcare for kids, people going through the redetermination process are categorized into two different buckets.
Lynette Rhodes: Bucket A are those individuals who are auto renewed. The member doesn't have to do or take any action.
Sofi Gratas: That's Lynnette Rhodes, the state's executive director for medical assistance plans during a meeting in May. Bucket A people will stay on Medicaid until renewals next year.
Lynette Rhodes: Bucket B are those individuals who cannot be auto renewed.
Sofi Gratas: People in Bucket B have missing information about their eligibility. These are the people who might accidentally lose coverage. The only way to know which bucket you're in, and what you're supposed to do, is to check the same online portal the state uses for most social services called Georgia Gateway. Remember those unwinding ads on Facebook? They don't make that clear. Fliers from the state aren't clear enough either, says director of First Choice Primary Care Katherine McLeod.
Katherine McLeod: I mean, this doesn't say get help. It just says, Hey, something's happening.
Sofi Gratas: The state wants these fliers posted in health care settings like First Choice in Macon. But outreach Director Felicia Cornelius says information on the flier isn't patient-friendly enough.
Felicia Cornelius: If you have a normal person that's reading this, I don't think it really still helps them to be able to figure out, okay, well, what do I need to do?
Sofi Gratas: About a quarter of patients at first choice are insured through Medicaid, McLeod says.
Katherine McLeod: So, of course, we're all concerned.
Sofi Gratas: Felicia Cornelius says the handful of patients she's helped renew their Medicaid coverage are homeless. And so she's asked state officials.
Felicia Cornelius: How are our homeless population going to receive notices?
Sofi Gratas: Notices about their renewal dates. Cornelius says she hasn't seen a plan yet. Meanwhile, over 1,500 people already lost Medicaid coverage in May. It's possible many lost it without knowing why. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas in Macon.
Story 5:
Peter Biello: This spring's cool weather and last winter's freeze is slowing mosquito development across the Southeast. University of Georgia bug researcher Elmer Gray updated his mosquito forecast yesterday. He said that while the cold weather hasn't inhibited all of Georgia's 63 mosquito species, fortunately the ones that like it cool are not aggressive biters. He said that plenty of the pests are expected in coming weeks with the first day of summer approaching June 21. And he advises all the usual precautions, like eliminating standing water and using mosquito repellent.
Story 6:
Peter Biello: The city of Savannah has released a short list of names for a town square in the city's downtown historic district. GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.
Benjamin Payne: Fifteen applications submitted by the public met the city's criteria to rename the former Calhoun Square. John C Calhoun's name was stripped by the city council last year since the former vice president from South Carolina strongly supported slavery and had no major ties to Savannah. But the 15 new options do have strong connections to the Hostess City of the South. In fact, one of the options is simply "Hostess City of the South Square." But most of the names belong to historical figures, including Susie King Taylor, a Black nurse who served alongside the union during the Civil War; Mary Musgrove, a Native American who helped keep the peace during Savannah's colonial era; and John Casey, a doctor who treated yellow fever patients during the early 1800s. A full list of finalists can be found on the city of Savannah's website. Council members will vote on a new name for the town square later this year. For GPB News, I'm Benjamin Payne in Savannah.
Story 7:
Peter Biello: And this final note: on state IDs introducing a digital component, the Georgia Department of Driver Services said yesterday, the digital driver's license and ID has onboarded 150,000 users since the program launched last month. The digital driver's license and ID is optional and is currently only accepted at select TSA security checkpoints.
And that is it for this edition of Georgia Today. If you want to learn more about these stories, visit GPB.org/news. And don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. And while you're subscribing to podcasts, may I recommend A Fork in the Road, a GPB podcast about food here in Georgia and those who grow, produce and prepare it. A new episode just dropped in which we look at how cattle farmers ensure their cows will produce tender and tasty beef. Our report from Augusta on a Fork in the Road podcast — find it wherever you get your podcasts. If you've got feedback for this podcast, we are all ears — or eyes, as it were. Email us. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.
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For more on these stories and more go to GPB.org/news.
Also, GPB's Georgia Today newsletter hits your inbox on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with top stories from around the state featuring news, politics and more. Subscribe here.
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