Georgia Today: Georgians show support to Israel; DA seeks high profile witnesses; Endangered turtles

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Wednesday, Oct. 11. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, Georgians gather to show support for Israel following this weekend's brutal attacks. The Fulton County DA's office seeks testimony from two high profile witnesses in the 2020 election fraud trial. And scientists try to see the world through the eyes of endangered loggerhead sea turtles. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Georgians are coming together to show support for Israel after Hamas militants attacked the Jewish state over the weekend. A rally in Savannah yesterday brought together elected officials and leaders from the nation's third-oldest Jewish community in making a prayer service is scheduled for tonight. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports on last night's rally north of Atlanta.

Sarah Kallis: Religious and political leaders took to the stage in front of thousands in Sandy Springs to grieve the hundreds of lives lost in Israel. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens condemned the attack and said Israel, quote, "has the right to defend itself." Atlanta resident Elazar Huisman showed up at the rally. He lived in Israel for a year.

Elazar Huisman: The strength that I that I that I feel that comes from seeing my people and the people around us and other communities unite together and stand in the face of terrorism.

Sarah Kallis: Israel responded to the attacks with a siege of Gaza and heavy bombing. President Joe Biden pledged support for Israel and said the U.S. is sending aid. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis.

Story 2:

Peter Biello: The Fulton County District Attorney's Office is seeking testimony from two more high-profile witnesses in the 2020 election interference trial scheduled for later this month. GPB's Stephen Fowler has more.

Stephen Fowler: New court filings indicate prosecutors want to compel Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel and conspiracy theorist and Infowars host Alex Jones to testify in this month's trial for Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell. Chesebro is accused of crafting a plan to send falsified slates of Republican presidential electors to Washington from multiple swing states. The DA's office says McDaniel heard about the scheme and discussed it with other co-defendants while Chesebro marched with Jones outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and allegedly discussed the fake electoral plan with him. It's unclear if these proposed witnesses will testify. Jury selection is slated to start next Friday. For GPB News, I'm Stephen Fowler.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: Georgia's highest court has reversed a lower court ruling that dismissed indictments against six former jail officers who had been charged in the death of a Fulton County Jail detainee. 32-year-old Antonio May died in 2018 after the officers beat and pepper sprayed him and repeatedly used a stun gun on him. The unanimous Georgia Supreme Court opinion released today means prosecutors can continue their case against the officers who are charged with murder.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: After 26 years in Georgia prisons, a convicted murderer who became the face of 1990s tough-on-crime policies is now living outside prison walls. GPB's Orlando Montoya recently spoke with the man who once was the 13-year-old boy behind the notorious case.

Orlando Montoya: It was a murder that shocked the nation. The child, Michael Lewis, stood less than five feet tall when he pointed a gun into a parked car at an Atlanta convenience store and pulled the trigger. He left dead 23-year-old Darnell Woods, fatally shot as Woods' two young sons sat in the back seat. Described by sociologists as a super predator and by prosecutors as a cold-blooded thug, at age 14 Lewis was sentenced to life in prison. He was one of the first children charged under a 1994 Georgia law that required juveniles accused of certain violent crimes to be tried as adults. Two weeks ago, he walked out of the Macon Transitional facility on parole.

Michael Lewis: It's a surreal experience. It really hasn't, hasn't all settled in on me because I've been trying to get everything together, but it's a lot better than what I've been experiencing for the last 26 and-a-half years.

Orlando Montoya: As he has since he was charged, Lewis maintains his innocence. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles turned Lewis prior parole requests down several times before granting his release, but like most cases, gave no explanation about what was different this time around. But for Lewis, its decision means he can now do things that most people already have done by the time they're 39. In the days since he left prison, he's flown on a plane, bought furniture and seen the ocean, all for the first time.

Michael Lewis: It's a lot of little small things that I could have done but never had the opportunity to do. Developing as a human being in society, it's a lot that I didn't do. But I'm — I'm gonna try to look back on it now and try to make up for lost time or whatever because that's gone. Can't do nothing but try to make better memories now.

Orlando Montoya: Lewis reflects and calls his life before the shooting a, quote, "living hell, one that could lead only to prison." A 2002 book, The Condemnation of Little B, describes a childhood that included an absent father, crack-addicted mother, homelessness and foster care. The book's author, Elaine Brown, who Lewis considers a mother figure, lives in California and is helping him get on his feet post-prison. The Georgia Parole Board and the state of California also allowed Lewis to move to Oakland, where she lives. Lewis credits Brown with turning his life around. A former Black Panther Party chairman and former Georgia activist, Brown took Lewis under her wing, calling and visiting him in prison, and raising his case's profile. Lewis is now working for Brown's nonprofit organization that is developing a mixed-use affordable housing community. Optimistic and excited for his future, he says he'll be running the community marketplace with the goal of spinning it off into his own business. Lewis's Atlanta criminal defense attorney Leigh Schroeck says she opposes trying children as adults and sentencing them to life in prison.

Leigh Schroeck: I have kids myself. I have worked with a lot of people. I think a 13-year-old is not a developed, fully developed human being. I do not think you can look at a 13-year-old and say that they're irreparably corrupt. Usually if someone is — finds themselves in this situation, there's usually other parts of society that have failed them.

Orlando Montoya: Current Georgia law still allows children 13 years and older to be tried as adults in certain cases of violent crime like murder. On the other side of the story, the man Lewis was convicted of killing, Darnell Woods, would have turned 49 years old by now. The Fulton County District Attorney's Office represented the state in its prosecution of the crime against him. The office did not respond to a request for comment. For GPB News, I'm Orlando Montoya.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: Six Georgians appear on this year's list of Forbes magazine's 400 wealthiest Americans. Bubba and Dan Cathy and Trudy Cathy-White, children of Chick-Fil-A founder Truett Cathy, are the state's wealthiest individuals, each with $9.7 billion and tied at 76 on the magazine's national list. Home Depot co-founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank are listed at numbers 89 and 118 nationally, with 9.2 and $7.9 billion respectively. The biggest change from last year's list involves media and automotive giant Jim Kennedy, chairman emeritus of Cox Enterprises. He slipped from No. 1 to No. 6 in Georgia with $6.7 billion in net worth.

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Wal-Mart plans to build a new $350 million milk processing plant in Valdosta. The company said today the facility will provide milk to more than 750 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in Georgia and neighboring states. Gov. Brian Kemp says the plant will create 400 new jobs, as well as new opportunities for Georgia farmers. The retail giant's move follows the lead of other grocers such as Kroger, which are building their own dairies to control production in a price-sensitive industry.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: Tracking individual COVID cases hasn't been as consistent as it was before the public health emergency ended in May, but community-level data is still coming in through wastewater tracking. GPB's Amanda Andrews has more.

Amanda Andrews: Wastewater Scan is a nationwide program collecting anonymous data on the presence of COVID-19 influenza, RSV and nine other diseases. The data includes locations in Atlanta and Columbus and is available online. Program director Marlene Wolff says this information can serve as an early warning of increased infections.

Marlene Wolff: We're entering the fall and colder weather and we're prepared to look at influenza and RSV and other important respiratory viruses as well and keep an eye out to see whether those COVID numbers do begin to go back up again.

Amanda Andrews: Data collected is online within 48 hours. Wolfe says the goal is to share this information with city officials and public health leaders. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews.

Story 8:

Peter Biello: A California-based company is one step closer to building an electric aircraft manufacturing plant east of Atlanta. Archer Aviation said today that it has closed financing agreements for the facility under construction in Covington. Once in operation, it's expected to employ about 1,000 workers and build more than 600 aircraft per year. Archer is a 5-year-old company and part of an emerging niche in the aircraft industry, focused on small takeoff and landing vehicles, sometimes referred to as air taxis, intended for short trips within cities.

Story 9:

Peter Biello: A U.S. solar cell manufacturer that went bankrupt six years ago is restarting its manufacturing plant in metro Atlanta's Gwinnett County. Suniva temporarily shut down its facility in Norcross in 2017 amid competition from a glut of cheap Asian solar panels. The company said today that private financing and the Biden administration's climate law tax credits are fueling a return to production planned for next spring.

Story 10:

Peter Biello: Loggerhead sea turtles long have been classified under federal law as a threatened species, with most conservation efforts focused on protecting adults. But in Coastal Georgia, some researchers are turning their attention to the little ones and trying to see things from their point of view, literally. GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.

Benjamin Payne: Jekyll Island on Georgia's coast is a popular nesting spot for loggerhead sea turtles. One reason, says Georgia sea turtle conservationist David Zailo:

David Zailo: We've got a pretty stringent lighting ordinance, so that restricts the amount and types of lighting that can be emitted on to the beach during sea turtle nesting and hatching season.

Benjamin Payne: Even so, the law doesn't entirely eliminate light. There's also distant light from nearby towns and a busy seaport. Zailo has seen baby sea turtles get thrown off. Sometimes they waddle into the woods instead of the ocean and become prey. And so he's brought in Chris Hintz for some help.

Chris Hintz: All right. We're going to take the pictures. There it goes.

Benjamin Payne: On this dark, cloudy night, the marine science professor from Savannah State University is setting up a digital camera on the beach.

Chris Hintz: We try to keep it close to the ground, be as close to what a turtle can see.

Benjamin Payne: Instinctively, turtles go for the brightest horizon, which is usually over the ocean unless there's artificial light. Hintz wants to construct a turtle's eye view of the beach. His sophisticated camera swivels around remotely and takes long exposure shots from known nesting spots. Grad student Emma Patterson is helping him. She says the goal is to pinpoint the precise locations of light pollution.

Emma Patterson: A lot of people were hesitant to look at it because they thought it could impact tourism and things like that if they start looking at lighting impacts. And so now it's finally become, I guess, important enough.

Benjamin Payne: A few days later, I meet Hintz back in his office at Savannah State, where the real magic happens.

Chris Hintz: Takes about 30 seconds, 45 seconds for it to process. There's 130 million pixels across all those images.

Benjamin Payne: A computer program he and his team coded themselves is turning the pictures into turtle vision. It's based on prior research into how turtles see the world. Finally, the computer spits out a panoramic image. It's dominated by shades of blue and punctuated by splotches of bright white from light pollution. It's like putting on a pair of night vision goggles —if those goggles were made by Smurfs.

Chris Hintz: Turtles can see blue so much better than we can. We just can't see it. So even if it's there, we just don't notice that it's there.

Benjamin Payne: Hintz and his team have taken these kinds of photos along several of Georgia's barrier islands.

Chris Hintz: Many of the conservation individuals go out there and they see turtles getting misoriented, but they don't have hard numbers. They say, I see this light on the beach. This is causing the problem. But there's no hard evidence of that. And I think we're starting to produce that.

Benjamin Payne: Hintz hopes to make this turtle vision data widely available to conservationists. This could help them adjust habitats and nests in order to shield hatchlings from the worst of the light pollution. For GPB News, I'm Benjamin Payne in Savannah.

Story 11:

Peter Biello: And Game 3 of the National League Division series between the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies is scheduled to start this afternoon in Philly. Bryce Elder is scheduled to get the start for the Braves. The series is even at one game apiece.

Peter Biello: And that's it for this edition of Georgia Today. Thank you so much for tuning in. Tomorrow on All Things Considered, we're going to be doing a live remote broadcast from Eventide Brewing. That's just south of Grant Park and right next to the BeltLine, which is actually going to be a subject of conversation during All Things Considered to speak with the Beltline CEO, Clyde Higgs. I'm also going to be speaking with poet Jericho Brown and the CEO of the Giving Kitchen, which is a nonprofit that helps people in the service industry, the food service industry, who are down on their luck. And why not? We're going to talk a little bit about sports as well. Join us for All Things Considered tomorrow from 4 to 6. And if you're in the Atlanta area, feel free to stop by even tide brewing from 4 to 6 and watch all the conversations live. You don't need a ticket, but you can learn more at GPB.org/community. If you haven't yet subscribed to this podcast, we hope you'll do it. We'll be back in your podcast feed tomorrow afternoon with all the latest news. And if you've got feedback or a story idea, we'd love to hear from you. Email us at 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.

Read the latest updates on the Georgia indictments here.