Georgia Today: Judge upholds voting law; Nursing home regulations; Okefenokee gets federal funds

Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, Oct. 12. I'm Orlando Montoya. On today's episode, a judge has denied efforts to block several provisions of Georgia's controversial election reform law passed in 2021. Georgia faces challenges meeting new federal nursing home regulations. And the Okefenokee Swamp Park is getting nearly half a million dollars in federal funding. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Credit: Stephen Fowler/GPB News

Story 1:

Orlando Montoya: A federal judge has ruled against civil rights groups who sought to temporarily block a Georgia law passed after the 2020 election. The decision yesterday by Atlanta-based U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee means the law's restrictions on ballot drop boxes, voter IDs, and water handouts, among other provisions, can go into effect while the case against the law moves forward. Civil rights groups allege the law discriminates against Black voters. In his decision, the judge wrote that plaintiffs failed to show that they were likely to succeed on the merits of their arguments.

Story 2:

Orlando Montoya: The number of witnesses prosecutors plan to call in this month's 2020 election interference, RICO case has grown to nearly 200. GPB's Stephen Fowler reports on developments at a hearing yesterday.

Stephen Fowler: In the final days before jury selection begins in the trials of Ken Chesebro and Sidney Powell, there have been several hearings on motions to dismiss the charges, exclude evidence and other efforts to stop the prosecution of the 2020 election interference racketeering case. At a Wednesday hearing, Scott Grubman, representing Chesebro, asked for more time to prepare to question jurors because of the immense number of witnesses the DA's office plans to call.

Scott Grubman: 180 witnesses is not to prove a case against Sidney Powell or Ken Chesebro. It's to prove a case against the whole conspiracy.

Stephen Fowler: Some of those witnesses have been revealed in court filings recently, like RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and GOP officials from other swing states. Those names also appear on proposed witness lists for the defendants, too. Jury selection starts Oct. 20. For GPB News, I'm Stephen Fowler.

Story 3:

Orlando Montoya: Officials in Atlanta's Fulton County evacuated their government center today because of a fire. Authorities say the small blaze started outside near an air intake system which sent smoke through the building. The fire was quickly put out and no one was hurt. The 10-story government center in downtown Atlanta houses hundreds of employees and several departments, including the county commission, health board and police.

Caption

breast cancer awareness

Credit: Photo by Anna Tarazevich from Pexels

Story 4:

Orlando Montoya: The Camden County Health Department is offering breast and cervical cancer screenings and no cost mammograms tomorrow. The Southeast Georgia health system will station their mobile mammogram unit at the health department so women can have their screening appointment and mammogram on the same day. The Georgia Department of Public Health says breast cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. Melissa Perkins, a registered nurse with the health Department, says the screenings help catch breast cancer early.

Melissa Perkins: But with a mammogram, it can detect such, such tiny lumps that you — you cannot fill those unless you go get an actual screening done. Prevention is the key. So it's better to go ahead and do early detection, you know, to catch it if it's at the early stages.

Orlando Montoya: Screenings are available by appointment at Coastal Health District Morgue or by calling the Health Department.

Story 5:

Orlando Montoya: A proposed federal rule would require nursing homes to have a minimum number of staff, including a registered nurse on site 24 hours a day. But as GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports, that is a challenge here in Georgia.

Ellen Eldridge: The White House says when nursing homes stretch workers too thin, residents may not receive adequate care or have other basic needs met. But the Georgia Health Care Association says the state is already short 66,000 health care workers and cannot meet this demand. Chris Downing, president of the Health Care Association, suggests bolstering the workforce through immigration reform.

Chris Downing: To bring in nurses from other countries under these visa programs and help fill in the gap, right? You know, tuition reimbursement and debt relief type programs.

Ellen Eldridge: The White House says it will launch a campaign to recruit and retain health care workers, investing over $75 million in scholarships and tuition reimbursement. For GPB News. I'm Ellen Eldridge.

Story 6:

Orlando Montoya: Officials from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference are offering to mediate discussions with leaders from Israel and Palestine as the war in Israel continues. The Atlanta-based civil rights group is urging both sides to embrace the nonviolent tactics of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. SCLC president Charles Steele says he hopes the group's history and contacts in the region can bring about discussions.

Charles Steele: Dr. King himself was there 1959 and was to return in 1967. He couldn't return because of the assassination that took place with his life. But we, in the spirit of Dr. King, are still focused and motivated to bring about a resolution.

Orlando Montoya: Meanwhile, some Georgians are making their way back from Israel after being stuck there for days. State Sen. Russ Goodman from Southeast Georgia's Clinch County says travel was an ordeal, but he's thankful to be back home.

Story 7:

Orlando Montoya: The Atlanta-based company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic has canceled plans to remove artifacts from the shipwreck. RMS Titanic Inc. said in a court filing yesterday that plans for a future mission include only imaging and surveys. The company says it's canceling retrieval plans because the expedition's leader died on the Titan submersible in June.

Story 8:

Orlando Montoya: Delta Air Lines says it made $1.1 billion in the third quarter thanks to planes that were packed with travelers this summer. International flights were especially profitable. The airline said today that it expects its revenue to keep rising into the busy holiday season.

Story 9:

Orlando Montoya: The Okefenokee Swamp Park is getting nearly a half million dollars in federal funding for a research project that will tell the story of a group of young Black Americans who developed the park during the Great Depression. A group of nearly 200 Black Americans from Georgia, Florida and Alabama worked on a conservation project in the Okefenokee as part of the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps. Park will use the federal funds to collect, preserve and digitize historical records of the group's work in the swamp.

Story 10:

Orlando Montoya: And in baseball, Atlanta faces a must-win game tonight in Philadelphia after the Phillies pounded the Braves 10 to 2 last night. A win in Game 4 of the National League Division series would force a Game 5. A loss would end the Braves season.

And that's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. If you'd like to learn more about these stories, visit GPB.org/news. If you haven't yet hit subscribe on this podcast, take a moment to do that right now. If you have feedback, let us know about it. Email us at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Orlando Montoya. We'll talk to you tomorrow.

---

For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news.

Read the latest updates on the Georgia indictments here.