Section Branding
Header Content
Georgia Today: Ocmulgee Mounds could become GA's first natl. park; Savannah unhoused pop. dropping
Primary Content
On the Thursday May 2nd edition of Georgia Today: Senator Jon Ossoff is championing a bi-partisan bill to create the state's first national park; The city of Savannah says its population of unsheltered people is dropping. And cicadas are taking over parts of Georgia.
Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, May 2. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, Senator Jon Ossoff is championing a bipartisan bill to create the state's first national park. The city of Savannah says its population of unsheltered people is dropping, and cicadas are taking over parts of Georgia. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.
Story 1:
Peter Biello: Georgia U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is hailing a bipartisan bill that has unified members of Georgia's congressional delegation. Yesterday, Georgia representatives and senators introduced legislation to create the state's first national park at the Ocmulgee Mounds in Macon. Speaking today, Jon Ossoff said the bill follows a lengthy federal review and years of coalition building that eliminated any significant opposition.
Jon Ossoff: At a moment of such political division and even hatred. This is the tonic that Georgia needs right now. To see the entire delegation lining up Republicans and Democrats behind this initiative.
Peter Biello: The proposed park would be the nation's first co-managed by a removed tribe, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. It's currently a National Historic Park. The enhanced designation would provide broader protections for public land, where indigenous people held council meetings for a thousand years before their forced removal in the 1820s.
Story 2:
Peter Biello: Fewer people are experiencing homelessness in Savannah. That's according to the la test point in time count number shared with city leaders last week. The number counts unhoused residents on one day each year. This year, it was January 25th and the number was 579, a 22% decline from last year's count. Jennifer Dulong, of the Chatham Savannah Authority for the homeless, says the number is just one measure of the issue, and there's still work to do.
Jennifer Dulong: We don't have a lot of places where people can go into emergency shelters, and they can be an active addiction. The other thing that we don't have enough of as a community is families and children bed space.
Peter Biello: She says new Day Center, street outreach and affordable housing initiatives have contributed to the reduction.
Story 3:
Peter Biello: Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens is proposing a more than $853 million general fund budget for the fiscal year that starts in July, the largest in the city's history and an 8% increase over last year's general fund budget. The proposed budget earmarks $17 million to affordable housing initiatives, $24 million toward city employees, and nearly $30 million towards capital improvements. The Atlanta City Council must approve the budget by June 30th. The council is holding budget sessions through May 21, 2024.
Story 4:
Peter Biello: Governor Brian Kemp signed into law yesterday a bill that requires law enforcement agencies in Georgia to check the immigration status of incarcerated people and apply to help enforce federal immigration law. The bill gained traction after police charged a Venezuelan man accused of entering the country illegally and the death of a nursing student at the University of Georgia campus earlier this year. Supporters say the law could help prevent future crimes, while opponents warn turning local officers into immigration, police will make immigrants less willing to report crimes. Kemp also signed a separate law yesterday that requires cash bail for 30 additional crimes, and restricts people in charitable bail funds from posting multiple cash bonds unless they meet the requirements to become a bail bonding company.
Story 5:
Peter Biello: Two years into his administration, Atlanta mayor Andre Dickens is shaping up his cabinet. Dickens today announced leadership changes at Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson International Airport and the Department of Watershed Management. Both high profile agencies tackling massive infrastructure projects. The mayor also named interim leaders for the positions of chief operating Officer and Commissioner of Public Works, and filled the newly created role of Chief Strategy Officer.
Story 6:
Peter Biello: The Biden administration is extending student loan forgiveness to borrowers who enrolled at an Atlanta art college that abruptly closed in September. The U.S. Department of Education yesterday announced the debt relief for borrowers who attended any of the eight now defunct campuses of the Art institutes, including the Art Institute of Atlanta, from 2004 to 2017. The agency says the institutes and its parent company during that time knowingly misled students about post-graduation career prospects.
Story 7:
Peter Biello: For the first time in more than 200 years. Some parts of the country are experiencing a rare emergence of two periodical cicadas. Those big, droning insects that mostly live underground until finally, they very audibly do not. Kpbs Sophie Gratis has more. In this audio postcard from Macon, where the so-called Great Southern brood brood, 19, has taken over.
Maureen Vonderville: It starts out in the morning and you're not sure if you hear it, and then it just gets worse and worse and worse. It really does sound like an alien mothership.
John Vonderville: Yeah. First 4 or 5:00. Tough to say to them, but even inside the house we can hear them.
Maureen Vonderville: With the doors closed.
John Vonderville: Door closed, and can you hear them. I'm John. Last name Vonderville.
Maureen Vonderville: I'm Maureen Vonderville. The periodical ones are just unbelievably noisy. I think if it were to last all summer, I'd be in. Not that I could do anything about it, but I'd be annoyed. Yeah, but since I know this is an event that happens periodically and is going to disappear so I can enjoy most of my summer. I'm okay with it. Yeah. It's fascinating.
Mickey Fluker: So why do cicadas make so much noise? It's the male cicadas. They synchronize are calls and produce loud congregational songs to try to establish their territory for, attracting females. Now, this Brood 19 is the one we have right now. There's four spaces in that Brood. That's the temple. And it just kind of vibrates. Kind of this kind of a drum like structure. So we're probably about two weeks into this. Is that right, Elizabeth? My name is Mickey Fluker.
Elizabeth Causey: My name is Elizabeth Causey.
Mickey Fluker: Well, all my life.
Elizabeth Causey: All my life.
Mickey Fluker: Her life.
Elizabeth Causey: Most of my life we thought...
Mickey Fluker: We thought there was one cicada. Seven songs. Very shocking to find out. We just really became a lot more interested. And now we've got a chart. Like when we travel because we travel all over the country. And so now I've got a spreadsheet of which ones we've heard where. So what's so different is that this one is coming out now a 13 year, and it won't be out again for another 13 years. All of them have red eyes and black bodies. So you'll think that they're all the same. If you look at them, you'll think they're all the same. Well, I think there's just a lot of excitement about it this year.
Lisa Hargrove: Oh, I am Lisa Hargrove from Macon, Georgia. Originally from Eastman, Georgia. When I was a little girl, my father was a paint contractor, but he would collect the exoskeletons of the cicadas off of the trees, line them up, and then get metallic gold paint, spray paint, and he would paint them all gold. And on Sunday morning I would wear them to church like jewelry. It just makes me think of him every year when the cicadas come out. And especially with this brood, this out now. I wish you were here to hear they, I say, would love it.
Elizabeth Causey: I can't see them. I wish I could, but I can't. I really wish I could see them.
Mickey Fluker: But what do you do every night in the sun?
Elizabeth Causey: Oh, unless it's raining, I go on front porch if it's raining, but, I mean, it's it, on the, on the swing here in cicadas.
Peter Biello: You just heard from Macon community members and the city's brood 19 cicadas, which will be out for just a few more weeks.
Story 8:
Peter Biello: The U.S. continues to see a rise in anxiety, psychosis and ADHD risk. For the past decade, the nonprofit Mental Health America has used data from online surveys to gauge participants interests and responses. Its newest report shows an increase in certain areas and decreases in others like depression. GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports.
Ellen Eldridge: The Nationwide Report finds nearly half of the respondents were students, many of whom were looking for information about attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Schroeder Stribling is the CEO of Mental Health America. She says more people are screening for anxiety and more serious disorders.
Schroeder Stribling: So that means that there has been an increase in in the people, in the number of people who screen for psychotic disorders. So people go to the site, they take a test for psychosis. They're concerned about their thinking, their reality testing.
Ellen Eldridge: She says there has also been an increase in the percentage of people who score at risk for moderate or severe potential illness. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.
Story 9:
Peter Biello: In sports, Chris Sale allowed one run over five innings and struck out nine. Austin Riley drove in two runs with a triple in the Atlanta Braves Salvage, the final game of a three game series with a 5 to 2 win yesterday over the Seattle Mariners. The Braves rebounded after suffering back to back defeats for the first time this season, with another strong start from sale. Sale used his assortment of arm angles and pitch shapes to reach a season high in strikeouts. The Braves have the day off today before heading to LA tomorrow to face the Dodgers in the first of a three game series.
Story 10:
Peter Biello: And finally the search for Wally, the emotional support alligator continues. The alligator, owned by Pennsylvania resident Joie Henney, was allegedly stolen from his fenced outdoor enclosure in Brunswick, Georgia, last month. While he and Wally were vacationing there, and he believes he was picked up by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and released into the wild. Now, Henney is calling on his social media followers to help bring Wally back. Videos on social media show Wally being held close for hugs, wearing sunglasses and resting quietly on tables while children pet him. In areas where people can legally own alligators, it is possible for them to be considered emotional support animals, which have no specialized training. And he says Wally has helped relieve his depression for nearly a decade. A crowdfunding campaign has raised more than $8,300 to assist Henney with travel costs and rising costs, and possible legal and veterinary costs.
Peter Biello: And that is it for this edition of Georgia Today. If you want to learn more about any of these stories, visit GPB.org/news. And if you haven't subscribed to this podcast yet, take a moment. Do it now. It will keep us current in your podcast feed. And if you've got feedback, we would love to hear from you. The best way to reach us is by email. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.
---
For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news
Secondary Content
Author
