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Georgia Today: DOJ deems Fulton County Jail conditions unconstitutional; Ga. House chooses leaders
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LISTEN: On the Thursday, Nov. 14 edition of Georgia Today: The Justice Department says conditions at the Fulton County Jail are unconstitutional; Georgia house members choose their leaders. And timber farmers reach out for help after Hurricane Helene.
Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, Nov. 14. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, the Justice Department says conditions at the Fulton County Jail are unconstitutional. Georgia House members choose their leaders. And timber farmers reach out for help after Hurricane Helene. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.
Story 1:
Peter Biello: U.S. Justice Department officials say filthy and unsafe conditions at the jail in Atlanta's Fulton County violate the constitutional rights of people held in custody there. In a report released today, federal officials say vulnerable populations are particularly at risk from violence, physical injury and long lasting trauma. The report offers remedial actions that local officials can take to address the problems and warns of legal actions of concerns aren't sufficiently addressed. Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labatt repeatedly has raised concerns about the jail and has pushed for a new one, an expense that so far county leaders have been unwilling to incur.
Story 2:
Peter Biello: The future of Georgia's 2020 election interference case against former President Donald Trump and 14 others appears murky after the former president's reelection. The Georgia Court of Appeals has scheduled a December hearing on the latest developments in the case. Georgia State University law professor Anthony Michael Kreis says he expects that hearing to go forward even as questions remain about Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Anthony Michael Kreiss: Fani Willis has an important decision to make, she either has to decide to dismiss the charges against Donald Trump in their entirety or find some mechanism to hold the case in abeyance until Donald Trump leaves the White House and then proceed in 2029.
Peter Biello: He says Trump's co-defendants could be more vulnerable if the president-elect isn't part of the case. The court also could disqualify Willis over a relationship she had with a subordinate, further upending the prosecution.
Story 3:
Peter Biello: The Federal Emergency Management Agency now has 17 disaster recovery centers operating across Georgia in areas most impacted by Hurricane Helene. That includes four mobile centers. Separately, some lawmakers also are making themselves and others available for additional assistance. GPB's Sofi Gratas has more.
Sofi Gratas: U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock's team will be in Clinch County's Homerville today between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. as part of an ongoing effort to get people face to face with agencies in charge of aid. Angela Handley runs Clinch Memorial Hospital and says she welcomes state and federal emergency management agencies to town during the second stage of recovery.
Angela Handley: There are still a lot of people who were impacted by fallen trees on their homes and they really just don't know who to turn to or where to turn to. I think it would be extremely beneficial for everyone to come out and ask again and see if there are any new resources available to anyone.
Sofi Gratas: Handley says she hopes recovery conversations continue to include rural communities, where Hurricane Helene caused over $6 billion in agriculture losses and likely more in property damage. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas.
Story 4:
Peter Biello: Tomorrow marks the start of the trial of José Ibarra in Athens. Ibarra is accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus in February. The case prompted nationwide discourse around illegal immigration. GPB's Chase McGee has more.
Chase McGee: Earlier this week, José Ibarra's attorneys waived his right to a jury trial, leaving the judge to decide his guilt or innocence. Criminal defense attorney Sam Bassett says the move is unusual. He suggested that Ibarra's defense attorney might make a legal argument in court that a judge could make a more nuanced ruling on than a jury.
Sam Bassett: Maybe a defense attorney might think that their only chance for a more lenient sentence may be from a judge, because if a jury convicts someone of a heinous crime, they're pretty likely to return the maximum sentence under the law.
Chase McGee: Bassett also suggests that the defense might be worried about finding impartial jurors in the community where the crime took place.
Sam Bassett: I do think that the fact that the defendant is not here legally, apparently, is a big issue for the common citizen that would be asked to sit as a juror or.
Chase McGee: Or Ibarra's defense may also try to challenge the legality of a police raid on an Athens apartment. But that challenge would have to come after the trial ends.
Sam Bassett: There may be some legal grounds challenging the warrant to enter the apartment or challenging the detention of Mr. Ibarra himself that may have some question on appeal.
Chase McGee: For GPB News, I'm Chase McGee in Athens.
Story 5:
Peter Biello: When Hurricane Helene raged through Georgia forests, it toppled trees and for many landowners, blew away nest eggs, too. Now timber owners are looking to the federal government for help. GPB's Grant Blankenship has more.
Grant Blankenship: In a pine forest 75 miles east of Macon, a pile of stumps and root balls grows as Wade Webb's logging crew adapts machines made for cutting trees down, plucking them out of the jumble left by 90-mile-an-hour winds. This is not Webb's land. His looks worse.
Wade Webb: There's one block that I looked at that I wanted to cut this year. It's 60 acres of stuff like this right here and there's ain't 15 acres of it standing.
Grant Blankenship: Trees have likely been growing longer than the 24 years Webb has been in this business.
Wade Webb: And last year, we was cutting out $3,500 an acre off of it. And now you're going to be lucky to get a thousand off an acre of it. So you multiply that times 60. That's a lot.
Grant Blankenship: Enough, he says, to change the course of your life.
Wade Webb: Yeah. I mean that was going to be my retirement.
Grant Blankenship: Wade Webb is not alone. Commercial timber losses come to about $1.8 billion across the four states hit hardest by Helene. That's Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida. But Georgia losses by themselves account for about three-quarters of that. Some of those losses are on land owned by Ben Gillis and his family. Gillis is also a board member on the Georgia Forestry Commission.
Ben Gillis: This stand is about 30 years old. Really needed another five years.
Grant Blankenship: That's to sell it for top dollar as the saw timber like you'd buy at a home improvement store or like you'd used to build a house.
Ben Gillis: Before Helene, saw timber was bringing about $35 a ton.
Grant Blankenship: But Gillis says after Helene, leasing prices are dropping. For one thing, even trees that look like they survived unscathed turn out to be internally damaged once they hit the mills.
Ben Gillis: And they have to do a lot more work to find a usable piece of lumber out of it.
Grant Blankenship: Plus, Gillis says the longer a tree stays on the ground, the more the wood degrades — or "blues" — and once a tree blues:
Ben Gillis: It's all pulpwood from that point forward.
Grant Blankenship: For paper and cardboard, which fetches the lowest price at market. Which means timber owners are trying to outrun decay.
Ben Gillis: It's a race against time right now.
Grant Blankenship: Which in turn is flooding the timber market.
Ben Gillis: Totally flooded. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Grant Blankenship: And that pushes prices down even further. So think back to that tree, for saw timber before Helene at $35 a ton. What's it worth?
Ben Gillis: Now? $2 to $4.
Grant Blankenship: A ton. In this worst-case scenario, that's a 90% drop in value for a tree that's been growing for a generation. If there are winners here, they could be the independent loggers, truckers and the mills. But it's easy to see how farmers in an industry where there's no crop insurance are wondering how they can afford storm cleanup. Gillis says they're looking to the federal government for help.
Ben Gillis: They're wanting some way to be made whole.
Austin Scott: I do not believe that anybody will be made whole. I just don't believe that's going to happen.
Grant Blankenship: That's Georgia Republican Congressman Austin Scott. Scott serves on the House Agriculture Committee, which will be taking up federal Hurricane Helene disaster relief for farmers. He says he expects help with cleanup and maybe for replanting.
Austin Scott: But, you know, if somebody had $1 million worth of timber, they got blown down. I do not expect that they're going to be made whole.
Grant Blankenship: Ben Gillis says some timber people may look for new revenue.
Ben Gillis: I guarantee you there's people today that you know, Wednesday three weeks ago would have said no to a solar field and today they would heavily consider it, you know?
Grant Blankenship: For his part, Congressman Scott says trading trees for solar farms would only further damage a struggling industry. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Soperton.
Story 6:
Peter Biello: Republicans and Democrats in the Georgia House have chosen their leaders for the legislative session that begins in January. On the Republican side, Speaker of the House John Burns and Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones will continue in their roles once reelected by the full chamber. Monroe state Rep. Bruce Williamson will be caucus chair. And on the Democratic side, Columbus state Rep. Carolyn Hughley will serve as minority leader. Atlanta state Rep. Tanya Miller will serve as caucus chair and Lawrenceville state Rep. Sam Park will keep his position as minority whip.
Story 7:
Peter Biello: A panel of state lawmakers is recommending a mix of penalties and incentives to encourage gun owners to store their weapons safely. A committee today proposed legislation that the General Assembly could take up in January. Decatur state senator, Democrat Emanuel Jones, says curbing gun violence is possible.
Emanuel Jones: Those that have pools in their home, they have fences around them that's secure so that toddlers and young kids can not accidentally fall over into those pools. Why can't we do something very similar with guns? And the answer is we can.
Peter Biello: The issue has taken on greater urgency since September's school shooting in Barrow County.
Story 8:
Peter Biello: A federal judge has ruled against the wild horses on Georgia's Cumberland Island. Between 125 and 175 horses roam Georgia's largest barrier island, freely drawing many visitors. But groups advocating for them say they are poorly maintained. They argued in the lawsuit that they either should be removed from the island or provided with food and veterinary care. In an unusual move, Atlanta-based U.S. District Judge Sarah Garrity allowed the horses themselves to be named as lead plaintiffs in the case. But on Tuesday, she dismissed their lawsuit, saying they and other plaintiffs had, quote, "laudable goals," but she doesn't have legal authority to provide the relief they were seeking.
Story 9:
Peter Biello: Georgia state parks are introducing colorblind glasses at three locations to help people with color blindness better experience the parks, especially now during the fall foliage season. Cloudland Canyons, Sweetwater Creek and Skidaway Island State parks have the glasses provided by the company that makes them, Enchroma. Amicalola Falls State Park has two Enchroma-adapted viewers installed at the base of its waterfall. Wendy Cruz of the Georgia Center for the Visually Impaired says the glasses can help the nearly 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women who have trouble distinguishing colors.
Wendy Cruz: It helps them with activities such as gardening, matching clothes, graphic design. So sometimes it does help in their job roles or just their activities of daily living. A lot of times we'll see folks that have difficulty picking out their clothes.
Peter Biello: Parks officials say fall color is coming later than usual this year, although it's past peak at higher elevations. You can track the autumn foliage at a GaStateParks.org/LeafWatch.
Story 10:
Peter Biello: The Jonesboro High School Marching band is set to perform at this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. And now they've been gifted a $20,000 donation from an Atlanta entrepreneur and philanthropist to help fund the trip. Ebony Austin, the owner of several area restaurants, presented the check on Monday at a pep rally at the school's gym. Clayton County Public Schools posted thanks on Facebook, saying donations allow the band to travel for events like the Thanksgiving Day Parade and London's 2026 New Year's Day parade.
Story 11:
Peter Biello: The CEO of the Atlanta Braves announced today the team's intention to offer on-demand streaming of games. Speaking today at an investor meeting, Derek Schiller says a modified agreement with Diamond Sports Group will allow the team to offer direct-to-consumer game streaming.
Derek Schiller: And I'm proud to say that contract is going to grow and the ability for our fans to watch the game is going to be even more than it was before.
Peter Biello: Diamond Sports Group announced yesterday it reached a multiyear agreement with Prime Video to make its channels available as an add-on subscription. Under a bankruptcy plan announced today, the reorganized company now operates under the FanDuel Sports Network banner, which includes six Major League Baseball teams, including the Braves. This may come as welcome news to fans seeking a reliable and possibly less expensive way to watch Braves games. Many fans were upset last year when Comcast/Xfinity removed Diamond Sports broadcasts Braves games for nearly three months after the contract expired.
Thanks so much for listening to this edition of Georgia Today. We do appreciate you tuning in and we hope you'll come back tomorrow. Remember to subscribe to this podcast now and when you do, we will pop up automatically tomorrow afternoon in your podcast feed. And if you want to learn more about any of the stories we're reporting on today, check out GPB.org/news. We're always posting new stories there. Again, GPB.org/news. And if you've got feedback for us or you need to let us know about a story we should cover, send us an email. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thank you so much for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.
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