Georgia Today: Hospital price transparency; Veterinarian shortage legislation; Athens Rock Lobsters

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Tuesday, Dec. 10. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, a new report shows some Georgia hospitals aren't posting their prices as required by law. New legislation aims to ease the veterinarian shortage. And the Athens Rock Lobsters face another delay of their home opener. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Authorities say a woman was killed as police responded to a bomb threat at the home of Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Rome police say an officer on the local bomb squad was traveling to the scene yesterday when he collided with another car. Greene identified the woman killed as Tammie Pickelsimer. The extent of the officer's injuries weren't immediately known. It was the latest instance of false threats being made to draw first responders to Greene's home in a crime known as "swatting" on social media. The Rome Republican called the swatting a, quote, "murder" and "despicable act."

Story 2:

Peter Biello: Residents of the Augusta area who need answers to their questions about Hurricane Helene cleanup may get some soon. At a public meeting scheduled for Thursday, the U.S. Small Business Administration will be on hand to discuss concerns, including the cost of recovery loans. Spokesperson Brian Beard:

Brian Beard: With no interest or payments for the first year and no prepayment penalties. If you pay off your loan in less than a year, it's no interest charged at all. And even if somebody has already used a credit card or obtained a bank loan to pay for repairing their home or business, they can still get an SBA loan and replace that more expensive debt with a low-interest loan.

Peter Biello: Also on the calendar are meetings tonight and a week from today. That's when the city will address, among other topics, the state of debris removal.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: For the last four years, federal rules have required hospitals to post their prices for everything, from a procedure to Band-Aid. But a new report shows many hospitals in Georgia are not doing that, GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports.

Ellen Eldridge: According to the report from the Patients Rights Advocate Organization, just 41% of Georgia hospitals are fully complying. PRA director of research, Ilaria Santangelo, says the argument hospitals make that transparency is too difficult is invalid.

Ilaria Santangelo: We see compliant hospitals posting dollars and cents pricing by payer and plan for their items and services. So hospitals can do this. It is being done.

Ellen Eldridge: Santangelo says enforcement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services helps — with two Georgia hospitals coming into full compliance within two weeks of being fined. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: Authorities have arrested and charged a 61-year-old man for a decades-old murder that another man spent 20 years wrongly imprisoned for. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations said today that Erik Sparre was taken into custody in Southeast Georgia's Brantley County. He's been charged with two counts, each of murder and aggravated assault in the deaths of Harold and Thelma Swain, who were shot to death while at a Camden County church in 1985. Dennis Perry was convicted of those murders in 2003. But after new DNA evidence was discovered, a judge dropped all charges against Perry. Authorities now believe Sparre is the killer in a case that shocked Southeast Georgia and led to multiple investigations.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: If you've been having trouble getting your pet an appointment at the vet, you may have better luck if a new bill becomes law. Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is backing a bill that he says will strengthen Georgia's veterinary workforce and help address a shortage. In a release, Ossoff says the Rural Veterinary Workforce Act would allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture to increase the number of awards to the Veterinary Medicine Loan repayment program. The program repays some of the student debt for qualified veterinarians who work in areas with a shortage of veterinarians. That's according to the USDA. The bill was first introduced last year and has 21 co-sponsors.

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Many of Georgia's cities have experienced some kind of downtown revival in recent years, and life in the middle of a city on the rebound can be really good. But sometimes there are people left out of the boom, or people whose neighborhoods get swept up in change without their voices being heard. From Macon, GPB's Grant Blankenship reports on a collaboration aimed at changing that by getting community feedback on urban design.

Grant Blankenship: It's late afternoon and architecture students are around a conference table gluing down final touches, things like tiny trees to small models of some big ideas. 

Grant Blankenship: Trees on site, tree on model.

Student: Trees on site, trees on model. Yep.

Grant Blankenship: That's to give these paperboard models of mixed apartment and retail blocks a sense of the scale and space of the empty lot less than a mile from here they may one day occupy. They're not finishing their models. These Kennesaw State University students are running through their presentations of the concepts behind the buildings.

Student: ...lending thoughtful architecture with spaces that nurture well-being. We also have a design for equitable communities.

Grant Blankenship: Mayowa Odunjo says yes, she and her colleagues will be excited to present this work today.

Mayowa Odunjo: Excited and relieved once it's over. I've been waiting for this highly anticipated moment for a very long time.

Grant Blankenship: After these students earn Kennesaw State's five-year Bachelor of Architecture degree, they can skip graduate school and go straight to work. It's the only program of its kind in the state. And this design studio class is a big part of it. Odunjo says, when the studio began, students were given a design brief that includes designing a net-zero apartment block.

Mayowa Odunjo: Meaning, you know, the energy that we are consuming is being produced by the building.

Grant Blankenship: That's good for the environment, but could also help tenants from a high-poverty neighborhood skip their utility bill.

Mayowa Odunjo: And we are making this workforce housing apartment complex, you know, a mixed-use complex in Greenwood Bottom and trying to make a better connection to downtown Macon.

Grant Blankenship: Where a mix of loft apartments, entertainment and culture just keeps growing. So from the beginning, they knew what all of this meant except for what Greenwood Bottom was — or really even where. it's in Bibb County Commissioner Paul Bronson's district.

Paul Bronson: You see a lot of MLK and Malcolm X boulevards. They look rough. And my goal was to have Macon be the leading start to say, "Hey, we want to identify the MLK boulevards and build them up."

Grant Blankenship: Bronson and others invited these students to Greenwood Bottom on Macon's Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to re-imagine the neighborhood in a way that supports people who call it home, like Brandon Harris.

Brandon Harris: So actually, I'm a third-generation barber. We have a family barbershop that's been there in 50 years. It has definitely been a struggle. We feel isolated. We feel isolated for sure.

Grant Blankenship: Architect and Kennesaw State professor Robin Puttock built this class so that voices like Harris's would be fundamental to student design.

Robin Puttock: I listen to the communities and it's not about what I need or want. It's about what they need or want.

Grant Blankenship: So students spent three days in August talking to locals and they got design feedback on a return trip halfway through the project —

Robin Puttock: Without further ado, take it away.

Grant Blankenship:  — before today's final presentations.

Student: From our visit to make we realize the richness and musical history of Macon.

Grant Blankenship: And even today, there are new notes from people like community organizer Tonj Kabir.

Tonj Kabir: I kind of wanted to hear from the other two groups how you might have incorporated some of the conversations you heard about the culture of the space.

Grant Blankenship: An architect, Gene Dunwoody.

Gene Dunwoody: I do see a lot of changes. I mean, some people done — I wouldn't say redrew it, but ...

Grant Blankenship: Student Ethan Joel says being taught to listen is what took what at first felt like a dry exercise and gave it real meaning.

Ethan Joel: Kind of hits home when you kind of see that the people that you're building for — and you kind of want to put something there that they would be proud of.

Grant Blankenship: Even after final grades, the project may not be over. County Commissioner Paul Bronson hopes ground will break on some version of the students' mixed-use development ideas for Greenwood Bottom in 2025. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: Those who want to prevent mining at the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge are trying a new tactic: They want to expand the refuge itself. The Fish and Wildlife Service announced the plan to add 22,000 acres to the refuge in October. That would allow the agency to negotiate with landowners willing to sell their property or establish a conservation easement. And mine opponents are asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider an even larger expansion. The expansion would not directly affect the Georgia Environmental Protection Division's decision to grant Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals a permit to mine along the swamps Eastern Rim. But the mine's opponents have seized upon the expansion as an opportunity to stop the mine. Scientific research has shown the proposed mine would threaten the swamp's ecology, while Twin Pines disputes this. It's the latest effort to block Twin Pines' mining plan, a plan that has drawn strong opposition from Georgians, lawmakers, environmentalists and scientists.

Story 8:

Peter Biello: Bad news for hockey fans in Athens: The Rock Lobsters game for Thursday has been canceled. This is the second time the new professional hockey league team in Athens is canceling because of uncertainties over the city's brand-new arena. The $150 million Akins Ford Arena failed a fire marshal's occupancy test last week, nixing the team's debut last Friday hours before it was scheduled to begin. Team spokesperson Britton Briley says they're canceling Thursday's game to prevent a repeat.

Britton Briley: You know, waiting for the past two and a half months, it's hard to show the fan base what you're truly about when you can't experience it firsthand with your own eyes. And so with that, there was a little bit disappointment. But I think for us, you know, working together with the arena, working with our staff, we are finally looking forward to having that home opener on the 13th.

Peter Biello: That's now scheduled for Friday, pending a successful occupancy test. An Arena official didn't respond to a phone calls seeking comment. Athens rock legends the B-52s are scheduled to perform there on Saturday.

Story 9:

Peter Biello: Members of the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta were joined by musician Usher to celebrate a new collaboration that gives young people a hands-on experience in the entertainment industry. GPB's Amanda Andrews has more.

Amanda Andrews: Spark Lab is a state-of-the-art recording studio where students will learn from professionals in the entertainment industry about content creation. Usher, who's behind the project, says the goal is to show students a variety of entertainment career paths outside of singing.

Usher: There's so much opportunity that it does not have to just stop at your idea of being in it an artist or being a creative. You can become inspiration to so many others.

Amanda Andrews: The national president of the Boys and Girls Club says the John B. Whitehead Boys and Girls Club location is just one of many studios planned around the country. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews.

Peter Biello: And that's it for this edition of Georgia Today. But we'll have more tomorrow. The best way to remember to listen is to subscribe to this podcast. When you do, we'll pop up automatically in your feed tomorrow. And if you want to learn more about any of these stories anytime, check out our website gpb.org/news. We are always open to your feedback. We love hearing from you and the best way to reach us is to send us an email. Send an email to GeorgiaToday@GPB.org, and it'll go to the whole team. Again, the email address: 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