Georgia Today: Trump orders release of classfied documents; Puppy mill busted; Kemp seeks relief aid

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Friday, Jan. 24. I'm Peter Biello. On this podcast, you'll hear the latest reports from GPB's newsroom. Your feedback and news tips are welcome. Email GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. On today's episode, President Trump orders the release of classified documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Also, more than 100 dogs are on the road to recovery after being seized from a South Georgia puppy mill.

Patricia Durham: It's really cold-hearted people to be able to watch them just sit there and freeze. I think about the weather that we have had.

Peter Biello: And Gov. Brian Kemp asks state lawmakers to approve millions of dollars in Hurricane Helene relief aid. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: President Trump has ordered the release of thousands of classified documents about the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Through the Atlanta-based King Center, King's daughter Bernice King responded late yesterday, saying her family's loss remains deeply personal and she hopes the family will be allowed to review the files before they're released. The order asks the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan within 15 days to declassify the remaining JFK records and within 45 days for the other two cases. It was not clear when the records would actually see the light of day. Trump had ordered the substantial release of the John F. Kennedy assassination records in his first term, but some were redacted or withheld due to concerns raised by the intelligence community. Trump handed the pen used to sign the order to an aide and directed it be given to RFK's son, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his nominee to be Health and Human Services secretary who has long called for their release.

Story 2:

Peter Biello: In other news from the new administration, President Trump has tapped Georgia Emergency Management Agency Director Chris Stallings as the assistant administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Disaster, Recovery and Resilience. Trump says in the position Stallings would work closely with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, Trump's pick to lead the Small Business Administration.

Caption

A damaged 100-year-old home is seen after an Oak tree landed on it after Hurricane Helene moved through the area, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in Valdosta, Ga.

Credit: AP Photo/Mike Stewart

Story 3:

Peter Biello: Gov. Brian Kemp is asking state lawmakers to approve $614 million in spending to account for losses from Hurricane Helene. Kemp outlined his budget request yesterday, the same day Department of Administrative Services Commissioner Rebecca Sullivan told lawmakers how much the storm damaged state properties.

Rebecca Sullivan: A total of 282 buildings, owned by 33 different colleges, universities and agencies, were damaged. The total state property damage claim from the storm is estimated to exceed $50 million.

Peter Biello: GPB's Sarah Kallis has more on the budget.

Sarah Kallis: State agencies will present their budget request to lawmakers in appropriations subcommittees. Budget hearings were canceled after a storm left some roads across the state impassable and covered with snow and ice. Lawmakers will pass two budget bills this session, one that amends the current year's budget and a new budget for the next fiscal year. Both bills will start in the House of Representatives and move to the Senate once approved. The legislature has already seen Gov. Kemp's budget recommendations. They include money for hurricane relief, improvements to the state's prisons and $1 billion in infrastructure spending. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: Georgia animal groups are rallying to help 136 dogs seized from a South Georgia puppy mill. The state Department of Agriculture shut down the facility in Pierce County on Sunday. The dogs have been disbursed to a half-dozen rescue groups across the state, including K-9 Battle Buddies in Southeast Georgia's Liberty County. The group's Patricia Durham says she received 16 dogs in bad shape: cold, matted, scared and covered in their own waste.

Patricia Durham: It's really cold-hearted people to be able to watch them just sit there and freeze. I think about the weather that we have had. If we wouldn't have gotten them out when we did, they probably wouldn't be alive today.

Peter Biello: Agency officials did not release the name of the kennel that was shut down, citing an ongoing investigation and possible charges.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: A deer harvested in November in Lanier County near the Florida border, has tested positive for chronic wasting disease, which is fatal and causes gradual brain damage in deer species. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is relying on hunters and processors in the state to stay engaged, even with the end of deer hunting season coming up. GPB's Sofi Gratas reports.

Sofi Gratas: This is the first detection of CWG in Georgia over a decades-long spread in other states. But wildlife biologist Tina Johansen with the DNR says at this point the agency is not worried about spread outside Berrien and Lanier counties in South Georgia. Deer can take a while to show symptoms of CWD. So Johansen says it's vital that hunters in those counties test what they hunt and properly dispose of carcasses to prevent spread.

Tina Johansen: That's our concern, is making sure that we maintain the support and the cooperation of our hunters and our landowners so that it doesn't have a big negative impact on our deer herd, on our deer hunters, moving forward.

Sofi Gratas: Johansen says DNR will not be changing any state hunting regulations. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas:

Credit: Fomite Press

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Do you think you could sum up entire chapters of your life in a series of paintings? That's the premise of a new book by Columbus writer Cynthia Newbery Martin. In The Art of Her Life, a fictional worker at an art museum unravels her personal, professional and health challenges through the paintings and words of Henri Matisse. GPB's Orlando Montoya spoke with Martin about the book. And before we begin, this interview does contain spoilers. So if you would rather know why Orlando recommends it without as much of the story revealed, check out GPB's podcast about books that he and I co-host called Narrative Edge. But right now, here's Orlando Montoya and Cynthia Newberry Martin.

Orlando Montoya: Let's hear from Cynthia Newberry Martin. I asked her if she was a fan of Henri Matisse before she wrote the book.

Cynthia Newberry Martin: I was not. I was a fan of all things French, but I don't think that that had anything to do with my choice of Matisse as a — as the painter I was going to write about. It was more about choosing a painting that I could interpret in two ways.

Orlando Montoya: And you chose "Breakfast" by Henri Matisse. How can you interpret that painting two ways?

Cynthia Newberry Martin: Well, that kind of gives the story away, if I do that, If I tell you that. But I can tell you that it creates a sense of intimacy and it focuses on the psychological feeling of the model.

Orlando Montoya: Yeah, The painting features a woman who is near a table, but she looks kind of bored, doesn't she?

Cynthia Newberry Martin: Well, that's one interpretation.

Orlando Montoya: Well, what is the other interpretation? I guess that she is, um, expectant?

Cynthia Newberry Martin: Well, when I first saw it, I thought, "what is she thinking about?" She was sitting there in this richly decorated hotel room and she had a book in her lap. And I wondered, you know, is she thinking about the book? Is she looking up at someone? Is she looking up at the window? And what is she thinking about?

Orlando Montoya: The story follows Emily's professional, domestic and health challenges with various chapters of her life named after specific Matisse paintings. Now, how did you pair the paintings with the chapters?

Cynthia Newberry Martin: I had paintings that I loved, and I had paintings that I thought went very well with the story. And "Breakfast" is the title of the first part. And then the second part is called The Yellow Window — "The Yellow Curtain." Excuse me. And I chose that for Part 2 because it is one of Matisse's paintings that he has described — or someone has described — as one of the fullest and emptiest paintings. So fullest and emptiest at the same time.

Orlando Montoya: It's an abstract painting.

Cynthia Newberry Martin: Yes. Yes. Painted like, I think in maybe around 1914. It's like these blocks of color. And then the third part is called "Invalid." And this was the most perfect match of all the paintings to the parts.

Orlando Montoya: Emily is sick in the story. She battles ovarian cancer through a few rough stages. And in those stages, your narration becomes poetic, abstract, dreamlike, slightly disconnected with the reality around the rest of the pages. Was that intentional?

Cynthia Newberry Martin: It was. It's a novel written in the first person. So she is under anesthesia. She's in the hospital. She's confusing reality with dream. And I wanted the narration to reflect that.

Orlando Montoya: In the later chapters, you bring in the details of Emily's last days. Who will take care of the children? The position of the hospital bed in the home, her decline. Why was it important to follow her journey up to the very moment of her death?

Cynthia Newberry Martin: That was a part of this story that I was very interested in and a long, long time ago, long before I thought about being a writer. I was picking up a kid from a — an overnight trip, and I saw a woman sitting on the bench also waiting to pick up her child. And I knew that she had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. And at the time, I was so young and I thought, why is she here waiting for a child and not in Paris or Rome or out doing something? And so I wanted to kind of live through this moment in this time period with Emily to see how it would play out. And when I did, I understood that where you want to be is with the people you love. And the hospice nurse suggests that they move the bed into the den so that death can be a part of life, as it is. And it was coexistent with Matisse's feelings that it's all one thing: the interior and the exterior. He didn't see the window as changing anything or dividing the space. It was all one space from here to the outside, and I was trying to show that as well.

Orlando Montoya: In your book, The Art of Her Life, you frequently quote from a compilation of Matisse texts called Matisse on Art. What's so special about that book for you?

Cynthia Newberry Martin: I fell in love with the book, and so I kind of gave that to Emily. She is the one who taught me to love art. I did not have an art background. I loved going to museums. I loved looking at paintings. But Emily is the one who worked at a museum, and Emily is the one who fell in love with a painting when she was 9 years old. And so as I started learning about Matisse, I discovered this book, Matisse on Art, by art historian Jacques Flam. Jacques Flam collected all of Matisse's writings, his essays, his statements, his interviews, anything he could get his hands on. There are about 50-some-odd texts in this book, and he translated them from the French into English. And it's wide open. It's not just about painting. It's about everything that made Matisse, Matisse. And so if — if I was falling in love with — in love with it, without an art background, Emily was sure to fall in love with it.

Orlando Montoya: It contains so many gems about life.

Cynthia Newberry Martin: Yes.

Orlando Montoya: And how art resembles life and the colors in our life and the brushstrokes in our life. I just love the metaphors in it.

Cynthia Newberry Martin: Yes. That's where I learned so much about Matisse, about what he thought about windows, about how they created, how he — he was striving in his art to show that it was all one plane. Just so much I learned from reading that book.

Orlando Montoya: Well, I thank you so very much. The book is wonderful. It's called The Art of Her Life by Cynthia Newberry. Martin, I appreciate you coming here and talking with me today.

Cynthia Newberry Martin: Thank you for having me.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: Braves fans have been waiting all offseason for the team to give a boost to their opening day lineup. So far, the Braves have made relatively inexpensive additions, and that is despite losing ace Max Fried to the Yankees. But the moment for a big move has come. The Braves yesterday announced they have given outfielder Jurickson Profar a $42 million, three-year contract. Profar revived his career with the San Diego Padres last year when he hit .280 with 24 home runs. Braves general manager Alex Anthopolous says Profar was the No. 2 hitter on the market this year, behind Juan Soto, who wins the Mets.

Alex Anthopolous: We made up what we feel is a very strong commitment to him. And, you know, we we believe that what he did last year is who he is going forward.

Peter Biello: Profar, a switch hitter, will join Michael Harris II, Jarred Kelenic, Brian de la Cruz and Eli White as Atlanta's top outfielders. Anthopolous said Profar will play left field with Harris and Center. Kelenic and De La Cruz could share time in the right field platoon while Atlanta awaits Ronald Acuña Jr.'s return. Acuña missed most of last season with a leg injury and he could be ready to join the team in May or June. With the outfield pretty much covered, what then, will the Braves do about their pitching staff? Anthopolous says the team has room to add both starters and relievers.

Alex Anthopolous: We're not locked into one area. If there's a good starter deal, we'll do it; trade, free agent signing or a bullpen deal, the same way. But we're not close to anything, but we're still having conversations about both.

Peter Biello: And there is still time to make a deal. The first spring training game for the Braves is scheduled for Feb. 22.

Story 8:

Peter Biello: Snow and ice from this week's winter storm is melting, but the road treatments for it have left many vehicles slathered in salt. While the saline brine helped make the roads less dangerous, too much of it on your car for too long is likely to rust metal parts, even ones you don't normally see. Based in Cumming, north of Atlanta, Ron Seay is a car care expert with auto club AAA. He expects car washes to be busy this weekend.

Ron Seay: I think most of them offer like an undercarriage wash and I would spring the extra few bucks for that. Better to be on the safe side, especially if you plan on keeping your car for a long time.

Peter Biello: He says, in addition to the salt, he's seen cars needing alignment after sliding into curbs.

And that's a wrap on this Friday edition of Georgia Today. We hope you have a great weekend plan. If you've got maybe things to do around the house because you're avoiding going outside because it is still far too cold, perhaps you'd like to check out a podcast from GPB's library of podcasts. We've got podcasts about music, about food, about books. You can find them all at GPB.org/Podcasts. And of course, if you want to stay on top of the news all weekend, you can check GPB.org/News. And we'll be back on Monday. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. 

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