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Georgia Today: Measles outbreaks; School cellphone ban; Flannery O'Connor home tour
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On the Tuesday, March 25 edition of Georgia Today: A series of measles outbreaks in states including Georgia has health care providers concerned; the Georgia Legislature passes a bill banning cellphones from elementary and middle schools; and on what would have been Flannery O'Connor's 100th birthday, a tour lets visitors explore the celebrated author's childhood home in Savannah.
Sofi Gratas: Welcome to Georgia Today. On this podcast, we feature the latest reports from the GPB News team. On today's episode: A series of measles outbreaks in states including Georgia has health care providers concerned. The Georgia legislature passes a bill banning cell phones from elementary and middle schools, and on what would have been Flannery O'Connor's 100th birthday, a tour lets visitors explore the celebrated author's childhood home in Savannah.
Janie Bragg: This dirt yard is where we got the writer we know and love. It was her blank canvas to be imaginative. It really encouraged her to get creative.
Sofi Gratas: Today is Tuesday, March 25th. I'm Sofi Gratas.
Story 1:
Sofi Gratas: Measles was effectively eradicated in the U.S. over the last decade, until a series of outbreaks in select states over the past few months. Now, the spread of the highly contagious disease has health care providers and the scientists that research measles concerned. There have been three reported cases of measles in Georgia this year alone. And even just one case requires the monitoring of dozens of people. That's because measles spreads fast. In fact, airborne droplets can linger for up to two hours. States are charged with tracking the spread. And epidemiologist at the University of Georgia, Amy Winter, says...
Amy Winter: Our surveillance system here in the States, at least up through 2024 has been performing very very well.
Sofi Gratas: Winter says good surveillance and high vaccination rates in the U.S. keep transmission low. Without that, outbreaks could go longer.
Amy Winter: The hope is that it doesn't last longer than 12 months because then we lose our elimination status.
Sofi Gratas: Sending the U.S. back to square one in terms of controlling this preventable disease.
Story 2:
Sofi Gratas: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, located in Atlanta, is losing more of its top management with the departure of five department heads. This follows three other senior leaders leaving the agency recently, and means almost a third of the CDC's top managers are leaving or have left. Other CDC employees have been on alert with the Trump administration's plans to reorganize the agency and lay off staff. The White House announced Monday it is nominating Susan Moneraz to be CDC director. The Trump administration withdrew its nomination of former Florida congressman, Dr. David Welden, earlier this month, just before a Senate hearing.
Story 3:
Sofi Gratas: The Georgia legislature has passed a bill that would ban cellphones from public elementary and middle schools in Georgia. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports.
Sarah Kallis: House Bill 340, or the Distraction Free Education Act, would ban cellphones during the school day from the first bell to the last bell. Sen. Jason Anivitarte says phones in the classroom are distracting to students.
Jason Anivitarte: Our teachers are seeing the impact firsthand. Over 85% of high school teachers and 68% of middle school teachers report that cellphones are a major problem in their classrooms.
Sarah Kallis: Despite concerns from some Democrats over parents being able to communicate with their children in an emergency, the bill was overwhelmingly passed 54 to 2. It now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp's desk to be signed into law. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis at the state capitol.
Story 4:
Sofi Gratas: The father of the Apalachee High School shooting suspect is hoping to have his trial moved out of Barrow County. Colin Gray's attorney filed a change of venue motion claiming he would not receive a fair trial by an impartial jury due to media attention in the area and because the victims were well known in the community. Gray is accused of knowingly allowing his son to possess a weapon and is facing 29 charges, including murder in the second degree and cruelty to children in the second degree. His 14-year-old son, Colt, is accused of shooting 11 people at the high school on September 4th, 2024, killing two students and two teachers.
Story 5:
Sofi Gratas: After a highly successful season in 2024, Georgia's peach farmers could be in for another good year. Pam Knox, director of the UGA Weather Network says in Middle Georgia's Peach County, farmers will have enough cold weather to produce a good crop.
Pam Knox: They'll probably end up with just a little over 1,100 chill hours. Better than last year. Not the same as the long-term average.
Sofi Gratas: Growers in Georgia aim for the thousand hour mark and chill hours, where temperatures are between 32 and 45°F.
Story 6:
Sofi Gratas: The Georgia Department of Agriculture is asking Georgians to be on the lookout for a yellow-legged hornet embryo nests. Their early stage nests range in size from a ping pong ball to a tennis ball, and are often in sheltered spots. The invasive yellow legged hornet was first confirmed in the U.S. near Savannah in 2023. The species threatens honeybees and other pollinators, and the state has started an effort to eradicate the hornet. The agriculture department says to contact their Plant Protection Division or a licensed pest management professional for proper identification and removal if you find one of their nests.
Story 7:
Sofi Gratas: Hyundai Motor Group announced that it will invest $21 billion in its U.S. operations, including $5.8 billion for a new steel plant. Hyundai's chairman joined President Trump at the White House for a Monday announcement. Trump said the steel built in Louisiana will be sent to Hyundai and Kia auto plants in Georgia and Alabama.
Story 8:
Sofi Gratas: 100 years ago today, Flannery O'Connor was born in Savannah. She would go on to become one of America's most acclaimed writers, pioneering the Southern Gothic style of literature along the way. But it was O'Connor's upbringing in the Hostess City during the Great Depression that would shape her into the eccentric creative she would one day become. GPB's Benjamin Payne tagged along on a historical tour of Flannery O'Connor's childhood home turned museum in Savannah, where she spent her first 13 years, a whole third of her life. The tour was led by the House museum's director, Janie Bragg. She begins in the bedroom of O'Connor's parents, standing next to Flannery's baby crib.
Janie Bragg: I want everybody to walk up to any of these three windows. You can move the curtains to decide if you need to, but I would like for everyone to get a really good look at the view that the O'Connor's had from their private quarters. The spires of Saint John the Baptist. That's one of five largest Catholic cathedrals in the entire country, and they can see it from their beds. It's the first thing they see when they wake up in the morning.
Catholics made up 1% or less of the population while Flannery was being raised here in Savannah, but she never felt like a minority because she was literally sleeping under the shadow of the cathedral and surrounded by this insular Catholic communal bubble. And of course, it infused her for the rest of her life. For the rest of Flannery's life, personally, professionally and creatively, everything went back to her faith. I look at the crib and up out the window and I think, well, yeah, how could it not? Her whole world really revolved around that cathedral and her Catholicism. This is very classically a row house. Generally, row houses are tall and always row houses are skinny. They are required to be less than 25 feet wide. This house is not even 19 feet wide.
Janie Bragg: At the top of the stairs is going to be the smallest room in this house. It was their bathroom, which sounds unimportant. It was Flannery's favorite room. I generally call it Flannery's sunroom instead of the bathroom—gets great light. She would take that room over, decorate it wall to wall in stolen flowers from Cousin Katie's fancy garden next door. She would sit in the tub without water, read, write, draw and paint. She even hosted her play dates inside of that bathroom. She called them the Merriweather Girls. And to join the Merriweather girls. She made you read Poe or Grimm's Fairy Tales in the tub and be brave enough to come back the next week. If you didn't pass the test, you were not a Merriweather girl. Yeah, I just love it. I think we should all do that for our relationships moving forward. So we'll talk about something cheerier, which is the courtyard. Now, I'm going to open this back door so that you can take a peek.
So the courtyard was redesigned and implemented in the early 90s during the full restoration of the property. While the O'Connor's were here, it was a dirt yard and a chicken coop. Flannery loved it. She spent the majority of her time outside with these chickens. As an only child, they were her playmates. She made full outfits for her backyard chickens. We're talking underwear. She put her chickens on leashes. She walked them around town wearing full handmade outfits. Maybe this is why people thought she was weird. I don't know. They all had funny names like Aloysius—just the most Irish names you can possibly think of. To me, this dirt yard is where we got the writer we know and love. It was her blank canvas to be imaginative and especially as an only child. It really encouraged her to get creative and entertain herself.
Sofi Gratas: That was Janie Bragg, executive director of the Flannery O'Connor Childhood Home and Museum in Savannah. O'Connor would have turned 100 years old today. This story was produced by GPB's Benjamin Payne.
Story 9:
Sofi Gratas: And now for some sports news, the Atlanta World Cup host committee has unveiled a poster for Atlanta's participation in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Designed by Atlanta artist Jose Hadathy, the poster is one of 16 to be unveiled over the next month, one for each host city. The posters most prominent features are a golden soccer ball inside of a peach, the city skyline, and a MARTA train. But it also includes about 10 other icons of the city, including Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the Georgia capital, the birth home of Martin Luther King Jr, and the Krog Street Tunnel. Hadathy currently serves as the creative design manager at Atlanta United, and says the poster is aimed at capturing the city's history, culture and connection to soccer.
Sofi Gratas: All right, that's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. If you would like to learn more about these stories, visit GPB.org/news. If you haven't yet, subscribe to this podcast. Take a moment right now. It'll keep us current in your podcast feed. Got feedback? We would love to hear it. Email us at GeorgiaToday@gpb.org. I'm Sofi Gratas and we'll see you tomorrow.
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For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news
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