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Georgia Today: Missing health coverage for kids; Georgia prison deaths; Falcons owner Arthur Blank
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On the Wednesday, Dec. 20 edition of Georgia Today: Administrative mistakes have left left many Georgia children without health coverage; Georgia prisons have their most violent year since before the pandemic; and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank addresses the team's disappointing season.
Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Wednesday, Dec. 20. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode: Administrative mistakes have left many Georgia children without health coverage. Georgia prisons have their most violent years since before the pandemic; and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank addresses the team's disappointing season. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.
Story 1:
Peter Biello: Plaintiffs who successfully sued to overturn Georgia's state and federal political boundaries told a judge today that new maps approved in a recent special legislative session still illegally harm Black voters and should be rejected. Lawyers for the state argued the maps comply with his order to draw new Black majority districts, even if the plaintiffs don't like their partisan leanings. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones says he'll rule on the maps by Jan. 16. If he rules against the state, he could appoint a special master to draw the maps.
Story 2:
Peter Biello: Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger narrowly has avoided being investigated by the State Election Board. The board yesterday deadlocked 2 to 2 on a motion to probe Raffensperger over his handling of the 2020 election. The effort highlighted continued skepticism over the election results despite three vote counts and multiple investigations that confirmed Joe Biden's victory. The board's acting chairman, Pat Mashburn, says he's received lots of emails urging the board to investigate Raffensperger.
Pat Mashburn: There is an overwhelming and mistaken trend in these emails that the commenters desire that the State Election Board embark on an open-ended investigation of the Secretary of state. And I just don't see any authority in the General Assembly for a broad ranging, open-ended investigation.
Peter Biello: Two members of the board, one appointed by the state Republican Party and one appointed by the state House voted for the investigation.
Story 3:
Peter Biello: Georgia is planning a temporary spending surge to help state agencies handle the massive task of determining Medicaid eligibility for nearly 3 million people. The state is more than halfway through the process, called unwinding, required after the end of the pandemic era protections that blocked states from dropping people from the program. GPB's Sofi Gratas reports, administrative errors have left many Georgia children without coverage, even though they're still eligible.
Sofi Gratas: In a letter directed to Gov. Brian Kemp from the Federal Department of Health and Human Services, the agency urges Georgia officials to stop taking kids off Medicaid who are still eligible. Georgia has the third-highest number of total unenrolled kids at 149,000 since March. It's one of nine states that received letters on Monday, and of those, one of three without full Medicaid expansion. In response came a funding announcement from Georgia's agencies in charge of the unwinding. In January, $54 million in leftover American Rescue Plan funds will help Public Health hire over 100 temporary staff to act as caseworkers answer emails and do direct outreach for Medicaid members most at risk of losing coverage. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas.
Story 4:
Peter Biello: Chemical processing company Pinova says its plant in Brunswick will be fully decommissioned in December of next year. GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.
Benjamin Payne: In April, a massive fire broke out at Pinova's terpene resins factory, prompting a local state of emergency. No one died or was seriously injured, but more than 200 people lost their jobs. Pinova director of operations Ron Kurtz spoke this week at a meeting of the Oakland County Board of Commissioners.
Ron Kurtz: You have to realize we had a lot of salaries filled in here and we had a lot of contractors and all that. And if I had to put an estimated yearly volume of money that never left the 30-mile radius here would be somewhere around $60 million. So you now have this void, and this void has to be filled.
Benjamin Payne: He says Pinova is weighing offers from a dozen bidders for the roughly 300-acre property, and that a winning bid will be announced next month. For GPB News, I'm Benjamin Payne.
Story 5:
Peter Biello: A new nonprofit will take over operations of a string of Georgian newspapers and create a new standalone news outlet in Macon-Bibb County, all in the name of sustaining the older papers and averting so-called news deserts. GPB's Grant Blankenship has more.
Grant Blankenship: The Georgia Trust for Local News now operates 18 newsrooms, mostly central Georgia newspapers like the Sparta Ishmaelite, the Sandersville Progress and the Dublin Courier Herald. These were previously owned by the former head of Georgia's Democratic Party, DuBose Porter, who will remain as executive director of the Georgia Trust. The trust has also purchased the Albany Herald in Dougherty County and will create a brand-new yet-to-be-named newsroom in Macon. The Macon operation will get its start in 2024, thanks to a $5 million cash infusion from the Knight Foundation. The hope is that as a nonprofit with no presence in the stock market, the Georgia Trust for local news will be free to reinvest revenue back into newsrooms. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon.
Story 6:
Peter Biello: Electric car manufacturer Rivian has selected a contractor to build its $5 billion manufacturing facility east of Atlanta. Chicago-based developer Clayco said yesterday the company will oversee construction of the massive plant near Social Circle. Rivian is expected to begin production at the facility in 2026, creating more than 7,000 jobs. Construction was expected to be well underway by now. The project was announced two years ago, but litigation over zoning issues and the state's tax incentive package have delayed the project.
Story 7:
Peter Biello: In the past week, two incarcerated men were stabbed to death in Georgia's Central State Prison. That brings the total that's inside Georgia state prisons in the past month to six. According to data from the Department of Corrections, this has been its most violent year since before the COVID-19 pandemic. For a closer look at the contributing factors, we turn to Brian Randolph. He's the executive director of the Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia and has been tracking reports of deaths of incarcerated people. Thank you very much for speaking with me.
Brian Randolph: Absolutely. No worries.
Peter Biello: So when someone dies in prison, how does their loved one go about learning more about what happened?
Brian Randolph: Most of the time when someone dies in prison, their loved ones are left in the complete dark on what actually happened to their loved one or know the injuries that they sustained to cause their death. So there's not many questions that's answered, when someone dies.
Peter Biello: And does your organization have more tools at its disposal to get answers from the Department of Corrections? And if so, when you learn something, what can you do with that info?
Brian Randolph: Well, we do. We use the open records requests and we try to get the incident reports of the Department of Corrections' narrative of exactly what happened. We share that information, what we learn from that report, you know, with their family members or loved ones and kind of let them go from there with the remedies that they want to use to maybe seek justice or something.
Peter Biello: Remedies like a civil lawsuit?
Brian Randolph: The civil lawsuit is very — the No. 1 goal that families and loved ones go after, after they find out exactly what happened.
Peter Biello: Mm hmm. State data showed that the Georgia Department of Corrections has one corrections officer for every dozen incarcerated people. Do you believe that that ratio has any bearing on the number of people who die in Georgia prisons?
Brian Randolph: Yes, I 100% do. That is a leading cause in the violence in, you know, that we're seeing now. Unfortunately, some — you have inmates who are gang members and, you know, you have the gangs actually now running these prisons because of the lack of staff that, you know, is a major problem in almost every state prison in Georgia, so.
Peter Biello: The Georgia Department of Corrections says when we talk about prison violence, it's important to understand that three quarters of people incarcerated in Georgia committed violent offenses. When the doc says something like that, what do you think they're trying to say?
Brian Randolph: Well, I mean, you know, I guess they're trying to say that, you know, that we locked up violent offenders. We took a violent offender off of the streets. So what do you expect for them to do while they're in our custody and our care, you know, to to continue their violent ways?
Peter Biello: Is there any legislation ready for the next legislative session that you think could make prisons a safer place?
Brian Randolph: I have not seen any. I know that there's a petition going around for a Smart Sentencing Act, which is just going to target the first offenders and, I think, also the nonviolent offenders, you know, but I haven't read too much into that petition to to really say say much about it. But I do know that that's going around.
Peter Biello: Smart sentencing. Would that be in the vein of trying to keep nonviolent offenders out of prison?
Brian Randolph: Yep. From what I've read so far, that would be to keep them out of prison, to come up with different sentencing options for them. You know, you have offenders that go in with very, very minor charges which are felonies. They also don't make it out alive. You know, that's that's where we are now, where you have people that have short amount of time and, you know, their families are planning the funerals, unfortunately so.
Peter Biello: What would you like to see happen in the legislative session that could improve things in prisons?
Brian Randolph: We have to tackle the the prison conditions. They're horrific. We also have to tackle the administrative issues first, so we can keep these people alive. Right now, there's just — they don't have to staff. So, you know, they have to come up with a comprehensive plan to tackle their — their staffing issue. And I don't know if any legislation can do that. You know, it's just that day in time that we live in. It's that, you know, no one is going to or no one wants to work in corrections.
Peter Biello: Well, Brian Randolph, executive director of the Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia. Thank you so much for speaking with me. I really do appreciate it.
Brian Randolph: Absolutely no problem.
Story 7:
Peter Biello: If you're looking for a Christmas film with some Georgia in it, a new holiday romance set in West Georgia is now out on streaming services. A Perfect Christmas Pairing was shot in the fall of 2022 around La Grange, including its festively decorated downtown and Nutwood Winery. The story involves a winery, a top chef and a travel writer, and some romantic sparks between the characters. Importantly, the film uses the real names of La Grange, the winery and other locations, which help to show off the city and area businesses.
Story 8:
Peter Biello: Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank is non-committal about the future of the team's head coach, Arthur Smith. Questions about Smith heated up again after the Falcons lost to the woeful Charlotte Panthers on Sunday. Speaking with GPB's Jeff Hullinger yesterday, Blank addressed the team's disappointing season.
Arthur Blank: Obviously this has not been the kind of year we expected and I — you would hear that first from Coach Smith. You'd hear it from our fans here, from our players. So we understand that. We understand the challenges. So the end of the year we'll, you know, assess where we are and go from there.
Jeff Hullinger: Does he have to get to the playoffs to come back?
Arthur Blank: No, I don't — I mean, I — that was never really a requirement. Requirement was that we have a, you know, a more competitive team this year, a winning team this year. And I think that, you know, through this part of the season, it's been mixed, quite honestly. And that's what I think — it's what the coach would say, you know, and he's Arthur is a very, very honest, very — he looks at himself very critically. So he's not you know, he comes from a beautiful family that that, you know, has great values. And he reflects those values in his leadership as best he can. So I you know, we'll see how the season plays out and go from there.
Jeff Hullinger: Quarterback situation's been tough this year.
Arthur Blank: It has been tough. Yeah. We certainly, you know, had high hopes for Desmond Ridder and he's done a lot of good things for us this year. But, you know, hasn't — he'd be the first to tell you it hasn't been the kind of consistent performer that, you know, we'd like him to be. And in this business, the NFL business or the business of college ball, you have turnovers, it's — it's a very tough, very tough thing to overcome.
Jeff Hullinger: And it's a public business. You got to please the fans.
Arthur Blank: Well, you gotta please the fans, but it's not — it is about pleasing the fans, but it's about really putting a product on the field that, you know, represents the best of our roster, the best of what we can put together. And in my case, you know, it's having the best people that we can with making the critical decisions. I don't want to be in a position ever of having to pick players. I've never done that. I wouldn't know how to do it, and I'm like a fan in that regard. I have opinions, but, you know, so does Jeff and so does everybody else in Atlanta. But I think it's really making sure we have the right people and making sure they're fully empowered, making sure they have all the resources and that they're making the decisions that we should make to put a winning product on the field. And that's their job.
Peter Biello: The Falcons are 6 and 8 with three games left to play. Smith is winding down his third season with the team as disgruntled fans flood social media with calls for him to be fired.
Peter Biello: And that is it for this edition of Georgia Today. If you want to learn more about these stories, check out our website, GPB.org/news. And take a moment to subscribe to this podcast. That way we will be back in your podcast feed tomorrow afternoon. And if you have feedback for us, or perhaps a story idea, let us know by email. The address is 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
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