Georgia Today: VP Harris to visit Georgia again; UGA player dismissed from team; Pregnancy in prison

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, Aug. 1. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, Vice President Harris plans to be in Georgia again next week. A UGA football player has been dismissed from the team after his arrest, and a federal investigation finds pregnant women in prison aren't always getting the basic care they need. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: Vice President Kamala Harris is planning another campaign stop in Georgia next week. The Harris campaign says the vice president and a running mate, who is expected to be announced in the coming days, will be in Savannah next Friday. Harris held a rally in Atlanta to energize Georgia voters earlier this week. Former President Donald Trump and running mate Sen. J.D. Vance are set to hold a rally on Saturday in Atlanta.

Story 2:

Peter Biello: Georgia U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock is introducing a bill meant to address the affordable housing crisis in the state and across the country. GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.

Benjamin Payne: The American Housing and Economic Mobility Act would spend over $500 billion over 10 years to build nearly 3 million new housing units in the U.S. This would lower rents for lower and middle income families by an average of 10%, according to an independent analysis by the financial research firm Moody's. Here's Sen.Warnock, a native of Savannah.

Raphael Warnock: What this bill will do is incentivize my beloved hometown and so many other places to reimagine what the city can be if we provide more housing to more people at an affordable rate by simply bringing more houses online.

Benjamin Payne: The legislation faces an uphill battle in Congress, though, because it also calls for an increase to the estate tax on the wealthiest Americans, something that Republicans have historically opposed. For GPB News, I'm Benjamin Payne in Savannah.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: Bringing in roughly $80 billion a year, agriculture is one of Georgia's leading industries. Now, state senators are considering legislative approaches to curb agricultural land loss over a series of committee meetings that started on Tuesday in Statesboro. GPB's Sofi Gratas has the highlights.

Sofi Gratas: Only 10% of Georgia's land is permanently preserved, owned by the government or in easements. The rest is privately owned. And population growth is fueling more private development. A decades-long study by Georgia Tech shows around 20% of farmland along the eastern border and in Southwest Georgia has been converted to something else. But Catherine Moore with the Georgia Conservancy points to residential development, mostly on large plots.

Catherine Moore: And since 1974, Georgia's developed land has grown to 2.9 million acres. The vast majority of that development is, in fact, low intensity.

Sofi Gratas: That makes smart development decisions around housing imperative for conservation, she says. The Committee on Farmland Protection will meet next in August. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas.

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Prison

Story 4:

Peter Biello: An ongoing federal investigation into the mistreatment of pregnant women in U.S. prisons and jails has found more than 200 reports of human rights abuses, said Georgia's Sen. Jon Ossoff at a hearing on Tuesday. Women testified that even basic reproductive care is not guaranteed while incarcerated. Jessica Umberger of Atlanta says while at a prison medical facility, she was coerced by corrections staff to deliver via C-section.

Jessica Umberger: That was something; I was like, "I feel like I don't even have control over my own body." Like, the judge said nothing about that when he sentenced me to prison.

Peter Biello: Umberger was transferred to Georgia's Lee Arrendale State Prison in Habersham County, where she says her medical needs were ignored.

Jessica Umberger: I'm — I'm still healing. My daughter will be 6 and I'm still healing.

Peter Biello: While Georgia law, in part, prohibits the shackling of women in labor or placement in solitary confinement after delivery, U.S. senators at the hearing made clear that they found evidence that these laws are often violated.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: A Georgia judge chastised state prosecutors yesterday for mishandling confidential emails between a defense attorney and three Atlanta activists who face RICO charges connected to violent protests against a planned police and firefighter training center that critics call "Cop City." Fulton County Judge Kimberly Desmond Adams says the Georgia attorney general's office committed gross negligence in how it handled privileged attorney/client emails. Defense attorneys asked Adams to disqualify state prosecutors from the case and to dismiss the indictment against the three defendants. Adams did not immediately rule on the issue.

Story 6:

Peter Biello: A not-for-profit blood center serving the Southeast has been hit by a ransomware attack. OneBlood said yesterday the attack disabled their information technology, forcing it to operate at a reduced capacity in Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas. The blood center is using manual processes to maintain basic operations, and is asking for extra donations of platelets and blood to keep supplying more than 250 hospitals. OneBlood says it is working with cybersecurity specialists, as well as federal, state and local agencies to determine the scope of the attack and how to respond.

Credit: Capitol Beat

Story 7:

Peter Biello: The pizza chain Papa John's has named its new CEO. Todd Penegor most recently served as CEO of Wendy's. In a statement, Papa John's called him a proven leader with two decades of experience in the restaurant and consumer goods industries. Papa John's is co headquartered in Atlanta and Louisville, Kentucky, and is the world's third-largest pizza delivery company with more than 5,900 restaurants in approximately 50 countries and territories.

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Delta

Story 8:

Peter Biello: Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is pausing flights between New York JFK and Tel Aviv due to the Israel-Hamas war and rising tensions in the region. The flights are paused through tomorrow. Delta says a travel waiver is available for impacted customers. The company says some partner airlines remain bookable through delta.com. The company says it continues to monitor security and intelligence reports.

Story 9:

Peter Biello: Cardi B has filed for divorce from her husband, Atlanta rapper Offset. A representative for Cardi B confirmed the filing. Cardi B did not directly comment on the news of her divorce, but on Instagram posted a photo of her on a rooftop holding her stomach to reveal a baby bump. With every ending comes a new beginning, she wrote on the social media platform. Cardi B and Offset have two children together. They married in 2017 in Atlanta, and Cardi B had previously filed for divorce from Offset in 2020, saying her marriage was "irretrievably broken."

Story 10:

Peter Biello: Georgia receiver Rodarius Thomas has been dismissed from the team. In a press conference this afternoon, coach Kirby Smart says he spoke with Thomas on Tuesday. Thomas had been suspended indefinitely following his arrest last week on cruelty to children and misdemeanor battery charges. It was the second arrest for Thomas in two years. Thomas, a transfer from Mississippi State, was arrested by University of Georgia police in 2023 on a felony charge of false imprisonment and a misdemeanor count of family violence battery. Those charges were dropped. The Bulldogs open their season against Clemson on Aug. 31 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

Story 11:

Peter Biello: In baseball, the Atlanta Braves take on the Miami Marlins tonight at Truist Park. Charlie Morton is scheduled to get the start. The Braves are looking to end a four-game home slide. Matt Olson and Travis d'Arnaud hit back-to-back homers twice in yesterday's 6-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

Peter Biello: And that's all we've got for this edition of Georgia Today, but as always, we appreciate you tuning in. If you want to learn more about any of these stories, check out our website GPB.org/news. And now is a great time to subscribe to this podcast. It's going to be a busy week of news next week, and of course, we'll be back in your feed tomorrow with all the latest news from Georgia. If you've got feedback, we'd love to hear from you! Email is the best way to reach us. Our email 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