Georgia Today: Defendant in Laken Riley murder case appears in court; More election board challenges

Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Friday, Oct. 11. I'm Orlando Montoya. On today's episode, the man accused of killing UGA nursing student Laken Riley appears in court. A new lawsuit from election officials in Muscogee County joins others challenging the state election board. And for Atlanta Pride Weekend, I'll talk with a recipient of this year's Georgia Opera of the Year Awards about his winning book aimed at helping young readers live authentically. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Orlando Montoya: The man accused of killing a nursing student whose body was found on the University of Georgia campus faced a court hearing today as his trial looms next month. Jose Ibarra appeared in court to hear motions in his case. He's charged with murder and other crimes in the February killing of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old Augusta University College of Nursing student. Jury selection is scheduled to begin on Nov. 13.

Story 2:

Orlando Montoya: Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, made an Atlanta Pride weekend pitch for his wife, Kamala Harris, yesterday. Georgia native Julia Roberts added some star power to the Atlanta rally.

Julia Roberts: So I'm just here to spread a little bit of love and a little bit of rah-rah and a little bit of "talk to your friends, talk to your neighbors, talk to the people who don't believe what you believe." And gently lure them. Gently, gently, make them see what we see so clearly. Because some people just don't. And it doesn't make them bad or wrong. It just means they're not there yet.

Orlando Montoya: GPB's Sarah Kallis has more.

Sarah Kallis: Emhoff and Roberts rallied voters at an event in Atlanta aimed at engaging LGBT voters ahead of Atlanta Pride this weekend. Emhoff spoke about Harris' record on LGBT rights and urged Georgians to vote.

Doug Emhoff: If Georgia shows up and comes out like it did in 2020 for President Biden, like it did for Sen. Warnock. You can see what a difference Georgia made last time.

Sarah Kallis: Roberts also spoke at a reproductive rights rally in Cherokee County this week. Other campaigns are holding Pride events as well. The Trump campaign is partnering with the Log Cabin Republicans for a phone banking event, and Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver will march in the parade. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis in Atlanta.

Story 3:

Orlando Montoya: A lawsuit brought by elections officials in Muscogee County has joined others challenging the State Election Board. At issue is a new rule requiring the number of ballots cast this election to be counted by hand. GPB's Grant Blankenship has more.

Grant Blankenship: Like the other lawsuits, the filing by the Muscogee County Board of Elections and Registration challenges the so-called hand count rule by asserting state law doesn't support it. Attorney General Chris Carr told the State Election Board as much. The court filing also asks questions like who will pay poll workers if ballot counting stretches for days? And how do you arrange for security for ballots which by law should have been tabulated on election night? As the unelected elections supervisor, Nancy Boren, did not vote to file the suit. But she supports the board's assertion that the hand count rule is impossible to comply with.

Nancy Boren: It was a unanimous vote. The Republican, the Democrat and the three council appointees all voted affirmatively to proceed.

Grant Blankenship: A hearing and a similar suit brought by the Democratic National Committee is scheduled for Oct. 15. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon.

Story 4:

Orlando Montoya: Hispanic Americans are much less likely to receive an organ transplant compared to non-Hispanic whites. That's according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, A Georgia agency that facilitates organ transplants is encouraging Hispanics to register as organ donors during Hispanic Heritage Month, which ends on Oct. 15. Martina Castaneda of McDonough, south of Atlanta, received a kidney transplant in 2007 and now helps the agency Life Link Georgia to register organ donors among area Latinos.

Martina Castaneda: When you die, it's giving life to another person who is suffering, especially because your organs are not needed in the heavens. They are needed here. And you give them another chance at life as they have given it to me.

Orlando Montoya: Although organs are not matched by race or ethnicity, having a diverse pool of donors can make it easier to match donors and recipients, according to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. In 2023, about 36% of Hispanics currently on the U.S. organ transplant waiting list received a transplant, compared to 58% of non-Hispanic whites.

Story 5:

Orlando Montoya: Georgia residents using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program can buy hot food with SNAP through Nov. 7. The program usually prohibits hot food purchases, but federal agriculture officials granted a waiver on Tuesday to increase access to food after power outages as a result of Hurricane Helene.

Story 6:

Orlando Montoya: In-person help is now available for small business owners recovering from Hurricane Helene in the Augusta area. The Small Business Administration has opened a recovery center in Augusta after opening one in Valdosta. Also today, the Federal Emergency Management Agency added Atlanta's Fulton County and Southeast Georgia's Brantley County to those covered by the agency's individual assistance program.

Story 7:

Orlando Montoya: Uninsured Georgians are getting help replacing medications and medical equipment lost or damaged during Hurricane Helene. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said yesterday that it's activating an emergency program for disaster victims. Residents can ask for a free 30-day supply of some prescriptions at any pharmacy. That's part of the emergency prescription assistance program through Nov. 30. The help is limited to uninsured residents in counties that are part of the Hurricane Helene federal disaster declaration.

Story 8:

Orlando Montoya: Georgia consumer protection officials say they've received nearly 400 complaints about price gouging since Hurricane Helene ripped through the state two weeks ago. The Georgia Attorney general's consumer protection division says hotels, gas stations and grocery stores are among businesses suspected of illegally inflating prices to profit from the disaster. Consumers can report price gouging, home repair fraud or charityfraudcomplaints@consumer.georgia.gov. Price gouging protections are in effect in counties covered by state of emergency declarations until Oct. 16.

Story 9:

Orlando Montoya: A far-right news website and two former Georgia election workers have settled a defamation lawsuit stemming from falsehoods the website spread about the 2020 election. Terms of the agreement between the website, the Gateway Pundit, and the former election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shae Moss, were not disclosed in court filings this week. Gateway Pundit repeatedly bragged that it was the first to identify the two women as the culprits in the alleged fraud even after Georgia elections officials debunked the allegations, Freeman and Moss testified the lies led to harassment, including death threats. They've settled similar claims with the conservative One America News Network and former Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Story 10:

Orlando Montoya: After years of working around books as a senior advisor to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Georgia native Jeffrey Dale Lofton last year released a book of his own. Drawing on his own childhood and adolescence, his first novel, Red Clay Suzie, centers on the story of a physically misshapen gay boy growing up in rural West Georgia in the 1960s and '70s. It recently won him a Georgia Author of the Year award from the Georgia Writers Association, and I'm pleased that it brings him now to our studio. Jeffrey, thanks for coming to GPB.

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: Thank you so much for having me, Orlando. I'm so excited to be here.

Orlando Montoya: You grew up in Warm Springs. How did your early life there lead to this book?

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: I did grow up in Warm Springs and my early life was like Philbet in the book. My — I was born gay with a significant skeletal malformation. And from as early as I can remember, 4 or 5 years old — you know, when we were called "young'uns" in Georgia — I was the subject of bullying and body shaming and homophobia from even members of my own extended family. And when I first went off to college, it was the first time I was away from my family. And all of that fear and frustration and humiliation and anger — it was like a dam burst in my head and it just flowed out. Members of my perfectly imperfect family in that life.

Orlando Montoya: And the scenes between Philbet and his grandfather are the book's most tender and tear-inducing for me. How does the grandfather comfort the boy?

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: The grandfather sees the child for the person he is and — and uses every opportunity, even though the child does not understand it, to ... imbue life lessons in every interaction. There's a scene which is among my favorites in the garden, the vegetable garden that separates Philbet's house from Granddaddy's house. And in that garden, Granddaddy teaches life lessons that he hopes will help Philbet navigate the world when the granddaddy is no longer there.

Orlando Montoya: Philbet's best friend is James, a Black boy who also is a kind of outsider character in the book. Are you inspired by outsider characters?

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: I believe that it's important for outsiders to know that they are not alone in the world. And that's really the definition of being an outsider. You don't feel that you belong to anyone or anything. And so I do identify with the outsider, and I write for at-risk youth. That's my mission, to write stories that show that you don't have to be perfect to be happy. You don't have to be perfect to live your life. And like for — here's a, here's an interesting statistic: 39% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide last year and 12% of them actually attempted it. And when I learned that, it just — it shocked me. I can't even describe how surprised I was. And so I write in this book in particular, is to help those kids who struggle now, as I did when I was younger, to know that there is a way forward.

Orlando Montoya: I think you wrote in another interview that you were inspired by To Kill A Mockingbird and the outsider character there as well.

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: I am. In fact, I you know, I started writing Red Clay Suzie years ago when I went to college. I actually started writing in journals as a way to heal. It wasn't — it was an instinct. No one said, "Why don't you write about it? It might make you feel better," it just was something that happened, and I intended to continue because it was a salve on an open wound. It was — it was an expunging of my insides. I've come to think of it as an exorcism by exposition. But I didn't continue. I put those journals away after I got so overwhelmed with schoolwork and I didn't go back for 30 years. But fast forward to just a few years ago, and I went back to those journals and I realized that I had to finish this story. So I picked it up and I started writing again. So I started writing it for myself, but I finished it for those kids who are struggling today, as I did when I was younger.

Orlando Montoya: As Philbet enters his teens, he holds on to childlike things a lot longer than his peers. And one example of that is his obsession with toy cars. But he also doesn't seem to understand adult ideas like sexual and racial dynamics between people. What ultimately pushes him into adulthood?

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: Well, he is very sheltered. That's the world that he is in. And because of his physical challenges and because he feels like an outsider, he doesn't engage. He hides himself away from the world. And it is the — the discovery of an older boy who he is — he's besotted with this, this boy named Knox. He doesn't feel worthy of the attention of Knox, but it awakens in him something that he knows is more than he's ever experienced and is — and represents, I think, the world outside of the small, conservative community they live in.

Orlando Montoya: Philbet knows that his love for boys isn't wrong, but that's not something that all gay teens know, especially in that era, at that time. What gave him that knowledge?

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: Well, it is a book and inspired by true life events. That was not my experience. I wanted to create a story that affirmed who we are and what makes us unique in the world. And I wanted this — this young man, this boy, this young man, to know that what he was, was okay. Was not only okay, but it was a good thing. And so I intentionally gave him that idea that whatever this is, whatever it turns out to be, it is right. And there's no reason to be ashamed of it.

Orlando Montoya: So in your experience growing up, it was shame.

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: My life was doused, imbued, colored with shame all the way through.

Orlando Montoya: Well, how did you get through it?

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: I — when I left home and started writing, when I left home initially going to college and started writing, that was my way of, as I said, you know, expunging my insides.

Orlando Montoya: I mean, how did you get from 14 to 18.

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: 14 to 18? I struggled. I hid myself. I hid my physical self. I hid my — my emotions, my heart. And it was not easy. I — I actually some mornings look in the mirror and I am grateful, but surprised that I'm still here.

Orlando Montoya: By the time he turns 18, Philbet realizes that he has to leave Warm Springs but he also finds out that there were more people close to him who could have been supportive had he been more honest earlier. Is that one lesson that you hope readers will draw from the book?

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: It is. I wish that I had been my true, authentic self much earlier, because what I've learned in the years since is that — especially when dealing with bullies. Bullies are, I call them paper predators who have no more power over you than you yourself forgive them. And once you realize that, it's as if a gentle wind just comes along and lifts them away. And I wanted to make that a theme of the book. To give young people who are struggling the courage to tell them that there are examples of people who do go through the fire, but they come out.

Orlando Montoya: Readers will want to know what happened next.

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: Well, I am actually writing another Red Clay book that follows Philbet and Knox over the next four years of Philbet s life. And it's a — I have a full draft, but it's, uh, as they say, it's not quite ready for prime time yet.

Orlando Montoya: I've been speaking with Jeffrey Dale Lofton. His book is Red Clay Suzie. Thanks for talking about it with me.

Jeffrey Dale Lofton: Thank you for having me.

Orlando Montoya: And thanks for listening to today's edition of Georgia Today. If you'd like to learn more about the stories that you hear on this podcast, visit our website constantly updating with stories from around the Peach State. It's at GPB.org/news. If you have feedback for us, you can send that to us at GeorgiaToday@gpb.org. And as always, hit that subscribe button if you haven't done that already. You hear it from us just about every day. We'd like you to do that now, so you stay current with us in your feed. I'm Orlando Montoya. It's been a pleasure to fill in for the vacationing Peter Biello this week. He'll return next week. We'll have no podcast on Monday because of the holiday. Have a great weekend.

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For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news