On the Thursday, Feb. 6 edition of Georgia Today: Hundreds of people show up to the state capitol to demonstrate against president Donald Trump; legal challenges from local public housing authorities could hurt the way landlords are held accountable under law; and Democratic state senators want Georgia voters to decide on abortion access.

Georgia Today Podcast

Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, Feb. 6. I'm Orlando Montoya. On this podcast, you'll hear the latest reports from GPB news team. And you can send us ideas of your own. Send us feedback too, at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. Now, coming up on today's episode, we'll tell you about a protest at the state capitol. Hundreds of people showed up to demonstrate against President Trump and his policies. Legal challenges from local public housing authorities could hurt the way landlords are held accountable under the law. That's another story we'll have today. Also, Democratic state senators want Georgia voters to decide on abortion access.

Sally Harrell: We all know and love women of reproductive age, and we can't help but wonder: What if that happened to my loved one?

Orlando Montoya: These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

A view of the back of the Georgia State Capitol in Downtown Atlanta in an undated photo.

Caption

A view of the back of the Georgia Capitol in downtown Atlanta in an undated photo.

Credit: GPB News

Story 1:

Orlando Montoya: The Georgia House this morning approved an amended budget for the fiscal year that ends in June. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports on what's in the $40 billion package.

Sarah Kallis: The amended budget adds millions of dollars in Hurricane Helene relief, school safety initiatives, and money to make state prison repairs. House Appropriations Committee chair Matt Hatchett said the funds will address urgent needs.

Matt Hatchett: This budget contains very important additions, primarily as it relates to Hurricane Helene — Hurricane Helene and the safety and security of our prisons.

Sarah Kallis: The budget, which adds to the current fiscal year's budget, will now move to the Senate for their approval. Both chambers still need to vote on the full budget for the upcoming fiscal year by the end of the legislative session. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis at the state capitol.

 

Story 2:

Orlando Montoya: Hundreds of people protested President Donald Trump and his administration at the state capitol today. In two separate demonstrations, participants expressed a variety of concerns, including immigration operations, Elon Musk's powers and the removal of certain terms from official websites. 19-year-old Ashley Hammon came to the Capitol from Northeast Georgia's Hart County.

Ashley Hammon: The amount of rights being taken away and the push for people like me and my friends, my family to hide is — is what I'm here to protest.

Orlando Montoya: The two grassroots protests grew out of posts on social media. Similar protests arose in other state capitals across the country.

Abortion

Caption

Abortion

Story 3:

Orlando Montoya: Democrats in the state Senate want Georgia voters to decide on abortion access. A resolution unveiled yesterday aims to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would, if passed, protect access to abortion until fetal viability. Atlanta State Sen. Sally Harrell.

Sally Harrell: We all know and love women of reproductive age, and we can't help but wonder: What if that happened to my loved one? To my daughter? To my granddaughter? To my wife? To me?

Orlando Montoya: The resolution would require two-thirds of the Legislature to approve its placement on the ballot, so it's unlikely to gain that support in the Republican-controlled state legislature.

Carlos Ross holds the box containing the ashes of his son, Carmelo Ross, who was 15 when he was shot and killed at the same spot two other people were killed just a couple of years prior in Macon’s Anthony Homes, known to residents as Bird City.

Caption

Carlos Ross holds the box containing the ashes of his son, Carmelo Ross, who was 15 when he was shot and killed at the same spot two other people were killed just a couple of years prior in Macon’s Anthony Homes, known to residents as Bird City.

Credit: Grant Blankenship/GPB News

Story 4:

Orlando Montoya: Local public housing authorities have been fighting in court to try to change the way they can be held responsible by tenants under Georgia law. At risk is the ability for people who live in public housing — and who are hurt living there — to hold their landlords accountable. GPB's Sofi Gratas has more.

Sofi Gratas: Carlos Ross remembers his son Carmelo Ross as "Mello." Ross jokes that his son wanted to be Mr. Superstar.

Carlos Ross: He wanted to be a rapper.

Sofi Gratas: He pulls up one of his songs posted online.

Carlos Ross: He liked to go and play basketball. They just pretty much liked to hang out. I always twistin' his hair all the time. Cuz he had long hair, dreads. Long dreads. And he was always twisting his hair out, looking in the mirror.

Sofi Gratas: Carmelo was sweet, always calling his dad to check in and make sure he'd taken his medicine.

Carlos Ross: Mello made it known to you gon' love him. Cuz he's gonna do something to make you laugh. He'd make you mad, too.

Sofi Gratas: Like when he got a tattoo in secret.

Carlos Ross: He gon' make you laugh.

Sofi Gratas: It was three days after Carlos Ross's birthday when 15-year-old Carmelo was killed in a drive by shooting while visiting Anthony Homes, a public housing complex on Macon's West Side. Carmelo was with some friends when it happened. One was shot in the hand.

Carlos Ross: He said a car came rolled by. And then, like they say, like the third or fourth time the car came back, they went to shootin'.

Sofi Gratas: Ross and Carmelo's mom sued the Macon Housing Authority over Carmelo's death. They alleged that despite knowing about criminal activity on the street where their son died, the housing authority had not done enough to keep the apartment complex safe. Homicides had happened there before, based on death certificates: In an area less than a mile from where Carmelo was shot, about one person had been killed every year since 2019. Another young person was killed there just a year after Carmelo. The Macon Housing Authority denied responsibility through something called sovereign immunity.

James Adomoli: Meaning that they cannot be sued except in very particular circumstances because they are part of the city government, county government, municipality, government, depending on where they are.

Sofi Gratas: James Adomoli, a lawyer out of Atlanta, represented Carmelo Ross's parents in court. Sovereign immunity dates back to British common law and the idea that the king can do no wrong. Today, it protects state and federal agencies like the post office or police departments from some lawsuits.

James Adomoli: Essentially saying we don't want all of these lawsuits draining the state treasury.

Sofi Gratas: Only recently have housing authorities like Macon's started asking for the same protection from tenant lawsuits.

James Adomoli: They can't necessarily afford to be anywhere else. And then we say, sorry, the courthouse doors are closed to you. That's a problem.

Sofi Gratas: This summer, Georgia's Supreme Court will rehear a case out of Augusta after lower courts ruled to grant sovereign immunity to the housing authority there. Mike Walker is a personal injury attorney in Atlanta.

Mike Walker: The plaintiff in that case, a lady named Christina Guy. She was shot on the front porch of her apartment.

Sofi Gratas: It was during a robbery. Guy sued the Augusta Housing Authority over negligence. She lost that case. So she appealed.

Mike Walker: Really, if you look it up, it's an extremely dangerous apartment complex. Tons of crime. And it's a very unsafe place to live.

Sofi Gratas: Enough public housing tenants have sued over crime in Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus and Macon that their landlords submitted a letter of support for sovereign immunity during the appeals process in the Guy case. The Georgia Supreme Court now has that amicus brief and the materials they will later consider. Mike Austin is the housing director in Macon. He says suing housing authorities over crime in public housing is problematic because they, quote, "can never guarantee safety."

Mike Austin: Unfortunately, crime happens everywhere. But we can do things and we do do things to help with safety.

Sofi Gratas: After 15-year-old Carmelo Ross was killed, the housing authority installed surveillance cameras around high-risk neighborhoods and paid for extra officers to patrol at night. Since then, the trend of a homicide a year where Carmelo died has ended. But safety cost money, which Austin says housing authorities don't have a lot of.

Mike Austin: If you're going to be an affordable housing operator, you've got to be very, very disciplined because you have a finite amount of rent revenue that you've got to deal with. But there's no cap on expenses.

Sofi Gratas: And there is a public housing shortage. Hundreds of people are on waitlists for apartments around the state. The judge that sided with housing authorities in the Augusta case argued that budgets for public housing, which have gone up with more lawsuits and higher insurance premiums, should be protected because it's an essential government function. But attorney Mike Walker argues that by giving housing authorities this power to protect themselves from expensive litigation, it's not just victims of violent crime that could be kept from seeking damages.

Mike Walker: It's my belief that the housing authorities are raising this argument in all cases.

Sofi Gratas: Like those that deal with hazardous conditions inside apartments, including mold or lead pipes. Meanwhile, Walker and other attorneys have been told by judges that they have to wait for a Supreme Court decision on sovereign immunity before ongoing lawsuits, some years into arguments, can move forward.

Judge: Let's come on the record and call the case of Arthur Anthony.

Sofi Gratas: Inside a courtroom last fall, Arthur Anthony was told he will have to wait for relief, too. Anthony sued the Augusta Housing Authority in 2023 over the death of his 8-year-old daughter, Arbrie, a year earlier.

Jamila McDaniel: You could tell that she was going to be something special.

Sofi Gratas: This is Arbrie's aunt Jamila McDaniel, speaking in place of her brother, Arbrie's dad. Arbrie, like 15-year-old Carmelo Ross, was shot in a random act of violence while playing outside. Later, known gang members would be arrested. It happened at Dogwood Terrace, the same apartment complex at the center of the case that's headed to the state Supreme Court. It's also where McDaniel grew up.

Jamila McDaniel: I saw a couple of people get killed before in front of me. It was all random, like I said.

Sofi Gratas: She says crime hasn't stopped.

Jamila McDaniel: I blame them. They're responsible for what happened to her. They didn't make the probable precautions like they were supposed to.

Sofi Gratas: McDaniel says installing security cameras like they did in Macon hasn't been enough. She would like to see security gates at the entrance of a neighborhood like Dogwood Terrace. But now the city is tearing the apartments down. All residents are being relocated. The Augusta Housing Authority says it's because the apartments were out of code and that they plan to build something new.

Unidenfied child: You gotta smile. You gotta smile, Dad.

Sofi Gratas: Back in Macon, Carlos Ross was able to move his family from the house they used to live in down the street from where his son was killed after he and Carmelo's mom settled their lawsuit with the Macon Housing Authority out of court for an undisclosed amount of money.

Carlos Ross: It don't excite me. Like, the money? I never had that much before ever in my life but it don't excite me. Like, I'm not really. I'd rather have him back.

Unidenfied child: Will you play basketball with me?

Carlos Ross: Yeah. Hold up.

Sofi Gratas: Ross says For the sake of Carmelo's siblings and his son's friends, he hopes the city of Macon does more to stem violence in the places they live. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas in Macon.

 

Story 5:

Orlando Montoya: Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has introduced a plan he's calling a state-level department of government efficiency. The Republican's plan passed in the state Senate last year but didn't make it out of the House. Today, he told GPB's Diana Lowry the effort mirrors that being advanced by the Trump administration.

Burt Jones: We always add more regulations but very few times do we take them away. And and I think that it's always good for us to do a reset on our regulatory fronts. And that's what this bill would do. It got a lot of attention now because that's something that they're doing on the Trump administration is moving towards doing on the national front.

Orlando Montoya: And we'll have more from Jones on that issue and other issues on tonight's episode of GPB's Lawmakers at 7:00 on your GPB TV station. And if you happen to catch this after the program airs, you can find Lawmakers at GPB.org/lawmakers.

Story 6:

Orlando Montoya: Some relief for Southeast Georgia's water woes could be coming if funding approved by the Georgia House today makes it into law. State representatives approved an amended 2025 fiscal year budget that includes a half billion dollars for a new water intake on the Savannah River. The measure is aimed at supporting Savannah-area growth, especially the huge new Hyundai electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Bryan County.

 

Story 7:

Orlando Montoya: Columbus is making Super Bowl Sunday an exception to its ban on Sunday alcohol sales. State law allows local governments to designate one Sunday a year as an exception to their Sunday alcohol bans. Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson said in a news release on Tuesday that that exception this year would be this upcoming Sunday, Feb. 9.

 

Story 8:

Orlando Montoya: And that's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. As always, we encourage your feedback and encourage you to go to GPB.org/news if you'd like to learn more about the stories that you hear on this podcast. We also encourage you to hit subscribe on this podcast — that helps you and it helps us — so you can stay current with us in your feed. I'm Orlando Montoya. Thanks for tuning in.

---

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

Tags: Atlanta  Georgia  podcast  news