Georgia Today: Fed cuts to Medicaid and SNAP; Public safety bills in House; GA bridges score well

Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to Georgia Today. This podcast features the latest reports from the GPB News team. On today's episode: Cuts to Medicaid and SNAP won't just affect health and nutrition — they could also affect jobs, according to a new report. The Georgia House takes up bills related to children in public safety. And Georgia bridges get good marks on a national report card for infrastructure.

Katie Simon: The federal investment has been a significant part of the opportunity for this improvement.

Orlando Montoya: Today is Wednesday, March 26. I'm Orlando Montoya.

Story 1:

Orlando Montoya: A Georgia House committee today heard testimony on a bill seeking to ban abortions from the moment of conception. GPB's Sarah Kallis has that story.

Sarah Kallis: Supporters and opponents of House Bill 441 packed the hallway outside of the Judiciary Committee hearing, where each speaker was given one minute to testify. The bill would make abortion after fertilization homicide, with few exceptions. Nicki Carnell supports it.

Nicki Carnell: We should be giving the babies in the womb the same equal protection that you and I get.

Sarah Kallis: Nurse Irene Martinez spoke in opposition.

Irene Martinez: House Bill 441 opens the door to surveillance, criminalization and fear.

Sarah Kallis: The committee did not vote on HB 441, and it cannot pass this session because it did not clear the House before Crossover Day. But it can return next year. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis at the state Capitol.

Story 2:

Orlando Montoya: A new report predicts far-reaching economic impacts in Georgia from federal cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. GPB's Ellen Eldridge has more.

Ellen Eldridge: Cuts to those federal programs could result in the loss of more than 22,000 jobs. That's according to the report from George Washington University and the Commonwealth Fund. Leighton Ku is the director of the center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University. He says nearly half of job losses will be in health care, such as hospitals, pharmacies and nursing homes. But others will impact another important industry.

Leighton Ku: On the food side, maybe about another six of the jobs would be food-related. So those may be people who are working in grocery stores and food processing, or in agriculture or ranching.

Ellen Eldridge: Ku says the state's GDP could shrink by nearly $2.3 billion. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.

Story 3:

Orlando Montoya: Georgia lawmakers want school districts and other local governments to reconsider their decisions to opt out of a plan to limit property tax increases for homeowners. State senators voted on Tuesday to send an amended version of a bill back to the House to agree on changes. It would give additional chances to local governments to agree to the plan. Here's what happened. Nearly 63% of Georgia voters in November supported a state constitutional amendment. That amendment would limit increases in a home's value for property tax purposes to the broader rate of inflation each year. But the plan also gave local governments a one-time chance to opt out of the limit before March 1 — and almost two-thirds of the state's 180 school districts opted out.

Story 4:

Orlando Montoya: In other news from the state Capitol, the Georgia House of Representatives took up several bills on Tuesday dealing with public safety and children. Among them, one bill would define chronic absenteeism in schools and would lay out a plan to address it. Here is Republican Gainesville state Rep. Matt Dubnik..

Matt Dubnik: While this is not going to fix chronic absenteeism, this is a step in the right direction. We're stating that if a district as a whole has a rate at 10% or higher, they have to have an attendance review team. And if an individual school has a rate of 15% or higher, they also have to have a dedicated review team.

Orlando Montoya: That bill passed with broad support, as did SB 42, Georgia first lady Marty Kemp's 10th bill related to human trafficking. It would increase penalties for sex trafficking minors.

​​​​​​​Story 5:

Orlando Montoya: Columbus residents packed a city council meeting yesterday to speak out against the appointment of John Anker to the District 9 city council seat. Anker was appointed just minutes after Councilor Judy Thomas resigned for health reasons earlier this month. Critics say the vote was rushed and lacked transparency, especially since Anker recently had lost two citywide elections. Now, the Columbus NAACP is calling for an investigation into whether council members violated Georgia's Open Meetings Act by privately discussing Anker's appointment. Local NAACP president Melvin Tanner Jr. addressed council members last night.

Melvin Tanner Jr.: Citizens throughout the city are growing increasingly active in discussions about the political dynamics of their district, driven by a mounting lack of trust in their elected officials.

Orlando Montoya: Tanner also delivered a petition to Mayor Skip Henderson at the meeting, urging him to ask the state's attorney general to investigate.

​​​​​​​Story 6:

Orlando Montoya: The nation's infrastructure is improving, and Georgia bridges rate high on a national report card for infrastructure released yesterday. The American Society of Civil Engineers releases its assessment of roads, bridges, airports and other infrastructure every four years. The group's Atlanta-based president-elect, Marcia Bomer, credits the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for its first-ever boost in the national grade from "C-minus" to "C."

Marcia Bomer: The federal investment has been a significant part of the opportunity for this improvement, but it really takes the partnership of the federal dollars with state and local dollars.

Orlando Montoya: Georgia's grade remains at C-plus, with its strongest ranking of B for bridges. Georgia's lowest rating is a D for transit.

​​​​​​​Story 7:

Orlando Montoya: Multiple fires in Floyd County this week may have been intentionally set. The Rome Fire Department says an arson investigation has begun into a series of fires on Tuesday in grass and wooded areas. Once contained, investigators determined they might have been intentionally set because of multiple spots of origin. On Sunday, a wildfire in the area spread quickly because of windy conditions and low humidity, burning 200 acres and damaging a home. No one was injured in the fires. A red flag warning is in effect for 37 counties in Middle and North Georgia until 8 p.m. tonight, because of critical fire conditions.

​​​​​​​Story 8:

Orlando Montoya: Artwork by the Southern writer Flannery O'Connor will be unveiled today in Milledgeville. While O'Connor is well known for her short stories and novels, she also was a prolific visual artist. Katie Simon is the interim executive director of the Flannery O'Connor Institute for the Humanities at Georgia College and State University.

Katie Simon: She thought all writers should draw because it forced you to sit and stare and look and really see something; you had to draw it.

Orlando Montoya: A collection of 70 pieces will be on display, the majority of which never have been seen by the public. The collection is open to the public today at GCSU. Some of the pieces then will be on display at O'Connor's home, Andalusia Farm, not far away.

​​​​​​​Story 9:

Orlando Montoya: Ticket prices for the NCAA men's Sweet 16 are surging in Atlanta. According to the ticketing technology company Victory Live, average ticket prices for the South region jumped from $421 before the weekend to $940 by Monday. Atlanta saw a major spike after Auburn and Ole Miss advanced, driven by their proximity to Atlanta and strong local alumni bases. Prices for other regional sites like Indianapolis and Newark have remained more steady, while San Francisco has the lowest demand so far.

​​​​​​​Story 10:

Orlando Montoya: Rick Hubbard has been chasing a musical dream for 20 years. That's how long he's been trying to put together the world's largest kazoo ensemble, as certified by the Guinness Book of World Records. Hubbard will try again this Friday during the International Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, Ga. And as GPB's Grant Blankenship reports, he is actively recruiting kazooists.

Rick Hubbard: Ready? Here we go.

Melvin Tanner Jr: Rick Hubbard is in a room full of kids: third graders with kazoos. He has no fear.

Rick Hubbard: I am the king of kazoo.

Melvin Tanner Jr: Hubbard even owns a kazoo factory and is touring Macon's elementary schools to recruit for the effort to break the record for the most people playing kazoo for five minutes straight: 5,190, set in London in 2011.

Rick Hubbard: And ever since the record in London came, we were like, no, we have to get this record back.

Melvin Tanner Jr: All Hubbard needs is 5,200, just 10 more kazooists, to set the record in Macon for a piece of lore, a story. He says the kazoo was invented by a man named Alabama Vest.

Rick Hubbard: It's called Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Grant Blankenship: This is your white whale.

Rick Hubbard: This is it. This is — it's my, It's my Moby Dick. I want everybody to stand up someday in the future when they write my obituary. They'll be able to say. "Rick Hubbard, comma, leader of the world's largest kazoo band, comma, passed away today." At least there'll be something. It'll be my claim to fame if we can do it. If not, at least we tried.

Grant Blankenship: And if you come to Macon Friday to help Rick Hubbard on his quest, you don't even need to bring a kazoo. He's bringing about 10,000. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon.

Orlando Montoya: And I'm glad to know that it's a "kazooist." Not a "kazooer." That's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. If you'd like to learn more about these stories, we invite you to visit our webpage GPB.org/news. We have many of the stories that you hear there in greater detail. If you haven't yet hit subscribe on this podcast, take a moment, do that now and it helps you and helps us by keeping you current in your feed. Send us feedback. We'd love for you to email us at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Orlando Montoya. We'll talk to you again tomorrow.

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