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Georgia Today: Judge hears arguments over targeted foreign students; Fatal high-speed chase in Atl.
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On the Thursday April 17th edition of Georgia Today: A federal judge hears arguments over foreign students targeted for deportation allegedly without due process; Activists call for an end to high speed police chases after a fatal crash in Atlanta. And how language barriers can put older adults at risk in our healthcare system.
Peter Biello: Welcome to Georgia Today. This podcast features the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, a federal judge hears arguments over foreign students targeted for deportation allegedly without due process. Activists call for an end to high-speed police chases after a fatal crash in Atlanta. And we'll hear how language barriers can put older adults at risk in our health care system.
Luz Auspina: Enceléque me sentí bastante abandonada.
Linda Perez: "I felt abandoned."
Peter Biello: Today is Thursday, April 17. I'm Peter Biello, and this is Georgia Today.
Story 1:
Peter Biello: A federal judge in Atlanta heard a case today that would grant temporary protections to foreign students whose visa records had been removed by the federal government. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports.
Sarah Kallis: With over 130 plaintiffs, the case is the largest to go before a judge as foreign students across the country are facing visa cancellations. The students' attorneys say their clients are caught in status limbo and fear more action will be taken against them. They are asking the court to grant a temporary restraining order to restore protections until a final decision is made. Immigration lawyer Charles Kuck says the students are legally entitled to due process.
Charles Kuck: When the government doesn't follow the rules, it requires people to stand up. That's what these students are doing.
Sarah Kallis: Attorneys for the federal government argued no real harm had been done to the students and that they could follow a reinstatement procedure. Federal judge Victoria Calvert said she is inclined to grant the temporary restraining order but is giving both sides time to file more information before she makes a ruling. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis in Atlanta.
Peter Biello: The case of these students has spawned protests around the state. Speaking at the University of Georgia yesterday, math professor Joseph Fu said he's never seen this level of uncertainty among students and faculty alike.
Joseph Fu: At 67 years old now, never in the United States have I seen this. Never have I ever imagined this would — this would happen.
Peter Biello: Protests also have taken place at Emory and Georgia State universities.
Story 2:
Peter Biello: Activists are calling for an end to high-speed chases by law enforcement after a fatal crash in Atlanta on Monday. A 19-year-old not involved in the chase was killed. Democratic state lawmakers and others gathered yesterday to ask Gov. Brian Kemp to restrict the Georgia State Patrol's use of high-speed chases. Among those was Kate Weaver, a family friend of the victim.
Kate Weaver: This fatal accident could have been prevented.
Peter Biello: Recent reporting by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that state troopers engaged in more than 6,000 pursuits over the past five years, leading to almost 2,000 injuries and 63 deaths, many involving bystanders or passengers. A Kemp spokesman blamed the deaths on, quote, "those who break the law and act recklessly."
Story 3:
Peter Biello: Language barriers are putting older adults at risk in the health care system. Without an advocate, Georgians who cannot speak or understand English well are more likely to suffer abuse and neglect. GPB's Ellen Eldridge has more.
Ellen Eldridge: Luz Auspina spent 38 days in a long-term acute care facility last year. She was only supposed to be there long enough to wean off a ventilator after an Atlanta hospital discharged her. The 73-year-old was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease, after a trip to the ER.
Linda Perez: That led to respiratory failure. That's why she was on a ventilator.
Ellen Eldridge: That's Auspino's daughter, Linda Perez. She's the one who fought to get Auspina transferred back to the hospital. Her mother wasn't improving in the long-term care facility and she couldn't explain why because of a language barrier.
Luz Auspina: Enceléque me sentí bastante abandonada.
Linda Perez: "I felt abandoned."
Ellen Eldridge: Despite laws requiring translation services, doctors there spoke only in English.
Linda Perez: There was one person maybe that made a small effort to try to communicate with her, but the norm was no communication in Spanish.
Ellen Eldridge: Auspina was left with little more than body language, and her mental health declined. Every few days, a psychiatrist stopped by and asked Auspino the same questions. Was she depressed?
Luz Auspina: Y siempre me decía, Usted está deprimida. Yes I am.
Ellen Eldridge: Not that much she could confirm in English, but deeper communication in Spanish wasn't possible. Perez insisted the facility provide interpretation services.
Linda Perez: And they brought a phone with a cable that was so short that you couldn't even get the phone close to the patient.
Ellen Eldridge: Auspina's chart didn't match what Perez was seeing.
Linda Perez: When I read the reports, it was like, "Patient is fine. She's fine. She's fine" and he didn't even use the translation line
Ellen Eldridge: Then, her mother was prescribed anti-anxiety medication.
Linda Perez: You should ask a neurologist what happens to a patient with myasthenia gravis that receives Xanax twice a day. She could have died.
Ellen Eldridge: Almost one and a half million Georgia residents speak a language other than English at home. And under Title VI of the Federal Civil Rights Act, health care facilities must provide interpretation services. Plus, studies show that older adults with language barriers are at increased risk of hospital readmission. Sun-Yun Choi Morrow is with the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum. She says the services aren't as common as they should be. And while it's tough enough to find Spanish translation services. Her parents speak Korean.
Sun-Yun Choi Morrow: My dad ended up having — needing — emergency brain surgery and that whole experience was so traumatic for them that they decided to move back. They — they did not wanna deal with the medical system here.
Ellen Eldridge: Choi Morrow says language barriers mean more stress on family caregivers.
Sun-Yun Choi Morrow: Even if my dad can understand most of what the doctor says, he still wants me there because he wants to be sure.
Ellen Eldridge: The Georgia Department of Community Health regulates long-term acute care facilities in the state. Anyone can file a complaint with DCH online. If a lack of interpretation services leads to death or serious injury, the health care facility could be subject to a fine of up to $1,000. Perez fought to get another neurologist to send her mother back to the hospital. Auspina says she felt better immediately after.
Luz Auspina: Me senti muchisimo mejor.
Ellen Eldridge: Perez believes her advocacy saved her mother's life.
Linda Perez: But there are so many people that don't have advocates.
Ellen Eldridge: It's a year later and Auspina no longer needs to steady herself with a walker. She gets around just fine. Perez is happy her mom is OK, but she won't forget the families still struggling in silence. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.
Story 4:
Peter Biello: Enrollment at Georgia's public colleges and universities reached an all-time record for the spring at about 345,000 students. The University System of Georgia's Vice Chancellor of Research and Policy Analysis reported the numbers yesterday. They're up from last year, after declining in 2022 and 2023. The largest growth was among undergraduates with a 14% increase over last spring. Master's degree programs grew by 12.5%. Also yesterday, the Regents voted to name Georgia Tech's School of Public Policy after former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter. Jimmy Carter attended Georgia Tech in 1942.
Story 5:
Peter Biello: The Atlanta Writers Club and the Georgia Writers Museum have presented the Townsend Prize for Fiction. The award has been given every two years since 1981 and recognizes an outstanding novel or short story collection written and published while the author lived in Georgia. It's named for Jim Townsend, founding editor of Atlanta Magazine. The 2025 winner announced on Thursday is Denene Milner for her book, One Blood. She spoke with GPB's Orlando Montoya.
Denene Milner: This book is — it's a figment of my imagination, but it is very much rooted in all the things that I ever wanted to know about my own mother.
Peter Biello: One Blood traces four generations of Black mothers, their trials and secrets. It was selected by committees of in-state and out-of-state readers from among 10 finalists and presented at a gala on Thursday at the Calenwald Fine Arts Center in Atlanta. George Weinstein of the Atlanta Writers Club says the Townsend Prize celebrates the future of Georgia writers.
George Weinstein: The next Alice Walker is writing her, you know, her great work right now. You know, the next Terry Kay is out there working right now. It's a wonderful time to be in Georgia, working with writers and trying to help them succeed.
Peter Biello: GPB's podcast, Narrative Edge, the podcast about books with Georgia connections, featured Denene Milner and her book, One Blood. You can listen to all episodes of Narrative Edge by searching for it wherever you get your podcasts.
Story 6:
Peter Biello: The most recent episode of Narrative Edge features a poet, Elly Bookman. She's a teacher of language arts at Padilla School in Atlanta. Her book, Love Sick Century, is a collection of poems that beautifully contrasts words and images around big ideas. She spoke with GPB's Orlando Montoya.
Orlando Montoya: So I understand you had journalistic parents. Can you tell me a little bit about if that influenced your writing as a child?
Elly Bookman: Yes, both my parents were journalists, and actually my grandfather was as well, my mother's father. And it definitely influenced me in the sense that the written word was always very revered in our household. And as I was growing up, I wrote all the time. I didn't really discover poetry until later. And so in high school, for example, I still was pretty interested in maybe pursuing journalism. I was really active in my high school newspaper. And my father kind of cautioned me against it, not to say that I shouldn't do it, but just to say, you know, it's a hard field, just make sure you think about it. And I went off to college and chose poetry instead, which was not exactly an easier field, right?
Orlando Montoya: An even harder field, perhaps.
Elly Bookman: Right.
Orlando Montoya: Well, let's talk about the book, Love Sick Century. What was the idea behind it?
Elly Bookman: The idea was I wrote all these poems over many years, pretty much close to a decade really. And the idea was how do they all come together? And I do believe they do come together. I think over the course of writing them all, I figured out some things, or I came to a deeper understanding of some things about the world and how I see the world.
Orlando Montoya: Now I sort of got a couple of themes from this book, but before I get into what I thought they were, I'll ask you. What do you think are the themes that bind these poems together?
Elly Bookman: I mean, the title is a big clue: love and sickness — and love sometimes means romantic love within the book, but it also just means the human impulse to seek connection with another human. And then "sick" is sort of the darker side of that coin, which is when you are so hungry to hold onto and keep those connections or keep whatever it is you have, that can become a sort of darker impulse.
Orlando Montoya: It's a very topical book, I must say.
Elly Bookman: Yes.
Orlando Montoya: There's a lot of topical references in there, even though we're not specifically pointing out, y'know, news headlines.
Elly Bookman: No, it's very purposefully — I mean, I look at the news a lot of the time. Maybe that's to go back to the journalism theme. I look the news when I'm sitting down to write, and I don't put the name of an event or the name of a person in a poem, but I might read a headline and feel very confused and conflicted and hurt or some kind of emotional response to a news event, and then I try to write the poem out of that.
Orlando Montoya: Ones that I had, that stood out to me: The first, of course, is the opener, "Today." It starts. "Today a war started but thousands more were already in bloom so it felt like going for groceries." it's almost a statement of, how has war become so common?
Elly Bookman: Exactly. Yeah. I mean, what's more common than just going and buying groceries? And the poem lists several of the most basic kinds of groceries, including frozen pizza. And I, even though it might seem, I think that's what I was going for: is that strangeness of a poem that acknowledges that wars are happening all over the world. And yet, you could just be going about your business buying a frozen pizza. The first few poems bring in theme of war and violence, which has always been a fascination of mine. Not in a good sense necessarily, but I've always been obsessed with trying to understand why wars happen. And then the theme of really of sort of falling in love is in that first section as well. And it's equally as loud in some ways. So there's that really violent example of war juxtaposed with the feeling of falling in love and forming a deep connection.
Orlando Montoya: The other one, let me see, was "Living Alone."
Elly Bookman: That one has a sort of clever opening that people tend to like.
Orlando Montoya: "I will be a woman with a drill, not a woman with a neighbor with a drill." Were you ever a woman with the drill or the woman with the neighbor with the drill?
Elly Bookman: Oh, I was the woman with the drill, of course. That's the — that's the resolution that the poem makes, which is, and that was, I think, the first time I was living alone, which was — I was pretty — this is one of the oldest poems in the book, actually. This was written while I was in graduate school and I was living on my own. And I had to install a window air conditioning unit by myself because I had no air conditioning in North Carolina in August, and I had go buy a drill to be able to get it into the frame of my window. And then I wrote this poem about that experience.
Orlando Montoya: I think liked it because I lived alone for many number of years and it's sad in a way, but you learn to live with it and you do things on your own.
Elly Bookman: You get skills that you wouldn't get otherwise because you have no other option, right? You have nobody else to ask to help you with installing the air conditioner or fixing the sink or whatever it might be. So there's a strength, I think, that comes from it. And it is a sad poem in a way, but it — in a lot of ways — but it also is a celebration of that strength that comes from that kind of experience.
Orlando Montoya: And tell me about your New Yorker break. How did that happen?
Elly Bookman: That was so very exciting. I mean, I submit poetry all the time. I submit to every magazine that I would ever want to be published in, and usually I expect rejection. So it was one random summer afternoon, I submitted a group of poems to the New Yorker and then forgot about it and thought I would never hear anything back. So that was in the summer. And I think it was in January of 2017, I think, it was. When I got an email back from them saying, "we would like to publish one of these poems." The poem was "Privilege." It didn't actually appear in the magazine until that August, but it was a thrill seeing it there. And I've had two poems published there again since, and it's always a really exciting thing.
Orlando Montoya: And now you're a teacher, so that's a lesson for your kids.
Elly Bookman: Yeah. I actually usually start my school year, every time I have a new group of students in front of me, I tell the story of how that poem was written, how I submitted it and revised it and edited it, how I waited and how I, you know, the anticipation and the excitement. And I tell them that whole story of from the first draft to publication to kind of earn some credit with them that as a writer, you know, it's a difficult path, but it's so rewarding. And I want to kind of show them that it's possible and show them that I at least know a little bit about what I'm trying to teach them.
Orlando Montoya: OK, Elly Bookman, your collection of poems is called Love Sick Century. Thank you so much for coming and speaking with us.
Elly Bookman: Thank you so much, it's been wonderful.
Peter Biello: And that's it for Georgia Today. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you wanna learn the latest updates in all the stories you've heard, go to GPB.org/news. And remember to subscribe to this podcast. We are off tomorrow, but we'll be back in your feed on Monday afternoon with all the latest news from Georgia. And your feedback is welcome. Send it via email. The address is GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thank you much for listening.
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