News & Current Events

A string of 7 radioactive contamination incidents at the Savannah River National Laboratory resulted in what officials call a “time out”. The incidents were minor, meaning readings were low and no one was injured. Facilities where radioactive materials are handled were temporarily shut down while officials went over safety guidelines with employees. Angie French is a spokesperson for the Savannah River Lab. She says the time out was a voluntary way for officials to fine tune safety measures at the lab. "We are able to maintain our record as the safest national laboratory in the DOE complex because when we see minor events like this we stop and look before it gets to the point where they are major events," said French. The Savannah River Lab tests thousands of radioactive samples each year for Department of Energy projects such as nuclear waste disposal.

A rural hospital in southeast Georgia is offering patients with overdue bills a 50-percent discount to pay-up now. It’s an effort that officials say could spread in the down economy. Charlton Memorial Hospital in Folkston says patients with bills at least 90 days past-due as of last month...have until the end of March to take advantage of the deal. Kim Savage is comptroller for the small 25-bed facility. She says Charlton Memorial is owed more than $6 million. And the discount offer idea she says, could easily spread to other small hospitals in the state. "I think there’s potential there. I know especially rural hospitals and especially critical access hospitals are facing some really difficult cash-flow situations right now.” Savage says Charlton Memorial’s never tried this before. And if half of the $6 million is collected, they would consider that a success. Hometown Health represents more than 50 rural hospitals in Georgia. CEO Jimmy Lewis says this is just another idea for small hospitals trying to improve tight cash flow. Lewis says too many small hospitals are suffering financially. "We have since the middle of December helped some 8-10 achieve some emergency resources for making payroll. And that’s critical to our hospitals when we find that many hospitals in that kind of condition and we know that we’ve got a number of hospitals also that have less than 10 days cash on-hand.” Lewis says aggravating the problem -- rural areas with high unemployment means many more patients coming-in with no insurance.

Restricting the sale of guns near schools is the aim of a bill introduced in the state senate. A dozen people rallied in support of it today outside an Atlanta pawnshop. Carrying signs that read “No guns near schools” and “No pawn shops”, residents of the Booker T. Washington neighborhood in west Atlanta paced the street where the pawn shop is yet to open and sell weapons. They say the area is rife with gang activity. Jarrell Pealer who has lived here 17 years says the last thing his community needs is more access to guns. “We got a school just a block away . Kids going back and forth. With the gang violence, we’re afraid someone will attempt to break in and get the gun," says Pealer. "Then also we don’t want break-in’s in our homes.” Senator Vincent Fort led the protest. He says his bill would help. “It would allow cities to put restrictions on where gun dealers can locate," says Fort. Since 2005, only the state can regulate the sale of guns. Gun rights advocates say Fort’s bill would infringe on their second amendment rights.

University of Georgia officials say tailgaters will still be welcome when they return to the school’s north campus in the fall for football season. But there will now be some restrictions on what they can...and cannot bring. Last football season, tailgating fans left tons of trash on the grounds after UGA’s game with South Carolina. UGA President Michael Adams. "We've done everything we can to be fan-friendly. We want the fans here, we want them to have a great time, we want them to come, we want them to tailgate. We just don't want them to destroy the campus in the process." Restrictions now include a ban against tents, kegs, generators, grills and tables larger than 4 feet long on north campus. Tailgating also won’t be allowed until 4 hours before kickoff. Across the campus, UGA officials are banning things like pull-behind trailers, grills, ATV’s and parking on sidewalks.

State Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox says she's confident that Georgia officials this week adequately made their case to the federal government about why Georgia should a cut of $4.3 billion in stimulus money. Georgia is a finalist for the competitive funding, known as Race to the Top, along with 14 other states and Washington, D.C. Cox says that comes in part because Governor Sonny Perdue wants pay increases for Georgia teachers to be based on a controversial merit system. Cox and Perdue and were among a five member team that went to Washington this week, making presentations to a panel that will decide who gets the money. The finalist states are being judged on education reforms and innovation. The U.S. Department of Education will award the stimulus funds.

The bad economy and high unemployment are affecting hospitals in small towns like Millen. With so many people out of work, few people there have insurance. Jenkins County Hospital is increasingly treating poor people who can’t afford care, absorbing the costs and causing thousands of dollars in shortfalls. "The hospital is a vital part of the community, and a vital part of helping draw new industry and we need to keep it there and keep it strong," says King Rocker, the mayor of Millen. "Really and truly the only thing that can help that is some new industry to help put people back to work." The small hospital already can’t afford to do procedures such as colonoscopies or minor surgery. Full-time employees have a bigger workload since the hospital laid off all part-time staff a couple of years ago. Funding from the Jenkins County commission has helped plugged the hospital's shortfalls. Hospital officials, however, say they'll make another request for more dollars sometime during the current fiscal year due to the budget woes. Rocker estimates that only half of Millen's residents have health insurance. Hospital officials say the number of people with full-coverage private health insurance is far smaller, with most of them being teachers or state employees. The unemployment rate in Jenkins County in January was 21.8 percent, one of the highest in the state.

Texting while behind the wheel would be banned under a bill that unanimously passed the senate today. Republican State Senator Jack Murphy sponsored the bill. He says it is needed because 80 percent of lives lost in accidents last year were due to distracted drivers. "There are teenagers and also adults causing accidents all over the place while they are driving and texting. They are weaving all over the place, they are impeding traffic, going slower than what they should be because they are trying to text and drive," said Murphy. Under the measure, violators would pay a $150 fine and get three points on their license. Teens, on the second offense, would have to wait an additional year to get their class C license.

Georgia Republicans continued their fight Thursday against the federal health care proposal. On Wednesday, Democrats prevented the two-thirds majority needed for an amendment to the state Constitution. It aimed at having Georgians opt out of any federal health care law. Thursday, Senate Republicans passed a bill that would do just that. It only needed a simple majority and passed easily. "While I would have preferred to let Georgians vote to have their rights protected in the state constitution, this legislation will protect Georgians in a similar way," says Republican Judson Hill, who sponsored the bill. But legal experts warn that state law cannot supersede federal law. Senate Democrats say the legislation is a waste of time and money and will likely end up in court. Georgia is one of 38 states trying to pass laws against federal health care.

The state house today passed water conservation legislation paving the way for Governor Perdue to sign it into law. Under the provision outdoor watering is limited to the hours of 4:00 pm and 10:00 am. Farms and gardens are exempt. The law requires high efficiency plumbing fixtures like toilets, shower heads, and faucets, in new construction. It also includes other voluntary water saving measures. Georgia wants to show neighboring Alabama and Florida that it is serious about water conservation. The move could send good will to the tri-state water talks. A federal judge has given Georgia 3 years to find a water sharing agreement with its neighbors or lose Lake Lanier as a water source for Metro Atlanta.

Students who bring something to school that could be deemed a weapon would no longer be charged as designated felons under a measure that was unanimously approved by the Senate. The bill sponsored by State Sen. Emmanuel Jones, is aimed at giving administrators more leeway with Georgia's Zero Tolerance policy. "In our zeal and zest to lock away those kids that brought dangerous weapons to school, the system trapped good kids. And that's who i have heard from. Good kids who are being prosecuted for minor infractions," said Jones. Under the bill first offenders would be charged with a "delinquent act" rather than a felony, which could tarnish a student's record.

Democratic and Republican Lawmakers from North Georgia are pushing a bill that would require a permit to transfer water from a river basin to Metro Atlanta. Representative Michael Harden of Toccoa is the sponsor of the bill. He says that the river basins of northern Georgia represent jobs, economic development, and livelihood for the region. "If as rural Georgia we were attempting to ask metro Atlanta to donate some of their revenue to us, simply because we thought we were deserving of it, there would be an outcry. At the core of it it's water, but it's economic development and the productivity of rural Georgia," Harden said. A similar bill was introduced last week in the Senate. Both bills would create for the first time a system for permitting and regulating water transfers.

As Congress nears a possible health care vote two Georgia Congressmen, Sanford Bishop and John Barrow, are still in the undecided category. The margin is razor thin and the lobbying intense on both sides. In Bishop's Second Congressional District the constituent's opinions are as diverse as the population. In Byron 72-year old Marshall Scott sees plenty wrong with the Senate bill and he doesn’t want it. He’s called and emailed Bishop's office and he’s not alone. “All my friends and associates at church and so forth, I’m an assistant Sunday school teacher at our church, most all the men in there, they’re against it.” Scott says if Bishop votes yes he’ll work to get him out of office. About 89-thousand people in the Second Congressional District Are uninsured. Johnnie Zanders lives in Fort Valley and puts on community health fairs. She’s hoping for a yes vote from Bishop “I think this would be a positive step because everybody seem to be included and I know there’s some issues that some people don’t want to be included, but sometimes it’s a trade off.” Some Republican candidates are getting ready to challenge Bishop should he support President Obama’s health care bill.

The nation's Homeland Security chief this week visited the Georgia facility responsible for training more federal officers than any other facility in the nation Janet Napolitano's visit to Brunswick's Federal Law Enforcement Training Center was the Secretary's first visit to the center responsible for training more than 24,000 officers each year. The officers go on to serve in 88 different agencies include the Secret Service, Border Patrol and Customs. Center Director Connie Patrick says, Napolitano stressed the need for international agreements on airport security. "Sometimes that will require equipment, training and that's why she came here, to find out what we can do to help assist her in completing that," Patrick says. "You can't have boots on the ground unless they go through training and it's important to the men and women who fulfill that role for the Secretary and others of her stature to see first-hand the impact they have on national security." Napolitano has said the U.S. won't completely solve airport security failures like the Christmas Day bombing attempt until airports across the globe tighten standards.

A few weeks ago, my boss asked me, What are some of the highlights of my reporting over the past six months? (He was asking for the spring membership campaign, people, so get ready!) Anyway, I had to answer that a big highlight for me is getting to profile musicans, local and visiting. And among the latter, artists coming to the Savannah Music Festival, which begins this week, are very important to profile. The music festival bills itself as Georgia's largest music festival. It's also one of the city's largest tourism draws. And this year, it comes right on the heels of the St. Patrick's Day festival. With scores of musicians coming, it's hard to pick highlights, let alone, the few that I actually interview. These are just a few you might be hearing more about. Of course, Lang Lang is drawing a lot of attention. He's a global superstar. He performed at President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony. The Chinese pianist sells out wherever he goes. And I expect he'll do the same here, when he appears with the Atlanta Symphony at the Lucas Theater. I'm going to the Zydeco dance party. I just happened to visit New Orleans last year and the infectious music I enjoyed at Tipitina's was enough to convince me that this concert had to be great. The festival does something like this just about every year. This year, it features Jeffery Broussard and the Creole Cowboys, winners of the 2007 Zydeco Music and Creole Heritage Awards. I suspect Kristina Train is going to generate some publicity. That's because she's a Savannah native who's just released an album on Blue Note Records. So she's a local who's gone national. I figured she'd get a lot of press here, so I profiled the other musician on the same bill, "The Phenomenal Ruthie Foster," a Grammy-nominated blues artist who's released six CD's. Listen to my story on her below. The Savannah Music Festival has tried in recent years to attract a younger crowd. They had a young adult social group at one point, which they still might have. This year's big nod to that front is Wilco, an exuberant Chicago band whose 2009 album Rolling Stone described as "a thrilling triumph of determined simplicity by a band that has been running from the obvious for most of this decade." I bought tickets to indie rockers She and Him. Winton Marsalis is coming back. And the whole festival has a lot of jazz star power to it. Those are my recommendations for now. Check out my profiles, below.

Republican leaders at the state capital want to completely overhaul Georgia’s tax system, so they’re setting up a council to advise them on how to do it. Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers says there’s plenty wrong with the current tax code. "We have a broken property tax system that’s a relic of an agrarian society, we have a personal income tax system that’s so closely tied to unemployment figures that just when Georgia’s hurting, the state budget hurts as well, we have a corporate income tax system that discourages companies from moving to Georgia, and we have a sales tax system that exempts more services and products than it actually taxes," says Rogers. He along with the Lieutenant Governor, the House Speaker and other Republicans announced a bill that would create a special council on tax reform. It would make recommendations lawmakers are required to act on, so they can get busy rewriting the tax code next session. The council will be made up of economists, business leaders and two governors. Governor Sonny Perdue and former Governor Zell Miller have been asked to join. If the bill passes, they're expected to have a plan in lawmakers’ hands by next January.

State officials are dipping into reserves to help pay for education programs funded by the Georgia Lottery for the first time in nearly a decade. At the same time, leaders in the state Senate are pushing to expand the lottery-funded HOPE scholarship program to help 50,000 poor students pay to attend Georgia's public colleges. A bill that would create a $30 million need-based grant program passed a Senate committee Wednesday. Georgia Student Finance Corp. leaders say the education programs - including statewide prekindergarten and the HOPE scholarship - cost $100 million more than what lottery ticket sales can fund. That will mean tapping into a $900 million reserve fund for the first time since 2001. It will also mean reducing textbook stipends for the more than 200,000 college students on the HOPE scholarship starting in 2012.

Unemployment in Georgia has hit a new record high. Fresh numbers this morning from state labor officials show a rate of 10.5 percent for February -- up from the 10.4 percent reported for January. It’s now been 29 consecutive months that Georgia’s jobless mark stands ahead of the national rate, which is 9.7. The length of time Georgians are taking jobless benefits is also increasing—an average 16 weeks. That’s about 4 weeks on average longer than a year ago. In a statement this morning, state labor commissioner Michael Thurmond illustrated Georgia’s job situation. “Record unemployment, half-a-million jobless workers, tens of thousands of lost jobs, tempered only by tepid job growth and lengthening periods of unemployment are stark reminders of the economic challenges that still lie ahead,” said State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond. “However, the significant decline in February initial unemployment insurance claims suggests that Georgia’s job market may be stabilizing.” Statewide, the over-the-year job losses came in manufacturing, construction, trade, transportation and utilities, along with professional and business services and financial activities. On a positive note, educational and health services added 5,700 jobs over the year.

Unemployment in Georgia has hit a new record high. Fresh numbers from state labor officials show a rate of 10.5 percent for February -- up from the 10.4 percent reported for January. It’s now been 29 consecutive months that Georgia’s jobless mark stands ahead of the national rate, which is 9.7. The length of time Georgians are taking jobless benefits is also increasing—an average 16 weeks. That’s about four weeks longer than a year ago. But state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond points out some good news. There was a 30 percent decrease in first-time claims filed for jobless benefits from January to last month -- down by nearly 30,000 filings. “We saw an improvement year-over-year, and we saw an improvement month-over-month. So what this really suggests is some stabilization in the job market.” And jobs are being added in some parts of the state. Warner Robins gained 300 in the past year. In middle Georgia, a planned privately-run prison expects to bring more than 200 jobs to Baldwin County. And Columbus mayor Jim Wetherington knows his city and region remains fortunate: "With the expansion at Ft. Benning—$3 billion going on. Kia, and NCR - with upwards of 900 new jobs. There’s just a lot of good things happening in our city right now.” While over-the-year job losses continue to be seen in areas like manufacturing and construction, the state did add 5,700 education and health services jobs in the past year.

A bill that would prohibit teacher furloughs was introduced in the Georgia house. House Minority Leader Dubose Porter says his bill would make it illegal to divert state money designated for salaries from teachers' pay. "We’re not going to furlough school personnel. It is a priority of the state," says Porter. "We’re not going to jeopardize the future of our children." Although the Governor’s 2011 budget does not include teacher furloughs, it does recommend $120 million in additional cuts to K-12 education. Some lawmakers want to give systems more flexibility to manage through the cuts which could mean furloughing teachers. House Education Chairman Republican Brooks Coleman says Porter’s bill wouldn’t help. "It would cause local systems to probably have to raise taxes, probably have to dismiss someone,fire teachers because they’re not able to do anything locally to give them the flexibility," says Coleman. This year some school systems have furloughed their teachers six days.

Today Georgia Democrats in the Senate defeated a Republican move to send a message to the Obama administration against healthcare. Georgia is one of 38 states where Republicans are pushing a constitutional amendment that would allow the state to opt out of any federal health care mandate. Republican Senator Judson Hill says Republicans in the Georgia Senate want freedom of choice. "We stand united at least within the Republican Caucus to say your health care and your health care freedoms of choice are critically important. " But the amendment was defeated because Democrats voted against it and prevented the needed two-thirds majority. Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown says the amendment was only meant to poke the eye of the federal government and would end up in court. He says Democrats stuck together. "It was a very clear message. Let's focus on the things that are important to the people of Georgia...and let's not get distracted by this frivolous kind of legislation. " But Republicans aren't giving up. They're pushing a bill with similar implications. And that bill would only need a simple majority.