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Primary Content

Benjamin Payne

Benjamin Payne
Savannah Reporter
News Reporter

Benjamin is the Savannah-based reporter for GPB, where he covers Coastal Georgia.

Prior to coming to Savannah, he freelanced in Bellingham, Washington, for public media outlets including NPR, Marketplace, and PRX. Previously, Benjamin hosted Morning Edition for WVIK, his hometown NPR member station in Rock Island, Ill. Before that, he served a news internship with NPR member station WBEZ in Chicago.

Benjamin is a graduate of the University of Nevada-Reno's journalism master's program, and earned his undergraduate degree in journalism from Augustana College in Rock Island.

Bottom Content

News Stories by Benjamin Payne

Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper speaks at a Wednesday news conference in Atlanta, standing next to a portion of the second yellow-legged hornet nest and a map of sightings in Chatham County.

Tagged as: 

  • Environment

Second yellow-legged hornet nest found near Savannah, after species ‘very likely’ entered via port

Eradication of the invasive species will take at least three years, officials said.

September 21, 2023
|
By:
  • Benjamin Payne
An apartment building at Yamacraw Village in Savannah is seen with asphalt shingle roofing, which was installed in 2019 and noted by AEI Consultants as the only significant capital expenditure undertaken at the public housing complex in the past five years.

Tagged as: 

  • Politics

Historic Savannah public housing complex should be demolished and rebuilt, consultant says

Public housing officials are seeking federal approval to rebuild Yamacraw Village.

September 19, 2023
|
By:
  • Benjamin Payne
A sign posted near Ellis Square in downtown Savannah is part of a campaign by the city and a local homelessness nonprofit to solicit donations for four day centers.

Tagged as: 

  • Business

New signs solicit donations for Savannah homeless facilities as alternative to giving to panhandlers

Under the banner of giving “change that counts,” the new signage campaign uses QR codes to raise funds for local day centers. 

September 18, 2023
|
By:
  • Benjamin Payne
From left to right, McIntosh County Commissioners Davis Poole, William Harrell, David Stevens, Roger Lotson and Kate Karwacki sit for a board meeting at the McIntosh County Courthouse on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023.

Tagged as: 

  • Politics

‘A few millionaires will come and build’: County board rezones Sapelo Island's Gullah Geechee area

The rezoning more than doubles the maximum legal size of homes on Hogg Hummock, worrying many that Gullah Geechee descendants will be priced out of their ancestral land.

September 13, 2023
|
By:
  • Benjamin Payne
Sapelo Island, Ga., descendant and land owner Reginald Hall speaks at a news conference outside federal court, Dec. 9, 2015, in Atlanta.

Tagged as: 

  • News

Slave descendants on Georgia island fighting to keep protections that helped them keep their land

One of the few remaining Gullah-Geechee communities in the U.S. is in another fight to hold onto land owned by residents' families since their ancestors were freed from slavery. Residents of the tiny Hogg Hummock community on Georgia's Sapelo Island packed a county government meeting Thursday to oppose a proposal to end zoning protections enacted to protect the enclave from wealthy buyers and tax increases.

September 08, 2023
|
By:
  • Associated Press and
  • Benjamin Payne
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