Georgia Today: School voucher program reevaluated; Opioid alternatives; HS Football championships

Orlando Montoya: Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Thursday, December 12th. I'm Orlando Montoya. On today's episode, state officials reevaluate the schools eligible for Georgia's private school voucher program. Georgia lawmakers consider pain management alternatives in order to address the opioid crisis. And Georgia's tackle and flag football championships are next week, and we'll have a preview of what's to come. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Orlando Montoya: State officials are reevaluating a list of public school districts where students will be eligible for vouchers to pay for private school tuition or home schooling expenses. GPB's Chase McGee explains.

Chase McGee: State lawmakers this year passed a law aimed at giving the $6,500 vouchers to students at low performing schools. But the list of schools has been in flux. The Governor's Office of Student Achievement assigned to calculate the numbers has twice withdrawn it after local school superintendents questioned it. Many lawmakers say the list also made the number of voucher eligible students far higher than they expected, creating budget pressure on the program. State lawmakers could address the law's requirements in the General Assembly. That begins next month. For GPB News, I'm Chase McGee.

Caption

Opioids

Credit: AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File

Story 2:

Orlando Montoya: Georgia lawmakers are considering alternatives to opioids for pain management during special subcommittee hearings. Today was the second day they heard from stakeholders. Nationwide, an estimated 70,000 people have died from opioid overdoses this year. GPB's Sofi Gratas has more.

Sofi Gratas: While prescription opioids are not the leading cause of overdose related deaths, they can be the gateway to an addiction, especially if prescribed at an early age. Because of that, Georgia medical providers are encouraged to offer alternative pain meds. But subcommittee member and former nurse Representative Sharon Cooper, who spoke during the hearing, said it will also take a change in attitude.

Sharon Cooper: People that you're leaving out that need to be educated and that would be the legislators in the state. We also grew up through that period of time when the doctors were freely giving them.

Sofi Gratas: Earlier this year, the state legislator expanded prescribing powers for drugs like hydrocodone and morphine to some nurse practitioners and physician assistants. Though opioid prescription rates are going down nationwide, they are still the highest in the South. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas.

Story 3:

Orlando Montoya: The Fulton County Sheriff's Office has promised to pay a private security company $1.4 million after some of its employees walked off their jobs in August. The office announced Wednesday it will send the payments electronically by the end of the week. Strategic Security Corp. ended its contract with the county in August after the sheriff's office failed to pay what it owed. County officials have criticized Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat for mismanaging funds, but he says his office is severely underfunded, given its size and mandates.

Story 4:

Orlando Montoya: Georgia tax collections rose by more than 2% last month compared with November last year. The State Department of Revenue reported yesterday. The agency brought in more than $2 billion In November, net sales taxes rose by almost 6%, while individual income tax receipts fell by more than 8%. That fall was driven in part by an extension on the income tax filing and payment deadlines because of Hurricane Helene.

Caption

BioLab

Credit: Al Sadler Sr.

Story 5:

Orlando Montoya: The National Science Foundation has awarded an $86,000 grant to researchers at Georgia Tech to monitor air quality after the BioLab fire in Conyers, east of Atlanta. The fire at the chemical plant sent a plume of chemicals over Rockdale County earlier this year. Georgia Tech professor Greg Huey leads the team. He says the Plume's chemical composition was complex.

Greg Huey: Pool chemicals are much more complicated chemically than just pure chlorine. So when we started measuring with our mass spectrometer, we were seeing things that we didn't expect. So we saw very high levels of bromine initially, and we started seeing organic compounds as well that were coming out of the plume.

Orlando Montoya: Huey says his researchers also have detected cyanic  acid, typically found in cigarette smoke, and ciamide in the atmosphere. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency monitored air quality in Conyers after the accident, but stopped in October. Huey anticipates the Georgia Tech study will have more results early next year.

Story 6:

Orlando Montoya: In other BioLab news, the company will stop accepting new claims related to the fire on December 31st. The company said yesterday it's halting new claims because fewer claims are coming in. The announcement came days after residents pressed Rockdale County commissioners about their response to the fire, once again demanding that biolab be shut down. During the tense meeting, commissioners told residents they weren't allowed to discuss BioLab because of ongoing litigation. Commission chairman Oz Nesbitt interrupted one resident who wanted to talk about the company.

Oz Nesbitt:  I want to afford you the opportunity that you deserve to talk. But if you want to conversate about BioLab, then I'm going to ask you to remove yourself from the podium.

Orlando Montoya: Rockdale County filed a federal lawsuit against Biolab in October.

Story 7:

Orlando Montoya: New Jersey and Minnesota are suing gunmaker Glock, calling on the company to stop selling firearms that can be adapted with dime sized switches to fire up to 1200 rounds a minute. The Austrian company's U.S. subsidiary, based in Smyrna, north of Atlanta, hasn't responded to email requests seeking comment about the lawsuit. The lawsuit announced yesterday by the two states Democratic attorneys general amounts to an early pushback against President elect Donald Trump's second administration.

Story 8:

Orlando Montoya: Georgia U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock is joining a renewed push by Senate Democrats to remove medical debt from credit reports. Warnock and fellow Democrat, outgoing Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, both on the Senate Banking Subcommittee, are asking the head of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to finalize proposed rulemaking concerning medical debt on credit reports. The 12 year old bureau has been a target of congressional Republicans. President elect Donald Trump's pick to co-lead a new federal Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, has called for the bureau's elimination.

Story 9:

Orlando Montoya: 16 Georgia high school football teams are set to square off for the Georgia High School Association's tackle and flag championships beginning next week on Monday. GPB is your exclusive home for live TV coverage of every game. Here to help break down the important storylines in this year's competition is our very own Jon Nelson of GPB Sports. Great to have you here again, Jon.

Jon Nelson: Good to be with you, my friend.

Orlando Montoya: I know we're talking about flag football elsewhere on GPB radio, so let's focus on the tackle on this program. I'd like to start with favorites and favorites. Would you include the defending champions, Milton?

Jon Nelson: I would. Milton, because of reclassification, they are now in the 5A class and so they're chasing after a championship in 5A,  I would have them as a favorite. I would also have Bowden in Class A Division two who are the defending, defending champions. So they're chasing after a three-peat. There's a lot of new faces here as well, and some familiar folks who have been to the last game of the year. But those would be the two that are chasing after adding in a consecutive way.

Orlando Montoya: And in underdogs. Could you include the first team in a while to make the championship from Bibb County? That would be Northeast High School.

Jon Nelson: Yeah, Northeast High School. They have an alum as their head coach and they have one of the most prolific rushers in the state. And Nick Woodford, who is averaging, I want to say 350 yards a game. So their championship game against Toombs County, who's going to be coming in from Lyons, the top ranked team in Toombs County against the prolific rusher Northeast Macon. That is going to be some smash mouth football coming out of Bibb County. And that's just a small sample of it all.

Orlando Montoya: And we have midweek midday games again, which are not very popular with parents and fans. Can you explain that decision and how can people work around it?

Jon Nelson: Well, it was something out of necessity because with the Atlanta Falcons possibly needing to be flexed if they were successful, it's something that you have to prepare for and in a contingency. So if that game was to be flexed out to a Sunday night game, it's about flipping the building over and getting all the signage and everything.

Orlando Montoya: So we're talking Mercedes Benz Stadium.

Jon Nelson: Yeah, Mercedes Benz Stadium so it's not just, you know, like an internal venue or something like that. All of the signage, all of the paint that has to be done. All of those kinds of contingencies for that. And then if, say, Atlanta United in years past like they have chasing after a championship, you need to have that building ready for a weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So the GHC went to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It was like, okay, well, what if we do this and we do Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday after? So you get a couple of extra days to prepare for a championship game on the other end of that.

Orlando Montoya: And we know high school football plays an important role in Georgia communities and certainly in the lives of those participating. But for the casual football fan, what's to recommend about these three days?

Jon Nelson: It's the Super Bowl. It's the Super Bowl, It's the Daytona 500. It's the five ring circus. I mean, literally pick your Olympic venue. It is. It is the coronation. And 99.9% of these student athletes will not have the opportunity to play this game in college. And you're playing in a world class venue that had the Southeast Conference championship and is going to have the national championship for college. All these different things in this venue that has housed so many different things. You get all of these schools, flag football and tackle football that get to be in there and play.

Orlando Montoya: And I might add, a lot of these players might be going to Georgia or some college program.

Jon Nelson: Yeah, and you'd have that opportunity. If you're in the SEC, you could play an SEC title game. You play, you make your way through the CFP 12 and you could be playing in the venue. So it's all there.

Orlando Montoya: All right. You can watch the GHC Championship games live on GPB TV or stream the games online at GPB.org or through the GPB sports app. Follow GPB Sports on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube for more information. Jon, as always, it's been a pleasure.

Jon Nelson: Good to see you, my friend.

Orlando Montoya: And that's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. On tomorrow's edition of this program. Jon will talk about flag football with GPB's Pamela Kirkland. So you don't want to miss that. In fact, don't miss any episode of this program. You can do that by hitting Subscribe on this program wherever you get your podcasts. We appreciate that. If you'd like to learn more about Georgia news, visit our website, GPB.org, slash news and send us feedback. We appreciate feedback at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Orlando Montoya. I'll talk to you again tomorrow. This is your GPB news update for Thursday, December 12th. I'm Orlando Montoya. Find these stories and more on the Georgia Today Daily podcast at GPB Dawg slash Georgia Today or wherever you get your podcasts and get the latest news any at gpb.org/news.

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