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Georgia Today: Charges dropped for 'Cop City' defendants; New details on immigration raid at Hyundai
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On the Tuesday September 9th edition of Georgia Today: Charges will likely be dropped for 61 defendants accused of trying to stop construction of Atlanta's controversial police and fire training center; New details on the massive immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Southeast Georgia; And a look at how Augusta is recovering after Hurricane Helene destroyed the city's urban forest.
Chase McGee: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, charges will likely be dropped for 61 defendants accused of trying to stop the construction of Atlanta's controversial police and fire training center. New details on the massive immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Southeast Georgia, and a look at how Augusta is recovering after Hurricane Helene destroyed the city's urban forest.
Seth Hawkins: We want to make sure that people plant the right tree in the right place to make sure that we're being sustainable and resilient towards future events such as this.
Chase McGee: Today is Tuesday, Sept. 9, I'm Chase McGee and this is Georgia Today.
Story 1:
Chase McGee: Charges against 61 defendants accused of a conspiracy to halt the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center are likely to be dropped. Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer made the announcement this afternoon. Judge Farmer said he didn't believe Attorney General Chris Carr had the authority to secure the indictments two years ago under Georgia's RICO law, saying Carr should have sought Gov. Brian Kemp's permission before pursuing the case. Defendants faced a wide variety of charges, from "throwing Molotov cocktails" to "supplying food to protesters occupying the woods that the training center would be built on." The case was slowed by procedural issues over the past two years, including what another judge called gross negligence after prosecutors shared privileged emails between defendants and their attorneys. Farmer says he believes five of the defendants will still face domestic terrorism charges under a 2017 law that broadened the definition of the charge. None of the defendants have been tried yet.
Story 2:
Chase McGee: Gwinnett County will get a new member of the state House, midway through the term of state Rep. Shelley Hutchinson. Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday set a special election for Nov. 4 to replace the Snellville Democrat. Hutchinson announced her retirement in July and stepped down in August, citing a serious health crisis in her family. She's endorsed the county's Democratic Party First Vice Chair Akbar Ali to replace her. Qualifying for the election will begin on Sept. 15.
Story 3:
Chase McGee: Five Georgia lawmakers are planning a diplomatic trip to Israel next week, where they're expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials. GPB's Donna Lowry has more.
Donna Lowry: The bipartisan group of state legislators includes three Republicans: Sens. Russ Goodman and Steve Gooch and Rep. Brent Cox, and Democratic Reps. Yasmine Neal and Esther Panitch. They will join a delegation of 250 lawmakers from each of the 50 states invited by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Sen. Goodman is from South Georgia's Clinch County. He says it's about continuing to foster the friendships between the two allies.
Russ Goodman: They haven't just told me this specifically, but I would imagine that one of the reasons that they're putting this trip together is they want to be able to kind of tell their side of the story and show people what's — what's going on there.
Donna Lowry: Goodman is returning to Israel nearly two years after arriving with his mother to visit the Holy Land the very day Hamas leveled an attack on the country: Oct, 7, 2023.
Russ Goodman: The airport in Tel Aviv was shut down due to Hamas rockets. And we explored at one point trying to take a boat to Cyprus. It was quite an experience being at the Ambassador Hotel there in Jerusalem and hearing machine gun fire from the balcony and all. Pretty surreal.
Donna Lowry: You can hear our full conversation with Goodman on GPB's Battleground Ballot Box podcast. For GPB News, I'm Donna Lowry.
Story 4:
Chase McGee: An immigration attorney says many South Korean workers detained in a U.S. immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in Southeast Georgia were brought in for highly specialized work that Americans aren't trained to perform. Atlanta attorney Charles Kuck represents four South Koreans who were among 475 workers rounded up in the raid last week, west of Savannah. They included 300 Korean nationals. Kuck says most did come for short-term jobs, installing equipment for producing electric vehicle batteries, work he said would take about three to five years to train someone in the U.S. to do. Neither the U.S. nor South Korea has revealed details about all the workers' visas, but it's not unusual for foreign companies to save time and money by sending workers from abroad to set up U.S. factories and then train U.S. workers.
Story 5:
Chase McGee: Anheuser-Busch is pledging $9 million towards improvement at its beer production facility in Northwest Georgia. On Monday, the company said that investment will go towards upgraded brewing equipment to increase production at the plant in Cartersville. Missouri-based Anheuser-Busch opened the facility in 1993. It currently produces 48 different products, including Michelob Ultra, shipped to 32 U.S. states. In 2023, the company said it had more than 400 people working there.
Story 6:
Chase McGee: The Savannah College of Art and Design has launched an applied degree in artificial intelligence. The college announced the new program on Monday, the first day of fall semester classes at the private art school with campuses in Savannah and Atlanta.
Story 7:
Chase McGee: An international faith-based disaster relief agency has opened a regional distribution center in Northwest Georgia. Convoy of Hope last month opened the 125,000-square-foot facility near Cartersville. Organization spokesman Ethan Forhetz says the site was chosen because it's far enough inland to escape the worst of any storm, and convenient to major interstate highways.
Ethan Forhetz: That regional distribution center there just north of Atlanta will cut our response time in half to many areas in the southeast because now we can, within hours, have our team there on the ground. And it'll save at least a day's worth of driving from Missouri, where our team had been headquartered
Chase McGee: The distribution center is stocked with food, water, paper goods, and hygiene supplies, among other items. Convoy of Hope responded to 99 disasters last year, including Hurricane Helene.
Story 8:
Chase McGee: It's the city of Augusta's first summer since Hurricane Helene pummeled its urban forest and so far there's been no major investment to replant what was lost. As Augusta continues recovering from storm damage almost a year later, GPB's Sofi Gratas has more on how losing trees has changed the city and the struggle to get them back.
Sofi Gratas: Driving around Augusta with University of Georgia Extension coordinator Campbell Vaughn is like time-traveling back to the days just after Hurricane Helene.
Campbell Vaughn: I mean, there was an oak tree on this house right here that was — it had to be 3 feet in diameter.
Sofi Gratas: We make frequent stops in neighborhoods that lost acres of towering pine trees.
Campbell Vaughn: It's a lot of pine trees.
Sofi Gratas: By houses that were crushed or lost power, they're still empty and in repair.
Campbell Vaughn: Just house after house after house was just destroyed.
Sofi Gratas: In Augusta, Vaughn is a trusted source on landscaping. He has an almost-weekly column in the local paper about it. After Helene, friends, neighbors, and family called him asking for help with the trees in their yard.
Campbell Vaughn: Everybody kind of just needed somebody to kind of vent to and just say, "Er, is everybody in as bad a shape as we are?"
Sofi Gratas: Not only has the loss of trees changed the landscape of the so-called Garden City, but it's left lots of houses without shade. Outside one house in West Augusta, Vaughn lays aerial photos of the area side by side on the hood of his car. They were taken three years apart before and after the storm.
Campbell Vaughn: This is where we are in this parking lot right — right here.
Sofi Gratas: The tree canopy is completely gone. Vaughn pulls out a temperature gun. He's been doing this a lot lately to see just how hot it gets in places that lost their trees. Here, the surface of the ground is over 100 degrees.
Campbell Vaughn: And that's on grass, I mean, that's 103.
Sofi Gratas: He measures under some shade.
Campbell Vaughn: And then that would be 87.
Sofi Gratas: 16 degrees cooler on a July day. We also measure what's called the "feels-like" temperature using a wet bulb thermometer. 84.9 in the shade. At the hottest parts of the day in Augusta, we measure about a 10-degree difference between the sun and the shade. Augusta still hasn't fully recovered from Hurricane Helene, and it's running short of cash as a result of damage. At a recent county commission meeting, Timothy Schroer of the finance department warned local leaders of a nearly $11 million budget shortfall. The city is still waiting on state and federal emergency money to cover storm cleanup, and it's not clear whether they'll get it.
Timothy Schroer: So that's my other concern, is at the end of the year, do we show a $60 million fund balance or do we a show a $9 million fund balance?
Sofi Gratas: That leaves little room for city-funded recovery efforts, or the replanting of Augusta's trees. Limited surveys by the Georgia Forestry Commission suggest about 20 football fields' worth of tree canopy was lost in Augusta, just on public property.
Seth Hawkins: And that was just in the Central Business District of Augusta.
Sofi Gratas: Seth Hawkins of the Georgia Forestry Commission has advice for people replanting on their own.
Seth Hawkins: We wanna make sure that people plant the right tree in the right place to make sure that we're being sustainable and resilient towards future events such as this.
Sofi Gratas: In Augusta, that could look like planting native Georgia trees with roots that stabilize the soil.
Seth Hawkins: I always try to tell people, don't get so discouraged. I mean, yes, we won't have 300-year-old trees still, but in 80 years, we can have a community forest again.
Sofi Gratas: Or at least the next generation of Augustans can. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas in Augusta.
Chase McGee: Stay tuned to GPB News all this week on radio and at GPB.org/storms For what you need to know about hurricane preparedness in Georgia.
Story 9:
Chase McGee: The Tybee Island Marine Science Center released a loggerhead turtle named Westie into the ocean over the weekend. Westie was in captivity for three years. She was originally found as a hatchling that couldn't make it out of her nest on Ossobaw Island. Videos on the Science Center's social media page show dozens of spectators came out to wish Westie safe travels. Westie released with a satellite tracker, the first sea turtle from the center to fitted with a tracker. The Center plans to post updates of Westie's location on its website and social media channels each Wednesday.
Story 10:
Chase McGee: Those tuning in to Friday Night Football on Georgia's coast may notice a new public health segment. It's part of a collaboration between the Georgia Department of Public Health and local television station WSAV. Public Information Officer Ginger Heidel says topics range from talking about drug overdose prevention to vaccine availability and hurricane preparedness.
Ginger Heidel: These are people who may not always watch the news if we do something with our news segment, but they might be more interested in tuning into your local football games. We thought while we had a captive audience, we would try to pass along some helpful information.
Chase McGee: Heidel says some of the three and a half minute segments feature local public health experts. Coastal Public Health covers eight counties with a staff of over 300. Each of Georgia's 18 public health districts have their own programming and resources.
That's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. If you'd like to learn more about these stories, visit GPB.org/news. If you haven't hit "subscribe" yet on this podcast, take a moment right now and keep us current in your podcast feed. Got feedback? We'd love to hear it. Email us at GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. I'm Chase McGee. We'll see you tomorrow.
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For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news
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