Georgia Today: Atlanta's Mayor Debate; Donald Trump Case; Savannah Bananas 2026 Schedule

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens skips a mayoral debate ahead of next month's election. A judge has given more time to find a new prosecutor for the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump, and the Savannah Bananas will announce their next tour schedule in a live broadcast tonight.

Sports Broadcast: Oct. 9, we're naming two new teams for Banana Ball. Two!

Peter Biello: Today is Thursday, Oct. 9. I'm Peter Bielo, and this is Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: As Democrats and Republicans of the U.S. Senate continue to spar over a funding resolution to end the government shutdown, House members are back in their districts defending their positions. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports.

Sarah Kallis: Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath says her party will not budge on their position on health care and the Affordable Care Act.

Lucy Mcbath: We're going to stand our ground, and we want the American people to understand and know that we're there fighting for them.

Sarah Kallis: Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Collins says the health care debate is secondary.

Mike Collins: This is not about a health care fight. This is about funding the government; that's it.

Sarah Kallis: The federal government shut down on October 1 when Congress could not reach an agreement on a funding bill that would extend ACA subsidies. Without subsidies, the cost of many policies would more than double. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kalis.

Story 2:

Peter Biello: Candidates vying to be the next mayor of Atlanta squared off in a televised debate yesterday. GPB's Amanda Andrews reports the incumbent, Andre Dickens, was noticeably absent.

Amanda Andrews: Three of the four people running for Atlanta mayor attended the debates. They include Helmut Domegalski, Kalema Jackson, and Eddie Andrew Meredith. They all spoke about their plans to improve the relationship between the mayor and governor's office. They also agreed the city needs more police officers. Here's Meredith.

Eddie Andrew Meredith: We want actual voters and people in the city of Atlanta to actually feel safe. And that's how we do it. We invest in into our police officers. That was actually a really, really good answer, Mr. Jackson. We need to invest back into our police officers, our firefighters.

Amanda Andrews: Early voting begins Oct. 14. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: A judge has given more time to find a new prosecutor for the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and others. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified due to a romantic relationship with the prosecutor she hired. The judge originally set a two-week deadline to find a new prosecutor. The state agency charged with the task asked for at least 90 days to examine the case file. Fultone County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee yesterday granted the prosecuting Attorneys' Council until Nov. 14 to find a new prosecutor. Any case against Trump is unlikely to advance while he's president, but 14 others, including Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani, still face charges.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: This month marks one year since the fire at the BioLab facility in Conyers, a major manufacturer of pool and spa cleaning products. GPB's Pamela Kirkland has been reporting on the accident for the past year in the podcast, Manufacturing Danger: The BioLab Story. Recently, she learned there is a tool that could have provided important information to the people whose job it was to put themselves in danger at BioLab. Here's her report.

Police: Quinn 19, that's 10-4. When you return to service, we're gonna be placing you en route to a mutual aid call in Rockdale with the rest of Company 19, Italian 2.

Pamela Kirkland: On Sept. 29 last year, the calls for mutual aid from Rockdale County to other communities started coming in. But DeKalb County Sheriff Melody Maddox didn't need her radio to know where help was needed. She saw it in her own backyard.

Sheriff Melody Maddox: I see this big black cloud or whatever, then the phone calls start. I'm like, "What is this?" And then that's when my commander called and said, "Hey, Rockdale County is asking for our assistance. They've had a blow up at the BioLab."

Pamela Kirkland: She saw this last about 20 years earlier, in 2004. Then, she helped evacuate her aunt and her aunt's neighbors. She suspects the fire led to her aunt's lung problems and the illnesses of some of the neighbors.

Sheriff Melody Maddox: Now, can I prove it? I can't because I'm not a doctor.

Pamela Kirkland: But that experience was enough to make her afraid of sending her deputies to this new fire at BioLab two decades later — because what none of responding agencies knew was what chemical cloud they were walking into or how to keep themselves safe in it.

Sheriff Melody Maddox: They had to mask, you know, but they weren't even sure if that was enough for what — for the chemicals that was there.

Pamela Kirkland: Meanwhile, sitting on the ground was a tool which could have been telling Sheriff Melody Maddox and other first responders what they were dealing with. It's a plane, a single-engine Cessna, that can map chemical plumes from above in real time. It's called the Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology, or ASPECT, and Robert Crowdle is one of the people who knows what this plane can do best.

Robert Crowdle: And we can tell within five or 10 seconds what the chemicals are, what the concentrations are.

Pamela Kirkland: At the EPA, Crowdle served as ASPECT's data quality manager. Today, he's the public face of a group of retired scientists speaking out about EPA's handling of data after chemical disasters, a whistleblower. He says ASPECT was used at Biolab's 2004 fire in Conyers where Maddox evacuated her aunt and at the Westlake, La., BioLab fire in 2020. But in 2024, it stayed grounded. Crowdle says that was a mistake.

Robert Crowdle: It's not a history lesson. You can immediately warn the public. The police can go to their houses and say, "Get out of here. We have a chemical bloom coming your way. It's hazardous. You shouldn't stay in your house."

Pamela Kirkland: The ASPECT plane is housed just outside Dallas, Texas. The single-engine plane could have been on site within the first day of the BioLab accident. The EPA sent another tool instead: their Trace Atmospheric Gas Analyzer bus. By the time that rolled up and took its first sample, the BioLab fire was nearly a week in the past. So why didn't EPA launch Aspect? One possible reason: EPA's early decision-making was based on BioLab's estimate that about 40,000 pounds of chemicals were burning inside the warehouse. Now, federal investigators estimate nearly 14 million pounds of oxidizers were in the warehouse. We can't say how much of that caught fire. For GPB News, I'm Pamela Kirkland in Atlanta.

Peter Biello: You can find out more about the history of the company and the aftermath of the chemical fire at BioLab in the podcast Manufacturing Danger: The BioLab Story from GPB.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: A Superior Court judge in Southeast Georgia's Coffee County has stopped work on a massive complex of chicken houses. A North Carolina group aims to help area poultry producers recover from damage received during last year's Hurricane Helene by building a 60-house operation on the banks of the Satilla River. Satilla Riverkeeper Shannon Gregory applauded the judge's order issued yesterday.

Shannon Gregory: We're not opposed to the help coming down. We're not opposed to chicken houses being built. The primary thing that was really getting us was the placement of these chicken houses in wetland area next to a flashy river that is prone to flooding.

Peter Biello: She says 60 chicken houses could hold millions of broilers, making it the state's largest poultry operation by far. Project backers could appeal the order or demand a trial.

Story 6:

Peter Biello: Delta Air Lnes reported this morning a third quarter net income of more than $1.4 billion. That's strong profit and revenue growth for the busy summer travel season. Revenue momentum picked up during the quarter as some uncertainty started to clear concerning tariffs in the economy. That's according to CEO Ed Bastian speaking with CNBC. Domestic air travel was under the most stress throughout the year and that experienced a recovery. Corporate travel also increased. On a per share basis, the Atlanta-based company said it had a profit of $2.17. Bastian says he doesn't expect the U.S. government shutdown to have much of an impact now, but that could shift depending on how long the shutdown lasts. He expects strong holiday travel along with improvements in transatlantic travel.

Story 7:

Peter Biello: A wall panel manufacturing company has closed its residential business manufacturing plants in Macon. Nichiha USA told state officials today that the closure will end jobs for 171 people. The company says some of the plant's operations will move to Nichiha's other Macon facility, which focuses on commercial business.

Story 8:

Peter Biello: Athletic clothing producer Augusta Sportswear is closing its facility, resulting in 93 job losses. A private equity firm bought the almost 50-year-old company last year, signaling trouble. The two recent layoff announcements bring the total such notices in Georgia to more than 13,000 so far this year, twice as many compared to the same time span in 2024.

Story 9:

Peter Biello: And the Savannah Bananas will reveal their 2026 tour schedule tonight during a live city selection show airing at 6.30 p.m. on ESPN2, ESPN+, Disney+, and the Banana Ball YouTube channel. In addition to the 2026 schedule, two new Banana Ball teams will be announced during the broadcast. Fans can join the ticket lottery list for the 2026 tour immediately after the selection show ends.

Peter Biello: And that is a wrap on Georgia Today. Thank you so much for tuning in. You're gonna wanna tune in tomorrow as well. We'll have all the latest headlines plus a few feature conversations for you. If you wanna learn more about the stories you heard today, visit gpb.org/news and send your feedback to us by email. The address is georgiatoday@gpb.org. I'm Peter B. Yellow. Thanks again for listening and have a great day.

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