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Georgia Today: Warnock wants answers from FBI; Prison for antisemitic postcards; Birth control bill
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On the Feb. 5 edition: Senator Raphael Warnock presses for answers about the FBI's raid of a Fulton County elections warehouse; A man is sentenced after being convicted of sending antisemitic postcards to a lawmaker; And state Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill that would allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control medication.
TRANSCRIPT:
Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, Sen. Raphael Warnock presses for answers about the FBI's raid of a Fulton County elections warehouse. A man is sentenced after being convicted of sending antisemitic postcards to a lawmaker, and state Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill that would allow pharmacists to birth control medication.
Beth Camp: When people have access to family planning, such as contraception, they're able to bring opportunities to light because they're to make plans for their future.
Peter Biello: Today is Thursday, Feb. 5. I'm Peter Bielo, and this is Georgia Today.
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Peter Biello: Georgia's Sen. Raphael Warnock says he is pressing the Trump administration for answers about the FBI search at a Fulton County elections warehouse last week. GPB's Sarah Kallis reports.
Sarah Kallis: Warnock says he is doing everything in his power to support Fulton County legal challenges to the operation at a federal level.
Raphael Warnock: Elections are held at the state level, and the Constitution is clear about that. They're administered at the state level. The federal government has a role. But this is about Georgia, but it's about more than just our state.
Sarah Kallis: He also sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, requesting a briefing on the search and why it was conducted. The FBI seized 700 boxes of 2020 presidential election ballots from the warehouse last week. Since then, President Donald Trump has called for Republicans to, quote, "federalize elections," which Warnock says both parties need to reject. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis.
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Peter Biello: The man who was convicted of a federal hate crime for mailing Georgia's only Jewish state representative and a Macon rabbi anti-Semitic postcards has been given the maximum sentence under federal law. GPB's Grant Blankenship has more.
Grant Blankenship: Ariel Colasso Ramos of Durham, N.C., sent Rep. Esther Panitch and Rabbi Elizabeth Behar postcards invoking the gas chambers of the Holocaust the day after passage of Panitch's bill to legally define anti-Semitism in Georgia. Panitch says the postcard arrived at her home on the day Gov. Kemp was to sign the bill into law. Both women say neither they nor their families felt safe after. Esther Panitch:
Esther Panitch: This is the new reality for politicians, especially Jewish ones or other minorities. This is unfortunately what we're seeing with political violence out there. It's not abnormal. It should be.
Grant Blankenship: Ariel Ramos was sentenced to five years in federal prison and three years of supervision after his release. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon.
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Peter Biello: Georgia Republican U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk says he will not seek re-election this year. Lowdermanilk is among at least 50 House incumbents stepping down or running for other offices. In Georgia, four Republican-held congressional seats will change hands this year, Loudermilk has served in Congress since 2015. He said yesterday that he wants to spend more time with his family. His district includes all or parts of five counties northwest of Atlanta.
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Peter Biello: Speaker of the House Jon Burns and the Republican Party yesterday introduced a flurry of bills they say will help Georgia families. One of those bills, House Bill 1138, will allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control medication. State Rep. Beth Camp says that policy is already in place in 36 states.
Beth Camp: In my family, something that's really important is opportunities. And when people have access to family planning, such as contraception, they're able to bring opportunities to light because they're able to make plans for their future.
Peter Biello: Other bills include funding for after-school care for families on a limited income, the creation of a domestic violence registry, and more maternity leave for state employees.
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Peter Biello: A committee under the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has changed its guidelines for some childhood vaccines. Instead of recommending them outright, it says it wants doctors and patients to engage in what's called "shared clinical decision-making" before shots are given out — conversations health care providers say they already have. GPB's Sofi Gratas explains how some Georgia doctors are navigating the new guidelines.
Sofi Gratas: Shortly after 8 a.m., Dr. Rachel McDiehl begins seeing patients at her obstetrics and gynecology practice in Decatur. She tears sanitary paper off a patient exam chair.
Dr. Rachel McDiehl: That's the sound that I hear in the background of my daily life.
Sofi Gratas: McDiehl will see about two dozen patients today. She says almost everyone will be getting a vaccine, or at least talking about getting one.
Dr. Rachel McDiehl: It's got a new chart for me, Julie.
Sofi Gratas: On the schedule are vaccines proven to protect both parent and baby.
Dr. Rachel McDiehl: We could have someone who is due for Tdap, flu, COVID, and RSV all on the same day. That's a lot of vaccines to get all at once.
Sofi Gratas: McDiehl knows vaccine schedules can be overwhelming to talk about, especially since her pregnant patients follow much more nuanced recommendations than children.
Dr. Rachel McDiehl: I feel like I am constantly using shared decision-making. The vaccine schedules, kind of, as previously recommended and with new changes to have a shared decision-making conversation, honestly doesn't change how I offer patients vaccines that much.
Sofi Gratas: She argues that's the case for most physicians, who have already been engaging in those conversations the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices says it wants. But McDiehl says the new guidelines work best with universal vaccine recommendations. Without them, she worries patients might come in misinformed about the safety of scenes, or be unwilling to even talk at all.
Dr. Rachel McDiehl: If they're making that vaccination decision out of fear, as opposed to out of, like, based upon the facts and the evidence that we know surrounding these vaccines, that scares me.
Sofi Gratas: When the CDC decided to remove six vaccines from its universal recommendations for kids, it didn't cite any new evidence for doing so. Dr. Walt Orenstein helps head the vaccine center at Emory University and ran the United States' immunization program for 16 years at the CDC.
Dr. Walt Orenstein: Normally, what is done is development of what was called a harmonized schedule.
Sofi Gratas: He says that's when the government and trusted physician groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics worked together on vaccine guidelines. Here, there was no working together. Orenstein says that means there's no one trusted vaccine schedule. And without that, we can lose the community benefits of immunization.
Dr. Walt Orenstein: This was a unilateral decision. So now, what we are going to see is different immunization schedules, which could be very, very confusing and can lead to drops in coverage.
Sofi Gratas: Coverage against illness. And if enough patients are put off by vaccines, doctors may not know which ones to stock anymore.
Dr. Walt Orenstein: And in fact, it may cause them perhaps not even to order some of the vaccines because they don't know what the uptake will be.
Monica Newton: The important thing to remember is the evidence really hasn't changed.
Sofi Gratas: That's Monica Newton, a Northeast Georgia doctor and chapter president of the Georgia Academy of Family Physicians. She says she expects her over 3,000 members to follow the old guidelines.
Monica Newton: It isn't like we've discovered that some of these vaccines don't work or that they're not needed.
Sofi Gratas: Newton agrees that their benefits still outweigh any risk, but she worries the changed guidelines by the government's top public health agency could greenlight changes at the state level, like what shots are required for kids to attend school.
Monica Newton: They're almost like forecasting to states, like these are the things you should require and not require.
Sofi Gratas: For now, Georgia's Department of Public Health says it does not plan on making changes to the state's immunization schedules. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas.
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Peter Biello: Darden Restaurants is laying off 78 workers as it closes its Bahama Breeze location in Duluth. The layoffs include a variety of restaurant workers including the general manager, servers, bartenders and line cooks. This follows Darden's announcement earlier this week that it will permanently close 14 Bahama Breeze restaurants. Other locations, including the one in Kennesaw, will be converted into another Darden restaurant. Darden's brand portfolio includes Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Longhorn Steakhouse and Yardhouse.
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Peter Biello: Researchers at Emory University say early results from an annual child health and wellness report show gun violence has risen to the top of parents' concerns. Just over a thousand parents were surveyed for the poll. Last year, school quality and education ranked the top concerns more than mental health and social media use. This year, Stephen Patrick at the Rowland School of Public Health says:
Stephen Patrick: Nearly a third chose gun violence within their top three. It's up about six percentage points. And so that shift certainly catches our attention.
Peter Biello: Gun violence is the leading cause of death for kids in the U.S. and disproportionately affects Black youth. The same goes for Georgia, which ranks near the top for its gun death rate. Homicide, car crashes, and suicide are the top causes of death of teenagers in the state. The Emory poll also suggests the majority of parents, about 80%, are in favor of tighter gun storage laws to improve safety.
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Peter Biello: Mental health advocates say if all Georgia insurance companies followed parity law, more people would be seeking treatment for mental health and substance use disorder. GPB's Ellen Eldridge reports on advocacy efforts during this week's third annual Mental Health Parity Day at the state Capitol.
Ellen Eldridge: In 2022, Gov. Brian Kemp signed the Parity Act into law. It requires insurance companies to cover mental health in the same way they cover physical health. It also levies fines for insurance companies that don't comply. Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire John King recently levied nearly $25 million in fines for violations made in 2022.
John King: And I think the companies ought to pay attention. I told them they needed to pay attention to this and apparently they didn't take me seriously. Well, now this is my effort for them to understand that I'm serious about this.
Ellen Eldridge: Advocates say enforcing parity laws about reducing emergency response costs, saving taxpayer dollars, and building healthier communities across Georgia. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge.
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Peter Biello: A high school cheerleading team from metro Atlanta's Gwinnett County will become the first from Georgia to compete in a national championship tomorrow, but as GPB's Orlando Montoya reports, it almost didn't happen.
Orlando Montoya: A Georgia High School Association bylaw prohibits cheerleading teams from out-of-state competition, but after a multi-year campaign and a state championship win this December, the association made an exception for the Collins Hill High School team. Katie Birkhead is the team's head coach.
Katie Birkhead: Watching their dedication this entire season, starting from the day the tryouts happened until we hit the stage for state, we knew that this team was going to do big things.
Orlando Montoya: They'll compete at the Universal Cheer Association National Championship in Orlando, Fla., one of the sport's most prestigious stages. For GPB News, I'm Orlando Montoya.
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Peter Biello: Andruw Jones will wear an Atlanta Braves hat on his Hall of Fame plaque. The Hall of Fame typically makes that decision, and it comes two weeks after the Gold Glove-winning outfielder was elected to the hall. Jones played most of his career with the Braves, but also played for the Dodgers, White Sox, Rangers, and Yankees. His Hall of Fame induction is scheduled for July 26.
And that is it for Georgia Today. Thank you very much for tuning in. I hope you come back tomorrow. So make sure you subscribe to this podcast and check out gpb.org/news for updates to any of the stories you heard today and for the latest new headlines, if you've got feedback, we would love to hear from you. And the best way for you to reach us is by email, send your email to georgiatoday@gpb.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We will see you tomorrow.
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