Georgia Today: Justice Dept. investigates SPLC; More FIFA tix; Georgia Supreme Court race

 

Transcript: 

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, the Justice Department investigates the Southern Poverty Law Center, new FIFA tickets will soon hit the market, and in the non-partisan race to be elected to Georgia's Supreme Court, the two major parties still back candidates. Today's Tuesday, April 21. I'm Peter Biello, and this is Georgia Today. 

 

Story 1

Peter Biello: The Southern Poverty Law Center says it's the subject of a Justice Department criminal investigation. The Alabama-based civil rights organization said today that President Donald Trump's administration appears to be preparing legal action against it or its employees. The center's CEO, Bryan Fair, says the focus appears to be its prior use of paid confidential informants to gather intelligence on violent groups, intelligence it often shared with law enforcement. Fair says what they learned from the informants saved lives. The center is a popular target among Republicans who call it overly leftist and partisan. The Justice Department had no comment on the story. 

 

Story 2

Peter Biello: Three justices on the Georgia Supreme Court are up for reelection in May, and two of the races are contested. GPB's Sara Kallis  reports on the politics in those races. 

Sarah Kallis: Georgia Democrats are hoping to recreate their 2025 Public Service Commission success in this year's state Supreme Court race. While state Supreme Court races are technically nonpartisan, candidates Jen Jordan and Miracle Rankin are campaigning on Democratic values like abortion access. Democratic Party of Georgia Chair Charlie Bailey says the party is investing in their campaigns. 

Charlie Bailey: It's the most money that the Georgia Democratic Party has spent in judicial races in 20 years. 

Sarah Kallis: Gov. Brian Kemp has thrown his support behind the incumbent justices Charles Bethel and Sarah Warren. Early voting starts next week and the general Supreme Court race is May 19 at the same time as the primary election. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis. 

 

Story 3

Peter Biello: Anew survey from the Alzheimer's Association suggests that while people want to adopt healthy habits to protect their minds as they age, they likely don't know what those habits are. GPB's Ellen Eldridge has more. 

Ellen Eldridge: The survey finds an estimated 90% of Americans believe supporting brain health is important with age, but less than 10% know what steps to take. Heather Snyder is with the Alzheimer's Association. She says people are not necessarily reaching healthy goals with things like sleep, exercise and diet. 

Heather Snyder: The good news is people are motivated, they want to learn more, they want to — they want to think about how to incorporate changes into their brain health and they want have those conversations with their doctor. 

Ellen Eldridge: An estimated 188,000 Georgians are living with Alzheimer's and more than 390,000 family members and friends are providing their care. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldridge. 

 

Story 4

Peter Biello: State lawmakers ended their 2026 legislative session without taking any action to address the impact of data centers. Now, with the election season underway, candidates are addressing the issue with voters. In metro Atlanta's DeKalb County, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jason Estevez yesterday held a town hall where voters brought their concerns. Estevez called for more oversight of data center construction. Plans for these energy-hungry data center projects keep popping up in Georgia. Google confirmed one today in LaGrange. The rush of projects has prompted resistance, which Democrats are hoping to capitalize on in the midterm elections. 

 

Story 5

Peter Biello: The large wildfire in South Georgia's Clinch County is growing, prompting officials to tell nearby residents to prepare for evacuation. The Pineland Road fire started about 15 miles west of the town of Fargo. As of noon today, the most recent update at the time of this recording, which is on Tuesday afternoon, Clinch County emergency officials say the fire was nearly 9,000 acres and only about 10% of it was contained. They're advising people living along U.S. Highway 441 to prepare to evacuate. 

 

Story 6

Peter Biello: People who have fled persecution abroad by coming to the United States historically have been eligible for social services. That includes SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But a change to the program now means Atlanta's refugee community can't access it. GPB's Sofi Gratas reports. 

Sofi Gratas: Paedia Mixon leads me to a back room at the new American Pathways office in Clarkston. 

Paedia Mixon: So we've kind of had to repurpose our break room to store food. I

Sofi Gratas: In the past few months, this break room has been turned into a makeshift food bank for the refugee families that Mixon and others help resettle in the U.S. 

Paedia Mixon: We have bags for people from Congo and central Africa.

Sofi Gratas: Big, reusable grocery bags and cardboard boxes line chrome shells. Some are organized by country of origin. 

Paedia Mixon: For Latin America. 

Sofi Gratas: Depending on what culturally appropriate foods they contain. 

Paedia Mixon: Basic things like flour and pasta and oil, but also pistachios and other nuts, spices. 

Sofi Gratas: This is all stuff you could get at the grocery store, but now may be causing a strain on refugee families' wallets, following a cut to monthly SNAP benefits. That's because the passage of President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer ended SNAP eligibility for all non-U.S. citizens, including people granted legal political asylum. Paedia Mixon says when the news hit:

Paedia Mixon: I read it and saw, oh my God, they're cutting SNAP benefits for refugees, and just sort of started to feel this panic.

Sofi Gratas: Panic for the 8,000 refugees and asylees who were getting snap in Georgia as of December. Kyryll Levterov of New American Pathways says one of the first things people like him do for refugees when they arrive in the U.S. is enroll them in SNAP. 

Kyryll Levterov: People who are just like one, two, three years in the country, they really relied on SNAPs. And I'm speaking about people with large families, lack of U.S. education, U.S. working experience. 

Sofi Gratas: SNAP benefits offered a first step towards stability while families built new lives. When benefits were cut in January, Levterov started seeing that stability unravel for his clients. 

Kyryll Levterov: Like a couple of months ago it was like maybe one emergency a week, maybe a couple of times. Now it's like a couple times a day. So yeah, it's, it's — now it's very different. 

Sofi Gratas: Without SNAP, that can look like a $700 to $900 hole in monthly budgets for families like Alexi's, which are also balancing childcare and rent. Alexi, who asked to go by only one name, is from Tanzania. His family of seven has been in Georgia for five years. 

[Alexi in native language]

Alexi: There was a time we didn't have food for a week, he says. We get this, we get that, but food stamps were really helping us a lot. 

Sofi Gratas: Now, he says, his family is in crisis mode, back to needing the basic assistance they relied on when they first arrived here. 

Paedia Mixon: People that were self-sufficient now ... are food insecure. 

Sofi Gratas: Paedia Mixon says many of the people she works with feel disillusioned. 

Paedia Mixon: I've heard over and over again, "I thought I knew what America was, and I was wrong." I've hear that many, many times. I mean, it — it's quite a shock, y'know?

Sofi Gratas: Mixon and New American Pathways have already started planning for the next emergency, coming this fall: an end to Medicaid eligibility for immigrants without green cards. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas in Clarkston. 

 

Story 7

Peter Biello: A residential campground founded by Georgia music icon Zac Brown is getting a new leader. Camp Southern Ground yesterday said its new CEO would be Boeing executive Mike Camona. The 400-acre campground south of Atlanta serves more than 1,000 children and veterans each year. 

 

Story 8

Peter Biello: A Georgia resort is opening what it's calling the state's first fully illuminated after-dark golf course of its kind. Lanier Islands Resort on Lake Lanier, northeast of Atlanta, says the six-hole Par-3 night-lit course, called the Six, will open on Saturday. 

 

Story 9

Peter Biello: FIFA is putting more World Cup tickets on sale after angering some fans by adding new, more expensive categories. Soccer World's governing body said today it will make more tickets available starting at 11 a.m. tomorrow for all 140 games, including the eight in Atlanta. The new tickets are the first three categories of seats plus the new "front category" pricing it added this month. 

 

Story 10

Peter Biello: And the Braves face the Nationals in D.C. Again tonight for the second of the four-game series. Bryce Elder struck out six in 6 and 2/3 innings. He also earned himself a warning from the umpires for hitting C.J. Abrams with the Nationals in the rear end. Umpires were concerned the pitch may have been intentional after Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. was hit by pitch twice earlier in the game. Atlanta has now won 10 of its last dozen games and has the second-best record in baseball behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

And that is it for this edition of Georgia Today. Thank you so much for tuning in, and we hope you'll come back tomorrow. Make sure you subscribe and check gpb.org/news for updates to any of the stories you heard today, as well as the new headlines that our reporters are putting out there. If you have feedback or perhaps a story idea we should know about, let us know by email. It's the best way to reach us. The address is georgiatoday@gpb.org. I'm Peter Biello. Thank you again for listening. We will see you tomorrow.