← Georgia Today
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Welcome to the Georgia Today Podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On Today's episode, a DeKalb county teacher died saving a young child from drowning. Mike Collins is on the campaign trail and as cyclospora continues to worry people, doctors have some extra advice to avoid
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foodborne illnesses when you're dining out.
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Remember that outbreaks linked to restaurants are very uncommon compared to the millions of meals so served safely.
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Today is Tuesday, August 11th. I'm Chase McGee and this is Georgia Today. An elementary school teacher in metro Atlanta's DeKalb county is being remembered after authorities say he died while trying to rescue a child from a rip current In South Carolina, Derek Moore taught at Rockbridge Elementary School and was named DeKalb County's Teacher of the Year at Jolly elementary in 2024. At Monday's school board meeting, Interim Superintendent Norman SaaS praised Moore's dedication and bravery.
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He was a dedicated educator who cared deeply for his students and school community and he will be sorely missed and we applaud his bravery and his courage on so many levels.
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Myrtle beach Police say the 47 year old entered the ocean on Friday to help a young girl caught in a rip current. She made it to safety. Moore's body was recovered the following morning. Governor Brian Kemp has suspended an indicted East Georgia sheriff. A federal grand jury last month brought charges against Burke County Sheriff Alonzo Williams, accusing him of accepting payments in exchange for dismissing DUI citations and providing a firearm to someone previously convicted of a felony. The County Commission named an acting sheriff, Brad Capitosti, who ran against Williams in 2024, to serve until Williams case is resolved. Georgia U.S. representative Mike Collins and a Republican U.S. senate candidate held a rally in Augusta Monday. GPB Sarah Kalis reports.
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Collins highlighted his tough stance on immigration and told those in the crowd he will also advocate for lower prescription drug prices if elected. He took the opportunity to take shots at his opponent, Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, and accused him of being far left.
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This race is real simple, y'. All. It's common sense versus Crazy common sense versus communism. Crazy people and it's time to stop this and turn this thing around.
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Ossoff has a rally planned Sunday in Atlanta. For GPB News, I'm Sarah kalis.
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More than 50 black Georgia lawmakers have signed onto a statement condemning Collins for an associate's comments that have widely been panned as racist and anti Semitic. The lawmaker's statement this week refers to comments by Collins son in law David Allen Shear ii, addressing the Comments Last week, Colin said, no one speaks for me and I don't speak for anyone else. Cyclospora and salmonella linked to some produce are causing foodborne illnesses in several states, including Georgia. GPP's Ellen Eldredge has more on what you can do to protect yourself.
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Taylor Farms, the produce distributor linked to the ongoing outbreak of cyclospora, voluntarily recalled products with jalapeno peppers this week amid an outbreak of salmonella. Salmonella is a foodborne illness that can, much like cyclospora, cause intestinal illness. Dr. Colleen Kraft is a professor of pathology at Emory University.
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Obviously there's different laboratory tests to identify them in different treatments. So when we are having prolonged or severe diarrhea, it is important to get, you know, tested in order to identify the cause.
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Kraft says while people need to avoid products associated with the outbreak, fruits and vegetables are healthy and shouldn't be avoided.
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If you have the affected product, just don't eat it when you're dining out. Remember that outbreaks linked to restaurants are very uncommon compared to the millions of meals served safely every day. So I think just staying informed and not fee fearful is really the best approach.
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Kraft says the US has one of the best food safety surveillance systems and a quote outbreak is really anything above zero. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldredge.
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The US has invested millions of dollars to help understand maternal mortality when a mom dies during or shortly after pregnancy. In Georgia, this is happening disproportionately and at alarming rates. But so is a far less studied phenomenon, the Deaths of Dads. GPB's Sophie Gradis has more on why tracking this is important for both family and child health.
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In the public health world, there's no standard agreed upon definition for paternal mortality, and it's not tracked by any public health agency. But Craig Garfield at Northwestern University in Illinois has seen it. Working in the neonatal intensive care unit, he says it's not uncommon to encounter families where a father has died but before or after the baby is born. To see the bigger picture, Garfield turned to Georgia.
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We basically took every baby's birth certificate born in 2017. It was about 130,000 births. And then we looked for the next five years at every death certificate.
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He cross referenced those with birth certificates in the same time frame.
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What we found is a pretty high number. There are almost 800 dads, 796 dads who died in that five year period,
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around under 1% of the dads in his sample. And most of these deaths were preventable.
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So things like overdoses, suicides, homicides, unintentional injuries.
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It would take a different kind of analysis to compare what Garfield found to what we know about maternal death rates in Georgia. But Garfield says the results present an opportunity.
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Oftentimes in this space, there's kind of a zero sum perspective and that if we are going to do anything related to that takes focus or energy or funding away from moms, it's at the detriment of the mom. We're missing the boat here.
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And that to focus on dads, too, can be good for the whole family. Georgia has started to work toward that outcome. The state Department of Public Health was the first in the country to pilot a spinoff of an annual survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention given to new moms. And it's called Prams for Dads. And this is becoming the largest data set that exists on paternal health. In the survey, dads are asked extensively about their physical and mental health and their relationship with mom and baby. Kimberly Ross, with the Division of Women, Children and Nursing Services, says Data from the 3 years of responses will help them understand what dads need to feel more included and be healthy themselves.
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So it's kind of baked in there that like mom, and we reach out to mom and there's breastfeeding classes and there's all of these prenatal things. So how do we make sure that dad is brought into it?
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On a recent cloudy Saturday, Phil Okwo is wearing a cap and gown. Today. He's a graduate of Fathers Incorporated, programs for dads looking to improve themselves and their relationships with their kids. Okwo says he has seen how dads
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can struggle, almost never hear about paternal mortality spirit. But I know too many real life stories that I know it must be a thing. I know too many people, again, that I can whose numbers exist in my phone. They're not just random stories. It's actually really, really encouraging in a kind of morbid way that somebody's paying attention to it.
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Okwo says he's also seen fatherhood give
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dads a reason to live mentally, spiritually. You know, there's an investment, there's a piece of you out in the world, and so you, you are naturally, you're anchored to it.
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Dr. Craig Garfield says his early research bears that out, too. The new dads in his study died less often than childless men of the same age. But this is just in Georgia. Having the study replicated in other states, he says, could lead to a better understanding of how to help dads and families thrive. For GPB News, I'm Sophie Gratis in Atlanta.
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The fatal shooting of a teenager at a protest in Seattle has gone unsolved for six years.
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This is open in your face.
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How are there no answers?
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Our investigation has uncovered new evidence and witnesses who say they've never talked to police.
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Did police ever call you?
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Not once.
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Listen to We Keep Us Safe, a new True Crime series on the embedded podcast From N.
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Far fewer people are getting vaccinated against infectious diseases now than in the past. GPB Sophie Gradis reports on research from Georgia State University considering other ways to prevent disease spread.
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To effectively test a potential antiviral treatment for measles, there would need to be clinical trials on humans. Microbiologist Richard Plemper and his federally funded team at Georgia State have instead tested on a cousin of the measles virus, canine distemper.
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So we want to be able to have a drug that people can take at home, make the hurdle as low as possible.
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They tested the drug, which essentially prevents viral transmission on ferrets.
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Complete success.
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An antiviral for measles would not be a replacement for the vaccine, which is the most effective way to prevent disease. But Plumper says it could be a good option for people who are vaccine hesitant, especially especially as the US Is on track to lose its measles elimination status. For GPB News, I'm Sophie Graudis.
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Piedmont Healthcare has announced plans to construct a new emergency department in Houston County. A health system official says the ER near Bonaire could open within two years. It comes as the county experiences rapid growth and Piedmont continues to expand its footprint in Middle Georgia. Georgia tax revenues continued rising in July, bolstered by strong receipts from the sales tax, which sent more money to local governments, were about $2.5 billion, up about 78 million from the same month last year. The 3% increase came despite a 2% year over year drop in income tax revenue. Atlanta Chinatown is getting a massive renovation nearly 40 years after it opened. The manager of the retail and restaurant complex in Chambly says the sweeping project is aimed at keeping the space relevant for new generations in the region's Chinese community and beyond. In Georgia sports, the Atlanta Braves will give a vinyl record to the first 15,000 fans attending tonight's game against the New York Mets at Truest Park. It's the third such giveaway hosted by Braves pitcher Spencer Schreider, a passionate local music fan who will also host a post game concert featuring the three Atlanta bands on the record. The Echo Locations, Sea Chak and Tavern Breakfast. 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 yet hit subscribe 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@georgia todaypb.org I'm Chase McGee. Peter Biello will be back with you tomorrow.