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Georgia Today
ICE targets Atlanta landlords; Funding cuts for weather; Ocmulgee River short stories
00:19:26
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- [00:00]
NPR Host
These days there's so much news it can be hard to keep up with what it all means for you, your family and your community. The Consider this Podcast from NPR features our award winning journalism. Six days a week we bring you a deep dive on a news story and provide the context and analysis that helps you make sense of the news. We get behind the headlines. We get to the truth. Listen to the Consider this podcast from npr.
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Orlando Montoya
Hello and welcome to the Georgia Today Podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, ICE targets Atlanta landlords for help with immigration arrests Officials warn federal funding cuts could pose weather related risks to Georgia. And the Okmulgee river is the inspiration behind a Georgia author's new book of short stories.
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Gordon Johnston
When I'm on the river, I'm completely disconnected. I don't have to keep up with my email and text messages. There's a kind of deliberation about time on the river that's really nice.
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Orlando Montoya
Today is Tuesday, July 15th. I'm Orlando Montoya and this is GEORGIA Today. Atlanta area landlords are receiving subpoenas from immigration authorities demanding they turn over tenant information, including leases and IDs. The requests are a sign the Trump administration is targeting landlords to assist in its drive for mass deportations. The subpoenas are not signed by judges and raise legal concerns about compliance and potential violations of the Fair Housing Act. An Atlanta area attorney whose clients received the subpoenas, Eric Tusink, says his clients were confused by them.
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Eric Tusink
To me it seemed like they were on a bit of a fishing expedition in that, you know, if they could get information for tracking down folks they were seeking, I assume for deportation purposes, but I don't know.
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Orlando Montoya
Some legal experts advise ignoring such requests unless court ordered. 2 sink says some housing providers might feel forced to comply, risking tenant privacy. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security defend the subpoenas warning of penalties for non compliance. State utility regulators have approved Georgia Power's plan to dramatically increase its electric generating capacity. The Public Service Commission today passed the company's Integrated Resources plan. It's prompted in large part by the growth of power hungry data centers across the state. Critics have blasted the plan as relying too much on fossil fuels and not enough on renewable power. The company says the plan will allow it to meet energy needs reliably and economically. Meanwhile, today, two candidates are facing off in a statewide Democratic runoff election for a seat on the five member currently all Republican commission. Clean energy advocate Peter Hubbard and former state Representative Keisha Waitz are on the Ballot polls are open until 7P Atlanta is a little closer to its goal of building or preserving 20,000 affordable housing units by 2030. GPB's Amanda Andrews reports on a groundbreaking in southwest Atlanta today.
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Amanda Andrews
Sylvan Hills 2 will include over 200 fully affordable housing units in various styles, from townhomes to apartments. The project was created without using federal low income housing tax credits. Council member Antonio Lewis represents the area. He says the funding came from eight different public and private organizations.
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Antonio Lewis
So that means that the city of Atlanta, that means that Invest Atlanta, Atlanta Housing, HUD and different private developers had to put money together to make this happen. The only way we were able to keep the affordable component was if we did it in this manner.
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Amanda Andrews
The complex is scheduled to open in fall 2026. For GPB news, I'm Amanda Andrews.
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Orlando Montoya
A progressive advocacy group says federal funding cuts pose weather related risks to Georgia officials with Progress Georgia made the remarks during a press conference today. Speaking at the press conference, former national oceanic and Atmospheric Administration official Monica Medina warned against reducing staff, including at the agency's weather office south of Atlanta.
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Monica Medina
All those weather forecasters with all that expertise are going to be stretched even thinner. What does that mean? Key forecasts will be degraded. There will be holes in our weather safety net, not just in Georgia, but all over the country.
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Orlando Montoya
The group also raised concerns about climate change and its role in flooding in cities like Atlanta and Savannah, as well as its impact on Georgia's agricultural economy. Governor Brian Kemp is ordering state agencies to freeze spending at current levels during this fiscal year and fiscal year 2027. The move is aimed at protecting the state from federal funding cuts in President Trump's big budget bill that Congress passed this month. The state ended fiscal year 2025 with a healthy budget surplus, but the impact of the federal funding cuts remains uncertain. As a result, a letter sent from the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget to agency heads directs them to develop plans for dealing with the loss of federal funding. Some Democratic state lawmakers are calling for a special session to address the funding gaps. Kemp so far has shown no inclination toward reconvening the General assembly before its regular session beginning in January. West Nile virus has been detected in mosquitoes sampled from Savannah and just north and south of Atlanta. Public health departments in Fulton and Chatham counties reported the detections this week. There's no cure or vaccine to treat West Nile, which can cause fever, rash and other symptoms. Health officials advise people to avoid mosquito bites by dressing to avoid skin exposure, draining standing water and and wearing insect repellent with deet, among other suggestions. Delta Air Lines has agreed to pay about $8 million to settle claims that it violated terms of a Covid relief program, the U.S. department of justice said today. The settlement stems from the Atlanta based Airlines Participation in a Pandemic Era payroll Support fund. Delta was accused of paying corporate officers and employees earning more than $425,000 a year over allowed amounts for three years beginning in March 2020. The company denies the allegations. One of Georgia's great waterways, the Okmulgee river, flows from Lake Jackson to the Altamaha river through a wide swath of middle Georgia. It has inspired stories for as long as people have been living near it, and that's a long, long time. A new book of short stories inspired by Okmulgee experiences earned its author a nomination for the 20 Townshend Prize, one of Georgia's most prestigious literary awards. He is Mercer University English professor Gordon Johnston. He spoke with me about his book Seven Islands of the Okmulgee. He's a Warner Robins native and an avid kayaker and canoeist.
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Gordon Johnston
The first time I paddled the river, I was just out to see the place. I was out to see the river's motion, the landscape that it flowed through, all that sort of thing and But I've really paddled the whole thing twice, almost three times now. The second time I paddled the river when I was moving through these areas I'd seen before, that's when the stories really started to come to me. Except for that first story in the book and the beginning of the last story, all the other ones sort of came to me as I was passing through particular areas of the river.
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Orlando Montoya
Now, if any of these stories are set in the present day, it's hard to tell because there's no cell phones, computers or other modern conveniences that I can rec. In one story, a park ranger uses a walkie talkie. But was this intentional?
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Gordon Johnston
I didn't set out not to include any tech in the book. I think partly that development in the book comes from the fact that when I'm on the river, one of the great pleasures of it is I'm completely disconnected. I don't have to keep up with my email and text messages. There's a kind of deliberation about time on the river that's really nice. Many of the stories I felt were coming from a previous time on the river, not out of a contemporary moment. One thing about the Ughmulgi that draws me as much as ever is the sense of a really long Human history that's existed and persisted and thrived along that ancient flow. It's a very old river. And as it flows through Macon, it's flowing through a place that's been continuously occupied by people for 12,000 years. And that really old history of the river, I think it made me think sort of expansively about what contemporary means now.
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Orlando Montoya
There are seven stories in the book. Each of them is distinct, but they refer to the others in slight ways. For instance, the main character in one story might be a cousin or a co worker of a character in another story. Yes, you didn't have to do that. Why was it important for the stories to be woven together, even if slightly.
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Gordon Johnston
You know, That's a good question. Thank you for taking note of that too. I think one of the reasons I wanted the stories to have a sense of connection is because the river is a great connector. The reason human beings lived here, have lived here for so long is because of the Okmulgee is a thoroughfare. You know, it gets you from one place to another, that kind of connectedness. I wanted the stories to kind of suggest that that also sort of developed, rather than my planning, that I found as I was writing. These relationships just kind of trickled out into the stories. That happened a couple of times. And then I wanted to sort of follow up on that and enhance it. One thing about short stories, most of the time in a short story, you can't cover the span of a life. You cover a chapter, an episode out of a life. And in this, including these character connections across stories, there are. There are a few arcs of longer development for at least a few of the characters. I guess most of those happen to be minor.
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Orlando Montoya
I also noticed that the characters seem to talk in shorthand as if they know each other, even if they're strangers. It also seems like telepathy. The dialogue is very direct. No one idles in small talk. And I can't decide if that's a product of a necessity. You know, these are short stories. B, class, these people are mostly working class characters. Or C, your writing style. So can you talk about your approach to dialogue here?
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Gordon Johnston
Oh, well, I think largely that is a development of my writing style. I was a journalist before I was a college professor and I worked for a newspaper. They had a 25 word limit on the lead. So I have always tried to write fairly sharply, I think, with the dialogue, though, there's also, you know, on the river. The exchanges you have on the river are often. I mean, they're not what you'd Call loquacious. You know, you're paddling, you're on the current. Here's a guy anchored in his boat and he's casting for bass up to the bank, right? And you might say, you get nanny. And his answer is few. And maybe there are a couple of other words scattered in there but conversation. And it's not that people are terse either. It's more a sense of relaxation behind that shortness. Some of it might be that. And some of these characters too are sort of. They're kind of tough. They're a little hard bitten.
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Orlando Montoya
Many of the characters in the stories are changed by the river. They have some kind of transformation. Why was that an important theme in the book?
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Gordon Johnston
You know, as I think about the book, as I was putting it together, I had a much longer book initially. And then it became these seven stories. In the title of the book, Seven Islands of the Ughmulgi. I realized that these seven stories belonged in a single volume together. Because each of the stories involves a person who is something of an island in themselves. They're cut off from meaningful relationships with other people. They might have meaningful relationships, but there are defining relationships for them that are either riddled with tension or they've fallen apart or they've never quite existed in the first place. So I think that the sense of transformation. It wasn't so much that I was working for transformation in the stories, but all of the stories, they tended towards these characters being brought out of that isolation they were in by something that happens to them on the river.
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Orlando Montoya
Did you see the river as a character in this book? And if so, what personality would you say the river has had over its many iterations?
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Gordon Johnston
You know, my first instinct is to say. Is to say, yes, the river is a character in the book. It's a force in the book. It makes things happen in the book. It's a condition. And all of these characters, to some extent, are sort of pushing back against the river in some way. I don't know what word I would use to describe the. Ugh. Mulgi's character. I will say that all rivers. This is one of the things I love about paddling, whether it's a kayak or a canoe. When you get on the river, you can't stop. You know, you are subjecting yourself. You're subjugating yourself to this greater will. And it's the will of the weather system from a week ago when all the rain came down and raised a level of river. Or it's the influx from maybe a sewage spill in Macon that's come down a tributary and gotten into the river. When you get on the river, you have to cooperate with this big colossal thing that is much larger than you. But every move you make on the river, you've got to negotiate it with the current, with the rocks, with the downed trees that might be in the river and that sort of thing. So it's an incredibly dynamic place.
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Orlando Montoya
Well, Gordon Johnston, author of Seven Islands of the Ukmulgee, thank you for joining me today.
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Gordon Johnston
Yes, thank you for having me.
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Orlando Montoya
That book is the subject of GPB's first ever video episode of our podcast, Narrative Edge, co hosted by me and GPB's Peter Biello. Narrative Edge is all about books with Georgia topics or by Georgia authors. And now you can watch it on YouTube. Listen to narrative of Edge on your favorite podcast app, and now watch it on YouTube. The Major League Baseball All Star Game is scheduled for this evening at Truest Park. The National League, including some Braves players, will take on the All Stars of the American League. GPB's Peter Biello is the there. Peter, thanks for taking some time to talk about this and what's going on. Hey, where are you exactly?
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Peter Biello
I'm on the field right now. Media is given access to the field for a little bit before the game, but we're going to have to clear off soon so the players can warm up.
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Orlando Montoya
So what's new about this All Star Game?
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Peter Biello
Well, this game will be the first where the automated balls and strikes system will be used. That's essentially using some kind of radar to kind of allow the pitcher, catcher or batter to challenge a ball or strike call. This has been used in spring training and in the minor leagues, but never for the All Star Game before. So if a batter, for example, wants to challenge a called strike three, they can tap their helmet a couple of times and challenge the call. And if the call was indeed correct, they lose a challenge. But if they are correct and the umpire was wrong, then they get to keep the challenge. So that's an interesting thing about this All Star Game. Another thing about this All Star Game is that it's going back to a tradition that ended just a few years ago in 2019. The players used to use the jerseys that they regularly used For a few years. They've been using American League and National League jerseys. Those weren't super well received. So they're going back to the old fashioned way of wearing their home uniforms. So for example, the Braves players participating will be wearing Braves uniforms.
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Orlando Montoya
And what Braves are participating?
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Peter Biello
You're going to see Ronald Acuna Jr. He's in the starting lineup for the National League. Matt Olson made the team. He's not a starter, but he might be swapped out. Freddie Freeman, a former Brave, is on the All Star team, so fans will see him here. Also, Chris Sale has been named to the team, but because of an injury he will not be pitching tonight.
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Orlando Montoya
Now you were at the red carpet walk earlier. What is that?
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Peter Biello
So the red carpet is a kind of fun All Star event where players basically get dressed up in high fashion outfits and stroll down the red carpet, which in this case was in the Battery outside Truist park in Atlanta. And it was a fun thing to see. I am not much of a fashionista, so I don't know on site exactly what designers players were wearing, but it was cool to see everybody walk down just dressed really nicely and clearly enjoying the moment.
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Orlando Montoya
Are officials expecting a big economic boost to the area?
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Peter Biello
I think they are. They have not released any kind of number that they're hoping to hit in any kind of metric, but what I have heard is that they're waiting for all it all to be done so that they can just basically count the stacks and see how they did.
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Orlando Montoya
And what about predictions for the game?
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Peter Biello
Well, I think the first inning is going to be the most interesting because you've got Tarek Skubal starting for the American League and Paul Skeens starting for the National League. Both are incredible pitchers, but they're going to be up against, you know, the best hitters in baseball. So I have to say the leagues are evenly matched. It's anybody's ball game. But I will add, pour one out for all the mascots. All the mascots are here and it is very hot. I can't imagine what it feels like wearing one of those giant felt heads. I can't imagine it feels good. So I hope they are finding a way to stay cool somehow on this very hot All Star Tuesday.
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Orlando Montoya
My favorite. Well, stay cool, keep us informed and thanks for talking with me today.
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Peter Biello
Thank you Orlando.
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Orlando Montoya
And that's it for today's edition of Georgia. Today we invite you to Visit our website gpb.org news for more details on many of the stories that you hear on this podcast and a whole lot more on our constantly updated website. Hit subscribe on this podcast to keep us current in your feed and if you have feedback for us, send that our way. We love to get story suggestions and your comments@georgia todaypb.org.
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NPR Host
These days there's so much news it can be hard to keep up with what it all means for you, your family and your community. The Consider this Podcast from NPR features our award winning journalism. Six days a week we bring you a deep dive on a news story and provide the context and analysis that helps you make sense of the news. We get behind the headlines. We get to the truth. Listen to the Consider this Podcast from NPR.