'Sanctuary city' bill introduced; GA Health care study; civil rights icon Andrew Young

Summary

Georgia Today Podcast Summary Release Date: March 13, 2025

Host: Sophie Gradas
Producer: Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB News)

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1. State Government's Crackdown on Sanctuary Cities

In this episode, Sophie Gradas delves into the contentious issue of sanctuary cities within Georgia. The state government has introduced Senate Bill 21, aimed at tightening enforcement against cities and counties that maintain sanctuary policies. This legislation seeks to increase repercussions for local governments that do not comply with state and federal immigration laws by imposing financial damages through lawsuits.

Key Points:

• Senate Bill 21: Targets localities with sanctuary policies, mandating them to adhere strictly to immigration laws or face legal and financial consequences.
• Opposition from Local Governments: Cities and counties argue that the bill paves the way for excessive litigation from plaintiffs seeking payouts, potentially burdening local economies.

Notable Quotes:

• Larry Ramsey, Association of County Commissioners of Georgia:
  “There will be efforts by plaintiffs lawyers to turn everything into a sanctuary policy. So there will again. I've seen this in other contexts. I could see a cottage industry rising.”
  (Timestamp: 01:35)

• Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Senate Republican Leader:
  “The bill is aimed at public safety and follows President Trump's actions on border security.”
  (Timestamp: 01:46)

2. Georgia Health Care Spending and Health Outcomes Study

The podcast highlights a new study from the Institute for Health Metrics that examines the relationship between healthcare spending in Georgia and the state's leading causes of poor health and early mortality. The study aims to provide insights into how healthcare expenditures align with actual health outcomes, potentially guiding future policy and resource allocation.

Key Points:

• Primary Health Concerns: The study identifies type 2 diabetes and joint and musculoskeletal disorders as the leading factors impacting health in Georgia.
• Spending Patterns: A significant portion of healthcare dollars is directed towards treating conditions prevalent in the above-65 population, whereas musculoskeletal disorders predominantly affect the working-age group.

Notable Quotes:

• Joe Diehlman, Author of the Health Care Study:
  “The results show how health care needs vary.”
  (Timestamp: 02:32)

• Larry Ramsey:
  “Type 2 diabetes impacts everyone, of course, but a lot of the spending, the majority of the spending is on the above 65 population, whereas other musculoskeletal disorders, the majority of the spending is the working age.”
  (Timestamp: 02:32)

3. Interview with Civil Rights Icon Andrew Young

One of the standout features of this episode is an in-depth interview with Andrew Young, a 93-year-old civil rights leader whose legacy has been instrumental in shaping Georgia and the broader American civil rights movement. Young reflects on his life's work, his unwavering commitment to justice, and his perspectives on current social and political climates.

Key Points:

• Life's Purpose: Young emphasizes his dedication to doing "God's will" every minute of his life, a guiding principle that has driven his activism and leadership.
• Bloody Sunday Reflections: He recounts his experiences during the historic Bloody Sunday march in Selma, highlighting the emotional and strategic challenges faced during that pivotal moment in the civil rights movement.
• Views on Modern Issues: Young discusses the evolution of civil rights, comparing past struggles to current debates over diversity initiatives, and offers hope for continued progress based on the nation's advancements since World War II.

Notable Quotes:

• Andrew Young:
  “My purpose is to do God's will each and every minute of my life and to kind of figure out exactly what that is.”
  (Timestamp: 00:42)

• Andrew Young on Bloody Sunday:
  “The march on Bloody Sunday was a mistake. It was the first Sunday in March, and we thought it was the second Sunday, or at least the people did. ... I prayed to get them going, but I stayed in the back of the line. So I was not in the tumble.”
  (Timestamp: 13:45)

• Andrew Young on Purpose and Coincidence:
  “I think coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. ... And I was being dragged into it slowly.”
  (Timestamp: 12:46)

Additional Highlights:

• Election Integrity in Fulton County: The podcast briefly touches on the organized and orderly conduct of the recent election in Fulton County, countering previous allegations of voter fraud spearheaded by Republican leaders.

• Healthcare Leadership Changes: Announcement of Robert Parker as the new CEO of St. Francis Emory Healthcare in Columbus, Georgia, underscoring the institution's commitment to growth and enhanced patient care.

• Environmental Advisory: Recommendations from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and bird scientists on cleaning outdoor bird feeders to prevent disease spread among bird populations and humans alike.

Conclusion: The March 13, 2025, episode of Georgia Today offers listeners a comprehensive look into pressing legislative changes, critical health studies, and personal narratives from influential leaders like Andrew Young. Through meticulous reporting and insightful interviews, GPB News continues to provide valuable information that resonates with Georgia’s diverse communities.

For more detailed coverage on these stories, visit GPB News.

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This summary is intended for informational purposes and encapsulates the key discussions and insights presented in the specified episode of the Georgia Today podcast.

Transcript

[Interviewer]

Foreign.

[Sophie Gradas]

Welcome to the Georgia TODAY Podcast from GPB News. On this podcast, we feature the latest reports from the GPB news team. You can send us feedback or story ideas to Georgia [e-mail] Today is Thursday, March 13th. I'm Sophie Gradas. On today's episode, the state government tries to crack down on so called sanctuary cities and some cities and counties push back. A new study compares health care spending in Georgia to the leading causes of poor health and early death. And at age 93, civil rights leader Andrew Young says he has no plans of slowing down.

[Andrew Young]

My purpose is to do God's will each and every minute of my life and to kind of figure out exactly what that is.

[Sophie Gradas]

These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia today. Cities and counties are pushing back against a bill being considered by state lawmakers that could lead to lawsuits against local governments with so called sanctuary policies. Senate Bill 21 would increase the consequences for cities and counties found not to be following state and federal immigration laws by making them pay damages in court. Larry Ramsey of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia told a panel of state House lawmakers yesterday that the bill would encourage lawyers looking for payouts from local government.

[Larry Ramsey]

There will be efforts by plaintiffs lawyers to turn everything into a sanctuary policy. So there will again. I've seen this in other contexts. I could see a cottage industry rising.

[Sophie Gradas]

Senate Republican leaders, including Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, says the bill is aimed at public safety and follows President Trump's actions on border security. A new study from the Institute for Health Metrics compares healthcare spending in Georgia to the leading causes of poor health and early death. Researchers want to better understand the connection between health care and health outcomes. GPB's Ellen Eldredge has more despite heart.

[Joe Diehlman]

Disease having the largest impact in Georgia, patients are spending the largest part of their healthcare dollars on type 2 diabetes, joint and musculoskeletal disorders. Joe Diehlman is the author of a study evaluating 77% of all health care spending across the U.S. he says the results show how health care needs vary.

[Larry Ramsey]

Type 2 diabetes impacts everyone, of course, but a lot of the spending, the majority of the spending is on the above 65 population, whereas other musculoskeletal disorders, the majority of the spending is the working age.

[Joe Diehlman]

Thielman says oral and dental disorders comprise the third largest health spending category in Georgia. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldredge.

[Sophie Gradas]

A team of independent monitors says Atlanta's Fulton county conducted a, quote, organized and orderly election last year. The county has struggled in the past with long lines and slow reporting, Republicans, led by Donald Trump, made it the center of false claims about voter fraud. After intense scrutiny of its 2020 election, county leaders implemented wide ranging changes that appear to have paid off today. A team of independent monitors partnered with the Atlanta based Carter center, which observes elections all over the world and including a former Republican state election board member, concluded the county administered a quote, smooth, secure and accurate election in 2024. President Donald Trump has withdrawn the nomination of David Weldon, a former congressman from Florida, to lead the Atlanta based Centers for Disease Control and prevention. The the U.S. senate committee today announced hearings on his nomination have been canceled. A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the White House no longer supports Weldon because it became clear he did not have the votes for confirmation. Weldon was considered to be closely aligned with now U.S. health Secretary and vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Weldon also questioned vaccine safety and the CDC's role in in vaccine oversight. As the temperatures go up and people head outside, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and bird scientists are encouraging a big cleanup of outdoor bird feeders. Normally, birds like cardinals, chickadees and mourning doves would not be eating in one place all the time. Together we change that behavior when we put up bird feeders, says Todd Schneider, wildlife biologist with the Georgia dnr. We we also increase the risk of disease spread.

[Andrew Young]

A lot of the diseases that can affect bird populations can be transmitted at feeders.

[Sophie Gradas]

For example, songbirds get sick from Salmonella every year. It's usually fatal. So Schneider says it's important to clean bird feeders and remove what gathers under them every few weeks.

[Andrew Young]

Moist environments, environments where there's a lot of debris on the ground. If you have a lot of feeders in one area, that's a good environment to breed bacteria.

[Sophie Gradas]

And since humans can get sick from this bacteria, too, they should wear gloves and may a mask when cleaning up. St. Francis Emory Healthcare in Columbus in West Georgia has named Robert Parker as its new CEO, effective immediately. Parker comes from Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital in Kentucky and has more than 20 years of healthcare leadership experience. He replaces former CEO Melanie Trimble, who left in November. Parker says he's focused on continuing the hospital's growth, including recruiting medical professionals and enhancing patient care with new technology and facility upgrades. From marching in Selma to serving as U.S. ambassador to the United nations under President Jimmy Carter, Andrew Young has shaped history. Now 93, he looks back on his extraordinary life and the work still left to do. GPB's Pamela Kirkland spoke with Young recently.

[Interviewer]

So you turn 93 in just a few days. Quite the milestone. Looking back, do you feel like it's gone by really quickly or really slowly?

[Andrew Young]

I don't know. I really. I don't know how to gauge it. It's. It's a funny thing about birthdays. Everybody has them, but nobody knows what to do with them. And some people like to have parties. Some people like to be alone. I don't like to celebrate mine, but they always celebrated because I'm always doing something, and the something I'm doing wants to celebrate. Now. It's. I'm trying to get a foundation going that will help continue my work after I'm gone.

[Interviewer]

I heard you tell a story once that after you graduated from Howard University, when you were 19, you were in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, and you ran up the mountain and you got to the top, and you said you thought to yourself, okay, if everything else on this earth has purpose, I also must have some kind of purpose. Looking back now, what do you think your purpose is?

[Andrew Young]

My purpose is to do God's will each and every minute of my life. And to kind of figure out exactly what that is is quite a challenge. It's worked out pretty good for me because I had a college degree, but it was in biology and chemistry, and I had decided I didn't want to be a dentist. But I knew that there must be some purpose for me. And the basis of knowing my purpose is that there's something I can do that nobody else can do. And that's what's happened to me. I have done what nobody else wanted to do.

[Interviewer]

After seminary school, it's a panel at Talladega College, where you end up meeting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Well, yeah.

[Andrew Young]

But before that, I got a call from my conference superintendent of the Congregational Churches, and he asked me, would I go to pastor a little church in Marion, Alabama? Well, I'd never been to Marion, Alabama. Never been to Alabama much. And I said, no, I'm sorry, but I've already decided that I'm gonna go to New York, and I have a. A job at a settlement house helping young people and going to train for the 1952 Olympics. And he came right back at me and he said, but if you don't go to Marion, Alabama, we'll probably lose a church. And I said to myself, damn. And I mean, he put it in just such a way that I couldn't say no. So I found myself in a little English Ford that I bought and driving down to Marion, Alabama for the summer. And I, I cried half the way because I didn't want to be going there. I didn't know what I was going into. As soon as I got there and found out where I was going, the first family I visited, there was a Bible on the table. And I opened the Bible and it was underlined. And I said, who reads the Bible? And said, oh, this is my daughter's Bible. She, she took a course, she had to take a course in New Testament non violence. And then to blow it all out of proportion, I looked at the next frame and there was a senior life saving certificate with Gene Child's name on it. And I said I was on Howard University swimming team. And I come down here and here's a woman with a Bible and a basketball letter and swimming and a lifeguard certificate. And I'd never seen her, but I'd seen her mom and daddy. And I said, I guess the Lord sent me here to get a wife. And. And I decided before I met her that that's the woman. That's what I was there for.

[Interviewer]

And it was your wife at the time and Coretta Scott King who got along so, so well.

[Andrew Young]

Well, they not only got along well, but they. Coretta was from Marion, Alabama too, and went to the same high school. And so she and Jean knew each other. When I, I came back to this little church in Thomasville, Georgia, and my fraternity had a religious emphasis week, and they had invited Martin Luther King to come to speak, and then they were afraid that he might have to cancel, so they invited me as a backup and both of us showed up. So that's how I got to meet him. But there again, I mean, I haven't done a thing for myself, but everything in my life is laid out for me. And so that's the way I've lived my life since, because that worked out so well.

[Interviewer]

And looking back on that and just thinking about, as you said, how things were just laid out for you. I've heard you say before, you don't believe in coincidences, but you do.

[Andrew Young]

I think coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. And I figured all these things happening to me couldn't be without meaning. And in order to define the meaning of those things, I had to believe in God and that there was somebody in control of heaven and earth. And just like he commissioned the trees to shine and to grow and the cornfield to look good and the sky to be blue, there was something for me to do. And I was being dragged into it slowly.

[Interviewer]

But wonderfully, this month marks the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. What do you remember the most about Bloody Sunday?

[Andrew Young]

Well, unfortunately, what I remember was that Dr. King told me not to march, and otherwise I'd have been in the front line getting beat up. And. But he was coming over that afternoon, first place. The march on Bloody Sunday was a mistake. It was the first Sunday in March, and we thought it was the second Sunday, or at least the people did. And the difference is that none of the ministers. Ministers have to be in their churches on first Sunday. And so all of the ministers were in the. We had churches, were in their churches back in Atlanta. Joe Larry was in Nashville, I think, or somewhere mobile. But people, two or three hundred people showed up wanting to march from Selma to Montgomery. And so I, I called Dr. King and talked to him while he was in his pulpit. I said, we can't turn these people around. I said, now there's a group of policemen at the bottom of the hill. They're not going to let them go far. And I don't know whether they're going to arrest them. I just turned him around and he said, well, don't you go. Well, Jose. And John. John Lewis was representing Stick and Hosea was representing sclc. And he said, I'll be over there this afternoon and you don't get arrested. And that's what we thought might happen. And so I was. I prayed to get. Get them going, but I stayed in the back of the line. So I was not in the. I was not in the tumble. And. But I. This was 65, and I had had a pretty good beating in 1964 in St. Augustine. And so I kind of knew what it was like and I wasn't anxious to repeat it, but I would have. And because we didn't know. And in fact, Bevel and I, James Bevel, used to say that we could talk to police out of beating us up because we never stopped talking. We never stopped reasoning with them. It wasn't police that beat me up in St. Augustine. It was the Ku Klux Klan who had been deputized by the sheriff. But anyway, I didn't need another beating. That was. That was a moment that we did not plan that way. And what we didn't know was that in the cities of the north, most of the cities, you know, from Washington up to Boston and all the way out to Chicago, there were snowstorms. And the movie that was playing on TV was Judgment at Nuremberg, which is Hitler's persecution of the Jews. When the film was over. They cut to Bloody Sunday and people saw the relationship. They saw Hitler in Nazi Germany and they saw Sheriff Jim Clark in Selma, and they made a connection. And that's what awakened the Congress and the citizenry and especially President Lyndon Johnson.

[Interviewer]

I want to ask you about this group you were with. You mentioned John Lewis, Hosea Williams, Connecticut. Vivian, you have called yourself kind of the point guard of the movement in the sense that you knew you needed to pass the ball, you knew you were mediating all of these great personalities, but really, really strong willed, very passionate people at the same time. What was it like playing that role?

[Andrew Young]

It was miserable because I don't care what was going on. I was always wrong. I was never as militant as Jose wanted me to be, see? And I was never as humble as Bevel wanted me to be. I mean, I was always wrong because everybody wanted to be next to Martin Luther King, and I got there before anybody else.

[Interviewer]

Some may argue that some of the fights today over diversity initiatives kind of echo the battles of the 1960s. Do you see it that way?

[Andrew Young]

I don't. I think that there's a misunderstanding of what might have happened in the 60s. But the country has done better since the end of the Second World War than it has ever done in our entire national history. And we've had more peace on earth. Like, I. I have been able to travel, I think, to 151 different countries. Now, most of those I was not traveling as an ambassador and I was, you know, hitchhiking the streets of Europe and I was wandering around Africa by myself or with my family. And everywhere I've been in the world, I've been welcomed. And people love America because they see us as being fair to everybody. Now, if people are now trying to figure out how it's fair to put tariffs on your friends and they'll work that out. In fact, they're working it out already. And I think that, well, I go back to Martin Luther King. Truth crushed to earth, will rise again. You know, when I. I had to make a remark at President Carter's funeral and he wrote the. He wrote a one line from Book of Ephesians in the fourth chapter.

[Larry Ramsey]

Be.

[Andrew Young]

Kind and forgiving as God in Christ has forgiven us. I don't know why he put that down, and I don't know when he put it down, but that's what they handed me to talk about. And I figured that's, that's a good message, that we have to be kind to each other and we have to be forgiving because all men sin and fall short of the glory of God, and women do too.

[Interviewer]

Ambassador Andrew Young, thank you so much for speaking with me again.

[Andrew Young]

God bless you.

[Larry Ramsey]

Each morning it's a new opportunity, a chance to start fresh. Up first from NPR makes each morning an opportunity to learn and to understand. Choose to join the world every morning with Up First, a podcast that hands you everything going on across the globe and down the street, all in 15 minutes or less. Start your day informed and anew with up first by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sophie Gradas]

The former CNN center in downtown Atlanta is getting a major makeover. The iconic building, now simply called the center will soon be transformed into a hub for dining, retail, entertainment and content creation. Owner CP Group says the 1.2 million square foot facility will feature new restaurants, shopping and spaces dedicated to local art installations. CNN moved out last year after nearly 40 years in the building, relocating operations to Midtown Atlanta. Turns out Atlanta Braves tickets are among the most expensive on the resale market. That's according to a report released this week by resale marketer Vivid Seats. The company said the average ticket for 2025 home and away Braves games was selling for $122 as of festival February. That makes it the fifth most expensive ticket in Major League Baseball. The report also found the Braves had the most widespread fan base in the MLB, with 480 counties loyal to the Braves according to ticket sales. That is it for today's edition of Georgia Today. If you would like to learn more about these stories, please visit gpb.org news and and if you haven't yet hit subscribe on this podcast, take a moment right now and keep us current in your podcast feed. If you have feedback, we would love to hear it. Email us georgia todaypb.org I'm Sophie Gradas and we'll see you tomorrow.