School safety bill passes; More CDC layoffs; Fentanyl mandatory minimum sentences

Summary

Georgia Today Podcast Summary
Release Date: April 1, 2025
Episode: School safety bill passes; More CDC layoffs; Fentanyl mandatory minimum sentences
Host: Sophie Gradas

Georgia Today, hosted by Sophie Gradas and produced by Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) News, delivers an in-depth exploration of significant state issues. In this episode, the focus spans school safety legislation, controversial bills affecting transgender athletes, substantial layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and stringent measures against fentanyl distribution. Below is a comprehensive summary of the episode, structured into clear sections with notable quotes and speaker attributions.

---

1. Passing of the School Safety Bill

Overview: Georgia lawmakers have successfully passed House Bill 268, aimed at enhancing school safety protocols. The bill, now pending Governor Brian Kemp’s signature, introduces several safeguards for elementary and secondary schools.

Key Points:

• Representative Holt Persinger, representing Barrow County, where a tragic school shooting occurred in September, emphasized the personal significance of the bill:

  “Been a long, hard Road from September 4th. We've been working on this almost every single day.” (01:31)

• Provisions of HB 268:

  • School Mapping for First Responders: Detailed maps to assist emergency services.
  • Transfer of Academic and Legal Records: Streamlined processes between schools and law enforcement.
  • Statewide Emergency Alert System: Enhancing communication during emergencies.

• Support and Future Steps: The bill received overwhelming support in both legislative chambers and awaits the governor's approval. Sarah Kalis from GPB News highlights the ongoing efforts to prioritize school safety following the heartbreaking events in Barrow County.

---

2. Transgender Sports Ban Legislation

Overview: Senate Bill 1 (SB1), targeting transgender participation in female school sports, has passed the Georgia House and Senate along party lines, awaiting Governor Kemp’s signature.

Key Points:

• Legislation Details:

  • Requires athletes from elementary through collegiate levels to compete based on their sex assigned at birth.

• Supportive Viewpoint: Representative Chris Irwin, a Republican from Homer, stated:

  “This legislation does not target individuals. It targets inequities.” (02:23)

• Opposition: Democratic Representative Karla Drenner from Avondale Estates criticized the bill as a "manufactured crisis" intended to "create division and fear."

  “This is a solution in search of a problem.” (02:35)

• Analysis: The bill has ignited debate over fairness in sports and the rights of transgender individuals, reflecting deep partisan divisions within the state legislature.

---

3. Mass Layoffs at the CDC

Overview: Significant layoffs are occurring at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), part of a broader federal downsizing initiated during the Trump administration.

Key Points:

• Scope of Layoffs:

  • Up to 10,000 positions across the US Department of Health and Human Services.
  • Approximately 2,400 job losses expected at the CDC, crucial for monitoring infections and disease outbreaks.

• Political Reactions: Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia condemned the layoffs:

  “A foolish attack on America's preeminent public health agency.” (04:44)

• Impact: The reduction in CDC staff could hamper public health responses, raising concerns about the future capacity to handle health emergencies.

---

4. Fentanyl Mandatory Minimum Sentences

Overview: Georgia’s General Assembly has advanced a bill introducing mandatory minimum sentences for fentanyl possession, intensifying punitive measures against opioid distribution.

Key Points:

• Background – Austin’s Law: Inspired by the tragic death of Austin Walters from fentanyl-laced Xanax, Austin's Law classifies such offenses as aggravated involuntary manslaughter, imposing severe penalties on distributors regardless of intent.

• New Legislation – Senate Bill 79: Expands punishments to include mandatory minimum sentences for possession, with examples like:

  • Under an Ounce: 25 years in prison plus a $500,000 fine.

• Personal Stories and Criticism:

  • Gus Walters, Austin’s father, expresses hope yet frustration:

    “Walters says that's a start. But for him, Austin's law still doesn't go far enough...” (05:31)

  • Beth Lambert of Living Proof Recovery fears increased overdose deaths due to reluctance to seek help:

    “I feel like this will lead to more overdoses and overdose deaths because people are going to be less likely to call in for help now.” (06:14)

• Expert Insights: Some community members and experts argue that mass incarceration has been ineffective, as reflected in the statistic of losing over 100,000 people annually to overdoses.

  “What we have been doing historically, which is mass incarceration, it doesn't work...” (06:55)

• Conclusion: While intended to curb the fentanyl crisis, SB 79 has sparked debate on its efficacy and potential unintended consequences, balancing punitive measures with the need for support and rehabilitation.

---

5. Legal Victory in Georgia’s Water Disputes

Overview: A federal judge has delivered a decisive ruling in Georgia's prolonged legal battles over water allocation from Lake Allatoona, resolving disputes with Florida and Alabama.

Key Points:

• Court’s Decision: U.S. District Judge Lauren Alekhan upheld a 2021 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision, approving metro Atlanta’s water supply expansion from Lake Allatoona and addressing regional demands.

• Alabama’s Challenge: Alabama contended that the allocation favored Georgia unfairly, particularly concerning the Alabama Coosa Tallapoosa River Basin.

• Implications: The ruling ensures sustained water resources for metro Atlanta, CARtersville, and Bartow County, alleviating decades-long tensions over resource distribution.

---

6. Dismissal of Election-Related Lawsuits

Overview: Two significant lawsuits challenging Georgia’s election laws have been dismissed, reinforcing the state’s electoral processes amidst national scrutiny.

Key Points:

• Voter ID and Ballot Restrictions:

  • Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the dismissal of a lawsuit against SB 202, which enforces stricter voter ID requirements and limits mail ballots and dropboxes.

    “Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression...” (08:11)

• Electronic Voting Systems:

  • A federal district judge allowed Georgia to continue using its current electronic voting system by dismissing claims of vulnerability to cyber-attacks. However, the lawsuit prompted legislative changes, including the removal of QR codes from ballots by July 2026.

• Context: The decisions come amid ongoing contention since the 2020 presidential election, where former President Donald Trump disputed President Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia.

---

7. Poverty Reduction Initiative in Columbus

Overview: A collaborative effort between community groups, Columbus Muscogee County government, and United Way aims to halve poverty in Columbus over the next decade through better coordination and policy advocacy.

Key Points:

• Program Structure:

  • No new services will be introduced; instead, the initiative focuses on optimizing existing resources and fostering efficient coordination among established organizations.

• Leadership and Goals: State Representative Teddy Reese, leading the initiative, emphasizes long-term solutions:

  “This is the long term solution.” (09:41)

• Focus Areas:

  • Transportation
  • Health care
  • Changing mindsets among both those in poverty and the broader community

• Operational Details: The office will reside within the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley and collaborate with partners like Goodwill Valley and Healthcare Enrichment Services to implement anti-poverty policies at various governmental levels.

---

8. Otis Redding Anniversary Celebrations

Overview: Celebrating the 60th anniversary of Otis Redding’s seminal album, The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, coincides with the opening of the Otis Redding Center for the Arts in Macon.

Key Points:

• Anniversary Highlights:

  • The 1965 album includes iconic tracks such as "Mr. Pitiful" and "Nothing Can Change This Love."

• Center for the Arts:

  • Offers arts education across all age groups, honoring Redding’s legacy of community engagement and creativity.
  • A bronze statue commemorating "Dock of the Bay" will be unveiled later in the spring on campus.

---

9. Retirement of Georgia Tech Women’s Basketball Coach

Overview: Nell Fortner, the esteemed head coach of Georgia Tech’s women’s basketball team, has announced her retirement after six impactful seasons.

Key Points:

• Coaching Achievements:

  • Led the Yellowjackets to an NCAA tournament appearance.
  • Recorded a commendable 221-11 record.
  • Honored as ACC Coach of the Year in 2021 and Georgia's Women’s College Coach of the Year.

• Future Leadership:

  • Assistant Coach Lassondra Barrett will serve as interim head coach while a national search for a permanent replacement commences.

• Community Impact: Fortner’s retirement marks the end of a significant era for the team, reflecting her contributions to Georgia Tech’s athletic success and mentorship.

---

Conclusion: This episode of Georgia Today offers a thorough examination of pivotal legislative changes, public health challenges, legal victories, and community initiatives shaping Georgia’s landscape. Through expert interviews, personal stories, and detailed reporting, the podcast provides listeners with a nuanced understanding of the state’s current affairs and their broader implications.

Transcript

[DBHDD Representative]

DBHDD is urging people to ask a pharmacist about getting naloxone for their first aid kits at home or work. No prescription is needed. Naloxone can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose and restore breathing opioidresponse.info.

[Sophie Gradas]

Hello and welcome to Georgia Today. On this podcast, we feature the latest reports from the GPB news team. On today's episode, Georgia lawmakers give final passage to a bill aimed at increasing school safety. More layoffs at the Atlanta based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a new bill establishes mandatory minimum sentences for fentanyl distribution. But some in the drug recovery community worry that it won't help what we.

[Representative]

Have been doing historically, which is mass incarceration. It doesn't work because if it did, then we would not be losing over 100,000 people every year.

[Sophie Gradas]

Today is Tuesday, April 1st. I'm Sophie Gradas and this is not a joke. You're listening to Georgia today. Lawmakers in the Georgia House and Senate gave final passage yesterday to a bill that aims to increase school safety, sending the measure to Governor Brian Kemp. GPB's Sarah Kalis reports.

[Representative Holt Persinger]

The passage of House Bill 268 is personal for Representative Holt Persinger. He represents Barrow county, where a deadly school shooting took place last fall.

[Representative]

Been a long, hard Road from September 4th. We've been working on this almost every single day.

[Representative Holt Persinger]

The bill sets up a variety of new elementary and secondary school safeguards and protocols, including school mapping for first responders, the timely transfer of a student's academic and legal records between schools and law enforcement, and creating a statewide Emergency alert system. HB 268 passed both chambers with overwhelming support and now awaits Kemp's signature. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Kallis at the state Capitol.

[Sophie Gradas]

Also heading to Governor Kemp's desk is a bill to ban transgender girls from participating in female school Sports. Senate Bill 1 requires elementary school through collegiate athletes to compete in a division for their sex assigned at birth. Homer Republican State Representative Chris Irwin says the bill is necessary.

[Representative]

This legislation does not target individuals.

It targets inequities.

[Sophie Gradas]

Avondale Estates Democratic Representative Karla Drenner says it's a solution in search of a problem.

[Representative]

This is a manufactured crisis designed not to solve a real problem, but to create division and fear.

[Sophie Gradas]

SB1 passed the state House and Senate yesterday along party lines. Mass layoffs are underway at the Atlanta based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Employees across the massive US Department of Health and Human Services department began receiving dismissal notices this morning in an overhaul ultimately expected to lay off up to 10,000 people. About 2,400 job losses are expected at the CDC, which monitors for infections, disease outbreaks and works with public health agencies nationwide. The layoffs had been signaled for weeks as part of the Trump administration's federal downsizing. Georgia US Senator Jon Ossoff today condemned the mass firings as a, quote, foolish attack on America's preeminent public health agency. In Georgia, people already can face prison time for unwittingly selling or sharing the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl. A bill recently passed in the General assembly would go further by establishing mandatory minimum sentences for fentanyl possession. Proponents say it will slow the flow of the drug. But some in the substance abuse disorder recovery community worry that it also might send drug users to prison instead of toward help. GPB's Ellen Eldredge has this story.

[Gus Walters]

Austin Walters died by fentanyl poisoning after buying what he thought was a Xanax, a prescription medication for anxiety. His father, Gus Walters, says his 31 year old son didn't share his mental health struggles.

[Representative]

My wife and I both feel like that if he'd had a really nice young lady that loved him that, you know, he probably wouldn't have been in such a depression or dealt with depression and anxiety like he did.

[Gus Walters]

Walters wanted to find the person responsible for his son's death and hold them accountable. When law enforcement found Austin Steeler, the only available charge for selling Xanax was a misdemeanor. The person who sold the single pill avoided a felony charge by saying they didn't know the Xanax was laced with Fentanyl. That loophole inspired Georgia lawmakers to craft and pass in 2024 what's known as Austin's Law.

[Representative]

So Austin's Law last year basically created a new charge. It's aggravated involuntary manslaughter.

[Gus Walters]

The law says if somebody sells, distributes, or manufactures a medication that causes the death of another person through fentanyl or a fentanyl derivative, that they can be prosecuted for manslaughter.

[Representative]

So whether they put it in there or not, or they know it's in.

[Gus Walters]

There or not, they are responsible for any harm.

[Representative]

So it was more of a reactive law. In other words, on the front side, somebody dies and the reaction is now we can go after the person that sold the pill that killed that individual.

[Gus Walters]

Walters says that's a start. But for him, Austin's law still doesn't go far enough to punish the dealers he holds responsible for deadly overdoses. The new bill, the Georgia Senate Bill 79, or the fentanyl Reduction and Eradication act goes further by establishing mandatory minimum sentences for merely possessing fentanyl. The bill calculates those sentences in lots of different ways, but in one example, just under an ounce of the drug would net 25 years in prison plus a half million dollar fine. Beth Lambert is the volunteer coordinator of Living Proof Recovery in Rome in northwest Georgia. Her lived experience includes incarceration and addiction.

[Representative]

Here we are at a crossroads where we want to get fentanyl off the streets, but I feel like this will lead to more overdoses and overdose deaths because people are going to be less likely to call in for help now.

[Gus Walters]

Because they might be too afraid of being charged with possession and the long prison term that could come if they dialed 911. If SB 79 were the law when Brittney Galvanaskis struggled with substance use disorder, she says her daughter would not have a mother or a father today. Dad died of an overdose. Brittany would still be in prison today. Galvanoskis is the executive director of Living Proof Recovery.

[Representative]

What we have been doing historically, which is mass incarceration, it doesn't work because if it did, then we would not be losing over 100,000 people every year.

[Gus Walters]

Those deaths from fentanyl overdose have been falling in Georgia and the nation in recent years. Experts credit access to the overdose reversing drug naloxone for the current drop in deaths. For GPV News, I'm Ellen Eldredge.

[Sophie Gradas]

A federal judge has handed Georgia another legal victory in its long running water wars with Florida and Alabama. On Monday, Washington, D.C. based USD District Judge Lauren Alekhan settled the last remaining lawsuit in a decades long dispute over allocation of water from northwest Georgia's Lake Allatoona. The decision upholds a 2021 U.S. army Corps of Engineers decision to grant metro Atlanta's water supply requests from the lake and allocate more of the reservoir to meet the long term needs of Cartersville and Bartow County. The state of Alabama had challenged the agency's decision, arguing it would allocate too much water from the Alabama Coosa Tallapoosa River Basin to to Georgia. Two major lawsuits surrounding Georgia's elections have been dismissed. GPB's Chase McGee has more.

[DBHDD Representative]

On Monday, U.S. attorney General Pam Bondi instructed the Justice Department to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Georgia's SB 202, a state law which added voter ID requirements and limited the use of mail ballots and dropboxes. In a statement, Attorney General Bondi said that Georgians deserve secure elections, not fabricated claims of false voter suppression meant to divide us. A federal district judge has also ruled that Georgia can continue to use its electronic voting system, throwing out a lawsuit that alleged the system is vulnerable to attack. But although the lawsuit was thrown out, it's already inspired legislative changes like the removal of QR codes from ballots by July 2026. Georgia's elections have been at the center of litigation and legislation since former President Joe Biden won the state in 2020, a victory that President Donald Trump has contested. For GPB news, I'm Chase McGee.

[Sophie Gradas]

A coalition of community groups in Columbus is partnering with the Columbus Muscogee county government and the United Way to create an office focused on reducing poverty. The office has set an aggressive goal to reduce area poverty by 50% over 10 years. The office's leader, Columbus State Representative Teddy Reese, said the effort won't provide any new services. Instead, it's aimed at coordinating existing resources, ensuring efficiency and advocating for anti poverty policies on the federal, state and local levels.

[Teddy Reese]

Someone could look at it and say, hey, well, you know, this is money that could be going toward a private situation. That is true, but what are we doing to help people down the road? This is the long term solution, he says.

[Sophie Gradas]

The office will address transportation, health care and other issues, as well as what's called, quote, changing mindsets both among residents living in poverty and those who are not. The office will be located within the United Way of the Chattahoochee Valley and overseen by community partners including Goodwill Valley, Healthcare, Enrichment Services and other groups. The estate of Otis Redding is celebrating 60 years since the release of his album the Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, his 1965 sophomore record featuring hits like Mr. Pitiful and Nothing Can Change this Love. The anniversary comes alongside another milestone, the grand opening of the Otis Redding center for the Arts in downtown Macon. The facility will offer arts education for students, toddlers and seniors, continuing Redding's legacy of community and creativity. A bronze statue honoring his iconic song Dock of the Bay, y'all know it will also be installed on the campus later this spring. In Georgia college sports, Georgia Tech women's basketball coach Nell Fortner is retiring. Effective immediate Fortner led the Yellowjackets for six seasons, including an NCAA tournament appearance this year and a 2211 record. She was named ACC Coach of the year in 2021 and recently honored as Georgia's women's college Coach of the Year. Assistant coach Lassondra Barrett will take over as interim head coach while the school launches a national search. That's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. Thank you for listening. If you would like to learn more about these stories, visit G. And if you haven't yet subscribed to this podcast, take a moment right now and keep us current in your podcast feed. That way, if you have feedback, we would love to hear it. Email us at Georgia Today, pb.org I'm Sophie Gradus. We'll see you tomorrow.

[Tonya Moseley]

This is Tonya Moseley, co host of Fresh Air. You'll see your favorite actors, directors and comedians on late night TV shows or YouTube, but what you get with Fresh Air is a deep dive. Spend some quality time with people like Billie Eilish Questlove, Ariana Grande, Stephen Colbert, and so many more. We ask questions you won't hear asked anywhere else. Listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and whyyy.