UGA graduate killed; New data center in SW Georgia; Planned ICE detention facilities

Summary

Georgia Today Podcast – March 13, 2026 Host: Peter Biello (GPB News)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Georgia Today dives into recent news and significant developments affecting communities across Georgia. Key topics include the tragic death of a UGA graduate in a shooting, the ongoing boom in data centers in southwest Georgia, new details and lingering questions about ICE detention facilities, updates on a bill to help medical professionals return to work after rehabilitation, concerns over gun deaths among youth in Georgia, a preview of local Oscar contenders, and Atlanta’s preparations for the upcoming World Cup.

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Main Stories & Key Insights

1. UGA Graduate Killed in Old Dominion University Shooting

• [00:31] Lt. Col. Brandon Shaw, a University of Georgia MBA graduate and ROTC instructor, was killed while teaching at Old Dominion University, Virginia, when a gunman (a former Army National Guardsman with a conviction for supporting ISIS) opened fire.
  • Two others were injured.
  • The shooter was subdued by students and did not survive.
  • "Shah received his master's in business administration from UGA's Terry College of Business." (Peter Biello, 00:34)

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2. Senate Panel Grills Nathan Wade over Fulton DA Misconduct

• [01:15] Nathan Wade, former special prosecutor in the 2020 Georgia election case, testified before state senators about allegations against DA Fani Willis.
  • Wade maintained he followed all professional rules and defended his fees, contrasting them with Trump attorneys.
  • The panel did not question Wade on his relationship with Willis, which resulted in her removal from the case.
  • "They represented these people for a period of months. I represented the citizens of the state of Georgia for almost three years and the numbers pale in comparison to what they're asking for." (Christy York Wooten quoting Wade, 01:40)

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3. Southwest Georgia Data Center Project

• [01:52] Data center developer QTS files plans for a 12 million sq.ft. complex in Early County, potentially the state’s largest.
  • Could bolster local tax base that suffered after Georgia Pacific’s paper mill closure.
  • Energy and water needs remain unaddressed in the application.
  • "If fully built, it would be one of the state's largest data centers... QTS application leaves blank all questions about the data center's energy and water needs." (Peter Biello, 01:52)

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4. Firearm Deaths Among Youth in Georgia & The South

• [02:48] Data shows slight national decline, but Georgia and the South still have disproportionately high rates.
  • Kids in Georgia face almost double the national firearm death rate; assault is the leading cause.
  • Black youth in Georgia are over four times more likely than white peers to die by assault with a firearm.
  • "Georgia ranks among the top 10 for states with the highest increase in firearm deaths over that time frame." (Sophie Gradis, 02:48)

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5. Bill to Help Georgia Medical Professionals Reenter Workforce

• [03:35] State Senate passes a bill to allow nurses, social workers, and therapists to regain licenses after substance use disorder rehabilitation—with ongoing monitoring.
  • Encourages honesty among professionals instead of license loss.
  • "We want to extend this to our nurses and make sure that we have an opportunity for them to continue their careers if they've made a mistake one time." (Chuck Hufstetler, 03:57)
• The bill now awaits the governor's signature.

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6. Planned ICE Detention Facilities in Georgia: Questions & Concerns

• [04:13–12:01] Interview with Douglas McMillan (Washington Post reporter)
  • ICE has bought two large warehouses in Georgia (Social Circle & Oakwood) with plans to detain up to 10,000 people.
  • Model based on tent city in El Paso, where poor living conditions include constant noise, lack of privacy, and continuous lighting.
    • "The lights are always on and you always are hearing the shouting and the talking and the screaming and the crying." (Douglas McMillan, 05:29)
  • Retrofitting warehouses to comply with federal standards—medical, dining, recreation, security—will be a challenge.
  • Infectious disease outbreaks (measles, tuberculosis) are documented concerns; containment measures are in question.
  • Community leaders report little to no communication from DHS or federal authorities.
    • "This plan has been rolled out with an extraordinary amount of secrecy..." (Douglas McMillan, 08:29)
  • Water and sewer capacity is a major worry; federal government has not provided clear solutions.
    • Potential solution: trucking in water, but on an unprecedented scale.
    • "If there's not enough water, there's not enough water... I think that's a really valid concern." (Douglas McMillan, 10:06)

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7. Other News Highlights

• Fort Stewart Shooting Guilty Plea (12:11):

  • Army sergeant Cornelius Radford seeks to plead guilty to attempted murder and other charges in a 2023 shooting that injured four soldiers and a civilian.

• Atlanta’s World Cup Transit Plans (13:16):

  • The city, along with the Georgia Department of Transportation and MARTA, will implement traffic management tactics and backup bus fleets.
    • "Additionally, we're going to be staging well over two dozen buses throughout the region in case there's a rail event." (Jonathan Hunt, 13:36)

• GE Appliances Expands in Walker County (13:59):

  • $18 million investment adds new wall oven production and 2,200 jobs in Lafayette.

• New App for Pre-Op Kids' Care (14:52):

  • Dr. Lauren Welsh’s Pre Op App helps anxious children and families prepare for surgery with games and better communication.
    • "Games and stories available to introduce kids into what's going to happen that day in a familiar and fun way so that their fears are alleviated." (Dr. Lauren Welsh, 15:21)

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8. Oscars Preview: Georgia’s Hollywood Ties

• [15:39] Interview with Steven Brown (Atlanta movie expert, Trilith resident)
  • Several Oscar nominees filmed in Georgia or involve local talent; Best Picture contenders discussed.
    • "There might be one or two that are lucky to be on the list, but it's definitely a good list of movies." (Steven Brown, 16:07)
  • Highlights on Timothée Chalamet, Michael B. Jordan, and Jessie Buckley; Teyana Taylor recognized as a Georgia-connected nominee.

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9. Spring Events and Festivals

• [19:44] Spring weather arrives across Georgia, with numerous local festivals and celebrations highlighted across the state.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• "The lights are always on and you always are hearing the shouting and the talking and the screaming and the crying." — Douglas McMillan on tent detention conditions [05:29]
• "We want to extend this to our nurses... It really encourages people not to hide their problems but to bring them forward because they know there's a pathway other than just losing their license." — Chuck Hufstetler [03:57]
• "This plan has been rolled out with an extraordinary amount of secrecy." — Douglas McMillan on ICE facilities [08:29]
• "If there's not enough water, there's not enough water. So I think that's a really valid concern." — Douglas McMillan [10:06]
• "Georgia ranks among the top 10 for states with the highest increase in firearm deaths over that time frame." — Sophie Gradis [02:48]

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For Further Information

• Data Center & ICE Facility Plans: Watch for updates as public response grows and project specifics are released.
• Oscars: The awards broadcast is highlighted for Sunday; several films with Georgia ties in contention.
• Local Events: Check GPB or local listings for comprehensive festival schedules.

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Host Sign-Off:
Peter Biello: "Thank you so much for tuning in... We’re going to be back with you on Monday with all the latest Georgia headlines." [19:44]

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This detailed summary is designed to provide a comprehensive yet concise overview of the episode’s main news, discussions, and unique local coverage. For more in-depth reporting, visit gpb.org/news.

Transcript

[Peter Biello]

Welcome to the Georgia Today Podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, A University of Georgia graduate was killed in a shooting yesterday on the campus of Old Dominion University. A new data center project takes shape in southwest Georgia and we'll take a look at what we know and what we don't know about planned ICE detention facilities.

[Douglas McMillan]

The Trump administration and DHS have taken taken a remarkable amount of effort to pull off a strategy in the dark of night.

[Peter Biello]

Today is Friday, March 13th. I'm Peter Biello and this is Georgia Today. An ROTC instructor killed in a shooting at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia has been identified as a University of Georgia graduate, Lt. Col. Brandon Shaw. He was teaching an ROTC course yesterday when a gunman opened fire inside his classroom during Shah died and two other university members were injured in the attack. Shah received his master's in business administration from UGA's Terry College of Business. The shooter was a former Army National Guardsman who was convicted of giving material support to isis. He was taken down by other ROTC students and did not survive. A panel of state senators today grilled the former special prosecutor at the center of misconduct allegations against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia's 2020 election interference. Attorney Nathan Wade testified before the Republican led committee. He told senators that he didn't violate any rule of professional responsibility in the case involving President Trump. He also defended his legal fees, comparing them to those charged by Trump's lawyers.

[Christy York Wooten]

They represented these people for a period of months. I represented the citizens of the state of Georgia for almost three years and the numbers pale in comparison to what they're asking for.

[Peter Biello]

The committee previously agreed not to ask him about the romantic relationship he had with Willis. That relationship led to her removal from from the case, which another prosecutor eventually dismissed. Georgia's data center boom continues with a large new project in southwest Georgia. Data center developer QTS plans to build a 12 million square foot complex in early County. That's according to an application submitted to state officials on Tuesday. If fully built, it would be one of the state's largest data centers. It also would prop up the local tax base in a county that recently lost its largest employer. Georgia Pacific closed a paper mill there last summer. The QTS application leaves blank all questions about the data center's energy and water needs. Nationwide data on gun related deaths among young people shows a slight decline from previous years. But as GPB Sophie Gradis reports, gun deaths in the south continue to be an outlier.

[Sophie Gradis]

Recent data published by KFF Health News points to a rate of firearm deaths among US children of 3 out of 100,000 in 2024. That was about 2002, 200 kids. That's slightly less than the previous two years, but still higher than pre pandemic levels in the South. The rate of kids whose death involved a gun from 2020 to 2024 is almost double the national average in some states. Georgia ranks among the top 10 for states with the highest increase in firearm deaths over that time frame. Assault accounted for the majority of gun deaths in the US Compared to suicide and accidental shootings, with some disparities. And in Georgia, black youth are over four times more likely to die from assault than white youth. For GPB News, I'm Sophie Gradas.

[Peter Biello]

Georgian nurses, social workers and therapists who lost their license because of substance use disorder will get a chance to continue their careers. State senators gave final passage yesterday to a bill aimed at helping medical professionals re enter their fields after rehabilitation and with monitoring. They Rome. Republican Chuck Hufstetler spoke before the bill passed in a near unanimous vote.

[Christy York Wooten]

We want to extend this to our nurses and make sure that we have an opportunity for them to continue their careers if they've made a mistake one time. And it really encourages people not to hide their problems but to bring them forward because they know there's a pathway other than just losing their license.

[Peter Biello]

The bill now heads to Governor Brian Kemp for his signature. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has purchased nearly a dozen large warehouses across the country in recent years with the intent to house people the agency arrests. Two of those are in Georgia in Social Circle and Oakwood. Combined, these Georgia warehouses could hold as many as 10,000 people. Facilities in use now elsewhere in the country may provide a preview of what's to come in Georgia. Douglas McMillan has been reporting on these warehouses for the Washington Post, and he's with me now. Welcome to the program.

[Douglas McMillan]

Hi, Peter. Thanks for having me.

[Peter Biello]

So people here wonder exactly how people will live in something like a warehouse where there are no interior walls or privacy. This model is not in use yet, but something similar, a kind of tent city, was in use in El Paso at a place called Camp East Montana. Could you tell us a little bit about what the living conditions for detainees were like there?

[Douglas McMillan]

Yeah. So this is the largest ICE detention facility in the country. It was built in the span of a few weeks on what was essentially an empty patch of desert near the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas. It's a very sophisticated tent. It's a building that has soft Sides,

[Peter Biello]

soft sides, like made out of cloth. What are they actually made out of?

[Douglas McMillan]

They're made out of like a thick plastic material. And each tent is about two football. Two football fields long. And there have. There are about three or four housing tents. People live inside pods within the tents that fit about 70 people. But each pod doesn't have any. Any of its own roof. So all the pods are under kind of one big roof. So one of the complaints that we've heard is that they're very loud all day and night long. The lights are always on and you always are hearing the shouting and the talking and the screaming and the crying. And, you know, human life is filling this tent and the sounds are filling this tent all day and night.

[Peter Biello]

So the federal government's trying to get away from that model. So what may appear in places like Social Circle in Georgia is something with stronger, more stable walls, perhaps and continuous ceilings and something resembling a prison inside a warehouse.

[Douglas McMillan]

Yeah, we don't know what to expect. We haven't seen any final detailed drawings on how they're going to retrofit these. But yeah, right now, these building are essentially vacant shells of a building. It's, you know, essentially four walls, a ceiling on a slab of concrete. And within that, they're. They're going to bring contractors in to retrofit these things into detention centers. They're going to add housing units. They're planning to add kitchens, dining areas, medical tents, law, libraries, recreation areas, security perimeters, all of the things that the federal standards dictate detention centers must have. They're going to have to kind of build from scratch.

[Peter Biello]

The concept is between 8 and 10,000 people could be in a single warehouse. And that raises some concerns about infectious disease. What has been the experience with infectious disease in the El Paso Center?

[Douglas McMillan]

Yeah, there have been a number of issues with that. Most recently, there was a measles outbreak in the El Paso Center. And what we know is that that has spread. It was initially a couple of cases, and I think they got up to 14 cases of measles in this facility. We also know there have been tuberculosis cases there. One of the federal standards that requires prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in these ICE detention centers is they're supposed to have a negative pressure room where they're supposed to be able to quarantine people with tb. We do not know if they have such a room at the El Paso Detention Center. Experts I've talked to said that it might be hard to have a negative pressure space in a building that's not actually A building that's a tent. So that could be an issue there. We haven't confirmed whether or not they

[Peter Biello]

have that in Social Circle here in Georgia. Leaders say they're just not being listened to by DHS in your reporting. Has that been the experience of other communities like this?

[Douglas McMillan]

Yeah. So this plan has been rolled out with an extraordinary amount of secrecy. And we wrote the first story on Christmas Eve. We published an internal document that showed the first draft list of the city, the 23 cities where they were expecting to buy these warehouses and turn them into detention centers. When we published that report, we started hearing from people in a lot of these places that almost all of them had said that they had had no contact whatsoever with federal authorities. And this includes town leaders, local leaders, members of Congress, governors. So really, the Trump administration and DHS have taken a remarkable amount of efforts to pull off a strategy in the dark of night. You know, obviously there has been now a lot of scrutiny and attention. Communities have come out and full throated protest of these plans. We've seen a lot of elected leaders come out right to dhs, write to Congress and try to take a stand and get involved in this. But again, DHS has moved with kind of this MO that they're, that they're going to go ahead with these plans without, without really meaningfully engaging with the communities where they're, by any means, warehouses.

[Peter Biello]

One of the concerns people in Social Circle had was water capacity. Will there be enough water in the town or the city rather to support a facility that's going to hold thousands of new people? In other places has there been a similar concern about water servicing a large DHS facility? And how has the federal government proposed to maybe address that?

[Douglas McMillan]

It's one of the most common concerns. These warehouse projects are mostly taking place in small towns that are about an hour or so, 45 minutes an hour outside of the major cities. And they are in small towns that, that sit on infrastructure that was not built to support thousands of detainees. In Social Circle, it's, you know, there's 4,000 residents and they have infrastructure, water, sewer, that are built to support a town of 4,000 people. The building that's coming in, in Social Circle, the facility that's proposed for Social Circle is meant to house up to 8,500 people is my understanding. So the water and sewer is not built to support that. So what is the solution? The government has not been very forthcoming on that. There has been talk, I have heard increasing talk, that in some facilities that they will have to truck in water There is a precedent for this. I believe that this is happening at the Alligator Alcatraz facility in the Florida Everglades, that they actually, because they do not have a sophisticated water infrastructure that could support the capacity of that facility. It's about 3,000 people there. I think that they have been trucking in water to support that facility. Can you truck in enough water to support 8,000 people? I don't know what that looks like. I don't know the expense of that. You know, one possibility here is just like this is going to be a lot more expensive than the government ever had put forward or imagined or predicted or forecasted. I think that the government has this, the administration has this mentality of we're going to make this plan work quickly and however we have to make it work and we're going to throw a lot of money at it. They've hired contractors who they think can help pull that off. But I think that at some point you might hit kind of a wall with some of these plans. If there's not enough water, there's not enough water. So I think that's a really valid concern. And we're hearing that. Yeah. Across the country, not just in social circle.

[Peter Biello]

Douglas McMillan is a reporter for the Washington Post. Thank you so much for sharing your insight with us.

[Douglas McMillan]

Anytime. My pleasure.

[Peter Biello]

Officials say an army sergeant accused of shooting five people at a Georgia base last summer is seeking to plead guilty to attempted murder and other charges in a military court. Authorities say 28 year old Cornelius Radford shot at members of his supply unit at Fort Stewart in August. Gunfire injured four soldiers and a civilian worker who was Radford's romantic partner before bystanders disarmed and restrained him. That's according to prosecutors. Army prosecutors said yesterday that Radford's defense attorneys announced last week that Radford wants to plead guilty to six criminal counts out of the 13 he now faces. A military judge scheduled a March 31 hearing to decide whether to accept Radford's plea. Army prosecutors say they haven't negotiated a plea deal with Radford and meaning he would still face a possible life prison sentence if a military judge accepts his guilty plea. Officials in Atlanta provided more details yesterday on how residents and visitors will move safely and smoothly around the city when an estimated half million people come for the World Cup. The world's largest sporting event and its eight games in Atlanta are now less than 100 days away. GPB's Amanda Andrews reports.

[Amanda Andrews]

During the World Cup, Atlanta will implement a month long traffic management plan the partnership with the Georgia Department of Transportation and MARTA includes traffic signal management and officers directing drivers on the ground. MARTA will also operate more trains to keep wait times down. Interim CEO Jonathan Hunt said they also have a backup plan.

[Christy York Wooten]

Additionally, we're going to be staging well

[Peter Biello]

over two dozen buses throughout the region

[Christy York Wooten]

in case there's a rail event.

[Peter Biello]

We're able to get folks out of the train station on a bus and on their way very, very quickly, quickly.

[Amanda Andrews]

MARTA will also introduce limited run commemorative World cup cards at station ticket machines. For GPB News, I'm Amanda Andrews.

[Peter Biello]

A new line of wall ovens will roll off the assembly line at GE Appliances Roper Corporation facility in northwest Georgia's Walker county in July. The new product is part of an 18 million dollar investment in its plant in Lafayette. The company said it added nearly 2, 200 employees there over the past year.

[Terry Gross]

Hi, it's Terry Gross, host of Fresh Air. Hey, take a break from the 24 hour news cycle with us and listen to long form interviews with your favorite authors, actors, filmmakers, comedians and musicians. The people making the art that nourishes us and speaks to our times. So listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and whyy.

[Peter Biello]

If a child needs surgery, games and guidance can help calm them down. The same goes for parents and doctors. That's the idea behind a newly launched app developed by a former Georgia doctor. GPB's Ellen Eldredge has more.

[Amanda Andrews]

The Pre Op App Kids Platform goes beyond reminders and parent communication. This tool uses interactive game based experiences that engage a child's breathing and attention. Dr. Lauren Welsh is the pediatric anesthesiologist who developed the patent pending app, Gentle

[Douglas McMillan]

Reminders for Parents Preoperatively to make the experience less stressful.

[Terry Gross]

And also games and stories available to

[Douglas McMillan]

introduce kids into what's going to happen

[Terry Gross]

that day in a familiar and fun

[Douglas McMillan]

way so that their fears are alleviated.

[Amanda Andrews]

Welsh says longer term, the platform creates more opportunities to improve communication between families and their care teams. For GPB News, I'm Ellen Eldredge.

[Peter Biello]

The movie industry is gearing up for the Oscars this weekend and several nominated films have ties to Georgia. GPB's Christy York Wooten speaks with Atlanta movie expert and Trilith resident Steven Brown to find out more.

[Terry Gross]

The 98th Academy Awards are Sunday night and we have Stephen Brown here with us to talk about Georgia movie connections and to make some predictions about who might take home Oscars this year. I want to jump right in for the best picture nominees. What are your thoughts on some of the top contenders this year there might

[Christy York Wooten]

be one or two that are lucky to be on the list, but it's definitely a good list of movies. And I think two have just simply emerged as the absolute nipping at their heels competitors, that is Sinners and One Battle After Another. They're both Warner Brothers films. So you have a movie studio rooting for both of its big films and you've got auteur directors in both cases and Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryan Coogler who wrote and directed their films. And I think both are going to be considered watershed moments in cinema. And so it's one of those where it's down to the wire about which one could possibly win.

[Terry Gross]

That's true. And there's some on the list that I want to mention because they were so good. And two of my favorites were Hamnet and Sentiment of Value, kind of from a production and writing and aesthetic perspective, totally different than Sinners or One Battle After Another.

[Christy York Wooten]

And Christy, I can imagine you would like those two as well because they definitely use the notion of literature and the notion of art to bring families together. And in the case of Shakespeare and his partner, played by best Actress lead Jessie Buckley, are facing a domestic crisis and looking for ways to ease the pain through art. And in Sentimental Value, Stellan Sarsgaard's character is trying to reconcile with his two daughters.

[Terry Gross]

So let's jump into the acting categories now. Let's start with best Actor and we've got timothee Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke, Michael B. Jordan and Wagner Mora.

[Christy York Wooten]

That's correct. Some people say that this is one of the most stacked best actor lineups in recent years. And I have to agree.

[Terry Gross]

Right.

[Christy York Wooten]

But I do think this is a battle between Timothee Chalamet and Marty supreme and Michael B. Jordan and Sinners, who's been kind of a late breaking emergent candidate.

[Terry Gross]

So let's move on to actresses.

[Christy York Wooten]

Well, I'll start with just telling you that Kate Hudson in Song Tsung Blue is wonderful in the role. She is a beloved Hollywood character and she does the political circuit really well. She throws parties and makes a lot of friends. And we loved her, of course, years ago and Almost Famous. So there's a full circle moment of being in something else that is music related. Rose Byrne, if if I Had Legs, I'd Kick you is the name of the movie and it's a story about the struggles of motherhood told in a really interesting way. She's won a lot of critics awards. She's probably the only thing as a distant second, but Jessie Buckley in Hamnet is almost as sure a bet as something this year for playing love interest or wife, I suspect of Shakespeare and being able to go through a variety of phases of her life during that

[Terry Gross]

and a variety of emotions.

[Christy York Wooten]

A lot of emotion there.

[Terry Gross]

Be ready. If you haven't seen Hamnet, check it out. But it is a variety of emotions and she captures them all. All right, I want to move on. You mentioned Teyana Taylor, actress in a supporting role and she's a part time Atlanta resident so definite. Definitely a little bit of a Georgia connection there and there's a couple of other Georgia connections this year.

[Christy York Wooten]

We love it when we have a part time resident that is up for the Oscars in Teyana Taylor. We have one of our best picture movies is set in our area and actually was filmed here and that one is Begonia Weapons. Also did a lot of filming here in town. You'll hear a lot about Come See Me in the Good Light in the documentary feature film and in documentary short film.

[Terry Gross]

The Devil is Busy and you'll be watching from Tretlif.

[Christy York Wooten]

That is correct. We'll be watching from a viewing party in the new movie theater in Trilith.

[Terry Gross]

We'll be ready to watch the Academy Awards on Sunday night. Steven Brown, thank you again.

[Christy York Wooten]

Thank you, Christie.

[Peter Biello]

Spring temperatures are back this weekend all across the state and there's plenty for you to get out and do first. There are a lot of St Patrick's Day celebrations, parades, festivals, festivals and concerts happening. You can find some of those in Braselton, Flowery Branch, Cumming and Dublin. There's the Valdosta Louns Azalea Festival, the Taste of suwanee and the first annual Sumter County Barbecue Festival. The 2026 Rattlesnake and Wildlife Festival is in Claxton. The Forsythia Festival is in Forsyth and the Mountaintop Jeep Summit is in Clarksville. Finally, the North Georgia Ag Expo is happening in Ellijay and the Scottish Heritage Heritage Days 250th edition being held in Darien. Please note that this is an incomplete list. If you know of a festival that we missed, reach out to us by email. The address is Georgia todaypb.org Alright, that's going to wrap up a busy week of news, but thank you so much for tuning in. And remember, we're going to be back with you on Monday with all the latest Georgia headlines. You don't want to miss a thing. So subscribe to this podcast now and we will be there in your feed waiting for you on Monday afternoon remember, too. You can check gpb.org news for updates to the stories you heard today. And we're always posting new headlines there. So check out gpb.org news, your feedback and, of course, your festival recommendations are welcome@georgia todaypb.org I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We will see you tomorrow.