Grant Blankenship

This podcast was reported, written, and hosted by me, Pamela Kirkland.

Grant Blankenship is our senior editor.

Audio production by GPD's director of podcast, Jeremy Powell.

Special thanks to Vice President of News, Mary Lynn Ryan, Senior Director of News and Partnerships, Josephine Bennett, and Senior Vice President of Content, Sandy Malcolm.

A power plant project under construction in middle Georgia is getting a financial boost through a historic loan from the federal government.

GPB's Grant Blankenship reports.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture calls the $3.3 billion loan to member-owned nonprofit utility Oglethorpe Power the largest ever through its rural utility service.

It's to build a 1.4 gigawatt natural gas power plant in southern Monroe County.

When we receive a loan today from the USDA, we receive the lowest cost loan, the lowest interest rate possible.

Bloodworth says whether any of the new power could be for a data center is a question for the 38 democratically governed cooperatives she serves to decide.

For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved a plan to build a third cargo terminal at the Port of Savannah.

The data centers use water to keep computers from overheating.

But as GPB's Grant Blankenship reports, data centers do consume a lot of water, but not where people think.

On the side of a two-lane highway in rural Mitchell County, south of Albany, Lauren Dorminey points to a field next to a small gas power plant.

The Flint River from here is about six miles.

You can look back at coal mining and, and, and most industries reflects the same conflict and struggle that we're having now.

Is a largely agricultural rural community going to see the benefits of this project that's going to use a lot of natural resources?

"And if the benefits from some far off data center find their way here," she asks, "will it be worth what we pay in water?" For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Mitchell County.

Police say an Atlanta man killed on a rollercoaster at Six Flags Over Georgia was thrown from the ride and struck other patrons before landing below.

Georgia farmers are closely watching the storm and remembering how Hurricane Michael tore through southwest Georgia eight years ago.

GPB's Grant Blankenship has more.

Current forecasts have Isaias tracking to the west of Georgia.

Even so, Mark Masters, executive director at the Georgia Water Planning and Policy Center at Albany State University, says the storm comes at a bad time for Georgia farmers in the middle of cotton and peanut harvests.

Got very little recharge last year, so a, a nice little rain event would, would be welcome news for the, the long term of the aquifer.

That's if the rain falls no faster than the aquifer can soak it up.

For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship.

A Georgia State University graduate and filmmaker is being held in federal immigration custody after being detained at Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

The order for the curfew states, quote, "A temporary curfew is reasonably necessary and appropriate to protect life and property, maintain public order, and respond to the emergency presently existing within the city." The Bibb County Sheriff's Office is inviting residents to a resource fair offering social services normally offered to victims of violent crime.

GPB's Grant Blankenship reports it comes in the wake of a mass shooting in Macon that wounded a dozen people.

Sydney Stiles says as victim advocate with the Bibb County Sheriff's Office, she helps victims of violent crime connect to services, from mental health counseling to help with medical bills or even lost wages.

She organized the event called Macon Bibb Cares to get those same services in front of residents outside the criminal justice system.

These people can really help me."

The event begins 5:00 PM tomorrow at Macon's Tubman Museum.

For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon.

[instrumental music] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nation's leading public health agency, has lost a third of its staff over the past year.

This podcast was reported, written, and hosted by me, Pamela Kirkland.

Grant Blankenship is our senior editor.

Audio production by GPB's director of podcast, Jeremy Powell.

Special thanks to Vice President of News, Mary Lynn Ryan, Senior Director of News and Partnerships, Josephine Bennett, and Senior Vice President of Content, Sandy Malcolm.

This week marks two years since Hurricane Helene damaged and destroyed homes and forests across a wide swath of Georgia.

As GPB's Grant Blankenship reports, the recovery from the storm continues.

In his disaster relief role with the United Methodist Church, Scott Parrish has been looking for homes to repair, even rebuild, in and around Augusta since Hurricane Helene.

Now two years after the storm, Parrish says he and the volunteers he coordinates still have plenty of work to do.

Parrish says he has a list of over 100 projects in the three counties he's worked in, just a fraction of the 63 Georgia counties affected by Hurricane Helene.

He says across that region, relief workers are also looking ahead to weather chaos in the winter and spring, spawned by the still-brewing El Nino pattern in the Pacific Ocean.

For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship.

There's just a week to go before the deadline to register to vote in the midterm election, and both major parties are working to boost turnout among their voters.