"Two students’ Brief But Spectacular takes on race and being underestimated" PBS NewsHour 1/28/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Shortly before the pandemic, NewsHour traveled to Georgia and spoke with two high school seniors, Audrey McNeal and Shaylon Walker. Now in their first year of college, here's their Brief But Spectacular takes on race and being underestimated.
"COVID-19 cases rise in Georgia, as some health care workers resist vaccinations" PBS NewsHour 1/1/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: As COVID-19 cases rise across the country, one of the worst-hit areas right now is the Southeast. That includes Georgia, where many hospitals are at or near capacity. Georgia is also lagging behind many other states in giving out vaccinations. Judy Woodruff spoke with Dr. Shanti Akers, a pulmonologist at the Phoebe Putney Health System in Albany, Georgia, to learn more.
"This New Year’s Day, paying tribute to 5 extraordinary Americans lost to COVID-19" PBS NewsHour 1/1/2021
Excerpt
SUMMARY: More than 340,000 people died from COVID-19 in the United States in 2020, and as of Friday the number of people infected with the virus had surpassed 20 million. As we begin a New Year, we honor just five of those who we have lost to the coronavirus.
"Why this Georgia election official called out Trump’s fraud claims" PBS NewsHour 12/02/2020
COMMENT: Simple answer, Trump is a lier and throwing a tantrum like a 5 year old.
Excerpt
SUMMARY: A top Georgia election official on Tuesday had sharp words for President Trump and some Republicans, as the president continues to cast doubts on Georgia's election results with disproven claims of widespread fraud. Gabriel Sterling, who works with the Georgia secretary of state’s office, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss his comments.
SUMMARY: Georgia experienced major problems with its voting processes during a primary election earlier in June. People waited in line up to eight hours to cast ballots, and poll workers struggled with new machines on which they hadn’t been trained due to the pandemic. What do Georgia’s election issues mean for other state primaries -- and for American democracy more broadly? Miles O’Brien reports.
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| The Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Georgia (SSGN 729) exits the dry dock on March 22, 2019, at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia, following an extended refit period. (Bryan Tomforde/U.S. Navy) |
A newly released investigation from a submarine mishap in 2015 that caused some $1 million worth of damage shows that an inexperienced crew was given the go-ahead to complete a tricky return-to-port mission in the dark, despite warnings from the commanding officer that they weren't ready.
The Ohio-class submarine Georgia ran aground in the predawn hours of Nov. 25, 2015, the day before Thanksgiving, as it prepared to return to port at Kings Bay, Georgia, to replace a failed towed array sonar. While conducting a scheduled pick-up of a new pilot at Fort Clinch, Florida, near the entrance to St. Marys River, which approaches the base, the sub inadvertently exited the channel, then collided with a buoy amid the crew's efforts to re-orient. The grounding occurred as the crew worked to get clear of the buoy, the investigation shows.
Ultimately, the sub was able to return to port to assess damages, which were mostly cosmetic, save for the ship's screw propeller, an acoustic tracking device and an electromagnetic log meter that measured the sub's speed. The Georgia was taken into dry dock in December 2015 for assessment and the costly repairs.
The investigation, which was completed in March 2016 but just released to Military.com this month through a public records request, found that the "excessive speed" of the sub as it approached the pilot pick-up made it more difficult for the crew to control the ship, and that the tugboat carrying the pilot was positioned poorly, making the maneuver more complex.
Ultimately, though, blame for running aground is laid at the feet of the commanding officer. In the wake of the incident, the commander of Georgia's blue crew, Capt. David Adams, was relieved of his post due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command. Like all submarines in its class, Georgia has two identical crews -- a blue and a gold -- that alternate manning and patrols.
"His inability to effectively manage the complexity of the situation and failure to respond to the circumstances in a manner sufficient to protect the safety of the ship and crew is beneath my expectations for any CO," an investigation endorsement by Rear Adm. Randy Crites, then-commander of Submarine Group 10, reads.
In his detailed and thorough endorsement of findings, Crites also dismisses the notion that maneuvering in the dark and with a green crew was what led to the sub's disastrous mishap.
"Ultimately, had this crew (and the Pilot) executed the same plan in the same manner during broad daylight, there is nothing in the ship's planning effort, demonstrated seamanship, or response to tripwires that indicates the outcome would be any different," he said.
While coming in for the brunt of the blame, Adams was not alone in being designated for punishment. Crites indicated his intent to take administrative action against the sub's executive officer; chief of boat; navigation/operations officer; weapons officer, who was the officer of the deck; and assistant navigator. He also said he'd issue non-punitive letters of caution to the commander of Submarine Squadron 16 and his own chief of staff and director of operations -- all Navy captains -- for failure to take appropriate action toward resolution regarding Adams' concerns around the sub's transit into port.
The 475-page investigation, which includes witness statements, logs and other supporting documentation, offers insight into what those concerns were. In a Nov. 24 email to the commodore of Squadron 16 marked "confidential," Adams, the Georgia blue crew commander, lays out his qualms about the plan he has been ordered to execute, particularly the predawn return to port for a brief one-day stop with a crew that had spent just three weeks underway together on a new ship.
"CO/XO/NAV have not piloted into Kings Bay in the last 20 years. All of the untoward [incidents] I know of occurred between [St. Marys] and Fort Clinch," he wrote. "My assessment is that this is not a prudent plan for [return to port] ... Having just been at sea for a few weeks, I have not built enough depth. I am concerned about the fatigue level of my command element.
"Given an all day evolution and subsequent [underway], we will have spent the majority of 36 hours awake and are set to pilot out and submerge on the mid-watch at 0330."
The two-page memo, it appears, was never received and read by Submarine Squadron 16's commodore, Capt. John Spencer. But Adams testified he had relayed the same concerns face-to-face with Spencer days before, on Nov. 22. He also discussed the same issues, he said, in a follow-up phone call.
This much is clear: the plan wasn't called off, and the mission was cleared to proceed. But murky communication dogged the lead-up to the operation, and later the mission itself.
Spencer and others testified that Adams had been given leeway to "slow things down a little" if he felt uncomfortable. Adams said he believed any delay would have been viewed as insubordination.
On the day of the mishap, communication was also flawed, in ways that underscore the crew's unfamiliarity with each other, and possibly the sleep deprivation that had left some members running on just two to three hours of rest.
According to the investigation, as the Georgia approached the point at which it was to meet with the tug and pick up the pilot -- the navigation expert who would drive the ship into port -- it became clear that the tug was well west of its expected position. The sub, meanwhile, was approaching too fast and slowing too gradually. The investigation found it was still making 15 knots, or about 17 miles per hour, when it passed the set "all stop" point. That speed and positioning would make every maneuver that followed more risky and difficult.
Initial attempts to communicate with the tug and the pilot aboard via radio were unsuccessful, and the planned transfer happened late. Adams did not want to scrap the transfer and proceed into port without the pilot, the investigation found, because of the challenges of pulling into port without one.
When the sub exited the channel at the west end of the Fort Clinch basin, the crew's communication skills faced a major test. The assistant navigator recommended to the navigator that the sub go to "all back emergency," a call the navigator then passed to the bridge. The officer of the deck seemed to agree, but said nothing, the investigation found. Adams, however, overrode the order, believing it would not work, and ordered "all ahead full" instead. He started directing the officer of the deck, but did not fully take control of the sub or give direct orders to the helm, the report states.
Despite a series of maneuvers -- right hard rudder, left hard rudder, all ahead full, right hard rudder -- the sub collided with Buoy 23 in the channel. But the worst was still to come.
"When [Adams] asked [the lookout] if the ship hit buoy 23, [the lookout] informed the CO that he did not care about the buoy, but thought the ship was going to run aground on the beach forward of the ship," the investigation states.
As grounding looked imminent, the Georgia asked the driver of the C-tractor tugboat if the tug could cross in front of the sub on the starboard, or right, side, and push the bow around. The tug master refused, according to the investigation, worried that the water was too shallow.
The sub ended up, as the lookout put it, "hitting Fort Clinch."
The mishap, and the misgivings that preceded it, came against the backdrop of a Navy grappling with a culture in which overworked and unready crews were regularly put underway in service of operational needs. After two separate deadly destroyer collisions in 2017, service leaders found, among other things, that a "'can-do' culture" had undermined safety and led to unduly high operational tempo and fatigue.
"The can-do culture becomes a barrier to success only when directed from the top down or when feedback is limited or missed," the Navy's comprehensive review of the destroyer mishaps, released in October 2017, found.
Whether these factors came into play with the Georgia is more difficult to say.
In a statement for the investigation, Adams emphasized that he took full responsibility for what had transpired.
"Despite my significant reservation - expressed face-to-face, on the phone, and In emails with staff and leadership ... concerning the risks of proceeding into Kings Bay in the dark with an inexperienced team, when my requests to delay [return to port] one hour later were denied, I failed in my command responsibilities by driving to achieve mission success at the expense of appropriately acting to mitigate risks to increase our margin of safety," he said.
"In retrospect, I should have loitered at [St. Marys] until I was satisfied that the risks were commensurate with the mission gain."
Reached for comment by Military.com, Adams, who retired in 2016, referred to a public statement he had released at the time of his relief, in which he called the actions that caused the grounding "mine alone."
"I ask that my lapses not be used to denigrate the terrific service of the Sailors and families of GEORGIA BLUE," he said at the time "After thirty years of serving in the world's finest Navy, my only regret is that I will miss sailing with them again to stand against our nation's enemies."
But the fact that some above Adams were also warned offers insight into how the higher command viewed the incident.
Crites faulted Spencer, the Squadron 16 commodore, with "failure to provide his ship a plan with adequate margin to safety, specifically in not providing sufficient guidance and training to his staff that developed the plan in his absence and not aggressively pursuing complete resolution of the ship's requested arrival through personal intervention with the Type Commander staff."
The chief of staff and director of operations for Submarine Group 10, Crites said in the report, had failed to "pursue acceptable resolution to the concerns they had with the plan for the ship's arrival."
Holly Carey, deputy public affairs officer for Submarine Force Atlantic, declined to say whether all administrative actions recommended by the investigation were carried out.
"What I can tell you is that the Navy is confident that leadership took appropriate corrective actions against several personnel assigned to the squadron and submarine based on the findings of the investigation," she said.
"Following the investigation, which concluded in 2016, leadership took appropriate accountability measures and has taken all necessary steps to prevent a recurrence in the future. USS Georgia, and her current crew, serve proudly today among the U.S. Submarine Force and has leadership's full confidence to protect the interest of the United State and allies."
SUMMARY: Amid record-breaking early voting this midterm season, concerns of voter suppression are at the center of some of the country's most contested races. Lisa Desjardins reports on what new voting restrictions mean for voters in Georgia, North Dakota, and Kansas.
SUMMARY: Stacey Abrams (D-Ga) is the first African-American woman to be a major party nominee for governor in the U.S. Abrams, former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss her historic win, her platform, and why her strategy worked and what it means for Democrats around the nation. [won 70+ % of the vote]
SUMMARY: Ricky Boyd, 20, was shot outside his grandmother's home three months ago Monday. Law enforcement in Georgia went to arrest Boyd, claiming he was a murder suspect, but shot him. They claimed he had a firearm, which turned out to be a BB gun found 45 feet away. Boyd's mother, Jameillah Smiley, talks with Amna Nawaz in her first national broadcast interview, with her attorney, Will Claiborne.
SUMMARY: Nine days ago, a cyberattack brought Atlanta [Georgia] to a virtual standstill. Now the city says it is slowly making progress restoring its computer network. Officials have not said whether they paid a $51,000 ransom to a group known as SamSam, which is thought to be behind the hack. Hari Sreenivasan learns more from Allan Liska of the security firm Recorded Future.
SUMMARY: As technology evolves and more online graduate programs become available at a much lower cost, should we reconsider traditional higher education in a classroom setting? Hari Sreenivasan reports on how some students earning master's degrees at Georgia Tech are paying little or nothing for online courses from a top program.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week's news, including Democrats falling just short in a surprisingly competitive special election in Georgia, why some Republican lawmakers are starting to criticize the President, foreign policy inaccuracies in the Trump administration and Bill O'Reilly's downfall from Fox News.
A Department of Justice investigation found that Georgia is giving thousands of kids with behavioral issues a subpar education and putting them in the same run-down buildings that served black children decades ago.
Georgia has been illegally and unnecessarily segregating thousands of students with behavioral issues and disabilities, isolating them in run-down facilities and providing them with subpar education, according to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Some of the students in the program were schooled in the same inferior buildings that served black children in the days of Jim Crow (laws). The investigation found that many of the buildings lack gyms, cafeterias, libraries, labs, playgrounds and other amenities.
"It's a warehouse for kids the school system doesn't want or know how to deal with," a parent told the Justice Department of the program. The Justice Department detailed its findings in a letter earlier this month to Georgia's governor and attorney general.
Federal law mandates that schools educate students with disabilities in the "least restrictive environment" in which they can learn and thrive. More broadly, public entities must serve people with disabilities in the "most integrated setting."
But what the Justice Department found in Georgia is something that persists across the country: Schools continue to inappropriately segregate students with a range of behavioral needs and disabilities.
Children are often placed in more restrictive settings because traditional public schools show little flexibility in working with students who may need more support.
In Georgia, schools were quick to move children out of mainstream classrooms, the Justice Department noted. In some cases, students were recommended for placement after a single incident or a string of minor incidents, such as using inappropriate language with a teacher. Parents reported feeling pressured into agreeing to the placements.
In fact, many students who were placed in what's called the Georgia Network for Educational and Therapeutic Support, or GNETS, didn't actually need to be there, the Justice Department said. Most could have stayed in their neighborhood schools if they'd been given more behavioral or mental-health support. "Nearly all students in the GNETS Program could receive services in more integrated settings, but do not have the opportunity to do so," the letter said.
What's more, because the state has set up a system that tilts toward providing services in segregated settings, the letter said, Georgia "undermines the availability of these services in more integrated settings."
A spokeswoman for Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal referred questions to the Georgia Department of Education, whose spokesman referred questions to the Attorney General's Office. Daryl Robinson, counsel to the Georgia Attorney General, told ProPublica, "We don't have any comment at this time."
This isn't the first time that the GNETS has drawn scrutiny. In 2010, a state audit found that the programs "are not held accountable for student performance" and questioned their cost effectiveness. Earlier, in 2004, a 13-year-old boy in the program hanged himself while held for hours isolated in a room.
Advocates have long been critical of the quality of services offered by the network.
"We have seen many, many clients whose behavior gets significantly worse in GNETS," said Leslie Lipson, an attorney with the Georgia Advocacy Office. "We've seen kids who are significantly behind their peers for no other reason than lack of instruction. We've seen students who are great football players or involved in student government or band who are sent to GNETS and have no opportunities to be part of their community."
The Justice Department threatened the state with a lawsuit if the problems are not corrected. It called on the state to redirect services, training and resources to move students with behavioral challenges back into general-education schools.
In particular, it suggested increasing access to mental health services by locating mental health clinics "at or near schools" to provide services to students who would otherwise be at risk of being referred to more restrictive, segregated settings.
SUMMARY: A winter storm that brought freezing temperatures and dumped a few inches of snow had a major impact on some southern states. In Atlanta, thousands of people were stranded trying to get home, including one woman who gave birth on an interstate and hundreds of children who spent the night on school buses. Jeffrey Brown reports.
SUMMARY: Emergency responders continued to help clear drivers stranded after a heavy snow storm hit areas of Georgia on Tuesday. Gov. Nathan Deal assured Jeffrey Brown that roads are close to being clear and all of the students who were stranded at their schools are now with their families.
Police are searching for two young suspects in Brunswick, Ga., on Friday after a shooter fired on an toddler being pushed by his mother in a stroller, killing the 13-month-old boy.
At a news conference Friday, Brunswick Police Spokesman Todd Rhodes said officers have received more than 30 leads in the case and are encouraging citizens to come forward if they have any information on the shootings.
"We will not rest until somebody has been arrested for this senseless act," Rhodes said.
WTLV reports the mother and her toddler were on a morning walk Thursday, when they were approached by two suspects and shot, Brunswick Police Chief Tobe C. Green said.
The two suspects are described as black males, one age 13 to 15 and the other age 10 to 12.
Rhodes said the toddler was shot with a handgun, which has not been recovered, according to CNN.
Several people in the neighborhood called 911 after they heard the gunshots fired, but Rhodes said investigators believed that the mother was the only witness to what happened. Rhodes described the neighborhood as safe.
Brunswick police are checking the attendance records of area schools to see who was missing or absent from class Thursday, WTLV reported. The town is about 80 miles south of Savannah.
The Brunswick Police Department is "aggressively and actively searching for the suspects," Rhodes told WTLV.
The mother, Sherry West, described the incident in a tearful interview with WAWS-TV of Jacksonville. "He said 'I'm going to kill you if you don't give me money,' and I said, 'I swear I don't have any,'" she said.
West said she tried to protect her baby, Antonio, but shots rang out. "I put my arms over my baby, and he shoves me, and then he shot my baby right in the head," she told WAWS-TV.
Rhodes told WJXT that the mother suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was in stable condition at a nearby hospital.
"She is cooperating as fully as she can possibly cooperate, providing the best information that she has, given what she has gone through" Brunswick Mayor Bryan Thompson told WJXT. "She is, for right now, the only eyewitness we have."
Brunswick police, who went door-to-door searching for the suspects Thursday, are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Rhodes said they have found no motive in the shootings.
The mother lives in a rented house in the Brunswick's Old Town historic district. Beverly Anderson's husband owns the property, and she told AP that West has lived there for six or seven years. Anderson said she spoke with her yesterday to extend her condolences and see if there was anything she could do for her.
"We're just very sorry about what happened and very aghast that something could happen in our little neighborhood," Anderson told AP. "It's a quiet, safe little neighborhood."
Anderson said people walk up and down the street, children walk to school and families are frequently outdoors. "It's scared everybody," she said. "They don't feel so safe outside."
She said West stayed home to care for her baby, who was often spotted in his mother's arms.
"The house has a front porch with a swing, and we'd see him out on the swing with his mother," Anderson said. "He was a happy, cheerful baby."
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): Now, a big move forward for nuclear power in the U.S.
This construction site in eastern Georgia will house the nation's first new commercial nuclear reactors in decades. They're to be built at the Plant Vogtle facility, where two existing reactors have operated since the late 1980s. The plant is situated near Waynesboro, Georgia, 34 miles southeast of Augusta, 170 miles east of Atlanta.
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu visited the site today to see the work in progress. Basic construction had begun more than a year ago, anticipating that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would license the new reactors, which it did last week in a vote of 4-1.
The reactors are the first to be approved since 1978, the year before the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.
President Obama has several times called for expanding the role of nuclear energy as part of an overall national strategy.
STEPHEN SMITH, executive director, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy: Well, if this was a mature industry, as they claim it is, then they really shouldn't be going to the government for handouts and support.
And we think that, because of the inherent economic risk, these price tags on these reactors have absolutely skyrocketed from what they were originally proposed to do. Georgia Power in Georgia is actually having to take money from rate payers now before the reactor is even built because no one wants to invest in these things. They have to get the loan guarantees.
And it's just extremely costly and economically risky. Much of the much-touted nuclear renaissance has largely evaporated because demand is down, natural gas prices are low, energy efficiency is showing much stronger potential, renewable prices are dropping. And so we're seeing that we don't really need to go in the direction of these high-risk energy choices.
And the federal government really doesn't need to be subsidizing it if the market doesn't want to support these.
