The Brief from WABE (Atlanta)October 8, 20259m

The Brief for Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Showing mention at 2:52 — highlighted below

Transcript

30 segments

0:01

Hi, this is Bill Nygut. We've just dropped a special podcast bonus episode of In These Times, a conversation with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who responds to President Trump's ongoing efforts to falsely claim the 2020 Georgia election was rigged. Rappensberger explains how Georgia elections are really run. You can find our special edition wherever you get your podcasts. Each story you hear on Planet Money starts with a question. What happens if we refund tariffs? Why are groceries so expensive? At NPR, we stand for your right to be curious because the forces shaping our world can be hard to see. Follow NPR's Planet Money wherever you get your podcast and start seeing how the economy really works. For Wednesday, October the 8th, 2025, it's the brief from WABE. I'm Jim Burris. A Fulton County judge will allow the prosecuting attorney's counsel of Georgia more time to appoint a replacement for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in the 2020 Georgia election interference case. That includes the indictment of President Donald Trump. Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set a new deadline for November 14th. Originally, McAfee gave the counsel just two weeks, but granted the extension after a request from counsel executive director Pete Scandalakis. Willis and her office were disqualified because of a romantic relationship she had with the lead prosecutor. Atlanta City Council President is one of the open positions in next month's elections. Current Councilwoman Marcy Collier-Over Street is running for the position. She says, I can change the city's trajectory because the person in that seat names council members to committees, and committees decide what legislation to advance. The relationships that I've developed while on council and going to those council members asking them, why do you vote the way you vote? What is happening in your district? What type of legislation is important to you? Those are the things that makes a president understand better. Who is well suited for what? Her opponent, nonprofit leader Rohit Malhotra, emphasizes the importance of independence. The city council president doesn't report to the mayor, does not report to the council, it reports to the people. And... I think that we have to make sure that committee assignments are not exchanged for favor or are done in a way that just rubber stamps what the executive branch of government wants to do. It has to be independent. And those remarks from the Atlanta Press Club debates hosted by WABE. Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff's re-election campaign raised $12 million over the last three months made up of roughly 233,000 individual donations across Georgia.

2:50

Lily Oppenheimer reports. Jon Ossoff's campaign says he's continuing to build a grassroots coalition to win next November as the 12 million comes from mostly small donors at an average of $36 each. That brings his campaign total to $21 million in the bank so far. Assov must defend his seat against a competitive pool of Republican candidates, including the political outsider Derek Dooley, who's been endorsed by Governor Brian Kemp. Dooley is pitted against other top GOP opponents. Carter and Mike Collins. President Donald Trump has still not endorsed anyone in the race. Susan Collins and Dooley went head-to-head in a fundraising announcement on Monday. Both report they raised nearly $2 million in the first stretch of the race. Susan Collins also says he's transferring another million from his congressional account. Lili Oppenheimer, WABE News. The last inmate on the run after a jail break in New Orleans has been captured in Atlanta. Derek Groves was convicted of murder and faces a possible life sentence and also has the most violent criminal record of the 10 escapees. Authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for any tips that led to the 28-year-olds capture. The convicts escaped from a Louisiana jail in May after squeezing through a hole behind a toilet and scaling a barbed wire fence. The University of Georgia has a contest now underway, although anybody afraid of spiders? Might want to set this one out. UGA's College of Agriculture is about to wrap up its fourth annual JORO spider spotting and photo contest. Contestants have until Sunday at midnight to submit photos and siding reports of the large black and yellow striped arachnid. The species is native to Asia and was first observed in the U.S. in 2014. Researchers are using the data to evaluate whether JORO spiders pose any ecological risk in Georgia, and more information can be found at JorowWatch.org. The 2025 Atlanta Pride Festival is this weekend and this month to mark Atlanta Pride. WAB has a few new stories for our ongoing series Beyond Pride. The goal of the project is to take a deeper look at the issues affecting LGBTQ people in Atlanta and around the state. To talk more about the idea behind the series and what's coming up, we go to WABE Deputy Managing Editor Molly Samuel and supervising Digital News Editor Patrick Saunders. Patrick, you spearheaded this project starting two years ago. What's kind of the big idea behind it? Sure, Molly. So you'll often see an uptick in media coverage of LGBTQ folks during Pride Month in June and around Atlanta Pride in October, which is great. but I wanted us to start something that was not only more in-depth, but was ongoing, outside of those two times of the year, especially considering the size of Atlanta's LGBTQ community. And there's been an increase in anti-LGBQ rhetoric, in anti-LGBQ laws being passed, and hate crimes against LGBTQ folks in the past decade. So we wanted to dive into that, of course, but also highlight some of the unique people and organizations in Atlanta's LGBTQ community.

5:57

Like a recent story from WAB's Melissa Fato about an LGBTQ-owned bookshop in Marietta. Here's the Lavender Bookshop's owner on only carrying books with LGBTQ main characters. And we can fight the dragon. We can get the girl. We can save the world post-apocalypse. We can do all of those things. And we deserve to see ourselves like that. I loved that story from Melissa. So let's talk about a few more stories that people can go back and read now that have already been published in the series. Definitely. So over a dozen reporters have filed over 20 Beyond Pride feature stories. And they've looked at the movement to adopt LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination policies around Metro Atlanta, how local researchers are working on what could be the first ever vaccine to fight HIV, how Georgia families and health care providers are dealing with a law that restricts care for transgender kids. And we also had one on a transgender basketball league in Atlanta. We had a reporter travel to a small conservative Georgia Towns Pride Festival. And we had a profile on a local teacher who's been dubbed TikTok's Lesbian Mr. Rogers. And the series has continued this year. Yeah, Molly, that's right. We had one story on how a religious liberty bill or RFRA that many saw its anti-LGBQ was vetoed 10 years ago. But the law passed in this year's legislative session. And this is George Equality Executive Director, Jeff Graham. I think that the simple answer is the entire country has shifted very far to the right. RIFRA is not any better now than it was in 2016. And Dormaya JD Vance reported on a Metro Atlanta nonprofit that hosts legal name change clinics for transgender... people. Here's Princess Joanne Dick Durbin on why they used the clinic services. To be a queer black person in the South currently in this climate, we're not always seen because we didn't get to choose our names. And so to be able to take back your power and to affirm yourself, I think it's so important. And I know we have even more stories coming up in this series. So what are reporters working on now? Yeah, they're harder work on stories now. We've got a profile on a lesbian activist who was inspired by the civil rights movement. came to Atlanta in the late 60s, and she's still out there in the streets, fighting for social justice causes 60 years later. We have a story on a gay couple who got married in an immigration detention facility in Georgia, and we have a profile on an LGBTQ-owned coffee and skate shop that's opening its first brick-and-mort location in Midtown Atlanta soon. And where can people find all these stories? Yeah, they can go to wabe.org slash Beyond Pride. And on that page, people will also find a list of pride events going on around Georgia this year. They'll hear audio clips of LGBTQ Atlantans in their own words. They'll see LGBTQ coverage from other public media stations around the south. And there's an interactive LGBTQ Atlanta history tour. And you're still open and looking out for future stories for Beyond Pride, right? Yeah, we're looking. So if you have a story,

8:52

about a local LGBTQ issue, person or a group that you think we should take a look at, email us at Beyond Pride at WABE.org. Thanks, Patrick. Thank you so much, Molly. And that was WABE's Patrick Saunders and Molly Samuel. Again, to see the stories in this series, go to wabE.org slash beyond pride. Number 13, Georgia Tech will be looking to protect its first 5-0 starts since 2014 when the Yellow Jackets play Virginia Tech on Saturday. Coach Brent Key says the message to his players protect their status as one of only two unbeaten teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Georgia Tech rallied for a 30-29 overtime win at Wake Forest in its last game, this after trailing by 17 in the third quarter. Virginia Tech has won two of three games under interim coach Philip Montgomery after an 0-and-3 start led to the firing of fourth-year coach Brent Pry. Kickoff from Bobby Dodd Stadium is at 3.30. And that does it for the brief. More local news is always available online at wabE.org. Christopher Alston is our producer. Melissa Fato is our editor. I'm Jim Burris, Amplifying Atlanta. This is W-A-B-E. Thanks for listening.

10:16