Colin Gray sentenced; GOP senate candidate faces questions; Women's pro baseball

Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB Newsroom. On today's episode, Colin Gray, father of convicted Appalachie school shooter Colt Gray, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. GOP Senate candidate Mike Collins faces questions about his son-in-law's anti-Semitic social media posts. And the first season of the Women's Professional Baseball League is set to begin this weekend. Now we have a league of our own, once again, after over 70 years. And, you know, it's like a dream come true that I never really thought was going to come true. Today is Thursday, July 30th. I'm Peter Beello, and this is Georgia Today. Colin Gray, the father of convicted Appalachie school shooter Colt Gray, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for providing the rifle his son used to kill two teachers and two students. GPB's Chase McGee has more. Colin Gray was convicted in March of more than two dozen charges, including two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Barrow County Superior Court Judge Nicholas Prim handed down the sentence addressing the families in the room. This only closes the legal chapter of this horror. The pain, the heartache, they continue. I understand that. I hope all of you know that this community loves you, and I ask that God gives you peace. Thank you. Prem sentenced Colt Gray to life without parole on Tuesday of this week. Because Colin Gray was convicted of murder, any appeal he may enter will go straight to the Supreme Court of Georgia. For GPB News, I'm Chase McGee.

Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff and Republican U.S. Representative Mike Collins continue to trade barbs over a report linking Susan Collins' son to racist and anti-Semitic social media posts. Both lawmakers spoke to journalists today. GPB Sarah Callis reports. In an online press conference, Jon Ossoff said Colin should be transparent about his personal and financial ties to his son-in-law, David Shear. And he needs to answer for his well-documented ties to neo-Nazis and white supremacists. CNN reported two weeks ago that Susan Collins' son-in-law has posted white supremacist and anti-Semitic content on social media. Since then, Aesoff has slammed his challenger over the report. Meanwhile, Susan Collins held a press conference while visiting a Monroe County hospital in Middle Georgia to talk about his proposals for making health care more affordable, like lowering prescription drug costs. Third, we should continue expanding the health savings accounts, incentivize people to take advantage of tax deductions. But reporters quickly shifted to questions about Shearer. You know, we've fully addressed that. But Jon Ossoff refuses to disavow these Democrat socialist movements in our country. Reporters continued to press Susan Collins. Jon Ossoff should answer. For a few seconds more until Susan Collins waved goodbye to the press and left. Susan Collins has not disclosed whether Shear has ever been paid by his congressional or campaign offices, but he appears to have narrated videos for Susan Collins' trucking company. Susan Collins himself has faced criticism in the past for his social media posts, which some critics have called inflammatory. For GPB News, I'm Sarah Callas.

Belize in Metro Atlanta's Lawrenceville have arrested a woman after a one-year-old child was found dead inside of a locked vehicle yesterday. The woman was charged with second-degree murder and cruelty to children. The death highlights the risk of hot car deaths, especially in summer. GPB's Ellen Eldridge has more on a new campaign to help children stay safe. The Never Happens Heat Stroke Prevention Campaign says deaths are preventable with simple, consistent actions by parents and caregivers. Jonathan Morrison is the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Board. He says a change in daily routine or an unlocked car door can be devastating. Stop, kind of take a minute. Look, look around the vehicle, make sure that you don't have a kid inside. And then as you exit, lock the door so we don't have children entering back into the vehicle, which tragically results in about a quarter of these deaths every year. Morrison says an average of 37 children die in hot cars every year. For GPP News, I'm Ellen Eldridge. President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cleared a hurdle in the Senate. A committee today sent to the full Senate the nomination of Dr. Erica Schwartz to be director of the nation's top public health agency, a large employer in Metro Atlanta. Public health experts cautiously support Schwartz, noting her qualifications and potential to rebuild an agency recently hit by sweeping layoffs and funding cuts.

The shuttered site of the international paper mill in Savannah has gone on the market. The mill employed generations of area residents until it shut down last year, laying off 800 people. The company hired real estate professional Stephen Ezel to market the site. We've had a phenomenal amount of interest with the property having only been on the market for about a week now. He says the mill could be demolished by the buyer or seller. The waterfront property could attract a wide range of industrial uses. The fatal shooting of a teenager at a protest in Seattle has gone unsolved for six years. This is open in your face. How are there no answers? Our investigation has uncovered new evidence and witnesses who say they've never talked to police. Did police ever call you? Not once. Listen to We Keep Us Safe, a new true crime series on the Embedded podcast from NPR. The Women's Professional Baseball League is kicking off its inaugural season on Saturday in Springfield, Illinois. There will be four teams representing the cities of New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Among those playing in the New League's first game between the Los Angeles Queens and New York Heights is infielder Ashton Lansdale, who graduated from Marietta's Joseph Wheeler High School. Ashton, welcome to the program. Hi, thanks for having me. So what an exciting time. What does this mean for you to be a part of this new iteration of the game? Yeah, I mean, it's amazing. It's everything, you know, I dreamed of growing up being a girl who wants to play baseball. I've always had to play with the boys growing up and just, you know, hope and work my hardest that one day I could become a professional baseball player and always thought that was going to be, you know, in the MLB or whatever other professional league there was out there. But growing up, there was nothing for women, baseball players specifically. So now we have a league of our own once again after over 70 years. And, you know, it's like a dream come true that I never. really thought was going to come true. It's cool. It's exciting. When did you first start playing the game? I started playing baseball at four years old. When I was a kid playing baseball, there were a few girls on the team. But at a certain point, they would have to either drop the sport or switch to softball. Was that your experience? Did you have to, at some point, just stop playing because there were no options for you? Yeah, I mean, well, I was lucky to grow up in a really welcoming community and a very supportive community. So I always had the opportunities. But there were always people who would be like, hey, you know, you should go play softball or, you know, if these guys are going to outgrow you and get stronger than you, you might as well switch over and play softball right now or just give up baseball and go play like basketball or something else. And I was just always just shot them down real quick. And I was just like, no, I'm a baseball player. This is the game that I love. This is what I want to do. and I never once thought that I would ever play softball in my playing career. I ended up playing softball for three years in college, two years at Florida International University, and I graduated playing softball for Ole Miss. But that was almost strictly for financial reasons. I played for three years, and it was amazing, but it just wasn't baseball at the end of the day. And luckily throughout that time, the Savannah bananas reached out to me while I was playing softball and everything. So I was so high. involved with baseball while I was playing softball for those three years. But at the end of the day and in my heart, I'm a baseball player and I never once was going to give up on that dream of becoming a professional baseball player. Well, tell us about the banana ball experience. You played with the party animals. What was that experience like?

Yeah, it's amazing. I was lucky to start my career with the Savannah Bananas in 2024, I believe it was. So I was actually a Savannah Banana for a month when I first started out. And then 2025, I was a party animal for a few months. And then now currently I am a full-time party animal. I'm on the full-time roster. I'm just kind of taking a two-month sabbatical playing for the WPVL and everything. So me and a few other girls who are involved in both leagues are lucky. to be able to play in both the WPVL and in Banana Ball. It makes a huge impact for both leagues, honestly. But playing for the party animals is amazing. I love those guys. And it's such a unique and invigorating environment. It's baseball on steroids, I guess. with the trick plays and there's constant music and dancing going on and everything. The fans are absolutely amazing. I think the fans is what makes it so special because everything Banana Ball is surrounded around is just fans first. And that's just what we do. Everything is fans first. And so every time we're out there, we're just meeting new people and connecting with fans and just having a good time and honestly just spreading smiles and joy and love to the world while playing the game that we love. So I think Banana Ball is just a very unique and special play. to where we can kind of combine the best of both worlds of, you know, spreading positivity and playing baseball. So you're by all accounts a fun player to watch, not just because you are talented, but because you're willing to engage with the crowd. You're pumping them up when you have a great hit, and you're also way out there on social media, dancing and having fun. I mean, they call it the game The Greatest Show on Dirt for a reason, right? How do you see yourself as not just a player, but as a performer? Yeah, I mean, I definitely, you know, put my playing game first. You know, I love to play. I love to compete. And I think just my passion for that kind of naturally comes out. And I can show that to the fans. Like when I get a good hit, like I can celebrate. I can celebrate with the fans. But I'm always focused on my performance, number one. I mean, I love, you know, being entertaining and being this performative character on the field, especially in banana ball, because that's what the job is in banana ball. You're supposed to entertain. and make everything super fun. But I honestly just love to play at the end of the day. And then when you're successful while playing, and then you get to celebrate with your fans, I mean, there's no greater feeling. Like, this last weekend, I was playing with Team USA, and I hit a home run, and there are these kids in the stands wanting me to do the 6-7 celebration. So I did it right back with them, and they, like, lost their minds and went crazy and everything. So I just love the fact that we get to connect with these people and put smiles on their faces, no matter if you have a good game or if you have a... bad game. They're always there to support you and cheer you on. So for this new league, for those who aren't familiar with it, but people who may be familiar with major league baseball, are there going to be differences when it comes to things like rules or field size, pitch clock, automatic ball strike system, that kind of thing? Yeah, there's a few key differences, but I think the number one focus is that we're playing baseball, so it's still 60 feet from the rubber to home plate, still 90-foot bases. The only key differences really are the fences and the outfield will be in a little bit. I believe center field is around either, I think down the lines are 320, and I think center field is 350, I believe.

And then we will be using metal composite bats, so we're allowed to use U-Tri-S-A, B-B-Core, metal bats of that sort. There's going to be no ABS, nothing like that. We are hopefully going to have mostly female empires, which is really cool, you know, just bringing all the women on staff as we can and everything. And we also play seven innings instead of nine innings. Those are the main key differences between the women's baseball game and the male baseball game. But every rule within... The game itself is the same. Substitutions, pinch hits, designated hitter, everything else strategically is the same. The first season of the Women's Professional Baseball League is played in one place, Springfield, Illinois, by teams representing just four American cities. There's no Atlanta team in this league yet. Do you hope at some point that the league's going to have games in various places home and away and maybe expand to Atlanta? Yeah, absolutely. All of the aboves, absolutely. I think it's cool that we get to experience this inaugural season, all being in the same location. I think it's just going to allow us to kind of create a culture and just a very unique first year for all of us to experience it together instead of going coast to coast and traveling. So I think us being in Springfield, which is actually where I'm on my way to right now, I'm doing this interview in the car for anyone that can't see, but I'm literally on my way to Springfield right now. But I'm excited to be there. with everybody. And then down the road, I mean, I definitely do hope and I'm sure we will start traveling all over the country to play these games and hopefully we'll have home fields in our respective cities and everything. So hoping I make my way out to L.A. or they bring in an Atlanta team, I would love to play for my hometown, my home city of Atlanta. So yeah, I have big hopes and aspirations for this league down the road. That's fantastic. Ashton Lansdold. Infielder for the Los Angeles Queens. Thank you so much for speaking with me. Yeah, thank you, Peter. Thanks for having me.

And that's it for this edition of Georgia today. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you want to learn more about any of these stories, visit gpb.org slash news. And remember to subscribe to this podcast because we'll be back in your feed tomorrow afternoon. Your feedback is welcome, of course. Send it to us by email. The address is Georgia Today at gpb.org. I'm Peter Bello. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.