WABE's Week In Review

Immigrant detention warehouses spark another major issue and are electricity rates creating affordability problems?

A lack of information as the federal government bought Georgia warehouses to detain immigrants has exposed a whole other, non-immigration issue: There is no liaison to navigate between federal agencies and local officials. Plus, a key state lawmaker is raising constitutional questions about the homeowner property tax relief package passed in the final moments of Georgia's legislative session. Also, immigration and health care advocates are awaiting the governor’s signature on a bill that would clear the way for doctors trained outside the U.S. to get licensed in Georgia. And a Fulton County task force has worked for years to research and account for the harms done to Black people who were enslaved there, or who lived during the Jim Crow era. Now, the group is out with a big report, and one of their findings shows as much as around $900 billion in stolen labor over a decade of slavery in the county.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Taxes, elections and data centers take center stage at the legislative session and gas prices still spiking

We take a look at several high-profile pieces of legislation that passed and failed at the state Capitol as the session wrapped up this week, including taxes breaks, education funding, data center reform and election changes. Plus, Georgia is seeing little relief at the gas pumps even after the state's gas tax was suspended. And, new Department of Homeland Security leadership could mean a slowdown for two Georgia warehouses slated to detain immigrants. Also, Astronauts are heading toward the moon for the first time in decades, and in Atlanta, engineers and scientists at Georgia Tech are looking on with excitement. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Georgia senators call to abandon ICE facility plans and the state could eliminate daylight saving time

"No Kings" protests are kicking off nationwide, including several in Georgia. Plus, Georgia’s U.S. Senators are calling on new Department of Homeland Security leadership to abandon plans to open an immigration detention facility about an hour east of Atlanta. Also, a bill that would change Georgia’s time zone and eliminate the twice-annual changing of the clocks made moves at the Capitol. And Atlanta-based delivery giant UPS is looking to cut 30,000 jobs this year as it changes its buyout offers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

City officials cut off ICE's water and some TSA workers call out to take second jobs

Officials in the small city of Social Circle, about an hour east of Atlanta, have locked the water meter on the warehouse Immigration and Custom Enforcement bought to detain thousands of people. Plus, TSA workers in Atlanta and across the country have now missed one full paycheck, leading to staffing shortages with some needing to call out to take second jobs. And drinking water operators in metro Atlanta were forced to spend heavily to deal with smelly water going into people's homes, and now they are looking at how to prevent it in the future. Also, in our series Invisible Scars, we look at how women veterans in Georgia are finding healing after serving.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Georgia is set for new voting machines and the chaotic year at the CDC

The ACLU and several Georgia human rights groups are asking the Department of Homeland Security to stop detaining immigrants in temporary holding cells in the basement of an Atlanta immigration office. Plus, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis blasted Republicans at the state Capitol who she says are targeting her for her prosecution of President Donald Trump and others in the 2020 election interference case. Also, state lawmakers look for alternatives to the QR codes on ballot used to tabulate votes for this year's midterm elections. And we look at the chaotic year at the Atlanta-based CDC. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.