The Jolt: Is the Floor Shifting in Georgia Well being Care Coverage?

There are healthcare scarcity gaps. A powerful variety of well being care staff in Georgia have stop their jobs throughout the pandemic. Hospital closings in Atlanta are straining the areas security internet.

And the most recent knowledge: A research launched by Capital B this week discovered that Georgia’s maternal mortality disaster, which makes the state one of the vital harmful locations to provide beginning, disproportionately impacts rural black ladies. From the story:

The well being care system has disinvested in Georgia’s rural black communities at disproportionately excessive charges, forcing households to journey dozens of miles and cross state traces to obtain crucial care. Lots of the state’s poorest areas face the best boundaries to well being care and expertise the worst outcomes.

A Capital B evaluation of Georgia Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists knowledge discovered that, since 1994, extra labor and supply items have closed in black counties than in white counties. Throughout the identical interval, twice as many labor and supply items have opened in white counties as in black counties.

– Chapter B

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BURN NOTICE. Individually, Burns too accomplished the nonetheless controversial thought of the Buckhead breakaway. And he stated the hassle to legalize sports activities betting remains to be alive this 12 months, regardless of failing to maneuver forward of Crossover Day.

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LISTEN UP. On the most recent episode of the Politically Georgia podcast, AJC Political Insider Greg Bluestein is joined by DeKalb County Beat Reporter Tyler Estep to debate how Atlanta’s proposed public security middle has turn into a nationwide controversy.

Our hosts describe how opposition to the coaching complicated has drawn a spread of rivals into tense protests which have, at instances, turned violent, damaging and even lethal.

Greg additionally solutions your questions from the listener mailbag which you could now name into. The Politically Georgia Podcast hotline is open 24 hours a day. Write down your query for Greg and Patricia and we’ll play it and reply it on subsequent Friday’s episode. The quantity is (770) 810-5297.

Hear and subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or Stitcher.

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LOING LANIER. Might Lake Lanier and Buford Dam Change Names? For the reason that two federal properties are named after individuals with accomplice ties, they may purchase new names.

Nevertheless, there may be confusion at each the native and federal stage about whether or not these websites must be renamed and, in that case, how quickly. Learn extra right here.

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CHEERS. Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is leaving the White Home, however she will not be leaving President Joe Bidens internal circle.

NBC Information reported that in discussions with Biden aides to serve in a senior position in his 2024 re-election marketing campaign or on the Democratic Nationwide Committee.

Bottoms stated earlier this month that she was stepping down as senior adviser on public engagement to return to Georgia. In an interview, she left the door open for an additional run for public workplace.

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Credit score: Natrice Miller/AJC

REAR JOINT MATCH. U.S. Rep. Mike Collins joined different Republicans in calling for the resignation of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg over his dealing with of the Ohio practice derailment.

Collins additionally stated Buttigieg is just not match to guide the sprawling division due to an ongoing investigation into his use of personal jets.

In a speech on the Home flooring, the first-time Republican accused Buttigieg of focusing extra on range training and id politics than enhancing the nation’s transportation infrastructure.

In an interview with CNN, Buttigieg acknowledged the errors in his response to the poisonous practice derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. However he additionally stated his critics are misguided in blaming him for issues which are principally outdoors his management.

In the meantime, Norfolk Southern’s chief govt testified Thursday that he was terribly sorry for his firm’s demise, as U.S. senators expressed rising considerations in regards to the Atlanta-based firm’s derailments, AJC colleague Kelly Yamanouchi experiences.

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Monitor: Miguel Martinez/AJC

UNDER THE GOLDEN DOME:

It is a relaxation day on Capitol Hill, time to regroup earlier than the ultimate push to move laws earlier than the ultimate hammer on March 29.

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Credit score: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/AP

OSSOFFS STRATEGY. Some politicians like to speak about their legislative proposals being signed into legislation. US Senator Jon Ossoff appears completely happy to debate how his bipartisan measures happened. Learn extra right here.

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Credit score: Kent D. Johnson/AJC

READING THE CORRIDOR. Georgia U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop and David Scott have been amongst 9 Democrats who voted with Republicans to repeal the Biden administration’s guidelines governing waterways.

The laws handed the Home 227-198 and now heads to the Senate, the place Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has already stated he’ll aspect with Republicans to assist the measure. But it surely’s arduous to say whether or not there are sufficient votes within the Senate to move the proposal. President Joe Biden has stated he would veto the repeal if it lands in his workplace.

Bishop and Scott didn’t instantly reply to requests for his or her positions on the proposal. Though they normally assist Biden, each are thought-about average Democrats with deep ties to the agricultural business.

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Credit score: Doug Mills/The New York Occasions

TODAY IN WASHINGTON:

The Home has scheduled a morning vote on laws declassifying details about the origins of COVID-19 earlier than members are dismissed for a recess till March 22.
President Joe Biden will host Ursula von der Leyen on the White Home. He’s the president of the European Fee, the chief department of the European Union.
The US Senate wraps up for the week.

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Credit score: Natrice Miller/AJC

BACK TO PRISON. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene despatched a letter to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser asking Congress for entry to the native jail.

Greene informed your Insiders she desires to jail fellow Oversight Committee members, however would open it as much as any Home member.

Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky and one other Republican on the committee, Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins, additionally signed the letter, which was first reported by ABC Information.

With Congress taking management of D.C. by rejecting native legal evaluations, Greene desires related motion to be taken on the jail the place dozens of Jan. 6 defendants are being held.

However Greene, R-Rome, stated her considerations span your entire facility, which has lengthy confronted complaints of poor situations that worsened throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

There are large quantities of claims of human rights abuse and violations from the jail, so we’ve got to go and have a look at it, Inexperienced stated. And we fund it. That is how we will fund a jail that treats folks so badly.

Inexperienced first visited the jail in November 2021, when she and different conservative lawmakers toured the power and met with a few of the defendants on January 6.

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PERSONNEL FILE. Atlanta native Rickia Dorsey Craig has been promoted to particular assistant to President Joe Biden and senior communications adviser to Ambassador Susan Rice, Biden’s home coverage adviser.

Craig is a member of the Biden administration, serving on his communications workers in roles that required her to domesticate relationships with native information companies. He’s a local of southwest Atlanta who attended Tri-Cities Excessive Faculty.

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THE DOG OF THE DAY: Meet Sprinkles Murphy, a 5-year-old yellow lab rescue from Peachtree Park and immediately’s Jolt Canine of the Day.

Sprinkle’s hobbies embody emptying her toy bin, making associates with anybody on the desk who’s more likely to share their meal, and rolling in grass, mud or different substances extra more likely to stain her white coat.

Sprinkles can also be VIP, or Very Vital Scene, since its particular person is Emily Murphy, AJC subscriber and twin sister of one in every of your Insiders. Whereas we do not condone pet-potism, we’re positive that as a devoted Politically Georgia podcast listener, Sprinkles has earned this honor all by herself. Congratulations, Sprinkles!

Ship us your puppies of any political persuasion and cats because the case could also be to patricia.murphy@ajc.com or DM us on Twitter @MurphyAJC.