Neighborhood Pollution, Budget Season

Sunday Solutions — Dec. 15, 2024

Good morning! Let’s start with some news and then move on to pondering our information landscape and where it all comes from and sources we may trust. There’s fresh research and we’re here to share — but only the good stuff.

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EXPLAINER: ENVIRONMENT

Where every day’s a dusty one

What if it was pollen season every day at your house? A thick film of dusty brown particles coats your car, street, shrubs and swirls in the air as vehicles pass. Southside neighbors of Logistec in Brunswick experience this constantly and have been reporting the health hazard for more than a decade to the state and to any other group that might help. Logistec says it’s staying within the air quality laws, and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division says the company’s use of fans and other mitigation efforts won’t allow enough data to be measured for other enforcement action. The Current’s Jabari Gibbs spent time in the neighborhood and looked at what has happened to the complaints over the years while the wood dust from the docks and trucks continues to fly.

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NEWS: GOVERNMENT

Liberty fire woes put budgets on hold

It’s been months since the Midway Fire Department lost most of its firefighters amid gear shortages, a decaying firehouse and other problems. The Liberty County Fire Department has been covering major calls, but Midway still has to figure out fire protection for its citizens. On Monday, council plans to pass its 2025 budget after a delay to try to resolve the fire protection problem. The Current’s Robin Kemp wraps up the situation.

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Headed to the finals….

We’re nearing the end of this year’s contest time, and it’s a tight race. Here are the leaderboards — you can still take the weekly news quiz and see how you do against the top guns.

Make sure you compete next week and leave your nickname for a chance to win an exclusive prize from The Current! 

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SURVEY: MEDIA

What you said: Your social media spaces

In recent weeks we asked you to fill out a survey to tell us about your social media habits. Thank you for your responses — we take your info seriously and it helps us focus on the things that will help serve you the best. So, what did you tell us?

• 60% of you use social media several times a day, and 80% are on Facebook. The next closest sites are Instagram (40%) and Blue Sky (24%).
• Most trustworthy? Bluesky at 29% and Facebook and Instagram at 20%.

If there’s anything you’d like to suggest for our social media channels, be sure to let us know at staff@thecurrentga.org. In the meantime, you can find The Current’s staff on Bluesky at sm_catron, maggie.a.lee, r.kemp, jakeshore, savmargaret and currentlymary.

What they said: Teens on social media

We could learn this week whether TikTok gets banned or bought. The deadline is looming for the Chinese-owned social media video site that’s grown an outsized influence in the U.S. among all age groups. It’s become a home for product sales, an entertainment venue and go-to for news now used by 60% of teens and a great number of adults. And that makes today a great time to look at how it’s used and who is there. The Pew Research Center released a comprehensive study Thursday detailing social media usage by teens — and that’s timely since Florida and several countries are banning or limiting social media accounts for kids younger than 16. If you’re at all curious about teens and social media, this info is for you — and by the way, adult media habits aren’t that different.

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NEWS: GEORGIA

Updates from the week

• Proposals to rein in child care costs in Georgia gain early support from Senate leaders: A bipartisan state Senate committee agrees on plan to help families with child care in order to retain workers and cut expenses for working families. From Georgia Recorder.
• Debate over Georgia’s tort laws pits pro-business forces against defenders of public’s court access: Lawsuits centering on acts or omissions that cause a harm or loss and end up in large payouts to victims are set to get major attention in the legislature. This explainer looks at the issues and why Georgia courts are seen as detrimental to growing business in the state. From Georgia Recorder.
• Former DA charged for interfering in Ahmaud Arbery case finally in court: It’s been a while, but Jackie Johnson was back in Glynn County Court last week. This time she was a defendant. From The Current’s Jake Shore.
• Warnock pushes to finalize plan blocking medical debt from credit reports: U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock seeks to stop companies from using unanticipated healthcare bills to repossess prosthetics or to create barriers for renting or owning homes. From Georgia Recorder.
• Kemp declares Helene relief top priority for General Assembly: Governor puts hurricane damage and relief for state’s agriculture and timber industries on top of the legislative list. From Capitol Beat.

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EXPLAINER: TECHNOLOGY

☕ Your second cup: Deepfakes and Congress

If it wasn’t tough enough to figure out fact from reality on the internet, certainly artificial intelligence has made it worse. Faked intimate imagery is now targeting women in public life, according to research from The American Sunlight Project, a group that focuses on disinformation and advocates for policies that promote democracy. It’s found that women members of Congress are 70 times more likely to be victimized by faked photos than men. And, image-based sex abuse is affecting nearly half of all young women in some way, it finds. The 19th* writes about the new threats to women as they continue to work for equal footing in public life. The work leaves us pondering what this rampant form of abuse means for our daughters and their futures.

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