Tallahassee Talks in Water Wars

The governors of Georgia, Alabama and Florida are meeting in Tallahassee to figure out how to break the decade-long water-usage impasse between the three states, during a record-breaking drought.

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Click here for more GPB News coverage of the water crisis.

Perdue, Riley to meet with Interior Sec'y, White House adviser

Water Wars, Water Woes from Dave Bender on Vimeo.
YouTube version: http://youtube.com/watch?v=nASTHXpvyz8

Governor Sonny Perdue plans to meet with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, and Jim Connaughton, environmental quality adviser to President George Bush, on Friday to discuss the drought, according to a report citing a Governor's Office official.

The two Administration officials, in an effort to head off more acrimony between Georgia, Alabama, Florida and the Army Corps of Engineers over water usage, are to meet later in the day with Alabama Governor Bob Riley.

Riley told The Birmingham News:

''We're going to tell him that the only way all of us get through this is through a concept of shared pain."

Perdue, at a press conference on the fast-drying shores of West Point Lake on Wednesday, Oct. 24, lashed out at both the Army Corps of Engineers and Riley (see video).

Perdue has announced a series of immediate, drastic steps to curtail water use by state agencies by upwards of 20-percent. He plans to take the State's case to the federal government, and Supreme Court if necessary.

Georgia lawmakers are proposing creating more reservoirs, as well as working with surrounding states to head-off the drought's long-term effects.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the drought.

Drought on the 'Hootch brings out kayakers, rod & reel (updated)

While drought and record low water levels along Lake Lanier and the Chattahoochee River flood the media with and charges, counter-charges and claims over divvying up the flow, Georgians downriver in Columbus still manage to enjoy what remains -- while it lasts.

Meanwhile, the State of Georgia is still waiting for the Corp of Engineers to decide whether it will lower the flow of water out of Lake Lanier. Governor Perdue has threatened legal action if the corps does not comply with the state's request.

In a statement on Wednesday, Georgia environmental protection division director Carol Couch warned of dire consequences.

Update - Wednesday evening: The State of Georgia will sue the Army Corps of Engineers over its water releases from Lake Lanier and the state’s federal reservoirs. Governor Sonny Perdue late Wednesday afternoon released a statement saying,

"...the Corps’ nonsensical action to further release vital water from Georgia’s already depleted federal reservoirs must not stand."

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Click here for more GPB coverage of the drought, and its consequences.

Finding my folks - Terrance McKnight

Listen to the story about Terrance's search for his African roots

The majority of Americans of African descent have no idea where in Africa their foreparents came from. Until recently, I was one of them. After submitting a DNA sample to African Ancestry, they determined that my maternal lineage goes back to the Yoruba and Ibo people now living in Nigeria. So tonight I'm meeting with some Yorubas for dinner, and although we'll be eating standard American fare I'm anxious to get the inside scoop on everything Ibo and Yoruba. - I'm soooo geeked!!

Foreign genes to make more nutritious food.

Farmers have been tinkering with fruits and vegetables for centuries - trying to get those strawberries a little sweeter, those tomatoes more plump. Now Science has sped up that process and changed it right down to its core. Researchers are inserting foreign genes into plant seeds to make them more nutritious and easier to grow. But is that what people really want to eat? Emily Kopp explores the debate, beginning on a South Georgia Farm.

Listen to this features podcast with Emily Kopp, while enjoying pictures from Hillside Farms by clicking on the GPB News link below.

Schools sue state for more funds

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Nearly a third of Georgia’s public school systems are engaged in a costly legal battle with the state. They say they can’t provide the “adequate education” required by the Georgia Constitution because the state is not giving them enough money. Moreover, they claim, the state funding formula is outdated and favors populous school districts over small, rural ones.

Emily Kopp visited one of the districts involved in the lawsuit—Oglethorpe County. It lies just east of Athens. It has about 14,000 residents and, like many rural counties, few ways to raise money.

Superintendent Jeff Welch credits county taxpayers and boosters--but not state leaders--for a band program.

Columbus remembers 9/11

CSU students singing national anthem at clock tower.
(Dave Bender)

Columbus State University's historic clock tower rang out at noon Tuesday as faculty, students and city residents gathered to remember the grim events of September 11, 2001.

Tony Oxford, president of National Security Associates is a security specialist who spent several weeks working with recovery crews at the World Trade Center site after the attacks. He told GPB News that the recovery operations left a deep impression on him:

“It was a very humbling experience, a life-changing experience, and it gives us an appreciation for America, what America stands for and why we live here - and why we continue to fight to keep America what it is today.”

An honor guard of Columbus fire and law-enforcement officials stood at attention near relics of the attacks, at an extensive multimedia exhibition.

Honor guard at attention near steel remains recovered from WTC site. (Dave Bender)

A central display featured a torn and twisted steel column recovered from the base of one of the twin towers.

A table featuring documents and relics from the attack on the Pentagon was set out in memory of Marjorie Champion Salamone, a Defense Department employee who was killed in that suicide attack. Salamone grew up in Pine Mt., and attended Troup High School.

"God Bless Fort Benning" flag. (Dave Bender)
A support group called, "God Bless Fort Benning," hung a commemorative 26-by-32-foot American flag in front on the exhibit's venue at The Cunningham Center. 700 children of service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan contributed the panels of patriotic messages.

Busloads of high school students from Muscogee County schools attended the events, which included educational displays; community public safety exhibits and demonstrations; videos, artifacts and stories from “Ground Zero” in New York; musical performances. A vigil at 8 p.m. and military fly-over at 8:15 p.m are to close the exhibit, according to a university statement.

Click the green arrow below to hear this report.

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