On the Friday September 20th edition of Georgia Today: The Georgia Election Board passes a rule requiring a hand-count of ballots; Vice President Kamala Harris rallies voters in Atlanta; And hundreds of students across the state walk out to demonstrate for gun safety.

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Friday, September 20th. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, the Georgia Election Board passes a rule requiring a hand count of ballots. Vice President Kamala Harris rallies voters in Atlanta and hundreds of students across the state walk out to demonstrate for gun safety. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: The state election board passed arguably the most contentious of 11 new rules that it had been considering at a closely watched meeting today. The vote goes against the advice of Georgia's secretary of state, attorney general and local election officials. GPB's Grant Blankenship reports from the state capitol.

Grant Blankenship: A 3 to 2 largely party-line vote approved the rule, mandating a hand count of paper ballots at the close of polls at every poll site before the actual tabulation of votes or even before submitting them to county election heads. Many local elections directors who spoke before the vote, like Tate Hall of Cobb County, said they oppose the rule because its mere passage violates the federal National Voting Rights Act. By coming inside the 90 day quiet period before an election.

Tate Hall: Yesterday, Cobb County emailed just over 1000 ballots to our uniformed and overseas voters. First ballots are out the door. The election has officially begun.

Grant Blankenship: In a memo to the state election board, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said the hand count of ballot rule is not at all supported by state law. Carr said other proposed rules were likely an overstep of board authority, too. For GPB News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Atlanta.

Caption

Kamala Harris

Story 2:

Peter Biello: For the first time since she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to deliver a speech focused squarely on abortion rights. The speech is scheduled for this afternoon in Cobb County, north of Atlanta. And it comes as reports emerge of women dying in the wake of Georgia's abortion ban. It's part of a turn toward personal stories her campaign is focusing on. GPB's Chase McGee reports, last night, she rallied voters in an online event featuring Oprah Winfrey and guests from Georgia.

Chase McGee: Rally guests included a student shot and injured during a school shooting at Apalachee High School. A gunman opened fire in her ninth grade algebra class. Flanked by her parents, Natalie Griffith spoke with Harris about her injuries.

Kamala Harris: Where were you shot? Where were you physically shot?

Natalie Griffith. Right here on my shoulder and then around here. Right wrist.

Chase McGee: Harris says she plans to address gun violence with policy, saying that while she supports the Second Amendment, she also supports common sense legislation, including an assault weapons ban. Other guests included a Georgia mother who lost her daughter after delayed abortion care. For GPB News, I'm Chase McGee.

Peter Biello: Meanwhile, Donald Trump's campaign is expected to announce a blitz of Trump Vance appearances next week, including a Savannah rally. The former president also is expected at the Georgia Alabama football game in Tuscaloosa on September 28th.

Story 3:

Peter Biello: Hundreds of students at dozens of schools across the state walked out of class this morning in solidarity with students at Northeast Georgia's Apalachee High School. The demonstrations were student led, but many were school sanctioned, so students did not leave their campuses. Students remembered the four people killed in the Apalachee High School shooting this month and urged political leaders to do more to curb gun violence. In Winder, the last of four funerals for the shooting victims drew hundreds of mourners. Community members gathered last night for a viewing at St Matthew's Catholic Church of 14 year old Christian Gabriel Angulo. And this afternoon, hundreds gathered in a standing room only service. Angulo is the last of four victims to be laid to rest, marking the end of a two week stretch of funerals and memorial services across northeast Georgia. Barrow County School officials say classes will resume at Apalachee High School on Tuesday.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: New hemp regulations are set to take effect October 1st, starting a week from Tuesday. Retailers will be prohibited from selling hemp products to anyone under the age of 21. The new law also imposes on manufacturers labeling, packaging and testing requirements. Hemp growers, manufacturers and retailers will have to obtain licenses and pay a licensing fee. Violators will be subject to criminal misdemeanor charges and civil penalties. The new law prohibits the sale of any hemp products containing more than the legal limit of 0.3% of THC, the psychoactive drug that gets users high. That means retail stores may continue to sell gummies, tinctures and nonalcoholic CBD beverages, but anything smokable and food products will no longer be permitted.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: Four children might not be breathing on their own if not for innovative technology. From Georgia Tech and pediatric cardiologists at Children's Health Care of Atlanta. But the support is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And Atlanta is one of a handful of places nationwide to offer infants the surgery. GPB's Ellen Eldridge has more.

Ellen Eldridge: Justice Altidor and her twin sister journey speak their own language.

Justice Altidor: *speaking twin language*

Ellen Eldridge: The four year olds might not have been speaking at all without an experimental surgery to keep Justice's airway from collapsing when she was an infant, their mother, Emanuela Altidor, says she knew justice had a heart condition before she gave birth to the twins.

Emanuela Altidor: Well, they knew she had the double aortic arch. They just didn't know how severe it was until she was born. And then they were on standby. By the grace of God, to take her a whisk her away.

Ellen Eldridge: Because of the advanced knowledge of Justice's heart issue, doctors rushed her to the neonatal intensive care unit before mom could even say hello and hold her baby.

Emanuela Altidor: After I did recovery. I was able to see her and she was intubated and she stayed that way all the way, so she got the surgery. Then four months later.

Ellen Eldridge: Doctor Kevin Maher is a pediatric cardiologist with Children's Health Care of Atlanta. He says infant heart issues also often come with weak trachea airways not strong enough for babies to breathe. Maher says in his hospital, these are some of the most common issues they see in neonatal intensive care, but there aren't great treatments available.

Dr. Kevin Maher: You know, we've had these kids that can spend, you know, their entire life with a breathing tube. And the moment you would take out those breathing tube, the airways would collapse and they would go immediately go into respiratory arrest.

Ellen Eldridge: Now, a team of Georgia Tech engineers have developed a custom 3D printed splint to support the newborn airway. Think of it as a cast on the baby's own trachea. But Stronger Children's is one of only five hospitals in the nation offering the surgery. And while the procedure waits for full FDA approval, every single surgery has to wait for its own go ahead from the agency so far. Justice is the fourth patient at children's approved for the supportive device. The medical team submitted Justice's case to the FDA for approval, which they got in October 2020 amid the Covid 19 pandemic.

Emanuela Altidor: We're recording in the hospital. For the most part. They were, allowing me to go back and forth because I did have journeys still, here and needed to care for her as well.

Ellen Eldridge: Justice could eat and breathe on her own just a few weeks after surgery, and she was discharged from the hospital. The Altidore family recently celebrated the twins fourth birthday in the Bahamas. The family is back home now, preparing for back to school with a math skills board game.

Emanuela Altidor: Zero! Okay.

Ellen Eldridge: There is no after surgery. The device just dissolves in the throat over time. And aside from the scars, all Justice knows about the surgery are the stories she hears.

Emanuela Altidor: You had a surgery, right?

Justice Altidor: Yes. Since I was a baby, I have had a surgery.

Emanuela Altidor: After she first came out the surgery, you can feel the plastic in her chest. Now, it's just. It's just a flat surface. You wouldn't even know that she has something done with your scars from your surgery,.

Justice Altidor: Mr. Potato!

Emanuela Altidor: Oh, you're being silly.

Ellen Eldridge: Altidor says she can only imagine what Justice's life could have been.

Emanuela Altidor: Well, mommy's so happy you had your surgery, because now you can say stuff like "Mr. Potato!".

Ellen Eldridge: Dr. Maher says a fifth use of the 3D airway at children's is being planned, pending the ok