GA Today: Kemp blasts subpoena; prehistoric fish spawn in Rome

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FULTON PROBE: KEMP BLASTS SUBPOENA; GIULIANI TESTIFIES

Legal professionals for Gov. Brian Kemp are looking for to quash a subpoena to look earlier than the Fulton County particular grand jury investigating election interference by former President Donald Trump and others in his 2020 election defeat in Georgia, GPB’s Stephen Fowler stories.

The 121-page submitting accuses the Fulton County district lawyer’s workplace of being unresponsive to the governor’s efforts to fulfill during the last 18 months and argues Fulton County District Legal professional Fani Willis was making the probe political forward of the November election.

In a rebuttal e mail, Willis appears to push back on accusations of the investigation into election interference being politically motivated and accused Kemp’s lawyer of being “impolite and even disparaging to my workers.”

The identical day, Rudy Giuliani confronted hours of questioning Wednesday earlier than the particular grand jury in Atlanta as a goal of its investigation into makes an attempt by Trump and others to overturn his 2020 defeat in Georgia.

The previous New York mayor and Trump lawyer left the Fulton County courthouse with out commenting to reporters roughly six hours after the particular grand jury convened behind closed doorways Wednesday.

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POLITICAL HEADLINES

LOTS OF THINGS DRIVE VIOLENCE IN PRISON. ADD HEAT TO THE LIST

To maintain our cool on this document sizzling summer time, most of us are most likely selecting to spend extra time in air-conditioned areas. For many individuals in Georgia prisons, that merely just isn’t an choice, stories GPB’s Grant Blankenship.

In the meantime, the federal Division of Justice continues to be investigating Georgia prisons, making an attempt to get to the basis of persistent violence there. 

They could check out the warmth. 

Solely 1 / 4 of Georgia’s prisons are absolutely air conditioned, making it one in all a dozen of states throughout the South and Southwest with less-than-fully climate-controlled jail methods.

The Georgia Division of Corrections mentioned doling out ice is among the stopgap measures they use when jail warmth turns into insupportable. Dana Smallwood Linton mentioned she is aware of this from her son’s expertise in his jail. 

• “They’re in mainly a cement pizza oven, is what I actually consider it,” Linton mentioned. 

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A YEAR LATER, AN AFGHAN REFUGEE REFLECTS ON HIS COUNTRY’S COLLAPSE

Mohammud Shafi Kakar was working as a translator with CNN in Kabul and searching for households displaced by conflict when folks began working and screaming within the streets, stories GPB’s Riley Bunch.

It was the second in August 2021 that Taliban forces took management of Afghanistan’s capital metropolis. Residents scrambled to take shelter, Kakar instructed GPB. Hundreds of vehicles and bikes created a logjam within the streets.

• “It was a doomsday,” he mentioned. “I might say inside sooner or later all the things simply collapsed. And Afghanistan simply fell into Taliban fingers,” Kakar mentioned. “It was unimaginable. And that second, I’ll always remember. Not solely me, however no Afghan will ever neglect that. And it was actually exhausting to just accept that second, but it surely occurred so shortly.”

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WHAT DOES ‘USA TODAY’ OWNER’S DISMAL QUARTER MEAN FOR THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY?

The media firm Gannett, which operates newspapers in Augusta, Athens, and Savannah, reported dismal second quarter monetary outcomes earlier this month, stories GPB’s Devon Zwald.

Gannett mentioned income from digital subscriptions grew, however different necessary income sources had been down, resulting in a internet lack of $54 million.

Gannett confirmed with GPB in an e mail Friday that the corporate is shedding workers.

• “We have been clear about the necessity to evolve our operations and price construction according to our development technique whereas additionally needing to take swift motion given the difficult financial setting,” Gannett Chief Communications Officer Lark-Marie Antón mentioned in an e mail. “These staffing reductions are extremely troublesome, and we’re grateful for the contributions of our departing colleagues.” 

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GPB’S ‘FOOTBALL FRIDAYS IN GEORGIA’ STREAMS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAMES TO YOUR TV AND MOBILE DEVICES

Wednesday marked the start of highschool soccer season, a cultural touchstone right here in Georgia.

GPB’s Soccer Fridays in Georgia offers the perfect in highschool sports activities with reside broadcasts that seize all the motion on the sphere, throughout the state.

Peter Biello, GPB’s host of All Issues Thought of, spoke with GPB’s recreation commentator, Jon Nelson, concerning the season premiere of Soccer Fridays tomorrow night time, Aug. 19, at 7:30 p.m. on GPB-TV and streaming reside on GPB Sports activities and within the GPB Sports activities cellular app. 

• “What I like to inform people is in the event you’re simply driving round on a soccer Friday night time and also you see a lightweight within the distance on a Friday and also you’re misplaced, odds are that is a highschool soccer recreation and any individual can provide you instructions — after the sport that you’ll have stayed to look at,” Nelson mentioned. “However after the sport, they’re going to set you in your method. And it is quite a lot of various things that makes these communities in these counties prideful of the place they’re on Friday nights.”

PREHISTORIC FISH MAY SPAWN IN GEORGIA FOR FIRST TIME IN 50 YEARS

Scientists and college students embarking on a census of Georgia lake sturgeon have discovered three females with mature eggs — a sign the armored “residing fossils” could also be reproducing within the state for the primary time in a half-century.

• “It is thrilling as a result of it is affirmation that they’re changing into mature and making an attempt to spawn,” Martin J. Hamel, an affiliate professor on the College of Georgia Warnell Faculty of Forestry and Pure Assets, mentioned in a current information launch.

Fossils point out that the spade-nosed fish with a bottom-mounted vacuum hose as an alternative of jaws has existed for greater than 136 million years, in line with scientists. The state Division of Pure Assets started reintroducing lake sturgeon 20 years in the past, after the Clear Water Act cleaned up the river, Hamel mentioned.