WABE’s Week in Review: Calls For Justice, Coronavirus Evictions, And Grading Students
Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Glynn County Courthouse on a recent Saturday in May to demand justice for Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot and killed in February in Brunswick, Georgia.
Emma Hurt / WABE
On the Week in Review for May 24-30, WABE’s Managing Editor Alex Helmick showcases stories from our journalists on the Ahmaud Arbery killing.
As more high profile police killings emerge nationwide, we looked at the county where Ahmaud Arbery was killed. Three white men, one a former police officer, are charged with murder. The Arbery case has created significant fallout in Georgia, but only after the graphic video of the killing went viral. Before then, there were no arrests even though authorities knew about the incident. WABE’s Emma Hurt reports the killing has brought up big questions for Arbery’s community, about corruption in the criminal justice system and about racism.
More reopening across Georgia…
Gov. Brian Kemp continues to lift restrictions originally put in place to stop the spread of the COVID-19. Kemp announced Thursday that gatherings of more than 25 people are allowed starting June 1. Kemp also said bars and nightclubs can open and summer schools can resume in-person classes Monday.
Still separated…
Judith Steuber of Kennesaw, Georgia, has two sons with autism who live in separate local group homes. They’re in their 30s. Christopher, the older one, has significant autism. He can read some words and has an aversion to numbers of any kind. But he is able to understand what germs are and seems to adjust to the changes the coronavirus pandemic has brought to his routine. Jeremy, her younger son, is almost nonverbal and has a hard time with the new norm of living in a pandemic. Before COVID-19 forced shelter-in-place orders, Judith was able to take her sons home on the weekends. But that has changed since the pandemic.
Grading the grading system…
Now that the school year is over, most Atlanta-area public school students are waiting for their report cards. But the rules for giving grades changed this semester due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Stay In their homes…
After a short suspension of eviction hearings, the busiest housing court in Georgia is planning to resume hearings in June. The opening means evictions will start up in Fulton County for the first time since the pandemic began.
Banking, the economy and the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta…
WABE’s Jim Burress spoke with Rafael Bostic, president of Atlanta’s Federal Reserve Bank, about several issues, including banking in Georgia and giving loans to get through these tough times. Check out the entire interview here.
For a deeper exploration of Ahmaud Arbery’s story, listen to WABE’s podcast, “Buried Truths.” Hosted by journalist, professor, and Pulitzer-prize-winning author Hank Klibanoff, season three of “Buried Truths” explores the Arbery murder and its direct ties to racially motivated murders of the past in Georgia.
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