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Grant Blankenship

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Gloria Hammond by Berry Creek, at the back of her property in Monroe County. She said the creek has changed a lot in the decades since the Plant Scherer Ash Pond 1 was created. “I dont see my mussel shells that I used to see on the sand,” she said. “I dont hear the frogs at night down here.”

What’s legal for closing Georgia’s coal ash ponds might hinge on one word: Infiltration

Grant Blankenship
April 15, 2024
A map shows the location of the cloud-connected surveillance cameras belonging to Bibb County, as seen in the control room of the Bibb County Sheriffs Office. When their owners agree to add their private cameras, those will show up as tiny red dots.

Bibb County law enforcement wants residents to share their doorbell cameras

Grant Blankenship
April 1, 2024
People scatter hundreds of sets of unclaimed cremated human remains around a small garden at Macons Rose Hill Cemetery during a short ceremony on Thursday, March 28, 2024.

Hundreds of cremated remains of unclaimed people scattered in Macon ceremony

Grant Blankenship
March 29, 2024
Anitra Chandrasekar of Jacksonville, Fla., (left) poses for her mother, Meena, among the Yoshino cherry blossoms along Ingleside Drive in Macon.

In Macon, the city’s cherry blossom festival chases the calendar amid a changing climate

Grant Blankenship
March 22, 2024
A small group of death penalty opponents gathered outside Georgia Diagnostic Prison in Jackson to protest the execution of Willie Pye on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.

Georgia ends its pandemic moratorium on executions by killing Willie Pye

Grant Blankenship
March 21, 2024
Candidates for Bibb County sheriff, from left, Chris Patterson, Ron Rodgers, DeAndre Hall, Sheriff David Davis, Marshall Hughes and Chris Paul sit for a March 2024 forum during their runs for the office.

Candidates for Bibb County sheriff debate the roots of violent crime in Macon

Grant Blankenship
March 12, 2024
U.S. Rep. Jefferson Long (left), the first Black congressman of Georgia, and pioneering educator of Black children Lucy Craft Laney (right) are depicted in a mural by artist Kevin Lewis in Macons Pleasant Hill neighborhood which both at one time called home.

Why Supreme Court debate recalls prophetic words spoken by Maconite Jefferson Long in 1871

Grant Blankenship
February 8, 2024
Nathan and Joyce Klaus embrace after the release of six endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers at Sprewell Bluff in Upson County in fall 2023 — the culmination of decades of work by conservationists.

In the hills of West Georgia, decades of care and fire sculpt a new home for endangered woodpeckers

Grant Blankenship
January 5, 2024
Protesters were outside the Georgia Governors Mansion on Oct. 3, 2023 to bring attention to violence and other concerns in Georgias prisons. One protester carries a photo of Stephanie Widener, who died of sepsis in Georgia Department of Corrections custody.

Protesters outside governor’s mansion demand Kemp take action against prison violence

Grant Blankenship
October 4, 2023
Georgia Academy for the Blind senior Daquan Brown with the 3d yearbook printed for him and other members of the Class of 2023 by Mercer University engineering students.

Mercer students continue tradition of creating 3D yearbooks for the blind

Grant Blankenship
May 10, 2023
Heaven Upshaw-Peters, foreground, and the rest of the graduates in the Bibb County Teaching as a Profession program, during their Signing Day ceremony recently.

Program aimed at encouraging students to be teachers graduates its first class

Grant Blankenship
May 5, 2023
Randy Bedingfield plays the piano during a November reception at the Daybreak Day Center, which offers an array of services to the unhoused in Macon. Daybreak is privately funded but a Georgia Senate bill would audit public funds spent on such services.

A Georgia Senate bill asks for audits of homeless services. Why?

Grant Blankenship
March 8, 2023
Danielle Jones is the McKinney-Vento liaison for the Bibb County School District where she and a small staff work within the limits of the law to provide stability for homeless students.

Housing aid doesn’t always reach homeless youth. Here’s how educators aim to help

Grant Blankenship
February 1, 2023
Macon-Bibb County will hold three virtual public hearings to discuss maintaining the current millage rate which will add an additional $2.6 million to the county budget.

Macon-Bibb County flies the Muscogee Nation flag above the city

Grant Blankenship
January 23, 2023
Wesley Reimer feeds his son Marshall from a bottle in their Macon home. Reimer partially blames the current baby formula shortage on panicked shoppers stockpiling formula and on profiteers selling formula online.

[Photo] The national baby formula shortage means struggle for many Georgia families

Tanya Ott, Center for Collaborative Journalism
May 26, 2022
Georgia Department of Corrections Commissioner Timothy C. Ward, second from right, after the March meeting of the Board of Corrections in Forsyth.

[Photo] Federal investigators are asking the court to force transparency on Georgia prisons

Grant Blankenship, Georgia Public Broadcasting
April 8, 2022
Dozens of vans, trucks, cars and buses parked at Hawthorne and Third streets parked in a county-owned lot downtown have government-issued tags. The vehicles are not owned by the county or any agency of the county. They belong to a private nonprofit called the Macon-Bibb County Economic Opportunity Council Inc.

[Photo] Public money, private business: oversight limited at Macon-Bibb Economic Opportunity Council

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
February 18, 2022
Tattnall Square Academy wrestler Grady Tisdale practices at Macon’s Rush Mixed Martial Arts gym. The only member of his high school wrestling team, Tisdale is one of the best wrestlers in Georgia at his weight class.

[Photo] A team of one: Tattnall’s only wrestler Grady Tisdale has his eye on a state title

Tanya Ott
February 14, 2022
Georgia Department of Corrections cadets and trainers before the 2010 ribbon cutting for the departments training facility and offices in Forsyth. A labor strike of the incarcerated would come about month later. GDC lost over 2,000 correctional officers in the following year.

[Photo]

Kareemah Hanifa during her September 2021 testimony to a committee of Georgia legislators concerned with violence in the states prisons. Hanifa began serving a life sentence when she was a teenager.

[Photo] Why the investigation into Georgia prisons matters

Debbie Blankenship, Center for Collaborative Journalism
November 19, 2021
Nerissa Wrights son, Dontavis Mintz, died for reasons she still doesnt know in Ware State Prison near Waycross. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the Georgia Department of Corrections largely because of such deaths.

A mother’s son died in Georgia prison. The Department of Justice wonders if understaffing is why

Grant Blankenship
November 19, 2021
The trash was placed at the curb on Laura Ann Place off of Forest Hill Road earlier this month.

What’s up with the Landfill and my trash?

Grant Blankenship
June 29, 2021
Family and neighbors of Quinterious Hillman and Jerod Lester watch as Bibb County Sheriffs Deputies investigate the scene of Hillman and Lesters killing in May.

Looking for solutions amid the pandemic homicide spike

Grant Blankenship
June 10, 2021
Hiring more tutors to offer more individual instruction are among the ideas provided by school system staff.

Bibb County Schools Asks Parents For Ideas For Spending $100 Million

Grant Blankenship
April 30, 2021
As Georgia Mass Vaccination Sites Close, Grassroots Efforts Try To Fill In The Gaps

As Georgia Mass Vaccination Sites Close, Grassroots Efforts Try To Fill In The Gaps

Grant Blankenship
April 28, 2021
Calvin Jackson picks up trash in the yard of one of two vacant houses in ill repair in the cul de sac on his street in the Kings Park neighborhood of Macon recently. Jackson says picking up trash this way is a habit hes had for a few years. They tell me its not my job, he said. I do it anyway.

[Photo] Addressing Blight in Macon

Debbie Blankenship, Center for Collaborative Journalism
April 20, 2021
A study is underway to determine whether a 50-mile stretch of the Ocmulgee River and adjacent land should be added to the National Park Service.

[Photo] Should expanded Ocmulgee Mounds national park extend to Hawkinsville?

Liz Fabian, Civic Journalism Senior Fellow
February 8, 2021
Ahead Of The Super Bowl, A Pandemic Driven Shortage Of Chicken Wings

Ahead Of The Super Bowl, A Pandemic Driven Shortage Of Chicken Wings

Grant Blankenship
February 4, 2021
Volunteers, mostly from the Single Moms Connect support group, prepare grocery boxes during one of the groups twice monthly food disbursals in Houston County.

Cost of COVID: Food Bank Labor Dries Up

Grant Blankenship
November 22, 2020
Trump Supporters at 2018 rally in Macon.

Headed To Trump’s Macon Rally? Know The COVID-19 Risk

Grant Blankenship
October 15, 2020
Bibb County High School students earning credits, and preparing high end restaurant food through the districts culinary program at Hutchings Career Academy.

[Video] Keeping The Kitchen Open, To Graduate

Grant Blankenship
October 5, 2020

Virtual School, The Struggle To Go Online

Grant Blankenship
September 15, 2020
Cars snaked around St. Paul AME Church in Macon during a four hour coronavirus testing pop up Wednesday.

Macon Coronavirus Infections Doubled In Last 2 Weeks

Grant Blankenship
July 8, 2020
Technicians at the Hancock County Health Department wait to perform a coronavirus test in May. The virus spread in Hancock has been labeled severe.

[Video] Coronavirus cases on the rise in young adults

Grant Blankenship
June 30, 2020
Mercer University in Macon conducted pop up coronavirus testing at a homeless day center after other labs turned people away for not having a car for drive up tests.

[Video] Coronavirus Tests For The Homeless When ‘Drive Up’ Isn’t An Option

Grant Blankenship
June 5, 2020
Testing performed by a private lab in a church parking lot in Macon. Testers usually recommend breathing through the mouth as the swab goes to the back of the nasal cavity.

How To Get A Coronavirus Test In Georgia

Grant Blankenship
May 13, 2020
New pedestrian crosswalks at Bass Road and Interstate 75 are part of state safety enhancements but there are no sidewalks on that busy thoroughfare.

[Photo] Bass Road crosswalks to nowhere spark safety planning discussion

Liz Fabian, Civic Journalism Senior Fellow
January 24, 2020
Grant Wmaz

[Photo] When and why are teens committing crimes?

Chelsea Beimfohr, 13WMAZ Staff
September 17, 2019
Georgia gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp at the Georgia Chamber of Commerce Congressional Luncheon at the Macon Marriott City Center on Tuesday, August 21, 2018.

Why Shouldn’t Kemp Recuse Himself? Ask Someone Who Had His Job

Grant Blankenship
August 23, 2018
Chiquita Dinkins teaches a unit on photosynthesis to students at the old Northeast High School in Macon in 2018.

Former students, now teachers, taking the lead in helping turn around this school

Grant Blankenship
October 20, 2017
integration04

[Photo] “Where do the white kids go to school in Macon?”

Ashley P. Murray, Special to The Telegraph
April 5, 2017

[Video] Journey to school integration was painful, prolonged process

Andrea Honaker, Telegraph staff writer
March 31, 2017
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