Morning, y’all! A few days ago, I said some unkind things about butterflies, and I want to apologize. Not because I was wrong, but because I’m about to do it again in today’s newsletter. (To be clear, I appreciate their role as pollinators. I would just prefer they do it far away from my face.)
Let’s get to it.
ATLANTA TRIES TO TACKLE HOMELESSNESS BEFORE WORLD CUP
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Partners for Home, a nonprofit that works with the city of Atlanta, wants to eliminate homelessness downtown by the beginning of the FIFA World Cup games here next summer.
It sounds too good to be true, and many housing advocates fear it is.
- Partners for Home implements Atlanta’s homelessness strategy. This particular plan is dubbed “Downtown Rising.”
- The city wants to house 400 unsheltered people by the end of the year, and leaders say the plan is intended to be a long-term fix that lasts past next summer.
- The plan incorporates a housing first approach and includes outreach, rehousing support, mental health support and medical services.
A checkered past
- Housing advocates say such a rapid strategy can’t fix the ingrained, multilayered problem of homelessness.
- Also (and this is a big one), people still remember the city’s aggressive approach to clearing downtown of unhoused people before the 1996 Summer Olympics. About 9,000 unhoused people were arrested during that project.
🔎 READ MORE: How the plan approaches the complexities of homelessness
RELATED: The Atlanta Housing Authority, which pilots affordable housing projects and offers services to vulnerable residents, relies on federal resources for nearly 98% of its funding. With the Trump administration’s budget cuts, advocates warn evictions and homelessness in Atlanta could rise.
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MORE MILITARY NAME GAMES
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
The Trump administration ordered the name change of seven more military installations that previously honored Confederate figures.
“We are also going to be restoring the names to Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E. Lee,” President Donald Trump announced at Fort Bragg in North Carolina this week.
What it means for Georgia:
- Fort Gordon in Augusta, currently Fort Eisenhower, was renamed two years ago.
- It was originally named for John Gordon, a Confederate general and slave owner generally recognized as the head of the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia.
- However, the Trump administration says the renaming now honors Master Sgt. Gary Gordon of Lincoln, Maine.
- This Gordon was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, Somalia.
🔎 READ MORE: The AJC talked to Gordon’s widow about the name change
Earlier this year, the Trump administration reverted the names of Fort Benning in Georgia and Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
BIG ELECTION, TINY TURNOUT
We often talk about remaining active voters in our communities outside of big elections. If that resonates, here’s your chance to put your ballot where your mouth is.
So far, the turnout to elect two new members to Georgia’s Public Service Commission is so low, some counties may close polling places if there’s a runoff. Here’s why you should care and get voting:
- The PSC regulates power and gas rates that monopoly utility companies can charge. In other words, they literally decide how much Georgians pay for key utility services.
- There are only five members of the PSC, and two of those spots will be decided by this election.
- PSC elections have been delayed for three years because of a legal battle over how the body is elected. The board has been helmed by nearly all white members in its 146-year history.
Important dates:
- Friday, June 13: Early voting ends
- Tuesday, June 17: Election Day
- Tuesday, July 15: Runoffs, if needed
- Tuesday, Nov. 4: General election
🔎 READ MORE: Who’s running for the Public Service Commission
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
⚕️ More than 460 laid-off CDC employees are being reinstated. About 2,400 lost their jobs in the Trump administration’s cuts earlier this year. Many of the reinstated employees work with sexually transmitted diseases or lead poisoning.
✊🏼 Six people were arrested during immigration protests along Buford Highway Tuesday night. Georgia authorities say they’re preparing for more demonstrations this weekend, especially with President Trump’s military birthday parade.
⚽ Four Atlanta-based companies were named the first sponsors of Atlanta’s eight FIFA World Cup matches next year: Cox Enterprises, Georgia-Pacific, Home Depot and Southern Co.
SAPELO TRAGEDY SURVIVORS SEEK JUSTICE
Credit: Shaddi Abusaid/AJC
Credit: Shaddi Abusaid/AJC
Families of the more than three dozen people injured or killed in a gangway collapse on Georgia’s Sapelo Island last year are suing several firms responsible for its construction.
- Seven people were killed last October when a metal gangway holding about 40 people collapsed during the annual Cultural Day celebration on the island.
- The loss of Black life on a day meant to celebrate Black culture was especially painful for the community and for survivors.
- Attorneys for the families say the incident was “totally preventable.”
- An AJC investigation found several state employees expressed concern about the structure years before it failed.
🔎 READ MORE: Another gangway built by the same contractor as Sapelo’s collapsed two years before
NEWS BITES
Ten songs to celebrate the life and music of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson
You can get a little sun-kissed just listening to them.
30 original Salvador Dalí drawings are tucked away in a little Roswell museum
And they are very on-brand, which is to say unhinged to the maximum. Definitely worth a little visit.
Summer heat might be miserable for humans, but it’s great for butterflies
Oh, of course butterflies thrive on our suffering.
Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano erupts for the 25th time since December
Is that a lot? That feels like a lot. Too much, even.
ON THIS DATE
June 12, 1947
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
From the front page of The Atlanta Constitution: There will be no skirt-wearing Georgia Tech students, and men will appear on the campuses of GSCW, Milledgeville, and GSWC, Valdosta, in teaching or dating capacities only. The State Board of Regents Wednesday refused to admit women to Tech and men to the two women’s colleges despite a favorable report by Sandy Beaver, Gainesville, Chairman of the Regents’ Committee on Education.
By this point, it was a matter of time: The first female undergraduates enrolled at Georgia Tech in 1952.
ONE MORE THING
The state butterfly of Georgia is the eastern tiger swallowtail.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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