Morning, y’all! Another day of doing stuff, going to our little jobs and eating our little food, and peering at glowing boxes full of words while the laundry dries. In between, there are so many opportunities for something wonderful.
Let’s get to it.
MR. VANCE GOES TO GEORGIA
Be prepared for some weird traffic between Atlanta and Peachtree City today. The VP will be in town for a visit, stopping in the metro area before heading south.
- Vice President JD Vance addresses Republican National Committee members in Atlanta this morning.
- Then, he’ll headline a midday event at an industrial refrigeration manufacturer in Peachtree City. He’s here to big up President Donald Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill,” which has been a hard sell for many Georgians.
- Though Vance and Trump won Georgia in the 2024 election, it’s still considered a battleground state.
- For the GOP, there’s also the 2026 Senate race to consider. Sen. Jon Ossoff has made the unpopularity of Trump’s spending bill a key voter issue, and state Republicans know they have to prepare a strong challenge against him heading into election season.
🔎 READ MORE: What else will Vance be up to today?
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MORE TROUBLE ON THE HEALTH CARE SCENE
About 760 health workers signed a letter to Congress and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., asking him to protect them from actors willing to harm them over mistrust and misinformation he has helped spread.
- The letter, written two weeks after a gunman attacked the CDC offices in Atlanta, cites Kennedy’s history of calling the agency a “cesspool of corruption.”
- It also mentions Kennedy’s hand in dismantling leadership that approves vaccines for kids; his false claim that the measles vaccine relates to increasing autism rates; and his cancellation of $500 million in research funds for mRNA vaccines.
- Of the roughly 760 signatories, about 600 are past or present CDC workers.
🔎 READ MORE: About the letter and its claims
An attack on a U.S. government agency should be a moment in time when we come together. Instead, Secretary Kennedy continues to spread misinformation at the risk of American lives.
Meanwhile, Emory Healthcare was hit with a class action lawsuit claiming they illegally fired around 540 full-time finance workers without proper notice.
The suit alleges Emory violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The WARN Act requires employers of 100 or more full-time workers to provide 60 days’ notice of plant closures or mass layoffs.
It also claims workers were not offered proper severance packages.
🔎 READ MORE: Emory’s response and why the layoffs happened
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
⚖️ The judge who presided over the sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein denied a Justice Department request to unseal grand jury transcripts from the case. The Justice Department is already in possession of a massive file of records related to the case, which it has not released to the public.
🐘 Some Georgia GOP lawmakers have lined up behind U.S. Rep. Mike Collins for next year’s Senate race. They risk running afoul of Gov. Brian Kemp, though, who’s thrown his weight behind former football coach Derek Dooley. It’s honestly kind of dramatic.
💰 Earlier this week, we talked about a possible $1.2 billion plan for renovations and a new facility at the Fulton County Jail. The Fulton County Commission approved it yesterday.
THE COOLEST CARNIVAL YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF
A new amusement park-style art exhibit is coming soon to Pullman Yards, and y’all, I was not prepared for how cool its history is.
- “Luna Luna” features playful works by art greats like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Salvador Dalí, Keith Haring and Roy Lichtenstein.
- It was created by Austrian artist André Heller in the 1970s and premiered in Hamburg, Germany in 1987. It was then packed away for decades.
- A New York art professional read an obscure article about it in 2019, and vowed to bring “Luna Luna” back to glory.
- Rapper Drake and creative company DreamCrew purchased the contents of the original exhibition and updated it with new music from top artists and “sensory experiences” which really could mean anything.
- Atlanta is the event’s third stop, and it opens Sept. 24 at Pullman Yards. It’s a date.
🎡 READ MORE: Oh, and obviously there’s a podcast about it
HOCKEY IN AUGUSTA?!
Greetings, Augusta. Arise, shine, for your hockey team has come. The EHCL, the AA development league of the NHL, has approved Augusta for membership.
That means a shiny new hockey team in 2027. And, I couldn’t make this up if I tried: Former Binghamton Rumble Pony Tim Tebow, also of NFL and University of Florida fame, is going to be part owner. He just can’t get enough of farm teams.
OK, Augustans, what’s the name? You know they like fun, region-themed names. Augusta Azaleas seems obvious, but might threaten someone’s manhood. Or, they’d bloom beautifully for like, two weeks in early spring and you’d be waiting all season for them to do it again.
🌺 READ MORE: This isn’t Augusta’s first EHCL team (the first was called the “Augusta Lynx,” so there’s your one to beat.)
ON THIS DATE
Aug. 21, 1909
From the front page of The Atlanta Journal: Two lives perish; two records made in opening race. In the inaugural races of the Indianapolis motor speedway yesterday two men were killed and two new records of almost incredible speed were established.
In the very first race?! This felt like a research rabbit hole waiting to happen, and it was. Three people died just two days later in a different race.
OK, morbid trivia question of the day, which I’ll put below underneath some prayers for race car drivers: How many people have died at Indianapolis Motor Speedway?
ONE MORE THING
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🙏🏽
🏎️
🙏🏻
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About 74. Track’s haunted for sure.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.
About the Author
AJ Willingham is an National Emmy, NABJ and Webby award-winning journalist who loves talking culture, religion, sports, social justice, infrastructure and the arts. She lives in beautiful Smyrna-Mableton and went to Syracuse University.
