A.M. ATL: For I was hungry

Let’s get to it.

LET’S TALK SNAP

Rural areas are especially vulnerable to food insecurity, and will face new challenges when federal benefits stop.

Georgia won’t throw a lifeline

• The White House says it won’t tap in to a $5 billion federal emergency fund that could keep the program going, but they aren’t the only backstop.
• If you recall, Georgia is sitting on a $14.6 billion state surplus. Some lawmakers want to call a special session or have Gov. Brian Kemp issue a state of emergency to get some of that money to hungry Georgia families.
• Kemp blamed congressional Democrats and says there’s “no mechanism by which the state can put money on EBT cards.”
• Other Republican governors have made moves to protect SNAP. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed an emergency declaration to help fund next month’s benefits. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency to help provide emergency hunger relief.

A look at SNAP

• About 1.3 million Georgians, or one in eight, receive relief through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
• 69% of Georgia SNAP participants are families with children.
• About 28% are families with older or disabled adults.
• Georgia has very strict SNAP rules. Most recipients between 16 and 59 years old have to be employed or actively seeking jobs. The program helps more than 500,000 workers — more than 10% of the state’s workforce.

POLL: YOU LIKE HIM OR YOU DON’T

Sometimes numbers fill out what you can already sense. Case in point: A brand-new AJC poll on how Georgia voters feel about President Donald Trump is ... what you think it would be.

• 84% of likely Republican voters said they approve of the way Trump is handling his second term. That figure is nearly identical to the results of the last two AJC polls conducted this year.
• 94% of likely Democratic voters disapprove of his job performance. That figure has also stayed fairly consistent.

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

TYCOONS OF THE DUNES

Phew, that's pretty.

A Gilded Age golf fantasy on Georgia’s Jekyll Island is being restored to its former glory.

• The Great Dunes golf course was originally built in the 1920s by famed golf course architect Walter Travis for the pleasure of various Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and other wealthy American families who wintered at the Jekyll Island Club.
• The stock market crash of 1929 put an end to the fancy golf party for many, and the club closed in 1942.
• The course was reopened when Jekyll became a state park, but interest in reviving the original sumptuous layout really took off when people began to find the “bones” of Travis’ original layout.
• The course underwent a yearlong refurbishment that locals compared to opening a time capsule.
• The new golf course is public, and is intended to increase Jekyll Island’s cache as a golf destination.

NEWS BITES

The worst candy for children’s teeth, according to GA dentists

Print out some copies of this and you can be the house everyone avoids on Halloween.

Flavor Flav has become the hype man for the USA Bobsled and Skeleton team

Of course. Why not? (He also tried out skeleton, or head-first bobsled, and lived to tell the tale.)

‘It’s the world we live in.’ UGA’s Kirby Smart sounds off on coach firings

Smart’s the second-longest tenured coach in the SEC. Trivia question: Who’s the first? Answer at the end.

Photos from the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony

Extremely good blazers afoot.

Freddie Freeman’s homer in 18th inning lifts Dodgers over Blue Jays 6-5 in World Series classic

Oh, Freddie. The one that got away.

ON THIS DATE

Oct. 28, 1881

ONE MORE THING

The longest tenured coach in the SEC is Mark Stoops of Kentucky. He’s in his 13th season for the Wildcats, and I hope writing this down hasn’t cursed him in some way.