A.M. ATL: Here we go again

Morning, y’all! Welcome to October, the apex of spooky season. Now for the seasonal mathematics: How soon can one put out carved pumpkins and not have them rot by Halloween? If fall decorations go up this week, does that mean a full two months before Christmas ones? Is it too early to stress about holiday obligations? Spooky, indeed.

Let’s get to it.

GOVERNMENT.EXE HAS STOPPED WORKING

It's cool, everything's fine.

We’re officially in the first government shutdown in nearly seven years after Senate Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement* over a bill to extend federal funding by a midnight deadline.

While lawmakers play silly buggers on Capitol Hill, the real question for the rest of us remains: “What happens now?”

Lots of people are going to lose their paychecks and possibly their jobs

• If history holds, hundreds of thousands of federal employees — some of them your neighbors, friends and family — will be furloughed, or temporarily laid off without pay.
• Those who remain on the job, including active-duty service members, will be paid in spirit. The actual pay they earn won’t come until funding is restored.
• It could be more permanent, too. The White House’s Office of Management and Budget has threatened the mass firing of federal workers and the permanent closure of programs in the event of a shutdown.

⏸️ Important things that will be closed or paused:

• Paying people for work they do (see above)
• Public health initiatives and research led by the CDC and other federal agencies
• Certain national parks and federally-funded sites like museums and monuments
• Hiring for open positions, including much-needed ones like air traffic controllers
• Airports and government agencies like the IRS or passport offices could also face growing delays.

▶️ Important things that will keep going

• U.S. Postal Service
• Veterans Affairs health care
• Medicare coverage
• Market performance, apparently. Despite the grim economic implications of a shutdown, U.S. stocks ended September on a very high note.

SAPELO ISLAND GETS A WIN IN LEGAL FIGHT

The Museum of Sapelo History in the small Gullah-Geechee community of Hog Hummock on Sapelo Island. The Gullah Geechee keep alive an indispensable cultural link to our past.

The Georgia Supreme Court gave the go-ahead to a citizens’ referendum aimed at restricting development on historic Sapelo Island, home to the Gullah Geechee people.

• The vote is an effort to repeal a county zoning ordinance allowing much larger homes to be built in the area, encroaching on important ecological and heritage sites.
• Voting in coastal Georgia’s McIntosh County was blocked by a lower court last October.
• The Gullah Geechee are descended from enslaved people of West Africa who made the area home after the Civil War.

HELENE RELIEF IS FINALLY ON THE WAY. MAYBE.

A year after Hurricane Helene’s deadly wrath destroyed Georgia crops and blew away billions from the state’s agricultural industry, Georgia farmers just got word they’ll see $531 million from a Congressional hurricane relief package.

Unfortunately, we still don’t know when. Unlike South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida and Virginia, Georgia’s aid announcement didn’t include a finalized agreement on how the state will use the money.

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

OF BEAVERS AND TURTLES

Arise ye beavers of starvation, arise ye wretched of the earth!

Georgia is already home to three garish bacchanals of hot road trip snacks, sepia-toned Americana housewares and rodent kitsch, and another is scheduled to open in March 2027 just a half hour north of the fabled Warner Robins location along I-75.

(I have been to the Warner Robins Buc-ees several times. Being averse to crowds and noise, I always make sure to turn off my brain before entering, emerging some time later with a handful of packaged meatstuffs and recollection of little else.)

But, the turtles ...

Not to take the pale horse metaphor too far, but there’s a light-related battle of life and death brewing at another Buc-ee’s location.

• Concerned citizens near the Buc-ee’s in rural Glynn County say the high-mast road lights used to shepherd travelers to the location off I-95 are dangerous to nesting sea turtles. And, as any coastal Southerner knows, you don’t mess with the sea turtles.
• Earlier this year, Glynn County commissioners were asked to dim the lights during sea turtle nesting season, though others worry it could cause traffic safety issues. Leaders haven’t acted on the request.
• Georgia is rightfully proud of its loggerhead conservation efforts, and environmentalists say bright traffic lights near nesting grounds can cause a turtle-disorienting glow.

NEWS BITES

Scientists find ancient life-size animal rock carvings in the Saudi Arabian desert

Why draw camels ever again after finding this delight? You can’t improve upon perfection.

Delta and Spanx to launch limited-edition collection of travel wear

Researchers turn human skin cells into eggs, but they’re not usable yet

HUMAN eggs. Human eggs.

Fewer than 10% of Americans get enough fiber

There’s a TikTok video of a woman demonstrating “dinosaur time,” where she scarfs a whole handful of raw baby spinach at once to get more greens in. Maybe it’s worth a try.

ON THIS DATE

Oct. 1, 1994

A sweet anecdote about one of Georgia’s giants, on what would have been his 101st birthday. Not that it matters, but Carter would be comforted to know his funeral was also well and graciously attended.

ONE MORE THING