Morning, y’all! I wouldn’t call myself a crier, but I had to clench my heart when I watched Beltline Kevin read about his surprise $1,000 $100,000 contract with Rreal Tacos. The AJC video team recently caught up with the city’s most famous singing rollerblader, in case you’re interested in a few earworms (“Don’t you wish your tacos were hot like me?”) in your brain today.
He’s not Atlanta’s only music man pushing good vibes.
DUNWOODY’S IDOL
OK, OK. Calling Ryan Seacrest a “music man” maybe doesn’t do him justice. His days as the face of “American Idol” only paint a piece of his picture.
He also hosts “Wheel of Fortune,” ABC’s annual New Year’s Eve special and a syndicated radio show heard locally on Power 105.3.
Lesser known: His football career at Dunwoody High. Yes, football.
And that piece of trivia is now getting the star treatment — since Dunwoody High School football stadium will be renamed Seacrest Stadium in his honor.
What you need to know:
- Seacrest made a major, unspecified donation to add seating and renovate the stadium, which isn’t currently big enough for the Dunwoody Wildcats to host games.
- If the school’s overall fundraising campaign meets its goal, the Wildcats would be the first DeKalb County high school to have its own on-campus home field.
- No taxpayer dollars are involved in the fundraising.
- Seacrest previously said he played offensive line and linebacker, but moved to safety after he lost weight. His team won a regional championship.
- Seacrest’s name is on far more important places. He funded studios at more than a dozen children’s hospitals in several cities nationwide. (He opened one in Miami this week.) The studios provide entertainment for sick children.
🔍 Read more: ‘Dunwoody continues to be home’
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PREPPING FOR FUN
🎵 The Allman Betts Family Revival, which features Gregg Allman’s son Devon and Dickey Betts’ son Duane, plays tribute to the Allman Brothers tomorrow at Atlanta Symphony Hall. Meanwhile, Athens punk band Five Eight will perform at Smith’s Olde Bar.
🕎 The first night of Hanukkah starts Sunday evening. Plenty of local options to celebrate as a community: from dinners and concerts to menorah lightings — even a giant one made of Legos.
🌟 Drive-through light shows. Seven opportunities to watch your kids’ minds explode.
WE HAVE THE POWER
Data centers are the digital backbone that touch most everything we do. From supporting email and cloud storage to processing your Amazon purchase and, well, the AI revolution. Powering all that ain’t easy.
A deal unveiled Wednesday by Georgia Power and the Public Service Commission would add almost 10,000 megawatts of power supplies in just five years. It’s an unprecedented expansion that’s mostly to serve data centers. It also comes with a heavy cost.
The overall expansion: Is more than double the combined generating capacity of the four nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta.
Environmental impact: Much of this would rely on burning gas, which produces potent greenhouse gases that are warming the planet. The rest would come from battery storage systems and some solar.
Potential cost: $16 billion. But likely higher, since that doesn’t include power the company would purchase from third parties or other related costs.
Cost for customers: Monthly bills up $20 or more. Under the stipulated agreement, Georgia Power pledges to use extra revenue from data centers to keep other customers’ rates in check.
🔍 Want to be better informed about data centers? Read the AJC’s 6-part series
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🚆 MARTA’s new train cars passed a critical round of testing this week, hitting top speeds while operating on their own power and bringing the agency ever closer to putting the long-awaited cars into revenue service. The new trains deliver a smoother ride than railcars in operation today, interim General Manager and CEO Jonathan Hunt told the AJC.
🗳️ The State Election Board on Wednesday voted down a proposal to eliminate Georgia’s touchscreen voting system and switch to hand-marked paper ballots ahead of the 2026 midterms.
⚖️ A former Truett McConnell University vice president, who quietly resigned in 2024, has been indicted on three felony counts of making false statements to law enforcement.
💰 The Federal Reserve reduced its key interest rate by a quarter-point for the third time in a row Wednesday but signaled that it may leave rates unchanged in the coming months, a move that could attract ire from President Donald Trump.
PEEING IN THE WATER
I’ve had editors who were too tough. Others who were too kind. And if you notice my title now, I’ve moved to the dark side. But you’re also probably (hopefully) a habitual reader of A.M. ATL’s usual scribe, AJ Willingham. So you know I’m a fairly lousy editor by the old-school standards — she publishes just about whatever she wants.
Thankfully we’ve got Bill Torpy who explored the essential, yet sometimes uneasy, relationship between editors and reporters as part of the AJC’s countdown to the end of print on Dec. 31.
A few highlights from Torpy’s latest column:
“Admittedly, I do complain, cajole, grumble, yell, wheedle and even mutter. But whine? That's a toddler. I operate on at least a high school sophomore kvetching level. The editor and I parted ways and I became known in-house as a pain in the rear."
Then there’s the fable he likes to tell of an editor and reporter who got lost in the desert and grew hot and thirsty.
They saw an oasis across the sands and ran there, the editor arriving first. When the reporter got over the last sand dune, he saw the editor standing knee deep in the water, peeing.
“What are you doing?!?” the bewildered reporter demanded.
“Making it better,” the editor said.
🔍 Read more: A nod to editors, who catch reporters’ srcewups … and ire
NEWS BITES
Newton man’s pacemaker helped solve his murder. Killer learns her fate.
Wild story. Also makes you question ever hiring anyone from a Craigslist ad.
Christmas dessert recipes to connect Atlanta homes to homelands
Sign me up for a tasting of those rabanadas.
Study finds humans were making fire 400,000 years ago, far earlier than once thought
And yet I still struggle to light my grill. Darwin obviously missed me.
How to watch one of the year’s best meteor showers, the Geminids
Might actually be warm enough for a sleeping bag this weekend.
ON THIS DATE
Dec. 11, 1956
The Atlanta Journal — Toccoa strong man in from Olympics. Paul Anderson, the Toccoa strong man, came back to his native Georgia Tuesday with the plaudits of the world still ringing in his ears. … Back from his triumphant Olympic feats in far Melbourne, Australia, the giant from the north Georgia hills found 100 close friends from Toccoa, and the young woman he will marry next June waiting (for) him. In the recent Olympics, Anderson walked away with the heavyweight lifting championship with a new Olympic record of 1,102 pounds in three lifts.
Good time to link back to Fletcher Page‘s recent story on Anderson, whose life-sized statue still holds a barbell aloft in his hometown. Anderson broke records in the 1950s that seemed untouchable, toured the world and appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The Russians called him chudo prirody, “a wonder of nature.”
ONE MORE THING
OK, so if you really want to cry, read this story about Kevin Dunn, who has volunteered to sing at a hospice center most every week for the past 23 years. The man is a saint for all that he’s touched with his voice. And when his own wife found herself in hospice ... and he sings her favorite, “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” ... Ooof. Give someone you care about a hug today, and don’t hold back any tears. It’s OK to feel.
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
Eric Mandel is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native and University of Iowa alumnus. The award-winning journalist moved from Seattle in 2017 to Atlanta, working as a writer and editor for American City Business Journals. He joined the AJC in June 2024.
