Morning, y’all! Happy Friday, et cetera. A little programming note: A.M. ATL is off next Monday, Jan. 19, and Tuesday, Jan. 20. Have a great weekend and a peacefully introspective MLK Day. I’m reading a fantastic history of the Black church in America, so scroll all the way down for a cool MLK fact. You know I love an info dump.
Let’s get to it.
MIKE COLLINS FEELS THE HEAT OVER TOP AIDE
U.S. Rep. Mike Collins is running for a U.S. Senate seat this year, but a growing controversy could tangle up his campaign.
Collins’ former chief of staff and loyal aide, Brandon Phillips, is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee for allegedly misusing taxpayer funds. The probe has resurfaced a long history of Phillips’ violent behavior and encounters with the law.
The focus of the probe:
- The House Ethics Committee says there’s “substantial reason to believe” Phillips violated House rules and paid his girlfriend thousands for a no-show internship.
- The committee is also looking at his other congressional spending habits, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Other clashes come back:
Witnesses in the probe said they were worried about retaliation because of Phillips’ violent behavior. Some incidents on record:
- Phillips pleaded guilty to criminal trespassing charges in 2015. That revelation forced him out of his position as the 2016 Trump campaign’s Georgia state director.
- He destroyed a laptop and slashed another person’s tires, 2008 court documents show.
- He was once charged with simple assault and battery in an altercation with a neighbor.
- He allegedly kicked a GOP activist’s dog in 2022.
- He allegedly spat in someone’s face during a fight at a Trump campaign event in 2024.
- He was involved in a brawl at a Washington bar in 2025 that was caught on video.
Despite all of this, Collins is standing by Phillips, who helped Collins secure his Trump-backed seat in 2022.
Collins himself isn’t shy about controversy, after all. He’s the one who ran an AI-generated political ad last year featuring a fake Sen. Jon Ossoff.
🔎 READ MORE: Details on Phillips’ political track record, and strong words from Collins’ GOP competitors
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FMR. COLLEGE PARK CHIEF ALLEGES CORRUPTION
College Park’s former police chief says she was pressured to fire members of her staff for political reasons and is asking for an investigation into city corruption.
- Connie Rogers resigned in December. She says she was asked to fire staff “without legitimate cause, documentation or due process” and faced “pressures, unethical directives and politically motivated interference.”
- Rogers wrote a grievance letter to City Council members and other city officials outlining these and other ethical concerns. She said she will seek legal counsel if the issues aren’t investigated.
- She’s not the only College Park official in this boat. Just weeks ago, former City Manager Lindell Miller claimed the City Council ousted her in November because she refused to waive permits for a developer council members favored.
🔎 READ MORE: Mayor promises investigation into ‘serious’ allegations
GA IS CENTER OF NEW STUDENT LOAN SUIT
A record number of student loan borrowers are drowning in unmet payments, and a class action lawsuit in Georgia claims the U.S. Department of Education is to blame.
The lawsuit claims the department’s “willful negligence” could cost borrowers $2 trillion in damages by April.
By the numbers:
- 43 million: how many student loan borrowers struggle to return payment, including 1.7 million in Georgia
- 5 million: how many have defaulted on loans
- 100,000+: how many plaintiffs have joined the lawsuit
The department doesn’t respond promptly to questions from borrowers, reports borrowers to credit companies before contacting them and doesn’t even have proper contact information for most of them, the lawsuit alleges.
🔎 READ MORE: Suit comes as student loan crisis threatens to worsen
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
💰 Gov. Brian Kemp announced plans to rebate $1.2 billion in income taxes later this year during his final State of the State address. His budget plan also includes $2,000 checks for teachers and state employees.
🥤 Coca-Cola is reportedly halting the sale of its British brand Costa Coffee.
🍺 The University of Georgia made more than $3 million from alcohol sales during the 2024-25 sports season. That’s a lot of vodka seltzers (the top-selling beverage). Also of note: The top game for alcohol sales was against Tennessee. No surprise there.
My response is clear and unequivocal: ‘No.' And if I'm speaking in my contractor voice, ‘Hell no.'
✍🏻 Raffensperger wrote a fiery op-ed for the AJC about a push from state senators to fulfill the U.S. Department of Justice’s request for the Social Security numbers, dates of birth and driver’s license numbers of every registered Georgia voter. Raffensperger says it’s illegal and could put Georgia voters at risk of scams and more.
WEEKEND PLANS
✈️ Soaring with the Tuskegee Airmen: Explore the wonders of flight and history at the Atlanta Children’s Museum, with life-size cockpit flight trainers, a land-the-plane maze and more.
🐅 IllumiNights at the Zoo: It’s the last weekend to catch the festive, beautiful lanterns and see some zoo animals after dark.
🪕 MORE IDEAS: Info about the above, plus a Dolly Parton tribute, a comic book convention and more
Weekend spotlight: Acts of service
MLK Day is a traditional day of service, so why not make a weekend of it? I’ll be out with Trees Atlanta on Saturday, digging holes and such. Maybe now is the time to get started on that New Year’s resolution to do more community service. (No hole digging required.)
NEWS BITES
Elon Musk’s AI assistant Grok is worrying world governments. Here’s what to know
Resist the AI! Carbon-based intelligence forever!
Beware of online ads that have small business ‘sob stories.’ They may be scams
Sadly, there’s no limit to how scammy the scams get.
Beautiful booze-less cocktails to try around the city this month
It’s called Dry January, not Boring January.
The plot description sounds very much like “Barbie takes hallucinogens and saves the world.” In other words, genius.
ON THIS DATE
Jan. 20, 1986
Nation pauses to pay homage to King. It took 16 years of marches, petitions and political maneuvering, but today the nation is pausing for Martin Luther King Jr. For the first time in its history, the United States is honoring a Black man with a federal holiday. And Atlanta, his birthplace, is throwing the biggest party.
Skipping ahead a few days to honor the first MLK Day. Yes, history isn’t that long ago.
ONE MORE THING
Fun fact time! We all know the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. While the poetry and prose were all his, the “I have a dream” motif actually came from Black activist and minister Prathia Hall.
Hall delivered a prayer during a service commemorating the Mount Olive Baptist Church, destroyed by the KKK. She spoke directly to God about justice and equality, saying over and over, “I have a dream.” King, in attendance, didn’t hide his inspiration. He told Hall outright he wanted to iterate on her metaphor.
As Sen. Raphael Warnock says in Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s excellent history, “The Black Church”: “People need to know that before it was Martin’s dream, it was Prathia’s prayer.”
Rather than diminish King’s accomplishment, to me, this underscores how the Civil Rights Movement wasn’t made by giants alone. It was built instead with countless people’s gifts, intelligence, ideas, labor, acts of resistance, works of art, words, deeds, sacrifices and, yes, prayers.
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.
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