Morning, y’all! Sorry about today’s subject line. You now have “Downtown” by Petula Clark stuck in your head. Just when you think you’ve forgotten, over your lunch or on your afternoon stroll, a little voice in your head will go “Down-towwwn!” and you’ll be irritated all over again.
Let’s get to it.
A BIPARTISAN LAW BRINGS HOPE FOR INCARCERATED ABUSE SURVIVORS
A Cobb County woman is free after serving 23 years of a life sentence for the death of her violent and abusive boyfriend. Advocates hope the new Georgia law that helped free her will catch on across the country.
- The bipartisan Survivor Justice Act was implemented last year. It accounts for direct links between abuse suffered by a defendant and the crime they committed.
- In Nicole Boynton’s case, she suffered numerous documented injuries and threats from her boyfriend, Ronnie Moss II. When she stabbed him during a fight in 1999, she said she was protecting herself and their infant son.
- Five states have similar sentence mitigation laws: New York, Oklahoma, California, Illinois and Georgia. Georgia’s is the most expansive.
Ellie Williams, the head of the Justice for Incarcerated Survivors Program, says it’s an example of how people can work together outside of partisan politics to make the justice system more, well, just.
Justice can and should look collaborative and cooperative for us to really achieve a truly just result, and I think this case is a good example of that. We need some change to make sure that the system can properly handle all of these situations that are too complex for the way it's been structured before.
🔎 READ MORE: How the law works and what leaders say about it
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KEMP UNVEILS SOME OF HIS FINAL PRIORITIES AS GOVERNOR
Gov. Brian Kemp debuted a wide-ranging infrastructure proposal Wednesday, giving us an early glimpse into his goals during the last year of his tenure.
The proposal includes $2 billion in highway expansions and $50 million for homelessness initiatives. More details:
- $1.8 billion would go to ease congestion on I-75 South in Henry County by building dedicated express lanes in both directions.
- $200 million would support more upgrades to Ga. 316, which links metro Atlanta to Athens.
- Hundreds of millions more are dedicated to smaller, local road projects and the fortification of rural bridges.
- $50 million would fund a Homelessness Response Grant and be paired with matching funds from local governments, nonprofit organizations and private partners.
- Kemp has kept his 2026 plans close to the vest so far and has seemed reticent to dip into Georgia’s lavish ~$15 billion surplus.
🔎 READ MORE: More infrastructure project details, and a rough timeline
We’ll learn more about Kemp’s vision for 2026 during his last State of the State address this Thursday, Jan. 15.
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🗳️ No less than 22 people qualified for the special election to fill Marjorie Taylor Greene’s House seat for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District. We told you, it’s going to be a long and complex race. AJC Politics has the “who’s who.”
⚖️ The new state law President Donald Trump and his allies are using to seek millions in costs from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office is likely unconstitutional, says the head of a nonpartisan Georgia legal group.
🥤 Coca-Cola will welcome new CEO Henrique Braun at the end of March. In the meantime, the company’s shuffling other leadership roles to “bring the business closer to consumers and enable faster technology adoption.”
WILL CENTENNIAL YARDS BE THE REVIVAL DOWNTOWN ATL NEEDS?
It’s happening: The $5 billion development megaproject in downtown Atlanta is starting to bear fruit. The question is, will it be fruitful enough to revive possibly the most iconic and valuable slice of Atlanta’s downtown area?
- The Hotel Phoenix and a neighboring apartment tower called the Mitchell are the first signs of downtown’s potential future.
- They and other projects are rising up from the Gulch, a 50-acre expanse of parking lot and gravel nothing around Mercedes-Benz Stadium, State Farm Arena and the former CNN Center. (Gulch Gang, rise up. I parked in the so-called Pigeon Pit every day for many years.)
The key to its success
- Developers and investors say Centennial Yards could reshape Atlanta’s future — but only if people live there as well as visit.
- The Centennial Yards development team expects to build thousands of apartments over the next five to seven years, along with other residential plans from South Downtown and Underground Atlanta developers.
🔎 READ MORE: The AJC got a tour of the Centennial Yards ‘minicity’ in the works
NEWS BITES
President Trump talked about Iran, Venezuela at event intended to celebrate milk
As a milk hater, I, too, would do anything to avoid talking about it.
Music streams hit 5 trillion in 2025. Here are the genres that grew the most
“Oh yeah, you like ‘Calm Rain Sounds For Meditation and Stress Management’? Name five of their biggest hits.”
Fun arts events coming up, including the ASO performing an all-Schubert concert
Or, as I like to call it, “Oops! All Schuberts.”
Even with no teams in CFP title game, SEC playoff earnings near $40 million
The SEC: It just pays more.
ON THIS DATE
Jan. 15, 1885
Female loveliness: How much it is enhanced by stylish, becoming wearing apparel. It was the pleasure of the Journal man yesterday to enjoy a visit to one of the prettiest palaces of female wearing apparel in the city. For several weeks, we had heard expressions of delight from the ladies who had visited the emporium, and very naturally we were anxious to see the place about which all spoke so well. ... Along the sides of the commodious store were ranged high glass front cases, in which were displayed the trimmed hats, plumes, gloves and other goods. … Upon other counters and cases were various fancy goods, but prominent among them we would mention lace flouncing. … We might go on indefinitely to speak of the bewitchingly pretty things in this palace of trade, but must desist.
Please, no, continue! I could read a whole book of this gentleman’s thoughts on, uh, “female wearing apparel.” Producer Nicole and I had a good laugh over this one.
ONE MORE THING
Ladies, if you have a laundry-able man in the house and you both want a chuckle, ask him to sort some of your “female wearing apparel.” You’ll discover subcategories of clothing you could never dream of.
(Down-towwwn!)
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.
