Morning, y’all! Do you ever wake up and not recognize your face in the mirror? Overnight, your dashing visage has transformed into something more resembling a yeast roll with eyes. I’m not saying lymphatic drainage will help, but I’m not not saying it. If you’re curious, we’ve demystified the trend.
Let’s get to it.
ATLANTA’S DIVERSION CENTER ISN’T DELIVERING
Atlanta’s Center for Diversion and Services is designed to keep low-level offenders struggling with mental health and substance abuse issues out of the controversial Fulton County Jail, where overpopulation and inhumane conditions have attracted national criticism.
As the AJC’s Riley Bunch notes, everyone agrees the city needs a diversion center. That’s not the issue. It keeps the prison population down and is a healthy alternative to further police involvement.
Unfortunately, it’s not working like leaders intended.
- The center has the capacity to treat about 40 people a day, which could add up to about 14,000 a year.
- Since it opened, it’s only treated about three people a day — about 1,400 in total and 200 this year.
Who’s to blame?
- Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts says the Atlanta Police Department and other local law enforcement should divert more people.
- The APD says the criteria for admitting people to the center are too strict, but police have been working on increasing diversions.
Whatever happens, advocates point out the center will be a necessary part of Atlanta’s human rights efforts around this summer’s World Cup.
🔎 READ MORE: What’s next in this critical conversation
Not signed up yet? What’re you waiting for? Get A.M. ATL in your inbox each weekday morning. And keep scrolling for more news.
ICE AGENTS ARE UNDER SCRUTINY. REMINDER: THEY’RE TRAINED RIGHT HERE IN GA
Conversations about the conduct of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been at a fever pitch for months and won’t subside any time soon.
Since the place that trains them is along our own coast, it’s high time we got acquainted.
- The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, or FLETC, is located near Brunswick. It’s the training hub for 105 federal agencies.
- The FLETC is also the base of the Department of Homeland Security’s Surge Operations Training Center, created last fall to train the surge of newly hired ICE agents amassed by the new Trump administration.
- The government property started as a World War II Navy base and became what the AJC called in 1976 the “West Point of Law Enforcement.”
The Surge Operations Center has significantly cut back the time it takes to train an ICE agent.
- In July 2025, the curriculum took about 72 days.
- Now, it takes about 42 days.
🔎 READ MORE: The history of the FLETC and recent changes
SOUTH GEORGIA TRIES TO STOP JET FUEL SPILL TROUBLE BEFORE IT STARTS
On Jan. 30, shortly after learning of a jet fuel spill at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the City of Griffin shut off its water intake from the Flint River.
The small city, which sits about 30 river miles south of the airport, depends on the Flint for its drinking water.
- When residents began reporting an unusual odor in their water a few hours later, state officials advised the city to issue a proactive “Do Not Consume” advisory.
- Within hours, samples came back negative for toxins, including jet fuel, and the city lifted the advisory.
- According to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 15,000 gallons of jet fuel have been collected during the cleanup at the airport and along the Flint River.
- Roughly 80 cubic yards of contaminated debris have also been recovered, a spokesperson said.
🔎 READ MORE: What new water samples revealed and how Griffin plans to prevent this from happening again
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🏛️ President Donald Trump gave the longest-ever State of the Union address last night. In over an hour and 47 minutes, he explained how the U.S. is “winning so much.”
📜 Today in “Yeah, definitely feels like something that could do with some legislation around it,” Georgia state senators introduced legislation that would make it a crime for clergy members to sexually exploit people under their spiritual authority.
💰 Warner Bros. Discovery’s determined suitor Paramount raised the price of its takeover offer to $31 per share. That’s likely to spur a fresh bidding war with WBD’s intended merger partner, Netflix.
COMING TO YOU LIVE IN BRAVESVISION
The Braves have a new local TV home this season and it’s, er, themselves.
- The Braves will oversee the production, sales, marketing and distribution of this season’s telecasts under a plan called BravesVision.
- Braves president and CEO Derek Schiller said bringing the telecasts under team control will give fans a viewing experience similar to TBS’ bygone Braves coverage.
- This all started because of a multiple-team exodus from media carrier Main Street Sports Group, which failed to make scheduled rights payments.
Major League Baseball will now produce broadcasts for almost half the league. Not the Braves, though. It’s going to be more Braves-y than ever!
⚾ READ MORE: What the team wants to bring fans through the broadcast plan
NEWS BITES
Host a ‘Bridgerton’-themed tea party at home with these 8 recipes
You’ll have to supply your own fan-fluttering gossip.
Pinky Cole, K. Michelle officially join ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’
We called this all the way back in August.
The Falcons will release veteran QB Kirk Cousins
Fly free, Kirko Chainz. We were not meant to be.
Twenty One Pilots, The Strokes to headline Atlanta’s 2026 Shaky Knees Festival
People worried about aging out of popular music: “Whew, I know who those bands are!”
ON THIS DATE
Feb. 26, 1895
Fred Douglass’ remains laid away today. Rochester is in mourning today for Frederick Douglass. The entire city shows in every way the respect in which its former resident is held, and pays tribute to his memory. The train bearing the remains of Douglass reached the city a few minutes late. … Handsome wreaths and other floral tributes sent by sympathetic friends from Washington lay on the coffin. … The procession formed at the city hall at 1:30 o’clock and proceeded to the Central church. … The male quartette sang “Hide Thou Me,” of which Douglass was very fond and which he sang the day before his death.
A lovely write-up. A little strange, though, to think of Frederick Douglass as “Fred.”
ONE MORE THING
“Hide Thou Me” was written by Fanny Crosby, a blind white abolitionist hymn writer so prolific and influential she was posthumously enshrined in the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. The song borrows lines and imagery from “There is a Balm in Gilead,” an iconic African American spiritual (as well as from “Rock of Ages,” by Augustus Toplady — an English animal welfare advocate who’s not even close to cracking the Top 3 Silliest Names in Hymn Writing).
In other words, no surprise Frederick Douglass was fond of it.
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.
