A.M. ATL: Canceled reservations

Morning, y’all! Thursday, April 2 marks the end of the annual Georgia Legislative session, a day also known as Sine Die. We’ll be pretty bill-heavy for a few days as legislators vie to get their priorities over the finish line and engage in, as the AJC Politics team puts it, “end-of-session political blood sport.” Yeesh.

Let’s get to it.

A WORLD CUP HOTEL SHUFFLE

Atlanta's hospitality industry has for years awaited the World Cup, the biggest sporting event in the city since the 1996 Olympic Games, estimated to bring hundreds of thousands of visitors. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Some recent moves by FIFA have raised public concerns about their outlook for this summer’s World Cup games in Atlanta, but the situation is more nuanced than meets the eye.

• As part of standard practice, FIFA prebooked tens of thousands of Atlanta hotel rooms for World Cup events. Hoteliers say, in some cases, the association has since given them back.
• At the Marriott Marquis, Atlanta’s largest hotel, FIFA blocked in advance about 400 to 500 rooms but released them all this month.
• Hospitality experts say event organizers adjusting mass prebookings before an event isn’t uncommon. Atlanta hotel leaders say they’re confident bookings will go up in the next few months.
• Still, it’s not a positive sign. Neither is the fact FIFA reportedly cut its World Cup 2026 operating budget by more than $100 million.

How many hotel rooms are we talking?

• About 163,000 hotel rooms are now booked during the approximately 30 days that Atlanta hosts World Cup games, the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau says.
• About 55% of those are rooms “FIFA accounted for with the teams, the staff, corporate sponsors.” ACVB’s CEO says.

🔎 READ MORE: Atlanta’s not the only city that saw FIFA booking returns

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.

STATE GOP WANTS MORE NONPARTISAN ELECTIONS. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

Democrats cast the change as a GOP bid to regain influence in deep-blue areas and blunt the rise of high-profile Democratic prosecutors, including Fulton County DA Fani Willis. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

The Republican-led Georgia House just passed a bill that would make some metro Atlanta elections nonpartisan. A lot to unpack here.

What is a nonpartisan election?

That simply means candidates don’t run under a specific political party and are not listed as Republicans, Democrats, etc. on the ballot. Elections for many municipal offices are nonpartisan.

Why do state Republicans want this?

• Now it gets more complicated. Their official line is that it would depoliticize important public positions and promote public safety.
• However, the scope of the bill suggests something else.
• The law would apply to district attorneys, lower-level county prosecutors called solicitors general, county commissioners, court clerks and tax commissioners in the following counties: Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett.
• Those counties represent the Democratic strongholds of metro Atlanta. They also include both the county and position of Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis, who is still being cast as a political boogeywoman by the GOP.
• Critics say it’s clear the bill is designed to chip away at Democratic power and specifically power held by Black female Democrats.

How would nonpartisan elections achieve this?

• I asked the AJC’s senior political reporter Greg Bluestein exactly how such a measure would benefit GOP aims.
• “A Democrat running in a deep-blue area has an instant advantage,” he said. “If you suddenly took away party affiliation from a random Dem, voters who aren’t informed — and that’s most voters in local offices — are far more likely to go with the name they know the most or the name they like the most.”
• “Of course the GOP candidates won’t be running as Rs,” he continued, “But Republicans will still rally behind certain candidates and make them de facto GOP nominees.”

🔎 READ MORE: Why some call the measure ‘unconstitutional’

GA LAWMAKERS TAKE ON AI

Georgia’s Republican lawmakers are also backing a pair of bills that would regulate how artificial intelligence affects consumers.

• One would ensure humans, not AI, decide whether a patient’s medical procedure is covered by insurance.
• The other would require AI companion chatbots to periodically remind people that they are speaking with a robot, not a person.
• President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold billions in federal broadband funds from states that adopt AI restrictions. The Republican sponsor of the insurance bill said she checked with the White House to make sure they approved of it.

🔎 READ MORE: What moved lawmakers to act on AI

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

✈️ Atlanta TSA agents have begun receiving back pay. Their future pay is still uncertain, since Congress still hasn’t found a way to end the partial shutdown.

🏛️ Two House Republicans backing billionaire Rick Jackson accused Lt. Gov. Burt Jones of bottling up their bills in retaliation for endorsing his GOP rival in the race for governor. Jones noted some bills sponsored by the accusers continue to move through the Legislature.

🕵️ In other governor’s race news, the State Ethics Commission determined the group behind the multimillion-dollar ad campaign against Jones violated Georgia lobbying and campaign finance laws. Georgians for Integrity has spent at least $19 million on the ads. Oh, and we still don’t know exactly who’s behind the group.

Trivia time! How do you pronounce “Sine Die?” Is it:

a. see-nay dee-ay

b. sigh-nuh dee

c. sigh-knee dye

d. seen dee-ay

I’ll put the answer at the bottom.

NEWS BITES

NASA begins the countdown for humanity’s first launch to the moon in 53 years

Imagine winning every “Where’s the coolest place you’ve ever been?” conversation for the rest of your life.

Hawks are 10 games over .500 for the first time in five years

We love the auspicious playoff vibes.

A list of Atlanta-area Easter egg hunts

Man, children can be ruthless at those things.

ON THIS DATE

March 31, 1981

Reagan ‘extremely well,’ resumes duties. President Reagan, in “exceptionally good condition” and “excellent spirits,” resumed the duties of the presidency today from a hospital bed after an assailant’s bullet was removed from his chest. Less than 24 hours after he was shot outside of a Washington hotel, the 70-year-old president signed a bill to stop a scheduled increase in dairy price supports after joking with nurses at George Washington University Hospital and impressing his doctors with his physical stamina.

Reagan returned to the White House on April 11, twelve days after the March 30 assassination attempt.

ONE MORE THING

“Sine Die” is pronounced “sigh-knee dye.” Or, loosely in the International Phonetic Alphabet (shoutout to any fellow singers out there), /ˈsaɪ ni daɪ/.