Morning, y’all! Happy early Mother’s Day to all the moms, mommies, mom figures, matriarchs, mom-moms, nanas, abuelas, bubbes, nonnas and gam-gams. I hope the Mother’s Day fairy brings you exactly what you want (a nap).
Let’s get to it.
MOREHOUSE MED STUDENTS PUSH BACK
Students graduating from Morehouse School of Medicine have taken issue with their commencement speaker, U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick.
- About three dozen students held a protest this week, rallying with chants like “change the speaker” and “DEI saves patient lives.”
- McCormick, a white Republican from Suwanee, earned his medical degree at the historically Black college in Atlanta.
- Students say his views don’t align with best medical practices.
- The Trump-endorsed congressman has supported legislation against gender-affirming care and capping loans that many low-income students rely on to afford medical school.
- Protests are rare on Morehouse’s campus. Despite the backlash, McCormick says he’ll still attend and his “character and contributions should be judged on merit, not politics or appearance.”
🔎 READ MORE: What students say about his policies
P.S.: To answer a delicate question you probably have, Morehouse School of Medicine enrolled 967 students in fall of 2024. About 4% were white.
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.
AI MISADVENTURES, PART 938
You know what’s more concerning than AI? Racist AI.
State Sen. Greg Dolezal is running for Georgia’s lieutenant governor, and last month he released an anti-Muslim ad that uses AI to imagine … the Georgia suburbs under Sharia law?
- Sharia law is a loose set of laws and codes in the Islamic faith. It’s been a favorite scare tactic of politicians for decades. In Dolezal’s ad, Claire Danes’ character from the TV show “Homeland” is stopped from driving by a scary-looking man. In another scene, a Muslim figure breaks into a man’s kitchen and attacks a “Happy Easter” cake with a sword. The ad ends with “Keep Georgia Sharia Free.”
- This isn’t the first AI slop Georgia candidates have tossed out on the campaign trail. Last fall, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins released an AI deepfake ad of Sen. Jon Ossoff saying things Ossoff has never said.
- Rick Jackson has released lots of AI-created content, too, including an ad depicting Lt. Gov. Burt Jones as Johnny Cash.
The trend makes an interesting intersection with the Georgia public’s view on AI.
- According to an AJC poll, two-thirds of Georgia Republicans and nearly 4 in 5 Democrats say the government should do more to regulate AI.
- That bipartisan sentiment is echoed by state legislators on both sides of the aisle.
- Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed several AI-related bills into law, including a chatbot disclosure, a child safety measure and a ban on unilateral AI coverage decisions from health insurance companies. Still, legislators agree the technology is growing faster than jurisdictions can regulate it.
🔎 READ MORE: How AI has affected Georgia’s top political campaigns
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
💬 Burt Jones is Trump’s guy for Georgia governor. The President reinforced his endorsement of Lt. Gov Jones Wednesday night at a telephone town hall. Tough news for rival Rick Jackson, who has vowed to be “Trump’s favorite governor.” Jackson’s camp is still calling it a win.
🗳️ Is that another bipartisan accord? Kinda. An overwhelming number of GA Democrats (98%) oppose a federal election takeover, according to an AJC poll. About 48% of Republicans do too, which isn’t nearly as big a divide as other issues cause.
NATIONAL SOCCER HUB OPENS NEAR ATL
U.S. Soccer officials opened their $200 million National Training Center and headquarters Thursday, roughly 22 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta, calling it “the home for soccer in America.”
The new 200-acre Fayetteville facility is a fútbol showcase, entrenching Georgia as the center of the sport’s growth in the U.S. and bolstering claims that Atlanta is now the nation’s soccer capital, especially as the 2026 World Cup approaches.
“There is something incredibly powerful about having a place to call your home,” Oguchi Onyewu, former U.S. national team player and U.S. Soccer Federation executive, said. “Today, that’s exactly what this is — our home, and the home for the entire soccer community in this country.”
Onyewu was joined by Georgia dignitaries, business leaders and sports stars, who gathered to christen the Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center. The facility includes the federation’s headquarters, nearly 20 soccer fields and virtually every sports-related amenity imaginable for athletes ranging from youth players to worldwide stars:
- Indoor courts and fields
- An opulent gym featuring Nike-branded weights and lifting equipment boasting screens and pressure pads
- A hydrotherapy wing with sleeping pods, hot tubs, cooling baths and a menagerie of massage beds
- Eight locker rooms that run the gamut from youth lockers to spaces that rival those in professional stadiums
⚽ Read more: How the facility aims to mirror iconic sports venues like Augusta National and Wimbledon
NEWS BITES
March Madness tournaments will expand to 76 teams each starting next season
Those brackets are going to look a mess.
Scientists don’t want you to forget about all the plants that are dying due to climate change
Well, now we won’t!
FIFA triples price to $32,970 for its best available tickets to the World Cup final
Mid-sized sedan or one soccer game in New Jersey? Choose wisely.
Older couples are rethinking marriage and getting more ‘gray divorces’
Life is too short to spend with someone you don’t like anymore.
ON THIS DATE
May 8, 1915
The first news of the torpedoing and sinking of the Cunard liner Lusitania came shortly after 1 p.m. today through an announcement from the New York offices of the Cunard liner that an unconfirmed rumor to that effect had been received from abroad. Less than an hour later, the company made public additional messages confirming the report, which in the meantime had been verified by dispatchers from London. Conflicting reports came during the afternoon to the lien and to news agencies in regard to the safety of the passengers, but up to the early hours of the evening no definite information as to their fate had been received here.
You may think this an odd thing to pull from a front page covered with information about the German torpedoing of the Lusitania, but it demonstrates a journalistic best practice as important today as it was then: In times of crisis and confusion, be transparent with what you know, what you don’t know and how you’re getting information.
ONE MORE THING
I’ll be 100% with you, before now I did not know Lt. Gov. Burt Jones played football for UGA. You learn something new every day.
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.
