Morning, y’all! Say it aloud: “I am going to have a good day.” Might as well begin as you mean to go on, right?
Let’s get to it.
IS THERE OIL IN GEORGIA?
To date, Georgia has no record of oil or gas extraction from under its thick, red clay. Pilot Exploration, a Texas-based firm, wants to do exploratory drilling anyway in the hopes time has missed some pockets of “black gold.”
- Pilot wants to drill two exploratory wells in rural southwest Georgia, among some of the least populated areas in the state.
- The wells would go down about a mile and a half.
- There’s real risk in the plan: the drilling will pass through freshwater aquifers that provide water for many rural Georgia communities. That could lead to contamination or aquifer damage.
- The Georgia Environmental Protection Division says it has a plan in place to prevent the worst of the risk.
If the EPD accepts Pilot’s request, the exploratory oil and gas wells will be the first permitted in the state since 2014. That’s the whole reason the company wants to try again. They say previous assessments and the technology used to conduct them are out-of-date.
🔎 READ MORE: What previous assessments have found
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WATCH OUT PEACHES, THE BLUEBERRIES ARE COMING
Blueberries are an increasingly important ingredient in the bountiful fruit salad that is Georgia’s agricultural industry. In fact, they’ve come to rival our beloved peach in production and revenue.
- Blueberries contributed $382.7 million to the state’s economy in 2025.
- In that year, we produced 116.7 million pounds of blueberries, making Georgia the third-most prolific blueberry-growing state.
The future is in blueberry breeding
- Blueberry breeding programs in Georgia are finding new ways to make sure berry crops stay profitable, affordable, safe and delicious.
- Rather than awkward courtship rituals, blueberry breeders cross-pollinate different strains and test the results for desirable traits.
🫐 Did you know? The domestic blueberry is one of the most recently-cultivated crops in the U.S. The fruit was first domesticated in New Jersey in the early 1900s.
🔎 READ MORE: What a blueberry breeder does
GA KEEPS AN EYE ON HANTAVIRUS
By now, you’ve probably heard about the cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean where three people have died and several others have been sickened by hantavirus, a rare and serious rodent-borne illness.
- Luckily, Georgia health officials say the risk to the general public is still very low.
- Fewer than 1,000 people in the U.S. have been infected by the virus in nearly 30 years.
- Two Georgia residents were on board the ship and are back home. The Georgia Department of Public Health says both are “in good health and show no signs of infection.”
🔎 READ MORE: How hantavirus spreads and what it does
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
⚖️ The Department of Homeland Security can’t deny bond hearings to people in immigration detention, a federal appeals court ruled. That should make it easier for people to wait at home while their case passes through the immigration court system.
🏗️ The Forge Atlanta project, a planned mixed-use development downtown, is running into some issues. The company behind the project defaulted on its $33.7 million mortgage deadline, and residents say the company isn’t communicating any updates or information.
REMEMBERING BOBBY COX
Wrap your favorite Atlanta icons in bubble wrap or start a wellness check phone line or something. Braves legend Bobby Cox passed away this weekend, just days after CNN mogul Ted Turner.
- Cox, who died at 84, was arguably (or perhaps inarguably) the best Braves manager in franchise history.
- He won more than 2,500 games during his long career.
- During his nearly 30 years with the Braves, he led the team to a 1995 World Series championship and a blistering run of 14 consecutive division titles.
- He also very famously holds the records for most ejections in Major League Baseball, at 162. A very poetic baseball number.
- Cox was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.
⚾ More on Bobby Cox:
- A lovely collection of remembrances from around the baseball world
- Ken Sugiura: We’ll never have a team like Turner and Cox again
- An ode to the ‘greatest manager there ever was’
NEWS BITES
Georgia baseball wins first SEC title since 2008
And Bobby Cox smiled.
Wait until these people find out about “boarding school,” “summer camp” and “tight-knit family support structures.”
Kristen Stewart to play Sally Ride in Amazon’s ‘The Challenger’ in Atlanta
Never forget male NASA staff, unused to female astronauts, packed about a hundred tampons in the first iteration of Ride’s personal kit for the six-day Challenger mission. She was able to kindly correct them before launch. Bless their hearts.
ON THIS DATE
May 11, 1950
State honors Mrs. Russell, 82, Georgia Mother of the Year. Winder wore a red rose Thursday, in a figurative manner of speaking, to honor the Georgia Mother of the Year. It was Mother Russell Day, and the object of Winder’s — and Georgia’s — affections was Mrs. Richard B. Russell Sr., extraordinary 82-year-old mother of 13 extraordinary children.
Thirteen children — the “Mother of the Year” honor feels a little understated. (We hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day 💐)
ONE MORE THING
This is trivia rather than disclosure, but if you’re wondering, the name is a pure coincidence: Bobby Cox is not related to the Cox family of Cox Enterprises, the parent company of the AJC. It’s just an auspicious surname, I suppose.
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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