Morning, y’all! It’s high time for a long weekend. A.M. ATL will be off Monday, which is for the best since we’ll probably still be stuck in traffic.
Let’s get to it.
A CRITICAL WORLD CUP MESSAGE
Atlanta is joining an international effort to raise awareness around human trafficking during the World Cup.
- The global “It’s a Penalty” campaign partners with the city, airport and law enforcement agencies to educate people about the warning signs of human trafficking.
- This info is shared with fans and front-line workers like airport employees, hotel staff, ride-hail drivers and people in the hospitality industry so everyone can have one eye open during the festivities.
- “Trafficking counts on silence and people looking the other way,” said Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens. “We are asking people to say something if they see something.”
🔎 READ MORE: Why education is so important around events like the World Cup
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WHAT IS A BITCOIN ATM?
Bitcoin Depot, a Georgia-based cryptocurrency ATM company, is shutting down after multiple legal controversies. That raises a lot of questions, like “What’s a Bitcoin ATM?” and “Why do people use such a thing?”
A basic explanation
- Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency, and cryptocurrency is a form of payment that most enthusiasts will insist you simply don’t understand. It’s decentralized, non-fiat currency that exists in a digital space. Don’t worry about the particulars, it will make you feel insane.
- So at a Bitcoin ATM, or BTM, you don’t take money out, you put money in! That real paper money from your actual wallet becomes semi-imaginary money in a digital wallet. Some, but not all, also allow you to convert crypto back to cash.
Surely, nothing could go wrong
- Cryptocurrency machines like this are often used in scams. Multiple states have sued the Sandy Springs company for allegedly facilitating such fraud, often against retirees, to the tune of millions of dollars.
- Georgia’s already on top of the danger: Lawmakers passed a bill with bipartisan support instituting limits and stronger consumer protections for the tech.
- Scams like this can ruin lives. They usually involve someone calling a victim pretending to be a relative or an authority figure. They make up a crisis to get the victim to deposit money into crypto ATMs.
Pro tip: Agree on a verbal “password” for your family to use as verification in emergencies.
🔎 READ MORE: Details about the Georgia company behind the machines
WHEN WAYMOS BECOME STAY-MOS
Props to AJC videographer Rachael Knudsen, who got stuck in a Waymo and decided to do some journalism about it.
- A normally 20-minute trip turned into a two-and-a-half-hour ordeal when her robotaxi got stuck in some flash flooding in southwest Atlanta.
- Knudsen’s wasn’t the only one. Waymo temporarily paused service throughout the city because so many of its self-driving cars got stranded in flooded roadways.
- Autonomous vehicles have an uneasy understanding of water. In fact, Waymo just recalled thousands of its vehicles for an issue with flood navigation.
🔎 READ MORE: Video of the weird, wet Waymo experience
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🐘 Lt. Gov. Burt Jones sat down with the AJC’s Politically Georgia team for his first interview since being the top vote-getter in the Republican primary for governor. He’ll still have to face Rick Jackson in an ugly runoff, and says he’s prepared to use Jackson’s deep coffers against him.
🫏 U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock also spoke with Politically Georgia, and got candid talking about the Supreme Court’s recent Voting Rights Act decision and the Georgia Republicans who are rushing to redraw congressional maps in the aftermath.
It is a betrayal of the highest in the American ideals. And the same politicians who will be lining up, some of them wanting to come to my church in January and sing praises to Martin Luther King Jr. and remember him, are dismembering his legacy in real time.
🚧 A skeletal, half-built office tower in Midtown has been deemed “unsafe” by city officials. The Atlanta Department of Planning and Community Development says it needs more secure barriers around the site. The building’s been in various states of dishabille since 2010. Good thing it’s not directly in the middle of a busy part of the city!
WEEKEND SPOTLIGHT: ATLANTA JAZZ FESTIVAL
Memorial Day weekend is here, and for the 49th year, music fans can catch free jazz at the Atlanta Jazz Festival.
Held Saturday through Monday in Piedmont Park in Midtown, the festival will feature performances from more than a dozen acts on the main stage, along with workshops, a kids zone and vendors.
- On Saturday, Buddy Red will begin his set at 1 p.m., followed by Aja Monet, Nate Smith and Christian McBride (playing with his band Ursa Major). Fun fact: Red is the eldest son of Atlanta rap pioneer T.I. and one of six siblings in the city’s most popular musical dynasty. Headliner Kamasi Washington will take the stage at 9 p.m.
- On Sunday, Cleveland P. Jones will perform at 1 p.m., followed by the Myron McKinley Trio, Donnie and Esperanza Spalding. Headliners The Roots will perform at 9 p.m.
- Finally, on Monday, Cody Matlock will perform at 1 p.m., followed by Nicole Zuraitis, Destin Conrad and Butcher Brown. PJ Morton will end the night with a performance at 9 p.m.
Read more about the headliners and the lineup’s Grammy ties here.
Kids are welcome, and the Publix Kid Zone will be open from noon-6 p.m. daily with activities, reading sessions and special music.
🎷 READ MORE: How to get there, plus details on the Jazz 101 workshops
NEWS BITES
So far, we don’t know a lot of details. As one fellow racer said, “Absolute shock.”
Why the Braves keep winning despite injuries
Umm, because they’re awesome?
Parents are re-creating ’90s summers’ for their kids
Ah, it was a simpler time, albeit with a much different flavor of bullying.
What to know about the Japanese-style scalp massages catching on in the US
You should absolutely take your man to one of these. Men love head scritches.
ON THIS DATE
May 22, 1983
In search of surf and seafood. As days become warmer, Georgia’s Golden Isles pull like a magnet. Visitors to St. Simons, Jekyll and Sea Island can find sun, surf and an abundance of seafood as well as numerous activities for diversion, from cycling and fishing to beach walking, treasure hunting and camping.
Still 100% true today.
ONE MORE THING
Do you ever repeatedly ponder a question but keep forgetting to look it up? Every once in a while I’ll forget what deciduous forests are (made up of trees that lose their leaves seasonally) and what “entonces” means in Spanish (“then,” in an “if; then” situation), and it irritates me for days before I hold the thought long enough to Google it.
Anyway, I write the AJC’s World Cup newsletter, “Kick It,” and I finally looked up why Americans call it soccer. Now I wish I didn’t know.
From the latest edition of “Kick It”:
In the U.K. in the 1800s, football actually meant two things: There was rugby football, what we know as rugby; and association football, which we know as European/everywhere-but-America football.
To differentiate the sports, some people called rugby “ruggers” and association football …
assoccer.
(Like as in association? Assoc … you get it.) Mercifully, it was shortened further to just “soccer.”
Meanwhile, in the U.S., a third type of football was taking off: gridiron football. Because we don’t possess the whimsical wordsmithery of our trans-Atlantic cousins, we didn’t call it “gridders” or “griddly-doo” or whatever. We were sensible and called it, simply, football. The existing “soccer” term was a fine second choice for the other sport.
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That makes me so mad.
If you like reading weird facts about soccer, sign up. You’ll have … a ball!
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.
