A.M. ATL: Screening for screens

Morning, y’all! Welcome to July. Can you believe the year is half over? Pretty soon, we’ll experience that vertiginous feeling of walking into a store stocked with fall merchandise while it’s still 90 degrees outside. Decorative pumpkins cause real emotional damage if spotted before the Fourth of July.

Let’s get to it.

A SUMMIT ON SCREEN TIME

During the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts rushed to provide laptops and tablets so students could complete assignments and attend virtual classes. (Natrice Miller/AJC)

Atlanta Public Schools held a town hall last night to discuss limiting how much time students spend on screens in classrooms.

Here’s the interesting part: The conversation isn’t about personal cellphones or tablets. It’s focused on screens provided by the school or district.

• After the pandemic brought a flood of new tech to classrooms, parents and teachers are now concerned students are over-relying on screens to deliver information.
• A growing body of evidence suggests people learn differently when they consume information from a screen.
• The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest in the U.S., recently passed a resolution placing limits on classroom screen time.
• The APS proposal for the 2026-27 school year limits screen time to an hour or two hours for younger students, and no more than half of classroom instruction time for grades six through 12.

🔎 READ MORE: Why one parent and board member is concerned for kids’ minds

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RUSH DELIVERY, ON ANOTHER LEVEL

Atlanta is the busiest location for DASH and Delta Cargo. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Do you know what’s in the cargo hold of your Delta flight? Sometimes, ignorance is bliss. After all, it could be live organ donations. (Or, if you were on a specific Delta flight in late November of 2020, my recently deceased grandmother, headed to her burial. I trust she didn’t cause any problems.)

More likely, it’s something less biological but similarly urgent: a lost passport or a critical part for another airplane.

• Such items are the bread and butter of Delta DASH, Delta Cargo’s domestic small-package express service that helps people ship things lightning-quick on departing flights.
• The service enables anyone to show up at a DASH office with a package less than 16 ounces and get it on the next flight out. (As long as it adheres to TSA rules, of course.) TSA “known shippers” can send larger items. All for a fee, of course.
• Delta was the first airline to launch the service back in 1970 in Atlanta, based on the acronym “Delta Airlines Special Handling.”

🔎 READ MORE: How Delta DASH is still unique among airlines

NEW STATE LAWS BEGIN TODAY

More than 350 bills passed into law during this year’s Georgia legislative session. Many of them go into effect today. Here are some of the biggest changes:

• The Georgia Early Literacy Act, which focuses on ensuring students can read proficiently by the third grade. The initiative provides training and support for educators, requires screening for dyslexia and other learning disabilities and mandates kindergarten attendance.
• A bell-to-bell restriction on cellphones, smartwatches and other devices for Georgia public school students in kindergarten through eighth grade.
• Several relaxed restrictions for medical cannabis use, including vape allowances and higher approved concentrations of THC.
• Three more weeks of paid maternity leave for state employees, including public pre-K-12 educators. That’s on top of the previous six weeks of offered leave.
• A new law that allows retailers to round prices to the nearest nickel when making change and calculating sales taxes on cash sales. RIP to the humble penny.

🔎 READ MORE: Budget lines, service dogs and religious ceremonies are at the center of other new laws

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

⚖️ The Supreme Court upheld the tenet of birthright citizenship, rejecting the Trump administration’s attempt to end the constitutionally protected right. Georgia politicians and newsmakers sound off on the decision.

An interesting rhetorical detail: The above article features several characterizations of birthright citizenship that show how divergent people’s conception of the issue can be.

• “a promise of equal belonging that is fundamental to our democracy.” — Martin Luther King III, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s eldest son
• “prioritizing the futures of illegals over Americans” — U.S. Rep. Clay Fuller, R-Lookout Mountain

🏥 Children’s Healthcare generates $6 billion a year in economic output for Georgia, according to a new impact report from Georgia Tech. That’s an increase of 65% over 10 years for the Atlanta-based health system.

IT’S WORLD CUP DAY AGAIN IN ATLANTA

DR Congo midfielder Samuel Moutoussamy (8) celebrates a 3-1 win over Uzbekistan during a FIFA World Cup match at Atlanta Stadium (Mercedes-Benz Stadium) last Saturday. (Hyosub Shin/AJC)

Whew, the World Cup games are coming fast and furious now!

England takes on the Democratic Republic of Congo today at 12 p.m. ET downtown.

• No, your memory isn’t playing tricks. Congo was just in town this past weekend. They beat Uzbekistan to secure a place in the current Round of 32. That path just so happened to lead them right back to Atlanta. Good to see you again, boys!
• Meanwhile, watch out for England. They’re a musical bunch. I’m concerned thousands of England supporters singing “God Save the King” during a previous group stage match at the Dallas-area stadium may have permanently altered the DNA of nearby Texans.

Other favorites of the English crew: “Wonderwall” and, improbably, “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Please don’t teach them “Cotton Eye Joe.” We may not survive.

NEWS BITES

Filmmaker Pierre Coffin, voice of the Minions, says he finally understands the ‘melody’ of the yellow henchmen’s dialect

You know what your day needs? A good account of a French Indonesian animator expertly discussing Minion linguistics. You’re welcome.