Morning, y’all! This weekend, I got to visit one of my favorite places ever: the Cobb County Waste Management facility. Longtime readers know how much I admire the bulldozer operators who tend to the giant trash heaps there. That’s real work. I hope they have air conditioning in those cabs.
Let’s get to it.
THE GA NATIONAL GUARD ON ELECTION DAY?
Could Gov. Brian Kemp call up the Georgia National Guard for midterm elections in November?
That’s what Republican Rick Jackson said to a supporter at a recent rally, and the claim could throw gas on the flames of an already contentious election season in Georgia.
The AJC obtained audio of the interaction, which you can listen to in the article.
- A supporter said he worried Democrats would “cheat” during the midterms and asked Jackson if President Donald Trump could send federal troops.
- Jackson replied: “Well, we’ll get National Guard — Gov. Kemp is going to watch it for us.”
- “Is that right?” the supporter asked.
- “Yes, he’s going to get the National Guard,” Jackson responded.
Jackson’s campaign told the AJC that he never “suggested deploying troops at polling places” and that he trusts Kemp to run safe and secure elections.
Jackson’s comments come amid mounting concern from voting rights groups and Democrats that Trump and his GOP allies could use the military to interfere with the vote.
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GA’S HIGH COURT DROPS MOST MURDER CASES
The Georgia Supreme Court has decided it will no longer take most murder appeals, transferring that work to the lower Georgia Court of Appeals.
The decision has divided top judges in the state, some of whom say it will cost taxpayers a pretty penny and burden an overworked system.
Why some judges are against it:
- A higher workload means more needed funding: The chief judge on Georgia’s Court of Appeals says the court already operates beyond capacity, and it will take millions more in taxpayer money to prepare for the added load. The appeals court is also dealing with staff retention and recruitment problems.
- It’s against precedent: The state Supreme Court has exclusively handled murder appeals since it was established in 1845. Some see such work as the high court’s legal and moral duty.
- It’s a lot: These types of murder appeals make up more than half of the Georgia Supreme Court’s caseload.
Why some judges are for it:
- It will give the state Supreme Court room for other cases: Supreme Court Chief Justice Nels Peterson says the shift will allow the high court more time and resources for other work, including emergency cases related to elections and executions, which are expected to increase.
🔎 READ MORE: Judges are weighing many more factors in the balance
SAVANNAH WEIGHS DATA CENTER LIMITS
The Savannah City Council will vote Thursday on a temporary ban on data centers after public backlash to a recent development deal with OpenAI.
- The council is considering a 155-day moratorium on large data center developments.
- The break would give lawmakers time to zoom in on current zoning laws and how they address unprecedentedly large-scale facilities like data centers.
- They’ll also look at how the facilities affect water and electricity use, noise and air pollution, roads and transportation infrastructure and quality of life.
If the council moves forward with the plan, it’ll join several other jurisdictions, such as Bloomingdale, Garden City, Bulloch County and Camden County, that have enacted similar pauses.
🔎 READ MORE: Leaders want ‘community-based’ solutions
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🚗 Hyundai is considering plans to expand production at its plant near Savannah. The increase would make the so-called Metaplant the country’s biggest auto plant by capacity.
🗳️ It’s Election Day in Georgia’s 13th Congressional District. Residents just outside of Atlanta will vote in a special election runoff today to replace the late Democratic U.S. Rep. David Scott, who died April 22.
💰 U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and U.S. Rep. Mike Collins are both rich, by normal people standards. New filings reveal the very different ways they make and manage their money.
NEWS BITES
Woo! Please pass some of that energy to the Braves, who are clinging to a thin divisional lead weeks before the postseason.
Oh, to have the metabolism of a teenage athlete.
What is an anxiety bag? Gen Z’s ‘panic pouch’ trend, explained
Can’t look in my panic pouch unless you have a warrant.
‘Bigger shocks are on the way’: The world inches toward more catastrophic climate events
Anyway, have a nice day!
ON THIS DATE
Aug. 25, 1975
18 tons of grass seized in Savannah. A small army of U.S. customs agents mustered from four states ... smashed a seaborne marijuana-smuggling operation south of Savannah and seized what is reported to be the largest haul of pot ever brought into the Southeastern United States. Authorities seized 18 tons of Colombian marijuana from a shrimp boat early Sunday near Sapelo Sound off the South Georgia coast.
Ah, that sort of grass.
ONE MORE THING
I have a gross anecdote about a trash dump, so if you’re not into that, please skip. I won’t be responsible for any gagging. Carry on!
🦝 🗑️ ☀️
OK. When my parents lived in Jupiter, Florida, I had regular occasion to visit their local waste facility, the North County Transfer Station.
It was there I smelled the most complex, revolting smell of my life. I wouldn’t say the worst smell, necessarily, because the worst smells are usually dictated by human instinct: biological waste, decay, so on.
This was an aroma so ornate in its foulness, I can call it to mind with the clarity of a master perfumer.
To set the scene: It’s a lovely morning in South Florida. All night, bits of refuse on the wet floor of the North County Transfer Station have had time to mingle and ferment in the persistent coastal humidity. The dumping area is, inexplicably, walled on all four sides, so when the sun warms the day, it enlivens the bouquet like fish in a microwave. No bulldozer can scrape away this base layer of filth, so it gets in your tire treads, slops up your wheel wells and squelches into the soles of your shoes.
I’ll try my best to describe it. Imagine someone forgot a bowl of New England clam chowder in the back of a cloth-upholstered car during the height of a Florida summer. Overnight, a dozen raccoons scrabbled in through a cracked window, ate the chowder and died.
The smell you’d encounter when you opened the door a week later approximates the smell of the Jupiter dump.
It’s a fond memory, believe it or not. That film of moldering floor chowder pushed my olfactory senses to a limit I hadn’t thought possible, as if I had seen a brand new color.
And yes, I did have to throw away the shoes I wore there. They never had a prayer.
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Until next time.