A.M. ATL: Mail orders

Morning, y’all! Is there such a thing as a pleasant alarm clock sound? I don’t think so. Even the gentlest invocation will eventually become a Pavlovian trigger for early morning dread.

Let’s get to it.

WHAT THE SCOTUS MAIL-IN VOTING RULE MEANS FOR GEORGIA

Mail-in ballot use surged during the 2020 election amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (AJC File)

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared one of two legal barriers to President Donald Trump’s plan to restrict mail-in voting.

However, Georgia’s mail-in voting process hasn’t changed, and experts told the AJC it’s likely too late for any decision to affect how the state conducts November’s midterm elections.

What did SCOTUS decide?

• The high court lifted an injunction allowing the Trump administration to move forward with parts of an executive order that grants the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service expansive control over who can vote by mail.
• The executive order, signed by Trump, instructs the DHS to make lists of adult U.S. citizens in every state before elections. It also prohibits the USPS from sending mail-in ballots to anyone not on those lists.

How does that play out here?

• Georgia officials and election law experts say it would be difficult to implement new restrictions in time for the midterms and that the legal fight over the mail ballot is far from over.
• For one, that ball is already rolling: Applications for requesting absentee ballots are already open in Georgia, and thousands of applications have already been accepted.
• One elections expert told the AJC Georgia already has a “very robust process ... for ensuring the security of ballots,” and it isn’t clear how the executive order would change that.

The big concern

• Democrats and other critics say the order essentially doubles election security work already done on the state level and is an overreach of the federal government.
• More basically, there’s fear that the true intention of the move is voter suppression, hidden under the guise of election security.

🔎 READ MORE: What experts and GA politicians say about the ruling

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THE BIG NORTH POINT REVAMP IS A GO

A rendering of the proposed North Point Mall redevelopment in Alpharetta. The project by Jamestown and New York Life includes a 20,000-seat arena large enough for a potential NHL franchise. (Courtesy of Jamestown)

Alpharetta leaders voted to approve a plan to redevelop North Point Mall, but it wasn’t a sure thing. The City Council vote came down 4-3.

• AJC business reporter Zachary Hansen makes a good comparison, saying the plan would “rezone the nearly 99-acre mall into something comparable to The Battery Atlanta at Truist Park, the home of the Atlanta Braves.”
• And yes, NHL dreams, in the form of a big honkin’ arena, are still at the center of the plan.

In fact ...

Those dreams need to become reality for the whole thing to move forward. The city is requiring the NHL to commit to North Point before allowing the development team’s full plan to come to fruition.

Council members who are opposed said the plan is underbaked, so to speak. “This project is not ready for primetime,” one dissenting member said. “I think this proposal is an overreach being cloaked as progress.”

🔎 READ MORE: Notes from the decision, and what community members think

Oh, and a reminder: If the NHL is open to an expansion team in Atlanta, they’re certainly being coy about it. AJC sports reporter Ken Sugiura reported in June that the league has shown preference to two Texas cities over Atlanta.

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

🏫 Some Cobb County students and teachers are still smarting from Trump’s recent visit to Wheeler High School, which had the trappings of a highly politicized rally. As one teacher writes for the AJC, it’s hard to stomach when a few educators have been punished for teaching decisions deemed “too political.”

💰 Some of Georgia’s biggest companies have requested a collective $1.5 billion in tariff refunds after a SCOTUS decision striking down some of the import taxes. They include Home Depot, which requested $730 million back, and UPS, which requested $500 million. Not eligible for a refund, despite shouldering the lion’s share of tariff-related costs down the line: you, the consumer.

⚡ Do you want a data center in your community? The Georgia Chamber of Commerce wants to know. Seriously. They’ve launched a new program called the Data Center Ready Community Designation, which would help prepare jurisdictions for data center projects.

GOODBYE, DOLLY

Throughout her 60-year career, Dolly Parton became an indomitable force in country music, helping bring the genre to mainstream dominance. (Jonathan Short/Invision/AP)

What is there to say about Dolly Parton that hasn’t been said?

She was many things: singer, musician, actress, philanthropist, businesswoman, fashion icon, feminist, social justice advocate, family woman and, above all things, the rare person who was able to unite people and bridge divisions with unerring kindness.

Fiendishly inventive with her talent and person, and proud of even the gnarliest of her Tennessee roots, Parton also represented the South at its very best.

Her ties with Georgia also ran strong:

• In 1966, she married her husband Carl Dean at a church in Ringgold, Georgia, dubbed “The Wedding Capital of the South.”
• She shot several projects in metro Atlanta, either as a producer or actress, including the 2012 Queen Latifah-starring musical “Joyful Noise,” the 2015 made-for-TV biopic “Coat of Many Colors” and the 2019 anthology series “Heartstrings.”

Surely we’ve all cued up our personal Sad Dolly Parton Playlists, but pair your moping with this great read about her biggest songs and the stories behind them. (I now have “Why’d You Come In Here Lookin’ Like That” stuck in my head, and I’m not mad.)