Morning, y’all! Whenever I leave the South, I’m reminded that Southern hospitality is far more artful than mere niceness. Sometimes it means avoiding awkwardness at all costs, even if you have to keep a flagging dinner conversation alive with your bare hands. If you’ve been in that unenviable position, I salute you.
Let’s get to it.
TWO GA WATER SYSTEMS WERE HACKED. HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
Water authorities in Clayton County and the city of Columbus said their water systems were affected by separate alleged cyberattacks.
- Clayton County Water Authority officials said a service disruption that temporarily knocked out water to parts of the county was possibly a cyberattack.
- Columbus Water Works said it, too, suffered a breach, but service was unaffected.
The good news: They say their water supplies are completely safe.
The bad news: For one, it’s still scary stuff. Now, federal investigators are trying to figure out how it happened.
The little device that could cause big trouble
- Federal investigators are looking into mini computer devices commonly used by water utilities and other organizations.
- Known as programmable logic controllers, these devices can be used like an industrial version of home thermostats. Utilities use them to trip the opening or closing of valves when water levels reach a certain threshold or to dispense precise amounts of chlorine in the treatment process.
- There are thousands of PLCs controlling critical infrastructure across the country.
- Because they’re ultimately computers, they can be subject to hacking if they’re unprotected.
Experts say the best way to safeguard against such attacks is through multiple layers of security. Some of these systems may not already have such layers because “hacking into water supplies via little computers” is, by and large, a relatively new horror we must contend with.
🔎 READ MORE: Some large metro Atlanta water systems report no compromise, while others are staying mum.
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ATLANTA COULD GET A DATA CENTER TASK FORCE
Several Atlanta City Council members want a new task force that could further regulate data centers in the city.
- This is your voice at work: People in Georgia don’t like data centers, and they’ve been saying so with increasing volume at town meetings, City Council meetings and in messages to local leaders.
- A resolution to create the group was introduced this week after council members heard from residents who opposed a controversial data center proposed near Atlanta’s West End MARTA station.
🔎 READ MORE: More recent news from City Hall
Also in this week’s City Hall roundup: Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens was blasted for offering to sell the Atlanta City Detention Center to Fulton County for $80 million in exchange for support for a controversial tax extension plan.
NEW CDC DIRECTOR CONFIRMED
Dr. Erica Schwartz is the new director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate this week in a 51-44 vote. One Democrat joined Republicans in voting for her confirmation.
- Schwartz served as deputy surgeon general during President Donald Trump’s first administration.
- She replaces Susan Monarez, who was fired in August 2025 after just a month on the job. Monarez says Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked her to fire CDC experts and change vaccine guidelines in a way she said violated medical ethics.
The RFK Jr. problem
- Democrats who opposed Schwartz’s nomination said they were concerned that she would not stand up to Kennedy, who has upended decades of medical research and policy, sowed vaccine skepticism and overseen the firing of hundreds of CDC employees.
- In a nomination hearing last month, Schwartz promised to follow the science and said Kennedy had assured her he would not interfere.
🔎 READ MORE: Schwartz inherits a CDC in turmoil
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🏡 The adoption story you haven’t heard yet: Gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson has spoken frequently about his years in Georgia’s foster care system. His opponent, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, has four adoption stories of her own. She and her husband adopted all four of their children after struggling for years with infertility.
⚡ Rivian’s $5B factory site is coming along in Stanton Springs, about an hour east of Atlanta. The electric vehicle startup says buildings will be up in 2027 and production will begin in 2028, bringing a long-promised manufacturing boost to the area.
⚾ BravesVision, the Atlanta Braves’ new multimedia broadcast network, is proving very profitable for the franchise, according to the latest quarterly earnings call. They’re also working on expanded content, like live batting practice at home games.
THIS WEEK ON “FLAGSHIP”
It’s “Flagship” day! The new AJC podcast, hosted by moi, digs in to some of the juiciest stories AJC reporters have been working on lately.
This week, we’ve got quite a trifecta: robots, money and music.
Robots at the Hyundai plant: Business reporter Zach Hansen takes us inside Hyundai’s fancy Metaplant, where technologically advanced robots work alongside humans. How do the humans feel about it, though?
A million-dollar question mark at City Hall: A recent AJC investigation shed more light on a contractor paid big bucks to review a petition calling for a referendum on the controversial Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. The review was never done, but the contractor still got paid. Politics and policy reporter Riley Bunch digs in.
Debating the song of the summer: Is it a timeless staple every year? Is it something fresh and new? I am not nearly cool enough to participate in this conversation, so the excellent crew from the “It’s UATL” podcast gives us some suggestions.
You can listen on the AJC site or anywhere you get your podcasts. Just search “AJC Flagship.”
And yes, it’s an absolute trip to hear my own voice on Spotify. Thank you to everyone who’s sent kind messages about the show so far! We’ve only just begun.
NEWS BITES
A wayward SpaceX rocket probably slammed into the moon, exacerbating space’s ‘lunar litter’ problem
Yes, we’re even polluting the moon now. Awesome.
Historic Manuel’s Tavern turns 70: A look back at every decade
It will always be the place where an old boss made fun of me for ordering soup in the summer. Sometimes you just need some Brunswick stew, OK!
15 states now linked to iceberg lettuce cyclospora outbreak, CDC says
The dreaded scourge of poop lettuce continues. So far, Georgia’s in the clear for this one.
ON THIS DATE
Aug. 6, 1969
Brunette joins astronauts in quarantine quarters. With a pretty 24-year-old brunette isolated in their quarantine quarters, Apollo 11’s astronauts Wednesday completed the 10-day task of discussing with experts the details of their moon-landing mission. The young woman, Heather Owens, and three male technicians were added to the quarters’ growing population Tuesday night after they were exposed to lunar material in another part of the lunar receiving laboratory.
To be clear, Heather Owens was also a lab technician and a veterinarian-pathologist. But surely, on the “occupation” line on her tax returns, she just wrote “Brunette.”
(Shoutout to our own professional Brunette, Producer Nicole, for always finding the “women described in terms of their looks” newspaper snippets. We chuckle about them behind the scenes.)
ONE MORE THING
Oh, Southern hospitality also means always having A Little Snacky Something to put out if guests stop by. That’s basically the reason cheese straws and candied pecans exist.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.