Morning, y’all! Happy Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. The mid-month timing aligns with several Latin American anniversaries of independence from Spain. That includes Mexican Independence Day, which is Sept. 16. There’s a lot to celebrate!
Let’s get to it.
GEORGIA POWER STUDIES NUCLEAR ENERGY
Georgia Power says it doesn’t have any new nuclear power projects on the horizon, but that’s not stopping it from considering the possibility.
- The utility has spent an average of $87,000 a month for roughly 13 months exploring new sites and studies for nuclear power generation.
- Georgia Power has helped recruit data centers to the state, which we all know use untold amounts of power.
- Nuclear power is emission-free and has several benefits over traditional power sources, but it would take at least a decade for Georgia Power to secure financing, line up contractors, get state and federal approvals and actually build a new plant.
- Instead, the company is focused on a controversial and unprecedented expansion of its power grid by 2030, mostly to support data centers.
Georgia Power already operates two nuclear plants: Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro, which has four reactors; and Plant Hatch in Baxley, which has two.
🔎 READ MORE: How much of this would be folded into your power bill
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AN UNMET WORLD CUP EXPECTATION
From an international perspective, Atlanta did a pretty good job as a World Cup host city this summer. Now it’s time to see how much of that success translated to economic terms.
Hotel-wise, it’s complicated.
- Hotel occupancy was lower during the months Atlanta hosted eight FIFA World Cup matches than the same period last year, according to new data from the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau.
- In June, hotel occupancy in the city dipped 4% from June 2025.
- In July, occupancy declined 10% from the prior year.
Some caveats
- Experts say factors like geopolitical tensions and economic struggles make it hard to pinpoint the “why” of it all.
- Also, hoteliers drove higher room rates this year despite occupancy declines.
- Short-term rental hosts saw decreased demand but higher revenue. Gotta crank up those prices, baby.
🔎 READ MORE: Did the World Cup boost Atlanta as a tourist destination? Hopefully
AS THE SKELETAL UNFINISHED MIDTOWN OFFICE TOWER TURNS
I love driving past the delicate marvel of architecture at the intersection of Peachtree Street and 14th Street in Midtown. The abandoned office tower really pulls the area together, what with its unfinished see-through floors, shedding infrastructure and precariously poised throng of construction equipment.
- Residents and city leadership have expressed their frustration over the building, which has been under construction for more than six years.
- In June, the City Council urged the city to impose a blight tax to prod developer John Dewberry (who has a history of unfinished projects) into action.
- In response, Dewberry said the tax would make it harder to finish the project.
- The AJC recently discovered Dewberry sent the City Council an emphatic, error-riddled letter peppered with exclamation points and red text saying the blight tax was a “politically motivated” act that would put the project in “critical condition” and could have “potentially grave legal consequences.”
Bottom line: No one really knows what’s going to happen next, and different parties seem to be at an impasse. It’s a fascinating (and slightly nauseating) look into the vagaries of the commercial real estate world, where hundreds of millions of dollars seem to come and go with nothing to show for it all but empty space.
🔎 READ MORE: More highlights from the letter
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🎤 U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff pressed U.S. Rep. Mike Collins on his multiple ties to extremists, calling him a “bigot” and pointing out his silence on his son-in-law’s online hate speech and antisemitism. Ossoff and Collins held competing events in Athens this weekend.
👾 Also at his Athens rally, Ossoff waded into the AI debate. He called for inspectors inside leading AI labs and an international agreement governing the technology.
🐦🔥 Downtown Atlanta Inc. will get a new CEO in December. Kyle Waide, president and CEO of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, will be the next leader of downtown Atlanta’s main civic organization, a group that influences the shape and feel of the city center.
CANDY CRUSHING IT
Welcome to Atlanta, where greatness takes many forms.
Three members of an area family are among the best Candy Crush players in the world and have the prize money to prove it.
- The two sisters and their niece have been playing the popular phone game for years, and it’s seen them through family health crises and hardships.
- It’s also earned them cold, hard cash: They’ve won a collective $130,000 (!!!) from Candy Crush All Stars tournaments.
- Each woman has her own strengths. Selita Boyd is a computer software consultant who loved jigsaw puzzles as a child. Her sister Aalja Boyd is a graphic designer and lifelong gamer who’s mastered the likes of Tetris and Super Mario Bros. Their niece Jemini Powell is a stunt actor with a background in math.
Needless to say, there’s nothing casual about this gaming. It requires investment, instinct, skill development, strategy and planning.
“(A)nybody can pick it up and play,” says Aalja, but “mastering it is a completely different story.”
🍬 READ MORE: If you didn’t know about the world of competitive Candy Crush, prepare to have your mind blown
NEWS BITES
Holiday in the Park is back at Six Flags this year after a 2025 hiatus
The spruced-up (heh, spruce) celebration will feature “fully immersive, themed lands layered with elaborate décor, nightly tree‑lighting spectaculars, and live entertainment” plus carolers, cookie decorating, gingerbread house building, a seasonal tasting menu and parade floats. Whew.
Bob Mackie, designer who defined ’70s glamour, dies at 87
Because he defined ’70s glamour, he also defined every ’90s girl’s passed-down idea of glamour, and we thank him for that. Still mad bedazzled feather headdresses don’t pass as everyday wear.
Don’t skip leg day: Six exercises for stronger legs
Just make sure you don’t need to climb any stairs the next day.
ON THIS DATE
Sept. 15, 1959
3 Atlanta frogs flex space legs. Three Atlanta frogs are poised to add their fantastic bit to the world’s already fantastic collection of frog-lore. The local frogs, all from Emory University, are to jump 300 miles into space and 1,500 miles downrange across the Atlantic in a Jupiter rocket firing at Cape Canaveral, Fla. This will be the most celebrated frog jump since Mark Twain’s days in Calaveras County. The frog in Twain’s 1865 story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” didn’t jump much at all. He was loaded down with a buckshot. But the world’s literature can take in stride the Canaveral contribution.
I love reading stuff that screams, “Someone really had fun writing this.”
ONE MORE THING
More “frog-lore”: Did you know, when frogs swallow, they retract their eyeballs into their skull to help push food down their throat?
Have a great day trying not to think about that!
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.