A.M. ATL: Bad law

Morning, y’all! Time for the occasional A.M. ATL check-in: What’s one thing you’ve accomplished recently and one thing you’re grateful for?

Remember: No accomplishment or item of gratitude is too small! They all count!

I accomplished (almost) catching up on emails from vacation, and I’m grateful for the enormous Joro spider outside my kitchen window that treats me to daily web-crafting tutorials.

(I know they’re invasive, but that’s not the individual spider’s fault. Also, if I speak ill of it, I’m genuinely afraid it will eat me.)

Let’s get to it.

ATTORNEYS CALLED OUT FOR BAD LAWYERING

Georgia’s top judges are calling out state-appointed attorneys for their poor work with indigent defendants*. (“Indigent” means suffering from poverty and/or unable to acquire basic resources.)

The Georgia Supreme Court recently admonished a lawyer after warnings about their inadequate defense of a client. Several judges have also alerted the State Bar of Georgia to multiple instances of shoddy defense work.

• Legal professionals in the state point to issues with Georgia’s indigent defense system, specifically chronic understaffing and overloaded public defenders.
• “It’s just been beyond sad to see,” said Atteeyah Hollie, deputy director of the Southern Center for Human Rights. “What we are seeing right now is beyond the pale. And we can do better in our state. It’s a matter of whether we want to do better.”
• How bad are we talking? Hollie says some casework she’s seen shows “profound errors that you wouldn’t expect to see in a middle school student’s paper.”
• The Georgia Public Defender Council, the state agency responsible for providing lawyers to indigent defendants, says it’s reviewing policies and procedures.

🔎 READ MORE: Lawyers speak out about the consequences of poor representation

*Remember: Since legal representation is a constitutional right for those charged with a crime, the state steps in when a defendant can’t afford a lawyer.

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WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE SIX FLAGS COASTER DEATH

Six Flags has temporarily closed several roller coasters across the country after a man was thrown from the Goliath coaster and died Monday at Six Flags Over Georgia.

• Investigators and park officials have not said how the fall occurred, but several investigations have been opened.
• Georgia’s Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner, which oversees ride inspections, is “conducting an in‑depth and comprehensive review.”
• Bolliger & Mabillard, the company that manufactured the coaster, says it is “actively investigating the incident.”

Roller coaster deaths are rare and attributed to a variety of factors, like preexisting health conditions, misadventure or malfunction.

This incident comes less than two weeks after Six Flags announced the shutdown of the X2 roller coaster at its Magic Mountain location in California following lawsuits claiming the coaster caused serious brain injuries.

🔎 READ MORE: The history and specifications of the Goliath coaster

THE STITCH SITCH

Could the Stitch be back in business?

The Stitch is a planned project to build raised park areas over the roadways known as Atlanta’s Downtown Connector, attracting economic growth and filling a dead zone between downtown and Midtown.

• The plan hit a huge roadblock when more than $150 million of federal funding for the project was eliminated under President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
• Now, the team behind the project has applied for a $60 million federal transportation grant through the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost-saving Transportation program. (Boy, that one really rolls off the tongue.)
• The PROTECT program aims to make surface transportation “more resilient” to current and future weather events.

Fun water infrastructure details

• That fits the Stitch, which will also double as stormwater infrastructure.
• The project is designed to capture more than 3 million gallons of rainwater per year that otherwise could flood the Downtown Connector and surrounding areas.
• That water would be reused for things like park irrigation.

Developers and proponents are optimistic and hope the project can be Atlanta’s next Beltline.

🔎 READ MORE: How the project would work

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

🎤 Candidates for statewide offices, including the commissioners of agriculture, labor and insurance, all faced off during the second day of the Atlanta Press Club debates. Here are five takeaways on everything from Six Flags and unemployment to “explosive diarrhea.”

🗳️ More Georgians voted on the first day of early voting this year than in 2022, which could be a sign of increased interest in key midterm races. More than 178,000 voters cast in-person ballots on Tuesday.

📍 Not sure where your early voting spot is? We got you.

THE DREAM IS HEADED TO STATE FARM FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

After a few days of uncomfortable venue limbo, the Atlanta Dream finally scored State Farm Arena for their WNBA Finals home games.

• Gateway Center Arena, their current home, has a capacity of 3,500 — not nearly enough for a Finals crowd. Scheduled events at State Farm, including a concert and the Atlanta Hawks home opener, created conflicts.
• Where there’s a Dream, there’s a way. The WNBA moved one Atlanta home game up a day and altered tipoff for the second one to make it work.

Oh, the challenges of being a successful women’s team in a men’s team world. (On the positive side, the venue’s top brass said they were “thrilled” to be able to accommodate the team. “Playing for a championship is special, and we want the Dream to feel the full support of the city during this amazing run,” said Andrew Saltzman, president of business enterprise and chief commercial officer for the Hawks and State Farm Arena.)

The Dream will move to State Farm Arena full-time next year.