Morning, y’all! The rain should clear out later this morning before returning in earnest tonight. Expect temperatures in the mid-70s.
Today’s newsletter explores the latest metro Atlanta cityhood movement, fatal flaws in Georgia’s child welfare agency and a comprehensive guide to vegan and vegetarian dining. Plus a wholly unrelated story about a would-be burglar caught in a grease trap.
- Also: Former president and GOP frontrunner Donald Trump is due in Atlanta today for a fundraising luncheon, putting Georgia’s MAGA hierarchy on full display.
Let’s get to it.
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MULLING MULBERRY
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Voters in the northeastern corner of Gwinnett County head to the polls next month to decide: Should we form our own city?
The would-be city of Mulberry (no, not Mayberry!) continues a two-decade tradition of metro Atlanta incorporation efforts. And while it offers its own fresh twists, the movement also raises many familiar questions.
The gist: As my colleague Alia Malik reports, approval of the May 21 referendum would result in the creation of Gwinnett’s largest city by land area and, with roughly 41,000 residents, the second-largest by population. There’s also a significant demographic difference.
- The city of Mulberry: about 57% white. The county as a whole: about 36% white.
- On average, Mulberry residents would also be significantly wealthier than Gwinnett as a whole.
Credit: Georgia Senate Press Office
Credit: Georgia Senate Press Office
The politics: Gwinnett County was a longtime Republican stronghold that elected its first Democratic commissioners in decades — and its first-ever commissioners of color — in 2018. The board flipped to Democratic control two years later.
Mulberry’s proposed boundaries lie firmly within Gwinnett’s last remaining cache of conservative voters. But cityhood proponents say it’s mostly about one thing: zoning.
- Several recent apartment projects rankled residents and helped fuel the incorporation push. About 95% of Mulberry’s housing would be single-family detached homes.
- “A lot of people don’t feel that our current county approves things that we think are in our best interest,” resident Mary Beth Hoopes told the AJC.
The services: If created, the new city would stick with county services like police, fire, parks and recreation. But a five-member City Council would have control over local zoning decisions.
The bigger picture: All of that mirrors recent Republican-led efforts to create three new cities in affluent, largely white areas of Cobb County: East Cobb, Lost Mountain and Vinings. Voters rejected all three ballot measures in 2022.
- But another Cobb city, Mableton, did move forward that year. It’s a more diverse community with a long history of underinvestment.
- Mableton’s story mirrors other recent incorporation successes in predominantly Black communities like South Fulton and Stonecrest.
So. Is the metro Atlanta cityhood movement dead? Nope. But it may well have shifted.
Not signed up yet? What’re you waiting for? Get A.M. ATL in your inbox each weekday morning. And keep scrolling for more news.
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TRAGIC FAILURES
A federal inquiry led by Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff — and triggered by an AJC investigation — concluded that systemic failures within Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services contributed to the deaths of children.
Officials refuted the report, saying it “omits key context” and “ignores relevant data.”
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CHARGES SOUGHT
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC
Gwinnett County’s district attorney says she plans to bring charges against the driver who hit and killed a 4-year-old in the Mall of Georgia parking lot last month, contradicting previous statements by police.
Abigail Hernandez’s friends and family rallied in Lawrenceville Tuesday.
Elsewhere around the metro:
- Atlanta’s school board is extending its already monthslong search for the district’s new superintendent.
- Milton’s City Council declined to issue an alcohol license to the owners of a local farm winery that had neighbors up in arms.
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A HERO REMEMBERED
Ralph Puckett Jr., a retired U.S. Army colonel from Columbus who received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during the Korean War, died Monday. He was 97.
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SPEAKER SPAT
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, reignited her feud with House speaker Mike Johnson.
- Greene wrote in a five-page letter that she won’t tolerate the fellow Republican “serving the Democrats and the Biden administration and helping them achieve their policies that are destroying our country.”
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LESS TOXIC TAPS
The Biden administration finalized the first-ever national limit on certain “forever chemicals” in drinking water, requiring utilities to reduce them to the lowest level they can be reliably measured.
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ONE MORE HUNT?
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Tiger Woods is older, and aching pretty much everywhere. But after Tuesday’s practice round at Augusta National, he said winning a sixth green jacket isn’t out of the question: “If everything comes together, I think I can get one more.”
Check out the groupings and tee times for Thursday’s initial round — and find complete AJC Masters coverage right here.
More sports highlights:
- Reynaldo López pitched well again and the Braves held on to beat the Mets, 6-5.
- The Hawks fought to force double overtime but ultimately fell to the Heat, 117-111.
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EAT UP!
The AJC’s ultimate guide to eating vegan and vegetarian around Atlanta is here — and it’ll make your tummy rumble, no matter where your usual gastrointestinal allegiances lie. I suggest starting with the well-researched list of our 50 favorite dishes from restaurants around town.
- While you’re at it: Check out Monica Pearson’s recent interview with Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole.
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BURN BOOK
Not all Southerners wanted the Confederacy to win the Civil War, of course. And a new book examines the Alabama cavalry that helped Sherman burn Atlanta.
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MORE TO EXPLORE
» Here’s where the tick that causes meat allergy is found in Georgia
» Norfolk Southern reaches $600M settlement over Ohio derailment
» Postal service plans price hike for stamps
» Beyoncé first Black woman to top Billboard country albums chart
» Court says Arizona can enforce 1864 law criminalizing nearly all abortions
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ON THIS DATE
April 10, 2003
U.S. troops captured Baghdad, effectively deposing longtime dictator Saddam Hussein about 20 days after entering Iraq. American soldiers found Hussein hiding in a hole near the town of Tikrit later that year.
He was hanged in 2006 after an Iraqi tribunal found him guilty of crimes against humanity.
Credit: File photo
Credit: File photo
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
Credit: John Spink/AJC
Credit: John Spink/AJC
AJC photographer John Spink captured construction crews dodging the rain while working on the planned Anthem Hotel Atlanta, an 18-story building billed as the “premiere hotel” of downtown’s Gulch redevelopment.
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ONE MORE THING
Before we go: This video of a suspected burglar being rescued from the grease trap of a Cobb County restaurant after dangling there for hours ain’t something you see every day.
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Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tyler.estep@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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