A.M. ATL: It’s in the mail

Morning, y’all! What’s the ideal age to get married? The obvious answer is “whenever you want to,” but the Pew Research Center asked 3,600 adults, and they came up with a specific number. I’ll put it at the bottom, and then we can discuss.

Let’s get to it.

STILL LOST IN THE MAIL

Credit: Jonathan Weiss/TNS

Credit: Jonathan Weiss/TNS

Mail delivery in metro Atlanta has gotten better over the last year. It’s still not great. Delays have been a problem across the country since a botched U.S. Postal Service overhaul in 2021. Georgia, however, is one of the most-affected states.

Post office politics:

In 2021, then-Postmaster General Louis DeJoy called for the creation of about 60 regional processing hubs around the country to revitalize the Postal Service.
The Palmetto, Georgia, location was the first to open and was immediately plagued by dysfunction. So were other locations, and DeJoy finally stepped down earlier this year.
Last week, the Board of Governors chose David Steiner, the former Waste Management CEO and a FedEx board of directors member, to be the next postmaster general.

What the numbers say for Georgia:

Stats from March 2025 showed roughly a third of all letters in Georgia were not delivered in time.
It used to be worse: A year ago, only 32% of letters expected within two days in the state made the deadline.
Things were better before the pandemic and before the 2021 debacle. Pre-pandemic, about 92% of mail was delivered on time nationwide. Now, the nationwide average is 85%.

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HAIR RELAXER AND AN ‘AWKWARD’ LAW

Credit: Courtesy of DiCello Levitt LLP

The Georgia Supreme Court has to decide how to apply an “awkward” state law about product liability claims that could impact the future of hundreds of cases related to chemical hair relaxer.

What the lawsuits claim: People in Georgia who have filed against various hair care manufacturers allege health-related damage from cumulative use of chemical hair straightening products. Chemical hair relaxers have been linked to an increased risk of tumors and other health issues.

What the GA Supreme Court has to decide: Georgia state law has a 10-year time limit on product liability claims. However, it isn’t clear whether that limit starts from the first use of a product or the most recent use. With something that could cause cumulative damage, like hair relaxers, some justices and attorneys for claimants say it doesn’t make sense to date that limit from first use.

Why this issue is so unique: “The way the statute is drafted is awkward to say the least in trying to capture the idea of cumulative exposure of a commercial product,” Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren said this week as she and other justices debated. “We don’t have (prior) cases that so clearly deal with cumulative exposure.”

DON’T PANIC, GEORGIA TEACHERS

Credit: Getty Images

Given the general economic vibe right now (Frightened! Confused!), it makes sense to check in on those long-term investments, funds and retirement plans.

For Georgia teachers, that means the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia, a pension system that serves about 152,000 retirees and beneficiaries and about 241,000 active teachers in the state.

The TRS is funded through a mix of employee contributions, state appropriations and investment income.
It’s weathered ups and downs before, and the fund’s leaders say they’re optimistic in the face of current economic uncertainty.
In fact, the system reported net assets of about $108.7 billion at the end of April, up 6.8% over the same time last year. That’s more than on track for the fund’s yearly growth goal.

Still, chief financial officer Laura Lanier was honest during a meeting with the TRS board of trustees this week.

“Over the past couple months, I’ve been, let’s say, concerned about what report I would be delivering to you today,” she said. “This week, I’m more optimistic.”

OVERDOSE DEATHS ARE DOWN

U.S. overdose deaths fell dramatically in 2024, marking the largest one-year decline ever recorded. We love to see it.

About 30,000 fewer people lost their lives to overdoses, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
The U.S. recorded 80,000 overdose deaths in 2024, down 27% from 110,000 in 2023.

Experts are still working to understand what drove the drop but point to a few possible factors: better availability of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, evolving addiction treatment, changes in drug use patterns and more awareness driven by multimillion-dollar opioid lawsuits.

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill that could allow President Donald Trump to get back millions of dollars in legal costs related to his election interference case in Georgia. One tiny detail: Taxpayers would be the ones on the hook for it.

Rep. Shri Thanedar of Michigan wants to introduce articles of impeachment against Trump. However, many fellow Dems aren’t on board with his plan.

STOP DOING WEIRD STUFF FROM TIKTOK

A new TikTok trend called the “Chromebook Challenge” goads students to jam things into the USB port of their school laptops until they see smoke or sparks. Phones are a portal to untold knowledge, yet some people use them to set their computers on fire.

Thirty-one students in the Gwinnett school district, the state’s largest school system, have allegedly tried it. The GCPS pointed out 31 is a tiny fraction of the district’s 182,000 students, but still. That’s 31 too many.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about the ‘Chromebook Challenge’ except why it exists and what would possess someone to do it because, like sticking a fork in the microwave, it’s really not a mystery what happens when you forcefully jiggle a paper clip in a USB port. We don’t need to reinvent the scientific method here.

NEWS BITES

A look at the ‘Doll’s Head Trail,’ Atlanta’s creepiest hiking trail filled with dismembered dolls

That would be the fastest hike of my life, not gonna lie.

Do you have what it takes to sing the national anthem at the 2025 Peachtree Road Race?

More importantly, do you have what it takes to wake up at the crack of dawn to do so?

Atlanta bridge construction paused to save a nest of Eastern phoebes (birds)

Yes. Good humans. (Fun fact: The Eastern phoebe’s call sounds like its name. Fee-bee!)

The PGA Championship’s 27-pound Wanamaker Trophy can be a beast to hoist

Making an exhausted golfer lift this behemoth with any amount of dignity is diabolical work.

ON THIS DATE

May 15, 2000

Credit: AJC

From the front page of The Atlanta Journal: Gordon Griffin ... sports his graduation cowboy hat with tassel at the 155th commencement exercises today at Emory University, where he and more than 3,000 of his classmates listened to an address from former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell who brokered the Northern Ireland peace accord.

This year, Emory grads received words of wisdom from music mogul Usher.

“In a world where credentials can feel overshadowed by clicks, followers and algorithms, does a diploma still matter?” he asked the crowd. “Yes, of course it does. But it’s not the paper that gives power. It’s you.”

ONE MORE THING

Apparently the ideal age to get married, according to that Pew survey, is 26. Obviously it’s different for every person, and culture/location/how unbearable you are all play a part. (And, of course, not getting married is a fantastic choice, too.) Still, I can’t help feeling a little smug since that’s the age I got married. It’ll be eleven years this weekend. (FYI, the traditional 11th anniversary wedding gift is steel. Romantic!)

Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.

Until next time.

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