Morning, y’all! There’s a small chance of rain throughout the day before storms arrive in earnest this evening. They may not leave until Saturday afternoon. And don’t forget: The spring time change is nigh. It’ll be one hour later when you wake up Sunday.
Today’s jam-packed newsletter explores the bombshell news that electric vehicle maker Rivian is pausing plans for a $5 billion Georgia factory. Plus, a bill to ban TikTok in the United States, another death in the King family and the return of the Atlanta Science Festival.
Let’s dive in.
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POLITICAL FLASHPOINT
Marjorie Taylor Greene showed up to last night’s State of the Union address wearing a red MAGA hat. Under her matching red sportscoat, a T-shirt. Its message: “Say Her Name: Laken Riley.”
As President Joe Biden delivered his speech, he encouraged bipartisan action on immigration and referenced his predecessor, saying “it’s not about him or me.” Then the Republican congresswoman from Georgia shouted out: “It’s about Laken Riley.”
Biden responded, held up a button bearing the Athens nursing student’s name and acknowledged an immigrant is accused of killing her. (The president appeared to call her Laken initially, then mispronounce her first name as “Lincoln.”)
It was a brief, unscripted exchange. But it serves as the latest example of how, over a span of just two weeks, a young woman’s death on the University of Georgia campus morphed into a national flashpoint.
- Takeaways from Biden’s feisty State of the Union address
- Two weeks later, unknowns abound in Riley’s death
Immigration and election-year politics: Jose Ibarra, the man accused of killing Riley on Feb. 22, is a Venezuelan migrant who entered the U.S. illegally. Police in New York and Athens previously arrested him on low-level crimes and released him. Experts and authorities have since said it wasn’t unusual for him to remain out of federal custody while awaiting the resolution of his asylum case.
State and federal lawmakers, meanwhile, seized on the incident.
- Just hours before Biden’s speech, members of the U.S. House passed a bill called the Laken Riley Act. It would require federal authorities to detain unauthorized immigrants accused of theft or shoplifting.
- In Georgia, Republican state legislators have proposed many new measures, including one allowing residents to sue local governments they believe are not following existing immigration laws.
On the more local level, there’s a new campaign to oust Athens’ district attorney, Deborah Gonzalez, from office. And on Thursday, Clarke County Sheriff John Q. Williams said his office would “strengthen” its record-keeping policy to better track “subjects determined to be undocumented,” but provided no further details.
What we still don’t know: As my colleague Fletcher Page reports, there’s still a lot we don’t know about Riley’s death. We know a friend of Riley’s called police when she didn’t return from her morning run. We know that police believe Ibarra killed her “with an object” and dragged her into “a secluded area.”
But it’s unclear how authorities identified Ibarra. A potential motive is yet to reveal itself. And how did this happen in such a busy area of campus?
- “Laken did everything right that day,” one University of Georgia student told the AJC. “Her friends had her location. She was running on campus in a safe space and things like this still happen.”
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RIVIAN IN REVERSE
Electric vehicle maker Rivian announced Thursday plans to build its newest model at its existing factory in Illinois — and pause construction on its $5 billion Georgia plant. The facility has for years been touted as a centerpiece of Georgia’s burgeoning EV industry.
Rivian executives said the Peach State remains in their plans, but they’ll save a lot of money by pumping the brakes. That’s a political setback for Gov. Brian Kemp and other GOP leaders.
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MORE TOP STORIES
- Naomi King, an activist and the widow of Martin Luther King Jr.’s brother, died at age 92. All of King’s siblings and their spouses are now gone.
- The Georgia House approved a budget that includes raises for teachers and state employees. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.
- Atlanta officials say it’ll now be late summer before they demolish the notorious Forest Cove apartment complex. The complication: asbestos.
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TIKTOK TEMPEST
Despite apparently fielding hundreds of calls asking them not to, members of the U.S. House quickly advanced a bill that would make the social media app TikTok unavailable in the U.S. They cited concerns about the potential for the China-based platform to surveil and manipulate Americans.
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SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS
- Braves: There’s no date yet for Ronald Acuña Jr.’s return to spring training games.
- College football: Columnist Michael Cunningham riffs on recent comments from Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, who he says “knows making players employees is the way to fix college football.”
- High school hoops: Your newest state champs include Mount Paran and Maynard Jackson on the girls side, as well as the boys from Westside-Augusta and Kell.
- Atlanta United: The Five Stripes host New England in Saturday’s home opener at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (7:30 p.m. on Apple TV+).
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OSCARS WATCH
The Academy Awards are Sunday night (7 p.m. on ABC). Jimmy Kimmel will host, and “Oppenheimer” leads the way with 13 nominations. Here’s your guide to the broadcast, which, among other things, will include Ryan Gosling performing his silly Ken song from “Barbie.”
And if you’re playing catch-up, here’s how to watch the Oscar-nominated films at home.
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GET GEEKY
The mostly free two-week Atlanta Science Fest starts tomorrow. Festivities across metro Atlanta range from a discussion of the astronomy of “Star Wars” and a visit from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to “super hero science night” and a “pollinator parade” in Little Five Points.
» More things to do in Atlanta this weekend
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MORE TO EXPLORE
» Fulton ethics board says it can’t investigate Fani Willis
» Top Trump adviser enters Georgia’s 3rd District race
» 16-year-old DUI suspect causes Ga. 400 closure, police say
» Beer, cheesesteaks and Mexican food set for new Marietta development
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ON THIS DATE
March 8, 1965
The Atlanta Constitution memorialized what became known as Bloody Sunday, when law enforcement beat and tear gassed hundreds of marchers attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama:
“Troopers and deputized civilians, acting under orders from Gov. George C. Wallace to stop the ‘walk to freedom’ to Montgomery, chased the choking, bleeding Negroes nearly a mile through town, clubbing them as they ran.”
That’s future Georgia Congressman John Lewis in the foreground of the photo. He fractured his skull in the attack. In 2020, Lewis’ funeral procession included one final trip over the bridge.
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
AJC photographer John Spink captured activist Mariah Parker leading chants as a protester stood chained to part of a construction site in Midtown. The site is operated by Brasfield & Gorrie, one of the contractors for Atlanta’s new public safety training center.
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ONE MORE THING
Before we go: Please check out this story about a metro Atlanta man who helped invent technology that got millions of people on the Internet for the first time — and then died in obscurity. He’s finally getting some recognition.
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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.
About the Author
Tyler Estep hosts the AJC Win Column, Atlanta's new weekly destination for all things sports. He also shepherds the Sports Daily and Braves Report newsletters to your inbox.
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