Morning, y’all! Severe storms pummeled North Georgia overnight and another round is expected to creep into the metro area this morning, with a tornado watch in place until 1 p.m. Be careful out there.
Otherwise, today’s jampacked newsletter tackles big delays in Fulton County’s prosecution of Donald Trump, new charges for the man accused of killing Laken Riley and Music Midtown’s gap year. We check in with Jimmy Carter and the Atlanta Dream, too.
But first, a positively prosperous outlook for the Peach State’s namesake.
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BUMPER CROP
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Georgia peaches are so back.
Thanks to a couple of late freezes, last year’s crop of everyone’s favorite fuzzy fruit was, well, the pits. You couldn’t find those juicy beauties anywhere — because they didn’t much exist.
But this year...
“We’re all excited to tackle this beast of a crop that we get to pick,” Lawton Pearson, a fifth-generation farmer from Fort Valley, told the AJC.
So what’s different this time around? In early 2023, a historically warm weather tricked Georgia peach plants into blooming too soon — and then two March cold snaps killed ’em good.
This past winter was still a bit warmer than usual (thanks climate change!), but not as bad. And we didn’t get sustained freezing temperatures later on, either.
The result: A crop so bumper-y that, for the first time in a long time, peach farmers actually have to thin trees out a bit to ensure maximum size and flavor.
Sometimes they use wiffle bats to knock down excess fruit!
» 5 delightful recipes to try with fresh peaches from Georgia
And the future? Well ... average temperatures in Georgia keep rising, and they’ll continue causing problems. But creative solutions like fans and sprinkler systems can help protect crops during freezes. Some farmers are also working with breeders to create new, better adapted varieties of peach.
The bottom line: Expect plenty o’ Georgia peaches to hit store shelves in the next couple of weeks. Local blueberries (actually the state’s most valuable fruit crop) are headed our way, too.
Savor the flavor now. We’ll figure out the future as we go along.
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SEE YOU IN 2025?
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AP
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/AP
Georgia’s Court of Appeals agreed to review the decision not to remove District Attorney Fani Willis from Fulton County’s case against Donald Trump and others. This is the matter involving Willis’ relationship with now-former special prosecutor Nathan Wade.
- The Court of Appeals isn’t known for acting quickly. It’s now all but guaranteed that a trial won’t begin before November’s election.
- Check out the newest episode of the AJC’s Trump indictment podcast for more.
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MORE TOP STORIES
» Jimmy Carter, now 99 years old, recently cast an absentee ballot for this month’s primary election. Grandson Jason Carter said the former president is “hanging in there” — and not one to skip a vote.
» A grand jury indicted Jose Antonio Ibarra, the man accused of killing Athens nursing student Laken Riley. The 10 charges include new allegations that he also spied on a female UGA student the day of Riley’s death.
» Shareholders in Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern will vote today on an activist investor group’s attempt to replace most of the railroad’s board members.
» Construction on a 25-story Midtown office tower topped out this week. It may be the last big addition to Atlanta’s skyline for quite a while.
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‘NO CONFIDENCE’
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Amid controversy surrounding the school’s response to Israel-Hamas war protesters, Emory undergrads voted in favor of a “no confidence” resolution for university President Gregory L. Fenves. About 3,400 of 8,100 eligible students voted overall, with 2,499 supporting the largely symbolic motion.
- Meanwhile: President Joe Biden said the U.S. will continue withholding weapons from Israel if it moves forward with a large scale invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city where about 1 million Palestinian civilians are sheltered.
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OUSTER ATTEMPT
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, forced a vote on her motion to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson from his leadership position. It failed overwhelmingly, garnering criticism from Republican colleagues.
- Another of Georgia’s congressional representatives, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, drew flak for making light of the Kennedy assassinations on social media.
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BACK-TO-BACK
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Marcell Ozuna (above, two home runs) and Chris Sale (six scoreless innings) led the Braves to a 5-0 win over the Red Sox. Next up: a day off before starting a road series with the Mets on Friday.
More sports highlights:
- Tonight at 7, the Atlanta Dream visit Caitlin Clark and the Fever for their final preseason game. You can watch via a free trial of WNBA League Pass.
- Ryan Mutombo, the son of finger-wagging former Hawks star Dikembe Mutombo, plans to transfer from Georgetown to Georgia Tech.
- With the NFL set to release 2024 schedules next week, the AJC’s D. Orlando Ledbetter looks at which Falcons games could land in primetime.
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ROCK, OUT
Longtime Atlanta festival Music Midtown, usually held in September, won’t happen this year. Organizers called it a “hiatus” but haven’t offered further explanation.
“We encourage you to continue supporting live music in Atlanta and stay tuned here for future updates,” they wrote on Instagram.
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SUPERHERO SLOWDOWN
Marvel is scaling back its schedule for releasing TV and film projects, saying it hopes to focus on quality. That could have a significant impact in Georgia, which historically hosts production for a majority of Marvel movies and Disney+ shows.
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MORE TO EXPLORE
» Officials ID 3 kids shot in suspected Gwinnett murder-suicide
» ‘The Office’ spinoff will be set at a dying newspaper
» ‘Tripas’ poetry collection published by UGA Press wins Pulitzer
» Ex-Clayton sheriff Victor Hill faces new restraint chair lawsuit
» DeKalb police shoot armed robbery suspect at shopping center
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ON THIS DATE
May 9, 1945
World War II is over. In Europe, at least.
“Hitler’s legacy — the broken, smoking chaos of Berlin — sprawls under the vivid banners of the Red army today,” one war correspondent wrote. “German tears and hunger mark the end of the Nazi empire.”
Credit: File photo
Credit: File photo
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
AJC photographer Arvin Temkar captured friends and loved ones honoring late Dunwoody High student Mia Dieguez with an emotional balloon release at Brook Run Park.
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ONE MORE THING
Before we go, enjoy this look at a group of fashionable local seniors working the runway in the middle of Greenbriar Mall. “People expect you to sit in your rocking chairs or to babysit,” one participant said. “They don’t expect to see you strutting.”
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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.
