Monday marks one year since New Birth Missionary Baptist Church senior pastor Eddie L. Long died after battling an aggressive form of cancer.

He died at the age of 63.

Long became the Lithonia megachurch's senior pastor in 1987, when the congregation had only 300 members. The church had grown to more than 25,000 members by 2010.

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Eight people were killed in a multivehicle crash Monday afternoon on I-85 in Jackson County. A van transporting cats was among the vehicles involved, a rescue group said. (Furkids Animal Rescue and Shelters' Facebook post)

Credit: Furkids Animal Rescue and Shelters

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Mathew Palmer, a former Delta Air Lines employee, at his home in Atlanta on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.  Palmer was fired less than two weeks after writing a post on social media about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. (Natrice Miller/AJC)