Morning, y’all! Pseudo-false fall continues today, with morning temps in the 60s and highs in the mid-80s.
News wise, we’ve got the latest on Georgia’s outsize influence at the DNC, drugs and drones in state prisons, and chronically absent students. Plus a big WNBA milestone and the answer to all your romance problems!
But first: Chick-fil-A spreads its wings in an unusual direction.
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STREEM MOR CHIKIN
Credit: File photo
Credit: File photo
Yeah, um, lemme get a No. 2, no pickles, with a large Coke Zero — and can you throw in some family-friendly programming, too?
That first part is my real-life Chick-fil-A order. The second part is … maybe becoming a reality?
Atlanta’s favorite purveyor of Jesus chicken is reportedly jumping into the TV business. Which is one of the wilder sentences I’ve ever typed. But it’s true!
- Per reports from Deadline and the AJC’s Savannah Sicurella, Chick-fil-A is preparing to launch its own streaming platform.
It’s purportedly working with major production companies to create new shows, too, with an expected emphasis on unscripted content. There’s even talk of a game show.
- Perhaps ”Let’s Make A Meal?” “The Fries Are Right?” “Are You Smarter Than A Semi-Illiterate Cow?”
Anyway … the fast food giant did not respond to requests for comments. The specifics remain murky.
But if you connect a few dots, the whole idea does make some sense.
- You’ve heard of Trilith Studios, yes? The big ol’ film production facility near Fayetteville? Chick-fil-A Chairman Dan Cathy owns that.
A few months back, Cathy even hinted at efforts to bring a new “live entertainment venture” to Trilith. With Georgia’s film industry still lagging, jumping into the streaming biz could be a win-win for the Cathy family.
Or, you know, not.
Either way, we’ll always have the Dwarf House — and this crazy, four-lane elevated drive thru Chick-fil-A that opens today in McDonough.
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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GOP AT THE DNC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
The penultimate night of the Democratic National Convention saw Oprah Winfrey evoke the late John Lewis and Tim Walz formally accept the VP nomination.
Then there’s Geoff Duncan, Georgia’s Republican-but-Trump-phobic former lieutenant governor. He made his stance abundantly clear: “If you vote for Kamala Harris you’re not a Democrat, you’re a patriot.”
- Duncan and U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Atlanta) will join today’s Politically Georgia podcast/radio show. Tune in to AJC.com or WABE 90.5 FM at 10 a.m.
- Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, meanwhile, makes a stop in Valdosta today to discuss immigration and border security.
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COLD CASES & DRUG DRONES
» Atlanta police arrested a man charged in a pair of cold case rapes from the 1980s — for the second time. He escaped from Grady Memorial Hospital the first go ‘round.
» New federal indictments charged 23 people in connection with a drone-aided conspiracy to bring drugs and cellphones into Georgia prisons. It’s just the latest in a string of similar incidents.
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ANOTHER LOOK AT THE BOOKS?
Ahead of today’s MARTA Board of Directors meeting, the leader of a legislative committee overseeing the transit agency called for another audit of its Atlanta expansion program.
The first one, of course, suggested MARTA owes Atlanta taxpayers $70 million.
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ABSENCE MINDED
Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC
Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC
Education reporter Martha Dalton dove into local school districts’ technology-based efforts to combat chronic absenteeism — and uncovered some stark statistics.
- Nearly 35% of Atlanta Public Schools students missed at least 10% of the school year in 2022-23. That’s almost triple what it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
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SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS
» Braves: A 3-2 loss to the Phillies came with Orlando Arcia reigniting an old beef by (maybe?) staring down Bryce Harper.
» Dream: Tina Charles, who joined the team in the offseason, became the WNBA’s No. 2 all-time scorer in a 72-63 win over Phoenix.
» Jackets: The Georgia Tech football team departed for Dublin. Consider punter David Shanahan, a native Irishman, officially pumped.
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DESPERATE FOR A DATE?
Credit: Courtesy photo
Credit: Courtesy photo
Tired of going on Tinder benders? Fumbling with Bumble? Cringing over Hinge? The reality show “Love Is Blind” — where couples talk through walls for a while before actually seeing each other — is now casting in Atlanta.
- You’ll have to do a lot of paperwork to make the cut. And, you know, be up for having all your flaws and personal failures exposed on TV. And then scrutinized by internet strangers!
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MORE TO EXPLORE
» This Atlanta suburb is drawing many immigrants from the border
» Wife of wounded Carroll deputy: ‘We are not out of the woods yet’
» Rentable scooters here to stay in Atlanta
» James Bond-inspired bar expanding with new Spectre concept
» Lionsgate pulls ‘Megalopolis’ trailer containing fabricated quotes
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ON THIS DATE
Aug. 22, 1989
A tear-gas bomb delivered to the Atlanta office of the NAACP left 15 people injured.
Authorities later tied a man named Walter Leroy Moody — who was also responsible for sending deadly pipe bombs to an Alabama judge and a civil rights attorney in Savannah — to the crime.
The state of Alabama executed Moody in 2018.
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 crews giving the Georgia state Capitol’s gold dome a face-lift. It’s part of a nearly $400 million renovation and construction project at the Capitol and its surrounding campus.
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ONE MORE THING
A new survey from the consumer finance company Bankrate found that metro Atlanta, on average, has the highest ATM fees in the country. So we got that going for us!
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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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