What up, everyone? Glad to be with you. Today’s forecast calls for cloudy skies with rain possible late in the evening. Highs could reach into the 80s.
The week has begun with no shortage of big news stories, including a driver breaching a gate at an FBI field office in Chamblee on Monday afternoon, UPS beating rival FedEx for U.S. Postal Service business, questions surrounding a downturn in bookings at Lakewood Amphitheatre and Google purging billions of records containing personal information to settle an illegal surveillance lawsuit.
Let’s get to it.
THE ELECTRIC VEHICLE REVOLUTION
The electric car revolution is coming, whether you want it to or not.
Starting in 2027, federal rules will begin to limit the number of fossil-fuel powered vehicles that manufacturers can produce, AJC staff writers Meris Lutz, Drew Kann and Zachary Hansen report today. That will be coupled with more incentives to get Americans to go electric to speed the process along.
The new regulations are a result of new emissions standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in March for most consumer cars and trucks.
There is evidence we might need a nudge. Sales of electric cars, hybrids and plug-in hybrids in the U.S. hit 16% of total sales in 2023, a record high. But adoption by less than one-fifth of lightweight vehicle sales signals we have a ways to go in four years before the choice is, ahem, made for us.
What’s holding us back? Price, the availability of charging stations and range anxiety (how far an electric vehicle can travel before it runs out of juice), according to analysts and manufacturers. Consumers are flocking to hybrids and plug-in hybrids because gas engines act as a back up if there is no electric power to fuel the engine.
Chuck Perrin, the CEO of Perrin Automotive Group, which has four dealerships in Georgia and one in Florida, said EVs are great and “are destined for a very prominent place in our future,” but he opposes the EPA plan.
“It’s just that we want to make sure that, as the EPA regulations are finalized, that they’re done so in a way that takes into consideration affordability for customers,” he said.
Thomas Boylan of the Zero Emission Transportation Association is not buying the arguments against the EPA’s move. He said the rules will create certainty for companies that will lead to consumer choice.
“It will become so normalized that it won’t even warrant a second thought in most folks’ minds,” he said
We’ll see.
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AROUND THE STATE
Final arguments have concluded in the state’s attempt to close Greensboro’s 72-bed Savannah Court of Lake Oconee senior care home. Now it’s up to Administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot to decide the facility’s fate.
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Hopes of housing homeless people are caught in a bureaucratic slog in Glynn County. Tiny houses built for the unhoused sit empty as ordinances complicate plans to put them in use.
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Two more Georgia companies are accused of exploiting skilled Mexican engineers. This time it’s a LaGrange auto parts factory and a Calhoun flooring and surface material plant, according to new federal lawsuits.
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UPS UNSEATS RIVAL FOR USPS BUSINESS
Sandy Springs-based UPS will replace rival FedEx as the primary postal service air cargo carrier of the U.S Postal Service beginning in September.
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A man who protested the planned city public safety training center by setting fire to Atlanta police motorcycles was granted $75,000 bond Monday. John Robert Mazurek faces one charge of arson in the first degree.
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NATION AND WORLD
Despite a delay caused by heavy thunder and lightning, thousands turned out for Monday’s Easter egg roll at the White House. This year’s theme: “EGG-ucation.”
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Google will purge billions of records containing the personal information of more than 136 million U.S. users of its Chrome web browser in an illegal surveillance settlement.
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SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS
The rain can’t stop the Atlanta Braves. The team beat the Chicago White Sox 9-0, despite rain storms in the Windy City that forced the shortening of Monday’s game to eight innings.
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Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray was named NBA Eastern Conference player of the week on Monday. Murray averaged more than 28 points and 10 assists in four games between March 25-31.
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ROSANNE CASH CELEBRATES PAST, FUTURE
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
Singer Rosanne Cash talks the past, present and future as she celebrates the 30th anniversary of “The Wheel” ahead of her performance Sunday at the Buckhead Theatre.
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Lakewood vs. Ameris. Concert bookings are down at Lakewood Amphitheatre — Atlanta’s one-time concert venue king — as they increase at Ameris Bank Amphitheater in Alpharetta.
MORE TO EXPLORE
» Billionaire investor praises Atlanta’s business growth, opportunity
» 4 die in North Georgia crashes hours apart when drivers flee from police
» 5 family friendly spring break ideas near Atlanta
» New Athens-based AI startup launches, raises more than $4 million
» Cox Enterprises launches Cox Farms, indoor farming division
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ON THIS DATE
April 2, 1974
Eve Pearson, a college student who became known as “the rocking chair girl,” left a Milledgeville prison.
Her crime? Taking a $5 rocking chair from an abandoned farmhouse. She said the experience made her “wiser, meaner and more self-assured.”
Credit: File photo
Credit: File photo
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
Credit: John Spink
Credit: John Spink
ONE MORE THING
Watch your step. It’s snake-bite season.
Right about now those slippery critters are coming out of hiding to soak up some rays just like the rest of us. And with their ability to camouflage, it’s possible to be bitten, experts say.
The good news: Only seven of Georgia’s 47 snake species are venomous. The ones to look out for are the Eastern diamondback, timber and pigmy rattlers, the eastern and Florida cottonmouths, the copperhead and the coral snake.
And if you’re like me, just the thought of snakes sends shivers up your spine. But they are a necessary part of the ecosystem, ridding us of rats, mice and other animals considered pests. So pick your poison, I guess?
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Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at leon.stafford@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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