A.M. ATL: Meet the new chief justice

Morning, y’all! It’s the beginning of Ramadan today, and Lent is coming up next week. Stay strong, you fasting faithful! Take care of yourselves, too: Here are some tips for practicing healthy fasting during these times. For everyone else, have some extra patience for your hangry friends! Let’s get to it.

THE GA. SUPREME COURT WILL HAVE A NEW LEADER SOON

Credit: David Barnes/AJC

Credit: David Barnes/AJC

Georgia’s Supreme Court justices voted on the next chief justice, and it was a unanimous decision: Presiding Justice Nels Peterson will lead the state’s highest court after current Chief Justice Michael P. Boggs announced he will resign at the end of March.

Who is Nels Peterson?

appointed to the Court in 2016 by then-Gov. Nathan Deal. He was then elected to full six-year terms in 2018 and 2024.
held several legal positions in the state: on the Georgia Court of Appeals, as general counsel for the University System of Georgia and as Georgia’s first solicitor general in the Attorney General’s Office.
practiced law at King & Spalding in Atlanta.
graduated from Kennesaw University and Harvard Law School.

More important things to know:

🕰️ Georgia’s chief justices serve a single four-year term, and are the de facto head of Georgia’s judicial branch. The presiding justice is usually the one voted to fill a vacated spot, like Peterson just was.

👉🏻 With the departure of Boggs, Gov. Brian Kemp will be able to appoint a new justice to the bench. Once that happens, Kemp will have appointed a majority of the nine-member court.

👩‍⚖️ The members of the court also selected Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren to be the new presiding justice, the position Peterson currently holds. Presiding justices fill in when the chief justice is unavailable.

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.

AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT KAZOO STORY

Credit: Joe Kovac Jr. / AJC

I’ve been waiting for this story all week. Good kazoo discourse is hard to find, but the AJC’s Macon Bureau Chief Joe Kovac has us covered. He dug in to the real history of everyone’s favorite (?) humdinger.

Why Macon is kazoo country: Legend has it, the kazoo was invented in Macon by a formerly enslaved man named Alabama Vest and a German clockmaker, Thaddeus Von Clegg. The sonorous instrument was unveiled at the 1852 Georgia State Fair.

Does the legend hold water? Well, you’ll have to read to find out. But let’s just say myth can be as powerful as fact. Whether it is or not, Macon is forever entwined with the kazoo — they even have a kazoo museum! (Kazeum? Kazooum?)

Like a swarm of giant bees: On March 28, thousands of local kazooists will try to set a world record for the largest kazoo ensemble. “That will be easy,” you may be thinking. “Surely no one’s tried that before.”

FALSE. The current record is 5,190 people, set in London in 2011. The Macon kazoo enthusiasts have already tried to beat that record twice. Hopefully the third time is a charm.

J🎶 Join us down the kazoo rabbit hole with the full story. You know you want to!

INFRASTRUCTURE WHEN?

Credit: Jason Getz/AJC

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens touted a raft of future infrastructure development projects in his State of the City address this week. But what about improvements the city has already promised?

The AJC’s Riley Bunch looked over the projects listed under the city’s major infrastructure plan, Moving Atlanta Forward. Among the findings:

More than 100 safe street upgrades and sidewalk installations have not been started yet, despite residents voicing safety concerns for years.
While new fire stations 26 and 30 are now under construction, two more fire hubs, an emergency services station, a police precinct and a highly anticipated 911 center haven’t broken ground.

A 2024 audit also found only about $47 million of the $660 million Moving Atlanta Forward budget had been spent as of August 2024.

Dickens says he understands any frustration, and predicts the number of completed projects will increase a lot over the next two years.

“I’m frustrated too — I live on these roads — it’s reasonable for everybody to be frustrated,” Dickens told the AJC in a recent interview. “We’re trying to deal with it and resolve all the challenges of getting these big projects done.”

GOT MY MOTOR RUNNIN FOR A WILD WEEKEND

Credit: FILE

Happy Friday to all who celebrate! Let’s find you something fun to do this weekend.

⚜️ Party Gras: Mardi Gras parties abound this weekend, from a Block Party in Midtown (right near the AJC offices!) to a Stone Mountain celebration with a marching band and art displays. Learn more here.

🍳 Atlanta Brunch Festival: What a magical combination of words. It kicks off at Atlantic Station with all kinds of deliciousness, plus beer, wine, mimosas and live music.

💵 American Numismatic Association National Money Show: If Mardi Gras festivities are too tame for you, take a walk on the wild side and see millions of dollars worth of rare coins and numismatic treasures at the Cobb Galleria Centre. (Numismatics is the study of currency, specifically coins and bills and such. Enthusiasts are called numismatists.)

🎻 Black Violin: I’m super excited about this. Award-winning violinists Wil Baptiste and Kev Marcus, known as Black Violin, are performing at Atlanta Symphony Hall this weekend. Their performances fuse classical, hip-hop and other genres and invite you to explore what music means to you. Tickets at aso.org.

More fun things to do, including additional info on the above, right here.

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

🏳️‍⚧️ The Georgia House has nixed potential changes to the state’s hate crime laws that would have affected transgender people. The change was initially part of a larger bill restricting trans women and girls from playing in certain sports.

✈️ Delta Air Lines turns 100 this weekend. It began as a crop dusting company in Macon, famous home of the kazoo. Expect many festivities (for Delta) over the next few weeks.

NEWS BITES

A primer on Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday and all that jazz

For the “I don’t know what shrove means and now I’m too afraid to ask” crowd.

NFL unveils a new tool for fans to understand combine results

AJC Sports Daily writer/my A.M. ATL predecessor Tyler Estep calls the NFL combine the “Underwear Olympics” and I’ll never get over that.

Atlanta’s Lil’ Yachty is now a partner in the Atlanta-based cocktail Yacht Water

A match made in brand heaven.

Kansas City Chiefs’ star Travis Kelce says he’ll return next season rather than retire

Oh, you thought you had seen the last of him? He’s on cereal boxes! You’ll never see the last of him!

ON THIS DATE

Feb. 28, 1912

Credit: AJC

From the front page of the Atlanta Constitution: Roosevelt stuck on Maynard’s spit and given roast. The story is about a Senator from Maryland criticizing Roosevelt’s proposal for a popular vote to challenge and reverse judicial decisions. Even more importantly, it gives us a legendary way to say someone’s been roasted. “Thou wast stuck on my spit, and given roast!”

ONE MORE THING

Correction to yesterday’s edition: For some reason, I called Maynard Jackson and his wife Valerie Richardson Jackson “the Maynards” instead of “the Jacksons” yesterday. Jackson was, as you know, Atlanta’s first Black mayor. Maybe I had “Hartsfield-Jackson” in my head and transposed some stuff. Anyway, apologies. The Jacksons!

Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at AMATL@ajc.com.

Until next time.

About the Author