Morning, y’all! Happy Day After The Super Bowl to everyone who doesn’t care about the Super Bowl and was just waiting for everyone to stop talking about it. Give us another, say, 24 hours and we’ll be good. Looks like we’ll get a lot of rain this week, but since it won’t get too cold, it will thankfully stay rain.
A LOT GOING ON IN THE PETRI DISH
Credit: Grandbrothers/Dreamstime/TNS
Credit: Grandbrothers/Dreamstime/TNS
Major cuts are supposed to hit the National Institutes of Health today, and they’re going to make a mess in Georgia. The state’s universities, hospitals and businesses received more than $780 million in NIH support from September 2023 to September 2024, amounting to an estimated $2 billion a year in economic impact. NIH also employs about 11,800 people in Georgia. Now experts are worried about the future of, well, nearly everything: less money for cancer research and new treatments, dwindling jobs, and even the international reputation of the American bioresearch sector.
Maybe it’s not the best time to mention this, but the person who recently contracted a rare measles case in metro Atlanta? Now their family members have it. The Georgia Department of Public Health says they were ready for this development, though, and no one else has been infected.
Oh, and FYI, a new strain of bird flu has been detected in the U.S.. Not a good time for that, either? It’s in Nevada, so not an immediate threat here. We have enough to worry about!
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GEORGIA CHURCHES CHALLENGE ICE
Credit: Miguel Martinez/ AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/ AJC
A Georgia-based Baptist group has joined a suit against the Department of Homeland Security after it rolled back a Biden-era policy that disallowed federal immigration arrests in places like schools, churches and hospitals.
The Decatur-based Cooperative Baptist Fellowship includes about 1,400 churches across the southeast. While the group already had concerns, they said the ICE arrest of a man outside a church in Tucker last month compelled them to act. The lawsuit was originally filed in Maryland by a group of Quaker churches. Together, the suit is believed to be the first legal challenge to the reversal from faith-based organizations.
WHAT DO SPORTS BANS ACTUALLY MEAN TO TRANS PEOPLE?
Credit: Jason Getz / AJC
Credit: Jason Getz / AJC
Late last week, the Georgia Senate approved a bill banning transgender girls and women from playing organized sports according to their gender identity in K-12 schools and colleges. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order that achieves a similar end.
Now, these aren’t some casual, back-burner moves. The bill that passed the Senate has the backing of Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is likely to run for governor in 2026. And across the Capitol, House Speaker Jon Burns has thrown his weight behind a similar bill named after Riley Gaines, the former University of Kentucky swimmer turned conservative activist.
For all the attention these bills are getting, they don’t seem to affect a lot of people at face value. (Trans women and girls make up a vanishingly small proportion of student athletes.) Proponents of the bills say they’re about ensuring fairness in girls’ and women’s sports. But many trans people still see the bills as dangerous, even if they’re not trying out for a soccer team any time soon.
I spoke to a few trans Southerners and asked them what effect these legislative moves actually have on their communities:
It overwhelms people’s attention: “What’s represented in sports bans is ‘attention flooding’ — simply trying to create narratives mostly out of thin air to turn us into boogeymen,” said Elaine, a 23-year-old trans woman who works in cybersecurity.
While she says sports bans may legally impact a few individuals, they also pose a larger danger. “Now every day feels like I have to check if things have gotten worse, if I’m going to lose access even as an adult to medications that help me live well.”
She also worries about how these bills will erode public perception of trans people. “All the while, lots of young people will be getting the message that this is normal, that acceptance was temporary but will be retracted regularly, and that we’re just targets and victims.”
Concerns are all tied together: One expert in transgender medicine operating in the South told me the rhetoric of anti-trans legislation affects everything and puts people in a state of fear. She says she’s seeing access to trans medical care diminishing around the country even before laws are enforced because people are nervous about future restrictions. As a result, trans patients and their families are getting left in the dark.
“The cumulative impact of all of these laws is that it appears totally reasonable to hate trans people,” she said. “I think we’re going to see violence, the withdrawal of medicine. Trans healthcare is lifesaving. Anybody who discounts that key piece is not facing their facts and data.”
THE WEEK AHEAD
⚾ WEDNESDAY 2/12: Braves fans, get ready to hear the sweetest words of spring: “Pitchers and catchers report.”
🏎️ THURSDAY 2/13: Festivities for the Daytona 500 begin at Florida’s Dayton International Speedway. The race itself is on Sunday.
💝 FRIDAY 2/14: It’s Valentine’s Day! Do you have plans yet? (Those plans could also be a total, intentional lack of plans too.) If not, we have some ideas.
OOPSIE DAISY
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
The Savannah Bananas made a teeny weeny, not-important-at-all mistake when setting up their ticket lottery system for the upcoming season. The Bananas notified 45,000 hopeful fans that they’d get to buy tickets, which was … about 41,000 more people than they meant to tell. (The Bananas’ home park only seats 5,000, by the way.)
Ever the crowd pleasers, the team is now a-peeling* to fans with free ticket options to disappointed fans. If you can get out to a game, though, it’s totally worth it.
*blame our copy editor Sabrina for this one
NEWS BITES
Doctors say the stress of the Super Bowl can hurt your heart
Yeah, Atlantans definitely don’t need to be told that. We know.
Super Bowl champions share ways to keep your cool in tough situations
One example is “visualize your success,” which is probably much easier when there’s not a 300lb lineman blocking your view.
Georgia State wins, Georgia Tech loses, Hawks win, UGA loses
Aw, good job, Hawks!
Cracker Barrel says it won’t raise egg prices after Waffle House did
With all due respect, Cracker Barrel, when you open a location a mile from me and then stay open 24 hours like a warm lemon-yellow beacon of comfort in the night, we’ll talk.
ON THIS DATE
Feb. 10, 1936
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
From the front page of the Atlanta Constitution: ‘Foods on Parade,’ Cooking School, Will Open at Georgia Tomorrow. Miss Ruth Chambers to demonstrate “Symphonies in Foods” for First Lecture of Four-Day Series.
Apparently this cooking series was hosted by none other than the Atlanta Constitution! Recipes on offering included “red hot” crown roast, refrigerator gingerbread and peach short cake. A symphony, indeed.
ONE MORE THING
I spent some time at Dickey Farms in Musella this weekend, where they make the best peach ice cream you’ve ever tasted. I know it sounds like hyperbole, but I mean what I say. They make the best peach ice cream you’ve ever tasted. (You have to get it from the machine, though. The pints are good but it’s not the same.)
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tellus@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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