Morning, y’all! I’m trying very hard not to be poetic about the azaleas. Or the languid wisteria (invasive! no!), or the iridescence of pale blooms fluttering on the new-green trees. I absolutely did NOT lose my breath when the first hummingbird of the season alit outside my kitchen window yesterday. Actually, you know what? There’s a lot going on lately. Maybe we deserve to get a little poetic if it moves us.
Let’s get to it.
MASSIVE LAYOFFS AT THE CDC
Credit: Ben Gray/AP
Credit: Ben Gray/AP
Staffers at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control knew more cuts were coming as the Trump administration continues to slash federal programs. But the reality of Tuesday’s round of layoffs is just beginning to sink in.
- About 10,000 people across the entire U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are expected to be affected.
- The CDC, which is a part of HHS, will lose about 2,400 of their roughly 12,000 staffers.
- The layoffs will affect positions across the board: scientists, researchers, doctors and support staff working in areas such as birth defects, sexually transmitted diseases, environmental health, violence prevention, tuberculosis and domestic HIV prevention.
Experts say these cuts will affect all Americans, and Georgians in particular. The CDC’s HIV work has helped the state tackle high rates of infection. In fact, Atlanta has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the nation.
More than 100 demonstrators gathered outside of Atlanta’s two CDC locations yesterday in what has become a weekly gathering protesting the reduction of the agency.
“Right now, we’re really as much concerned about the impact of all these personnel and funding cuts on public health writ large in the entire U.S.,” said Dr. Tony Fiore, who retired in 2021 from the CDC as an epidemiologist. He and other current and former CDC professionals were among the demonstrators.
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SCORE ONE IN THE WATER WARS
Credit: File/AJC
Credit: File/AJC
While Georgia vs. Alabama may be a marquee ticket in the SEC world, our two states have been fighting a much bigger battle: access to a shared water supply from the Lake Allatoona reservoir.
A federal judge just handed Georgia a win in this ongoing struggle, assuring water to hundreds of thousands of customers in Cobb County and nearby Cartersville.
Georgia asked to increase its daily withdrawals in 2018 to accommodate Atlanta’s growing suburbs and was granted the increase in 2021. Alabama challenged that ruling, which led to this recent decision.
Here’s your fun fact for the day: Lake Allatoona was originally created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1940s as a hydropower reservoir and flood control point.
And, trivia question: How many natural lakes are there in the state of Georgia? Answer at the bottom.
ATLANTA RAPPER’S DEATH RULED AN ACCIDENT
Credit: Prince Williams/WireImage/Getty Images
Credit: Prince Williams/WireImage/Getty Images
Questions cascaded after Atlanta rapper Young Scooter died Friday while running from officers responding to a 911 call.
Yesterday, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said the rapper, whose given name is Kenneth Bailey, died from “extensive blood loss” after cutting his leg on a wooden fence. His death has been ruled an accident.
Bailey’s family still has questions, like who called 911 to his house and what occurred to get police involved.
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
👨🏻⚖️ Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Nels Peterson was sworn in yesterday and gave quite a speech to kick off his tenure.
“What we have had in this country for the last 250 years, as imperfect as it has been — especially here in the South — is so rare,” Peterson said. “Yet we often take it for granted. If we are to continue to improve the many blessings that flow through the rule of law, we cannot continue taking it for granted.”
🗳️ A Democratic-backed candidate won the hotly contested Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, defeating a candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The race was considered by some to be an early referendum on Trump’s presidency so far.
💬 New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker put up a marathon Senate speech of 25 hours and 5 minutes, to show Democratic opposition to Trump’s policies. His feat set the record for longest continuous Senate floor speech in the chamber’s history.
⏱️ COMING SOON: Today is the second-to-last day of the 40-day 2025 Georgia legislative session, which feels like it’s gone on for 40 years. AJC political reporter Adam Beam tells me Thursday is a committee work day, which gives lawmakers one more chance to get their bills through committee before Friday’s big finish. We’ll have more on Sine Die tomorrow.
IN PRAISE OF THE ‘LAZY LAWN’
Credit: Erik Meadows
Credit: Erik Meadows
Confession: I live in one of those neighborhoods where people care a lot about their grass. The day we moved in, I listened to a neighbor describe in detail the War-of-the-Roses level tension between her lawn, which was fescue, and her neighbor’s, which was zoysia. Our HOA dinged us for our lawn before we even moved in.
Don’t be like me. Be like the AJC’s Nedra Rhone, who has a great take on the “lazy lawn” movement. A “lazy lawn” by any other name would be as sweet: free-growing, sustainable, biodiverse native plants and ground cover that encourage pollinators and other important members of the local ecosystem to pay a visit.
“When you listen to nature, it can tell you what it needs: ground cover or mulch to crowd out weeds or stones to redirect water and prevent erosion,” Rhone writes.
NEWS BITES
Falcons owner Arthur Blank discusses his hourlong phone call with Kirk Cousins
Oh, to be a fly on that probably very fancy wall ...
Yankee’s slugger Giancarlo Stanton say’s he’ll continue to use torpedo bats after injury return
Remember when Stanton nearly got his face caved in by a fastball 11 years ago? He has every right to be excited about new and improved baseball punishers.
Escaped otter in Wisconsin is home safe, but zoo says her pal is still on the loose
How do you know they’re pals? Things happen when you’re on the lam. I bet they’re enemies now.
More than 20 food and drink events to check out this April in metro Atlanta
It’s the season for drinking warm craft beer out of a plastic cup while eating hot plated food off the top of a trash can! (But seriously, you know you’ll still enjoy yourself.)
Val Kilmer, ‘Top Gun’ and Batman star, dies at 65
RIP, Iceman.
ON THIS DATE
Credit: File photo
Credit: File photo
From the front page of the Atlanta Constitution: Choking back tears, Eve Pearson, “the rocking chair girl,” left prison Monday and began the journey back to the college education interrupted nearly a year ago.
She apparently stole a rocking chair from an abandoned farmhouse. The Les Miserables of Milledgeville!
ONE MORE THING
Zero! Yes, there are ZERO natural lakes in Georgia. Everything you know is a lie. Well, unless you knew that already.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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