Morning, y’all! We’re less than a month away from the iconic AJC Peachtree Road Race, and it’s time to get judgy. No, literally. Please help us judge the national anthem singing contest. The winning songbirds will warble at the start line of the PRR and the Chick-fil-A Peachtree Junior. Listen and vote here.
Let’s get to it.
HOW ICE ARRESTS AFFECT IMMIGRANT BUSINESSES
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Plaza Fiesta, a Latin-centric shopping center, is just one cluster of immigrant-led businesses along Buford Highway’s diverse length. Months after the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown began, Plaza Fiesta’s proprietors have seen the consequences firsthand.
Less business, fewer workers: Jose Olague of Olague’s Sport estimates his store’s sales are down between 40% and 60% year over year. He’s had to lay off a worker and cut corners to adjust.
Fear keeps people away: Julio Gutierrez, a barber at Plaza Fiesta, noted a roughly 40% decrease in business. He said community members are afraid and sometimes ask if immigration officers have been to the property.
Immigrants are missing out on help and community: Lily Pabian, the executive director of We Love Buford Highway, said fewer families are coming to the advocacy group’s monthly food distribution event. At the most recent event, 13 out of the 50 families scheduled to receive food didn’t show up.
🔎 READ MORE: Immigrant business owners have to make tough decisions on many fronts
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KEY GA COUNTY WON’T PAY FOR CAMPUS POLICE
Barrow County officials said they won’t continue to share the cost for school resource officers with the school district. The decision is especially noteworthy because Barrow was the site of last year’s deadly Apalachee High School shooting.
- Barrow County and the Barrow County School District have split the costs of deputies in schools since 2017, but the number of desired deputies increased after the Apalachee shooting last September.
- If they stop contributing, the school district will be on the hook for about $1 million.
- The district is considering a property tax increase to pay for the 24 police officers they want stationed among their schools.
- School board officials and local residents critical of the decision want to discuss it at a county commission meeting next week.
Meanwhile, Georgia decided in 2018 to give local school districts more than $450 million in grants to pay for security upgrades. Several have used the money for extra security staff.
COBB COUNTY’S FIRST FEMALE POLICE CHIEF
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC
Shameta Jones-Harrell was sworn in as the city of Austell’s new police chief this week, making her the first woman to hold the position for any Cobb County police agency.
Jones-Harrell detailed her goals for the precinct and for keeping her much-loved home of Austell safe:
- Getting the department accredited by the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police. “It gives us some formality,” she told the AJC. “It gives us some structure and holds us accountable. It gives us some discipline.”
- Bringing more women onto the force and starting a mentorship program for girls to show them the positive side of law enforcement.
Jones-Harrell also wants to continue the agency’s community-building efforts and make stronger connections with neighboring agencies.
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
📱 Insurance Commissioner John King, who is vying for a spot to challenge Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2026, claims Ossoff and fellow Sen. Raphael Warnock ignored his calls during the U.S.’ withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. However, emails tell a different story.
💉 Childhood measles vaccination rates fell after COVID-19 in 80% of the more than 2,000 U.S. counties that provide such data.
🍄🟫 Two Chinese researchers were charged with smuggling a crop-killing fungus into the U.S. last summer. It’s called Fusarium graminearum and produces a disease called Fusarium head blight that kills cereal crops. It’s already a problem in the U.S., causing an estimated $1 billion in annual losses for wheat and barley crops.
LET’S GET FRUITY
Credit: Virginia Willis/AJC
Credit: Virginia Willis/AJC
My, what a lovely sonker! The world of baking is full of amusing terms. As we enter prime fruit dessert season, brush up on your obscure baked goods lexicon:
- buckle: a yellow cake topped with fruit and then baked so the cake and the juices get all gooey together
- slump: steamed dumplings with stewed fruit, made with sweetened biscuit dough dropped into the bubbling mixture
- sonker: a deep-dish pie made with fruit or sweet potatoes
Language being what it is, one person’s slump is another person’s grunt, and a sonker by any other name could simply be a pie. But why bring a strawberry pie to the cookout when you can bring a strawberry sonker instead?
MAKE IT: Easy rustic recipes to shake up your baking language
NEWS BITES
From ‘flirtationship’ to commitment, modern dating happens in four stages
As long as it’s not a situationship. No one has time for that. Have I bewitched you, body and soul, or not? Would you lay with me in a field of stone? It’s a simple yes or no.
The inaugural Black Romance Book Fest was a smashing success
Yeah, see above. Queen Beverly Jenkins doesn’t write lush historical romance so you can read it in a situationship.
The 20th anniversary of MomoCon brought record attendance
Because nerds are the coolest, obviously.
Explaining Labubu, a viral Chinese toy that’s become a fashion statement
I don’t like the way it’s looking at me.
ON THIS DATE
June 5, 1919
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
From the front page of The Atlanta Journal: Suffragists of city happy over Senate victory. News of the passage of the Susan B. Anthony national suffrage amendment was received in Atlanta Thursday with varied comment by leading women suffragists of the state. All were unanimous in expressing their delight that the amendment had passed, but they differed both in their plans and their prophesies regarding the possible ratification of the amendment by the state legislature ... Some ... expressed the fond hope that Georgia will lead the country in being the first state to ratify it.
The U.S. Senate passed the 19th Amendment, recognizing a woman’s right to vote, on June 4, 1919. I don’t know what our foremothers were on, but Georgia was absolutely not the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment. In fact, the state didn’t ratify it until 1970.
ONE MORE THING
Pro tip: Did you screw up your pie recipe? Congratulations, it’s now a strudel. Or a cobbler. Call it “rustic” and slap some ice cream on it. That’s the beauty of baking. If it tastes good, you did it right.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at [email protected].
Until next time.
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