Morning, y’all! Congratulations to the Seattle Seahawks for making the New England Patriots lose the Super Bowl. It’s nothing personal, Pats fans. We’re still very scarred down here.
Let’s get to it.
NEW GEORGIA ICE FACILITY WILL OPEN SOON
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has officially purchased an industrial warehouse in Social Circle, Georgia, to convert into an immigration detention facility.
- Prominent leaders in Social Circle, a city about 45 miles east of Atlanta, are against the plan, but say there’s nothing they can do to stop it because moves by the federal government supersede local regulations.
- Social Circle residents protested the detention center at a Jan. 6 community meeting and a Jan. 14 demonstration.
- The warehouse will have the capacity for 10,000 detainees. It could start filling up as soon as April.
The Trump administration is planning large warehouse conversions in six other cities across Missouri, Arizona, Louisiana, Texas and Virginia, as well as 16 smaller detention centers, including one in Jefferson, Georgia. City leaders in some of these locations have tried to block the administration’s detention plans.
🔎 READ MORE: How cities have tried to prevent warehouses from becoming detention centers
‘A judicial emergency’
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Stewart County called out ICE for denying bond hearings for immigrants jailed in the Stewart County Detention Center.
- Judges have repeatedly found the Trump administration’s mandatory-detention policy noncompliant with federal immigration law. Detainees who get this ruling are entitled to bond hearings.
- Federal entities have ignored many of these cases coming from Stewart, creating what the judge called a “judicial emergency” that is clogging up local courts and denying people their legal rights.
🔎 READ MORE: What legal experts want to change
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DOJ MUST UNSEAL FBI RAID DOCS
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Documents related to the FBI’s raid on the Fulton County elections hub must be unsealed by Tuesday, a federal judge ruled.
- Those documents will reveal the grounds the federal government used to justify the FBI’s seizure of 2020 election records last month.
- News organizations and media groups have sought access to the affidavit. Fulton County is also seeking the return of the ballots and other seized material.
“We will fight using all resources against those who seek to take over our elections,” Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts said last week. “Our Constitution itself is at stake in this fight.”
🔎 READ MORE: Fulton says raid violated previous lawsuits
A FAMILY FOCUS AT THE CAPITOL
House GOP leaders recently unveiled a package of bills, all sponsored by Republican women, that address challenges facing working families. They’re part of a larger legislative focus on affordability for Georgia residents. The package includes:
- A bill to expand paid parental leave for state employees from six weeks to nine weeks.
- A bill to allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control, eliminating the need for a doctor’s visit. Supporters say securing transportation, getting time off and having to repeat visits unnecessarily burdens low-income women.
- A bill to create a domestic violence registry for repeat offenders. If passed, Georgia would be the second state with such a resource. Tennessee launched the first list last month.
The bills are also backed by House Speaker Jon Burns and will likely move forward in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
The Georgia Literacy Act
Also cooking at the Georgia General Assembly: A new bipartisan bill that would provide training and support for educators, requires screening for dyslexia and other learning disabilities.
House Education Chairman Chris Erwin called the bill “the most meaningful and significant education legislation the Georgia General Assembly has championed since the HOPE Scholarship in 1992.”
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
💰 Here comes Rick Jackson. The billionaire and political neophyte launched a surprise bid for Georgia governor, shaking up an already crowded GOP primary. He’s pledged to spend at least $50 million of his own fortune on his campaign and came out swinging, calling fellow gubernatorial hopeful Lt. Gov. Burt Jones “weak as can be and as lazy as the day is long.”
🥤 Coca-Cola will move its BodyArmor Sports Nutrition business to Atlanta from New York. The move is part of a larger plan to bring several of the company’s hydration brands under one unit.
🏛️ President Donald Trump endorsed a candidate in the (very, very) crowded race to fill Marjorie Taylor Greene’s U.S. House seat. His pick is former District Attorney Clayton “Clay” Fuller, one of more than a dozen GOP names vying for the position.
NEWS BITES
Super Bowl commercial roundup: Who played for laughs, who played for tears
I liked the one that poked fun at people’s fears of AI, put out by a company that just cut thousands of jobs that may be replaced with AI.
Olympic slopestyler skis down the mountain in a tank top
He’s Finnish, so it makes sense.
Tango dancing, truffle rolling and more Valentine’s Day events in metro Atlanta
They mean chocolate truffles. I was envisioning someone and their beloved snuffling nose-down for underground mushrooms.
Valentine flower imports increase at Miami airport
Five more days. If you need a gentle reminder, lovers, this is it.
ON THIS DATE
Feb. 9, 1925
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
Balto, hero sled dog in Alaska mercy dash, not dead as reported. According to a check made here today, reports that Balto — leader of Gunnar Kaasen’s team of Siberian dogs, which made a trip during a blinding blizzard in the last lap of the relay race with diphtheria antitoxin — is dead, are untrue. Neither Balto nor any of the Kaasen dogs was frozen, as reported from Fairbanks.
Not to worry. Balto, the sled dog who helped deliver life-saving medicine across Alaska, lived for eight more years after this scare. If you want to pay him a visit, his taxidermied form is there for all to admire at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
ONE MORE THING
Before this year’s game, teams that wore white jerseys won 18 of the last 26 Super Bowls (including the One That Shall Not Be Named). Times may be changing, though. The Seahawks are now the third team in a row to win the Super Bowl in colored jerseys. Sports!
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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