Morning, y’all! Apparently, Johns Creek is where it’s at. The north Fulton suburb tops a new U.S. News & World Report list ranking the 250 best places to live in the U.S. Literally No. 1! The best of all possible places. (Sorry for being Candide.)
Georgia had a pretty good showing. Alpharetta (No. 24), Roswell (No. 52), Dalton (No. 147), Smyrna (No. 158) and Warner Robins (No. 176) also made the list. Although, if you believe Voltaire, wherever you live is the best place to live because it’s where you’re living right now. We’re gonna need more coffee to unpack that.
Let’s get to it.
A SHIPPING ‘AIR POCKET’
Credit: Courtesy Georgia Ports Authority
Credit: Courtesy Georgia Ports Authority
We humans aren’t very good at delayed consequences, which is why we’ll eat that spicy burrito for dinner and still be surprised when it ruins our morning.
Georgia’s shipping situation is about to feel the delayed wrath of the spicy tariff burrito cooked up by the Trump administration’s tête-à-tête with China. Don’t worry — there’s some good news, too.
- The Port of Savannah, the country’s third-busiest container port, recorded its best April in history despite all of the tariff talk.
- That’s because shipping changes take time. Experts are now bracing for what they’re calling a freight “air pocket,” a dip in shipping volume.
- In this case, it’s caused by the temporary 145% tariff on Chinese goods imposed by the U.S.
- Georgia Ports Authority CEO Griff Lynch says a shipping cycle from China takes about 40 days, from booking to loading to sailing to unloading.
- The good news is, future bookings seem to be up since the Trump administration lowered the tariff rates on China to 30% for 90 days. So, shipping numbers will likely surge back.
However, the whole situation raises confusing questions. For instance, will the fear of tariffs bouncing back up after the 90-day reprieve mean a surge in shipping beforehand? Will it affect how suppliers stock up? Even the experts aren’t sure.
🔎 READ MORE: Why some GA farmers and others affected by the ‘pocket’ are still optimistic
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HER DAUGHTER AND HUSBAND AREN’T THE ONLY ONES
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez/AJC
When Ndahitha Cristobal’s husband was arrested and detained by ICE after a traffic violation, the mother of three picked up cleaning shifts to support her three daughters.
Then, her daughter Ximena Arias-Cristobal was apprehended in the same way. Both father and daughter face deportation to Mexico while Ndahitha Cristobal and other members of her Dalton community are left searching for answers.
🔎 Cristobal talked to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about her experience trying to get her daughter out of jail and why the 19-year-old college student was driving without a license.
The reality is, the Cristobals are one of many immigrant families in the Dalton area feeling the increased danger of deportations and arrests.
- From January to March of this year, ICE lodged 98 requests to pick up immigrants arrested in Whitfield County. That’s more than three times the number of requests made in the last quarter of 2024.
- America Gruner, an immigrant community advocate in Dalton, said she regularly hears of immigrants ending up in ICE custody because they were stopped for traffic violations.
- She says it’s hard not to be skeptical of the claims. After Ximena Arias-Cristobal’s detention, authorities said she had been mistakenly pulled over and dropped the traffic charges against her.
A LOOK BACK AT CREATIONISM IN SCHOOLS
Credit: Madeleine Hordinski/AP
Credit: Madeleine Hordinski/AP
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Scopes trial, when a Tennessee public schoolteacher named John Scopes was convicted of violating the state’s law against teaching human evolution.
Tennessee eventually repealed that law in 1967, but several states had anti-evolution laws on the books until recent decades.
- In 1968, the Supreme Court ruled a similar Arkansas law was an unconstitutional promotion of religion.
- In 1987, the Supreme Court overturned a Louisiana law requiring creationism to be taught alongside evolution.
- Georgia has its own interesting history with creationism. The Cobb County School District used to place a sticker in some textbooks stating human evolution was a “theory, not a fact.” In 2002, a group of parents sued the school system to have the stickers removed, saying they violated the separation of church and state. They were ordered removed four years later.
📋 How many Americans believe in creationism today? According to a 2023-2024 Pew Research Center survey, 17% of U.S. adults agreed humans have existed in their present form since “the beginning of time.”
🌎 What is creationism, anyway? Though there are different ways of defining it, creationism is generally a Bible-based understanding of early history that asserts God created Adam and Eve, from whom all humans derived, and that the biblical flood described in Genesis was real and geologically provable.
COVID BOOSTERS COULD BE HARDER TO GET
The Trump administration says it will limit approval for seasonal COVID-19 shots to seniors and other high-risk groups.
Dr. Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s top vaccine official under Health Secretary and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says the plan is a “reasonable compromise,” and more than 100 million Americans will still qualify for a booster.
Critics say it will limit options for families with young children and take choices away from people who still want to get vaccinated.
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🛡️ President Donald Trump shared his plan to push for a ‘Golden Dome’ missile defense program that would put U.S. weapons in space to intercept any incoming missile strikes.
💸 Elon Musk says he’ll cut back on political spending after pouring cash into Trump’s 2024 run. Musk has also faded from visibility in his newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
🔨 Home Depot reported a boost in Q1 revenue. Seems like more people are taking on smaller home improvement projects themselves.
NEWS BITES
Zoox is the latest autonomous vehicle company coming to Atlanta
Beep, Zoox ... Every autonomous vehicle company name sounds like a benevolent alien.
Markers in blood and urine could reveal how much ultraprocessed food we’re eating
I don’t want to know!
Two former Spanx execs have created the first ‘performance sleep mask’
The idea of a ‘performance sleep mask’ is hilarious, but you can see the vision. Spanx are the world’s hardest-to-remove undergarments, after all. Why not bring that to a sleep mask? (Side note: If you have trouble sleeping, don’t underestimate the power of a good sleep mask and a pair of ear plugs.)
Oscar Mayer’s six Wienermobiles will race before the Indy 500 this weekend in the “Wienie 500”
Those things look like they top out at 40mph. Hey man, wanna redline a Wienermobile?
ON THIS DATE
May 21, 1932
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
From the front page of The Atlanta Constitution: Thirty-five thousand registered Atlanta voters are slated to participate in Atlanta’s first surprise election Wednesday ... A referendum—some kind of a referendum—the point at issue to be closely guarded in secrecy, will be before the voters.
It may provide for a raise in the price of cotton, for recall of President Hoover for failure to keep the nation prosperous, for final adjudication of the time-worn question which college freshmen debate: “Resolved, it is better to be blue than green” or, “Resolved, that the hen that lays the egg is the mother of the chicken rather than the hen that hatches the egg.”
Of course we looked it up. The vote was on whether the people should elect tax assessors. Atlantans decided they should.
ONE MORE THING
Let’s play a game! I’m going to list the names of several autonomous driving tech startups and you tell me which ones I made up: Nuro. Waabi. Oxa. Vay. Sibros. Nexar. Wayve. Navya. Oryx.
Trick question. They’re all real.
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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