Morning, y’all! It’s going to be a rainy, hot weekend. Perfect if you’re a mushroom. I respect mycophiles of all sorts, but I’ve never understood the whole mushroom foraging thing. How many of our ancestors lost their lives and tested their digestive fortitude so we could tell the difference between a nice salad ingredient and a deadly poison? I trust their wisdom. And the produce people at Publix.
Let’s get to it.
CHANGING ICE TACTICS COULD THREATEN GA INDUSTRIES
Credit: GoFundMe
Credit: GoFundMe
Maria Bonilla, a worker at a Gainesville poultry plant, is a good example of how complex immigration cases can be and what continued arrests can do to local industries.
- Bonilla grew up in poverty in El Salvador and didn’t even learn to read or write.
- She crossed the U.S. border illegally in 2001 but obtained a work permit to stay and work legally in the country. She’s worked legally in the poultry industry for nearly two decades.
- She also has a clean record and four U.S.-born children, bolstering her claim to legal work.
- To maintain her status, Bonilla was required to regularly check in with ICE, making the trip from Gainesville to Atlanta accompanied by one of her daughters.
- In May, she attended her first ICE check-in since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. She was apprehended and deported.
Experts say this new approach, which targets people with legal work arrangements, could spell changes for industries like Georgia’s poultry sector, which relies heavily on immigrant labor. Immigrant advocates also say apprehending people at ICE appointments is “trapping” people trying to abide by their legal obligations.
🔎 READ MORE: Bonilla’s job supported her family. What they’re doing now to get by
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A HUGE ROUND OF VOTER RECORD CANCELLATIONS IS UNDERWAY
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Nearly 500,000 Georgia voter records are set to be canceled in a new round of sweeps led by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office.
- The mass cancellation will affect 478,000 registrations of people who either no longer live in Georgia or who haven’t voted in several years.
- Raffensperger’s office will mail letters to the affected addresses, notifying potential voters that their registration will be canceled unless they respond or contact local election offices within 40 days.
- Georgia conducts large-scale cancellations every odd-numbered year as a postelection cleanup of the state’s voter registration list.
- Georgia set the record for the largest voter cancellation sweep in 2017 with 534,000 voter registrations removed. Here’s a history of the state’s recent cancellations.
Will your voter registration be canceled? Let’s hope not, but you can check here.
🔎 READ MORE: ‘Accuracy’ or ‘purge?’ Election officials and voting rights advocates disagree
THE DEAL WITH NEW TAX DEDUCTIONS
If you earn tips or overtime pay, you may be eligible for a federal tax break next year under President Trump‘s spending and policy package.
- There are a few tiny details the federal government needs to iron out first, like which workers will actually qualify and how sums should be reported.
- The U.S. Treasury Department is supposed to publish a list by Oct. 2 of occupations that qualify for tax-free tips.
🔎 READ MORE: What to know and what we don’t know yet about tax-free tips
WEEKEND PLANS
Credit: Courtesy Gwinnett County Convention and Visitors Bureau
Credit: Courtesy Gwinnett County Convention and Visitors Bureau
Lots of exciting things afoot this weekend for us non-mushrooms, especially if you’re of the sporty persuasion.
⚾ MLB All-Star Weekend: Get the All-Star experience without setting foot in the stadium at the Capital One All-Star Village at the Cobb Galleria Centre. There’s plenty of interactive activities, special guests and other fun to quench your thirst for good baseball.
⚡ WWE: This is what wrestling fans have been waiting for. Atlanta hosts the NBC prime-time special Saturday Night Main Event and the all-women’s live event Evolution.
🐐 Goat Yoga: Will it be the most focused yoga class you’ve ever taken? No. But it will be the most memorable as dwarf goats disrupt your asanas at this Gwinnett County event.
🐍 Repticon: Commune with reptiles, buy a new slithery buddy and hang out with fellow reptile enthusiasts. Ophidiophobes need not apply.
☀️ Need more inspo? Here are 11 more cool things to do around Atlanta this weekend.
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
💵 Federal regulators have filed a complaint seeking the seizure of Georgia lender First Liberty Building & Loan, accusing the financial institution of operating a $140 million Ponzi scheme.
💰 While Georgia GOP hopefuls jockey for cash and favor ahead of next year’s Senate race, incumbent Jon Ossoff says he’s raised $10 million over the last three months.
✍️ Everyone knows conditions at Fulton County jail need to improve, but there’s a dispute over what kind of accountability should go along with funds earmarked for better staffing.
⚕️ U.N. officials warned millions of people could die of HIV and AIDS by 2029 if U.S.-funded health programs decimated by the Trump Administration aren’t replaced.
NEWS BITES
ESPN graded the Braves’ first half performance and ... yeah
😬😬😬😬😬😬😬😬
Officials are tracking an earthquake swarm near Mt. Ranier but say there is no cause for concern
If there’s no cause for concern, maybe don’t call it an earthquake swarm.
Weighted vests are the new workout trend, but do they work?
I prefer their much chiller cousin, the weighted blanket.
Thousands celebrate viral baby hippo Moo Deng’s first birthday
Happy Belated Birthday to the most ungovernable little hippo, fellow Cancer queen ♋ and the namesake of my girls’ group chat. You know what? We need a photo.
Credit: AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit
Credit: AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit
Perfect.
ON THIS DATE
July 11, 1918
Credit: File photo
Credit: File photo
From the front page of The Atlanta Journal: Cow, Dog and Chickens Figure in Lively Case. One cow, a dog and a flock of chickens were on Thursday the cause of one of the bitterest court fights seen in Recorder George E. Johnson’s court in some time, when W.D. Greene ... had a case made against W.H. Cox, who lives next door to him, claiming that odors from Cox’s cow lot created a nuisance ...
Ah, persnickety hyperlocal court cases just aren’t what they used to be.
ONE MORE THING
Good animals to do yoga with: Goats, sloths, capybaras, tortoises, mid-size cats and dogs
Bad animals to do yoga with: Basically, anything you’ll see at this weekend’s Repticon. Sorry, creepy crawly friends. It’s for everyone’s good.
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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