Morning, y’all! More bird talk to start the day: Did you know about 96 million Americans like to bird watch, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? You don’t need to go anywhere to watch birds, since they’re pretty much everywhere, and soon it’ll be time to put those skills to work! The 2025 Great Backyard Bird Count runs between Feb. 14 and Feb. 17, and all you need to do is spend a few minutes looking, listening and, most exciting of all, filling out a form to help scientists learn more about local bird populations. Seriously though, it’s fun! Here’s how to get involved.
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DEI DISARRAY
Credit: File Photo/AJC
Credit: File Photo/AJC
A mysterious email made its way around Georgia Tech late last week instructing recipients to delete diversity, equity and inclusion content from the school’s websites. Now, administrators are saying the email was not approved for release, and contained “misinformation,” though they didn’t say exactly what the problem was.
- What the email said: The email, sent by a communications officer in the School of Interactive Computing, described a “recent directive” from the University System of Georgia to “delete all content” containing specific DEI-related words, such as, unsurprisingly, “diversity,” “equity” and “inclusion.”
- Were things actually deleted? The short answer is yes. The long answer is yes … but the changes are confusing to keep up with as pages keep being taken down and then put back up. “There are websites that are being shuffled around behind the scenes,” one Tech Ph.D student told the AJC.
- An important detail: Tech decided to discontinue DEI programs back in 2023. Also that year, the USG sent Lt. Gov. Burt Jones a report showing its schools, which includes Tech, spent millions of dollars worth of salaries for diversity staffers, included need-based aid and programs to fulfill federal requirements.
- Federal influences: Georgia Tech relies heavily on federal funding, and many in the Tech community have surmised that changes happening behind the scenes (or in errant emails) are designed to align with the new Trump Administration’s anti-DEI directives. A response from the USG seems to reflect that as well:
“In keeping with the expectations of the new federal administration, USG complies with all state and federal regulations to ensure decisions are based on merit and equal opportunity for all,” the USG said in a statement.
Not signed up yet? What’re you waiting for? Get A.M. ATL in your inbox each weekday morning. And keep scrolling for more news.
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CELEBRATING BLACK CRAFTSMANSHIP
Credit: Courtesy Chronicle Books
Credit: Courtesy Chronicle Books
“I don’t want handwork to be demeaned, because throughout history, being a blacksmith, carpenter or brick mason were some of the most respected and lucrative careers to have. But now, the way America works, that narrative is getting lost and we’re getting divorced from our hands in this modern world.”
That’s an amen-worthy quote from Atlanta-based woodworker Robell Awake, who makes the kind of really cool chairs that people who care about really cool chairs (and there are many) drool over. He creates his Ethiopian-inspired pieces using a process called greenwork, in which the pieces are carved straight from the log.
He’s also the author of a new book called “A Short History of Black Crafts in Ten Objects.” The book shares the stories and visions of artists like:
👗 Anne Lowe: The seamstress who designed Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ wedding gown in 1953
🪑 Richard Poyner: An enslaved craftsman whose chairs begat an entire legacy of chairmaking in Tennessee and inspired Awake’s own work.
🔎 Read more about Awake’s work here.
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YOUR POLITICS RUNDOWN
Let’s do this! By the way, if you’re jonesing for more political news, you’ll love the AJC’s Politically Georgia newsletter. PG host Adam Beam is great. When I met him, we just ended up chatting about football for half an hour. Anyway, he’s your guy for deep-dive politics.
✅ Doug Collins confirmed as VA Secretary: The former Georgia Congressman was also an Air Force Reserve chaplain. He got yea votes from half of the Democratic caucus, including Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
💸 The New Georgia Project is struggling: The Stacey Abrams-founded voter registration project was once a beacon for Democratic activists in Georgia. Now it’s falling apart after being hit with a historic fine last month for violating campaign finance laws.
Longtime political organizer Eric Robertson had harsh words for the group: “The progressive infrastructure in Georgia is not decaying. It’s being killed by mistakes and deliberate actions. And that’s enraging to me.” Yikes.
🗳️ The State Election Board hires an election skeptic: The Republican majority on the board chose Elizabeth Ann Delmas to be one of two investigators tasked with looking into allegations of election fraud and irregularities in Georgia. She’s experienced, with past roles as an investigator for the U.S. Department of Defense and as a Sandy Springs police detective. But critics point to her Republican ties, open questioning of the 2020 presidential election outcome, and previous voting-related actions. (The investigators are supposed to be nonpartisan.)
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THE TRUCKS OF THE FUTURE ARE HUNGRY
Credit: Courtesy Savannah Economic Development Authority and HydroFleet
Credit: Courtesy Savannah Economic Development Authority and HydroFleet
Fancy zero emission vehicles called hydrogen fuel cell trucks are now prowling around Georgia, delivering goods and parts from the coast. Of course, even super green trucks need fuel. North Carolina-based HydroFleet said it will invest nearly $33 million to build a hydrogen production and fueling station in the Savannah suburb of Pooler to service them.
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FOR LOVE AND COUNTRY
Credit: Phil Skinner/AJC
Credit: Phil Skinner/AJC
The LOVE Fund, a project set up by Home Depot, is helping veterans experiencing homelessness get back on their feet. The Home Depot Foundation Landlords, Organizations, and Veterans Engagement Fund was started last summer. A series of local nonprofits collaborate on the grants, which veterans can use to find stable housing.
A very Atlanta concern: Veterans account for 13% of the homeless population in the U.S. That means roughly 35,000 veterans don’t know where they’re going to sleep tonight. Atlanta has one of the highest populations of homeless veterans. This information is from Open Doors, a nonprofit that manages the LOVE fund.
One family at a time: Open Doors says last year more than 46 households, about 95 people in all, received LOVE Fund grants.
One of them was Michael Glenn (above), a disabled veteran who served in the U.S. Air Force in the 1990s. When he encountered hardship, his veterans benefits and contractor paychecks weren’t enough to get by. He and the people that work with the LOVE fund stress that, with the right combination of misfortune, homelessness can happen to anyone.
“You see how easy that is to happen. I can’t imagine the spiral of despair and loneliness,” Glenn said. With a little help, he says he’s building a better future for himself and his family.
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NEWS BITES
Turns out Kirk Cousins was injured before the Falcons’ late season slide
Let the conspiracy theories fly!
How the Hawks can improve their roster before Thursday’s NBA trade deadline
Remember, we’re in rebuild mode now.
A Georgia company wants to create sodas like ‘five star chefs’
OK, some of the New Creation Soda cans say … contains pecans? I’m intrigued.
Waffle House is adding a 50 cent surcharge to eggs due to bird flu woes
And we’ll say, “Yes ma’am/sir, thank you for the eggs ma’am/sir” when our orders come out and then keep our mouths shut.
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ON THIS DATE: FEB. 5, 1922
Credit: File photo
Credit: File photo
From the Atlanta Constitution’s Sunday Magazine: What Is the Upholstered Life Doing to Us Americans? Many Fear That Love of Ease and Luxury, Dislike of Physical and Mental Effort and Aversion to Child-Rearing Are Killing America at the Top.
Lamenting the softness of younger generations? Ah, some things never change. Then you start to read through this interesting article, come across phrases like “eugenicists,” " too many racial ideas” and “city people have more brains than country people” and uhh, you really hope some things have.
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ONE MORE THING
I swear I’ll ease up on the bird stuff, but shoutout to the knowledgeable gentlemen at the Wild Birds Unlimited in Marietta. My husband used to be normal about birds before he met y’all, and now he harbors very strong feelings about red-winged blackbirds.
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Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tellus@ajc.com.
Until next time.
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