Morning, y’all, and welcome to … spring?
Current forecasts call for today’s highs in the mid-60s to crawl into the 70s and maybe even the 80s by the end of the week.
The soul is ready. The sinuses are wary.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT IRAN
Credit: Mike Stewart/AP
Credit: Mike Stewart/AP
The United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran over the weekend — and triggered a war.
Let’s take a quick look at where things stand.
Troops killed: The military announced Sunday that three U.S. troops had been killed during the attacks. Multiple media outlets reported the service members — whose identities have not been released — were killed during an Iranian drone strike on a military base in Kuwait.
- Five more troops were seriously wounded.
- Preliminary estimates had 201 people dead in Iran, where a girls elementary school was hit.
The supreme leader: Officials on both sides confirmed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who led Iran’s Islamic Republic for nearly four decades, had also been killed.
Other fallout: Iran launched airstrikes on Dubai and Bahrain. Pakistanis supporting Iran tried to storm the U.S. Consulate in Karachi, leaving 22 dead. Law enforcement officials are reportedly investigating whether the Iran attacks motivated a mass shooter in Austin, Texas.
Oil prices are up.
What now: Iran’s “new potential leadership” said it’s open to talks with President Donald Trump. Trump — who suggested operations in Iran could last four or five weeks — said he’ll “eventually” do so.
The president said there will likely (and “sadly”) be more American casualties: “That’s the way it is.”
The local angle: Georgia Republicans rallied behind Trump.
- Said U.S. Rep. Mike Collins: “Under President Trump, the United States will no longer stand idly by while our enemies plot against us and chant ‘Death to America.’”
Democrats not so much.
- U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff: “Trump has launched this regime change war and put American forces at risk without presenting evidence of an imminent threat, without clear objectives, without having exhausted diplomacy, without a plan for the aftermath, and without the consent of Congress.”
The opinion page: AJC guest writers of Iranian heritage also weighed in.
📝 Batool Zamani, president of Iranian American Community of Georgia, called for leaders to listen to the Iranian people and their demands for “freedom, accountability and democratic change.”
📝 Shohreh Mirfendereski, a retired DeKalb County teacher, offered her own warning.
- “The experiences of Afghanistan and Iraq offer sobering lessons,” she wrote. “Political transformation imposed from outside rarely produces durable institutions or public trust. Iran’s future must therefore be shaped from within, grounded in domestic legitimacy rather than foreign intervention or symbolic leadership.”
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.
A FAMILY IN MOURNING
Credit: Robert Cooper for the AJC
Credit: Robert Cooper for the AJC
Linda Davis died on Presidents Day in a Savannah-area car crash involving a Guatemalan man being chased by federal immigration agents.
The beloved special education teacher was also a wife, daughter and sister. A karaoke star. A fashionista.
A natural nurturer.
Her family recently sat down with the AJC’s Adam Van Brimmer.
- “She was drawn to those who seemed left behind and needed someone to reach back and say, ‘Hey, what do you need?’” older sister Andrea Chang said. “She was always looking forward in life but always conscious of the importance of looking back to help others.”
🔎 READ MORE: Family of Savannah teacher killed in ICE-involved crash grapples with grief
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
📝 Georgia’s five-day qualifying period for political candidates starts today. Up for grabs: Every seat in the General Assembly, every constitutional state office, a U.S. Senate seat and 14 U.S. House districts.
🔎 How one of Trump’s “pit bulls” paved the way for the FBI’s raid in Fulton. Meet Janice Johnston: Retired obstetrician, state election board member and 2020 conspiracy theorist.
🚨 Troopers arrested and charged a metro county sheriff with DUI. Hall County Sheriff Gerald Couch was pulled over at 10:30 a.m. Friday in a county-issued Chevy Tahoe. Charges include possession of an open container.
🚌 MARTA launching revamped bus network. More buses and shorter wait times, plus a “last-mile” van service. The Gridlock Guy approves.
A LAKE COUNTRY WHODUNIT
Credit: Broly Su / AJC
Credit: Broly Su / AJC
There’s a mystery malingering around Murder Creek. It ain’t what you’re thinking.
“The suspect(s),” writes Putnam County Sheriff Howard R. Sills, “will absolutely use an older-model, American-manufactured pickup truck as his sole or primary mode of transportation. … The bed of such a vehicle will most likely contain rods and reels (especially Zebco model 33) along with cane poles, logging chains, 5-gallon buckets, fatwood lighter knots, and be littered with empty beer cans along with a few plastic bags of garbage.”
This story is an absolute delight — and it’s written by Macon bureau chief Joe Kovac Jr.
We always read Joe Kovac Jr.
🔎 READ MORE: Mystery at Murder Creek: The vanishings no one noticed
BAD DAY FOR A RUN
A retired sergeant working traffic detail at Sunday’s Publix Atlanta Marathon got hit by a car and was briefly hospitalized.
Then things got weird.
- Festivities also included a women’s half marathon event, which served as the USA Track & Field Half Marathon Championships.
- All fine and good … until an official race vehicle led three leading runners off course with less than 2 miles to go.
- Jess McClain, Emma Grace Hurley and Ednah Kurgat finished 9th, 12th and 13th after the nearly half-mile detour.
Top-three finishes would’ve qualified all three women (including Hurley, a Roswell resident and former state champ at Fellowship Christian) for a spot on Team USA during upcoming world championships.
McClain was seen on camera saying “I’m so pissed off.” Hard to blame her.
🔎 READ MORE: Drama mars finish of half-marathon national championships
NEWS BITES
Catherine O’Hara wins posthumous award for ‘The Studio’ at Actor Awards
Yes. We love her. (“Sinners” took top prize at the Oscars precursor formerly known as the SAG Awards.)
Atlanta singer Angie Stone died a year ago. Her son carries on her legacy.
Rapper Swayvo Twain is also the son of late soul legend D’Angelo.
Southern authors’ new collections pack a punch
I’m a big Lauren Groff fan. Also check out these book and author events around Atlanta this month.
ON THIS DATE
March 2, 1971
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
Inside job speculation follows Capitol blast. The bomb that blasted away half a dozen rooms in the U.S. Capitol was detonated in a washroom so little used that Senate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield and many Capitol police did not even know it existed. This led to immediate speculation that Monday’s bombing might have been an inside job, or that the bomb was planted by someone thoroughly familiar with that area of the building.
HOW COULD IT BE AN INSIDE JOB IF NO ONE WHO WORKS THERE EVEN KNOWS THE BATHROOM EXISTS, SENATOR?
ONE MORE THING
March? How is it March?
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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