Morning, y’all! The World Cup begins today. No big deal. It’s not like every other billboard, web ad and social media post around the city is covered in soccer balls. Atlanta still has a few more days (until June 15) to stress over its first match.
Let’s get to it.
NEW STUDY WILL LOOK AT INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION IN COASTAL GEORGIA
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
One of Georgia’s most contaminated counties will soon benefit from a $15 million grant to study the effects of the industrial chemicals.
- The city of Brunswick in Glynn County is home to several Superfund sites, contaminated land designated by the federal government for long-term cleanup.
- That’s more than any other Georgia city.
- A team of roughly 50 researchers led by Emory University will use funding granted by the National Institutes of Health to study exposure effects and cleanup options in the area.
- Two types of chemicals are of particular interest: polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a class of now-banned synthetic chemicals; and toxaphene, a pesticide produced for years by a local factory.
- Blood tests have shown high levels of both chemicals in Glynn County residents. With this study, they’ll hopefully get answers and options.
🔎 READ MORE: How community outcry helped bring the study to the area
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DEVELOPER MUST PAY UP OVER NATIVE AMERICAN REMAINS
Credit: Philip Robibero
Credit: Philip Robibero
A Savannah developer will pay $1.1 million to the federal government to settle a whopper of a claim about how it handled Native American remains and artifacts while planning a gated residential community.
- The government says Savannah Land Holdings removed Native American human remains and funerary objects without notification.
- The 2025 suit alleges 80,000 artifacts were not properly curated, and about 3,000 artifacts were either lost or disposed of.
- In one instance, the government said a burial urn “was cleaned and reconstructed, causing the crematory remains inside to be lost.”
- Savannah Land Holdings denies the allegations but has agreed to pay a civil penalty. It will also put an archaeologist in charge of preservation, repatriate remains and funerary objects and curate all artifacts removed from the site.
- The Muscogee (Creek) Nation signed off on the preservation terms.
🔎 READ MORE: In case you weren’t convinced someone’s getting haunted over this
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🗳️ GOP Senate runoff preview: U.S. Rep. Mike Collins is cleaving close to President Donald Trump’s MAGA base, while former football coach Derek Dooley is betting on his outsider status to win him independent and crossover voters.
🚆 Norfolk Southern doesn’t have the crew power to keep trains moving, a powerful rail union claims. The union claims the rail giant’s slow train speeds are due to understaffing. Norfolk Southern says it’s due to weather and unexpected demand. The issue plays out on the backdrop of a controversial $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern by Union Pacific.
📈 What, exactly, is an initial public offering? This glossary helps clear things up, and yes, it’s completely normal to be a little unsure.
‘CURIOSITY IS A THROUGH-LINE’
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Jade Novah has built a successful career in entertainment without recording contracts or sending headshots for auditions.
- The Atlanta-area entertainer gained a following by uploading performance clips covering artists like Rihanna, Beyoncé and Stevie Wonder online.
- Those viral videos led Novah to write and produce three independent albums with her husband, Devin Mykel Johnson, released through their production company, Let There Be Art.
- Wonder became a fan of Novah and eventually invited her to perform for him.
- Her impersonations of female singers also led to roles on NBC’s variety show “That’s My Jam” and in Netflix’s 2025 political comedy produced by Tyler Perry, “Miss Governor.”
Novah, who turned 40 last month, is disrupting how entertainers thrive in the industry. She said her career results from experimentation, community-building and family.
“Curiosity is a through-line to how I approach everything, and I want people to navigate the world by understanding things instead of accepting them as they are in pushing our culture forward,” Novah told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Christopher A. Daniel.
🎤 READ MORE: Novah’s journey began with her first dorm room YouTube video in 2006.
NEWS BITES
USMNT coach says no Americans among top 100 players, yet U.S. can win World Cup
Delusion or a necessary winning attitude? It’s a matter of perspective.
Scientists discover a deep whale graveyard that is teeming with life
Ideal bachelorette party destination. Why go to Nashville when you can go to the deep whale graveyard that’s teeming with life?
Can facial massage sculpt your face? There’s a catch
The catch: eating more than three grains of salt. Then it’s back to where you started.
Visa plugs its payment network into ChatGPT, letting AI agents shop and pay for users
[full body shudder]
ON THIS DATE
June 11, 1994
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
Rison: I still love her. Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Andre Rison, his mansion a heap of charred rubble and his cars thoroughly hammered, said Friday he still loves the woman accused of trashing it all. The woman in question, hip-hop singer Lisa Lopes, 22, of the group TLC, turned herself in on arson and criminal damage charges. ... Rison told WAGA-TV (Channel 5) that he hadn’t spoken to Lopes since his Country Club of the South mansion went up in flames Thursday morning, “but I still love her. I’m in her corner.”
A particularly dramatic entry in Atlanta lore. Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, famously of the hip-hop group TLC, died in a car crash in 2002. She and Rison were on-again, off-again for years before her death. For further reading, Producer Nicole recommends this 2002 AJC retrospective of Lopes in her own words.
ONE MORE THING
I had mofongo for the first time yesterday from La Tropical at Chattahoochee Food Works. The Puerto Rican dish is made with some kind of starch (yucca, in this case), garlic, lard, chicharrones (fried pork rinds) and more garlic. Exquisite. My life is forever changed.
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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