Welcome to Starting5, your daily rundown of five ATL news items that should be on your radar or in your group chat. Our morning primer covering culture, politics, sports, and more, is your cheat sheet on what’s buzzing in the A. Diddy Trial: Male Exotic Dancer Testifies Today marks the eighth day of Sean “Diddy” […]
Atlanta
Posted inPolitics & Policy, State Politics
Keisha Lance Bottoms Interview: ‘I’m Standing Up and I’m Fighting Back’
When Keisha Lance Bottoms first ran for mayor of Atlanta in 2018, part of her campaign’s appeal was that she was deeply rooted in Black Atlanta. Supporters loved to wear T-shirts emblazoned with “My mayor’s name is Keisha” from the barbershop to the neighborhood BBQ. Proudly repping the city’s southwest side, she declared victory after […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Why Black Parents Need to Talk to Their Kids About Guns
When TeKesia Shields founded Mother’s Against Gang Violence in 2016, it was a group for parents to learn how to recognize signs that their child might be involved in gang activity. The organization was born out of Shields’ desire to reflect on her own mistakes. In 2016, she found out her 17-year-old son was in […]
Posted inCulture, Higher Education
Morehouse College Graduation: Celebrating Brotherhood and Black Excellence
(Photos by Ari Skin) An African drum procession. Fraternity members barking in celebration. Black kings adjusting each other’s proverbial crowns. There’s no graduation quite like Morehouse College’s commencement — a spectacular array of pageantry that marks the matriculation of hundreds of Black men every year and reinforces the HBCU’s status as a beacon of Black […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, State Politics
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Announces Run for Governor
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms officially entered the race for governor on Tuesday morning, joining what’s expected to be a crowded field of candidates vying to replace Brian Kemp as Georgia’s next top executive. In a wide-ranging interview with Capital B Atlanta on Tuesday, Bottoms explained her decision to run for governor, her plans […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
After Toxic Fire and Public Outcry, BioLab to Shut Down
BioLab will not resume manufacturing at its Conyers facility, the company announced Thursday, following a massive chemical fire last September that sent toxic smoke across metro Atlanta. “After taking steps to meet customer needs through alternative production, and in considering our future business needs carefully, we have made the difficult decision to not restart manufacturing […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Public Services
Why Electricity Rates in Georgia Rose $516 Per Year on Average
Rising energy costs have become a major financial hurdle for Black Georgians in recent years, with power bills at times matching or exceeding what some in Georgia pay for their monthly rent or mortgage. Georgia Power customers like Jennifer Morton told Macon’s 13WMAZ in July that her most-recent monthly power bill was $1,200. “We went […]
Posted inHealth, Maternal Health
She Is Medically Brain Dead. Georgia’s Abortion Law Is Keeping Her Body Alive.
In Georgia, a Black pregnant woman declared brain dead after a medical emergency is being kept on life support for three months so that her fetus can develop — a course of action over which her family says they have been given no choice because of the state’s strict anti-abortion law. According to the Associated […]
Posted inHigher Education
Who Is F. DuBois Bowman, the Next President of Morehouse?
Morehouse College has selected one of its own to grab the baton as the school’s next president. Public health leader and biostatistician F. DuBois Bowman — who graduated from the institution in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics — will join the school as its 13th president at a time of great upheaval in […]
Posted inHousing
Revamped Motel Gives Atlanta’s Unhoused a Second Chance — But for How Long?
Malcolm Walker was grateful to have a roof over his head on Monday after spending the past six months living under a bridge. The 32-year-old Atlanta resident was one of up to 80 unhoused people living in tents at the Pryor Street homeless encampment — located downtown under Interstate 20 — before a crew of […]