Tuesday timing
Feb. 10 — While February may seem early to get a jump-start on taxes, the Community Assistance Center (CAC) is offering tax preparation help to qualifying households in Metro Atlanta. See our story below to find out how their Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program may be able to help you file this season.
Saturday is Valentine’s Day, and Sarra Sedghi has dining suggestions and special treat tips to bring some sweetness into your celebrations.
Plus, Spruill Studios, a new studio facility in the former Chamblee City Hall, will open in June to provide affordable creative space for artists in Metro Atlanta.
And now for a few headlines:
🚦Sandy Springs is launching its 2026 Transportation Master Plan process and inviting the community to give feedback later this month; officials are also asking the GDOT to communicate more with neighborhoods and share final designs for the Georgia 400 express lane project.
⚡ A state House committee passed a bill to insulate Georgia Power customers from higher costs driven by data center demand.
🚍 MARTA changed course and will allow Breeze Card balance transfers as it switches to a new payment system.
🌆 The Georgia House of Representatives is officially recognizing Tucker’s incorporation day, designating May 2, 2026, as Tucker Day.
⚕️A $21.9 million grant from the Atlanta-based Marcus Foundation will subsidize the largest-ever study of profound autism in children.
📸 Works by local LGBTQ+ photographers are on display at Georgia State University’s Clarkston campus in “Alphabet Redacted.”
🕓 Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter.
• Tax assistance
• Valentine’s Day specials
• Spruill Studios to open
AND
• Stories of Atlanta | Lance Russell
CAC program offers free tax assistance to Metro Atlanta residents earning under $67,000
🗄️ The Community Assistance Center is taking the stress out of tax season for low- and moderate-income earners through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program for the 2026 tax filing season.
The CAC’s free service provides professional tax preparation assistance to households across the Atlanta area with an annual income of less than $67,000. The program also serves individuals with disabilities and taxpayers with limited English proficiency.
CEO Francis Horton III said the annual program reinforces the CAC’s role as a powerful economic driver and a critical support for working families striving toward financial stability.
“Since 2010, CAC’s participation in the VITA program has returned more than $6.3 million in federal and state refunds to the community, ” Horton said. “In 2025, CAC’s VITA program reached a historic milestone, serving the highest number of tax filers in the program’s history and generating the largest total refund amount to date, supported by the highest level of volunteer participation the program has seen.”
📑 Find out more and schedule your appointment here.
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Metro Atlanta Valentine’s Day dining events and specials worth exploring
🍰 Valentine’s Day is not merely for the coupled; if you have love for any entity, you can celebrate, especially if that entity is a fancy dinner or chocolate.
Whether you’re using food to demonstrate your love or simply demonstrating your love of food, Metro Atlanta is packed with dinner deals, special menus, and events that’ll make Valentine’s Day all the more memorable.
From discount dinners at The Colonnade to cookie boxes and crème brûlée bagels – plus a Valentine’s Day Market at Spiller Park Coffee – there are plenty of Valentine’s Day specials to keep on your radar, just in case you haven’t finalized your plans.
💝 Read Sarra’s full list here.
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Former Chamblee City Hall will become Spruill Studios in June
🎨 The Spruill Center for the Arts plans to open Spruill Studios, a new studio facility in the former Chamblee City Hall, to provide affordable creative space for artists in Metro Atlanta.
“With so much upheaval in funding and an increasingly challenging environment for artists, we’re fortunate to be able to offer this subsidized creative space, especially for artists in the North Metro area who hadn’t previously had an opportunity to participate in this type of local hub,” Spruill CEO Alan Mothner told Rough Draft.
According to a press release, renovations are set to begin in March and open in June. Spruill officials will start accepting applications from artists interested in studio spots on March 9.
➳ Read more in Cathy Cobbs’ report here.
‘The Dragon from Below’: Stories of Atlanta by Lance Russell
VIA SAPORTAREPORT
🍏 Roger Babson is the founder of the Gravity Research Foundation, an organization with the stated purpose of studying, understanding, and, ultimately, harnessing the force of gravity.
It was the childhood drowning of his older sister in a river near Gloucester, MA that sparked Babson’s lifelong interest in finding a way to control the effects of gravity. So motivated was he that Babson wrote an essay titled “Gravity – Our Enemy No. 1.” Speaking of his sister in the essay, he noted, “She was unable to fight gravity, which came up and seized her like a dragon and brought her to the bottom.”
Babson founded the Gravity Research Foundation, in part, as a way of repaying Newton for his valuable work in the field. But what, you might ask, does an institute in Massachusetts that studies the effects of gravity have to do with Atlanta?
🌳 Find out the answer on this week’s Stories of Atlanta.
🖋️ Today’s Silver Streak was edited by Julie E. Bloemeke.