Thursday hoops
March 19 — The Hawks beat the Mavs for their 11th consecutive win, the longest current winning streak in the NBA, and the team’s longest since 2015. Atlanta plays at Houston tomorrow at 8 p.m.
🌤️ Mostly sunny and 65° today.
🏙️ Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens used yesterday’s State of the City address to pitch a $5 billion neighborhood reinvestment plan, urging the business community to support expanding the city’s tax allocation districts.
🗣️ Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch touted the city’s financial stability and growth during a breakfast speech to the Greater Perimeter Chamber yesterday.
⛽ The Georgia House voted to suspend the state’s gas tax as prices continue to rise. The Senate must vote before sending it to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk.
🩺 Grady Health System announced plans for a new $1 billion medical center campus in South Fulton County, as well as changes to its leadership.
🏳️🌈 LGBTQ+ civil rights advocate Bentley Hudgins announced a campaign for the District 90 Georgia House seat. They would be the first Japanese-American and openly nonbinary person in the legislature.
🏀 March Madness begins in full force today, with 32 games, including No. 8 Georgia vs. No. 9 St. Louis at 9:45 p.m. (Paramount+, 95.5 FM) and No. 14 Kennesaw State vs. No. 3 Gonzaga at 10 p.m. in Portland, OR (TBS).
ELSEWHERE
🇮🇷🇮🇱🇺🇸 Here are updates from the war in Iran:
- Oil prices spiked sharply today after Iranian missile strikes damaged a key Qatari LNG facility, with Brent crude jumping nearly to $119 a barrel and U.S. gasoline futures hitting a near four-year high.
- Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate committee that Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was “obliterated” last year and the regime, while largely degraded, remains intact.
- Follow live updates here.
💵 The Federal Reserve held its key interest rate steady at 3.5%-3.75%, citing geopolitical uncertainty.
🗣️ Sen. Markwayne Mullin (OK), the White House’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, faced a contentious confirmation hearing, with the Republican chairman questioning his temperament and character.
🕖 Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter:
• Needle Nook @ 50
• ‘EmpowerHER’ exhibition
• Heat mapping Atlanta
AND
• Quick Bites
👪 There are so many new opportunities for young families at Congregation B’nai Torah in Sandy Springs. Plus, your first year of membership is free! Come check out an upcoming event or join us for Tot Shabbat. SPONSOR MESSAGE
1. Atlanta’s Needle Nook celebrates 50 years of knitting community
🧶 DeAnne Jacobson made a life-changing decision as she sat in the ICU with her 79-year-old mother, Arlene, who was experiencing a rapidly worsening infection after contracting shingles.
At her mother’s side, Jacobson uttered the words: “Don’t worry, Mom. I’m going to keep Needle Nook open.” Unable to speak, a single tear rolled down her mother’s face.
Needle Nook is a mainstay of Atlanta’s knitting culture, started in Toco Hills in 1976 by Arlene Jacobson. With the support and knowledge of three longtime Needle Nook employees, DeAnne Jacobson has successfully taken over the shop and expanded the knitting community in Atlanta. The shop is marking 50 years this month.
🧵 Logan C. Ritchie has more on this story here.
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2. ‘EmpowerHER’ exhibition showcases over 200 women artists in Atlanta
VIA SKETCHBOOK, A WEEKLY NEWSLETTER ABOUT ART | SUBSCRIBE HERE
🎨 Walk into the Emma Darnell Aviation Museum and Conference Center on Aviation Circle in Atlanta right now, and the first thing you notice is the sheer volume of art.
Works by women artists cover the space – paintings, sculptures, photographs, quilts, mixed media, body casts – a full accounting of what women make when someone gives them room to do so.
Tisha Smith, public art manager for Fulton County Arts and Culture, is the curator behind “EmpowerHER: A Celebration of Women in Art.” The exhibition, which opened March 13 and runs through April 25, draws artists from across Atlanta and beyond, spanning disciplines, generations, backgrounds and communities.
👩🎨 Read more on this story here.
3. Mapping heat across Atlanta’s neighborhoods
🫠 On a summer Atlanta afternoon, the temperature can shift block by block. A street lined with trees feels bearable. Two intersections over, asphalt radiates heat, and the air hangs heavy. Those differences are not incidental, nor are they harmless.
For doctoral candidate Ashley Boone, data provides a pathway to change that reality by mapping, interpreting, and mobilizing environmental patterns in the city.
At Georgia Tech’s Technology Square Research Building, Boone studies data not as an abstract technical output but as civic infrastructure. Trained in human-centered computing, she builds projects that place data directly in the hands of communities and asks who gets to use it. That perspective anchors much of her research, particularly her work on extreme heat in Atlanta.
➡ Read the whole story from Hypepotamus here.
🏥 Join Move For Grady on April 25! Three intown biking distances and two run/walk options means there’s something for everyone. Come to move, stay for the party – plenty of food and drinks to celebrate at GSU’s Center Parc Stadium. SPONSOR MESSAGE
4. Quick Bites
VIA SIDE DISH, A WEEKLY NEWSLETTER | SUBSCRIBE HERE
🍵 In this week’s Quick Bites, get the scoop on restaurant openings in Sandy Springs, West End, and Adair Park, a restaurant closure in Brookhaven, and some events you should put on your calendar, including a matcha market, mahjong tea party, and a U.S. men’s national soccer team watch party in Dunwoody.
⚽ Read the latest Atlanta dining news here.
👪 There are so many new opportunities for young families at Congregation B’nai Torah in Sandy Springs. Plus, your first year of membership is free! Come check out an upcoming event or join us for Tot Shabbat. SPONSOR MESSAGE
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