Primetime heartbreak
Monday, Oct. 12 — Today is Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which means some government offices, the post office, and banks are closed. However, the stock market is open. If you have the day off, enjoy. If not (Like us! What can we say, local news never sleeps 🤓.), then may your inbox be empty.
☀️ Sunny and 82° today.
🌀 Hurricane Isaias left at least four dead in Florida and Alabama after making landfall near Destin as a Category 2 storm Friday. Its remnants pushed strong thunderstorms through central Georgia on Saturday.
☑️ Early voting in the Nov. 3 general election starts tomorrow. Find a location in your county.
- The Atlanta Press Club Loudermilk-Young Debate Series resumes today.
- Candidates for statewide offices meet in head-to-head debates starting with the lieutenant governor’s race at 1:30 p.m.
- See the full schedule, which runs through tomorrow evening.
- DeKalb County Voter Registration and Elections will host a series of voter information town halls beginning tomorrow.
🏈 With Michael Penix Jr. sidelined by a late rib injury, Tua Tagovailoa threw an overtime interception as the Falcons lost 30-23 to the Ravens last night. Penix expects to return next week.
🏀 According to USA Today, the Dream’s WNBA Finals home games against Golden State may be at Gateway Center, not the larger State Farm Arena. Atlanta hosts games 3 and 4 on Oct. 22 and 24.
🏈 After beating Alabama on the road Saturday night, Georgia is the new No. 1 team in the country.
🏳️🌈 Rough Draft and Georgia Voice participated in yesterday’s Atlanta Pride Parade. See photos and video here.
ELSEWHERE
📺 The Justice Department opened an antitrust investigation into whether the major TV networks broke the law by jointly pausing pool coverage of the president after the White House barred three outlets.
🏃 About 70 runners and volunteers in Utah’s Moab 240 desert ultramarathon were evacuated Sunday after heavy rain stranded them overnight at a remote aid station.
🕖 Here’s what’s in today’s newsletter:
• ‘A Rainy Night in Georgia’
• Upcoming Events• Global Updates
AND
• Look & Listen – Carter Center podcast
📅 Did you know that it’s already “school-shopping” season in Atlanta? Be sure to include Ben Franklin Academy among the private high school options for your student and learn about our mastery curriculum model, individualized instruction, flexible learning times, and impressive college placement record. Register for Open Houses Nov. 11 & Dec. 3. SPONSOR MESSAGE
1. J. Tom Morgan releases memoir on the murder of DeKalb Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown
🔎 For J. Tom Morgan, it started with a simple page to call his office. When he called back, he was told that DeKalb Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown had been shot.
Morgan first thought there had been some sort of accident, but he quickly discovered the situation was much worse: that rainy night in December 2000, three days before Brown was to be sworn in as DeKalb’s new sheriff, he had been murdered in his own suburban driveway.
Now, more than a quarter century later, Morgan recounts those hours and the months of investigations and trials that followed in his new book, “A Rainy Night in Georgia: A Lawman’s Brutal Murder, a Rogue Southern Sheriff, and a Prosecutor’s Quest for Justice.”
📖 Read contributor Joe Earle’s interview here.
Taste Your Way Through Alpharetta
SPONSORED BY AWESOME ALPHARETTA
🍴 Alpharetta Restaurant Week runs through Oct. 17 and is a great opportunity to visit restaurants you’ve always wanted to try and to rediscover old favorites. It’s a celebration of the cuisine that makes Alpharetta a culinary hot spot!
2. Upcoming Events
🗣️ Malcolm Gladwell in Conversation with GPB’s Peter Biello; tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Atlanta Symphony Hall.
🏀 Atlanta Hawks vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (pre-season); tonight at 7 p.m. at State Farm Arena.
🎸 Phoebe Bridgers; Tues., Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at State Farm Arena.
🎤 beabadoobee; Wed., Oct. 14, at 8 p.m. at Gas South Arena.
🍽️ Grand Tasting Midtown; Thurs., Oct. 15, at 6 p.m. at Epicurean Atlanta.
🍽️ Rough Draft Dinner Club; Tue., Oct. 20.
📖 The Book Bird welcomes Lucy Tan with Jenna Bush Hager at Agnes Scott College; Nov. 14.
📧 Find out how you can get your event featured in Rough Draft. For more events, visit RoughDraftAtlanta.com/events.
👻 Dad’s Garage’s newest original sketch show, The Bottle Tree, is an interactive spooky collection of horror-comedy sure to send tingles down your spine! SPONSOR MESSAGE
3. Houthis attack Riyadh airport; Pope Leo to have surgery
🏅 American economists Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford won the Nobel Prize in economics this morning for research underpinning the models central banks use to steady economies through shocks like energy crises.
🇸🇦 Saudi officials say three attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport over the weekend left at least 12 people dead and wounded more than 300 others.
🇷🇺🇺🇦 President Donald Trump announced an immediate energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine yesterday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his forces were ordered to comply, but Russian strikes later hit power plants in Kharkiv and Kyiv.
🇻🇦 Pope Leo XIV will undergo surgery this week at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital to remove a small nodule in his lung that doctors caught at a very early stage.
🇫🇷 French officials say a wave of high school-led protests over underfunded schools and staffing shortages has spread nationwide.
🇩🇯 A Yemen-bound migrant boat capsized off Djibouti Saturday night, killing at least 139 people, including 15 children. The U.N. says 84 remain missing.
🇮🇳 India’s youth-led ‘Cockroach’ movement is leading nationwide protests over a voter-roll revision that removed more than 130 million names from India’s electoral rolls.
🇵🇦 The Panama Canal and Tocumen International Airport are open again after a rare 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Panama.
🇷🇺 Officials continue to investigate the death of a laboratory worker at a Siberian plague research institute, but the WHO says there is currently no evidence of an outbreak.
🇸🇳 Destructive flooding in Dakar prompted Senegal to delay the start of its academic school year.
🦒 The 2026 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards unveiled 56 finalists from 10,000 entries worldwide, featuring humorous animal photos that organizers hope will inspire support for wildlife conservation.
🗓️ This week, join the World Affairs Council of Atlanta for a conversation with Brett McGurk, former White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa and author of “Brink.” McGurk will take audiences inside the high-stakes negotiations to free the October 7 hostages and secure a ceasefire in Gaza. He will also offer unique insights into the decisions, relationships, and challenges that continue to shape the Middle East. Free and open to the public. Register today.
💙 Mental health care should be accessible to everyone. We offer affordable, professional counseling through in-office, telehealth, school-based, and community programs. You don’t have to face it alone. Find a therapist today at Summit Counseling Center. SPONSOR MESSAGE
4. The Carter Center’s new podcast
🎙️ The Carter Center will debut “Far Away, Up Close: Global Stories from The Carter Center” on Oct. 14.
The immersive podcast offers a behind-the-scenes look at staff members working worldwide to advance peace, strengthen democracy, and improve public health.
Produced in partnership with Audiation, the series features eight Carter Center staff members, including Kelly Callahan, who leads campaigns against trachoma, a preventable cause of blindness; Rana Shabb, whose childhood experiences in Lebanon inspired her peacebuilding work; and Jennie Lincoln, a democracy expert who has led election observation missions across Latin America.
🎧 Learn more about the podcast here.
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