The police tactics @nickvalencianews.bsky.social encountered in Minneapolis were not exceptional responses to demonstrations. They were routine. America should find this bone-chilling — the First Amendment at the end of a gun barrel. My latest for Atlanta Magazine:

"Existing housing, people that own their homes, we're going to keep them wealthy," Trump said. "We're going to keep those prices up. We're not going to destroy the value of their homes so that somebody who didn't work very hard can buy a home."

We've got the latest on the feds raiding Fulton's elex hub

👀: Georgia state Rep. David Clark pitches renaming a mountain after Trump (Pic by a local lobbyist)

My Senator Raphael Warnock voted for the Laken Riley Act, which requires the detention, without bond, of non-citizens who committed certain crimes, which has led to over 17,500 people being detained or turned over to ICE: www.warnock.senate.gov/newsroom/pre...

“It’s kind of like living in your own world and living in a second world at the same time. We drove through a snowstorm to get to our family’s house and celebrate dad’s birthday, and then we’re back to the television, watching America fall apart.” By a big team of journos, myself humbly included:

Winter Storm Debilitates the South, Encasing Cities in Ice and Snow Our latest:

They booked the trip two years ago. He retired two weeks ago. Their ship sets sail for Antarctica on Tuesday morning. But the #winterstorm barreling east across the US nearly derailed their great voyage from the Great Plains to as south as they could go. My latest for @nytimes.com:

And reach out if you have any Atlanta-specific news to share!

Keep up with our reporting on the #winterstorm here:

Atlanta ICE protest

Trump wants to crack down on Wall Street landlords gobbling up single-family homes. What might that mean for the Georgia lawmakers who want to do that, too? For @atlantaciviccircle.org:

What will Trump order to rein in Wall Street landlords mean for Georgia legislation? “My administration will take decisive action to stop Wall Street from treating America’s neighborhoods like a trading floor."

🚨: Holy corpo landlord crackdown, Batman! Trump issues exec order restricting Wall Street investors' homebuying (I wonder what this means for GA legislation to limit institutional investors' impact on markets here — or if it nullifies the need)

🚨: Holy corpo landlord crackdown, Batman! Trump issues exec order restricting Wall Street investors' homebuying (I wonder what this means for GA legislation to limit institutional investors' impact on markets here — or if it nullifies the need)

What Atlanta’s homeless services leaders want from Kemp’s $50M grant "Let's have the World Cup's legacy be providing housing and services that get and keep folks off the streets."

To local homeless advocates, there is a glaring omission in Fulton County’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget: Over $2 million to provide supportive services to 230 formerly unhoused Atlantans is nowhere in sight. For @atlantaciviccircle.org:

Fulton shortchanges homeless services for Atlantans in FY26 budget proposal “On Dec. 10, at what we thought was a planning meeting for 2026, the county dropped a bomb on us."

The Trump administration will send “hundreds more” federal agents to Minneapolis to support the work of ICE agents, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said on Sunday, days after a federal agent shot and killed a woman there.

Here are maps of recently reported ICE activity in Los Angeles, New York, and... Minneapolis

Messages left for ICE agents

A few hundred protesting ICE at the Atlanta field office

An officer attempted to arrest someone in the crowd. He was chased away.

800+ Atlanta households who rely on federal funding to avoid sliding back into homelessness remain in limbo after HUD announced a sweeping overhaul of the grant renewal process. For @atlantaciviccircle.org:

Fresh from the White House, a list of the many international organizations, treaties, and pacts the U.S. is abandoning:

800+ Atlanta households who rely on federal funding to avoid sliding back into homelessness remain in limbo after HUD announced a sweeping overhaul of the grant renewal process. For @atlantaciviccircle.org:

Hours after the U.S. invaded Venezuela to seize President Nicolás Maduro, President Trump sent a warning to the governments of Mexico, Cuba and Colombia that their countries could be next. www.axios.com/2026/01/03/t...

FINALLY, a judge has tossed the "Cop City" RICO charges, devastating the state's aggressive prosecution against 61 activists. But protesters aren't out of the woods yet. The AG will appeal. And if that fails, he'll almost certainly reindict. My latest:

FINALLY, a judge has tossed the "Cop City" RICO charges, devastating the state's aggressive prosecution against 61 activists. But protesters aren't out of the woods yet. The AG will appeal. And if that fails, he'll almost certainly reindict. My latest:

I spent the tail end of '25 reporting on how the Trump admin has threatened housing security for hundreds of thousands of low-income Americans. For my last @atlantaciviccircle.org story of the year, I explored how metro Atlanta leaders can counteract the chaos. atlantaciviccircle.org/2025/12/17/i...

DOJ briefly uploaded this letter from Jeff Epstein to serial child molester Larry Nassar: "Our president shares our love of young, nubile girls. When a young beauty walked by he loved to 'grab snatch,' whereas we ended up snatching grub in the mess halls of the system."

In an ecosystem disrupted by federal volatility, Atlanta leaders will be judged not by their rhetoric, but by their willingness to act — to upzone where it’s uncomfortable, to tax where it’s overdue, and to preserve affordability before it disappears. For @atlantaciviccircle.org:

Whopper of a scoop!

Can metro Atlanta’s housing leaders parry federal funding cuts in 2026? A look at tools officials can use to counteract Trump administration cuts and keep people housed

"Artillery explosions sound a fearsome 4 a.m. wake-up call, but I’m already awake." I will never forget the (totally metal) opening line to "Saigon Has Fallen." R.I.P. Peter Arnett

In an ecosystem disrupted by federal volatility, Atlanta leaders will be judged not by their rhetoric, but by their willingness to act — to upzone where it’s uncomfortable, to tax where it’s overdue, and to preserve affordability before it disappears. For @atlantaciviccircle.org:

Federal upheaval to the decades-old Continuum of Care grant program is jeopardizing $14.5 million in federal funding that provides permanent supportive housing to 844 formerly homeless Atlanta households. For @atlantaciviccircle.org:

Federal upheaval to the decades-old Continuum of Care grant program is jeopardizing $14.5 million in federal funding that provides permanent supportive housing to 844 formerly homeless Atlanta households. For @atlantaciviccircle.org:

Federal upheaval jeopardizes $3.9B in homelessness grants, leaving cities scrambling HUD’s abrupt withdrawal of a funding notice leaves 844 Atlanta households in limbo.

BREAKING: HUD has withdrawn the grant funding notice that threatened to yank most permanent supportive housing allocations (and displace some 600 Atlanta households). But that doesn't mean housing nonprofits can stop panicking. (1/) www.courtlistener.com/docket/71959...

BREAKING: HUD has withdrawn the grant funding notice that threatened to yank most permanent supportive housing allocations (and displace some 600 Atlanta households). But that doesn't mean housing nonprofits can stop panicking. (1/) www.courtlistener.com/docket/71959...

BREAKING: The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Texas to use a new congressional map that could help Republicans win five more U.S. House seats in the 2026 midterms. A lower court found the map is likely unconstitutional for discriminating based on race www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

The Blaze is finally backing away from its bogus Jan. 6 pipe bomber story falsely IDing a Capitol Police officer after a different person was arrested today. They just added this to the story:

Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration successfully gutted legislation to restrict how the city can spend its Affordable Housing Trust Fund. “I feel like we’ve moved in the opposite direction of what this was intended to do,” Councilmember Alex Wan said. For @atlantaciviccircle.org:

Mayor Dickens just unveiled 100 studio apartments for unhoused Atlantans. But the Waterworks Village ribbon-cutting occurred under the shadow of looming Trump administration cuts to permanent supportive housing funds. For @atlantaciviccircle.org:

I’m still unsure about using an indictment as a document of undisputed evidence as a prelude for military action without congressional authorization, but I’m just a simple country law professor.

If you work at a federal prison and know about wrongdoing, we want to hear from you. We’re especially interested in tips about the priorities of Bureau of Prisons’ leadership, contracting and budget decisions, and concerns about abuses of power:

Mayor Andre Dickens’ administration successfully gutted legislation to restrict how the city can spend its Affordable Housing Trust Fund. “I feel like we’ve moved in the opposite direction of what this was intended to do,” Councilmember Alex Wan said. For @atlantaciviccircle.org: