It's August!
August 2— Welcome back to Rough Draft for another manic Monday. Or, as the kids in Clayton, Cobb, and DeKalb counties call it, the first day of school.
⛅ The heat is dialing back just a little for a high of 88° today.
👮 In the wake of last week's gruesome murder in Piedmont Park, police are continuing their search for the killer of Katherine Janness and her dog, Bowie. On July 31, the Atlanta Police Department conducted a "tactical canvass" of the park. APD also confirmed that the FBI is helping, but pushed back on many of the rumors making their way around social media.
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Chief Rodney Bryant will hold a press conference tomorrow, Aug. 3, at 11 a.m.
Tomorrow is also National Night Out. NNO is an annual campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie.
🥇Olympics update: Simone Biles said she will compete in the finals of the individual balance beam competition on August 3. Canada beat the U.S. in women's soccer today (Japan time), ending the Americans' bid for Olympic gold.
💽 Kanye is at it again. If last month's "Donda" listening party piqued your interest, tickets are on sale today for a proper album release party at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Thurs., Aug. 5. Buyer beware, as the previous event at the Benz got mixed reviews. But nobody here is going to question Kanye's ability to create a buzz and draw a crowd.
🏞 The 85th annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival returns to Piedmont Park this weekend (Aug. 6-8). The festival, which typically takes place in April as the park’s dogwood trees are coming into full bloom, was yet another casualty of previous COVID-19 restrictions.
🎸 The Food That Rocks food and music festival is coming to Sandy Springs Sept. 23-25. Head to Reporter Newspapers to find tickets, and to check out the line up of more than 40 restaurants paired up with live music.
🏆 Humble brag department: In the Georgia Press Association's 2020 Better Newspapers Contest, our parent company took home 17 awards.
🕖 Today's Draft is five stories beginning with COVID-19. We also have another installment of Women + Wine as well as a "Stranger Things" update, some gardening tips, and check out what's playing in our earbuds this week.
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1. COVID-19 strikes back
😷 It’s to starting to feel like March 2020 all over again—a cruel game of reliving confusing pandemic anxiety.
Last week, CNN reported that new data from Johns Hopkins University showed that COVID-19 cases are up 214 percent in Georgia. The Georgia Department of Public Health reported nearly 3,000 new cases of COVID on July 29, along with 115 hospitalizations.
Those numbers look pretty good compared to our neighbors to the south, where hospitalizations are over 10,200 and new cases topped 21,600.
As previously reported, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has implemented a city-wide public mask mandate and, like clockwork, Gov. Brian Kemp lashed out with the sternest of Twitter posts. A war of words has ensued.
The COVID surge comes as several metro Atlanta school districts prepare to resume classes this week. According to Decaturish, more than 100 students from Drew Charter School, which began last week, are in quarantine after coming into contact with two staff members and a student who tested positive–just two days into the new school year.
Atlanta Public Schools is requiring masks for students and staff, while Fulton County Schools is requiring masks on buses, and is strongly encouraging them for non-vaccinated students and staff in schools. City Schools of Decatur is also requiring masks for all students and staff while DeKalb County Schools is requiring masks for middle school and high school students and staff.
Increasingly, more local businesses are posting “No vax, No service” signs.
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2. How the tasting thing goes
🍷 All of this COVID news makes us want to uncork a nice Pinot. It's five-o'clock somewhere, right?
Our colleagues Katie Rice and Sarah Pierre have nearly 20 years of combined wine tasting experience. Over the years, there has rarely been an occasion when they’ve tasted the same wine twice. The seemingly infinite world of wine is what drives their passion in the business—Pierre owns 3 Parks Wine Shop in Glenwood Park, and Rice owns VinoTeca in Inman Park.
The most complex question they often face: Do they like the wine they’re tasting? Or more importantly, will the customer like it? Their integrity lies in the wine that they sell, and there is nothing in their shops that they haven’t tasted and deemed worthy.
In this month’s Women + Wine column, Rice and Pierre join Jenny Lemay (above), sommelier at Aria in Buckhead, to talk about the swirling universe of color, smell, taste, quality, and availability that goes into the wines they choose to offer.
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3. What's filming in North Georgia
🍑 Downtown Rome, Georgia looked a little different last week. A portion of the city’s Second Ave. was closed for production of “Stranger Things” season four from Tuesday until early Thursday morning.
Most of the filming took place at the Claremont House, a Victorian-era home built in 1882 that is now a bed and breakfast.
This isn’t the first time “Stranger Things” shot at the Claremont House. Crew members were spotted there in March 2020, right before COVID-19 brought most of the state's film productions to a halt. In true “Stranger Things” fashion, Claremont House was transformed into a creepy, abandoned property (presumably as it will appear in the parallel dimension known as The Upside Down?).
“Stranger Things” may be done at Claremont House, but production on season four is set to wrap sometime in August. Filming for this season has taken place as far away as Lithuania’s capital Vilnius, to Albuquerque and around metro Atlanta. Rome, in particular, has been a hotbed for this season’s production, with cast sightings dating back to October 2019.
—Holyn Thigpen
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4. Dig in the dirt
🌿 August in Atlanta is a good time to get caught up with weeding out your garden, especially after the recent spate of summer rains we’ve been experiencing.
While it’s not the best time to add plants to your garden (since roots will be slow to get established with high soil temperatures and plants will require extra water), it’s an ideal time to add structures and hardscape, like edging for beds, walls, paths and fences.
Erica Glasener is the Community Involvement and Events Manager for the Piedmont Park Conservancy. She also serves on the advisory board for Trees Atlanta. This month, she has put together a handy list of ideas for edging, fencing, and other gardening tips for August.
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5. Look & Listen: Atlanta stories
📺 Atlanta native SoFaygo is one of the 27 artists selected to participate in YouTube's Music Foundry Class of 2021, a global development program for independent artists.
🍑 Georgia Republicans are using a provision of the newly passed restrictive voting law to try and take control of elections in Fulton county. Victoria DeFrancesco Soto and Bill Kristol offer some insight on MSNBC.
🎧 Want to know how former Mayor Kasim Reed would deal with Atlanta's crime wave if he's reelected? Give a listen to his conversation with DJ Scream and Big Bank on the Big Facts podcast.
🎤 Atlanta hip-hop legend Young Thug (pictured above) recently made an appearance on NPR Music's Tiny Desk (home) concert series.
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