Atlanta, GA
Atlanta spa shootings victims remembered 3 years later
Spa shooting rampage 3-year anniversary
It’s been three years since a shooting rampage at spas across Atlanta left eight people dead, including six Asian women.
ATLANTA – Leaders in Metro Atlanta’s Asian American community held a remembrance ceremony and call to action to honor the eight people who lost their lives in the Atlanta spa shootings on March 16, 2021.
It started with a banner procession, then organizers read the names of the eight people killed, six of whom were Asian women.
One of those victims was Michael Webb’s former spouse, 49-year-old Xiaojie Tan.
“She worked hard, she was dedicated to her business. To see her work so hard and save, then to have her life cut short like that is something I think about every day,” Webb said.
Xiaojie Tan (Supplied by family)
He says he came to Saturday’s ceremony to share her story three years later in hopes of preventing something like this from happening again.
“Because what we went through, nobody should have to go through,” Webb said.
Organizer Cam Ashling said they wanted people to understand the fight against Asian hate is still ongoing.
“I want them to not take it for granted, because something like this could happen to any one of our family members. It could happen to my mom, my sister, myself,” Ashling said.
Eight people total were killed at three spa locations in Cherokee County and Atlanta on March 16, 2021. (Supplied)
We asked her how well she thought state leaders have addressed Asian hate and gun violence in the three years since the shooting.
“Horrible. Yeah, I don’t think we’ve gotten very far. We haven’t gotten any kind of meaningful, safe gun legislation passed since then,” Ashling said.
Many young people participated in the ceremony, through musical numbers, speeches and even a traditional lion dance.
Student organizer Tyler Lee is an 11th grader at Peachtree Ridge High School.
“I’m a Korean-American. My grandmother is a Korean-American. Some of the women that were shot and killed look like my grandmother, and I was extremely disheartened. So, I decided something needed to be done,” Lee said.
Lee has worked to get stricter gun laws passed that he says might have helped prevent the 2021 shooting rampage.
Investigators have said shooter Robert Long bought a gun shortly before going on the killing spree.
Atlanta Spa Shooting suspect serving life without parole
Two years after shootings at three spas in Cherokee County and Atlanta that killed eight people, including six Asian Americans, the man who claims responsibility for at least one of the shootings remains behind bars.
Lee says young Asian Americans need to be a bigger part of the fight against hate.
“I truly believe that we will be the pioneers of what we expect to change in our society,” Lee said.
Ashling says they need the entire Atlanta community to stand together with them against this hate in order to make a real difference.
“We just all want to stand together, and we don’t just want Asian Americans to stand together. We need other communities to stand with us, too,” Ashling said.
Organizers called on those in attendance to share their stories of discrimination and hate.
They also called on people here and throughout the metro area to vote in upcoming elections and show how important fighting asian hate is to their elected officials.
Atlanta, GA
Decatur Square businesses thrive during 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup and WatchFest: “…beyond our wildest imagination”
With all the soccer fans visiting metro Atlanta, local businesses are reaping the benefits.
In Decatur, shops and restaurants on the Decatur Square are seeing a surge in foot traffic during the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup and Decatur WatchFest.
Lee Fewell, manager and bartender at The Brick Store Pub on the square, said the excitement has been nonstop. “It’s been really crazy,” Fewell said. “We have our outback garden area just completely filled up. We added some TVs, and it’s just been full capacity at any given moment.”
While Wednesday night was relatively slower than recent days, Fewell noted that business is usually quieter during the summer. This year, however, the restaurant saw its biggest day ever when the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team played its first match in the tournament.
“It’s been 29 years this month since this place opened, but usually, it is definitely not like this,” Fewell said. “This is, I think, beyond our wildest imagination.”
Across the square, Siam Thai Restaurant is also enjoying record-breaking business. “We sold out of beer,” said Narit Narajit-McCrary, who works at the restaurant. “I had to go to the supermarket to restock for Monday.”
Narajit-McCrary said the World Cup boost has far exceeded expectations: “During the summer, normally it’s very slow for business, but this summer has been very good for us.”
Atlanta, GA
FBI orders field offices to send analysts to Atlanta for 2020 election investigation, sources say
The FBI is ramping up its investigation into the 2020 election results in Fulton County, Georgia, by ordering field offices across the country to send investigative analysts to Atlanta to help evaluate thousands of records, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
According to a memo sent to all field offices and reviewed by CBS News, the Directorate of Intelligence requested “surge support” to Atlanta to assist in what it called FBI Director Kash Patel’s “priority” investigation. The memo did not explicitly discuss the nature of the investigation, but multiple sources confirmed to CBS News the subject of the memo is the 2020 election probe in Fulton County.
The memo calls on every FBI field office to assign analysts, seeking to reach a total of 260 analysts. Large field offices are being asked to contribute eight analysts each, while small and medium offices must dedicate between three and five analysts. They are being asked to review 708 records each, and complete the work by July 17, the memo shows.
These “tactical intel” staffers typically provide help with day-to-day casework, such as running license plates, doing open-source checks on subjects of investigations, phone analysis, preparing subpoenas and reviewing subpoena returns.
The surge of personnel was first reported by MS Now.
President Trump has repeatedly alleged without providing evidence that officials in heavily Democratic Fulton County manipulated ballot counts in 2020 and that large numbers of votes in the state were cast by deceased Georgians, nonresidents or other ineligible participants.
After Mr. Trump lost Georgia by 11,799 votes, he frequently claimed the election had been “rigged.” But Joe Biden’s win in Georgia was confirmed in both a machine recount and an audit that involved hand recounts by every county in the state.
Earlier this year, the FBI executed a search warrant in Fulton County where it seized “all physical ballots” from 2020, as well as tapes from vote-tabulating machines, ballot images and voter rolls. Home to Atlanta, Fulton County was crucial to Biden’s narrow 2020 win in the state.
The case was referred to the FBI by Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who previously fought to help overturn the results of the 2020 election and now works for the Justice Department, where he is assigned in Miami to help investigate the so-called “grand conspiracy” into whether Obama and Biden-era officials conspired to keep President Trump out of office.
A judge in May denied a request by Fulton County to return the ballots that were seized.
The FBI declined to comment.
I think it’s time to chat again about Eric Hartman. The Braves’ now top prospect completed a 20 HR, 30 SB season on July 1st, through 71 games of his season. He was also ranked the 25th prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America and it’s getting easier every day to see him in the top 10 by the offseason. This is simply a hugely valuable prospect coming from a 20th round pick just two years ago and the back end of the organizational top 30 as recently as March. While he’s only at high-A (probably not for long) and still has work to do on his game, he has rapidly become a potential superstar on the position-player side for an organization that desperately needed talent on that hitting side and has got it this year from not only Hartman.
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