Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Falcons ‘Really Pleased’ with Bijan Robinson, Noncommittal to Heavy Workload
ATLANTA — The billboard towered high above Peachtree Road, facing traffic headed toward Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the Atlanta Falcons’ season opener last Sunday.
“Bijan is ready,” the sign said, holding a picture of Falcons running back Bijan Robinson sporting his black No. 7 jersey. “Are you?”
That afternoon, Robinson proved the sign right. He had six touches on Atlanta’s 11-play opening drive. After 27 plays, he had 15 touches. And by the time the clock hit zero in the Falcons’ 18-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Robinson had 23 touches to his name — tied for the most in his young career.
The second-year runner finished the defeat with 18 carries for 68 yards while adding a team-best five receptions for 43 yards. He played 50 snaps, good for 89% of the offense’s total.
After the game, Falcons head coach Raheem Morris said he thought Robinson had a few quality runs and executed well as a receiver on screen passes.
“He’s a guy,” Morris said. “I was really pleased with the way he played the game, just with the mental toughness and the ability to go out there and continue to try to make us win and putting us in a winning position, although we were not able to come out with it.”
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Atlanta’s offense struggled in the defeat. It had only three drives with seven or more plays, and just two series netted points — one of which came on the opening possession. The Falcons were shutout in the second half.
Robinson was a focal point in the Falcons’ gameplan, touching the ball on 46% of the offense’s snaps. But Morris, in a matter-of-fact manner, was noncommittal to Robinson maintaining such involvement moving forward, largely due to the game’s outcome.
“I like winning, and that wasn’t the result we got,” Morris said. “So, we’ve got to go back to the lab and figure out a way to win. And whatever that is, we’ll do.”
Robinson, the No. 8 overall pick in 2023, led the Falcons with 214 carries for 976 yards and four touchdowns as a rookie. He added 58 receptions for 487 yards and four more scores through the air. His 1,463-yards from scrimmage were good for 10th in the NFL.
This summer, Atlanta’s coaching staff spoke extensively about using Robinson in a role similar to that of San Francisco 49ers star Christian McCaffrey, who led the NFL in yards from scrimmage a season ago and is a multi-purpose playmaker.
The 22-year-old Robinson proved Sunday he can impact the game in multiple ways, to the extent he became Atlanta’s go-to option. Rather than sensing pressure, Robinson cherishes the opportunity.
“It’s a blessing to do that,” Robinson said. “I try to do what I can to make this offense explosive and try to get these wins. There are still points in the game when you can’t control everything. You have to control what you can control as an offense, individually or with each other.
“For me, I’m going to do whatever I can to get us rolling and help us try to be the offense we can be. But obviously, we need a win coming out of that.”
The Falcons’ next opportunity to snag their first win comes at 8:15 p.m. Monday, when they take on the Philadelphia Eagles inside Lincoln Financial Field.
And Robinson, as the billboard says, is ready.
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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