Atlanta, GA
In tornado-ravaged Selma, prayers of thanks
![In tornado-ravaged Selma, prayers of thanks In tornado-ravaged Selma, prayers of thanks](https://cmg-cmg-tv-10010-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/PzeBfWEk_0QfHdjx_lw89d7GQAo=/1440x810/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/ZJQHGAQJ26LJ53YSPHVPTNF2MI.jpg)
SELMA, Ala. — (AP) — Main Sunday companies on the garden outdoors his tornado-damaged Crosspoint Christian Church, the Rev. David Nichols informed his congregation there was a lot for which to be grateful regardless of the destruction round them.
The twister that ravaged Selma hit the church’s daycare. It destroyed a lot of the constructing, collapsing partitions and leaving piles of rubble in a number of the lecture rooms, however the 70 kids and academics who huddled inside bogs had been unhurt.
“Nothing however by the grace of God that they walked out of there,” Nichols stated as he regarded on the constructing.
The Sunday after a twister devastated a lot of the historic metropolis of Selma, church congregations raised up prayers of gratitude for lives spared and gave prayers of consolation for lives misplaced elsewhere to the storm.
Church buildings anchor the neighborhood for a lot of on this historic metropolis. Black congregations additionally performed an integral function within the civil rights motion. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday is well known Monday, led the 1965 voting rights march from Brown Chapel AME Church.
The storm system was blamed with killing 9 folks — two in Georgia and 7 in rural Autauga County, Alabama the place an estimated EF3 twister, which is simply two steps beneath probably the most highly effective class of tornado, tossed cell properties into the air and ripped manner roofs. The Selma tornado, an estimated high-end EF2 with winds of 130 mph, reduce a large swath via the town, collapsing buildings and snapping timber in half. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey stated Sunday that President Joe Biden had permitted a serious catastrophe declaration for the 2 hard-hit Alabama counties.
The hymn “Wonderful Grace” floated throughout the garden at Selma’s Crosspoint Church, the place companies had been held outdoors due to the harm to the primary sanctuary. The service additionally honored the quick-thinking academics who received the kids, ranging in age from infants to 5-year-olds, to the constructing’s interior bogs and shielded them with their very own our bodies because the tornado roared over them.
Sheila Stockman, a instructor at Crosspoint Christian daycare, stated they made the choice to get the kids to the lavatory after they noticed the storm was headed for them.
“The partitions began shaking and I informed my class, ‘Lie down and shut your eyes’ …. and I laid down on high of them till it was over,” Stockman stated.
Stockman stated the academics tried to reassure the kids because the twister roared above.
“I used to be praying and I stored telling them, ‘It’s OK. I received you. You’re OK. I like y’all,’ ” Shana Lathan informed her class as they huddled inside the lavatory.
When it was over, Stockman stated they opened the lavatory door to see the sky above them and components of the constructing gone. A room that held the preschoolers moments earlier was stuffed with rubble.
At historic Brown Chapel AME, congregation members handed out plates of meals, child system, diapers, water and different provides Sunday afternoon.
“There are such a lot of folks hurting right here proper now that there’s type of like a mutual distress, which requires a shared hope and a shared imaginative and prescient to assist us to assist one another via this,” the Rev. Leodis Robust stated.
His sermon for the day was titled “A Storm-Examined Religion.” Robust stated the neighborhood’s religion is being examined as a result of “that is an surroundings that we’ve got to depend upon that relationship with God and put into observe the religion that we’ve got developed.”
A bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sits outdoors the church. Because the nation marks King’s birthday, Robust stated King’s message resonates via the catastrophe restoration.
“If something, that must encourage and encourage us to observe our religion and our understanding of Dr. King’s dedication. So we’ll make it via this. We’re going to make it,” Robust stated.
At Blue Jean Selma Church, a racially various church with a reputation meant to convey that every one are welcome in any apparel they select, there was the same message. “Even within the midst of this we’ve got hope,” Bob Armstrong, the church pastor, stated.
Church members shared tales of shut calls — one man rising unscathed from a demolished constructing and one other who moved from a constructing shortly earlier than the ceiling collapsed.
Congregation member Lynn Reeves, who swayed to the trendy gospel music beneath the church’s stained glass home windows, had the same feeling of gratitude. With the destruction via the town, it’s superb nobody was killed, she stated.
In the course of the storm, Reeves sheltered within the rest room of the auto components retailer the place she works. She stated her coworker was within the retailer’s supply truck when the tornado dropped a part of a roof on high of him, however he was not critically harm.
“It’s a blessing. By the grace of God, it’s a blessing … as a result of it might have been worse,” Reeves stated.
Copyright 2023 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
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Atlanta, GA
Shots fired into Atlanta home overnight, police say
![Shots fired into Atlanta home overnight, police say Shots fired into Atlanta home overnight, police say](https://gray-wgcl-prod.gtv-cdn.com/resizer/v2/SNRF3ALPYJC45A723QWWMB7B2Q.jpg?auth=f43085121a57a1f2624aea3fcbeeae34120b73fea6c843d7331a9c1678f5420c&width=1200&height=600&smart=true)
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Police are on the scene investigating a shooting that happened in Atlanta overnight.
According to Atlanta Police, gunshots were fired at a home on 268 Polar Rock Road SW around 2:14 a.m. Monday.
Officers arrived at the scene around 2:22 a.m., when they learned the shooter had run inside the house.
No one was injured, according to APD.
This is a developing story. Check back with Atlanta News First for updates.
Copyright 2025 WANF. All rights reserved.
Atlanta, GA
NFL Tackling Data Shows How Far Atlanta Falcons Falcons Fell Under Jimmy Lake
![NFL Tackling Data Shows How Far Atlanta Falcons Falcons Fell Under Jimmy Lake NFL Tackling Data Shows How Far Atlanta Falcons Falcons Fell Under Jimmy Lake](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_4447,h_2501,x_0,y_0/c_fill,w_1440,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/falcon_report/01jm7ebdjk65dqh831ys.jpg)
Often when you dig a little deeper into the data available, the key decisions to cut ties with established veteran players becomes much more clear.
For example, Atlanta Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot is universally expected to let veteran former Pro Bowl safety Justin Simmons leave as a free agent after only one season playing in the NFC.
The 31-year old’s performances were decidedly middling to average when lining up in a Falcons uniform.
NFL.com provides detailed numbers which break down tacking data, and it all points fairly conclusively toward Simmons’s recurring struggles.
The Falcons were 24th in the NFL in tackling percentage after ranking 11th in 2023. Jimmy Lake’s passive scheme put players in acres of space and gave ball carriers and receivers more area work. No one suffered more in Lake’s defense than four-time All-Pro Simmons who was routinely 15 to 20 yards off the line of scrimmage at the snap.
“Newly acquired safety Justin Simmons missed 21.5% of his tackle attempts after logging an elite rate below 10% in his previous six straight seasons in Denver,” wrote the Next Gen Stats Analytics Team. “With Simmons set to hit free agency, the Falcons may choose to move on from the veteran.
Fontenot’s $7.5 million one year gamble on Simmons clearly flamed out. Simmons missing on 21.5% of his tackle attempts was never going to cut the mustard for head coach Raheem Morris. With few ties in Atlanta, Simmons will likely end up being a victim of Lake’s ineffectiveness as the NFL level and be allowed to walk in free agency.
The correlation is clear, because the entire unit slumped from being the 11th most efficient tackling unit last year to being the sixth least effective in 2024. That wasn’t all on Simmons.
While most folks have fixated upon the critical deficiencies when it came to rushing the passer, which did much to unravel the Falcons playoff chances last season, nothing the defense really did gave off the vibe that they were a tough tackling football team.
Consequently, retooling on the defensive side will be the primary objective of Fontenot and Morris when free agency starts next month and the draft rolls around in April.
The Falcons need an injection of toughness this offseason. They’re hoping new defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich is up to the task.
Atlanta, GA
3 key questions as the Atlanta Braves begin spring training
NORTH PORT, Florida — The man whose absence defined his team’s 2024 has been delightfully unavoidable so far in spring training.
Ronald Acuña Jr., the Atlanta Braves’ franchise man, a power-speed dynamo of the highest order, had his season derailed last year by a torn ACL on May 27. That injury, his second ACL tear in a four-year span on two different legs, sent him to the surgeon’s table and the Braves a’reeling. His unavailability — coupled with a seemingly never-ending cavalcade of other injuries that, most notably, included an elbow surgery to flame-throwing ace Spencer Strider — stymied Atlanta’s quest for a seventh straight NL East crown. A carousel of survivors and fill-ins admirably clawed the club into a wild-card spot, but the undermanned outfit didn’t manage to win a single playoff game.
In the Braves’ clubhouse on Friday, four days ahead of the team’s first full-squad workout, Acuña spoke for nearly 10 minutes. With an ear-to-ear smile plastered on his face, the 27-year-old addressed his recovery, his mindset, his road back and his time away. He called Atlanta’s outfield “the best outfield in baseball.” He laughed and joked, clearly overjoyed to be back in the mix. And, impressively, he did it all in English. It was, according to those regularly around the club, the longest and most engaging interview Acuña has ever given in his second language.
And he wasn’t the only notable Brave to speak on an overcast Florida morning. Alex Anthopolous, the team’s president of baseball operations, conducted his first in-person question-and-answer session of this calendar year. His eyes hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses, the elusive and secretive exec peeled back a few layers about a franchise coming off its most disappointing season since 2017.
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Here’s an overview of what Acuña and Anthopolous had to say and how their comments intersect with the biggest questions facing the Braves as they seek to dethrone the Phillies in the NL East.
When will Acuña and Strider come back?
On this, Anthopolous didn’t mince words: Neither player will be on the Opening Day roster.
Acuña, who has been taking batting practice, won’t appear in any Grapefruit League games, per Anthopoulos. His biggest hurdle remaining is full-gas cutting and planting, vital movements in the outfield. Anthopolous also shared that Acuña won’t slot in at DH whenever he’s back.
But the major takeaway is that the swashbuckling Venezuelan is on schedule and in good spirits.
“The priority is that I feel great — that’s the most important thing,” Acuña shared. “When they tell me I need to play that day, I’ll be there.”
Strider, who threw a bullpen Friday, might make an appearance or two in late March, but he isn’t expected back in the bigs until late April. He hasn’t yet faced live hitters but should do so in the coming weeks.
These two players, obviously, are absolutely crucial to the 2025 Braves. The calculus of the 2024 team was equally straightforward and, thus, unfortunate. Acuña and Strider, a top-five position player and pitcher in the world, hardly played. All-Star third baseman Austin Riley missed the last month and a half. Starting catcher Sean Murphy was hurt for the first two months. Second baseman Ozzie Albies and center fielder Michael Harris II were also out for extended stretches.
But it all starts with Acuña and Strider. That the team is slow-playing this duo in spring makes sense. Setting low expectations about their return dates represents a simpler path forward, one with less opportunity for fan disappointment. So while their paths to full health will remain a huge story this spring, it was smart for Anthopoulos to be definitive and unwavering about their timelines.
Why weren’t the Braves more active over the winter?
Atlanta’s biggest offseason addition came just a few weeks ago, with the signing of outfielder Jurickson Profar. The big-grinning Curacaoan enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2024, earning a starting nod in the All-Star Game and, now, a sturdy, three-year deal with the Braves.
But besides that, the typically active Anthopolous was notably trigger-shy. The team’s most significant offseason trade was a salary dump in November that sent Jorge Soler to Anaheim. Meanwhile, a cadre of established players departed in free agency. Longtime ace Max Fried signed a hefty deal with the Yankees. Rotation stalwart Charlie Morton is now an Oriole. Atlanta opted to not pick up an option year on clubhouse leader and veteran catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who is now with the Angels. The only other remaining Braves who were meaningful contributors in the 2021 World Series are Austin Riley, Ozzie Albies and Ian Anderson.
It’s difficult to argue that the arrivals outweigh the departures. This inactivity has elicited agitation among some Braves fans, who, understandably, want the club to take full advantage of its competitive window. But Anthopolous pushed back against the idea that his team, currently carrying the eighth-highest payroll in the game, was acting purely out of frugality.
“I think the biggest difference is we’ve spent a lot on our own players,” he said. “I think we have the most, probably, long-term contracts of the majority of teams. You start looking around the roster, not necessarily in the rotation, but we have long-term contracts all over the place. We didn’t have that many holes.
“Now we’ve lost free agents — no doubt about it. But we have some people we’re going to give opportunities to.”
Who are the temporary fill-ins for Strider and Acuña?
The most likely Opening Day outfield alignment features Profar in left, the fleet-footed Michael Harris II patrolling center and former top prospect Jarred Kelenic in right. Kelenic was underwhelming in his first year as a Brave in 2024 and figures to spend most of his time as a bench bat once Acuña returns.
With Strider on the shelf, two of the five rotation spots are up for grabs. Reigning Cy Young Chris Sale, All-Star Reynaldo Lopez and breakout rookie Spencer Schwellenbach are locks. Grant Holmes, a well-traveled vet who enjoyed a bounce-back 2024, is the favorite for the fourth spot. And Ian Anderson, who shined as a youngster with the Braves before he suffered a bout of injuries, seems primed to grab the temporary fifth spot.
It’s a group that, until Strider returns, looks a little light, but Anthopolous explained that he didn’t want to crowd the pitching situation by adding another free-agent arm.
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