Thursday, February 27, 2025

Good morning! On this day in 1930, Joanne Woodward was born in Thomasville. Woodward, wife of actor Paul Newman, won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1958 for The Three Faces of Eve.

Suffer from seasonal allergies? Check out a Georgia Southern biology professor’s outlook for the spring and then take our poll. We suspect many of you don’t look forward to the sneeze season.

Later today, we’ll send a special message from our sponsor, Pacaso, the market leader in vacation home co-ownership. Pacaso is sharing an exciting investment opportunity in their luxury home platform.

We’re flying today with The Chill Pill, a natural, medication-free way to improve sleep and reduce stress.

Cremated Remains Identified

The Cobb County Medical Examiner’s Office completed the identification of 57 sets of cremated remains discovered in November at an abandoned funeral home in Marietta destroyed by fire months earlier.

“Our office has worked tirelessly to identify these cremains using various methods, and we are committed to reuniting them with their families,” said County Medical Examiner Dr. Christopher Gulledge. See the names here.

An investigation continues into the closed Norman Medford Peden Funeral Home and Crematory, which was out of business and facing foreclosure when the fire occurred in April 2024.

Seven months after the fire, a photographer discovered urns, bags of human ashes, a fetus, and other human remains at the burned-out site. Six agencies launched investigations.

Big Win Keeps Bulldogs’ Tourney Hopes Alive

Georgia men’s basketball team kept its NCAA tournament hopes alive with an 88-83 upset win against No. 3 Florida on Tuesday night at home.

The win could help the Bulldogs advance to the postseason March Madness tournament. Georgia entered the game as one of the teams on the bubble ahead of Selection Sunday on March 16.

“Our response down the stretch was phenomenal. Florida’s really, really good. It’s a big win for us,” Georgia coach Mike White said.

In a surprising display of discipline as the buzzer sounded, amped-up Georgia students didn’t immediately flood the court to celebrate the win. Instead, they complied with an SEC safety rule to wait 90 seconds to allow teams to exit before storming onto the floor.

Snow to Delay Allergy Season?

Georgia Southern University biology professor Alan Harvey said in a report issued by the school on Wednesday that this winter’s snow and cold could delay the start of allergy season until later in the spring.

“Pollen production is particularly sensitive to cold stress, so it’s more likely that we’ll see less pine pollen than usual over the coming weeks,” Harvey said.

Harvey also addressed misconceptions about pollens, noting that pine pollen is not a major allergen because the yellow, dusty grains are too large and lack certain allergy-triggering compounds.

Oak and other trees are a bigger contributor due to “smaller, lighter, and more allergen-producing pollen grains,” he said.

The same goes for plants with small flowers, Harvey added. Plants with large, colorful flowers rely on insect pollination and don’t release significant airborne pollen.

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Zillow’s Co-Founder Has a Big New Idea

Spencer Rascoff co-founded Zillow, scaling it into a $16B real estate giant. But everyday investors couldn’t invest until after the IPO, missing early gains.

“I wish we had done a round accessible to retail investors prior to Zillow’s IPO,” Spencer later said.

Now he’s doing just that. Spencer has teamed up with another Zillow exec to launch Pacaso. Pacaso’s co-ownership marketplace is disrupting the $1.3T vacation home market. And unlike Zillow, you can invest in Pacaso as a private company.

With $100M+ in gross profits and rapid international expansion, Pacaso is scaling fast. Investors like Softbank, Maveron, and others are already on board. Even better, the company’s now turning its focus to international markets, giving this disruptive model even more upside than before.

You can join them for $2.70/share – but only if you invest by midnight PST. Take advantage while you still can.

➤ Valdosta: Authorities charged two men in the October 2023 shooting death of 21-year-old Brianna Long, a Valdosta State student and former prep soccer star. The accused were already in jail on unrelated charges. (More)

Statewide: The U.S. Geological Survey reported a couple of minor earthquakes with no damage on Tuesday—one about 8 a.m. near Menlo and the other about 6 p.m. near Cochran. (More)

Cobb County: A mobile home fell off a semi-truck during transport, blocking all northbound lanes of I-75 for hours on Wednesday afternoon. (Watch Video)

Wayne County: Residents expressed concerns about longer travel times needed to get expecting moms to a hospital in the wake of Wayne Memorial’s decision to close its labor and delivery unit. (More)

Atlanta: Gov. Brian Kemp praised state Chief Justice Michael Boggs’ public service a day after Boggs announced that he will step down to enter private practice this spring. (More)

Gainesville: Chattahoochee Golf Club showed off its 65 new golf carts equipped with GPS, quiet technology, and custom seats. (See Photo)

➤ The Atlanta Hawks are monitoring the injury status of star Trae Young, who is reportedly dealing with Achilles tendonitis. (More)

➤ The Atlanta Braves will air two new shows before spring training games: Celebrating ’95, a look back at the team’s legendary 1995 season, and Behind the Braves, a behind-the-scenes look at spring training. (More)

➤ Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris received an “A+” grade in the NFL Players Association’s annual player survey, one of six head coaches to receive the score. (See Report Cards)

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➤ Dockworkers in Georgia and other eastern coastal states officially approved a six-year contract, averting a strike, with the vote going as expected after a tentative agreement was reached in January. (More)

➤ Worker training nonprofit Construction Ready estimates Georgia needs to add 10,000 more construction workers a year to keep up with demand. (More)

➤ Atlanta-based Coca-Cola reaffirmed support for its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program, while New York-based PepsiCo joined the growing number of companies rolling back the initiatives. (More)

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Join Top Investors on This “Unlisted” Stock for $2.70/Share by Midnight

When the team that co-founded Zillow and grew it into a $16B real estate leader starts a new company, investors notice. That’s why top firms like SoftBank and Maveron invested in Pacaso.

Sending shockwaves through the real estate industry once again, Pacaso’s streamlined platform offers co-ownership of premier properties – completely revamping a $1.3T market.

And by handing keys to 1,500+ happy homeowners, Pacaso has already made $100M+ in gross profits.

Now, they’re focused on international expansion—achieving record-breaking sales in Paris, securing 7 homes in Cabo, and recently acquiring their most valuable European property yet in London.

You can join them as an investor – but with this expansion underway, the current share price will be gone tomorrow. Invest at $2.70/share by midnight PST.

This is a paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com.

➤ The Serendipity Park Nudist Resort in the north Georgia town of Cleveland hit the market for $1.8 million with the condition that the property remain a nudist resort for 10 years. (See Photo)

➤ The Georgia Trust for Historical Preservation’s 2025 “10 Places in Peril” list includes the 1700s-era Rock House in Thomson, the ancestral home of Jimmy Carter’s family, which is now in disrepair. (Watch Video)

➤ Fields of Grace Flower Farm, a nonprofit organization in Shiloh, will host its annual Tulip Fest fundraiser on March 8-9, 15-16, and 22-23. The farm is a retreat for women who have endured trauma and for caregivers. (More)

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