By AJ Willingham Sr. Reporter, A.M. ATL host

Morning, y’all! Time for an occasional A.M. ATL family check-in: What’s one thing you accomplished this week and one thing you’re grateful for?

I’ll start. I tended to some very annoying paperwork I had been avoiding, and I’m grateful for Beethoven’s Pastorale (Symphony No. 6), which makes for lovely morning listening.

Let’s get to it.

FLIGHT ATTENDANTS ACCUSED DELTA TRAINER OF HARASSMENT. THE COMPANY GAVE HIM A NEW JOB

(Illustration: Marcie LaCerte for the AJC)

The Atlanta-Journal Constitution talked to four former and current flight attendants for Delta Air Lines who said they were harassed by an instructor during their time in Delta’s flight attendant training program.

• In response, Delta said the claims “were fully investigated and found to be unsubstantiated.” 
• However, the AJC’s reporting raises questions about how Delta handled their allegations. 
• The findings also highlight an imbalance of power in the flight attendant training center, and the implications of this power dynamic for reporting alleged misconduct.

Reporting on sensitive topics requires a lot of diligence and care. I asked AJC business reporter Emma Hurt, who wrote the story, why stories like this are particularly challenging:

How did you find out about this story?

EH: I was sent news of Aryasp Nejat’s legal settlement with Delta by current and former Delta flight attendants late last year, who told me there were other people with allegations about this same instructor, which Nejat’s lawsuit also alleged.

The challenge, however, was actually finding and talking with individuals willing to speak about a traumatic experience many had pushed aside for years.

What are some other considerations that go into reporting a story like this?

EH: Sexual harassment allegations are often presented without in-the-room corroboration. That makes it especially challenging to report on, just as it makes it challenging for companies to investigate allegations.

Harassment in the workplace, in particular, is also very challenging for victims to speak out about, as our reporting shows. The fear of retaliation is strong, especially for new employees — as these former trainees explained. The EEOC estimates 90% of workplace sexual harassment goes unreported.

The AJC made every step of due diligence we could, in fact, checking the allegations and corroborating what the flight attendants were telling us. We also outlined to the accused the exact allegations we planned to report in order to offer him the opportunity to respond in writing or via his own interview. He declined to comment on all the allegations and Delta has said all were investigated and found “unsubstantiated.”

🔎 READ MORE: Why the flight attendants said they came forward

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ANSWERS FROM THAT MASSIVE CHATTAHOOCHEE FISH KILL

Drought conditions contributed to a massive fish kill on the Chattahoochee River. (Estela Muoz/AJC)

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources released a report detailing their investigation into what killed roughly 44,500 fish over a 16-river-mile span of the Chattahoochee River in May.

• The unprecedented fish kill was caused by an overflow of oxygen-depleted water from the city of Atlanta’s combined sewer system, the department found.
• Sewage and stormwater overflowed from the watershed department’s West Area Tunnel emergency overflow on Peachtree Creek during a bout of heavy rain following a protracted drought.
• The state valued the dead fish at $840,000. Multiple species of fish were found, but the agency said it did not find threatened or endangered species among them.

🔎 READ MORE: Why Atlanta’s sewer system can pose a risk to the river

GEORGIA’S GOTTEN MORE DIVERSE, CENSUS DATA SHOWS

Georgia’s population grew by more than half a million people in the past five years, and nonwhite people accounted for all of the growth.

• In fact, Georgia is now home to about an equal number of white and nonwhite residents.
• About 52% of Georgia residents are nonwhite.
• About 40% of the new residents between 2020 and 2025 are Hispanic. Another 33% are Black and 20% are Asian, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of the data.

🔎 READ MORE: Interesting local trends and historical synchronicities from the data

MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS

🐘 Rick Jackson spent the GOP primary election fighting against a state law that lets a few powerful state leaders raise unlimited campaign cash through “leadership committees.” As the official GOP nominee for governor, he’s now one of those powerful few, and has already formed a leadership committee of his own.

🔄 Three candidates who switched political parties lost in Georgia’s primary elections. It could be a sign that today’s party switchers have a harder time convincing the public of their changing politics than similar switchers in generations past.

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GOOD IS AS GOOD DOES

Atlanta sports marketer Vince Thompson (fourth from left) with a group of family, friends, associates and members of the Soccer in the Streets community pose for a photo at the Haiti-Morocco World Cup game. (Photo courtesy Vince Thompson)

Before the World Cup, AJC columnist Ken Sugiura wrote a column about Atlantans being shut out of tournament tickets because of high prices.

Shortly after the story was published, area CEO Vince Thompson contacted him, offering to buy tickets for the fans featured in the story, along with some others for local nonprofit Soccer in the Streets.

• The whole group went to the Haiti-Morocco game this weekend, closing a loop of kindness that extended beyond Thompson’s original gesture.
• After his good deed was published in the AJC, increased media attention led to more offers and opportunities for Soccer in the Streets.
• Oh, and the game was pretty cool, too.
• “It’s one of the greatest days of my life,” Thompson said.

⚽ READ MORE: Sugiura recounts a remarkable day

NEWS BITES

🎆 20 free things to do in the Atlanta area in July

It’s gonna be too hot to pay for things.

😄 Humans and great apes share similar giggles

Platonic ideal of a fun fact.

⚾ How good are you at Braves Trivia? Take this month’s quiz

No infield fly rule questions, I checked.

💻 Questions about resume gaps are expected. Here’s how job seekers can address them

A long, silent thousand-yard stare should clear things up.

ON THIS DATE

June 26, 2009

The AJC front page on June 26, 2009.

Jackson’s death stuns the world. Michael Jackson, the “King of Pop” who reigned over the music world like no other, died Thursday as he was mounting a comeback bid to vanquish nightmare years of sexual scandal and financial calamity. He was 50.

A big “remember where you were” moment. Walking down a bar-lined corridor in the summer heat of Philadelphia that day, I witnessed a peculiar phenomenon as news of Jackson’s death rolled down the street like a wave. One after another, groups of people erupted into conversation, each learning from the group next to them. Their voices hopped buildings and crossed streets, a living model of social media in the waning days before social media changed everything. In mere minutes, Jackson’s music wafted from every open door I passed.

It wasn’t the most momentous news revelation in my lifetime, but the nearly electric way the information spread around me made it one of the most unforgettable.

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ONE MORE THING

Have a beautiful weekend!

Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.

Until next time.