Happy Friday! We hope everyone has a great Halloweekend!

☀️ Today's weather: Sunny, with a high of 79 and a low of 59.

Situational awareness: Remember that we "fall back" to Standard Time overnight Sunday. Enjoy that extra hour of sleep.

🎂 Happy early birthday to our member Bill Atlanta! (Great name, by the way.)

Today’s newsletter is 926 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Republicans and Democrats are pulling out their respective heavyweights to galvanize supporters as Georgia enters the last day of early voting.

Why it matters: While Georgians have already shattered early voting records for midterms, candidates will spend the final days before the election crisscrossing the state to win over voters.

• As of Thursday afternoon, more than 2.3 million ballots had been cast early and in person across Georgia, surpassing the 2.28 million who voted early in 2022, according to the Secretary of State Election Data Hub.

Driving the news: Former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris were both in Georgia this week as part of the Democratic Party's efforts to mobilize its base.

• Obama headlined a rally for Sen. Jon Ossoff and gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms at the Arena at Southlake, in deep-blue Clayton County, a majority-Black county just south of Atlanta and home to the world's busiest airport.
• Harris joined Ossoff on Thursday at Clark Atlanta University, one of Atlanta's historically Black colleges and universities.

What they're saying: Most of Obama's comments centered on President Trump and his handling of the war in Iran (a conflict Obama said "nobody asked for and nobody voted for") and Trump's response to the increased price of gas, food and other necessities and utility bills.

• He also criticized Trump's attention to the construction projects at the White House and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's focus on the testosterone levels of male U.S. troops.
• "These are not serious people, and we are all paying the price for their lack of seriousness," Obama said.

The other side: Garrison Douglas, spokesperson for Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson, told the AJC in a statement that Obama was a "washed up" president who can't "cover up the fact that Keisha Lance Bottoms is a failed mayor who abandoned her city after making it less affordable and less safe."

• Jackson on Wednesday campaigned in southeast Georgia with current Gov. Brian Kemp and former Gov. Sonny Perdue.

What we're watching: How long the lines on Election Day will be.

Share this story and go vote

The Atlanta Dream dominated the Golden State Valkyries yesterday in Game 6 of the WNBA Finals, tying up the series and forcing one last game to decide which team will take home the trophy.

Catch up quick: The Dream took the lead early in yesterday's lunchtime match-up at State Farm Arena and didn't let go. The final score was 80-69.

What's next: The Dream play the Valkyries in Game 7 — the first in the WNBA Finals' history — on Halloween in San Francisco.

A century-old mansion hidden behind a gate on busy Ponce de Leon Avenue has found a new life as an events venue.

Why it matters: Moon on Ponce reactivates a circa 1920 former inn, communal living space and short-term rental with ties to the Allman Brothers Band.

Zoom in: Husband-and-wife wedding planners Pat Maddox and Candace Marshall Maddox spent more than a year restoring and reimagining the property to create an eclectic and whimsical venue option for clients of their company, Smooth as Butter.

• The couple are marrying original architectural details with colorful rooms, unusual furniture and the occasional mosaic created by one of the house's many past occupants.

The intrigue: Workers unearthed several horseshoes while restoring a courtyard, raising the possibility that horses were once kept on the property. Two now decorate the mansion's exterior.

Catch up quick: The 7,000-square-foot home next door to the Yaarab Shriner's Center was once the Shady Rest Inn and later became an artistic commune and performance venue known as 368 Ponce, or The Big House.

• As many as 19 people lived on the property at one point, including in a bus, Pat Maddox said.

Fun fact: The property's owner, Flournoy Holmes, created classic album covers for the Allman Brothers, the Marshall Tucker Band and Carole King.

State of play: Moon on Ponce is already hosting weddings, concerts and private parties for up to roughly 150 guests, even as work continues on the main house.

What's next: Pat Maddox said he wants to largely complete renovations to the downstairs of the home by spring 2027.

• Future plans call for a glass atrium and ballroom, upstairs bridal suite, bedrooms and overnight accommodations.

Read more

🏫 The latest plan to reduce overcrowding in schools on the north side of DeKalb County calls for creating a middle school that would feed into Cross Keys High School. (AJC)

• The Board of Education is expected to make a decision as early as December.

🎓 Kennesaw State University will waive application fees for prospective undergraduate and graduate students through November. (WSB)

🗳️ A bipartisan election security task force is traveling around Georgia to promote confidence in the state's election process. (GPB)

OpenAI's proposal to build a data center in southeast Georgia would fill 72 acres of wetlands and would require a permit from the federal government. (The Current)

🫩 Kristal is exhausted.

😱 Thomas agrees with reader Brandon S.: The historic one-man jail cell in Inman Park is one of Atlanta's spookiest places. And yes, it technically still works!

This newsletter was edited by Crystal Hill.