Fresh Loaf

TERMINAL ILLNESS: Delta cancels flights for safety inspections; hundreds sleep overnight at Hartsfield-Jackson terminals.

VOUCHERS: With Clayton County in mind, state House committee passes voucher bill that would use state funds to send kids in deaccredited school districts to other districts or private schools.

IF I ONLY HAD A CRANE: 2005 Buckhead crane sitter deemed competent to stand murder trial, which makes sense, since he was competent to stand on a crane 350 feet in the air for 56 hours.

RICHT IN MIDDLE EAST: Joins handful of other college football coaches in program to entertain soldiers abroad and coach them in flag football games.

GROWTH DISORDER: Metro Atlanta is No. 2 in the nation in population growth in the past year. Our drought is now only “extreme,” so there’s nothing to worry about.

T.I.: Expected to plead guilty today.

LA TIMES: Apologizes after being hoaxed by inmate on Diddy/Tupac story.

MASS TRANSIT: Advocates push legislators to include bus and rail provisions in transportation budget.

FROM HOSPITALITY TO HOSPITAL: Study finds the hospitality industry has the highest rate of alcohol abuse of all industries.

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A museum devoted to health? Yeah, that’ll really make Atlanta a tourist destination hot spot.

From today’s AJC:

Dr. Louis Sullivan, an Atlanta resident and former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, is leading the effort to establish a museum dedicated to celebrating great achievements in health care and inspiring the next generation of health professionals.

“We’re talking to officials here in Georgia — the governor, the mayor, the Chamber of Commerce,” Sullivan said. “We’re really getting quite a positive response.”

He added, “We have a lot to work out to see if this is economically feasible.”

Sullivan is chairman of the board of the National Health Museum, which is choosing a site.

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From the Savannah Morning News:

What hasn’t been so easy is gathering the roughly $380 million to build the rail line to Athens, something the DOT board in August asked the department staff to pursue.

Seven months later and with a new commissioner at the helm, DOT is facing a $7.7 billion funding shortfall and is asking cities to reconsider and prioritize projects that have not seen progress, said Crystal Paulk-Buchanan, DOT spokeswoman.

About $107 million may be available for the first three years of a route to Lovejoy, but no funding - for the Athens-Atlanta line - has been identified, Paulk-Buchanan said.

The federal government wants DOT to identify how much the project would cost over 20 years, and DOT has not begun looking at ways to divvy the cost, she said.

Opponents say that means the project is bound to show up in tax bills of the cities hosting the train. Rep. Steve Davis, R-McDonough, who voted against the resolution Tuesday, said it amounts to an unfunded mandate for the cities and counties it would roll through.

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I will be on the Rick Outzen show on News Radio 1620 in Pensacola, Florida today to discuss a recent Don’t Panic column I wrote about Colombia.

I’m going on at 1:35 p.m., Pensacola time (2:35 p.m., Atlanta time).

If you don’t live in Pensacola, but would like to hear how little I actually know about Colombia, the show is simulcast online.

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The Night Atlanta Goes Dark is fast approaching. Throughout the city limits, Ryder and U-Haul trucks sit idling in driveways, tailgates open to reveal the bare necessities of families rushing to flee the coming shadow that will blanket the city. Manic street preachers shriek about the End of Days. Chaos is to come.

Whoa. Sorry, forgot this wasn’t my post-Apocalyptic blog. But really, on Friday at 11:30 a.m., Mayor Shirley Franklin will host an Earth Hour rally at City Hall. Joined by representatives from Creaxion, the firm organizing the worldwide shut-off of lights to raise awareness about global warming, as well as the city’s director of the Sustainable Atlanta initiative, Franklin will call for residents and businesses to participate this Saturday by powering down 8-9 p.m. Much of the city’s skyline will go dark. Georgia Power will monitor electricity usage during the event and word is that NASA will be snapping photos from way up high. We may not look like North Korea, but it’ll be interesting to see nonetheless.

If you plan to attend and don’t want to wait until Saturday to go easy on the environment, consider using MARTA to get downtown. To chart the best possible route from anywhere in the city, click here.

For more information about Earth Hour and to see the list of participating businesses and buildings, click here.

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America has apparently run out of artists, blues singers, classic sitcoms, flowers, ethnic and religious holidays, and landscapes to commemorate.

The United States Postal Service is now commemorating jury duty.

I asked a clerk in the Decatur post office if jury duty stamps are popular.

“Two judges came in and bought some,” she said.

Exactly.

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GOING INTO LABOR: Delta flight attendants to vote on unionization.

ROAD TO HELL: Will be repaved with good intentions every weekend for the next eight months.

HOLDS WATER? Carol Couch stumps for state water plan at Ga. Tech.

DROUGHT: Downgraded from “exceptional” to “extreme,” skipping over “badass.”

DOGFIGHTING: Austell ring broken up.

MICHAEL VICK: State dogfighting trial postponed until June 27.

WIND OUT OF OUR SALES: Legislators are predicting the bill that would allow communities to vote on whether they want to allow Sunday alcohol sales won’t make it to the House floor for a vote.

SINISTER MINISTER: Habersham County reverend busted for allegedly having nine sexually explicit online chats with undercover cop posing as 14-year-old girl. (And I swear I won’t harp on this anymore, but AccessNorthGa.com has yet another insightful news graphic.)

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Residents of Dunwoody itching to call yourself a city, your wish just got a little bit closer to being granted.

Gov. Sonny Perdue just signed SB 82 into law. The move would allow residents to vote on the issue as early as July 15. A vote for mayor and city council would take place in September.

UPDATE: State Rep. Jill Chambers, R-North DeKalb, who has questioned how the cityhood effort would affect ongoing projects and other residents in the county, adds her response to the governor signing SB 82 into law:

Now that the vote on Dunwoody incorporation is scheduled for July, I hope the citizens will take the time to discover the true costs and challenges that will face this potential new city.  Future litigation with DeKalb County over the HOST sales tax and the collection of property taxes within the Perimeter CID commercial district are legitimate concerns.  While I would have preferred that these issues be disclosed and debated in the legislature, I am glad I had the chance to stand up for my constituents and ask these questions out loud.

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The AJC reports home prices in Atlanta declined 4.8 percent between January 2007 and January 2008, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

The story is correct, but leaves out a couple of interesting and, unfortunately gloomy details.

1) Atlanta home prices peaked later than most of the other markets in the index. Atlanta didn’t peak until July 2007. Most of the other markets measured in the index were already in decline by early 2007. Atlanta home prices are actually down 6.9 percent since the July 2007. 6.9 percent in six months is a steep drop.

2) Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller does not measure condo prices. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that condo prices in Atlanta declined 12 percent in 2007.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, in all its spreadsheety glory, is available here.

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Two years ago, we wrote about Charles Smith of Conyers and how his dislike of Wal-Mart had inspired him to create “Wal-Ocaust” T-shirts that he sold through the Internet. Smith had sold only one shirt (for $5.10) when the retail behemoth sent him a cease and desist letter that claimed he was infringing on the company’s trademarked symbols.

Smith enlisted Public Citizen — the consumer advocacy foundation started by Ralph Nader — and the Georgia chapter of the ACLU, and sued Wal-Mart for infringing on his right to free speech.

Last week, a federal court judge in Atlanta ruled in Smith’s favor. The court found that Smith’s T-shirts — which also include a “Wal-Qaeda” logo — are a parody and that no serious person could mistake a “Wal-Ocaust” symbol with the actual Wal-Mart smiley face icon.

“The terms ‘Walocaust’ and ‘Wal-Qaeda’ are clearly a play on the famous Wal-Mart name,” U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten, Sr. wrote in an 87-page decision. “The fact that the real Wal-Mart name and marks are strong and recognizable makes it unlikely that a parody — particularly one that calls to mind the genocide of millions of people, another that evokes the name of a notorious terrorist organization, or even one that simply refers to ‘Freedom Haters’ — will be confused with Wal-Mart’s real products. “

Wal-Mart complained that it was offended by being compared to Nazis and Arab terrorists. But that argument worked against them. “Indeed, as Wal-Mart has argued, by evoking the Holocaust and Al-Qaeda, Smith’s concepts are not merely unflattering, but veer toward the outrageous and offensive,” the court ruled. “This actually falls in Smith’s favor, as courts have held that the more distasteful and bizarre the parody, the less likely the public is to mistakenly think that the trademark owner has sponsored or approved it.”

The ruling also contained an amazing piece of trivia: Hormel Foods once sued Muppet creator Jim Henson because he created a character named “Spa’am.” They lost that case, too.

Click here to visit Smith’s website.

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Creative Loafing is helping Atlantans explore more with its 2008 Urban Explorer’s Handbook. The special pullout section hits streets tomorrow, and will be available online at atlurbex.com.

Check out the official press release.

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OAKLAND CEMETERY: Still waiting on federal evaluation to begin cleaning up most tornado damage, including smashed Confederate monuments and uprooted 19th-century trees with roots tangled around coffins.

CHASE TATUM: Former WCW wrestler found dead in Buckhead home after apparent drug O.D.

CLINTON: It depends what your definitions of “ducking” and “sniper fire” are.

TYRA BANKS STALKER: All the way from Dublin, Ga.

BASKET CASE: Federal inmate Jonathan Lee Riches alone has filed 39 percent of all cases filed this month in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Among his March “defendants” are Eliot Spitzer, Tom Glavine, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Cyndi Lauper. Last August Riches filed a $63 quintillion suit against Michael Vick for selling his pit bulls on eBay to buy missiles from Iran.

UGA EARMARKS: Surprisingly, the recipients of earmarks like earmarks.

YELLOW JACKETEERING: Another Ga. Tech employee charged with racketeering for allegedly abusing state p-card. (According to AccessNorthGa.com’s news graphic, she is an elf and was arrested in miniature handcuffs much smaller than a dollar bill.)

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Behold, to your right! The ova of Joe-juh!

This odd orb was one of the 49 others designed by the American Egg Board and scattered willy-nilly on the White House lawn, as is the Easter custom. The nameless faceless urchins who, after passing background checks, security clearances and slipping the bomb-sniffing hounds’ handlers a crisp C-note, stumbled upon this half-shell creation that looks like it fell off the back page of a PARADE magazine. This is something you buy in a Hallmark store and give to your third grade teacher, which she conveniently — accidentally! — drops out her car window.

I’m having a difficult time figuring out what we’re observing. Does the outside symbolize Georgia’s pristine outer shell, our gentle facade? Is the inside the murky slush in which countless souls sink and thrash about, trying to stay above the muck? I’m guessing it’s a forest, but is that a prison in back? What did these people know about Ron Sailor, and when did they know it?!?

What say you, noble reader?

(Photo by Chris Greenberg)

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By Janisse Ray

Taped next to a light switch in my house is a photo of an Appalachian mountain that has been mined for coal by blowing off its peak. That photo reminds me to keep the light off as much as I can.

This week we have a chance to shut off lights together, to create a massive blackout that NASA will be able to document.

The event is called Earth Hour.

At 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 29, people around the world plan to join together to raise awareness about how human actions affect the planet. Not only does our use of electricity tear down old mountains, it causes global warming and other climate disruption.

Even as we search for alternatives to fossil fuels, we must reduce the kilowatts we consume and get efficient in our use of power.

The world is too bright. It’s ablaze. Terrible things are happening.

Sydney, Australia, organized Earth Hour 2007, when millions of Sydney-ites shut off their lights and consequently reduced power consumption by 10 percent.

This year, the event, organized by World Wildlife Fund, is going global, and including Atlanta, Chicago, San