Fresh Loaf

GUILTY: A Fulton County jury convicts 68-year-old Chiman Rai for ordering the racially motivated contract killing of his 22 year-old daughter-in-law, Michelle Reid Rai in 2000.

AMEN-ING THE AMENDMENT: For the first-time, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution allows individuals to have firearms. State Sen. Chip Roger, R-Woodstock, says Americans should celebrate. By firing into the air, perhaps?

MISSION KIMPOSSIBLE: The U.S. removes North Korea from its list of terrorist sponsoring nations. In a return gesture of goodwill, North Korea blew up the cooling tower at one of its disused nuclear reactors.

MAPLE STIR-UP: Braves manager Bobby Cox speaks out about the danger posed by maple baseball bats that shatter during play. Many players, including several on the Braves’ roster, prefer maple bats to traditional ash bats.

HELP NOT WANTED AS MUCH: Metro Atlanta’s unemployment jumps 0.6 percent in May to 5.5 percent. Georgia’s unemployment jumped to 5.8 percent in May, it’s highest number in 15 years.

WHAT’S THE 511, HUN?: Georgia’s road travel info hotline, GA 511, receives its one-millionth call after just 10 months in operation. DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham calls it a “milestone,” an exceedingly polite way of saying there are a lot of people stuck in traffic around here.

RUSTLED MCLENDIN’: The Street publishes a list of Georgia’s ten worst banks, as ranked by asset quality. Many of the banks on the list are there for making bad real estate loans. Alpharetta-based Integrity Bank tops the list. Or is it bottoms?

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In Hall County, up in north Georgia, deputies serving a warrant this week shot and killed a homeowner’s dog. And the homeowner wasn’t even the guy they were looking for:

Franklin Reeves, a 58-year-old Baker Road resident, says he does not know why deputies thought they needed to shoot at his three boxers — killing one and injuring another — but Maj. Terry Conner, commander of Administrative Services for the sheriff’s office, said the two deputies were protecting themselves.

The situation up in Hall County reminds me of a few stories I wrote years ago about local cops shooting dogs. On one occasion, an Atlanta police officer shot a Virginia-Highland woman’s yellow Lab that was sitting outside a corner store. In Little Five Points, a man’s Rottweiler was shot by a DeKalb County marshal while the man was being evicted from his apartment — the day before his court date on the eviction.

While I understand that scary, aggressive dogs are often used by drug dealers as a buffer between contraband and the cops, don’t dogs have rights, too?

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The monthly Critical Mass bike ride takes place this Friday. Starting around 6 p.m., cyclists will gather at Woodruff Park in downtown and pedal where their urges take them. Commenters on the ride’s message board — it doesn’t have any real political or power structure — are requesting the pack makes its way through East Atlanta. For more information or to ask questions of the group, click here to visit its message board.

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PETS AND DEBTS: The NYT reports on foreclosures and layoffs leading Georgians to part with their pets, which is overcrowding no-kill shelters.

CRESCENT BOON: In trying to draw more attention to Georgia’s life-sciences corridor between Atlanta and Athens, the state has dubbed the region the “Innovation Crescent.”

CLAYTON: Two candidates for the school board have prior arrest records — one was busted for selling cocaine when he was 22 and the other was charged with two misdemeanor counts of deposit-account fraud two years ago.

SURGE: U.S. Government Accountability Office reports that soldiers with injuries and medical conditions that should have prevented them from being sent to war were nonetheless deployed from forts Stewart, Benning and Drum to Iraq and Afghanistan as part of last year’s troop surge.

DYLAN: The Georgia Aquarium’s former celebrity sea turtle, who was rescued a decade ago on Jekyll Island as an infant, will be released back into the wild near Brunswick Monday.

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES: UGA loses to Fresno State in the rubber match.

TURNING OVER A NUDE LEAF: A Savannah man is released from jail, then rearrested less than a mile away walking naked down a busy road.

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This weekend will be the perfect time for you to finally set up that easel in the middle of a busy interstate and start painting the skyline.

Starting Friday at 9 p.m. and lasting until Monday morning, the DOT will close northbound and southbound lanes on I-75/85 to resurface the road between University Avenue and 10th Street. That means both your traffic and the cars traveling in the other direction will sputter rather than speed.

Six southbound exit ramps and four northbound exit ramps will be closed. The I-20 access ramps may be limited to one lane.

Avoid this area. Heed my words. On I-85 southbound, gridlock caused by this resurfacing backs up all the way to North Druid Hills Road. And it’s stop and go at best when it’s not hurry-up-and-wait.

If you can, take public transit to get where you need to go, or consider using I-285. The trip may take just as long, but at least you’ll be moving, your car won’t be idling, and you won’t get frustrated by the people driving illegally down the shoulder.

And if you do decide to brave the interstate, use caution. There’s already been one DOT worker killed during the project.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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From Ben Smith at Politico.com, here’s Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe speaking to reporters yesterday in Washington, D.C.

“Barr will get some votes [in Georgia]. If Barr were to get two percent in most states, our belief is he’ll get four percent here, most of it coming out of McCain’s hide.”

The last time a Democratic candidate for President won Georgia was 1992, when Clinton squeeked by Papa Bush with the help of countrified billionaire populist Ross Perot, who received 13.4 percent of Georgia’s popular vote.

If Obama were to win Georgia this November, he’ll need more than just a strong Barr campaign nibbling into McCain’s total. He’ll also need a record turnout of enthusiastic Democrats.

February’s presidential primary vote in Georgia hints at that possibility. In a competitive field, Obama nabbed 704,247 primary votes — more than doubling Kerry’s 2004 primary vote count.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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The July 4th weekend looks to be a hectic one in Atlanta. PRIDE is happening, so is a road race sponsored by the monolith-that-will-not-be-named, and the normally clogged streets of our one-horse town will be even worse.

MARTA plans to reroute some buses during the race and boost service for some of the events. Here are some details courtesy of the transit agency:

Peachtree Road Race
7 a.m. - 11 a.m.
Start of Race: Buckhead or Lenox Rail Stations
End of Race: Civic Center Rail Station

4^TH of July at Lenox Square
6 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Lenox or Buckhead Rail Stations
Streets around Lenox Square will be closed starting at 6 p.m.

4^TH of July at Centennial Park
6 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Dome/GWCC/Philips Arena/CNN Center or Peachtree Center Station Customers should expect delays on routes 1 and 11.

Atlanta Pride Festival 6 p.m. - 11 p.m.
Civic Center Rail Station

Atlanta Braves Game and Fireworks
7:30 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Five Points Rail Station
Catch the Shuttle from Underground Atlanta. The Shuttle returns to that location until the seventh inning. After the seventh inning, fans are taken to the Five Points rail station.

More info can be found at MARTA’s website.

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One of the more bothersome consequences of having a $140 million budget shortfall is the need to cut public services to save money. Which ones, and by how much? One that was proposed – and all but certain – for the chopping block was weekly pick-up of recycling. The program was outsourced to a private company and city solons had decided that reducing the service to every other week was a good way to cut costs.

Well, it seems that new Public Works Commissioner Joe Basista has figured a way out of this looming tragedy. A recent memo to the Council from Public Works explains that the city will save $3 million by un-privatizing curbside recycling (take that free-market champions!) and that city workers will happily continue to pick up cans, bottles and newspapers every week.

Atlanta homeowners had already dodged a bullet when the Council decided against scrapping yard waste pick-up. If you need further info about trash, recycling or yard waste collection, go here.

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Blogger ATLMalcontent’s “amazingly amazing” parody series, the blogosphere says what, returned this month from a short hibernation.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, the series began as a parody of another local blogger known for expressing his enthusiasm, indignation, and ennui — often within a single sentence.

Since its inception, however, the blogosphere says what’s parody has widened. It’s now a stand-alone parody of the hyper-political correctness, self-pity, and superficiality its author believes mar public discourse within the gay community.

Yesterday’s installment includes a conspiratorial complaint about Atlanta’s upcoming Pride festivities, anger at the late George Carlin, and a heart-warming announcement:

I have someone new and special in my life, Xander. He used to be Goofy at Disney World but didn’t like the politics of the Disney corporation. He says Time Warner, which owns Six Flags, is more gay-friendly, so he’s hoping to hook on as one of the Looney Tunes characters. He’s also part of the E.Q.U.A.L.I.T.Y. players, a theatrical troupe started by the amazing Harvey Fierstein. By the way, E.Q.U.A.L.I.T.Y stands for: Everyone Qualifies Under Affirmative Lifestyles Independent of Tyranny … Yentl!

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EVERGLADE PLUG-IN: United States Sugar agrees to sell 187,000 acres in the Everglades, and all of the company’s other assets, to the state of Florida for $1.75 billion, which will allow natural water flow from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay for the first time since the 1890s.

OBAMA: Leads McCain in two polls by more than 10 points, although June poll results rarely hold steady through November. Hillary Clinton begins campaigning for Obama today. Obama asks his supporters to help alleviate some of her campaign debt.

UNIONS’ UNION: Delta and Northwest pilot unions agree on a joint contract.

CYBER RATTLING: Atlanta is the 10th-largest cybercity and largest in the Southeast.

COLLARED: Police pull over and arrest an Atlanta man in Macon driving a U-Haul loaded with $150,000 worth of Polo shirts that had been stolen in Valdosta.

GAS PRICE WAR: Two gas stations in Buford are in an arms race of affordability, with a gallon dropping as low as $3.45 over the weekend.

DOG BEAT DOG: Fresno State downs UGA to tie the series at 1-1; Game 3 to decide the national champion is tonight at 7.

JOHN THOMPSON: The Clayton County corrective superintendent says he was misheard in the video he posted online Monday, that he said Clayton schools “had a very slim chance” of maintaining accreditation, before he became superintendent, not “have a very slim chance.” Two Board of Education members back up the misheard version, saying Clayton will not maintain its accreditation.

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First it was Kudzu, then it was Shonen Knife. Now this.

The newest gift from Japan is a car that runs on water. Freshwater, saltwater, rain — it doesn’t matter. One liter of the liquid, researchers say, is enough to power the little mobile for 50 miles in an hour.

Sadly, this doesn’t help us. At least not metro Atlanta. There’s another problem:

“The car will continue to run as long as you have a bottle of water to top up from time to time,” Genepax CEO Kiyoshi Hirasawa told local broadcaster TV Tokyo.

This might work in fueling rental scooters in Panama City Beach, Fla., but inland, the Mayorz hate the bottlez. Add to the fact that amping up production of bottled water to fuel entire fleets of cars would probably offset any environmental gains made if we eased off gasoline. (It takes 17 million barrels of oil every year to manufacture plastic bottles, most of which end up in landfills.)

Please continue with the innovation, Japan. Send us a car that runs on broken promises and Atlanta will be set!

(Toboggan tip to Crooks and Liars, who has a video of the invention.)

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Pulitzer-winning managing editor Hank Klibanoff is leaving the paper.

In a memo sent out today, and posted on poynter.org, Klibanoff didn’t offer specifics about his next move:

I feel I have another big chapter to write, and I don’t want to wait til it’s too late. I cannot tell you right now what that next thing is because I don’t know. Over the past year, I have seen some possibilities, and received calls about others, that interested me, intrigued me, or fascinated me. Leaving allows me to look and listen openly and cleanly.

Klibanoff, along with co-author Gene Roberts, was awarded the Pulitzer last year for his 2006 book, “The Race Beat,” which, according to the New York Times, “painstakingly trace[s] the evolution of civil rights press coverage in the South.”

Klibanoff’s departure means that esteemed editorial page editor Cynthia Tucker will be the AJC’s sole Pulitzer-holder and celebrated cartoonist Mike Luckovich will be the AJC’s sole Pulitzer-holders. (Sorry, Mike!)

In a memo to the paper’s staff, AJC editor Julia Wallace wrote that Klibanoff, during his six-year tenure, “played a critical role in the development of the newsroom.” No word on how Klibanoff’s exit will impact that recently reshuffled newsroom, or who might replace him.

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CBS 46 News reporter Fred Powers has died. According to the AJC, he was diagnosed with cancer in 2005 and was on leave as his health declined. He was 49.

Powers was best-known for his willingness to endure pain while on-camera. Reports showing Powers being tased or attacked by dogs weren’t news, but at least they weren’t exploiting other people’s misfortune. And they were entertaining as hell. Powers was great at his job.

CBS 46 has a nice remembrance video on its web site.

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In light of the questions about special mortgage deals Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., received from embattled Countrywide Financial Corp., Politico has surveyed the lawmakers’ colleagues to inquire about their mortgages. Of those surveyed, 23 senators have yet to respond.

Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, however, did.

Chambliss says he took out a mortgage 15 years ago through a banker at Bank of America. No special terms were included