Fresh Loaf

A case involving a paralyzed restaurant owner who sued a local hospital for medical malpractice has almost made it to the state Supreme Court. The case questioned the constitutionality of a $350,000 cap that the state Legislature placed on malpractice damages.

Some say the cap helps keep insurance costs down by limiting multi-million-dollar settlements. Others, including Fulton County Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington, say the cap violates the equal protection guarantee under both the state and U.S. Constitution.

In a ruling that challenged the damages cap, Judge Arrington wrote, “Persons suffering the exact same personal injuries at the hands of other tortfeasors — including other professionals — are not subject to such caps.”

The plaintiff, Cheon Park, fell from a ladder at his home in 2006 and was treated at WellStar Douglas Hospital, where he was X-rayed, diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder and discharged that day. Three days later, Park was still in debilitating pain and went Grady Memorial Hospital to be X-rayed again. His spine was so badly damaged that he is now a quadriplegic, with no use of his legs and only limited use of his arms.

After Park sued and Arrington ruled in his favor, hospital group WellStar Health System and the medical liability insurer MAG Mutual appealed the ruling to the Georgia Supreme Court, which was supposed to hear the case Monday.

But yesterday, WellStar submitted a motion to withdraw its appeal. The Supreme Court granted the motion.

“It’s very disappointing,” says Allie Wall, executive director of consumer-rights lobbyist group Georgia Watch. “We strongly believe that the caps are unconstitutional, and that once the Georgia Supreme Court has an opportunity to review the law, they would agree with us. We were really hoping that the Park case was that opportunity.

“It’s very clear that the defendants didn’t want this to go forward. They were concerned about what the ruling would be.”

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There’s a parlor game going on these days down at Atlanta City Hall. Here’s how you play: Imagine that President-elect Obama invites Mayor Shirley Franklin to join his administration; then figure out who might move over to take her place, and who’d take that person’s place, and who’d take that person’s place, and so on.

I’d heard about this swirl of speculation a couple weeks back, but decided it would be irresponsible to write about because it’s so, well, speculative. But I’ve changed my mind because: 1) polls are predicting an Obama victory; 2) City Hall is still buzzing with this talk; and 3) the AJC has already jumped on board the speculation train.

So here goes: If Shirley heads to Washington next spring, then a special election would have to be called to replace her. The collective assumption is that City Council President Lisa Borders – who abandoned her campaign for mayor for personal reasons in mid-August – would get back into the race. In a campaign cycle lasting only a few weeks, Borders would have to be considered the front-runner due to high name recognition.

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One of the quirkiest traditions of this time of year is watching “The Simpsons” annual new “Treehouse of Horror” episode — after Halloween. Because Fox currently owns the broadcast rights to the World Series, and November is a ratings “sweeps” month, “The Simpsons” Halloween episode almost always airs after All Hallow’s Eve, when it’s horror-themed slapstick proves a little out of date. The show doesn’t even make self-deprecating jokes about it any more, it’s been this way for so long. This year the 19th installment airs on Sun., Nov. 2 at 8 p.m. and, as usual, features three segments: “How to Get Ahead in Dead-vertising,” “Untitled Robot Parody” and “It’s the Grand Pumpkin, Milhouse,” which satirize, respectively, AMC’s “Mad Men,” Transformers and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” and other Peanuts specials. The amusing titles for the “Mad Men” spoof are already on-line:

“Treehouse of Horror XIX” seems unusually, uh, leaky this year. The episode’s election-themed prologue, involving a faulty voting machine, has been on-line for several weeks already. (In a sign of just how long “The Simpsons” has aired Halloween specials, one of its most amusing political-themed chapters dates to 1996. “Citizen Kang” featured slobbery aliens Kang and Kodus impersonating Bill Clinton and Bob Dole.) Anyway, here’s the new prologue, which at least airs ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day.

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Georgia seems intent on staking a claim on the idea of musical zombies. Inman Park’s Dad’s Garage Theatre staged the world premiere of the stage musical Song of the Living Dead in June, while the horror comedy Dance of the Dead, filmed in Rome, Ga., has come out on DVD in time for Halloween. In Dance, director Gregg Bishop stitches equal parts of of a John Hughes-style high school comedy to a George Romero cannibal zombie uprising. As luck would have it, the dead rise on the night of the high school prom, so the first line of defense are the plucky teens who don’t have dates for one reason or another. Justin Welborn, an Atlanta actor who played the sensitive leading role in Atlanata’s sort-of zombie-themed The Signal, gets a meaty role as a high-strung bully. (”And Justin Welborn” announces the credits: that “And” is nearly as god as having top billing.

Dance of the Dead played this year’s Atlanta Film Festival and pushes the comical sides of the story. Amusing bits include the undead hypnotized by a garage band’s righteous chops (as long as the amps are plugged in), as well as a pair of zombies driving off in a pizza delivery car. The coolest scene features zombies bursting from their graves at a run, but otherwise it’s not very imaginative conceptually. The zombies lurch around moaning for “braaaaains” like perfect cliches. (At least, say, the McCain Zombie Images offer some fresh perspectives.) The Onion A.V. Club’s review of recent straight-to-DVD horror films gives it a 5 in its “Potential classic rating:”

“Bishop combines EC Comics and The Breakfast Club in a way that’s breezy and good-natured, but not especially deep. Dance Of The Dead is easy to like, but there’s not much here to love.”

In general, if you’ve ever seen Shaun of the Dead’s treatment of the lighter side of a zombie holocaust, or “Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s” occult metaphors for the high school experience, Dance of the Dead doesn’t offer much new, but it leaves you eager to see what the filmmakers will do next. even as the zombie genre seems like a body with little meat left on it.

Dance of the Dead can be purchased as a stand-alone film or as part of the Ghost House Underground Eight-Film Collection.

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In the last of its Jawja polls of the day, Rasmussen says John McCain still leads Barack Obama by five points in Georgia.

Interesting tidbit:

In the latest poll, Obama now leads 53% to 44% among unaffiliated voters in the state. Last week, McCain led those voters by an identical margin. McCain leads 73% to 26% among white voters in Georgia while Obama earns overwhelming support from black voters. While men favor McCain 55% to 45%, women are split between the candidates at 49% each.

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I’ve been surprised by the unprecedented level of interest in the Fulton County Superior Court race between incumbent Judge T. Jackson Bedford and his challenger, Atlanta Magistrate Court Judge Keisha Lance Bottoms. Normally, judicial races attract little attention from the public and the news media, but this one is different, probably because some of T-Jack’s actions – such as chaining Fulton DA Paul Howard to a radiator – have brought him a measure of notoriety.

We sort of wussed out in our Voter Guide description of the race by not taking a definite stand:

We aren’t convinced Bottoms has the necessary legal background to replace Bedford, but we’re concerned about his temperament.

But now I have to say I’m concerned about the tone Bottoms’ campaign has taken. Her latest flier reads like a political hit piece on Bedford and contains some dubious claims. First off, she claims T-Jack is “under investigation for ethics violations,” and she cites your friends here at CL. Unfortunately, this statement isn’t true and we didn’t say it. What my colleague Thomas reported was that an ethics complaint had been filed against Bedford by political instigator George Anderson, whose track record with ethics filings is long and shaky. There’s a big difference between a complaint and an investigation, and an attorney like Bottoms should know it. What her flier says is patently false.

Another spurious, CL-related claim on the flier is that Bedford “allows underage strippers,” citing an article I wrote in July. This statement is misleading. Last fall, the Atlanta City Council passed an ordinance aimed at stopping women under the age of 21 from working in strip clubs. But the way the measure was written, it bars anyone under 21 from entering a nightclub for any reason – including bar workers, janitors and even members of bands booked to play there.

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Mike Dobbins, a former City of Atlanta planning commissioner who now teaches at Georgia Tech, urges voters say ‘no’ to Amendment 2.  If approved, the amendment would allow school systems to participate in tax allocation districts. CL recently endorsed Amendment 2 — click here to see why.

There has been a lot of misinformation spread about TADs and what the constitutional referendum is about. Its supporters have been using tax-generated funding to lobby, and I would say mislead, the public to try to get us to vote for it. TADs allow local governmental jurisdictions to sell bonds to pay for public infrastructure in designated areas where disinvestment and blight bring down the neighborhood and discourage private investment. The bonds are supposed to be paid back from the tax value increases generated by development supported by the improved infrastructure. Many advocates imply that without a yes vote TADs won’t be available to local governments to induce prospective developers’ investment.

But TADs are still available. It’s just that the school portion of anticipated tax value increases must be dedicated to school purposes. So voting no on the referendum doesn’t jeopardize TAD programs; it only reduces the amount of proceeds available.

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… but it was just a vote of Atlanta Public School students. According to an APS press release:

Obama crushes McCain
in APS student mock election

More than 17,000 students in 70 Atlanta Public Schools participated in a national mock election Thursday, chosing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama over Republican rival John McCain by a margin of more than 17-to-1. …

Obama garnered 15,798 votes or 92 percent of ballots cast, compared with McCain’s 910 votes or 5 percent. Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney won 99 votes, independent Ralph Nader won 62, Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party won 59 and Libertarian Bob Barr won 45.

Of course, 86 percent of Atlanta Public School students are black, and African-Americans nationally are polling around 98 percent for Obama. I wonder what the mock vote would have been in Cherokee County.

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… just in case McCain wins. More information here:

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After two years of labor-intensive restoration efforts, SCAD reopened Atlanta’s historic Peters House, aka Ivy Hall, on Oct. 3. The mansion, located at 179 Ponce de Leon Ave., dates back to 1883 and was home to one of the city’s founding families. Its Queen Anne-style design is the “best and earliest surviving example of residential architecture from Atlanta’s post-Civil War era,” according to the National Register of Historic Places. It also housed the Mansion restaurant for nearly 30 years until a fire in 2000.

PBA 30 continues airing the locally produced five-part series documenting the restoration process Nov. 1, 8, 15 and 22 at 6:30 p.m.

(Photo courtesy www.scad.edu)

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The polling organization says incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss leads Democratic nominee Jim Martin 48-43. It also says if Libertarian nominee Allen Buckley’s support remains consistent, a runoff is likely.

Says Rasmussen:

Senator Saxby Chambliss leads Democratic challenger Jim Martin by five percentage points in his bid for re-election in Georgia. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the race finds the Republican incumbent with 48% of the vote and Martin with 43%. Libertarian Party candidate Allen Buckley picks ups seven percent (7%) of the vote while two percent (2%) remain undecided.

But, under Georgia law, a candidate must win at least 50% of the vote or face a run-off election in December.

If Buckley’s support stays at current levels, it would be difficult for either Chambliss or Martin to win the majority needed to avoid a run-off. It is also possible, however, that some Buckley supporters may choose instead to vote for one of the major party candidates.

A week ago Chambliss was ahead by just two points, the closest the race has been all year and the highest level of support for Martin, whose campaign has spent roughly half-a-million dollars on attack ads against Chambliss over the past month. Just three weeks ago, Chambliss held a six-point lead.

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— Want to check out one of the best polling analysis on the Net? That would be Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com, and he has Georgia on his mind. He explains why, if “that one” landslides Johnny Mac in the presidential election, the Georgia Senate race becomes the most interesting election left on the board.

— It’s also getting down to trench fighting. Amy at Georgia Women Vote reports that one of her readers has received robo calls from the Big SaxMachine campaign, and another from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the SaxMan. And the topic of all those robo calls? Here’s a multiple choice:

a) How do we get out of Iraq?

b) How do we fix the economy?

c) How will the big guy make our lives better if we re-elect him?

d) Abortion.

Sigh.

— It’s endorsement time for DriftGrift, and he captures the sense of history that’s blowin’ in the wind. He also makes a couple of decidedly non-mainstream choices. Of course. It’s the blogosphere, not a robo-call, so that’s allowed.

— How tight is the presidential race in Georgia? At one point, “that one” had all but conceded the state. Now, Andre at Georgia Politics Unfiltered reports, the campaign is buying commercial time on local television stations.

— DCup is so into blogging that she’s created a second blog, Unglued, that focuses on the personal rather than the political. In the latest edition, the soccer mom overhears her daughter give a rather succinct, and potentially painful, anatomy lesson to her son.

— And, finally, it’s Halloween, the second best day of the year to be a kid. In the spirit of All Hallow’s Eve, which harkens back to a celebration of the riches of the fall harvest, the fine ladies at Pecanne Log take a look at Atlanta’s pagan roots. Druid Hills, don’t you get it?

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The Internets can be an effective crime-fighting tool for those who can’t wait for John Walsh to call.

On Monday, Dan and Alyssa Kopp of Grant Park were victims of a break-in that cost them their flat-screen TV, a laptop and a digital camera. However, their home security camera had caught the entire burglary on video, showing the three thieves and their SUV in high definition.

They posted the video to YouTube on Tuesday, alerted some friends and within a few hours they’d received calls from us, the AJC and several TV news crews. By 5 p.m., the video of the smash-and-grab burglary had been watched by more than 5,000 people, some of whom posted tips.

On Thursday, according to the AJC, police acting on one such tip raided a house in South DeKalb, where they found eight stolen flat-screen televisions, three laptop computers and several digital cameras. Six suspects, all in their 20s, were arrested.

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So what if Libertarian Allen Buckley got enough votes to keep both Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin from topping 50 percent in the Nov. 4 election? They’d face each other in a Dec. 2 runoff. But which candidate would have the advantage?

It depends on the conventional-wisdom theory you go with.

CW theory #1: Incumbents often lose when they’re forced into runoffs, because people who supported the other candidates are more likely to swing their support to another challenger than to support the status quo.

CW theory #2: Republicans generally win runoffs in Georgia because whites go back to the polls in higher proportions than blacks.