Fresh Loaf

Southern Voice posted a story today breaking down how Georgia’s representatives in the U.S. House and Senate stand on LGBT legislation, as well as their scores from the Human Rights Campaign.

Not surprisingly, it usually comes down to geography, with the strongest support by those representing the Atlanta area and the least support by those representing rural areas. Here’s the full chart.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Atlanta, continues to take the lead on pro-equality issues but Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Decatur, has quickly joined alongside Lewis. The pair have become two of Georgia’s — and the nation’s — largest voices in Congress in moving pro-equality legislation forward. They were the only two members of the Georgia delegation to vote no on both the Protection of Marriage Act and the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. They were also co-sponsors on six pro-equality bills, including the hate crimes bill, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

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After a three-year run as Atlanta’s nightclub of choice for ballers, b-boys and high-rollers, Vision served its last Red Bull and vodka on Aug. 5, 2006. The fabled VIP haven for everyone from P. Diddy to Britney Spears to many of the now-jailed principals behind the BMF drug-trafficking empire, the glitzy club effectively shifted operations to the sprawing (and now-shuttered) Compound, on the city’s Westside, then moved the party up to the Velvet Room on the northern Perimeter.

Since then, the only noise on that stretch of Peachtree Street, between 10th and 12th streets, has been the sound of construction equipment.

But the Gidewon brothers — the four press-shy siblings from Eritrea who rule Atlanta’s hip-hop nightlife — plan to change all that.

After months of community speculation, brother Michael has embarked on the application process to reopen Vision in the strip of buildings on Peachtree that once housed the old Cotton Club and Pasta Da Pulcinella locations. From the outside, the windowless buildings appear vacant and dilapidated. But, according to sources, the club interior is enormous and was built out nearly a year ago to the Gidewon’s trademark spare-no-expense standards.

Now that the Gidewons have finally filed for their permits, at least one civic group is determined to see they don’t get them.

“We don’t want the loud music, cruising, litter and shootings that go with this type of club,” says Peggy Denby, president of the Midtown Ponce Security Alliance. “We’re going to oppose this very loudly.”

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CATNAP? On Pharr Road, a woman called police to report her cat missing. An officer arrived. The woman said she “has not seen her cat in several days and believes that one of her neighbors inside her apartment complex has kidnapped the cat,” the officer wrote. Also, the woman said the same neighbor confronted her and said she knew the woman has “herperies,” the officer wrote. The woman said she didn’t know how her neighbor could know that information about her. The woman “stated that she previous left her personal phone books outside her apartment on her patio, which is an open area next to a bus stop near [her] apartment,” the officer wrote. “[She] stated she found a small knife laying on her patio table when she returned to pickup her telephone book. When I inquired about the knife, [the woman] got the knife from her kitchen drawer and showed the knife to me.” The woman said she thinks her neighbor has it out for her. The officer couldn’t locate the suspected neighbor. The woman insisted on filing a police report.

Continue reading the Blotter

(Illustration by Tray Butler)

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Apparently, not enough people are having sex with animals in Atlanta, so the AJC had to go with a wire story out of South Carolina.

I don’t usually read “The Vent,” but this reader offering caught my eye:

Yeah they replaced the ‘man having sex with a dog’ with ‘man having sex with a horse’. Something is very wrong…

I can’t tell if the reader is complaining about people’s F’ed up sexually proclivities or the AJC’s coverage choices, but sure enough, following its staff-written piece about a Jonesboro man who’s a little too fond of his dog, the AJC picked up a lovely wire story about a 50-year-old South Carolinian charged with — I kid you not — “buggery” after horse owner Barbara Kenley caught him molesting her mare. Here’s the kicker: The perp had pleaded guilty to the same charge last year after being caught forcing himself on the same damn horse!

Here are more details than you need:

“Police kept telling me it couldn’t be the same guy,” Kenley said. “I couldn’t believe that there were two guys going around doing this to the same horse.”

She spent several nights at the stables, which are about four miles from her home, but didn’t find anything. So she installed surveillance cameras, and when she reviewed the footage from July 19, she couldn’t believe she was seeing the same man doing the same thing to her horse.

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Hardin construction — the big-name firm that has come under scrutiny for having been involved with the construction of both the Atlanta botanical garden walkway that collapsed in December 2008 and the partially-collapsed Centergy parking deck in midtown — has had two lucrative contracts cancelled by the University of Georgia.

Cars being pulled out of the Centergy parking deck in midtown last month after it collapsed.

In April of this year Hardin received a contract to work on two new parking decks planned by UGA, for a grand total of $18.6 million. Since then, however, Hardin has been fined $6,300 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for inadequately installing scaffolding towers to support the Botanical Garden walkway.

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Mayor Franklin at yesterday's press conference.

Mayor Shirley Franklin and Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington’s press conference yesterday was a long and quizzical event filled mostly with testy questions about the chief’s recent whereabouts.

But in addition to those questions about Atlanta’s Houdini, the mayor said she wanted to talk about “solutions” and the city’s strategy to improve its piss-poor public safety. That strategy involves more cops on the street, a crackdown on gang activity, and an engaged community.

In the interest of public engagement and transparency, we’ve decided to post Franklin’s statement in full.

After the jump, what Franklin’s administration plans to do in her remaining months in office to prevent the killings, carjackings, burglaries and other ills.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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• Strapped for cash: The White House hopes to keep its “cash for clunkers” program running despite running out of cash (newsdome note: Why am I the only that missed out on this?)
• “Robust public option”? Blue Dog Democrats have their way with proposed healthcare legislation.
• Tangible good news? Signs of the recession easing up as decrease in GDP is smaller than expected.
• Funny how this works: Apple is resembling another big tech company from 10 years ago that squashed competition.
• Feels like a slow news day… so here’s a picture of a dude dressed as Spider Man stopping a van full of children so a brood of ducklings can cross the road.

  (Photo by Joeff Davis)

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My neighbors in northeast Atlanta heard a loud noise this morning around 1:45. They went outside to find that this huge tree had fallen and just missed the front of their house. They said it wasn’t storming at the time that the tree fell. The tree, a Bradford pear, is common in Atlanta and has a reputation as being susceptible to falling in high winds.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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With over 5,000 votes already submitted, this year’s Best of Atlanta is stronger than ever. Today is the last day to submit your vote, so make sure your picks are counted for by voting at clatl.com/bestofatlanta before the end of the day. We’ll publish the results on Sept. 23.

If you missed the voting party at the Masquerade last week, shame on you! Be sure to check out our photo gallery and video from the party (after the jump), and make sure you’re there next year!

Below, check out our latest poll … and vote today!

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Perception of Crime Watch® has gone bipartisan!

Look what just showed up in Jim Wooten’s Thinking Right blog:

Oh, car hijackee and Atlanta City Councilman Ceasar Mitchell, was not the victim of crime; he was the victim of perception of crime.

How about that!

Perception of Crime Watch® is on the brink of becoming the most popular Atlanta Internet crime watch meme since mid-2007’s wildly popular I Can Has Crime Wave.

Don’t forget: Perception of Crime Watch is also on Twitter. Just add #pocatl to your posts and you, too, can join the fun.

(Thank you @mattgove finding the Wooten link and the bipartisanship)

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1) The Center for Puppetry Arts hosts a screening of In Xanadu.

2) Grupo Fantasma performs at Variety Playhouse.

3) Harvey Milk and Torche play the Earl.

4) Humpday opens at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema.

5) Simone performs at Atlanta Symphony Hall.

See more Atlanta events.

(Photo © Shadowlight Productions)

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Councilman Ceasar Mitchell, who was carjacked at gunpoint over the weekend, has revived a piece of legislation he proposed last year that would set a daytime curfew for children between the ages of 6 and 16.

Now, before everyone piles on with snide comments, as happened with an earlier blog post, allow me to note that this is not Mitchell’s sole answer to the apparently growing teen crime wave (I inaccurately used the word “antidote”). He has also pushed for more foot patrols — as opposed to cops simply driving around — and more resourses for the Red Dog squad.

But here’s his description of his curfew proposal, fresh from the press release:

“This ordinance will hold parents or guardians of minors accountable for their children who go unsupervised during certain hours on school days, said Mitchell.  ”Before, above, and beyond teachers, principals, and the police, the primary responsibility to direct, discipline, and monitor a minor rests with that minor’s parent or guardian.  Therefore, it is not too much to ask for a parent to be involved in and ultimately responsible for the whereabouts of their child during school hours.”

He calls the measure “a good step in the right direction,” not the answer to the city’s crime problem.

We’ll have to wait to see if his colleagues agree. The Council is on summer reccess and next meets Aug. 17.

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'I'll bring the giant slab of meat, guys!'

In a shameless attempt to mimic Kenyan President Barack Obama, an illegal alien who is doing keg stands at this very moment with a Harvard professor and Boston police officer, Gov. Sonny Perdue has invited the governors of Alabama and Florida to chew the fat and talk about sharing Lake Lanier’s water.

“Water issues have dominated the headlines in recent days, and I have read statements from both of you that indicate your willingness to resume water negotiations,” Governor Perdue wrote in a letter to both governors. “Judge Magnuson’s insistence on a Congressional solution was specifically related to authority for Lanier and did not address the allocation of water in the basins between the three states. I have always believed that a negotiated settlement that protects the rights and resources of all three states is the most lasting solution.”

Perdue even gave them a list of 40 days that he’s free. (Gotta be something Biblical about that.) Can’t make it to Atlanta? No biggie! Perdue said he’s willing to travel to them.

The governor might want to be accommodating to their schedules. According to the Associated Press, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley is none too pleased with Perdue’s decision to appoint Georgia Power CEO Mike Garrett to an “impact team” that’ll coordinate the Peach State’s strategy in this wacky mess.

Perdue’s full letter to the governors is pasted after the jump.

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The Atlanta City Council Finance and Executive Committee yesterday gave Beltline officials the green light to issue up to $267 million in bonds to fund the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit.

At a citizen advisory committee meeting on Tuesday at the East Atlanta library, Richard Lutch of Atlanta Beltline Inc. told members that project officials will issue bonds in the $145 million-$165 million range in October, a good chunk of which will go to refinance last year’s bond issuance.

Exactly how other cash raised from the issuance will be used for trails, parks and other Beltline features is still undecided. But officials have a basic idea.

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Jim Walls at Atlanta Unfiltered dug into Atlanta’s crime statistics for this year and found that, yep, crime is  down citywide. But there are pockets where it’s risen sharply.

Aggravated assaults climbed by more than 50 percent in downtown Atlanta this year, and residential burglaries were up sharply in Buckhead and southwest Atlanta, police statistics show.

…

Aggravated assault, for instance, climbed 52 percent in Zone 5 (downtown Atlanta), even as it declined by 8 percent in the rest of the city. Auto theft was up 23 percent and bicycle theft up 120 percent in Zone 5 during the same period.

Residential burglaries climbed 54 percent in Zone 3 (Southwest Atlanta) over 2008, the statistics show. In Zone 2 (Buckhead), residential burglaries rose 33 percent. Elsewhere in the city, the number of burgaries was stable or down slightly; in Zone 1 (northwest Atlanta), they were down 28 percent.

More info at Atlanta Unfiltered.

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Who knew train wrecks could happen indoors?

Mayor Shirley Franklin and Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington today faced heated questions from reporters on how the city plans to address residents’ growing concerns about public safety.

The focus this morning was on Pennington, who spoke only briefly and appeared downtrodden throughout the press conference. The chief’s been criticized for maintaining a low profile, especially after a recent spurt of crimes in the city that included the killing of a pro boxer, the carjacking of a councilman, and the shooting of a man walking into his girlfriend’s house with groceries. Today was the first anyone’s heard from him on the recent rash of crimes. (He said he was attending mandatory “police leadership training” in Virginia over the weekend.)

Reporters asked the chief — who will be looking for a new job once the mayor’s term ends in January — if he has the wherewithal to address the crime issue.

“I have not ‘checked out,’” Pennington said. “I will continue to work hard until [Franklin] leaves.”

Franklin — who got testy with the press many times throughout the conference — voiced unwavering support for Pennington, whom she said has helped “reform” the Atlanta department and the New Orleans Police Department, where he formerly worked.

“I’m proud of his leadership,” she said. “I’m proud of his integrity.”

She added, however, that one crime is “one crime too many” — and that the city could do more.

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• Media having a field day: President Obama has invited the Harvard professor and his arresting officer for beers at the White House (yes, beer).
• Meanwhile: New low for Fox News and Glenn Beck (hey, at least they apologized for profiting from that turdball’s idiotic nonsense).
• Porn and politics don’t mix: Was Stormy Daniels’ political advisor hit by a car bomb in New Orleans?
• At it again: Iranian police disrupt memorial for killed protesters.
• Silver lining in hard economic times: Earnings for Exxon and Shell drop as fuel demand wanes due to the recession.
• But, it’s still somewhat bad: Thought they don’t reach June numbers, jobless claims rose by 25,000.
• Nail in the coffin: Microsoft reaches search deal with Yahoo!, effectively implanting it’s new search engine Bing, in the once prosperous search portal.
  
• WTF? Texas woman sends 34 people to the hospital after spraying on some perfume.

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Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, has secured a commitment from the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold hearings this fall on the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which bans openly gay soldiers from serving. Gillibrand had tried over the last several weeks to rally support behind a measure that would put an 18-month moratorium on the policy, but couldn’t come up with the votes.

In the House, Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-PA, is leading the charge against the policy by sponsoring a bill that would overturn DADT.  Murphy, an Iraq War veteran, is getting major backing from the Human Rights Campaign and Stonewall Democrats. Georgia Congressmen John Lewis and Hank Johnson are co-sponsors of Murphy’s bill. Here’s Rep. Murphy discussing his support for repeal of DADT with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

Meanwhile, British newspaper The Independent is reporting that senior U.S. military officers are “quietly holding talks with their British counterparts” about how the U.S. should go about changing the policy.  The U.K. lifted their ban on gays in the military in 2000.

Chief Operations Officer of Stonewall Democrats, and Atlanta resident, Kyle Bailey spoke to Creative Loafing about the policy’s effect on Georgia service members, as well as on those nationwide:

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Black Moth Super Rainbow played the Drunken Unicorn on July 29.

(Photo by Perry Julien)

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1) Snoop Dogg and Slightly Stoopid perform at the Masquerade.

2) Amanda Gable signs The Confederate General Rides North at Charis Books & More.

3) Whitfield Lovell and Carrie Mae Weems discuss Mercy, Patience and Destiny: The Women of Whitfield Lovell’s Tableux at the Woodruff Arts Center.

4) Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp perform at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre.

5) Wanda Sykes begins a two-night stint at Uptown Comedy Corner.

See more Atlanta events.

(Photo by Jeff Farsai)

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Will they continue to assert that crime isn’t on the rise in Atlanta, only the Perception of Crime? Or will they concede that the city has become more dangerous, what with all the various shootings, killings and carjackings?

We should find out Thursday morning, when, at 10 a.m., Mayor Shirley Franklin and Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington are scheduled to deliver a “Public Safety Update.” But don’t go to City Hall. The event will be held at the city’s planned future public safety headquarters at 226 Peachtree St.

Could this be the end of Perception of Crime Watch®?

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Jim Powell, the Democrat who last year went through hell in his campaign for Georgia Public Service Commission, is on environmental news service Greenwire’s shortlist for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 4 administrator job.

Region 4, Atlanta

Territory: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and six tribes.

Issues: Oversight of coal-fired power plants and coal-ash dumps. Of 44 coal-ash impoundment sites determined by the Obama administration to be high-hazard sites, 20 of them are this region. Wetlands protection is also a top issue, since the region includes Gulf Coast marshes and the Everglades.

Possible picks: Acting Region 4 Administrator Stanley Meiburg; acting Deputy Administrator Beverly Banister; Russell Wright, assistant administrator of Region 4’s Office of Policy and Management; John Hankinson, former Region 4 administrator in the Clinton administration; and Jim Powell, a former senior official with the Energy Department who retired in 2007.

Powell slogged through the state’s legal system in a residency challenge from Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel, ultimately winning in state Supreme Court. Republican Lauren “Bubba” McDonald beat Powell in a runoff to replace Angela Speir.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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In unveiling his new “Blueprint for Restoring Public Safety in Atlanta,” state Sen. Kasim Reed brought out the big guns — in the form of Evander Holyfield’s right and left arms. While bringing a well-known heavyweight boxing champ to a campaign press conference might initially sound like a publicity stunt, there was actually a relevant connection: Holyfield was a friend and mentor to Vernon Forrest, the welterweight boxing champion who was murdered at a Castleberry Hill gas station this past Saturday night after he confronted a mugger.

Reed’s plan, which will now go toe-to-toe with the patented Mary Norwood 12-Point Public Safety Program, is titled “Securing Atlanta.” Here’s the campaign blurb:

Securing Atlanta is a comprehensive plan to tackle the growing problem of crime in the city. The plan includes increasing the existing size of our police force with 750 additional police officers, establishing a dedicated revenue stream for public safety, updating our technology such as adding more surveillance cameras, improving officer retention by restoring step increments and making salaries more competitive. Securing Atlanta also takes a holistic approach to reducing crime by addressing other contributing factors such as the importance of revitalizing our neighborhoods, giving our young people greater opportunities and addressing the escalation in gang activity.

Unlike Norwood’s plan, Reed’s proposal includes a funding method, the above-mentioned “dedicated revenue stream for public safety,” which he has said would be in the form of a special tax district whose residents (that’s us) would foot the additional cost.

Can we now expect Lisa Borders to roll out her own splashy public-safety initiative, perhaps called, “Kicking Butt and Taking Names: Fighting Crime in the ATL?” Apparently not, judging from her most recent campaign release, headlined: Borders Calls For End To Public Safety Rhetoric.

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UPDATE: According to the St. Petersburg Times, the judge determined today that she won’t issue a decision on the rules of the CL’s equity auction until the actual auction day. Details below.

Our colleague Wayne Garcia, at our sister paper in Tampa, is keeping us in the loop on the latest hearing in the ongoing battle to determine who will be the owner of the six-newspaper Creative Loafing Inc. chain, the second-largest alt-weekly conglomerate in the country.

The battle is between current owner Ben Eason, whose family founded the chain, and Eason’s largest creditor, hedge fund Atalaya Capital Management.

Today’s hearing will was expected to finalize some important rules for the Aug. 25 equity auction, which will determine who will control the company. But the judge decided to hold off on finalizing the rules until the very day of the auction.

The St. Pete’s Times reports:

Creative Loafing, the weekly alternative newspaper chain based in Tampa, fears a bankruptcy auction of its stock next month could break up the company.

On Wednesday, representatives of Ben Eason, whose family started Creative Loafing more than 30 years ago, appealed to a judge to block its largest creditor from winning the auction….

Eason fears the deep-pocketed Atalaya could blow away other bidders, including Eason himself, and begin liquidating the company for cash as early as September.

Garcia, in Tampa, characterized the courtroom proceedings as “complex, confusing and undramatic.” He also writes that Atalaya has expressed interest in investing in Creative Loafing, should the hedge fund become the newspaper chain’s owner. Garcia also points out that Atalaya has claimed it intends to run the company, not liquidate it:

Atalaya, during hearings earlier this year, also said it plans to operate the business as a news media company and has a management consultant lined up. It also said it would make an additional $1 million line of credit available to the new CL if it is the successful bidder, for operational needs. “We’ve committed some real money here,” [Atalaya’s lawyer Tyler] Brown said in court.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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When we first reported on the city’s proposed sustainable building ordinance, a monster piece of legislation that would require most new construction in Atlanta to be more eco-friendly, word was that it was expected to sail through. After all, what better time than one of the worst development markets in recent memory to push for a policy that’s poised to make the city more green and help future residents save cash on their energy bills?

Well, things changed. At yesterday’s Atlanta City Council Community Development and Human Resources committee meeting, councilmembers decided to table the legislation.

The basic line we’re hearing from sources is that there were some provisions in the ordinance that stakeholders wanted to “review.” That’s code for “wait a gosh darn minute, we’ve got some concerns!”

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