Fresh Loaf

Siri Sinclaire splits her time between a tireless — and often thankless — routine of casting calls, rap video shoots, and slinging liquor shots at an upscale nightclub in Gwinnett County. (“If you’ve ever seen Coyote Ugly where the girls have the tubes [filled with liquor], I’m that girl,” she says.) She’s hoping that her work as a video model will open doors to other, more high-profile and lucrative opportunities.

I grew up in Springfield, Mass. It’s a small city where everybody knows everyone. Just by looking at someone’s car, you could say, ‘Oh, that’s Josh over there.’ It gets old after a while, seeing the same people not doing nothing with themselves. I went to a private school, and it was just me and my mom growing up. My mom got married when I was about 10. Siri is my real name; Sinclaire is a nickname that my friends made up in high school because I have Irish in me. So one day I decided to throw it on Facebook, and it stuck.

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Last Saturday, the fifth annual reenactment of a horrific lynching at Moore’s Ford Bridge in Monroe, Ga., helped bring attention to the unsolved crime.

On July 25, 1946, two African-American couples and an unborn child were killed by a group of armed men, who riddled them with so many bullets that their bodies were practically unrecognizable. Some of the men are still believed to be living in Walton County.

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T minus three days until CL’s 2009 Best of Atlanta ballot closes. Have you casted your votes? Think you know the best brunch spot? Have an opinion on who the most fabulous local celebrity is? Want to give a shout out to your favorite band? Well now’s your chance.

You can vote online at clatl.com, or through Facebook where you can share the ballot with your friends. Clock’s ticking … step to it folks!

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• Truth of the matter: Republicans broke the economy, won’t fix it.
• What regulation? Bernie Madoff says he pulled off fraud cuz Feds weren’t watching.
• Accelerate: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he sees chance for quicker troop withdrawl from Iraq.
• Good sign: Economic indicators suggest manufacturing may expand in second half of the year.
• Remember how texting can increase your chances of crashing? Well, now lawmakers wanna make it illegal to text while driving.
• D’you see it? New version of iPhone only visible to Apple’s most loyal customers.
• Watch what you tweet: Woman sued for angry tweet about her landlord.
• Don’t tan in sunbeds: It can give you cancer.

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I took this photograph at the Audacity of Hoops event, organized by the Dirty Truth Campaign, which took place July 25 at a public park in Mechanicsville. The purpose of the event was to bring together the community — especially youth — to rally behind the cause of cleaning up the neighborhoods near Turner Field, whose empty lots and abandoned buildings attract crime and drugs. The photograph was taken just before the first basketball game of the tournament that was held at the park. A member of the Dirty Truth Campaign had just given the two teams an overview of the rules and then had them put their hands in before the game. He must have heard me snapping away as fast as my camera would go because after the first one, he had them put their hands in a second time, presumably realizing too that it was a good shot. This was my favorite picture I took at the event because to me it symbolizes unity and the coming together of the kids in the community to get behind a common cause.

(Photo and text by Alan Friedman)

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1) Chef Craig Richards pimps local heirloom tomatoes at La Tavola Trattoria’s Tomatofeast.

2) Buckwheat Zydeco performs at Smith’s Olde Bar.

3) The National Black Arts Festival kicks off with the Pan African Film Festival and more.

4) Black Moth Super Rainbow plays Drunken Unicorn.

5) Dr. John and the Neville Brothers perform at Chastain Park Amphitheatre.

See more Atlanta events.

(Photo by Flickr.com/clayirving)

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Thanks to some Obamabucks from Washington, D.C., Atlanta residents could see more police officers patrolling the streets — possibly this fall.

Vice President Joe Biden today announced $1 billion in economic stimulus funds to hire 4,700 police officers in cities across the country. The funds will be administered through the U.S. Justice Department’s Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, program.

Atlanta’s set to receive $11.2 million of that loot — enough to hire 50 police officers. (You can view a PDF of Atlanta’s award letter here.)

That’s a far cry from the 200 officers Mayor Shirley Franklin had hoped for earlier this year. But after a weekend of high-profile shootings, killings and carjackings, it’s good news for a city that looks safer on paper than it feels on the streets.

In a statement about the funding, Atlanta Deputy Chief George Turner said:

…the goal is to have a recruit class this fall with the 50 new recruits. Once the officers are trained they will be dispatched into the community. The police department is proud and happy to add 50 new officers to the force, said Chief Turner. All the positions awarded under the grant must be used to initiate or enhance community policing in the City of Atlanta.

There’s a catch, however.

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Matt Towery — former GOP state legislator, political pollster and possessor of the most otherworldly tan this side of John Boehner — has put to work the most advanced polling tools available at his disposal and determined the Atlanta mayoral race is…a three-way tossup between Council President Lisa Borders, Councilwoman Mary Norwood and state Sen. Kasim Reed.

Oh, and furthermore, it’ll probably go to a runoff.

Well, frankly, I came to those same conclusions weeks ago and I don’t own a fancy polling firm.

But Towery goes on to share some of his insights into the dynamics of the race. Here’s Matt:

The candidate who buys substantial television post-Aug. 1 will, based on every pattern I have seen, be likely to make the runoff. There is a caveat here. That candidate must have a deep enough level of support to be able to build on the huge name identification boost he or she will receive by being daring and “going for it” early. The only way this strategy works is if the candidate is already viewed as credible and by becoming the “frontrunner,” he or she then basically scares the money on the sidelines into supplying another round of serious cash to keep the television and radio buys going until election day.

And here he offers the perspective of a jaded ex-politico:

If you think turnout will be light in November, try December. That’s where a little thing called “street money” will become critical. In the South, money paid to “consultants,” tithed to churches, donated to charities and just plain handed out has played a huge role in turnout in the black community. That tradition dried up with the 2002 race for governor between Roy Barnes and Sonny Perdue. The Barnes crowd put their money into television — in part because so many top African-American leaders had significant races of their own (or involving family members) that there seemed no need to put cash in the community.

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The police chief spoke out today to reassure a frightened public after a high-profile crime.

Not Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington.

Don’t be ridiculous.

He would never do something as leadership-ish as that.

I’m talking about Decatur police Chief J.M. Booker.

A carjacking in Decatur’s Oakhurst neighborhood shortly before noon today has city residents on edge.

Chief Booker signed-in at Decatur Metro this afternoon to tell readers he recognizes how unsettling today’s incident was.

Atlantans take note: Decatur’s police chief managed to get through his entire letter without once mocking his fellow Decaturites. He didn’t tell Decaturites their fears are based on the mere perception of crime, nor did he brag about how awesome Decatur is.

He didn’t even mention baseball!

He said today’s carjacking troubled him a great deal and that he and his department are busting their collective backside to catch the people responsible.

An actual, sincere expression of concern about crime, without a hint of smug defiance or phony indignation. How about that?

You should try it sometime, Shirley and Richard.

And not just when celebrities get killed either.

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Apparently, Joyce Sheperd is concerned that some Pat Swindall sleaze may have rubbed off on her.

At last night’s NPU-Z meeting (what, you weren’t there?), the Atlanta Councilwoman took a moment’s break from taking about tax allocation districts and upcoming park events to distance herself from the crooked ex-Congressman.

Last month, as you may recall, Swindall was indicted for making illegal contributions to Sheperd’s 2005 re-election campaign. He and a business partner allegedly used “straw” donors to help funnel $8,000 to Sheperd’s campaign. Then, in 2007, Swindall’s partner, Bruce Richardson, allegedly told her about the $8,000 and began pressuring her for help on some zoning matter.

Sheperd says she immediately reported the shenanigans to Fulton DA Paul Howard, who launched a two-year investigation of the allegations.

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State auditors have discovered what they call evidence of “possible financial statement fraud” and questionable accounting practices at the Georgia Department of Transportation during two years of former Treasurer Earl Mahfuz’s tenure.

According to a 54-page report released Monday, Mahfuz, who was demoted last year to assistant treasurer, “was responsible for the decision to implement business process changes at GDOT [between 2005 and 2007] that he knew would violate the Georgia Constitution.”

Those changes involved GDOT letting road projects even if it lacked the money to do so. The audit notes that the state Constitution has strict requirements when it comes to the state incurring debt.

The audit says the accounting practices might have helped mask GDOT’s budget deficit. It also says GDOT’s upper management and top boardmembers often butted heads with each other and that a general mistrust existed between the agency and the governor’s office. These factors helped create an operating environment that auditors say was “dysfunctional to the extent that GDOT was ripe for fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement.”

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You’ve heard about the birthers, right? Those tragic souls who insist that President Barack Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii, but in Kenya? They will not rest until the president — who’s totally an illegal alien, y’all — is ousted from office and sent to a supermax prison, where he will confess he’s a Muslim and write books about jihad and the audacity of mandatory life sentences.

The Huffington Post dispatched a reporter to ask Republican Congressmen whether they believed Obama was born in the United States. In a hilarious video, most of the lawmakers — probably scared they’ll lose the cherished never-leaves-the-house demographic — run from the reporter, hide in an office-supply store, and lovingly tell the journalist he’s the “scum of the Earth.” Only one lawmaker says Obama is a U.S. citizen.

The back of U.S. Rep. Tom “Flanders” Price, R-Ga., has a brief cameo at around 2:00.

After the jump, a Price spokesman tells us why the Congressman fled the scene — and what he thinks about Obama’s citizenship.

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There’s one beef I’ve got with political campaign season — and I fully expect to receive little if any reader sympathy. Elected officials who would normally be reachable with a quick telephone call are now insulated by a phalanx of handlers, public-relations folks and campaign staffers.

When I came in yesterday, for instance, I had a message from a communication director for the campaign for a certain city councilperson who’d been carjacked over the weekend asking if I would like some press availability with said official. Under normal circumstances, I would simply call this person’s cell phone to see if he was OK. But instead I scheduled an interview and, at the appointed time, the PR flak called me back and put the candidate on the line. It wasn’t a big problem, but it was weird.

The process gets especially tiresome when one has to deal with PR folks who are attempting to manage the flow of information between their candidate and the press. In another case, I’d had trouble getting anyone with a particular campaign to call me back, so I called the candidate directly by cell phone to arrange a sit-down interview. The candidate graciously scheduled a time on the spot and we hung up.

Within minutes, however, I got a follow-up from a desperate PR flak who wanted to know: What type of article did I plan to write, what questions was I planning to ask, was I going to talk to all candidates, did I have a certain slant in mind, and so on.

What I wanted to say is, You’re too late — the interview is already scheduled and you can read the article when it comes out like everybody else. But instead I rattled off a few potential questions and got off the phone as quick as I could (I had a legitimate excuse since I was then driving).

This is really just to let readers know that whenever they read anything especially revealing, insightful or enlightening about a political candidate, it will have been despite the best efforts of a PR flak who’s trying to justify his or her paycheck.

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A young boy checks out the basketball court and the documentary images of Mechanicsville posted around the court during the Dirty Truth Campaign’s Audacity of Hoops event.

Check out more photos from the Audacity of Hoops.

(Photo by Alan Friedman)

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• Not great: Senate Finance Committee drops public option from health care bill.
• First you see home sales inch up, and now you see prices follow.
• Where have I seen this before: U.S. citizens of Middle Eastern origin, living by a lake and running a drywall business in North Carolina, are arrested on terrorism charges. Rest assured, say prosecutors, their terrorism ties “run deep.”
• One word, epidemic: The cost of obesity has soared to $147 billion, says the CDC.
• Smooth sailing: Senate Judiciary Committee votes on SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
• Rotten apples: Techies are fuming over the rejection of the Google Voice app from the iTunes app store.
• Well duh: Texting while driving can, wait for it, increase your chances of crashing.
• So this is why William Shatner is awesome:

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Jason Lee was pulling up to his girlfriend’s Edgewood home from the grocery store Saturday night when he was approached by three armed young men who demanded his car keys.

Lee gave the robbers his car keys and turned to go inside, at which point he was shot in the back. Lee is in stable condition. He spoke to WSB-TV from his hospital bed yesterday.

Here’s a chilling excerpt from a note Lee’s girlfriend posted to a neighborhood board:

I jumped in the car to take him to the hospital and as we took a right on LaFrance the three kids were casually walking down the street. I was on the phone with the police at the time and told them…but we know how that goes.

(Note: The original post omitted the victim’s name. Because he spoke to WSB-TV, I revised the post).

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Pretty please? Wouldn’t it be nice to do the right thing and help metro Atlanta continue to sprawl? I mean, we did kind of pass legislation in 2008 saying we’d look into redrawing the border so we could tap that mighty river you got there. We could just avoid all that red tape and work it out, right?

Whattaya say?

Tennessee officials still have no intention of letting Georgia tap into the Tennessee River, despite a federal court ruling last week that set a three-year clock ticking for Atlanta to find a new water source.

“Tennessee officials are not rethinking this issue,” said Gov. Phil Bredesen’s spokeswoman Lydia Lenker on Monday.

$@%#! Oh well, maybe we can just learn to conserve the water we have. Wait, what? $@%#!

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Atlanta City Councilwoman Anne Fauver recently voted against a study to help make the Peachtree Streetcar project eligible for federal stimulus funding. She says the Beltline is better positioned for federal funds, questions the streetcar’s scope, and wonders who will maintain the estimated $120 million project if it’s built.

On July 20, the Midtown and Downtown business associations offered the City a $600,000 grant to do a feasibility study on a streetcar line along Atlanta’s famed Peachtree Street and to prepare the City’s application for $300 million of stimulus money.

I voted against the legislation to accept the grant. It passed 11-3 so the feasibility study and the application for Federal money will be done. My position is based on the following:

The Franklin Administration asked for the legislation to be fast-tracked. Council had not had a work session or public hearing on the project. We never specifically endorsed the Streetcar proposal. The Streetcar is not THE top priority in Connect Atlanta, the City’s first comprehensive transportation plan either.

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1) Dine out on a budget during Downtown Atlanta Restaurant Week.

2) Sarah Dunant signs Sacred Hearts at Margaret Mitchell House & Museum.

3) 42nd Street opens at the Fox Theatre.

4) The Vans Warped Tour rolls into town.

5) Paolo Nutini performs at Variety Playhouse.

See more Atlanta events.

(Photo courtesy Central Atlanta Progress)

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OK, let’s say you’re the editor of a big-city daily newspaper and you’re trying to bridge the difficult gap between the serious, hard-nosed reportage of traditional print journalism and the more free-wheeling, quirky infotainment that appeals to the Internet generation. Seems reasonable that you might take note of what type of articles people are reading online.

So, what’s the most popular story on ajc.com right now? That would be “Jonesboro man accused of having sex with dog.” Lovely.

According to the story:

Edwin Robles, 53, faces a felony bestiality charge, according to police. He was booked into the Clayton County jail in the early morning hours Friday, and was released around 9:30 p.m., according to jail records.

The story is quite short and, frankly, raises more questions than it answers. Among them:

• Was it a female dog? The dog was named “Chain,” which, besides being a name not typically given to animate objects, is fairly non-gender-specific.
• The dog apparently wasn’t around when Clayton police raided Robles’ home. So, how did they determine he’d been schtupping his dog? Was there video? Did the dog keep a diary?
• Does Clayton really need any more bad press? What’s next — revelations that officials spent the county’s federal stimulus money on weed, wings and YooHoo? Don’t laugh; it could happen.

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The recent wave of smash-and-grab burglaries, home break-ins and his own carjacking this past Saturday have convinced Atlanta Councilman Ceasar Mitchell that “we’re dealing with a crisis of young people” who have turned to lives of crime.

As you may have heard, Mitchell, 40, had dropped his mother off at home after a concert and had just walked back to his SUV when three young men approached him. He says it was fairly clear they were up to no good, but he couldn’t make out what they wanted from him, so he asked for clarification. The guy in front pulled a gun out of his belt and fired it into the air.

“The whole exchange lasted maybe 40 seconds and I probably did 15 seconds too much talking,” Mitchell recalls. The gunman told him to step away from the car and the councilman didn’t hesitate to comply.

While the gun was never pointed at him, Mitchell says he’s thankful to be alive and unhurt — especially considering that, only an hour or so earlier, professional boxer Vernon “The Viper” Forrest had been fatally shot by muggers at a gas station a few miles away. Police have not suggested the two crimes are linked.

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Former boxing champion Vernon Forrest was gunned down during a robbery Saturday night that began when he stopped at the Chevron on Whitehall Street south of downtown to fill his car tires with air.

His manager told 11 Alive news Forrest chased after a group of men after they stole his wallet. Unable to catch them, he began to head back to the gas station, at which point he was shot repeatedly in the back. Suspects were seen fleeing in a red Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

Fans, friends, and colleagues say Forrest wasn’t just a gifted boxer, but an uncommonly kind-hearted, compassionate individual.

From Kieran Mulvaney, who covers boxing for ESPN:

In popular imagination, boxing is full of snakes, back-stabbers and thieves. Personal observation lends credence to the caricature, but also reveals another side of the sport that outsiders often miss: It is also full of kindness and consideration, an admittedly dysfunctional extended family whose members look out for one another in times of need.

People are almost invariably surprised to hear me say this, but some of the nicest people I have ever met are professional fighters.

Even by that standard, however, Vernon Forrest stood out.

Read the rest.

And thank you Scott Freeman for the link.

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1. AC Milan v. Club America (Who knows when Atlanta will get to witness such quality soccer — or such HORRIFIC traffic jams — again. Actually, there’s probably a traffic jam planned for about 15 minutes from now.)

2. BMF member arrested, Jay-Z’s ‘Death of Autotune’ gives nod to the crew (Two milestones for the infamous Black Mafia Family.)

3. Fun CL bankruptcy news! (Wednesday will be a pivotal day for the future of Creative Loafing. Stay tuned.)

4. Filthy Rich: Best of Atlanta 2009 ballot (You only have until this Friday to cast your votes for CL’s 2009 Best of Atlanta issue. After that, the opportunity will be lost forever.)

5. Atlanta at $20 per gallon of gas (A vision of armageddon.)

(Photo by Alejandro Leal)

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Only in Clayton County.

According to an AJC.com story, a Jonesboro man has been hauled into police custody for allegedly having sex with his dog.

Edwin Robles, 53, faces a felony bestiality charge, according to police. He was booked into the Clayton County jail in the early morning hours Friday, and was released around 9:30 p.m., according to jail records.

Robles is accused of performing the sexual act on his dog, named Chain, police said.

Police went to Robles’ home after receiving a tip from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Department in Florida, according to Lt. Rebecca Brown with Clayton police.

One wonders what that tip from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Department must have consisted of. It seems that the only thing more shameful than being publicly charged with bestiality is to leave behind a trail of clues that crossed state lines. Yikes.

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Carrie Heller, a born “circus person,” fell in love with the trapeze as a child, after being introduced to it at summer camp. After earning a master’s degree in social work, she combined her two skill sets, offering training on the trapeze (and other circus activities) to help clients juggle life’s problems.

How did you get started in your career?
As a child, I grew up doing circus stuff. I actually did not have the intention of using it as a career. I got a masters degree, planning to be a full-time therapist. When I came to Atlanta, I ended up teaching a [trapeze] class and it turned out to be very popular. I started seeing the therapeutic benefits of using the circus as a tool with kids and families, so that’s when I began developing the concept that I could use circus in the therapy room.

You said you grew up around circus arts, tell me more about that.
When I was a child, my parents sent me to a summer camp they had a circus rig set up. I saw the trapeze and pretty much fell in love with it, and I spent all my time at that camp doing circus stuff. I learned everything.

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