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If you’re a man who has sex with other men, forget about donating blood.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has decided, once again, to not lift a decades-old policy that doesn’t allow gay men to donate blood. The policy was put in place in 1983 and has never been revised.

According to the FDA, “[Men who have sex with men] are, as a group, at increased risk for HIV, Hepatitis B and certain other infections that can be transmitted by transfusion.” Despite advances in screening tests, the FDA notes that infections can’t always be detected, especially if a person has been infected within three weeks prior to the screening.

But critics say the ban shuts out many healthy people, particularly at a time when there’s a critical need for blood donations. Even the American Red Cross has asked the FDA to reconsider their stance. So has LEAD Georgia, an emergency care training company in Atlanta.

Joseph Mendoza, chief operating officer of LEAD Georgia, says the risk of contracting HIV or hepatitis from a blood transfusion is approximately one in 2 million. The solution to the screening problem, says Chuck Obina, president of LEAD Georgia, is to exclude donors who have engaged in risky sex or used drugs for a month prior to giving blood.

“The policy adopted by the FDA is outdated and prevents potential donors from contributing to blood banks,” Obina said in a statement. “What the FDA is not considering is that refusal to lift the ban and modify policy is now discrimination against the gay community.”

Is it discrimination, or just playing it safe?

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Three more Atlanta police officers were suspended today for their involvement in the shooting death of an elderly woman in November.

According to an e-mail sent by Atlanta Police Department spokeswoman Judy Pal, “The United States Department of Justice notified the department that Investigator Holly Buchanan, Investigator Paul Vignola, and Officer Brad Burchfield are the subjects of a federal criminal investigation involving their conduct as police officers. The officers were suspended today.”

Chief Richard Pennington said in a statement that the department is fully cooperating with federal authorities. “It is important that every avenue of the Neal Street incident is fully and thoroughly explored,” he said.

To read more about the Atlanta Police Department and the aftermath of the shooting death of the elderly woman, click here.

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On June 11, Georgia prison guards abruptly confiscated all tubes of Nature Mint toothpaste after they learned it had tested positive for an ingredient that has been found in antifreeze.

The state Department of Corrections distributes the 1.5-ounce tubes of toothpaste – which say, “made in China” on the back – to inmates for free.

Jim Scott, who visits his friend Neva Veitch at Metro State Prison each week, says Veitch recently told him the gritty toothpaste had made her tongue burn.

“Then a few days later she said they came around to all the women’s lockers and got all their toothpaste samples,” Scott says. “But they wouldn’t explain why.”

DOC spokeswoman Mallie McCord said no inmates got sick from using the toothpaste.

“[The Department of Administrative Services] notified us that they tested toothpaste from China to see if it contained diethylene glycol, which may cause serious illness or death if ingested in large quantities. The test showed that it indeed had the chemical in it. All of our facilities confiscated the toothpaste on that day,” she wrote in an e-mail.

The toothpaste, according to the tube Scott obtained, is distributed by the Bob Barker company – the same detention facilities distributor that ships supplies to Guantanamo Bay.

McCord said the DOC purchased 2,000 cases of another toothpaste to temporarily fill the toothpaste void while they look for a new brand.

Looks like prisoners shouldn’t worry about dropping the soap – but brushing their teeth.

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On June 15, the state Department of Community Health announced that it will reopen enrollment for PeachCare, the health insurance program for children from low-income families. The department will let 10,000 to 15,000 children sign up starting July 12, according to Linda Lowe, a consumer health advocate.

In March, the department froze enrollment because federal money from Congress used to fund the program ran out. While the state covered some expenses for a while, there wasn’t enough money for more kids to enroll. And approximately 5,000 children were dropped from the program each month, Lowe noted in an e-mail, because of late premium payments.

Congress will reassess the funding situation and reauthorize the State Child Health Insurance Program that funds PeachCare sometime this fall, according to Lowe. In the meantime, PeachCare enrollment will be capped at 295,000 children.

Lowe wrote: “This is welcome news and a good first step!”

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LIVESTOCK: A “picket pen” at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston

You may or may not like Mayor Shirley Franklin’s effort to slow down an ordinance that would allow the city to cordon protesters off during conventions, festivals and other events. But it remains unclear exactly who’s pushing the legislation.

Councilman Jim Maddox’s proposed ordinance would allow event organizers to obtain permits that require protesters to stay in corded-off “free speech zones.” Opponents say that amounts to a violation of the First Amendment’s free-speech guarantee.

“It empowers a private citizen to … put counterprotesters in a speech penalty box, in a corral, where they are not allowed to participate in a demonstration under threat of criminal prosecution,” the American Civil Liberties Union’s Gerry Weber said at a press conference last week.

Maddox didn’t respond to CL’s requests that he explain why the ordinance is needed. Weber said he’d heard the councilman was responding to two upcoming events. One is the June 22-24 Atlanta Pride Festival, which over the last few years has been set upon by religious hatemongers. The other is the U.S. Social Forum, which will attract more than 10,000 people from progressive groups (read: experienced protesters) to Atlanta June 27-July 1.

But Atlanta Pride Committee officials joined in Weber’s press conference to say they didn’t support Maddox’s ordinance. Hmm. Do powerful interests fear an onslaught of protests from the U.S. Social Forum? We’d be allowed to tell you … if we were in a free-speech zone.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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On Monday, a judge ordered Genarlow Wilson — the man who was imprisoned for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17 — to be freed. But hours later, state Attorney General Thurbert Baker filed an appeal.

Wilson still sits in jail.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, prison officials won’t release Wilson until they get the go-ahead from the attorney general’s office or the original Douglas County Court, which sentenced him to 10 years for aggravated child molestation.

Matt Towery, who authored the law in 1995 that put Wilson in jail, told the AJC: “This has been just an absolute nightmare to see young people such as Genarlow go to jail — compounded by prosecutors and people lobbying — using videotapes and everything in the world — to try to keep him in jail.”

But Baker won’t budge. In an editorial he wrote: “[I]t is my responsibility to follow the laws of Georgia as they are written, not how some may wish they were written.”

Seems like Baker is holding the line to try to eviscerate any Republicans in the next election who might say he’s soft on crime.

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Number of murders in Atlanta in 2006 and 2005, respectively: 110, 90

Percentage increase of homicides in the past year in Atlanta: 2

Percentage the murder rate increased nationwide in the last year: 0.3

Percentage the murder rate increased in large cities with 1 million people or more in the last year: 6.7

Overall violent-crime percentage increase in Atlanta in the past year: 4.6

Overall violent-crime percentage decrease in New York in the past year: 5.3

Number of years that crime has declined in Atlanta, according to a Georgia State criminologist: 10

Number of murders in the first quarters of 2006 and 2007, respectively: 21, 21

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Earlier today, a judge threw out Genarlow Wilson’s sentence of 10 years in prison for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.

The judge also amended his conviction to a misdemeanor, not a felony, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

To read more about Wilson’s case, click here.

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Even though CL’s Andisheh Nouraee has left for his European vacation, he’s still informing us of political rumblings. Here’s the latest he heard:

“Bill Clinton is going to be at a private event tonight at Midtown Arts Cinema at 7:30P. A screening for a military-themed film. Supposedly it’s very hush-hush.”

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A Douglas County teen who was convicted of aggravated child molestation — for having consensual oral sex when he was 17 with a 15-year-old girl — goes to court today to try to get his conviction dismissed.

Genarlow Wilson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that his 10-year prison sentence without parole is too harsh for a poor decision he made as a teen. “Just being a teenager, you know, you got to make a lot of mistakes but you have to learn from them,” he said. “I don’t feel like one mistake should cost me ten years in prison and a lifetime on the sex offender registry. I want to be able to go to school and have kids.”

Wilson’s case has nabbed national headlines and caught the attention of state lawmakers. In 2005 the General Assembly changed the “Romeo and Juliet” law to make consensual sex between two teens close in age a misdemeanor. And former President Jimmy Carter wrote a letter to Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker and called Wilson’s punishment of “disproportionate nature.”

It’s even caught the attention of hundreds of college students. On Facebook, a popular social-networking website, 3,791 individuals have joined a group called “Why is Genarlow Wilson in prison?” Here are a couple of posts from people in the group:

This is ridiculous. I am from North Carolina and the Duke lacross case just ended. Wow the Georgia judicial system needs to take a look at that case. There are so many parallels this guy is abviously inocent. Georgia needs to learn the phrase “spirit of the law”.

The D.A. is in between a rock and a hard place. Had he not sought a conviction he would’ve been accussed of not prosecuting black on black allegations of sexual abuse as severely. With that being said, let’s not cast aspersions upon Genarlow. These young women were just as culpable in this case as were the young men. They whole episode smacks of idioticy and bad judgement. The kid made a mistake, one that many people older than he was at the time make, which is mixing alcohol, sex, young women, and liquor. Nothing good ever comes out of those scenarios.

The Genarlow Wilson case demonstrates just how bad a situation can get when judicial discretion is removed and bad laws which fail to account for the situation take its place. Sonny Perdue should have this on his conscience for the rest of his life if he fails to issue a full pardon.

It’ll be interesting to see how Wilson’s request plays out.

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Amount of money Grady Health System lost in 2006 and 2005, respectively: $20 million, $13 million

Amount consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal recommended Grady cut from its budget: $48.5 million

Total amount, over six months, Alvarez & Marsal was paid for its services: $2 million

Amount Alvarez & Marsal hoped Grady would save by offering early retirement packages to senior employees in March: $15 million

Number of Grady-operated neighborhood clinics Alvarez & Marsal recommended Grady sell: 9

Number of outpatient visits to those clinics in 2005: 888,594

Number of counties in Georgia that fly trauma patients to Grady: 14

Number of counties that contribute to Grady’s operating budget: 2

Sources: Georgia Watch, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Grady Health System

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A study of 140,000 asylum cases in the United States has found that refugees who seek asylum in Atlanta have the lowest chance of winning their cases.

According to the study, reported in the New York Times, refugees are granted asylum only 12 percent of the time. The national average is 40 percent.

Here’s an example of the broad range of chances a refugee might have:

“The study found that someone who has fled China in fear of persecution and asks for asylum in immigration court in Orlando, Fla., has an excellent — 76 percent — chance of success, while the same refugee would have a 7 percent chance in Atlanta.”

Part of what makes Atlanta tough, according to former CL Senior Writer Steve Fennessy’s 2004 article, is this:

“The nation’s 220 immigration judges deny roughly two asylum cases for every one they grant; [Atlanta immigration judge William] Cassidy, on the other hand, rejects more than 10 asylum applications for every approval. His two colleagues in Atlanta, Paul Johnston and Mackenzie Rast, are barely any kinder. Their approval rates are a few tenths of a percentage point higher than Cassidy’s.”

No wonder those numbers are startling!

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On Wednesday, Gov. Sonny Perdue vetoed 41 bills, including one that would’ve increased the penalties for driving without a valid license.

The bill would’ve made the offense a misdemeanor with a punishment of at least two days in jail and a fine ranging from $500 to $1,000. If a person was caught three times for driving without a license, the individual would be charged with a felony on the fourth conviction.

Advocates of the legislation hoped the bill would help nab illegal immigrants, while opponents said the law could have devastating effects on individuals who may be here lawfully. The arrest of a Canadian tourist who was detained for a minor traffic violation — partly because she only had a valid Canadian passport — proved to be enough to have Perdue steer clear of any confusion the law may cause.

When he vetoed the bill, he said: “This broad provision would catch not only those who willfully drive without any valid license, but also persons who move into the state with a valid out-of-state driver’s license that have not obtained a Georgia driver’s license within 30 days of establishing residency. … I fear an unintended consequence of this legislation, as drafted, would subject persons with valid out-of-state driver’s licenses to stout criminal penalties even absent the commission of a willful act.”

It’s a small victory for the immigrant community, but as Larry Pellegrini, executive director of the Georgia Rural Urban Summit, noted in an e-mail, “Celebrate greatly but be on guard … because the anti’s won’t give up and we’ll have to fight this again.”

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution had an interesting article today on parents who micromanage their children’s lives — even after they graduate from college. The article noted:

You might be a “helicopter parent” [super-involved parents of children born between 1982 and 2002] if you …

• Drive your son or daughter to a job interview, then try to sit in on it.
• Reschedule or set up interviews, or inquire about benefits or why your child didn’t get the job.
• Show up at any of your son’s or daughter’s student- or job-related events.
• Camp out in your son’s or daughter’s dorm room during student orientation week.
• Accompany your child to the registrar’s office and select his or her classes.
• Wind up arguing with the registrar about why your daughter can’t take an 8 a.m. economics class.

It’s a bit extreme, but a totally legitimate concern. CL has written about how the self-esteem that’s seemingly made young people more confident and ambitious has crossed over into entitlement. They expect much of life to be handed to them on a silver platter.

But this article suggests it’s not entirely the children’s fault. Instead, the parents teach children to expect certain jobs and lifestyles. And that might create a generation of young adults who aren’t that independent — and increasingly unhappy because they have unrealistic expectations.

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Two months ago, Atlanta City Council repealed a broad disorderly conduct charge that ignited controversy because it appeared to allow police to arrest a person simply for hanging out. All a person had to do was be in what an officer designated as a “known drug area.” The offense, known as “DC-6,” was last charged on April 2, according to police records.

Before it was repealed, DC-6 was the most frequent charge cited by Atlanta police. As of Dec. 18, 7,551 arrests – about 22 a day – had been made in 2006, outpacing both criminal trespass and drinking in public.

CL checked back to see how things have changed since the law was taken off the books. According to preliminary arrest records from April 3 to May 14, first-offender possession has taken the place of DC-6, totaling 423 arrests – about 10 a day. That’s followed by criminal trespass at 408 and possession at 365.

When DC-6 was repealed, Sgt. Scott Kreher, head of the local International Brotherhood of Police Officers, told CL: “As far as affecting arrest numbers, [the repeal of DC-6] would be huge.”

He’s absolutely right. The preliminary numbers show that police are making about half as many arrests since DC-6 was repealed.

That might not bode well for rank-and-file officers who say police Chief Richard Pennington has put a quota system in place to help drive arrest statistics.

This might be the beginning of a change in Pennington’s numbers game.

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