Fresh Loaf

1. Congress debates, votes on cap-and-trade energy bill (Good news: The House passed the monumental energy-conversation bill. Bad news: Georgia Congressman Paul Broun has embarrassed the entire state.)

2. Clermont foreclosure is tip of the iceberg (The plot thickens.)

3. Michael Jackson tributes in Atlanta (Atlanta celebrates the King of Pop. Twitter crashes. And Perez Hilton weeps.)

4. Coolest contest ever: Redesign the Clermont Hotel (The contest would have been a lot cooler if the seedy hotel wasn’t in danger of foreclosure. See No. 2.)

5. Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter told to vacate building (In the end, surprisingly, the homeless prevailed.)

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This just in, from Amnesty International’s media relations director, Wende Gozan Brown: The country’s highest court has postponed its decision on whether to hear the appeal of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis, whose innocence claims have caused an international outcry.

Although a decision was expected today, the U.S. Supreme Court has opted to wait until it reconvenes in September — which will ward off a death warrant for Davis.

Davis already has had three execution dates set over the past three years, and once came within hours of execution before a last-minute stay was granted.

We’ll be updating this as the story develops. Stay tuned.

Here’s a statement we just received from Amnesty International:

“This delay is an indication that the Supreme Court is concerned by the gravity of Troy Davis’  innocence claims,” said Laura Moye, director of Amnesty International USA’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign.  ”We will continue to call on all authorities, including the Supreme Court, to finally hear the evidence that has motivated hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to raise their voices and demand justice.”

(Photo courtesy Georgia Department of Corrections)

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Thomas Wheatley’s kick-ass cover story about his battle with alcoholism, “Sober,” was named the second-best feature story in the country at the Association of Alternative Newsweekly’s annual conference this past weekend. Yay Thomas!

The AAN awards are the most prestigious for the nation’s altweeklies.

The other winners in the Feature Story category for 2008 were Westword’s “The Good Soldier” (first place), Westword’s “Father of Invention” (third place), Houston Press’s “Mental Anguish” (honorable mention), and L.A. Weekly’s “From Silver Lake to Suicide” (honorable mention).

Our sister papers Washington City Paper and Chicago Reader took home a whopping five and two AAN awards, respectively. Congrats, guys!

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Rank of Atlanta rapper Soulja Boy Tell ’Em’s Twitter page on a list of “businesses” with the highest number of Twitter followers: 9

Rank of CNN: 1

Total number of Twitterers following Soulja Boy: 892,491

Total number of “tweets” the rapper — or his handlers — have posted on his Twitter site: 4,412

Estimated number of tweets worldwide that were related to the Iran protests, following the country’s June 12 election: 79,000

Estimated percentage of tweets that referenced Michael Jackson in the two hours following the king of pop’s death: 30

Total number of Twitter members worldwide: 37 million

Number of other major social-networking sites that have grown faster than Twitter over the past year: 0

Number of jobs that MySpace was forced to cut following stiff competition from Twitter and Facebook: 300

Sources: Twibs.com, twitter.com/souljaboytellem, WashingtonPost.com, ColumbusDispatch.com, Mashable.com, NYTimes.com

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According to a story on Savannah’s WTOC.com, the country’s highest court will decide — perhaps as soon as tomorrow on Monday, June 29 — whether it will hear the case of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis, whose execution has been delayed three times based on claims of his innocence.

According to WTOC, the U.S. Supreme Court will have a conference today to decide whether to take Davis’ case. The story also states: “Davis’ sister, Martina Correia, says the Supreme Court could have a decision by Friday or Monday or it could be as late as this fall.”

Seven of nine trial witnesses who helped convict Davis in 1991 have since recanted their testimony. The courts have consistently ruled against considering the recantations and other new evidence that suggest Davis might not have killed Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail.

The U.S. Supreme Court delayed one of Davis’ execution dates, but ultimately declined to hear the case. The latest appeal is based on a different legal claim.

More to come …

UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court is considering an unusual — and longshot — habeas corpus petition filed directly to that court. According to June 19 story on Savannah’s WSAV.com:

Davis’s lawyers have filed a habeas petition before the U.S. Supreme Court, but many assume that because of past rejections by the high court, that Davis’s last option may be a new trial at the local level.

Also, check out this L.A. Times story on Davis from earlier this month for some of the political complexities surrounding the case.

(Photo courtesy Georgia Department of Corrections)

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From an AJC story about an uptick in burglaries near Tech’s campus:

More police will hit the streets to help combat a spike in crime targeting Georgia Tech students, officials said.

Georgia Tech and Atlanta Police have scheduled a press conference for 3 p.m. today to announce the steps they are taking to stop the crime spike.

Funny, when a bartender was murdered in January at his place of work on Memorial Drive — following a string of burglaries and robberies in the area — I don’t remember a press conference being called by police. (Only after detectives caught one of the bartender’s killers did the Atlanta Police Department hold a press conference.) Nor was there the promise of more patrol officers working the street.

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UPDATE: This might NOT be the coolest contest ever, because the Clermont is facing foreclosure. More to come. Stay tuned!

Atlanta’s favorite den of iniquity is calling “all designers, architects, students, creative geniuses, butlers, bell boys, photographers, tourists, bartenders, dancers and engineers” to try their hand at redesigning the iconic Clermont Hotel.

But it’s not the hotel’s infamous basement lounge — where boobs obliterate beer cans and strippers strut their sometimes sagging stuff — that needs a makeover. No way.

Rather, it’s the hotel’s lobby, rooftop and guestrooms that are dying for a new look. (And, in the case of the rooms, a new set of sheets.) The real estate brokerage firm that’s attempting to sell the hotel — while preserving the lounge, of course — is offering $1,000 (rad), a weekend at the Clermont (sorta rad, as long as you bring your own linens, air freshener and earplugs) and a year’s supply of Whynatte energy drink (a seemingly unappealing but reportedly tasty latte in a can) to the winning design.

Second prize is somewhat less desirable: a PBR tall boy and a lap dance.

According to the submission form:

Candidates are requested to submit design concepts that visually convey the re-birth of The Clermont Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. The Clermont Hotel is a long standing icon just to the east of Midtown Atlanta and home to the nationally renowned Clermont Lounge which opened in 1965. Submissions should capture the uniqueness and funkiness the Clermont is known for. … Candidates are encouraged to work within perspective views (supplied on web site) and provide a concept statement.

The deadline for entries is July 22. Might I suggest this for inspiration?

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A Georgia Department of Natural Resources meeting

1. Atlanta city infrastructure best in country? (The list-generating business consultants at Mercer say Atlanta has the best city infrastructure in the United States. Um, what?)

2. Blog: Rep. Bearden, R-Glock, paid by Carrollton — but for what? (Carrollton city manager told CL that the lawmaker often leads programs and initiatives and assists with some matters “you can’t talk about.” Well, that settles it.)

3. TEAM COVERAGE: Piedmont Park pool poo spill lead story on AJC.com (Atlanta’s daily newspaper: No. 1 for No. 2 news!)

4. Parking scofflaws, your free ride will soon be over (Illegally parked cars with unpaid parking tickets will soon be booted. Oh crap.)

5. Coyle makes Atlanta City Council bid official (Neighborhood activist who fought to preserve the integrity of the Beltline makes a go at politics.)

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Evidence of an offense Zach Higgins committed at age 14 later came back to haunt him.

Editor’s note: It is CL’s policy to withhold the name of a victim of sexual assault.

The young woman was in trouble. Her father was on his way to Atlanta to pick her up and bring her back to their Fayette County home. He had just found out, through her roommate at Georgia Tech, that she’d been hanging out in her dorm room with her boyfriend. That wasn’t allowed. More importantly, the woman’s family deeply disapproved of him.

Once she was back in Fayette County, the woman got into an intense discussion with her parents. They wanted to know why she continued to see someone they didn’t want her to see.

“My parents were asking me why I was acting that way,” the young woman later told a Fayette County jury. “And I just told them because I felt like I wasn’t worth anyone better. And they kept asking me why, until it finally came out.”

She told her parents that her insecurity stemmed from another boy and an incident that occurred almost three years earlier, at the beginning of her junior year at Sandy Creek High School. The two had worked together at a local pizza place, and she admittedly had a crush on him. He showed up at their house one night, while her parents weren’t home. She said at first, they were watching TV. Then, after they started kissing, he forced himself on her.

Upon hearing her story, her parents drove her straight to the police department, where she hand-wrote a statement, dated April 21, 2008, describing the events of that night in 2005:

“I told him that’s enough, he should leave, and I’ll talk to him another day,” the young woman wrote. “But he ignored me and said, ‘I’ll take my pants off, and then you.’ So he unzipped his pants and pushed them down. And that’s when I froze, and I kept telling myself there’s no way he’s going to do that.”

Continue reading “Was Zach Higgins convicted of rape based on the evidence?” >>

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1. Mayor’s rebuttal of Atlanta crime rankings misleading and incomplete (How’s that for a thorough headline! No wonder this post was so popular.)

2. Suspected Holocaust museum shooter identified as Holocaust denier James Von Brunn (Octogenarian authored idiotic prose, including the book, Kill The Best Gentiles!)

3. Ga. drought ‘is over,’ water restrictions eased (Environmentalists hope residents will continue conserving water. Unfortunately, Georgians have very short memories.)

4. Atlanta schools, ADA strike deal over TAD funds (Atlanta Development Authority will return $18 million to the cash-strapped school system.)

5. Buckhead coalition pushing for end to Ga. 400 toll (Two-decade-old promise vowed to shut down the cash-cow toll booth in 2011.)

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1. The word is a ‘ghetto’ (We posed a question to readers — Is the word “ghetto” so off limits it’s become, um, ghettoized? — and y’all had some interesting things to say. Thanks!)

2. Atlanta: America’s ’second least safe city’? (The stats suggest that could be the case, but some aren’t so sure.)

3. Roy Barnes: Tanned, rested and ready (Barnes is baaaaaaaack! And the governor’s race is about to get a helluva lot more interesting.)

4. Biden to Perdue on rail funding: ‘Georgia gets nothing’ (VP: Just joshin’, Sonny!)

5. Less-than-fond memories of Barnes’ first term (Not everyone is enamored of the former guv and his bid to get his old job back.)

*This blog post has been edited to correct an error.

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Um, I’m at a loss for words over this one. How about you check out an excerpt from the press release that just landed in my inbox:

The press release goes on to state: “GERRY claimed that the molds were for him to make tofu babies to serve at dinner parties.”

Have fun in federal prison, Phil!

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1. Injured cops video Shirley probably doesn’t want you to watch (What’s going on in the video made one man so mad, he said he wanted to hit Mayor Shirley Franklin with a baseball bat. Bad idea.)

2. Brenda Lee forcibly removed from Obama press area (Macon reporter — and not the ’60s songstress — makes a spectacle of herself while being dragged away from Air Force One.)

3. Perception of Crime watch (According to the mayor and police chief, Atlanta isn’t experiencing a crime wave — it’s experiencing a perception of crime wave. Have you been a victim of a perception of crime? If so, please fill out this form.)

4. Vindictive, thin-skinned mayor acting vindictive, thin-skinned (Franklin wants the feds to investigate the police union president who made the bat statement. See No. 1.)

5. State Sen. John Wiles confuses MARTA with car wash (Lawmaker so frustrated with transit agency, he says he wouldn’t let them wash his wheels.)

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Rank of Atlanta among 10 cities when it comes to the highest percentage of arrestees who tested positive for drugs last year: 6

Rank of Atlanta when it comes to the highest percentage of arrestees who tested positive for cocaine, specifically: 1

Percentage of New York City arrestees who tested positive for cocaine: 27

Percentage of Atlanta arrestees who did: 40

Number of cities, besides Atlanta, that had more arrestees test positive for cocaine than marijuana: 0

Percentage of Chicago arrestees who tested positive for marijuana: 48

Percentage of Atlanta arrestees who did: 39

Number of cocaine packets found last week on a man in the Turner Field parking lot: 118

Number of cocaine and money-laundering counts filed in late May against a Georgia criminal defense attorney: 40

Sources: U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, WSB-TV, Fulton Daily Report.

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Newt hearts Twitter

Newt’s bringing his unique brand of sanctimony to the Twit-o-sphere.

Via AJCer Jim Galloway’s Political Insider blog:

Former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich just twittered the following to his closest 344,357 friends about five minutes ago, never mentioning U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor by name:

“White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw.” …

The aide said the “tweets” are genuine, which makes Gingrich the most prominent Republican yet to take a hard line against Obama’s nominee for the high court.

Newt Gingrich, defender of “white man racists” and traditional marriages. We Georgians should be proud.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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1. The Cheetah, one of Atlanta’s favorite strip joints, is a patriot (More patriotic than the National Museum of Patriotism? Maybe.)

2. Georgia is South Korea (At least when it comes to sizing up human development. And yes, Georgia ranks above Mississippi and Alabama — and even Florida!)

3. CL’s Thomas Wheatley is a finalist for national journalism award (Wheatly’s on the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ shortlist for “Sober.” Hooray!)

4. Ga. GOP primary: A sad and soul-crushing spectacle (State Rep. Austin Scott apes McCain at the state GOP convention.)

5. Huey Lewis — err, Mike Evans — calls for Pelosi’s resignation (Congressional wannabe issues unexpected and hilarious press release. U.S. House Speaker doesn’t blink.)

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Jonathan Redding, who along with three other gunmen is suspected of killing Standard bartender John Henderson, was indicted today for Henderson’s murder, the AJC reports.

Redding, who is 17 and remains jailed without bond, is believed to be a member of the Mechanicsville street gang 30 Deep.

According to the AJC story:

Police are asking the public to help identify the three other suspected gang members who participated in the Standard shooting and other crimes, said Yvette Brown, a spokeswoman for the Fulton County district attorney’s office. The only description available is for three teenage males.

A $50,000 reward is being offered for info leading to the arrests of the three suspects.

Redding is not believed to have fired the fatal shot at Henderson, 27, during a January armed robbery of the popular Memorial Drive restaurant and bar. But under state law, Redding doesn’t have to have directly killed Henderson to be guilty of his murder.

According to Georgia’s felony murder statute, a defendant is guilty of murder as long as the homicide occured during the commission of another felony (in this case, armed robbery). Felony murder carries a mandatory life sentence.

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The AJC reports that more than two-dozen former judges, justices and prosecutors are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that a lower court should hear new evidence in the case of longtime death row inmate Troy Davis:

Among those signing the friend-of-the-court brief were former Deputy U.S. Attorney General Larry Thompson; two former state Supreme Court chief justices, including Norman Fletcher of Georgia; nine former U.S. attorneys, including former Georgia congressman Bob Barr and former FBI Director William Sessions; three former judges from the federal appeals court in Philadelphia; and former state attorneys general from Florida and New Jersey.

Davis has received eleventh-hour stays of execution three times in the past two years and is on the verge of exhausting every available appeal. To date, no court has heard evidence that seven of the nine trial witnesses to testify against him have since recanted their testimony, many of them claiming police initimidation.

Photo gallery of the May 19 rally held at the Georgia state capitol for Troy Davis

(Photo courtesy Georgia Department of Corrections)

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Anyone who’s read “Sober,” Thomas Wheatley’s gut-wrenching account of his battle with alcoholism, knows that the story  does a beautiful job describing the horrors and rewards of overcoming a common — and often unacknowledged — disease. (If you haven’t read it, you should. Now.)

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies has taken notice. “Sober” has been deemed one of the top five feature stories published by the country’s largest-circulation alt-weeklies. Other finalists for the AAN Award in the Feature Story category hail from LA Weekly, Houston Press and Denver’s Westword. The ranking of the finalists will be announced in late June.

Our sister papers, Chicago Reader and Washington City Paper, earned nominations in another six categories. Congrats guys! And congrats, Mr. Wheatley!

In other awards news, CL Photo Editor Joeff Davis is a finalist for the Atlanta Press Club’s Journalist of the Year Award in the Photography category. Go Joeff!

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Three times over the past two years, Troy Davis has come within 24 hours of his scheduled execution, only to be spared by an eleventh-hour stay.

Now, with another execution date all but certain, the longtime death row inmate has filed what very well could be his last appeal — and a rally tonight on the Capitol steps will attempt to bring even more awareness to Davis’ high-profile innocence claims.

Seven of the nine trial witnesses who took the stand against Davis in 1991 have since recanted their testimony, many of them alleging intimidation by Savannah police officers who were investigating the murder of one of their own. Officer Mark MacPhail, who’d been working off-duty as a security guard when he came to the aid of a pistol-whipped homeless man, was brutally gunned down in a Burger King parking lot in 1989.

Davis was later convicted of killing MacPhail, but witnesses have since claimed that another man — one of the two trial witnesses who didn‘t rescind his testimony against Davis — might have been the killer.

(more…)

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1. Atlantans mourn Frank Mullen (Beloved music photographer succumbs to cancer.)

2. Beltline CEO Terri Montague stepping down from project (A surprising move from the woman who’d been heading one of the largest public-works projects in recent Atlanta history.)

3. Ga. governor candidate John Oxendine loves ‘Confederate gray’ (Twittering candidate gives us a little too much information about his decorating taste.)

4. Beltline’s affordable housing program starts up despite shakeup, economy (Efforts are afoot to make sure us regular people can afford Beltline-proximate property.)

5. Craigslist dropping ‘erotic services’ category (Alt-weeklies rejoice! We’ve beat out Craigslist for smut ads.)

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1. AJC redesign infomercial — OMG (Daily paper’s feel-good promo sounds suspiciously like a pharmaceutical ad.)

2. Three people killed in Athens, Ga., shooting (As of now, a UGA-professor-turned-suspected-triple-murderer is still on the loose.)

3. NORML now has semi-legal status in Georgia (But the party was short-lived.)

4. AJC scooped by local blogger! (Atlanta Unfiltered scores a once-in-a-lifetime nod from the notoriously attribution-stingy daily.)

5. BREAKING: Atlanta Steam relocates, exurban perverts weep (Lingerie-wearing football team runs from Atlanta. Oh my.)

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Yes, we’re serious: a collection of stories devoted solely to being happy — in the midst of the worst economic crisis most of us have known. But it’s not just bizarre timing. It’s also highly uncharacteristic of us, no matter what the month or year. When have you ever heard of a newspaper like us focusing on good news? We’re an industry obsessed with rather unhappy stories, from governmental abuses to political corruption, horrific crime to doomsday projections. Yadda, yadda, yadda. We’re sick of it. Let’s take a break, huh?

Continue reading “The Happy Issue” …

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1. AJC buyout list official — 74 to leave (In addition to the dozens of veteran reporters who jumped ship, news of Pulitzer-winner Cynthia Tucker’s move to D.C. and food writer John Kessler’s brief departure from food-writing made it a very productive week for us pageview-hoarding wretches at Fresh Loaf.)

2. Atlanta Tea Party with Sean Hannity to feature ’shit sandwiches’ (It’s estimated that 10,000 people attended. Imagine the response had Hannity been offering roast beef!)

3. Bottoms up at Frolicon (That’s a lot of booty.)

4. Anti-tax protestors urged to, um, ride MARTA (Irony sandwich, anyone?)

5. CNN’s Anderson Cooper on why Republicans can’t find their voice (A  recap of last week wouldn’t have been complete without at least one teabagging reference. Phew.)

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Troy Davis

Longtime Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis, whose innocence claims have attracted national attention and who’s received three last-minute stays of execution, has lost what could be the last appeal to spare his life.

According the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision, issued today [PDF]:

Davis has failed to adequately explain why he had not exhausted his state remedies concerning … prior to filing his first federal habeas petition.

Basically, it’s not a matter of too little evidence in Davis’ favor but, rather, evidence that was presented way too late.

According to the AJC:

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Davis’ bid in a 2-1 decision, saying he could not file a new appeal raising claims of innocence. But the court continued his stay of execution for 30 more days so Davis can pursue his final appeals before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In December 2008, a three-judge panel heard Davis’ most recent federal appeal for a new trial. Through his attorneys, Davis claims to have been wrongfully convicted in 1991 of killing a Savannah police officer. Seven of the nine witnesses who testified against Davis at trial have since recanted their testimony — many of them claiming that they were coerced into identifying Davis by the police department colleagues of murdered officer Mark MacPhail.

(Photo courtesy Georgia Department of Corrections)

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