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TED KENNEDY: Helps kick off the Democratic National Convention with a rousing speech, despite his terminal brain cancer.

GUSTAV: Hurricane gains strength in advance of hitting Haiti. Tropical Storm Fay’s remnants continue to soak Atlanta today; the storm destroyed only about 8 percent of coastal Georgia’s sea turtle nests, though, which was less than feared.

FRED CRANE: The actor who played a beau to Scarlett O’Hara and spoke Gone With the Wind’s first line has died at the age of 90.

HOT MANTA: The Georgia Aquarium brings in a manta ray rescued from fishing nets in the Indian Ocean.

RUSTLE: A raccoon that’s been terrorizing a judge and others at the Richard B. Russell Federal Building downtown has been captured.

WONDER WAAL: Emory primate researcher Frans de Waal has demonstrated that generosity is rewarding to capuchin monkeys, who prefer “prosocial” behavior over pure self interest.

CLAYTON WITH BATED BREATH: SACS is expected to announce this week whether it will strip Clayton schools of their accreditation, since the Sept. 1 deadline falls on Labor Day.

STATE PARKS: Could be closed due to the statewide budget crisis.

QUILTERS NEVER WIN: The Gee’s Bend quilters from Alabama have resolved their lawsuit against an Atlanta art dealer whom they had accused of cheating them out of earnings.

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THE CENTER OF CONVENTION: The Democratic National Convention begins today, and the newly minted Obama-Biden ticket still has nerves to settle within the party.

TONGUE IN CHIC: Georgia Tech researchers are working to develop new technology that would allow disabled people to control computers, home appliances and wheelchairs using their tongues.

PEACE OUT: Peace Corps volunteers from Georgia are up 49 percent from last year.

COOL WATER: The Athens EPA lab’s new cooling system will save 1 million gallons of water a year by recycling condensation that would otherwise go to waste.

RYAN’S SHARE: Matt Ryan is named the Falcons’ starting quarterback, joining running back Michael Turner in the fledgling offensive core.

NEWS FLASH: A flash flood watch begins for much of metro Atlanta and North Georgia at 4 this afternoon and stays in effect until Tuesday evening.

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VICE GRIP: Obama says he’s picked his vice presidential candidate, but instead of finding out who it is, we get a podium. The NYT lists the most-discussed candidates of both parties here; the AP reports that Sam Nunn seems to have dropped out of the running.

HOUSEKEEPING: McCain and his countless homes can’t get out of the news as the Obama campaign capitalizes.

FAY: After overstaying her welcome in Florida, Tropical Storm Fay moseys into South Georgia today, bringing several inches of rain, which could help some drought-stricken crops. Many of this year’s record sea-turtle nests on the Georgia coast have been destroyed by storm surges, though. Metro Atlanta will get high winds but not much rain.

PANHANDLING: Undercover cops have made 40 arrests and 50 “interventions” in aggressive panhandling in the last 20 days.

POP GOES THE MEASLES: Outbreaks of the infectious disease are at a 12-year high, and many health professionals are blaming parents’ fears of MMR vaccines leading to autism.

RED, BLACK AND GREEN: Preseason No. 1 UGA could also be the top revenue-generating college football team this season, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reports.

FREE LUNCH: A masked robber steals a Macon man’s lunchbox at gunpoint.

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FAY ACCOMPLI: The tropical storm has caused severe flooding in Florida and is expected to keep zig-zagging up the coast, although it probably won’t become a hurricane again. Georgia is expected to avoid a direct hit, but the barrier islands and southeastern coast will likely get drenched.

LAKE HARTWELL: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officially initiates the lake’s Drought Level 3 contingency plan for just the second time in 20 years, and officials say they won’t be surprised if the current drought soon forces them to “trigger level 4,” which has never happened before.

BIGFOOT IN MOUTH: The former Clayton cop and car salesman who claimed to have a Bigfoot body are being sued by a Bigfoot researcher, and officials are looking into whether the ruse could be a crime. The deceptive duo discusses the hoax with WSB-TV.

CLAYTON: The lawyer for several black school board members is accusing white whistle-blowers of racism for reporting to Gov. Perdue on alleged malfeasance in the Clayton BOE.

GLAVINE: Surgery will keep the 42-year-old pitcher out for the year, which is all he’s under contract for, but fellow Braves and Bobby Cox want him back next season.

STAFFORD: UGA’s quarterback has assumed the team’s leadership role in his junior season.

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During the last 10 years, people have given Cara Brown a lot of crap for not using her Georgia Tech industrial engineering degree. Literally, that is — she works as a poop scooper for Dirty Work, driving to her clients’ yards and picking up where their dogs left off.

Her post-graduation desk job bored her. “I was tired of the solitude and being indoors. It’s all about doing what you enjoy, and I really love being outside and with animals.”

Although the majority of her business is residential, she also scoops for condos, kennels and events such as Turner Field’s Bark at the Park.

She cleans some litter boxes and rabbit cages, but also takes care of “any kind of wildlife poop” in the yard. “We try to pick up anything we find, or the dog could eat it.”

She’s retrieved paper money and a diamond ring that dogs had eaten, and once came across the plastic eyes a dog ate off a toy. “The pile of poop was looking up at me.”

“People are always very careful what they call it. You know they want to use the ’s’ word, but they’ll say something like ‘feces’ or ‘No. 2.’ ‘Poop’ is the biggest.”

Photo by Joeff Davis

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HERE COMES THE (LAND OF THE RISING) SUN: John Lennon (Hidemasa Mabuchi) looks on as George Harrison (Hajime Kubo) wails at the Variety Playhouse.

Japanese beetles, and apparently Japanese Beatles, thrive in America because they have no natural predators here. The Silver Beats, a Beatles tribute band from Tokyo, opened their inaugural U.S. tour in 2007 at the Fox Theatre, and they returned Wednesday to play the Variety Playhouse.

Fans sang along as the band breathed surreal new life into the dusty classics, and heckling front-row frat boys had little effect. The Beats seemed immune to any ridicule because it’s hard to tell how seriously they take themselves. Covering such an iconic band is rife with pitfalls, and despite having the matching suits, shaggy bowl cuts and musical chops to carry that weight, their tongues never strayed far from their cheeks as they ripped through convincing Fab Four covers in rapid-fire succession. They stopped between songs only occasionally for some crowd-teasing banter in halting Japanese accents, and defused the hecklers with their disarming cheer and subtle sarcasm. The feisty Tadaaki Naganuma — Paul — responded to one upstart by teaching the crowd a Japanese word, which sounded a lot like “Eat us.”

Photo by Joeff Davis

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VICE UNIT: Obama is Biden his time and keeping rumors at Bayh when it comes to his VP candidate, but the two senators believed to be atop his short list are given prime-time convention speaking slots, raising speculation it’s one of them.

COLOR-CODED: Reuters offers an analysis of how race has bubbled below the surface throughout this campaign, and how it manifests itself in coded language.

SAVANNAH RIVER ECOLOGY LAB: Less than two years after it looked like the ground-breaking, 54-year-old lab would be shut down for lack of funding, its own fundraising ventures have exceeded expectations and drawn in $2 million.

BIGFOOT IN THE DOOR: The Clayton County cop and former corrections officer who claim to have a frozen Bigfoot body will hold a press conference this afternoon in Palo Alto, Calif., to announce their findings. So far, even Bigfoot experts aren’t buying it.

WETLANDS: Can survive a drought, despite appearing dried-up.

BRAVES: Swept by the Cubs in six games for the first time since 1876, despite Mark Kotsay hitting for the cycle.

VICK: Bankruptcy judge appoints a trustee to oversee the troubled QB’s finances, after his initial trustee was charged with securities fraud.

ETERNAL SUNSHINE: Falcons third-string QB Joey Harrington, whose Detroit teammates used to call him “Joey Sunshine” for his sunny disposition amid miserable circumstances, still hasn’t given up hope.

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SPY VS. PIE: The AP reports that Julia Child left a career as a WWII-era spy to become a chef; Child is one of several well-known Americans whose previously secret spy career was revealed this morning, as the personnel files of the pre-CIA Office of Strategic Services were declassified.

SHOOTING: The chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party is dead after a recently fired Target employee mysteriously drove more than 30 miles to Little Rock and shot him.

LANIER: Georgia officials asked SCOTUS this morning to overturn a February appeals-court ruling requiring congressional approval for the state to take more water from Lake Lanier to quench Atlanta’s growing thirst.

STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE: The NYT reports on the resurgent popularity of streetcars in at least 40 U.S. downtowns such as Cincinnati, New Orleans, Houston and Charlotte. Not mentioned: Atlanta’s distant visions for the Beltline and Peachtree Street streetcar.

SACS: The accrediting agency is in Clayton County today, part of its review to determine whether the school system will be the first since 1969 to have its accreditation revoked.

SCRATCH PAPER: Cox Newspapers is selling all but three of its newspapers.

RESCUE 911: The recent death of a Johns Creek woman highlights problems in the Fulton County emergency services, as the 911 operator who sent emergency crews 30 miles in the wrong direction had a long history of such routing mistakes. She also repeatedly was disciplined for sleeping on the job, chronic tardiness and fighting with co-workers, and records show her behavior wasn’t uncommon in the department.

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MICHAEL PHELPS: The U.S. swimmer becomes the winningest Olympian ever with his 11th career gold medal.

RUSSIAN INTO WAR: Georgia’s government continues to accuse Russia of attacking the city of Gori despite the cease-fire, and even of moving toward the capital of Tbilisi, although confirmation is difficult.

DRINKING PROBLEM: A judge will decide whether metro Atlantans ever had the right to use Lake Lanier for drinking water.

JOSH SMITH: Interviewed on the Sporting Blog by Bethlehem Shoals following his re-signing with the Hawks.

SILVER BULLET: Transportation officials are discussing the possibility of building a 310-mph, mag-lev bullet train connecting Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta.

LAVONIA: Police are accusing a man of keeping his wife and four children captive for three years in a single-wide trailer.

CLAYTON: School board member Rod Johnson becomes the latest to resign. He stepped down after school system attorneys declined to represent him because he had skipped meetings where they were discussing defense strategies for upcoming administrative hearings.

ACCREDIT CHECK: North Carolina Central University’s now-defunct Atlanta satellite campus has been retroactively stripped of its accreditation by SACS, essentially nullifying the degrees earned there by 25 students.

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GOLD RUSH: American swimmer Michael Phelps wins his third gold medal of the 2008 Olympics, his ninth overall, which ties the world record for most career gold medals in Olympic history. He has a chance for two more golds Wednesday morning.

RUSSIA VS. GEORGIA: Russia announced today that it will stop attacking Georgia, but Georgian leaders say they’re still being attacked. An Atlantan and native of the country Georgia is hosting governmental websites from here during the siege, and says those sites are still being cyber-attacked by botnets on the U.S.-based servers. The Times of London lays out the historical context of the war.

WATER USE: In metro Atlanta and North Georgia drops 20 percent, which Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch says is a sign that conservation efforts and watering restrictions are working.

GUNS AT AIRPORT: Won’t fly, says a federal judge.

ESCALATING TENSION: In response to frequent “shoe entrapment,” Hartsfield-Jackson begins announcing, at five-minute intervals, the dangers of wearing soft shoes such as flip-flops or Crocs on escalators.

NBAF: Federal officials seem to be favoring a Mississippi site over Athens for the National Agro- and Bio-defense Facility, which will study foot-and-mouth disease and other highly infectious diseases, even though the Mississippi site scored the lowest numerical evaluation among all contenders.

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Longtime Atlanta Braves announcer Skip Caray, who died this week at 68, once described himself as the “wise-ass cynic” of the Caray broadcasting dynasty. Eschewing his famous father’s effusiveness, he won over Braves fans with his dry, pithy humor and unabashed honesty. He was often at his best when the Braves were at their worst.

“The bases are loaded again and I wish I was, too.”
— Caray, during a disastrous outing by the Braves’ bullpen in 2007

“It’s another partial sellout.”
— A line Caray used often in the late ’80s when games were drawing just a few thousand fans

“Have you looked at the standings lately?”
— Caray’s response to then-owner Ted Turner after Turner asked him to stop being so negative in the booth during a losing season in the ’80s

“Good point. Say whatever you want.”
— Turner’s answer

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According to Bethlehem Shoals at the Sporting News’ the Sporting Blog, Atlanta may be about to lose its second Josh in less than three weeks. Following Josh Childress’ evacuation to Greece last month, Hawks forward Josh Smith has signed a $58 million contract offer with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Sayeth Bethlehem:

As for the Hawks, yeah, they could match, and still might. But what an utterly defeated organization. Losing Josh Childress really punked them, and the lack of enthusiasm for re-signing Smith makes it seem like they’ve been totally demoralized. How a team could not want to build on that playoff performance is beyond me, especially when they’ve been wandering the wilderness for so long. Now I guess we all get why Childress was so content to make history rather than stick around.

Atlanta has seven days to match the offer, but this still makes us wonder if things would have been different this summer without Mike Woodson at the helm, since both Joshes reportedly have had beefs with the coach.

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OLYMPICS: Began today in Beijing (this morning here), at 8:08 p.m. on 8/8/08.

MANIC TROPICAL DEPRESSIONS: Scientists have strengthened their prediction that this hurricane season will be above normal.

CHRIS REDMAN: Starting the Falcons’ preseason opener Saturday night, but all four QBs will likely take snaps.

SUGARLAND: Being sued by former member, coincidentally while the band’s recent album is No. 1 on the Billboard charts, for not continuing to pay her after she left the band to pursue a solo career.

LABOR OF LOVE: Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that Georgia labor leaders are hopeful Obamania will lead to a change in labor laws they say are now stacked in favor of employers.

ZOO ATLANTA: Unveils plans for $200 million expansion over the next 10 to 15 years.

UGA: Gets two federal grants worth $2.5 million to study biofuel production from switchgrass and sunflowers.

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FIRE ANTS: All U.S. fire ants can be traced back to a handful of queens that stowed away on a boat from Argentina to Mobile, Ala., in the 1930s, according to a UGA entomologist.

BRETT AND THE JETS: Brett Favre was traded early this morning by the Packers to the New York Jets, ending his historic tenure in Green Bay on a sour note.

KWAME KILPATRICK: The mayor of Detroit is ordered to jail for violating the terms of his bond.

CRACKDOWN: Atlanta police begin an “indefinite” crackdown on panhandling, drug-dealing and other tourist-worrying behavior in Five Points.

CHAMBLISS: Says he’s ready for the Democratic “onslaught” now that Jim Martin is the nominee.

TED TURNER: Naturally occurring anthrax is found on his Montana ranch.

WAIT WATCHERS: CDC researchers in Atlanta report that the average nationwide emergency-room wait time has grown from 38 minutes to almost an hour over the past decade, due to increases in patients and decreases in hospital resources.

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JIM MARTIN: Soundly defeats Vernon Jones to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate; will face Saxby Chambliss in November.

TED JACKSON: There’s a new (Democratic nominee for) sheriff in town.

CLAYTON: Kem Kimbrough beats controversy-prone Sheriff Victor Hill for the Democratic nomination.

DEKALB CEO: Burrell Ellis beats Stan Watson and, with no Republican contender in the race, is the new CEO.

EX-BIN LADEN DRIVER: Found guilty today in the first Guantanamo war crimes trial.

SEA TURTLE NESTS: A record number have been found in Georgia this year.

ARBORING A GRUDGE: The New York Times reports on former Atlanta senior arborist Tom Coffin, who was fired July 29 for pointing out to his bosses the under- or nonenforcement of the tree ordinance in certain parts of the city.

WILLIE B.: The subject of a new documentary produced by Andrew Young.

UGA: Named by Sports Illustrated as the magazine’s preseason No. 1 and featured on one of five regional covers this week.

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VOTE: No one else is going to, so your vote will count that much more. Click here for CL’s voter guide.

DON’T DRINK THE WATER: A toxin found in Mars’ water dims scientists’ hopes of finding life there.

DOCK BLOCK: More than 2,300 private docks were built in coastal Georgia between 1996 and 2006, and each one can reduce biomass production by 30 percent below it due to blocked sunlight. Researchers are thus studying four types of docks that allow sunlight through.

NEW GRADY CEO: Says changing “the aura” will be the difference at Grady; plans to buy upgraded medical equipment, identify the top 10 financial issues and streamline processes in an effort to attract more insured patients to the beleaguered hospital.

WI-FI IN THE SKY: Delta plans to start offering Wi-Fi on all its domestic flights by next summer, but it’ll cost $10 for three hours or less and $13 for longer flights.

FIELD TRIPS: Georgia schools considering canceling them to save fuel.

TAILS WAGGING DAWGS: Mark Richt discusses the slew of arrested and penalized players this offseason; he and top players echo the line that they won’t be a distraction for long.

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SKIP CARAY: The voice of the Atlanta Braves dies at 68.

OLYMPICS: Beijing’s unprecedented attempts to clear its polluted skies for the Games are drawing scientists from around the world seeking the rare window to study pollution’s dynamics and health effects.

BOLT FROM THE BLUE: Obama starts making moves on seven historically red states, including Georgia, where he opened five offices over the weekend.

LAKE LANIER: Has an alligator in it.

SHOOTING: At Jermaine Dupri’s party at Club Dream early Saturday was reportedly over guests who were angry at being double charged; the only injury reported was a security guard who was shot in the arm but later released from the hospital.

THE VARSITY: Turned 80 this weekend.

TOO EXTREME: The Augusta Chronicle’s editorial board writes that the recently foreclosed “Extreme Makeover” home in Clayton County shows that charity can be taken too far.

COAST NOT CLEAR: Jellyfish, the “cockroaches of the open waters,” are growing in numbers on coasts around the world and forcing many beach closures, which scientists say is a result of overfishing, pollution and rising temperatures killing off their natural predators.

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MARS DROUGHT DOWNGRADED: Scientists find and sample water from the Martian surface, and will spend the next several weeks studying whether it could support life.

TED STEVENS: Not giving up without a slow, creaky fight.

COLBERT: Offers a “rare apology” to Canton, Ga., for calling the town “crappy,” adding that he meant to call Canton, Kan., crappy: “How many Canton, Kan. residents does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None. They don’t use lights because they don’t want to see where they live.”

RUNOFF: Congressional Quarterly summarizes the uphill battle ahead of whoever wins Tuesday’s Democratic primary runoff in the U.S. Senate race to unseat Saxby Chambliss.

316: Won’t toll for thee.

HEADLINE NUDES: Lavonia buys the town’s only strip club with $1 million of taxpayer money, closes it and burns down its billboards.

LINGERIE: Included, along with bras, garter belts and hosiery, among the items exempt from sales taxes in this weekend’s statewide tax holiday. WSB-TV makes the distinction, however, that only sexy lingerie is exempt:

UNEMPLOYMENT: U.S. rate hits a four-year high in July as employers cut 51,000 jobs. But who’s going to operate the giant computer-chip-gear machine that makes red lightning bolts?

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WELL-TO-DO: Former Loafer Alyssa Abkowitz writes in the WSJ how affluent Atlantans such as Tyler Perry and Tom Glavine are getting around watering restrictions by installing wells.

MATTER OF PRINCIPAL: Cobb County school board members say they hadn’t heard a middle school principal was under investigation for sexual harassment when they promoted him to principal of North Cobb High School last month.

TRIAL BY FIRE: Cherokee County firefighters are the latest in metro Atlanta to invest in thermal-imaging cameras that allow them to find hidden hot spots and victims through smoke.

CLAYTON: The school system hires 400 new teachers despite the looming accreditation crisis.

CHASE CLOSED: A North Carolina man leads police on a chase through several Atlanta and DeKalb County neighborhoods Wednesday morning, eventually being caught after trying to flee his car.

FIGHTING DOGFIGHTING: The Humane Society has been blitzing Georgia the last few months with ads promoting a $5,000 reward for information leading to dogfighting arrests and convictions.

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BRAVES: Trade Mark Teixeira to the Angels for 1B Casey Kotchman and a minor league relief pitcher. The move comes the same day that Murphy’s Law became a constitutional amendment for the Braves, as they learned ace Tim Hudson may be out for the year and Chipper Jones went back on the DL.

DELTA: A dead woman was found in an airplane bathroom this morning on a flight from L.A. to Atlanta.

CHATTANOOGA CHOO CHOO: A private consultant briefs the Chattanooga City Council on the progress of planning a high-speed rail line from that city to Atlanta. The finished report, expected by early 2010, will whittle down 24 possible alignments to six: three maglev and three VHS (very high speed).

BEER: More popular than wine by double digits again.

“MONKEY FROM MARS”: The GBI museum in Decatur has the remains of a monkey that three men tried to pass off as an alien in 1953.

SUPER GRAND REOPENING: Super Grand Buffet, the Duluth restaurant that recently made news for getting a health score of 15, has been reinspected and this time got a 100.

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A MILLION TO ONE: Natural-gas discoveries in northwest Louisiana have sent the price of an acre in some places from a few hundred dollars to $30,000 in a few months, creating a sudden class of millionaires in the middle of nowhere.

LYNCHING RE-ENACTMENT: The victims’ surviving family members say they’re “troubled” by an Atlanta civil rights group’s four-year-old re-enactment of the 1946 Moore’s Ford lynching, and especially by this year’s installment.

CLAYTON: The BOE barely approves its official response to send to SACS regarding the accreditation stripping.

RETENTION: A report released today details the problems the Atlanta Police Department is having retaining officers; 9 percent of the 1,600-member police force left last year, and on one day last August, each zone of the city had one uncovered beat.

SIX-LEGGED DEER: Will go to live with an Athens woman who has a permit to keep unusual animals.

KANGAROO ATTACK: A Zoo Atlanta visitor records on cell-phone video a kangaroo attacking a zoo worker over the weekend.

JASON ELAM: The metro Atlanta native, who’s spent the last 15 years in Denver as one of the NFL’s premier kickers, says he’s happy to now be a Falcon.

JOE HORN: Probably not a Falcon for much longer.

STOLEN THUNDER: Angry at a local radio station for leaking its new Oklahoma City team’s mascot (the Thunder), the NBA hurriedly registers a list of alternates, one of which is misspelled.

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DAMMED IF HE DOESN’T: Jimmy Carter revives an old gubernatorial quest of his to prevent three dams from being built on the Flint River.

CARRYING CAPACITY: The Chicago Tribune examines recent revolutions against gun control, from Disney World to Hartsfield-Jackson to the Windy City.

WHAT BROWN CAN DO FOR YOU: Medical College of Georgia researchers identify brown rice’s health benefits.

FALCONS: New running backs Michael Turner and Thomas Brown prepare for the first day of training camp.

SMOG: Bad enough weekday afternoons that experts say exercising then does more harm than good.

ADVANCE VOTING: For runoff elections begins today.

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OIL SPILL: Covers 100 miles of the Mississippi River.

NORTHERN LIGHTS: Explained.

SUPER GRAND BUFFET: The Duluth restaurant’s 15 out of 100 on its health rating calls into question its super grandness.

PORT REFORM: Savannah overtook Charleston as the top Southeastern port in 2006 and has since widened the gap, but Chucktown’s catching back up.

ETOWAH INDIAN MOUNDS: Will be recovered with natural flora, replacing the grasses that have adapted to the area since European settlers moved in.

CAROL COUCH: Says Georgia, Alabama and Florida should go ahead and split the bill for a study on water management in the tristate area, rather than waiting for Congress to pick it up.

BOOKINGS KILL BOOKS: Lil Kim and Foxy Brown are in trouble with their publisher after their incarcerations kept them from writing books they had already been paid advances for.

HELLA PAD: Atlanta’s first helipad opens downtown.

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ABRIDGE OVER STUBBLED WATER: Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin is instituting Razor-Free Fridays, asking male ag employees to conserve water by skipping shaving.

BAT SIGNALS: A graduate student’s research uncovers an unknown population of about 900 Rafinesque’s big-eared bats living in South Georgia bottomland forests; scientists had previously spotted just 17 of the bats in all of South Georgia and thought they lived only near the coast.

ECO LOCATION: The Golden Isles are popular with ecotourists.

CLAYTON: Embattled Clayton Sheriff Victor Hill has responded to a former employee’s election-season lawsuit by filing a flurry of 30 defenses. Also, the county school board will outline at a meeting Friday why SACS shouldn’t revoke the school system’s accreditation. Read more about Clayton’s panoply of problems in this week’s CL cover story by Thomas Wheatley.

A FEATHER IN THEIR CRAP: Stephen Colbert called Canton, Ga., “crappy” on his show Monday night, leading defensive city leaders to invite him to visit, hoping to salvage some positive publicity.

T-STORMS AND ASTHMA: Are apparently correlated, according to a joint study by UGA and Emory researchers.

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VACANCY: Atlanta police have a new burglary unit dedicated to monitoring houses that have been foreclosed or abandoned, as copper thieves grow in numbers and audacity.

CITY COUNCIL: Wants to keep Fire Station No. 7 open.

SOUTH BY NORTHWEST: Northwest Airlines tells its employees that it may move up to 400 jobs to Atlanta.

JACKSON COUNTY: Gets state approval to sell discounted gas to the county’s nine municipalities, the first county in Georgia to do so.

BLUE JEAN BANDITS: Five suspects are arrested.

WITHOUT A PADDLE: Fifty thousand tons of sewage spill into the ground in Gainesville, entering a tributary of Balus Creek.

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