Fresh Loaf

The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that a still-incomplete 1,014-acre project across the harbor from historic Cumberland Island does not have to adhere to state-ordered environmental standards for the area.

In a 5-2 decision, the court ruled that the 1970 Coastal Marshlands Protection Act does not extend to “residential upland areas.” A coalition of environmental and conservation groups sued because they said the development would increase polluted stormwater into marshlands and endanger marine life. The residential portion of the project should have been considered during the permitting process that gave the greenlight to docks and marinas in the harbor.

A dash of irony — Land Resource, the builder of the Cumberland Harbor development, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late last month. The future of the project is unknown.

To read the court’s ruling summary, follow the jump.

(more…)

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BUSH: Secretly ordered the recent covert military strike in Pakistan, according to the NY Times, a major detachment from the usual U.S. tactic of using unmanned Predator spy planes to fire at suspected al-Qaeda targets in the country.

MCCAIN: Leads Obama by 18 points in Georgia.

HURRICANE IKE: Barreling toward Houston and Galveston, expected to be a Category 3 when it hits Friday night. Thousands of coastal Texans are evacuating.

CAGLE: Will run for governor in 2010.

THE POACH STATE: Georgia is among the fast-growing states poaching teachers from more economically strapped states, such as Michigan.

EXCELLENCE DEFICIENCY: The Commission for School Board Excellence, formed at the request of the Georgia Board of Education, is recommending that Georgia should have more power to intervene in dysfunctional local school boards such as Clayton’s.

BOBBY COX: Will return next season.

TOUCH AND GO: A Fulton Superior Court judge dismisses a lawsuit by VOTER GA challenging the fraud-proofness of the state’s touch-screen voting machines. VOTER GA’s Garland Favorito says the group may appeal.

CUMBERLAND ISLAND: Will begin tours of its north end, which had previously only been accessible to visitors via a 17-mile hike.

UGA: Will face its first real test of the season as it enters SEC play against Spurrier’s Gamecocks in Columbia Saturday.

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WILDFIRES: Cumberland Island fire is 90 percent contained; progress made against California wildfires could be undermined by hot, dry weather this week.

VICK: Files for bankruptcy.

PLANE DEALING: The malfunctioning jet that Obama had to make an unscheduled landing in yesterday wasn’t his usual plane; it was previously used by Hillary Clinton. He still made it to Atlanta, though, appearing at two fundraisers last night and at McEachern High in Powder Springs today.

THE BURLY GATES: Atlantic Station’s Millennium Gate is revealed, and the Christian Science Monitor reports that the 82-foot-tall, $20 million monument is “a serious statement that risks, against the topsy-turvy backdrop of modern mass development, to become a legacy to 21st-century kitsch.”

HOUSE DIVIDED: An Atlanta family is trying to sell its mansion so it can give half its worth, about $800,000, to fight hunger in Ghana.

SEX OFFENDER LAW: Homeless Gainesville sex offender challenges a Georgia law that doesn’t allow him to register with the state’s sex-offender list without including an address.

IRONY: Paulding County restaurateur/racist thinks free speech should allow him to call Obama a monkey on his restaurant’s marquee but shouldn’t allow others to call him a racist:

“I believe in your right and my right or anybody else’s right to say what they want without being criticized as being a racist,” said Lanzo.

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WALK IN THE FARC: The Colombian military infiltrates FARC rebel leadership, tricking the guerillas into handing over hostages who had been held in the jungle for more than five years.

MCCAIN: Accused by fellow Republican of getting hot under the collar during a 1987 negotiation with Nicaraguan guerillas, then grabbing one by his collar, “like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever.”

OXENDINE: Bars a California insurance company from doing business in Georgia after concluding that it violated rules against selling misleading or unsuitable life insurance policies to military personnel.

BATTLE OF KETTLE CREEK: Archaeologists uncover evidence that changes the story of the 1779 Revolutionary War battle in Wilkes County between 350 Patriots and 700 Loyalists.

CUMBERLAND BLUES: The Cumberland Island wildfire is still going despite rains, but visitors continue to visit the island.

TERRAPIN STATIONARY: Dylan the sea turtle, who was recently released into the wild, hasn’t traveled far, now exploring the waters off Cumberland Island, according to an online tracking map.

DENIM CRISIS: Women’s Wear Daily reports on the toll the Blue Jean Bandits are taking on metro Atlanta’s premium denim dealers.

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HERSH REALITY: Seymour Hersh writes in the New Yorker that the United States is covertly preparing the battlefield in Iran.

MUGABE: Sworn in as “president” of Zimbabwe following his “win” in the “election.”

UGA IV: Will be buried in Sanford Stadium in Athens today.

CUMBERLAND ISLAND: Wildfire has consumed more than 1,600 acres.

MARTA: Time flies when you’re having gun.

OBAMA: To visit Atlanta July 7, part of his campaign’s strategy to reclaim the South for Democrats.

WRECKLESS ABANDON: A leaking shrimping boat off the Savannah coast becomes the first ship destroyed under legislation passed last year allowing authorities to seize abandoned vessels.

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