Fresh Loaf

“BOOMLET”: Demographers say the high number of U.S. births in 2007, the highest in 50 years, could signal a mini baby boom.

LONG TIME NO SEA: Dylan the sea turtle is finally in the open ocean.

RAIN CHECK: July downpours have barely made a dent in the drought after a hot, dry June. Lake Lanier levels have dropped so much that nighttime tournament fishing is no longer allowed.

A SHOT AT THE DARK: The Jekyll Island Authority is considering an ordinance to restrict outdoor lighting on the island.

HARTSFIELD-JACKSON: Named the most efficient U.S. airport for the third straight year.

DON’T BUILD IT; THEY WON’T COME: Home construction is the slowest it’s been in 17 years.

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A BRIDGE TOO FAR: Study shows that many Georgia bridges deemed “structurally deficient” by inspectors still go years before being repaired, often driving up the costs.

DYLAN: Popular sea turtle is released into the wild after nine years in captivity.

GINGREY DISCOVERS WATER: State Rep. Phil Gingrey took part in the Lake Allatoona Preservation Authority’s congressional cruise Monday, noting that the lake is “a real treasure” and has made him appreciate the importance of water: “After being in a level-four drought, you look at water the same way you look at gasoline.” True. The only difference is we couldn’t live without gasoline, silly.

TAKE YOUR GUNS TO TOWN: And on MARTA, to your business lunch and at the wildlife refuge, starting today. That’s still not enough for state Rep. Tim Bearden, though, who’s filing a federal lawsuit to prevent the city of Atlanta from banning guns at Hartsfield-Jackson, where he says he’ll be packing heat today when he goes to pick up his family.

NOT READY FOR MARTA: Clayton County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell injures his hand firing a gun at a strip club owner’s family outing.

JOSHES: Hawks want and need to keep them, but they won’t come cheap.

OBAMA AND THE SOUTH: In a NYT op-ed today, Thomas Schaller writes that Obama can’t win Mississippi, Georgia or North Carolina, but maybe can win Virginia and Florida.

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OBAMA: Debuts his first TV ad of the post-primaries campaign in Georgia and 17 other states today.

STUDY BUDDIES: Florida’s Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Allen Boyd have introduced a bill calling for a comprehensive study of water-management needs for the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system, despite the fact that a three-year process to update the ACF system’s operation manuals is already under way.

LOCH MESS: Lake Lanier and Alabama’s West Point Lake and Lake Walter George are all expected to drop several feet over the next five weeks, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

FLAGPOLE MUSIC AWARDS: R.E.M. won Best Album for Accelerate last night; Flagpole interviews Peter Buck in anticipation of R.E.M.’s show at Lakewood tomorrow.

PUT UP YOUR NUKES: The Savannah River Site seals up its 7 million cubic feet of radioactive waste after 22 years of being an active dump.

FRAUDIAN SLIP: Federal prosecutors indict seven metro Atlantans in an alleged straw-buyer mortgage fraud scam, part of the FBI’s nationwide “Operation Malicious Mortgage.”

THRASHERS COACH: We at least know one thing: The Thrashers either have or haven’t hired a new head coach. (UPDATE: They have.)

MLS COMING TO ATLANTA? Arthur Blank is either looking into bringing us a new Major League Soccer team, a Multiple Listing Service or a Master’s in Library Science. I’m not sure which sounds the most boring.

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Much wailing and gnashing of teeth has been heard in Atlanta over a potential property-tax hike. Fair enough; no one likes paying higher taxes. But relatively little public attention has been paid to the prospect of higher water rates, which will end up costing the average homeowner more than 10 times as much.

At around 1 p.m. today at a special-called meeting, the City Council approved a new water/sewer rate schedule for the next four years that will cause the average monthly household water bill to jump next month from about $85 to $105, a 27-percent increase.

This new rate includes a 15-percent increase to make up for lower revenue due to water conservation. Last year, this measure was introduced with the label “drought surcharge” and people went crazy: The city asked us to conserve water and now it’s punishing us for doing so!

Instead, the city simply rolled it into the new rates, but we’ll pay it just the same. Rates will continue to climb 12.5 percent for the following three years, until we’re eventually paying an average of $143 a month for water.

Council members had debated the water rate increases for weeks; some even hinted they would vote against them. But, in the end, the vote was 13-0; the only amendment calls for an audit of the $4 billion sewer program. Why did everyone finally get on board? Mainly, because they didn’t really have a choice.

The rate hike was necessary to abide by the federal consent decree that mandates the sewer improvements. If the council had voted down the new rates, Federal Judge Tom Thrash could have put the entire program in receivership.

At one point, Council member Kwanza Hall asked city finance chief Janice Davis what would happen if the rates weren’t raised.

Davis’ answer: “The city’s bonds would be downgraded to junk.”

Well, alrighty, then!

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LEAVEITTOWN: The reeling housing market is accelerating Americans’ interest in New Urbanism, helping reverse the march toward suburbia that began post-WWII with the Levittown burbs.

AN INCONVENIENT YOUTH: Al Gore takes the stage with Barack Obama in Detroit to endorse the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, lending his enormous party clout to the young upstart, albeit a little late.

NORREESE HAYNES: The former Clayton County school board member’s lawsuit, an attempt to regain his board seat he was voted out of in March, is dismissed by Clayton Superior Court Judge Deborah Benefield.

BIOMASS PLANT: Rollcast Energy plans to build a $160 million, 50-megawatt biomass power plant in Lamar County that will burn wood waste from logging, land-clearing and other sources.

WINGS AND A PRAYER: Aside from its Athens-Atlanta flights, which it’s initially offering for $49, Wings Air has hopes of becoming a regional commuter airline to compete with increasingly clogged ground traffic.

CHORE OF ENGINEERS: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ water plan doesn’t seem to please anyone, as Georgia officials say it doesn’t do enough to conserve Lake Lanier’s water, and everyone south says it does too much.

PLAYING DIRTY: Former Pike Nurseries CEO Randy Pike was arrested and charged with groping several women at a pool party in Dalton over the weekend.

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The American Prospect has an astounding special issue out — that’s available online with bonus articles — about the world’s growing freshwater crisis. The pieces range from the general — the grave threat we face from the dwindling of our most basic resource — to the specific — the oh-so-successful bottled-water industry.

And as is wont with any special issue documenting the missteps of man, Atlanta gets a mention. In a piece about the dangers of privatizing water systems, Wenonah Hunter, executive director of the Food and Water Watch in Washington, D.C., reminds us how well such an experiment worked out for Atlanta in the late 1990s.

Sadly, [French water and wastewater company] Suez and the other water corporations have had a similar record in the United States. United Water, a Suez subsidiary, began a 20-year, $428 million contract in 1999 to operate and manage Atlanta’s water and sewer system. At the time, United Water bragged that “Atlanta for us will be a reference worldwide, a kind of showcase.”

Instead, a fiasco ensued. The company overstated the amount of money it could save the city and underestimated the work needed to maintain and operate the system. In Atlanta, the company cut costs by firing almost 400 employees — half of the utilities staff. United Water tried to add $80 million to the contract and then, after the city refused, inflated billable costs, even billing the city for work it hadn’t performed. It raised sewer rates an average of 12 percent every year it had the contract.

There were other problems, as well. In 2003, the city’s deputy water commissioner told The Atlanta Journal- Constitution, “My biggest concern is a lot of people have lost confidence in the water itself. Over the past year, we’ve had so many boil water advisories and dis-colored water around the system.” Finally fed up with United Water, Atlanta terminated the contract later that year.

Well, better late than never.

Our days of rest are approaching and it’s doubtful the New York Times Magazine will be as cool as it was last week. If you want to bone up on an important issue, I recommend the articles.

(Photo from The American Prospect)

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HAWKS’ WOODSON TO RE-SIGN: Damn that hyphen!

HAPE SPRINGS ETERNAL: Ford sells its Hapeville assembly plant to Jacoby Development, which is going to build an “aerotropolis” there.

TOMATOES: Salmonella wave spreads to Georgia; Mexico’s tomato industry, which supplies 80 percent of U.S. imports, is in limbo.

WEEDY SEA DRAGONS: Reproduce at the Georgia Aquarium, only the third time that’s ever happened in a U.S. aquarium.

STREET SMARTS: Google Maps adds Atlanta to its Street View feature, so Atlantans can finally experience driving around town without being stuck in gridlock.

FIRE RISK HIGH: Conditions are once again ripe for wildfires in South Georgia.

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MALIGNANT RUMORS: Obama goes against political tradition of ignoring unsubstantiated attacks, creates website to combat rumor-mongering e-mails.

I WANNA TAKE YOU DRIER: The drought is still getting worse.

CLASSICAL GAS: Gas is cheaper in South Carolina; maybe we should look into annexing it.

BLAIS UNDER PRESSURE: Richard Blais is still the top chef to us even though he “choked” and then choked up last night.

GSU: Hires former Ga. Tech coach Bill Curry to head its nascent football team, which will begin play in 2010 at the Georgia Dome.

DRIVIN’ THAT TRAIN: Casey Jones pulled over, charged with marijuana meth and Xanax possession.

HOOP SCHEMES: Disgraced former NBA ref with plenty of incentive to make up such a story nonetheless weaves an intriguing tale of playoff-rigging NBA execs and bought-out refs.

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LET’S ALL OWE TO THE LOBBY: Saxby Chambliss skips debate in which five Dems and a Lib argue over whether taking PAC money affects a candidate’s integrity.

OBAMA: Expected to make a trip to Georgia sometime this month, which could help some down-ticket Georgia Dems in July as well as November.

WRONG SIDE OF THE TAX: National average gas price reaches $4 a gallon for the first time in history. State gas taxes are often higher than the much-politicized federal tax, but many states depend heavily on them for infrastructure maintenance.

REST FOR THE WEARY: SCAD students design, build beds for the homeless in Savannah.

ROCK US LIKE A HURRICANE: State climatologist says low stream flows indicate a worsening drought; tropical storms may be our only relief.

WARMTH WAVE: Temperatures are nearing record highs. Still, AccessNorthGa.com avoids the temptation to sensationalize the story with this news graphic.

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OBAMA AND CLINTON: Meet in Washington.

PREZ DISPENSER: Georgia has six public universities, including Georgia Tech and Georgia State, that have recently lost their presidents and are searching for new ones before fall classes begin.

TRAINING DAY: Gwinnettians will vote in the July 15 primary whether to pay a penny sales tax for MARTA service in the county. Although the last such vote in 1990 failed, recent polling indicates many now think itsmarta, perhaps due to horrible traffic and gas prices. As a backup to rail, though, county leaders are hoping to at least introduce diesel-electric hybrid accordion buses to the historically train-trepid public.

DOWN AND DROUGHT: Lake Lanier is still 13 feet below normal despite winter rains, meaning the next best hope is for a hurricane to hang out in North Georgia for a while this summer.

CHIPPER JONES: Hits 400th career home run.

CARTERSVILLE ADVENTURE: Illinois man has a big morning in Cartersville.

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OBAMA: Clinches the Democratic nomination, gives rousing victory speech to thousands in St. Paul.

DRYEST BEFORE DAWN: State climatologist expects drought will get worse before it gets better.

HIGH ON THE SMOG: Atlanta’s under a code orange smog alert today.

FOR GOV OF COUNTRY: Sonny Perdue hosts a gaggle of GOP governors, many of whom are also VP candidates for John McCain, in Atlanta this week for the Republican Governor’s Association luncheon.

TRAFFIC DESIGNER: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle tells the Cobb Chamber of Commerce Chairman’s Club that he’ll unveil a new transportation plan within the next two months.

ANOTHER BEAR HIT: Again on I-75.

GROWING OUR OWN: USA Today profiles Georgia’s ascendant young baseball talent pool.

UMP IRE: High school pitcher and catcher are under investigation after the catcher ducked away from a pitch during a state championship game, allowing it to hit the home plate ump, who had called nine of their teammates out on strikes during the game.

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CAMPAIGN RELIEF: Clinton is expected to concede the delegate race to Obama today. * She’s saying she’ll “do whatever it takes” to put a Democrat in the White House, which was taken by Obama supporters as a hint she’d accept a VP offer.

* UPDATE: Now the Clinton campaign denies AP reports that she will concede the nomination tonight. Sigh.

WATER RETENTION: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approves plan to keep more water in Lake Lanier and other Georgia reservoirs.

CHAMBLISS: “Amazed” by public support for the U.S. Homeland Security Department’s National Bio- and Agro-defense Facility in Athens.

KSU PROF: Gets $201,000 grant, seen as boon to smallish university’s research cred.

SMOLTZ: Comes off DL, blows save.

BORDER TOWNS: Would lose their edge, literally, if that Georgia/Tennessee border change ever happened.

A TAX TO GRIND: Mayor Franklin proposes 4.8 percent shortfall-alleviating property-tax increase, which is palatable to some City Council members compared with her original estimate of 20 percent or more, but still too much to others.

WHAT ALES US: Beer prices are rising as ingredients cost more and production is down. Apparently, beer may not be recession-proof.

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CRITICS AT BAY: Florida Sen. Bill Nelson tours the Apalachicola Bay to survey the effects of retaining more water in Lake Lanier, and says he’ll push for a National Academy of Sciences study of how low flows affect the river ecosystem.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE FUNNEL: 2008 could be a record year for U.S. tornadoes, and while meteorologists aren’t sure why this year has been so tornadically prolific — including the twister that caused $40 million in damage in north metro Atlanta last week — the good news is that tornado season usually starts sputtering out in June.

BORDERS SKIRMISH: City Council President Lisa Borders writes a letter to her councilmates asking them to be nicer to the mayor.

HAWKS GM SEARCH: As is becoming typical of front-office searches in Atlanta pro sports, Cleveland’s Chris Grant withdraws himself from consideration after being offered the general manager job.

UGA EXPANDING IN GWINNETT: With the Brain Train struggling to gain traction, UGA just starts filling the gaps between Athens and Atlanta with itself.

ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL: Piedmont Park may soon install wells for water independence, pending a decision by the state Environmental Protection Division.

CAUGHT LEAD-HANDED: Two studies link children’s lead exposure 25 years ago and increased impulsive and criminal behavior in adulthood.

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FEE FOR ALL: Atlanta City Councilman Jim Maddox proposes taxing $1 for tickets to pro sporting events and major concerts in the city to help soften the looming $140 million budget shortfall.

14TH STREET BRIDGE: Dead to us.

GET OUT OF MY CAR: Between March 2007 and March 2008, American driving dropped at the steepest rate since record keeping began in 1942.

ABATED BREATH: Beginning next year, asthma sufferers will have to switch to the more expensive CFC-free inhalers for environmental reasons, good for ozone but a blow to Atlantans who already live in an asthma-unfriendly city.

YOU GOT CONSERVED: As utilities start raising rates to make up for reduced usage, the dark side of conservation is rearing its head across the Southeast.

ONE FLU OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST: Study released Monday says strains of bird flu are getting closer to conditions that could lead to a human pandemic.

GETTING BROWSY: The “browser wars” of the mid-’90s are heating back up, as Mozilla readies Firefox 3.0 for release in June and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 is due later this year.

FRIGHTENING IN A BOTTLE: Orlando man sells bottles that he claims have ghosts in them.

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TEACHING TO THE TESTAMENT: Bible-as-literature classes clear legal hurdles in Tennessee and Georgia.

FLOCK ENROLL: Atlanta is the No. 1 major metropolitan area in the nation for college enrollment growth over the last 17 years and No. 2 in number of degrees awarded.

OVERRIDE: City Council takes Mayor Franklin down a notch by overriding three of her recent vetoes.

TESLER TRIAL: Jury deadlocked.

LANIER: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers takes heavy fire for its water-releasin’ ways at the Lake Lanier Association’s annual meeting Monday; the association is so fed up it’s funding its own scientific study on how much water the downstream mussels need to live.

GRADY CURVE: Grady Health System is officially taken over by Grady Memorial Hospital Corp. today, and also receives the first $50 million installment of the $200 million the Robert M. Woodruff Foundation pledged.

FOOT (AND MOUTH) IN THE DOOR: The U.S. farm bill includes a provision allowing the incurable foot-and-mouth disease to be studied in a mainland U.S. facility, clearing the way for the National Bio- and Agro-defense Facility, for which Athens is one of six candidates.

COMING TO BLOWS: Sustained wind gusts of 20 to 30 mph expected today.

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CLINTON: Wins West Virginia; Obama courts bluer collars.

LEAVE IT TO BEAZER: Atlanta-based Beazer Homes announces it lost more than $400 million in fiscal 2007. It’s also still the target of federal investigations over its mortgage lending practices.

MARRIOT MARQUIS: The 52-story downtown hotel was evacuated last night, with no reported injuries, after a fire created a cloud of chlorine gas in the parking garage basement. Here’s AccessNorthGa’s take on what happened.

LANDLINES: Lame.

COMMUTISM: High gas prices are fueling more carpooling, bussing and train riding in Gwinnett.

HOLDING WATER: Gov. Perdue visits the muddy shores of Lake Lanier to sign the Water Conservation and Drought Relief Act of 2008, which will expedite the creation of new reservoirs.

THE HOLE TRUTH: A large hole has appeared in a White County dam, and officials say the entire dam is in danger of failure.

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CHINA EARTHQUAKE: Death toll has passed 12,000 from Monday’s 7.9-magnitude quake, with more than 18,000 buried under rubble in just one city.

ATTRACTING RETENTION: Only 12 percent of embattled Clayton County’s teachers are leaving the school system, which is lower than some administrators had feared.

BATTLE OF ‘WITZ: Emory political scientist Alan Abramowitz writes a Washington Post op-ed on Obama, working-class whites and “symbolic racism.”

WEST VIRGINIA: Clinton campaigns, Obama campaigns.

PASSING THE BARR: Bob Barr announces he’s running for president as a Libertarian.

DREAM TEAM: A collection of rookies and role players, the new Atlanta Dream begins its season next weekend, hoping some residual basketball fever remains in the city from the Hawks’ playoff run.

HERE WE ARE NOW: Gov. Perdue signs a bill that will give up to a 30 percent entertainment tax credit to productions of films, TV shows, commercials, music videos and video games in the state.

HAVE YOUR LAKE AND DRINK IT, TOO: Lake Lanier Association doesn’t think all lakes are created equal.

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RAGING ELECTION: Both candidates win a state and both claim momentum, but Obama gets more delegates. Remaining primaries are: W.Va. (May 13), Ky. (May 20), Ore. (May 20), Mont. (June 3), S.D. (June 3) and P.R. (June 7).

KNIGHT OUT: Hawks GM Billy Knight steps down.

BEE MINUS: Survey released Tuesday shows that more than a third of the nation’s honeybees have been lost since last year. As Thomas reported Monday, air pollution is one likely factor; UGA entomologists studying colony collapse disorder also point to shrinking food supply, parasitic mites and the recently identified Israeli acute paralysis virus.

DEATH PENALTY: Back in action, as William Early Lynd was killed last night.

CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN: First-ever Georgia Climate Change Summit, hosted by Georgia Tech Tuesday, brings together scientists and policy experts in the hope of starting an action plan to address global warming in the state. Georgia’s currently one of 12 states that not only doesn’t have such a plan, but isn’t even working on one.

‘FLAT LINE’: Apalachicola Riverkeeper hosts a two-day tour of the Chattahoochee Basin’s terminus to draw attention to what Florida officials contend is an Atlanta- and Georgia-first policy of water use and watershed management.

GIVING UP THE GHOST: Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, the musical by Stephen King and John Mellencamp scheduled for an April 2009 opening at the Alliance, has been postponed.

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THE DEPARTED: Just two days after upsetting the Celtics in Atlanta to force Game 7, the Hawks get eviscerated 99-65 to end their season.

SAPELO ISLAND: The once-isolated Georgia barrier islanders are being boxed out by wealthy land prospectors and vacationers.

CATCH AND RELEASE AND CATCH: An Alpharetta man who was accidentally released from prison in Tennessee is captured at his father’s house in Atlanta.

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE: In a clever strategy to confuse the water gods by doing the last thing they would expect during an extreme drought, the Atlanta Regional Commission will consider the proposed water park in Buford.

PROTON THERAPY: Emory is studying the prospects of building a $150 million proton-therapy cancer-treatment facility, which is similar to radiation treatment but less destructive to cells.

OBAMA: Wins Guam caucuses by just seven votes; North Carolina and Indiana vote tomorrow.

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GAME 6 TONIGHT: I’ve seen Celtic Pride. We have to keep Daniel Stern and Dan Akroyd away from Joe Johnson today.

GANGBUSTERS: Gang experts say the NBA only drew attention to Paul Pierce’s apparent gang sign during the Celtics Game 4 loss in Atlanta by fining him for it.

TEAT-TOTALING: Three out of four moms now breast-feed their babies, according to the CDC, an “all-time high” since the mid-’80s.

BRIDGE JUMPERS STANDERS: I-985 closed down yesterday; I-20 closed down this morning. Neither jumper jumped.

LOW FLOW: The state wants to extend lower flows from Lake Lanier through May 31, but just about everyone south of Atlanta doesn’t.

CLAYTON SCHOOLS: Gov. Perdue signs two bills into law to safeguard Clayton students and hold the school board more accountable as de-accreditation looms closer.

AIR ABERRANT: If you’re waiting for Atlanta to get off the list of top 10 most polluted cities, don’t hold your breath. Actually, maybe you should.

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MAYDAY: Smog season starts today.

ROLLING OUT THE RED CARPETBAG: Niagara County, New York, assuming companies in the South are too lethargic from dehydration to move elsewhere, considers venturing down here to liberate them to the Great Wet North.

FLEXING ITS MUSSELS: Florida pulls the marine-life card again in response to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ recent water-sharing proposal.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Mission to sugarcoat and obfuscate Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner snafu accomplished.

BOSTON MASSACRE: Home teams keep winning as the Celtics handily take Game 5 from the Hawks. Game 6 is here tomorrow night.

DEMOCRATIC SENATE RACE: Getting melodramatic.

LIAISONS LEAVING: State liaisons assigned to help Clayton County save its accreditation ask Gov. Perdue to excuse them from what they call an impossible task, saying the school board has only gotten more dysfunctional since the SACS report was released in February.

OH REALLY? Unhelpful headlines today:

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Atlanta residents already bracing for a potential tax hike may also be facing a sharp jump in their water and sewer bills.

Although the Department of Watershed Management won’t deliver its proposed budget to the City Council until May 1, a highly placed source in City Hall says the department is planning to ask for a dramatic 25-percent rate increase.

The department had recently sought to enact a “drought surcharge” to offset residents’ lower water usage – and thus lower water revenue – but was rebuffed by the Council.

“It seems unfair to ask people to conserve water and then penalize them for doing it,” says Councilwoman Clair Muller.

The presumption is that Watershed would simply roll the increase into its upcoming budget proposal, which was already anticipated to include higher rates to pay for the next round of sewer fixes. But Muller says the rumored 25-percent hike is much steeper than was expected – and is likely to inflame more controversy in a City Hall already grappling with a budget crisis.

If such a large increase in water rates is proposed, Muller says she will move to postpone future clean-water projects so the city can keep rates lower but still meet a federal consent order to repair its aging sewers.

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PENNSYLVANIANS: Vote today to determine which candidate’s cable-news-fueled faux controversies have most distracted them.

COMIC RELEAF: Hagar the Horrible, Snuffy Smith and 43 other comic strips unite for Earth Day-themed strips today.

STUNNING: Byron, Ga.-based company indicted for allegedly relabeling and selling faulty stun grenades to the FBI.

TESLER TRIAL: Judge closes jury selection to media and public, sans explanation.

REVOLTING DEVELOPMENT: Hall County would like the drought to end so it can start sprawling again.

SMOLTZ: Four strikeouts away from No. 3,000; could get it tonight in Atlanta.

ANDRUW JONES: Flailing.

PANS: Being handled more often in Atlanta, according to ACVB study.

KEEP ON TRUCKIN’: Truck crashes into bank branch in Gainesville. And in case you can’t quite picture what this looked like from the driver’s point of view, AccessNorthGa has you covered.

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UNHAPPY AS A CLAM: Mussels, north Floridians will suffer from Corps of Engineers’ new water proposal, says a Florida congressman, while Lake Lanier Association president says the plan doesn’t go far enough.

LEGAL INJECTION: SCOTUS dismisses challenge to constitutionality of Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure, freeing up other states to kill their prisoners again. Two Georgia death-row inmates are now back on track to be executed.

SEPARATE BUT DIESEL: Ga. DOT explains the problems with bringing truck-only lanes to Atlanta, while the idea’s sponsor stubbornly soldiers on.

BURDEN OF PROF: Two still-unidentified Ga. Tech professors are being investigated for fraud and theft.

LEATHERHEADS: Georgia State is expected to announce today its plans to start a football team in 2010. AJC’s Tony Barnhart lists five things the Panthers must do to succeed. Around this time last year, Mark Bradley wrote why they won’t succeed.

LACROSSE-CULTURAL: Toli, the 500-year-old Native American predecessor of lacrosse, is big in Athens, where on Saturday UGA’s team will host the 21-time world-champion Conehatta Skunks, who are Choctaw.

THE PAYBACK: The Augusta Metro Spirit lists what will be available at James Brown’s estate sale in August.

PRO-STRIFE: Yale art student artificially inseminates herself “as often as possible,” takes drugs to induce miscarriages, collects the blood, and presents it along with videos of her miscarriages as her senior art project.

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SOFT CORPS: In a salve for metro Atlanta’s water woes, the Army Corps of Engineers releases a new proposal reducing the minimum amount of water that can be released from Lake Lanier daily. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has until June 1 to approve the plan. Perdue already approves.

GSUED: Georgia State is sued by three academic publishers for digitally reproducing materials for online without asking permission or paying licensing fees.

BELFRY-FOR-ALL: “Dozens” to “tens of thousands” of Mexican free-tailed bats’ noise and guano annoy Augustans.

CLAYTON: School board replaces chairwoman Ericka Davis, who resigned, with Eddie White, who had already announced he’s resigning in June.

BLANK SLATE: NYT profiles the Falcons’ owner, his turbulent 2007 and the reset ‘08 Falcons.

TANGLED WEB: Boortz Web link to mdjonline.com video crashes the paper’s servers.

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