Fresh Loaf

Gov. Sonny Perdue is no stranger to controversy when it comes to real estate. In 2004, a firestorm erupted — one that continues to this day — over Oaky Woods, a 19,200-acre tract of land in Houston County that critics say was a sweetheart deal for the governor’s developer buddies.

But it’s a different piece of land, a home along the shores of a lake created by Georgia Power, that had CL scratching its head over the weekend.

Located in Butts County, Jackson Lake is a 4,750-acre reservoir created in 1910 when the Central Georgia Power Company dammed the Yellow, Alcovy and South Rivers. The lake sits downstream upstream from Plant Scherer, Georgia Power’s carbon-belching coal plant in Jolliet Juliette (Thanks to Victor for the correction). Located halfway between the Gold Dome and the governor’s home in Houston County, it’s considered a recreational hotspot — the lake is nice and full, there’s waterskiing aplenty, and if you use the proper bait, you’re likely to catch bluegills, largemouth bass or redar sunfish.

And according to the Butts County Tax Assessor, Perdue and his wife purchased two lots on the lake in Sept. 2007. There’s one problem: He never claimed it on his annual finanical disclosure, which would be a no-no according to the State Ethics Commission.

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GOV. SONNY PERDUE AND HOUSE SPEAKER NEWT GINGRICH: Amused to find out that they’ve suddenly become outsiders, reformers and agents of feminism.

(Photo by Joeff Davis. Galleries of Joeff’s photos from both party conventions can be found on his web site, Joeff.com)

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PALIN: Excites the crowd at the RNC with an aggressive speech aimed at Obama’s experience and celebrity. McCain makes a surprise appearance to support Palin, and reminds those in attendance of her national security experience.

OBAMA: Will give a prebuttal to McCain’s acceptance speech tonight on “The O’Reilly Factor.” Maybe this will come up.

KWAME KILPATRICK: The embattled mayor of Detroit has accepted a plea deal and will resign.

HANNAH: Takes a northward turn, and is now expected to bypass the Georgia coast and hit land on the Carolina coast. Savannah’s unlikely to be evacuated, but the Hostess City is still preparing for the uninvited guest.

HAITI: “The situation is as bad as it can be,” according to a U.N. official in Gonaives. The country has been hit by three tropical storms in two weeks, and more than 100 people have died amid flooding and mudslides.

PAKISTAN: Mad at the U.S. for an alleged cross-border raid that it says killed 15 villagers in the northwestern part of the country.

CLAYTON BOE: Gets one step closer to a quorum by appointing Jessie Goree to fill the vacant District 3 seat, but takes two steps back by holding another controversial closed meeting, which two members refuse to attend in protest. Meanwhile, Gov. Perdue is looking into how he could gain more power to intervene in troubled school systems, even if by constitutional amendment, but the earliest that could happen is November 2010, likely too late for Clayton.

WAREHOUSE FIRE: Shuts down North Avenue this morning near City Hall East.

SHOCKLEY AND AWE: Terence Moore fantasizes for UGA/Falcons fans how the beloved former Bulldogs QB could ascend now that he’s the No. 3 behind an unproven No. 1 and a mediocre No. 2.

BAD SPORTS? Spencer Hall at the Sporting Blog defends “the Atlanta sporting landscape” in response to mockery of the Falcons reducing ticket prices in hopes of avoiding a TV blackout for the season opener.

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Students and faculty at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School may have the luxury of being mere footsteps from all the downtown salad bars and panhandlers one could hope for, but they have the misfortune of being located in one of the Georgia Building Authority’s properties.

The state agency, forced to scale back expenses in light of Georgia’s $1.6 billion shortfall, recently started setting thermostats in the school’s building to Hades highs. Come winter they’ll be set to Siberian lows. (ba-da-zing!)

From an e-mail addressed to what seems like 98,324 people, according to the recipient list, sent out by an employee who’s got a good sense of humor about something totally out of their control :

Good warmer afternoon all,

I have had many complains/questions/concerns today regarding the warm offices/work areas and the only answer I had for each caller was, “We are going green”.

I know I, as many of you, have become accustom to having much cooler office temperatures. However, as of yesterday, September 2, 2008, the luxury of cooler office temperature may now be referred to as ‘the good old days’….

Copied below is GBA’s reminder of the new regulations and recommend practices….

And now, the rest is up to you!

If you have any questions/concerns regarding this matter, please
contact me.

Ah, yes. When the state goes broke, we gotta ‘go green.’ Perhaps if the governor and his bean counters weren’t so optimistic in their revenue projections, we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with, eh? And just what temperature is the governor’s mansion these days, boss? How about retrofitting those windows down there with some insulated models? Fret not, students and faculty of GSU, for we feel your pain. Or at least I do. I sleep in my car, with the engine running, Japanese-engineered air conditioning blowing on my face. Gas bills are a pain but I wake up to the sunrise!

After the jump, the e-mail from the authority to its sweltering tenants.

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Which current governor of Georgia was spotted perusing the chicken cutlets at a Butts County Ingle’s over the weekend? Word is that this powerful politico — whose surname is eerily similar to that of a powerful family of feather pluckers — likes to to grope cold slices of chicken while the hoi polloi have to wait on food lines.

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 — While everyone else is in a post-convention glow, Dave at Rather Than Working proposes that the Dems missed a sure bet when they didn’t go after the Bush Administration for all their assaults on the Constitution. Like Guantanamo, warrantless wiretapping, and the political firings and hirings at the Justice Department.

— In honor of Obama’s presidential nomination, Shelbinator takes us on a photographic trip through Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s old neighborhood.

— And Chicken Fat reminds us it’s the anniversary of one of the defining moments of the don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-ass Bush presidency. One hint: Brownie.

— One of the truths that emerged from the convention is that, really, the MSNBC talking heads all dislike one another. Left On Lanier has posted a video retrospective of all that hostility.

— At Atlanta Public Affairs, Decatur Guy takes note that his mayor has called out Gov. Sonny Perdue for raising taxes this year. Mayor Bill Floyd reminds Perdue that he has to see constituents every day; unlike the guv, he can’t hide in China.

— And, finally, the fine but ultimately misguided ladies at Pecanne Log post yet another tribute to our own young Mr. Wheatley. But calling him the poor man’s Flip Spiceland?

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Adios!

Per the suggestion of an administrative law judge who said four members of the Clayton County school board violated their duties under law, Gov. Sonny Perdue today removed Michelle Strong, Louise Baines-Hunter, Yolonda Everett and Sandra Scott from their posts. All nine school board members who were on the board when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools began their investigation — and whose actions were considered the primary cause of the accreditation fiasco — have since been removed.

“The fate of the Clayton County School System is now in the hands of the voters,” Perdue said in a statement. “Through the elections to replace these four board members, they can send a clear signal that the kind of behavior that has led to this ruling and the system’s loss of accreditation will not be tolerated. We can hope that this marks a new day for Clayton County, a time in which rebuilding can begin.”

More to come. Until then, view Perdue’s full release after the jump.

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Our friends at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute pointed us toward a couple of depressing reports today from the U.S. Census Bureau.

One said Georgia’s poverty rate was a lot higher in 2007 even than it was in the depths of the 2001 recession. Not only that, but middle-class Georgians haven’t gained any economic ground since the recession.

The other report said more people in the state now don’t have health insurance.

“Even after six years of economic recovery, Georgians have not regained the ground lost in the 2001 recession,” GBPI Deputy Director Sarah Beth Gehl said in a statement. “With the weakening of the economy in 2008, things are likely to get worse before they get better.” (more…)

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Are you a U.S. Congressman who’s careless with your spending? Gov. Sonny Perdue understands and he wants to help. But if you’re a city or county, well, in that case, you were reckless and had it coming.

U.S. Rep. Paul Broun recently made the news thanks to a congressional report that says the Republican congressman’s office had blown more than 80 percent of its annual budget, mostly on mailings to his constituents. (Broun blamed the spree on a former chief of staff.) Enter normally fiscal-minded Perdue, who’s agreed to attend an fundraiser tomorrow for the cash-strapped representative.

But Perdue’s not so forgiving when it comes to local governments. The governor raised the ire of many — Decatur in particular was aflame on the webz last week — when he criticized them for overspending in light of the state’s estimated $1.6 billion shortfall.

While the state is making spending cuts, Perdue said local governments “have never approached it from the standpoint that they have to tighten their belts.”

Congressman overspending = rest your head on my shoulder. Local governments “overspending” = you should know better.

Does Perdue have time on his schedule to host a bake sale for the estimated 661 county and city governments in Georgia?

(Hat tip to Peach Pundit and Decatur Metro for links, inspiration)

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Were you anticipating a giant man-made hole near you sometime soon? Thanks to that pesky economy thing, you’re going to have to wait.

From the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority:

As you may be aware, due to the recent economic downturn affecting the U.S. economy, the state of Georgia is facing a sharp decline in revenue. In consultation with the leadership in the Georgia General Assembly, Governor Sonny Perdue is reallocating funding to safeguard essential government services and programs. Accordingly, in order to keep all options open as the state develops a funding plan for the budget shortfall, the Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) instructed the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA) to suspend the Georgia Water Supply Competitive Grant Program funded through an Amended Fiscal Year 2008 appropriation of $40 million. OPB also notified GEFA to suspend distribution of the Fiscal Year 2009 allocation of $10 million in grant funding for the Georgia Land Conservation Program (GLCP).

The agency says it’ll work with current and future grant applicants to find alternate funding sources. It’ll also continue to offer its low-interest loan program for local water supply projects. Click here to download the full announcement or read it after the jump.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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 — Over at Lucid Idiocy, Travis is amused that state school superintendent Kathy Cox has agreed to appear on a game show called “Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?” Let’s hope she does better than Georgia’s students just did on their standardized tests.

— The Daly Briefing checks in from Iraq, where it’s 110 degrees in the shade, the weather forecasts include sand storms and the new commanding officer wants everyone to work longer hours. And so it goes.

— The state faces a massive budget shortfall and Gov. Sonny Purdue froze $428 million earmarked for local governments. Atlanta Public Affairs notes that Purdue essentially just raised everyone’s taxes without telling them since local governments will either have to raise property taxes or slash their own budgets to cover the decrease in state funds.

— We’ve missed our “Morning Wooten,” but DriftGrift delivers a tale from his college days when a philosophy professor put the smackdown on a freshman college student who was unwilling to challenge her religious views.

— Duane Moody is all ga-ga over a new singer named Lady GaGa. And he also throws in his two cents worth at a record executive he ran into who thinks downloading music is evil. Well, of course he does. The Internet, coupled with record company greed and stupidity, has killed the big record labels.

— And finally, love = rings and Maigh just received one and she’s so happy that a trip to Sweetwater State Park seemed almost magical.

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And isn’t it ironic? A little too ironic, don’cha think?

Earlier this month, Gov. Sonny Perdue announced that state revenues were in the toilet, budget estimates were projecting a $1.6 billion ( yes, that’s a “B”) shortfall and that he was considering raising most people’s property taxes.

Hmm. This reminds us of an earlier situation involving a large government entity. We just can’t quite put our finger on it…

Oh, yeah – It’s Atlanta! Remember when CL broke the news back in January about the city budget crisis and the media shit-storm that followed?

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— Georgia has its own Montauk Monster, and it’s called, simply, Bigfoot. Details will be unveiled Friday, so says Peach Pundit.

— Despite evidence to the contrary, Georgia Politics Unfiltered claims, “There is no sex in the courtrooms of Cobb County Superior Court (or the judge’s chambers for that matter).” Does lesbian sex count?

— Georgia Politics Unfiltered also updates a post from yesterday that hyped today’s political forecast from CQ Politics. CQ’s shocking revelation: In the presidential election, Georgia is “Republican Favored”!

— According to Lucid Idiocy, the food crisis is over. Gov. Sonny Perdue supports biofuels. And the Montauk Monster was spotted drinking margaritas at the Jekyll Island Club. (OK, I made that last one up.)

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