Fresh Loaf

JOHN EDWARDS: Endorses Obama.

TB LAND: Georgia’s reputation for rogue tuberculosis patients is bolstered by a Covington man arrested and quarantined for not obeying doctor’s orders to stay at home after TB diagnosis.

TAKE A MULLIGAN: Marietta racist Mike Norman has ordered 100 more of his blatantly race-baiting “Obama in ‘08″ T-shirts to sell at his bar, Mulligan’s, despite widespread protests, mockery and death threats. The worst part may be his rationalization.

REMINGTON STEAL: A northeast Georgia man’s Remington 16-gauge shotgun, stolen in 1986, is returned 22 years later after being discovered Monday in Maynard, Tenn. Good timing, too, because now he can take it into restaurants and on public transit.

TRUST NO ONE: Antitrust review is the last hurdle for the Delta-NWA merger, and experts doubt the Dept. of Justice will block the deal on antitrust grounds.

TAKING A SCRAP: Bad economy and rising global copper prices are increasingly driving thieves in Cartersville, and around the country, to steal copper wiring and cables.

C1AL1S BUST: Feds and local police raid a Roswell home where they say a couple was making up to $30,000 a day selling drugs such as copycat Cialis via mail order.

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Today, the AJC has an excellent story about a Fulton County man who flew to and from Europe despite being infected with a rare and exceptionally dangerous strain of tuberculosis.

Worthy of another front-page story is the fact that the man discovered an unlocked backdoor into the United States.

The infected man evaded the U.S. “no-fly” restrictions, returning to the United States by flying from Prague to Montreal on Czech Air and driving from Canada.

Did the American keepers of the “no-fly” list tell Czech Air about the man? Did they tell Czech passport-control officials? Did they tell Canadian passport officials? Did anyone even bother telling the U.S. agents on the Canadian border? Who knows?

The precise nature of the screw-up is as yet unclear, but the bottom line is this:

It’s been almost six years since 9/11 and the United States still can’t even stop an American citizen using his own passport from getting on a plane in a friendly country, or stop him at the border.

Other than admiring my shoes, what exactly is the Department of Homeland Security doing with its $40 billion annual budget?

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