Fresh Loaf

Wow, this is crazy. Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich was just arrested by federal agents for trying to sell Pres.-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat. Now that’s ballsy!

According to U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald – the guy who nailed Cheny henchman Scooter Libby — Blagojevich had been more or less soliciting bids for the soon-to-be open Senate seat. Under state law, the governor has the sole power to appoint replacement senators.

According to the Washington Post, Blagojevich wasn’t shy about his alleged scam, as revealed on wiretap tapes:

In a Nov. 3 call intercepted by the FBI, Blagojevich told an ally that if he could not get anything personally from a candidate for the job, “then I just might take it,” according to court papers.

“I’ve got this thing and it’s [expletive] golden, and uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing,” the governor said in another conversation Nov. 5, the court papers said.

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From Romenesko:

Cox Newspapers Washington bureau chief Andy Alexander will become the Washington Post’s ombudsman for a two-year term beginning Feb. 2. “He brings with him more than 30 years of experience in the news industry and will be an excellent advocate for our readers,” writes Post publisher Katharine Weymouth. Cox Newspaper announced this week that Alexander’s bureau will shut down in April.

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Andisheh just pointed out to me that Sarah Palin told Katie Couric the other day that she reads Creative Loafing. I’m excited that a potential vice president “established her worldview” by reading our paper, as well as by reading dailies like the New York Times and Pravda.

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Decades of myopia and road-building fever are catching up with metro Atlanta. We’re not alone in that mess, but we seem to be one of the few metro regions not doing anything about it.

Neil Peirce of the Washington Post writes that in light of gridlock and arm-and-a-leg gas prices, metro areas as far west as Seattle and as near as Charlotte are finding innovative ways to alleviate their transportation problems.

Georgia, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, is still scratching lotto tickets and wishing for cash rather than getting creative.

What really struck my eye in Peirce’s column was this gem:

The good news: only few other regions — metro Detroit, for example — are as stalemated as Atlanta. Indeed, just check what’s happening elsewhere:

He then goes on to list a bunch of other regions across the country and their projects. It’s a sobering read with some great quotes from Sam Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce. The business group has been the leading voice in calling for the General Assembly to take some kind of action to address the sorely needed transportation solutions in the state.

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This may sound odd for an organization that prides itself on the free flow of ideas, but staffers who are leaving Atlanta Journal-Constitution are being required to sign an agreement that they won’t “disparage” the paper or its management once they leave, according to several AJC employees.

“I was pretty surprised to see that in there,” said one reporter who’s viewed the agreement.

The AJC didn’t care to discuss the stipulation. “As standard practice, we don’t disclose any specifics regarding legal agreements we have with employees,” says spokeswoman Jennifer Morrow.

But one employee said the severance agreement being presented to employees this month bars those who sign it from making “any disparaging or untrue statements about the company,” its subsidiaries or any other employee. The source indicated that the quote was lifted from the actual agreement (I’d love to get my hands on a copy; please e-mail me if you’d like to share one).

An employee who left during last year’s buyout confirmed that similar phrasing was in the severance agreement he signed last year. That employee said the agreement caused some former writers and editors to refrain from discussing newsroom management in media coverage last year, specifically an Atlanta Magazine profile of Editor Julia Wallace by former CL writer Steve Fennessy.

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The water crunch Georgia’s facing? The Associated Press writes that it’s becoming a national problem. The article provides a thorough rundown of where our fair nation stands in terms of providing a diminishing supply of water to a growing population.

In Georgia news regarding the water crisis: Bottled water sales are up, even though the people selling them are saying their water sources are secure. Alabama wants construction of a man-made lake in Cherokee County close to completion and sanctioned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to be halted, SnuggleScribe Jeffry Scott reports. Governors from the three states embroiled in the decades-old “Tri-State Water War” will meet Thursday in Washington. Gov. Sonny Perdue has ordered the state and permit holders to reduce their water use by 10 percent, and Alpharetta … come on, Alpharetta.

Click here to view a Washington Post story with an accompanying aerial photo that hammers home the low levels of Lake Lanier.

Conserve, folks. This drought may last awhile, and now’s a good time to evaluate just how much water you really need to get through the day.

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*… and nobody gives a damn.

The United Nations released a devastating report yesterday that says mankind has basically laid waste to the planet and that it may be too late to turn the tide. It is so dire that “humanity’s very survival” is at risk, according to the report.

And this isn’t from some left-wing wacko group. The report was put together by 400 scientists from all over the world, then peer-reviewed by 1,000 others.

And yet, the report has gotten virtually no play in the United States.

Lead story in the New York Times? Nope. That would be the California wildfires and a story on how the disaster has brought our president closer to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Perhaps he got an autograph from the Terminator?

Lead story in the Washington Post? Nope. It talks about how a U.S. strike on Iran would screw up the oil supply. And there’s a piece on Rudy Giuliani’s political guru.

Lead story in the AJC? Nope. That would be Georgia’s battle for water.

WTF?
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