If a panhandling ban is passed but nobody enforces it, what's the point?

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Last year, tourism and convention industry leaders pushed City Council to pass a controversial law prohibiting panhandling in a specific downtown "tourism triangle." Proponents of the ban said it would help prevent conventions whose members had grown tired of Atlanta's over-eager beggars from relocating to rival...

One of the only liberal talk-show radio stations in a market saturated by conservative signals might not survive the year.

Two-year-old WWAA-AM (1690), the local affiliate of progressive radio network Air America, was sold to JW Broadcasting for $12 million in late January from Intermart, a Scottsdale-based broadcasting company. Intermart says the sale was always part of their plan.

"The...

The breakneck race to create a city of Dunwoody has been halted for now in the General Assembly, but some perplexed onlookers remain mystified as to what was driving that runaway train — while others harbor suspicions about the motives of the cityhood proponents.

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"The only explanation that makes sense is that people up there don't want to be under a black government," says state Rep....

More often than not, the Public Service Commission sides with the utilities it regulates rather than Georgia consumers. Yet lawmakers this year are contemplating at least two bills that would bypass the commission's authority and hand utilities two early Christmas gifts.

The PSC, made up of elected officials from five districts across the state, determines how much profit companies such as...

On Feb. 13, nearly 150 med students and professionals from Morehouse College, Mercer University, the Medical College of Georgia and Emory University stood outside the state Capitol, clutching posters that said "Don't drive away our future doctors" and "Don't play politics with health care."

The signs referred to Senate Bill 529, which was introduced four days earlier by state Sen. Chip Rogers,...

The state senate approved a bill on Feb. 13 that would increase the production and use of biodiesel, the petroleum-free alternative fuel. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Brian Kemp, R-Athens, requires that local schools and state agencies run diesel vehicles, including school buses, on fuel that contains at least 2 percent biodiesel.

Because the state and local schools consume millions of gallons...

Who said Bill Campbell had no love for the Atlanta news media?

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Last week, jurors in the ex-mayor's federal corruption trial got a rare break from the numbing procession of spreadsheets and bank receipts in the form of Marion Brooks, a former WSB-TV/Channel 2 anchor who spent four years as a Campbell paramour.

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Juicy details were withheld, but a few tidbits came out: Brooks said she...

Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Rewa Collier gripped a long-haired brown wig in her left hand and shook it in front of her as she spoke.

"How do you make that up?" Collier asked the jury. "That he was wearing a wig, ... that he was wearing women's clothes? How do you make that up?"

Behind Collier, in the defendant's chair, sat Billy Gravitt, the suspect in a bizarre kidnapping and...

So far this legislative session, the members of the state General Assembly have spent much of their time doing God's work — literally.

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Among the election-year revelations that have received "yea" votes: a House bill to prohibit schools from forbidding teachers and students from wishing each other "Merry Christmas"; a House measure to allow county courthouses to display the Ten...

Not counting when he's arguing in court, ex-Gov. Roy Barnes has kept a relatively low and, for him anyway, quiet profile since his loss to Gov. Sonny Perdue more than three years ago.

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Lately, though, Barnes has started to speak out against the Perdue administration, especially when it comes to transportation and growth issues.

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On Jan. 3, during a Georgia State University College of Law...

It was 4:10 a.m. and Carolyn Pratt was in bed when two Atlanta police officers knocked on her door and announced they had a warrant for her arrest.

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When they got inside, Pratt says the officers told her she was being charged with failing to appear at a Dec. 12 municipal court hearing. They put her in handcuffs and placed her in the back of a white van bound for the Atlanta Detention Center,...

A conservative, faith-based organization that pushed for a controversial divorce bill is now joining forces with the state to help it play marriage counselor.

On Jan. 20, a week after the state House Judiciary Committee gave a favorable report of a Senate bill that would quadruple the waiting period for some couples wishing to divorce, the Georgia Department of Human Services announced its own...

On Dec. 14, Atlanta police officer R. Abrahams testified at a preliminary hearing that he had arrested the defendant, seated before him, for buying a hit of crack a month earlier, on the corner of Boulevard and North Avenue.

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There was just one problem: The man, Thomas Simpson, had been in jail at the time of the alleged drug deal.

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It turns out there were two Thomas Simpsons being held...

You are not allowed to sell vibrators or dildos in Georgia. But lots of stores do, anyway.

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Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta has several shops that offer AA-battery-powered fun. But in Cobb County, where evolution is just a theory and love of the Lord abounds, the sale of sex toys is strictly forbidden. But for how long?

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On Jan. 27, a 5-year-old lawsuit gets another chance to take down...

At the start of each legislative session, environmental lobbyists give lawmakers a wish list of wannabe bills that would benefit human health and protect Earth. Most of the time, lawmakers take those lists and promptly throw them in the trash — and not the recycling bin.

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But election years are different. Most legislators want to be a friend of the environment on the campaign trail,...

The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance has revoked the mortgage license of Carlos Kavanaugh, president of Georgia State Mortgage. CL wrote in 2004 about Kavanaugh and his company, which allegedly falsified Lithonia resident Shawntell Law-North's home loan application.

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As a result, Law-North almost lost her job at Georgia Federal Credit Union, where she worked as a bank teller. The...

Five years ago, state lawmakers hailed the deregulation of natural gas as a surefire way to bring Georgia households some relief. After all, the logic that a competitive market would drive down costs and improve service seemed sound.

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But the logic was flawed.

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"Overall, the retail prices for residential and small-business customers are higher" than before deregulation, says Bobby Baker,...

The race for chairman of the Fulton County Commission may soon be kick-started by the expected entry of former Atlanta City Councilman Lee Morris.

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Morris, who represented Buckhead from 1994 to 2001, is fondly remembered by many north side residents as a capable, businesslike councilman who was the most vocal critic of corruption during Bill Campbell's term as mayor, memorably dubbing the...

In 1996, Jeff Batton opened Sacred Grounds, a coffee shop that helped pave the way for East Atlanta Village's revitalization.

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Now, Batton is hoping a new coffee shop will help turn around the lives of homeless Atlantans.

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"It's all nonprofit, yet you don't want it to have that air of a thrift store," Batton says of his latest project, a cafe to be operated by residents of a nearby...

One of the nasty side effects of Mayor Shirley Franklin's $3.2 billion plan to overhaul the city's aging sewage infrastructure is its impact on Atlanta's trees.

Most of the time, work crews can lay sewer pipes under streets or sidewalks. But occasionally, sewage lines must veer off the asphalt, forcing crews onto land covered by towering pines, poplars, sycamores and oaks.

What's more, the...

The grassy hill behind a row of two-story, cottage-style homes looks like the perfect spot for a family picnic or a game of Frisbee with a pet dog.

But just beneath the surface are the remnants of an old municipal landfill, and decomposition of the buried trash is causing leaks of toxins and flammable gases at unsafe levels, according to the state Environmental Protection Division....

For years, the Fulton County government siphoned tax money out of Sandy Springs, leaving the community of 85,000 with pennies on the dollar. Now, Georgia's newest city may find that its first initiative — ridding itself of adult-entertainment venues — is undercut by a legacy of bad decisions by the very county officials it imagined itself rid of.

That's the theory, anyway, by an...

Just as traffic-choked metro Atlanta appears poised to wean itself off its automobile addiction, a task force created by Gov. Sonny Perdue threatens to focus future transportation funds on projects tailor-made for the car.

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In addition, the task force's recommendations would make it harder for walkable, mixed-use developments and new mass transit projects to become a reality.

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The...

Not everyone sees Maria Garcia as a godsend to her community.

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Garcia, who runs a community center serving immigrant workers, is among the growing number of watchdogs trying to ease the sometimes rocky relationship between illegal aliens and their employers. Her role as operator of the center is similar to volunteers handing out condoms to prostitutes or providing clean needles for drug...

Gov. Sonny Perdue's press staff has been clear: The governor is a Christian with a Christmas tree, for Christ's sake! Any e-mails that suggest otherwise are bogus.

Yet on Dec. 2, Perdue's staff e-mailed a news release to reporters announcing that the governor and his wife would light Georgia's "holiday tree" at the Governor's Mansion that following Sunday.

Dan McLagan, the governor's...

The state of Georgia is in the process of buying 2,545 acres in northwest Georgia that are home to two endangered species of salamanders and one endangered plant species in order to set the property aside as a wildlife management area.

The move by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to purchase the land's mining rights, which currently belong to Vulcan Materials Co., will prevent...

On Nov. 30, Ryan Snodgrass sat in a wooden chair in a small courtroom and tapped his right foot. When U.S. Immigration Judge William Cassidy — one of the toughest immigration judges in the country — called Snodgrass to testify, the hazel-eyed 19-year-old ambled to the stand.

A lot was to be decided that day. The judge could take away the only home Snodgrass has known for the past...

As the number of intown live music venues dwindles — one of the biggest losses being East Atlanta's Echo Lounge at the beginning of the year — the pressure on some local clubs to absorb the rock audience might be showing.

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It doesn't help that, at the same time the city is cracking down on code violations, club owners seem to be making avoidable mistakes.

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A recent Friday...

A perceived decrease in business in Little Five Points has store owners wondering whether to blame a downtown panhandling ban, a slackening economy — or the behemoth shopping center recently built just blocks away.

At a time when big-box shopping in Atlanta is on an upswing, some independent retailers, such as those in Little Five Points' quirky shopping district, say they're struggling...

A proposed 12-mile streetcar system for intown Atlanta edged one step closer to reality this week, thanks to Mayor Shirley Franklin and Atlanta's business community.

Modeled after the streetcar system in Portland, Ore., Atlanta's light-rail trolley would travel up and down Peachtree, roughly between West End and Lenox Square.

On Nov. 21, Franklin tapped two CEOs to look into financing and...

In May, Paul* was holed up in a hotel room injecting as much as $225 of drugs daily. Now, he works lights full-time and spends 12 hours a week at Crystal Meth Anonymous meetings.

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Two months after kicking meth, he hovers in the delicate balance between recovery and relapse.

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Paul was one of three men whose experiences with meth were the subject of a July CL story, "Faces of Meth." The...

In the past month, three federal investigations into alleged human traffickers operating in Georgia reflect what may be a growing trend: the importation and exploitation of cheap labor in some of the state's most successful industries, from food service to home renovation to the sex trade.

Two years ago, Johannes Du Preez, president of Newton Granite & Marble Inc., was one of Home's Depot's...

This past weekend, in a conference room at the Hilton Garden Inn near the airport, the publisher of an anti-taxation newsletter told a room of about 60 people that the real war — not the one waged against terrorism but, rather, the one against taxes — won't end until the Lord comes down and barbecues the enemies.

"There are numerous people running the government who are positively...

In the days before the Nov. 8 elections, campaign ads showing a cheerful, relaxed Shirley Franklin touting her achievements as mayor began popping up on local TV. Since Franklin wasn't in a competitive race, it would appear to some that she was simply burning off her more than $1.3 million in campaign contributions.

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But the mayor's political strategists saw the TV spots as necessary to...

For several weeks, neighborhood activists grumbled that the city was putting the cart before the horse while deciding whether to fund the Beltline, a proposed 22-mile loop of transit, greenways, and paths that circle intown Atlanta.

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But on Nov. 7, just before Atlanta City Council voted 12-3 to approve the funding mechanism for the Beltline, Cary Aiken of the Beltline Neighbors Coalition...

An Oct. 23 fire that damaged a three-story house under construction is the latest in a suspected string of arsons resembling the work of an eco-terrorist.

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State Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John Oxendine has attributed the fire to an arsonist (or arsonists) who for two years has been torching houses under construction in northern Coweta County, just south of Fulton.

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Neither...

A decades-old gay bar is in danger of losing its liquor license after a patron was caught, quite literally, with his pants down.

On April 12, undercover detectives visiting the Phoenix found a man sitting on a bar stool, his pants around his ankles, on the receiving end of a blowjob, according to an Atlanta police report.

That incident is one of three that the Atlanta Police Department cites...

Facing financial constraints and competition from the soon-to-open Georgia Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta is seeking shelter — including debt relief and, possibly, a change of scenery.

"When the pandas first arrived in 1999, things were looking pretty good," says Zoo Atlanta President Dennis Kelly. "But 9/11 hurt us. We went into a recession. We have struggled, and for the past three years we...

On Nov. 1, the Atlanta City Council's Community Development Human Resources Committee unanimously passed legislation to establish a tax allocation district to fund the Beltline, a proposed 22-mile loop of transit, bike trails and greenspace.

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The legislation is now cleared for a Nov. 7 vote by the full Council.

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The funding mechanism for the Beltline, called a "TAD," would generate future...

The letter from the landlord of Candler-Smith Warehouses to his 300 or so tenants seemed sufficiently clear: You've got until Oct. 21 to move out.

The statement from the city of Atlanta looked to be equally cut and dry. Earlier this month, the city's Law Department wrote: "The residential units must be vacant until the warehouse owner meets the necessary permit requirements for a certificate...

While campaigning to be mayor, Shirley Franklin made the arguably impossible promise to fill any pothole reported to the city within 72 hours. But she didn't explain to her future constituents the fine print:

The city must first determine whether the alleged pothole is in fact a pothole as defined by the Atlanta Department of Public Works.

That's where things get tricky. According to...

Judy McMillon called caterer after caterer before settling on one who promised lobster, prime rib and a white chocolate fountain for her 150 wedding guests.

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The 26-year-old bride-to-be paid half the $8,000 bill up front and expected the best. That's not exactly what she got.

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On Sept. 10, Judy and her new husband, Jim, were posing for pictures at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in...

Two years ago, Dennis Chase, a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who's been unable to put down his nets and waders, found something scary in the part of the Flint River just south of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

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Armed with collecting dishes and magnifying lenses, Chase set out to document the abundance of life, or lack thereof, in the Flint. Though he suspected...

Ashley Smith is getting more than her share of 15 minutes of fame. The 27-year-old overnight hero who was held hostage for seven hours by alleged Fulton County Courthouse killer Brian Nichols just released a book, Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero, detailing her captivity.

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The book describes Smith as quite the negotiator. After she was unable to meet Nichols'...

Cans of worms sometimes turn up in the most unlikely places, as Clair Muller was reminded recently.

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The veteran Atlanta councilwoman, who chairs the council's transportation committee, learned from city traffic engineers a few weeks back that one of the biggest impediments to maintaining safe and efficient traffic flow throughout the city comes from off-duty police officers hired to direct...

$7,600:

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The purchase price of a Ten Commandments plaque pulled from a Barrow County courthouse and sold on eBay last week.

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$265,436.14:

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The ammount that the group Ten Commandments-Georgia, which auctioned the plaque, pledged to donate to Barrow County to cover legal expenses incurred in an unsuccessful legal battle with the ACLU to keep the plaque in place.

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$213,436.14:

??...

The Beltline's about to take a big PR hit.

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A panel of transportation and planning experts is expected to issue a report Sept. 29 that offers the harshest criticism to date of the proposed 22-mile transit loop around the inner city. Atlanta officials want to turn the mostly unused train tracks into a bus or light-rail system flanked by greenspace and bike trails.

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A document described to...

The six-story parking deck that proponents want to build in the heart of Piedmont Park has received its first negative review from a government body.

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A Sept. 14 Atlanta Urban Design Commission staff report states that the proposed deck contradicts the vision of Piedmont Park's designer. The report comes after the Piedmont Park Conservancy's board and a mayoral task force approved the deck...

Georgia now can place a real-world price tag on keeping its country bumpkins happy: $20.6 million.

That's the amount in federal grants that state legislators knowingly forfeited earlier this year when they declined to do away with what's known in some quarters as the seat belt loophole. Like most states, Georgia mandates that seat belts be worn by all adult front-seat occupants of a moving...

Atlanta City Councilwoman Mary Norwood wants to tinker with Atlanta's controversial tree ordinance in hopes of getting it right this time.

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The ordinance, a stringent set of rules that regulates which and how many trees can be cut down by developers and homeowners, has been amended four times since it passed in 1993. It's viewed both as an aggressive protector of the environment and a...

Michael Tisserand is — or was — the editor of Gambit Weekly, New Orleans' alternative weekly. He's filing a weekly journal for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies about life as an evacuee in southern Louisiana. To read the complete installment, go to atlanta.creativeloafing.com.

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Lafayette, La. — She just stares at me, the Iowan volunteer. Silver and green Mardi...

For Glenn Powell, the Atlanta liquor license snafu of 2005 took its most absurd turn last week, when he was one of 37 restaurant, bar and convenience store operators forced to attend a six-hour licensing hearing at City Hall — the second such meeting for all concerned — because of a clerical error by city officials.

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Earlier this year, the owner of Agnes & Muriel's in Ansley Park...

An Athens chicken plant worker who died in August 2004 after a tractor-trailer backed into her and a Savannah forklift operator who fell off an elevated platform that same month are just two of the 231 fatalities compiled in a recent federal report showing Georgia had the nation's second-highest increase of on-the-job fatalities last year.

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The statistics, released by the Bureau of Labor...

An Atlanta Police Department internal memo sheds new light on an old problem: The department has trouble retaining officers.

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According to the Aug. 5 memo, written by Maj. Alex Keeney and Lt. Van Hobbs and obtained under the state Open Records Act, nearly 75 percent of Atlanta police officers have been hired within the last five years.

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"Once they come to Atlanta and are trained," the...

When Gov. Sonny Perdue was preparing to sign House Bill 244, the League of Women Voters of Georgia was among the many groups that urged him to veto the bill, which requires that voters carry one of six forms of picture ID to the polls to be allowed to vote.

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A few months later, the governor sent the League a short letter explaining why he'd chosen to sign the legislation over the objections...

The closing of Fort McPherson could mean intown Atlanta gets another walkable mini-city located right next to a MARTA line.

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With its 18-hole golf course, grocery stores, library, mini-mall, 102 housing units, and 2.2 million-square-feet of office, retail and residential space, the fated Army base off Langford Parkway in southwest Atlanta has all the makings of a mixed-use development...

The state Environmental Protection Division wants to relax one of the rules that governs the amount of pollution that can be dumped into the state's waterways.

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The proposed change will eliminate a phrase in Georgia's environmental regulations that calls for companies and municipalities to use the "highest and best" technologies to reduce water pollution. If approved, the change would allow...

On Aug. 22, Mayor Shirley Franklin signed an ordinance making it illegal to beg for money in much of downtown. Now business owners in surrounding areas are worried that downtown's homeless problem will become their problem instead.

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Several business owners say they've already taken steps to combat potential problems with panhandlers, who could migrate north, east, south and west as a result...

In its seven-year history, the 54 cinder block columns occupying a street corner in Old Fourth Ward have inspired derision, pride, puzzlement, and, most recently, an anonymous meddler with a bucket of Pepto-Bismol-colored paint.

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The columns, for those of you who don't know, are a work of public art, the creation of Sol LeWitt, one of America's premier minimalist artists who once...

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Metro Editor Bert Roughton's e-mail reply to CL Senior Editor Doug Monroe's Aug. 16 questions about rumors that the AJC plans to kill its Monday Horizon section. Monroe was the first editor of the 8-year-old section, which reports on Atlanta's growth and development.

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For the full exchange, see www.johnsugg.com/2005/08/is_ajc_preparin.html

Nearly every day last summer, West Nile virus experts Jerry Kerce and Tom Burkot emptied 15 mosquito traps placed in rivers and creeks that catch the city's sewage overflows. The traps, designed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, captured live mosquitoes that were later tested for the West Nile virus.

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The results of the tests were startling. Last year, 63 of 1,553 pools...

A man clad in a striped jail suit marched with a ball and chain attached to his leg to symbolize his ancestors' struggles.

A twentysomething mother marched while strolling her 2-year-old daughter on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, feeding her Cheerios along the way.

An elderly man who marched for the same cause 50 years earlier hobbled behind thousands of participants, determined to finish the...

"Remember the Cotton Club!"

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That could be the battle cry for Virginia-Highland homeowners who are once again trying to prevent a high-occupancy, live-music venue from moving into the old Hilan Theatre.

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Six years after residents' protests forced the now-defunct Cotton Club concert hall to find another home in the basement of the Tabernacle downtown, Inman Park Properties is again seeking...

Like many folks, the Fulton County Commission continues to be tormented by past indiscretions involving strip clubs.

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Within the next few weeks, the county expects to find out the trial date for a Georgia Supreme Court case that will determine whether Fulton's current adult-entertainment policy will be thrown out. The ordinance in question prohibits alcohol from being served in places that...

It's been a year since Shawntell Law-North, a Lithonia bank teller, lost her job due to allegations that she falsified her home loan application — then was reinstated after her employers learned she'd fallen prey to predatory lending.

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Now, the brokerage firm that allegedly tampered with her application ient of Banking and Finance. And in March, the federal government revoked the...

Count the Atlanta City Council among the local governments to have jumped on the bandwagon to condemn, um, the act of condemnation.

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More specifically, on July 18 the council became the latest elected body to adopt a resolution pledging not to abuse its eminent domain power, following Cherokee, Coweta and Henry counties. A host of other metro counties — Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Forsyth...

The lack of air conditioning added to the heated debate July 25 over a prospective neighborhood shopping center in Lynwood Park. Sixty residents came to voice their opinions about the 4,800-square-foot brick center that would house two to three neighborhood shops, such as a coffeehouse and pizza joint, alongside office space.

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It's the latest growing pain in ever-changing Lynwood Park, the...

Last year, J.L. King's On the Down Low spent 12 weeks on the New York Times' best-seller list. The book chronicled the author's experience as an African-American man whose public life was as a heterosexual but who pursued a gay lifestyle in secret.

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Besides raising public awareness on what had largely been a taboo subject, King also implied that there was a direct link between men on the...

For five years, Wendy Titelman hasn't been allowed within 3,000 feet of her children. After she was charged with taking her daughters across state lines in violation of her custody agreement, a judge awarded full custody to her ex-husband.

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But then she was acquitted of the charge — and the jury foreman at her criminal trial wrote a letter asking why she was indicted in the first...

Public Agenda

CL's guide to civic and political

events in the metro Atlanta area

Development

Want to know more about plans to build a better downtown Atlanta? Come to the Central Atlanta Progress/Atlanta Downtown Improvement District town hall meeting Fri., July 22. The meeting will focus on topics such as improving the look of downtown, offering downtown businesses economic incentives,...

Neighborhood

Agenda

CL's guide to civic and political

events in the metro Atlanta area

Want to make an impact on politics and local government? Learn more about the Young Democrats of Atlanta at their summer barbecue Sat., July 23. The group includes Atlantans between the ages of 18 and 35 who have an active interest in governmental affairs and who work to promote initiatives such as a...

When Amaya Hanshaw graduated from Avondale High School in 2001, she joined the Air Force under the GI Bill so she could pay for college. Hanshaw completed basic training in Biloxi, Miss. In 2002, she was transferred to the Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas.

Hanshaw was honorably discharged this spring and is now entitled to $1,000 monthly from the government to help earn a college...

When photographer Sharad Haksar set up a shot of a Coca-Cola sign leaning in front of a dry water pump and empty cisterns, he claims he intended to reflect on severe water shortages in several Indian communities near Coca-Cola bottling plants. The plants are alleged to be responsible for water shortages and pollution of water sources throughout India.

But once Haksar's image reached its...

The seemingly losing battle to save four Georgia military bases - and 6,000 military and civilian jobs - has state and local officials debating what to do with the properties, should the bases close.

Two of the bases are in metro Atlanta.

According to Forest Park's Mayor Chuck Hall, several developers, including Cousins Properties, Atlanta's largest real estate company, have had preliminary...

In press conferences and at committee hearings over the past year, Gov. Sonny Perdue and members of his staff have repeatedly said the state won't give MARTA operational funds until the state gets more control over how the troubled transit agency spends its money.

Now, transportation experts and Republican lawmakers are discussing a way to do just that.

State lawmakers are considering...

Pedestrian advocacy group PEDS will sponsor a forum Wed., July 13, at which Dr. Karen Mumford of the Emory School of Public Health will share her research on 13 public parks in DeKalb County. The findings could influence future governmental decisions about what to do with the parks. Mumford will answer questions about the potential impact of this study on public policy.

The PEDS forum will be...

A Reform Jew in his mid-twenties wanders through the airport atrium and finds the chapel door. He's about to board his first flight in nine years, and he wants to recite the Tefilah Haderech, the Jewish prayer for travel.

A 60-year-old Catholic woman quietly chooses a chair toward the back of the chapel and sits by herself for 15 minutes, with her eyes closed. She is "mentally preparing" for...

A pair of watchdog groups are using unorthodox tools to fish for information about Grady Memorial Hospital.

It's difficult to say if the groups' tactics - namely, cash rewards - are working. But the pleas for information signify a move by the private, nonprofit sector into the hunt for corrupt politicians.

Doctors for Open Government, an independent public interest group, and sister group the...

After eluding a bench warrant for nearly a year, an alleged pimp who was accused of ordering a teenage prostitute to kill three men is back in Fulton County Jail.

Michael Berry, 32, has been jailed since June 5 on drug charges unrelated to the DeKalb County killings. Public defender Ken Driggs, an attorney for the prostitute, Falicia Blakely, is offering Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard...

It looks like state Sen. Eric Johnson now resides in that political no-man's land we call the irony-free zone.

Johnson, a Savannah Republican who effectively controls the Georgia Senate, announced last week that he has formed a legislative study committee to find ways to "protect the rights of private property owners" in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent bombshell ruling that the city...

Atlanta City Council decided June 20 to postpone its vote on a ban against panhandling within a designated "tourist triangle" downtown.

A representative from the Georgia World Congress Center told City Council before the vote that the No. 1 complaint the center receives from conventioneers is that there's too much panhandling downtown.

But despite pleas from the tourism industry to pass the...

James C. Kennedy does all right for himself. His mother, Barbara Cox Anthony, is sitting on $11.7 billion, making her the 27th richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine. He's chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, the company his grandfather founded in 1898.

Since taking over in 1988, Kennedy has turned Cox into a leviathan. Today, Cox Enterprises owns or operates...

Sam Olens says he's tired of hearing people openly speculate about his aspirations for higher office as if he weren't even in the room.

If that's true, then what on earth was the popular Cobb County Commission chairman doing when he got up on a stage at the Cobb Galleria Centre on June 17 to introduce Ralph Reed, Zell Miller and Sean Hannity as "three great Americans"?

The event was a...

Jabari wanted to make a point. He was primed for a fight. On June 10, he showed up at Atlanta Community Court, ready to take on what he considers an inane law. But the Atlanta Police officer who cited Jabari for public urination failed to show up.

Jabari walked out of court with no fine, no community service, and no jail time. But it was hardly the outcome he was looking for.

Last month,...

It likely will be the most important vote taken in metro Atlanta this year - and, odds are, you aren't invited.

Only the 85,000 residents of Sandy Springs will be able to go to their local polling place June 21 to determine whether their put-upon community will become its own city.

The smart money, of course, is on "yes" to cityhood, considering that no organized opposition to its creation...

On June 10, nearly 40 of William Mayo's family members and friends took the bus from Cincinnati to Calhoun County, in southwest Georgia to see if Mayo would be released from prison after spending 13 years behind bars. Lawyers for Mayo, 39, sought to prove that evidence used to convict him of armed robbery has since been discredited.

But after a 20-minute hearing, South Georgia Judicial...

In response to pressure from citizens, the DeKalb County Commission will reconsider provisions in its new animal control ordinance and vote on the proposals June 14.

In December, commissioners revised the ordinance for the first time in more than two decades. But animal advocates criticized the commission for ignoring specific requests, such as abolishing chaining and setting minimum square...

Marjana Clark and Ann Forsyth aren't tired of fighting Emory University, they're just tired. The two women say the campus's unusually noisy machines have been depriving them of sleep for years.

In the 1950s, Forsyth and her family moved to Luckie Lane. For years, the street remained insulated by the dense woods off Clifton Road, quiet but for a chorus of chirping crickets. More recently,...

When news broke that a 26-year-old, HIV-positive medical student from Atlanta had been charged with reckless conduct for knowingly putting sexual partners at risk, the arrest exposed a contradiction in the way the state regulates what goes on in the bedroom.

One state law, regarding the privacy of medical records, aims to protect the anonymity of HIV-positive men and women. But Georgia...

35
?The number of traffic deaths reported over the Memorial Day weekend in Georgia — a record.��

42,800
?The projected number of deaths on American roads in 2004, a figure that Norman Mineta, secretary of transportation, said represents a “national epidemic.”?��

860
?The number of U.S. fatalities in Iraq in 2004.��

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution,...

In 2001, households earning less than $14,000 a year spent an average of nearly $5,600 on transportation. Why? One reason is the growing distance between available jobs and affordable housing.

Taking matters into their own hands, DeKalb County Commissioners Burrell Ellis and Larry Johnson have begun working on an affordable housing ordinance. In its present form, the ordinance would require...

Ever feel like somebody's watching you? Several of Georgia's human rights and political activist groups have felt that way for years. Now they're trying to prove that it's not paranoia.

"It's pretty likely that our list serves are monitored," said John Hunt, a member of the Columbus-based group School of America's Watch. "I know people have come to our annual strategy sessions that we're quite...

A change in the Atlanta alcohol code recently tripped up dozens of restaurants, bars and package stores, resulting in a wave of $1,000 fines handed out by the city's License Review Board.

But many unwitting violators got the last laugh when the city sent the wrong code citation, effectively letting them off the hook for a fine.

At a typical twice-monthly meeting, the LRB might hear two or...

Wednesday marks the 70th anniversary of an important milestone in Braves history. On May 25, 1935, the Braves' Babe Ruth hit three home runs - the last homers of his career, bringing his total to 714.

Babe Ruth was a Brave, you ask? Yes. He finished out his career with the Boston Braves after being the best-known New York Yankee of all time.

Going to Boston at the end of his career was a...

Late at night April 28, about 20 bicyclists staked out spots at different intersections along Peachtree Street. The group, called Wheels of Fire and made up mostly of bike messengers, carried cans of spray paint and homemade cardboard stencils of a stick-figure bicyclist.

Their mission: to paint fake bike lanes on Atlanta's most famous thoroughfare - and the main artery used by bike messengers...

Gov. Sonny Perdue has given Georgia restaurateurs an ultimatum: Choose between smokers or kids.

Under a new state law signed by Perdue on Monday, as of July 1, restaurants throughout the state that allow smoking cannot admit children under 18, and vice versa.

Brian Maloof, general manager of Manuel's Tavern and a vocal critic of various smoking bans proposed over the years, says he's pleased...

It's that time of the month again. Time for CL's Political Party, a roundtable of local big shots, hosted by our very own editor, Ken Edelstein. This month's guests include former Gov. Roy Barnes, Air America President Jon Sinton, and State Rep. "Able" Mable Thomas. So grab a beer at the bar and join us for what is sure to be a rousing debate.

Doors open at 7 p.m. for the 8 p.m. start of this...

Stephen Lee Johnson was looking to help reform the state's Division of Family and Children Services, not stand up for First Amendment rights. But sometimes you aim for one thing and hit another.

Johnson, who lives in Pike County, about 50 miles south of Atlanta, has grandchildren in state care and is currently trying to win their custody. He also maintains a website,...

John Lamb flew into town from Texas last weekend on a whim after reading a story about how the Atlanta Museum's collection would be auctioned off. Then Lamb stole the show.

Lamb placed winning bids on some of the night's premier items, including a cotton gin supposedly designed by Eli Whitney, a 19th-century bicycle, and a small American war flag.

A businessman from Austin who grew up in...

Ah, the Belt Line - a proposed network of rail lines that would connect many of the city's neighborhoods, thus easing traffic congestion and making life better for everyone. That's the idea, anyway. Of course, with cost estimates ranging from $400 million all the way to $1.2 billion, there are a few details to be hammered out.

On Thurs., May 5, the city of Atlanta is holding the first of five...

Michael Sigman, a former top executive of the L.A. Weekly, has been tapped to replace Scott Patterson as publisher and president of Creative Loafing in Atlanta. Ben Eason, CEO of Creative Loafing Inc., announced the change Monday.

The move comes just six months after Patterson was named successor to Scott Walsey, who retired in November after 26 years with CL. But Patterson's family had been...

Myron Freeman is not a good public speaker. He has a stammer. In the media spotlight, he struggles to speak in complete sentences.

And yet, if you ask Eric Seidel, who earns his living making public figures comfortable with the press, all of those shortcomings don't mean Freeman can't be an effective Fulton County sheriff.

"People will forgive that," says Seidel, owner of the Media Trainers,...

In response to a recent decision by a Rome, Ga., high school to reward students up to $100 for information on fellow students' thefts and drug use, we at CL would like to pitch the school's informant system as a plot line for a "Simpsons" episode:

(After Homer is transferred to Plant Bowen in Cartersville, Bart and Lisa Simpson are sent to Model High School in nearby Rome. Principal Glenn...

In the two years since the Recording Industry Association of America declared war on file-sharing, something like 10,000 Americans have been sued for illegally trading songs over the Internet. So many, in fact, that new lawsuits hardly merit news coverage - a situation that has forced the industry to get imaginative to stay in the headlines.

The RIAA didn't have to look far. Thanks to...

$2.16: The current average price for a ?gallon of gas in Atlanta.

$1.62: The average price in Atlanta a ?year ago.

$2.65: The current average price?in San Francisco.

— Coley Ward

Source: www.atlantagasprices.com, calculated for April 11, 2005, and April 11, 2004.

On a Sunday afternoon in March, an ex-Gwinnett police officer named Chris Clark took his family to visit Atlanta's historic Oakland Cemetery. Their outing took a depressing turn, however, when Clark noticed something unusual: a man in a red Bulldog hat hanging from an oak tree behind the cemetery's Confederate Memorial.

Earlier that day, March 20, the man had left a message on his friend's...

6,243 - Number of E. Coli bacteria colonies found in 100 milliliters of Chattahoochee River water taken March 28 after a heavy rain from a sampling site on Medlock Bridge Road.

177 - The number of E. Coli colonies per 100 milliliters that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deems safe for recreational waters.

Most freshman legislators vote along party lines, introduce populist legislation, and avoid controversy at all costs.

But first-term Rep. Brian Thomas, a Democrat from Lilburn, of all places, jumped headfirst into the biggest environmental fight of the 2005 session. Thomas, an archeologist, went head to head with Georgia Power over one of the power company's top legislative priorities - and he...

Georgians trying to fill a prescription for emergency contraception - or even birth control pills - might want to make sure their pharmacist is morally comfortable dispensing such drugs.

Georgia pharmacists can refuse to fill morning-after and birth control prescriptions if such medication violates their personal or religious beliefs. What's more, in the next legislative session there could be...

On March 11, a federal jury awarded $2.1 million to a TV reporter who claimed the CBS affiliate for which she worked, WRBL/Channel 3 in Columbus, discriminated against her as a result of her pregnancy.

One would think a major media company losing its shirt to an aggrieved young reporter would be all over the mainstream news. It wasn't.

"I believe the public has a right to know about a major...

On March 12, a day touted by Republican leaders as an opportunity for John Q. Public to see his Legislature at work, Georgia state troopers barred the doors of the Gold Dome, temporarily shutting out hundreds of visitors, lobbyists and liberal activists.

After House Speaker Glenn Richardson, R-Hiram, scheduled "Family Day at the Capitol," several left-leaning activist organizations - Georgia...

Call me anytime

I know it's a popular stance to be really pissed off at ChoicePoint (to be honest, I'm more than a little irritated with them myself), but I can't fathom why you would publish this guys phone number and address like you have. I mean, what's the point (News & Views, "Who wants ChoicePoint CEO's home number? March 3)?

I suspect all you've done is perpetuate the idea that the...

A former CL staff writer has filed a federal lawsuit against the newspaper alleging racial discrimination. In the suit, filed in the Northern District of Georgia, Rochelle Renford claims she was terminated "due to her race and in retaliation for her complaints of race discrimination."

Renford was a staff writer at CL for two years and covered education. The suit contends she was "constantly...

The CEO of ChoicePoint Inc. - the data mining company that mistakenly released the personal information of thousands of Americans to a Nigerian identity thief - recently changed his mind on some privacy issues. Namely, CEO Derek V. Smith now wants to keep his home phone number private.

You'd think Smith would be the last person on earth to stymie the flow of personal information. After all,...

ChoicePoint is one of the largest distributors of personal information in the world. The company sells its dossiers (it has one on virtually every man, woman and child in America) to insurance companies, businesses conducting background checks, and the federal government.

ChoicePoint also recently sold personal information - including Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, home...

There's been much discussion on the topic of "bizarre shapes" lately at the state Capitol, as Republican lawmakers push for congressional reapportionment. The legislators claim their primary goal is not to maximize GOP voting strength, as some have suggested, but to rid the state of districts with "bizarre shapes" that confuse voters.

The problem is, lawmakers are having a hard time settling...

BAGHDAD DOCUMENTARY: WRFG-FM 89.3 and the Atlanta Independent Media Center will screen About Baghdad, a film about Iraqi-American post-war relations. Fri., March 4, 8:30 p.m., at the Little Five Points Community Center, 1089 Austin Ave. Free. For more info, call 404-523-3471.

CRITICAL RESISTANCE: Critical Resistance, a national organization working toward the abolition of the prison system as...

The story of a man named Richard Kral who drank 60 beers so he could piss his way out of the snow that buried his car in a Slovakian avalanche was too good for the AJC to pass up. So the paper ran it - twice.

Too bad it was an urban myth, exposed on www.snopes.com.

The AJC's Julia Wallace, recently named Editor of the Year by Editor & Publisher, wrote readers a lame apology, reprinted here,...

From the Iraq War's first days, veterans' groups, mental health organizations and some members of Congress have claimed that the Department of Veterans Affairs is unprepared to treat the tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers likely to come back with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a debilitating psychological condition.

A new federal report indicates those fears - which were outlined in a Jan. 27...

One of the perks of being governor is that you get to give your supporters cool jobs in state government. These range from appointments to the little-known Council on American Indian Concerns to the powerful Board of Regents, which oversees the University System of Georgia.

Most governors have a mixed record when it comes to board appointees. For example, former Gov. Roy Barnes named former...

In their rush to limit settlement amounts in medical malpractice suits, several state Senate Republicans swallowed a poison pill Monday, voting to adopt a "tort reform" bill that some lawmakers admit was deeply flawed and could come back to haunt the GOP.

"That'll bite y'all," Sen. Seth Harp, R-Columbus, warned a celebrating lobbyist moments after the adjournment of the day's session, during...

In the age of blogs, there is no "off the record." Just ask former CNN news chief Eason Jordan.

Jordan resigned Feb. 11 amid a debate over controversial remarks he made at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. He allegedly suggested that journalists killed by coalition forces might not have been killed on accident. The forum supposedly was off the record.

But bloggers quickly picked up on...

By last weekend, Howard Dean had locked up enough of the 447 votes within the Democratic National Committee to all but assure his ascendancy to party chairman. While the ballots won't officially be cast until Feb. 12, Dean's competitors dropped out in the wake of his surge.

Dean's coronation on Saturday will be a tad ironic, considering his candidacy for presidency last year was based in no...

Rhonda Davidson, who has lived for six years in Milledgeville's Central State Hospital, the largest mental institution in Georgia, is on her way to leaving the segregated corridors for a more integrated, community-based setting.

On Jan. 13, Davidson's lawyer, Atlanta Legal Aid attorney Sue Jamieson, met with state Division of Mental Health officials to find a place for Davidson to live in...

If, as they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, then Georgia lawmakers could be flirting with disaster over various "right to know" legislation.

Rep. Ben Bridges, R-Cleveland, was first out of the gate with his "Baby's Right to Know Act" - known by some wags as the "Whose Yer Daddy" bill - which would require hospitals to ask about the paternity of newborns delivered by unmarried...

Tricked ya
?Curt Holman: Thanks for your review (Arts, "Expletive delighted," Jan. 27). A correction: In my play "Eos, Daughter of the Dawn," the woman wrapped in a blanket at the beginning is the grieving American mother of a slain soldier, not a covered Arab woman. If you listen closely, she describes being arrested, thrown into a van and locked away behind walls for wanting to wear a T-shirt...

Mother Nature, Father Security and a few rambunctious demonstrators combined to take much of the fun out of the celebrations last week surrounding President Bush's second inauguration. I've attended several inaugurations. This year's was the least enjoyable, thanks to a pre-inaugural snowstorm and security measures that were, in a word, oppressive.

The good part was that the president was...

?In the right mood

Thank you for the most entertaining article about New Jack ("It's not easy being mean," Jan. 20). I am a professional wrestling ring announcer from New York and have had occasion to meet New Jack. He is most interesting and, assuming he is in the right mood, a pleasure to be around.

- Robert B. Rosen, Colonie, N.Y.

Wrong Vibes

Having been in Atlanta for over five years...

Over the past two months, Friends of Piedmont Park, the nonprofit that's leading the opposition to a six-story, 800-space parking deck in Piedmont Park, has attempted to use the state Open Records Act to wrench records from the city of Atlanta, the Piedmont Park Conservancy and the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

The city complied with the request. So did the Conservancy, handing over all of its...

Janet Ridgeway opened the Echo Lounge in East Atlanta on Oct. 31, 1998 — but it wasn't until Jan. 8 that she finally took the club's stage.?

Shortly before the genre-bending band Kingsized started its encore of Elvis covers in commemoration of the King's birthday, Ridgeway grabbed the mic and told the sold-out crowd they were watching an even more monumental rock event: the Echo...

On Dec. 3, Atlanta City Council adopted a long-awaited "living wage" ordinance that encourages private companies that do business with the city to pay their employees enough to support a family. The hourly living wage, calculated by the city's Department of Procurement, is $10.50 ($12 if the company doesn't provide benefits).

But the ordinance, as passed, is a watered-down version of the...

More than 150,000 natives and tourists are dead. Millions of families are homeless. An untold number of children are orphaned. Entire villages and livelihoods are lost. The toll of the Dec. 26 tsunami is so immense, it cannot begin to be accurately measured. If you want to help, here are some Georgia-based agencies to contact:

CARE: CARE's long-term presence in southeast Asia has allowed the...

On Dec. 17,Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox got a ?surprise eviction notice to vacate her first-floor administrative offices at the state Capitol — not long after the popular politician and highest-ranking woman elected statewide denied overtures to leave the Democratic Party for the GOP, her spokesman says.

Intermediaries of Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue attempted to lure Cox to the...

The wait is over for Avondale Estates residents. On Dec. 13, Avondale Estates city commissioners unanimously voted against the annexation of property on the corner of Memorial Drive and Columbia Avenue. The annexation would've allowed Wal-Mart to build a 200,000-square-foot Supercenter.

The news shocked many residents, considering that the Avondale planning and zoning board had recommended the...

Georgia's average monthly number of background checks for gun purchases in 2003: 16,013

Number of background checks conducted in December 2003, the busiest month of the year: 31,025

Number of gun purchases denied in Georgia in 2003 because of felony convictions, mental health reasons, or domestic violence convictions: 3,272

Number of people suspected of lying on gun purchase...

Twenty-five years ago, I had two small children and almost a full head of hair. My parents and two brothers lived around the corner. I was a partner in a restaurant that had just failed. I was searching for work.

Over the previous few years, I'd become friendly with Debby Eason, the owner of a weekly alternative newspaper. For some reason, I was drawn to call Debby, and we met to discuss a...

Rather than face a pack of riled-up protesters, the board of the Piedmont Park Conservancy decided to close the doors on a Nov. 18 meeting in which members voted on a proposal to build a parking deck in Piedmont Park. Not only did the board close the doors, but it also moved the meeting to an undisclosed location.

The board, in other words, hid.

The protesters, led by state Sen. Vincent Fort,...

Avondale Estates residents, divided over whether a Wal-Mart Supercenter would be a positive addition to the quaint community, will have to wait a little longer to learn whether city officials will allow the development.

On Dec. 2, Avondale Estates city commissioners decided to postpone until Dec. 13 a vote that would let the nation's largest retailer erect a 200,000-square-foot store on the...

At an abandoned waste shipping depot in south Atlanta, six more human fetuses were found last month, bringing the total to eight. The site, located off Moreland Avenue, is home to about 13,000 containers of abandoned industrial and hazardous wastes.

Southeastern Research and Recovery, a company that was paid up to $1,000 per barrel to collect and dispose of wastes such as lead-contaminated...

To the surprise of few, the Piedmont Park Conservancy has officially endorsed the construction of a six-story parking deck within Piedmont Park.

The proposed deck would have 800 parking spaces and be used by visitors to Piedmont Park and the Atlanta Botanical Garden. The deck is part of a major expansion plan that will add 53 acres to the park's footprint and calls for removing a 120-space...

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., who impugned the patriotism of triple-amputee veteran Max Cleland two years ago, is now stretching the truth about another Democrat.

Only this time, Chambliss is sugarcoating the record of his new buddy, the Democrat turncoat Sen. Zell Miller, who is preparing to retire his post and head home to the hills.

Chambliss took to the floor of the Senate last week and...

Buckhead's representatives on Atlanta City Council believe they've found a way to limit the proliferation of nightclubs around the city — and they've been so stealthy about their plan that it's already law.

At its Nov. 15 meeting, the council approved an unheralded ordinance by Council members Howard Shook and Clair Muller that will require new and existing nightclubs to provide proof...

When Matthew Thomas, an inmate at Lee Arrendale State Prison in North Georgia, was brutally beaten and raped two times in two weeks last month, attorneys trying to protect him and other inmates at the prison were fed up.

"This was the last straw," says Sarah Geraghty, an attorney for the Southern Center for Human Rights. "We've received numerous phone calls and letters from inmates who are...

The state Environmental Protection Division recently slapped several local cities and counties with violations for spilling sewage into waterways near you.

Fulton County, which has struggled for years with antiquated sewer pipes and inadequate treatment plants, was hit the hardest. In July, the county was fined $135,000 for 28 major sewer spills — including one into a tributary of the...

Although he confirms doing $30,000 in private business deals with the agency he oversees, state Department of Human Resources board chairman Bruce Cook says he doesn't believe he's violated any state ethics rules.

Bruce Cook's company, Choosing the Best, continued to sell abstinence-education materials to several of the DHR's teen centers even after he was appointed to the agency's board, he...

President Bush and Sen. John Kerry have largely ignored Georgia during the presidential campaign. But Green Party nominee David Cobb campaigned in Atlanta, making stops at Morehouse College and in Decatur.

Cobb, who ran as the Green Party candidate for Texas attorney general in 2002, lacks the name recognition of former Green presidential candidate Ralph Nader, now running an independent...

Here's a handy (and dandy!) guide to CL's election endorsements, lifted from last week's issue.

Most of you will find some races on your ballots that we don't mention below. For time and space reasons, we only endorsed in high-profile state and local contests, and in legislative races that actually seemed competitive.

Clip this guide out, stick it in your pocket, then whip it out at the...

Last week, the state Board of Regents voted down a 10 percent tuition hike that would have affected each of the 34 schools under the University System of Georgia. The hope had been that the hike would help close the gap on a big budget shortfall. But this time, the board spared university students the burden. Here's a look at the university system's spending history: ?

Current budget cut...

Atlanta City Council this week delayed deciding on a measure that would limit how much free beer Atlanta's two remaining breweries can give away on tours. But, in a victory for the breweries (and for lovers of locally made beer), the limit that's been proposed has more than tripled.

Thanks to an amendment that's been tacked onto the bill, visitors to a brewery inside city limits would be able...

More than a year after police arrested a 15-year-old suspect in the shooting death of Christian Henderson, who was walking with his fiancee from an East Atlanta restaurant to their car, a judge has ruled that the troubled teenager is fit for trial.

On Nov. 7, DeKalb Superior Court Judge Clarence Seeliger denied the defense's claim that LaVan Hickman, who is now 17, is too mentally ill for...

After one inmate at Lee Arrendale State Prison was strangled to death and 52 other prison assaults took place in six months, a contempt of court motion was filed to hold the prison and the state Department of Corrections responsible for the violence.

On Sept. 29, lawyers from the Southern Center for Human Rights and mega-firm King & Spalding filed a federal motion against department...

In July, CL visited an old shipping depot off Moreland Avenue in south Atlanta that was overrun with about 13,000 containers of abandoned industrial and hazardous waste. Fifty-five-gallon drums containing flammable oils and lubricants were stacked atop each other, many of them leaking. If ignited, the site could have become an environmental disaster.

The mess was left there when Southeastern...

Linda Hinesman, a resident of Lynwood Park, a gentrifying neighborhood north of Brookhaven where tiny shotgun bungalows sit beside tony two-story homes, is suing a developer over an alleged land encroachment.

Hinesman's suit, filed in late August by attorney Greg Taube in DeKalb County Superior Court, claims her next-door neighbor and the developer who constructed her home built a garage...

Last week, the state Department of Human Resources board decided it would be best if teen centers — which have a goal to reduce teenage pregnancy — faced further restrictions on, of all things, handing out contraceptives.

Sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it. But not to the state agency that oversees the centers.

After a yearlong debate over whether to continue giving federal...

The demolition of a familiar motel complex and a 1950s-era gas station on Auburn Avenue was approved earlier this month, clearing the way for a $45 million redevelopment project that represents the most significant changes to the western end of the historic street in several decades.

Approval of the plan by Big Bethel AME Church and the Integral Group development firm seemed to be touch-and-go...

If you're tired of canvassers traipsing to your door offering you endless reasons to vote for Dubya or the Johns, here's a new reason to register (no later than Oct. 4, mind you): You could have an easier time getting laid.

That's the premise of Votergasm.org, a Brooklyn-based nonpartisan website whose mission is to get 100,000 first-time voters to cast a ballot — and 250,000 18- to...

It's official: Backstreet is history.

??
The owners of Atlanta's best-known all-hours nightclub have thrown in the towel on their effort to secure a license to reopen Backstreet after the club was closed by city officials in mid-July. Instead, owners and siblings Vicki and Henry Vara will sell off the club's furnishings and lighting systems in a "going out of business sale" this weekend.

??...

On Aug. 31, the state’s post-conviction DNA testing law worked exactly as it’s supposed to. Clarence Harrison, who’d spent 17 years in prison for a rape he didn’t commit, walked out of the DeKalb County Courthouse a free man.

Harrison can thank Georgia's year-old DNA law, which allows inmates convicted of violent felonies to be granted DNA testing in certain circumstances....

When we learned that 11 people were running to replace late DeKalb Commissioner Lou Walker, we knew we weren’t going to get to know all of them before the Sept. 21 special election.

But we do know this: One of the leading candidates for the seat, which represents the "super-district" comprising southeast DeKalb, has spent six months behind bars for extortion and tax evasion, while another...

For years, I've been jealous of Atlanta magazine. On the last page of the local monthly is one of the best columns in the country. It's called "Monroe Doctrine," and it's written by an Atlanta journalist named Doug Monroe.

Doug's column sometimes is personal, sometimes is historical and often breaks major news stories. Anyone who's read him knows he brings incredibly deep knowledge of the...

Georgia Power is spending $1.3 billion to clean up its power plants in Georgia, and the bulk of that money will be spent on pollution controls for the company's dirtiest power producer, Plant Bowen near Cartersville.

Willingly installing pollution-reducing equipment is a rare move for Georgia Power, which has resisted pressure from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice...

The good news in Home Park's fight with the city of Atlanta and mammoth development Atlantic Station is that one key street will be re-engineered to drastically reduce traffic flow.

To settle a lawsuit filed two years ago by State Street residents Cole Cowden and his wife, Kathy Boehmer, city planners agreed to build medians and remove turn lanes to restrict access to State Street from 16th...

On Friday, July 30, Eric Hovdesven learned in a letter that Gov. Sonny Perdue no longer needed his services as a board member of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees all major transportation problems in metro Atlanta.

Hovdesven, whose five-year term had expired June 1, was replaced by Kessel Stelling Jr., chairman and CEO of Riverside Bancshares Inc. and Riverside...

A mixed-use development is in the works near the corner of Memorial Drive and Boulevard.

John Reagan, Grant Park resident and partner of Urban Realty Partners, plans to redevelop the stretch of Memorial Drive that's currently home to a uniform shop, two tire shops and a check-cashing business. Blueprints for the one-acre plot have up to 10,000-square-feet of street-level retail shops and 70...

Two sites in Georgia, a wood treatment plant in Camilla and a chemical plant in Fort Valley, are so contaminated with toxic chemicals that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies them as places where human exposure poses health risks. The Fort Valley plant leaks pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and arsenic, which is known to cause cancer of the lungs, bladder and skin.

At four...

The G-8 Summit ended six weeks ago, but to 15 protesters who were arrested June 10 on a march to Sea Island, the annoyance drags on. All face August arraignments in Brunswick on misdemeanor charges for obstructing police officers and blocking a highway. A handful also are charged with refusing to give their names at the time of arrest.

Bill Cristman, a Decatur attorney who is co-representing...

Worn out from its steady attack on the Chattahoochee National Forest, the Bush administration has asked Gov. Sonny Perdue to take over for a while. And, once again, the targets are some of the few remaining untouched parts of the 749,000-acre North Georgia forest.

In Georgia, about 64,800 acres, including Kelly Ridge and Mountaintown, have been deemed so ecologically sensitive that roads are...

After firing his secretary and calling her a "bitch," and then offending a new secretary by showing her sexy pictures on his computer, Kamal Fatehi has resigned from his position as chairman of the Kennesaw State University Department of Management and Entrepreneurship.

Fatehi will continue teaching in the department. He did not return CL's phone calls.

Fatehi's resignation comes after an...

Even though it's already lost three rounds of legal battles, Waste Management Inc. is going back to court to try to keep the stinky, law-breaking Live Oak landfill open.

So far, a state Administrative Court tribunal, a Cobb County Superior Court judge, and the Georgia Court of Appeals have all upheld an order issued by the state Environmental Protection Division two years ago telling Waste...

Shawntell Law-North, who almost lost her job based on accusations that she falsified a home loan application, has been reinstated — 13 days after CL wrote about her case.

Law-North was suspended without pay in April from Georgia Federal Credit Union, where she worked as a bank teller. The reason: She applied for a home loan through a broker, Georgia State Mortgage, and the lender,...

Finding a place to live in Atlanta is not just a plight for the poor but for much of the middle class, too, according to a long-anticipated study to be released at the end of June.

The 500-page, five-year analysis — conducted by the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, funded by the Ford Foundation and endorsed by the city — boils down to one daunting statistic, according...

A department chair at Kennesaw State University — who fired his former secretary and called her a bitch, and later showed sexy photographs to his most recent secretary — should lose his chairmanship, according to an investigation initiated by the Board of Regents.

Investigator Linda Nelson recommended that Kamal Fatehi "be appropriately disciplined up to termination from his...

Most of those who noticed Barron Segar's anonymous protest outside WSB-TV two years ago — he put a sign in the window of his parked car that said "Shame on WSB" to protest the firing of a gay reporter — have probably long forgotten it.

Segar definitely has not. Since learning that station officials apparently had his tags run by an Atlanta cop who also worked security at the ABC...

What's a protest without a few arrests? And what are arrests unless the arrestees have a name — in this case, the "Brunswick 15"? Except that there aren't 15, but 18. And, although lawyers for the "Brunswick X" think 11 remain in jail, Glynn County Sheriff Wayne Bennett told CL he's only holding nine in the pokey.

We'll try and sort this out. On June 10, the last day of the G-8 Summit...

Business professor Paul Lapides' story, as he tells it, sounds a lot like the plot to a John Grisham thriller. Except his intrigues are set not in a plush, Grisham-esque law firm, but in Kennesaw State'sivory tower.

A federal judge last month threw out Lapides' lawsuit against the school, in which Lapides alleged that KSU administrators discriminated against him because he is Jewish. Lapides,...

On the South Carolina side of the Savannah River sits what's called the Savannah River Site, one of the world's largest deposits of plutonium and other high-level nuclear waste, much of it left over from the Cold War. In all, 37 million gallons of radioactive sludge are stored there.

Finding a safe way to dispose of nuclear waste is one of the biggest problems nuclear scientists grapple with;...

On Thursday, May 6, Georgia Power got a slap on the wrists from a federal appeals court for its attempt to circumvent the Clean Air Act. The ruling, which did not directly involve Georgia Power but did name one of its business partners, will likely impact polluting power plants nationwide.

That's because for the first time, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that even partial owners...

The campaign may be dead, but it seems the political legacy of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is still kicking.

The reason the Dean campaign mattered, despite its spectacular implosion, is that it brought new people into politics and connected them to one another at the community level, teaching them grassroots organizing along the way. The Dean campaign also has spawned something else: a new...

Academic economic forums have the tendency to be deadly boring: Think Carl Sagan reading the tax code on Vicodin.

But a globalization roundtable last week at Georgia Tech proved the exception. If you've happened by a television or glanced at a newspaper in the last couple of years, you know that outsourcing American jobs to India and China has become the scourge celébre of the mainstream press...

Last week, a Cobb County Superior Court judge upheld an oft-challenged state Environmental Protection Division order to shut down the smelly Live Oak landfill just outside Atlanta city limits.

A spokeswoman for the company that operates the landfill, Waste Management Inc., would not comment on the ruling or say whether the company would continue its legal fight to keep the landfill open.

Live...

At first, they couldn't get a candidate. Now, Georgia Democrats may see a heated U.S. Senate primary.

After U.S. Rep. Denise Majette's surprise announcement March 29 that she planned to run for the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Zell Miller, businessman Cliff Oxford says he will announce April 25 whether he will run against Majette in the Democratic Senate primary.

Response from...

Creative Loafing won four awards — including two first places — in the Southeast's largest journalism contest, the Green Eyeshade awards, which were announced Saturday.

Film and visual arts critic Felicia Feaster took home two awards. She won first place for criticism for her collection of work in 2003. And she placed third in the feature-writing category for her April 2003 story,...

Every year since 1993 Georgia businesses have grabbed mega-million-dollar tax breaks made possible by surpluses in the state's unemployment fund — extra money that could have been claimed by workers who lost their jobs.

On the last day of the session, the General Assembly gave Georgia corporations yet another year of breaks, which amounts to at least $135 million that will not be paid...

On March 24, Gainesville state Sen. Casey Cagle's Senate Finance Committee approved two new tax breaks for big business — $4 million for construction of the new World of Coca-Cola museum and another hefty gift for farmers that exempts purchases of ice used to store vegetables and poultry. Both of the measures had already passed the House.

Then came state Rep. Georganna Sinkfield,...

Just 10 years ago, the words "smart growth" weren't yet a part of the nation's lexicon. The word "sprawl" was, though, and Maryland's Gov. Parris Glendening forged landmark laws to deal with it.

Using state funds as a carrot, Glendening lured local governments into limiting where developments could go. At the same time, he established a farmland preservation fund. A decade later, that fund is...

It'll be two years this July since state regulators ordered that Waste Management Inc. close its smelly Live Oak landfill, which remains the city's only place to dump its trash.

Since then, Waste Management has gone to court twice to keep Live Oak open for business. And other waste companies have been scrambling after the big-money contract to dispose of the 237,000 tons of Atlanta trash...

Michael Berry, whose abuse of teenage prostitute and triple murderer Falicia Blakely was described in CL's two-part series "Learning to hit a lick," has been arrested on drug charges — and released.

DeKalb County authorities have described Berry as a pimp who had several girls working for him. Among them was Blakely, who killed three men at Berry's urging, according to testimony offered...

Now that they're good and gentrified, Ormewood Park and Grant Park are getting two Midtown-type developments of their own, scheduled to be complete by summer's end.

Little Azio will open just down Moreland Avenue from East Atlanta, at the intersection of Ormewood Avenue. Besides Little Azio — an Italian pizza, sandwich and pasta joint modeled after the one on Peachtree Street —...

For now at least, poor pregnant women and children in Georgia can breathe a little easier knowing that under a state House subcommittee plan, they won't be dropped from Medicaid or face exorbitant premium increases by PeachCare, Georgia's health care program for children of the working poor.

Under Gov. Sonny Perdue's original budget proposal, 12,500 pregnant women and 14,700 children would...

It looks as if May 1 will blow by without the Great Atlanta Pot Festival.

The sometimes-annual event in Piedmont Park was nixed in late February by city officials, who say organizer Paul Cornwell didn't make the application deadline.

Cornwell, however, contends that Atlanta's 2-year-old festival ordinance, which requires applications to be filed at least 90 days before a planned event, is...

In the days leading up to the March 2 presidential primary, critics had worried that Georgia's paperless electronic ballots might undermine democracy. But as of Tuesday afternoon, as CL went to press, it appeared the real concern wasn't over too little paper, but too much.

At polling places throughout metro Atlanta — and conceivably throughout the state — confusion over which voter...