The AJC has the story of Decatur resident Ned White, who has been waiting a good two years for his “pain in the pencil” crossword puzzle to appear in the New York Times.

The according to the paper – the AJC that is – it finally appeared on January 16th, a Saturday: the day when the Times crosswords are notoriously the hardest of the week.

A great story that provides background on both Mr. White and the New York Times’ crossword!

As DM’s Events Calendar shows, George Winston kicks off the Eddie and Agnes series tonight at Presser Hall on Agnes Scott’s campus.

In a recent interview with the AJC, Winston explains why he’s DRIVING from California to the Decatur event and why he’ll be performing without shoes.

Q: We know you don’t want microphones at this show in Decatur. What else can audiences expect from the performance? Will you perform in your socks?

A: Yes, shoes make too much noise on the floor. And I don’t like the sound of a miked piano. I’ll be playing fall and winter songs. Some Vince Guaraldi, folk and melodic piano, New Orleans R&B. I’m sure the drive over will inspire something, too. I have yet to make it to the Great Plains, Tennessee and Alabama. I want [the journey] to affect what I play. We’re all influenced by the seasons whether we think about it or not.

Sock-tip to the AJC’s Jamie Gumbrecht.

Tickets for the event can still be purchased HERE.

UPDATE: Looks like my question is even more theoretical at this point!  AJC reports “DeKalb approves budget with no tax increase”

While DeKalb residents won’t have to pay more in property taxes this year, they will see a loss in services, including the board of health, senior services and libraries. That loss could get worse.

…While the commission made deep cuts, no police officers, firefighters or sheriff’s deputies will lose their jobs, May said. The CEO had threatened that public safety employees would be laid off if a tax increase wasn’t approved.

However, the approved budget includes unpaid holidays and no take-home vehicles for employees.

Police say this will take thousands of dollars from officers’ salary, hurt morale and increase response times.

The AJC reports this morning that DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis has backed off his proposed 1.86 millage rate increase for the coming fiscal year, knocking it down to 1.08 mils, after “identifying $6.7 million more revenue, including collecting more probation fees and serving more warrants.”

Of course, if you listen to the chatter coming out of the DeKalb County Commission, they want none of that.  Since the CEO first introduced the idea of a millage rate increase a couple months ago, the commission has been adamantly against it.  Instead of a millage increase, the commission is suggesting…

…all county employees to not be paid on the remaining holidays in 2010, eliminating the majority of take-home vehicles and an early retirement program. Commissioners say they will consider layoffs if not enough employees sign up for the early retirement program.

So, what do you think the commission should do to close the $100 million budget gap?  Is the solution a combination of cuts and increases?  Or just plain ol’ budget cuts?

Eleven AND A HALF year-old Decatur resident, Sydney Rhame, has herself a colorful, front of the the Living & Arts, multi-page spread in Sunday’s AJC.  Written by Rosalind Bentley, the article takes up nearly an entire page of newsprint and features multiple pics of Rhame.

In it, we learn that since she won $1,000 from Kudzu, Sydney has been taken in by voice coach Jan Smith, “who counts R&B megastar Usher and his protege, teen-pop throb Justin Bieber, as clients.”  She’s also taking hip-hop dance classes “not because [she] want to sing hip-hop, but because the moves could help her in a pop career.”  Sydney’s goal is a record deal by age 12.

The article is not yet online – part of the AJC’s new strategy to give extra value to the print edition – but once it’s up I’ll post the link here.

Congrats Sydney!

“Build us a streetcar line!” Atlanta screamed north towards the Chesapeake Bay.  “What?  I’m sorry, what was that?” seems to have been the response.

The AJC reports that Atlanta’s bid to get the Federal Government to build us a streetcar line down ol’ Peachtree Street with stimulus funding was totally ignored.

I like it when a reporter’s disappointment bleeds through onto the page…

In fact, in a two-page list of grant recipients including many in the Southeast, Georgia appears not to have a single project.

Atlanta, local business groups and MARTA applied for $298.3 million, the total amount needed to construct the streetcar. The city and the business groups would have shared the cost of operations, helped by ticket fares, advertising revenues, and naming rights. MARTA would have administered the grant. The city also suggested smaller versions of the project that would cost less, but no dice. Streetcars operated in Atlanta until 1949.

The loss for the streetcar is one more drop in the bucket of metro Atlanta’s mass transit misery.

But what did we do to deserve such overlooking?!  What MORE could we have done!?

Read the rest of this entry »

Dun, dun, dun!

Yes, it’s that time of winter again, when transplanted Northerners laugh at native Atlantans’ supposed fear of snow and ice, refusing to hear the rational retort of “Um, hello? We don’t have snow plows.”.

The AJC report really builds up the impending drama of Snow-Friday.

“It is not a question of whether we will see winter weather — basically snow — across most, if not all of [north and central Georgia], but rather a question of how much,” the Weather Service said.

Not a question?!  GASP!

In order to maintain the appearance that we’re freaked out, I suggest everyone go to the store right now and purchase a cart-full of unneeded food and food-ish items!

UPDATE: Another interesting development.  The DeKalb Officers blog calls out the AJC and GBI and defends their department.

Everybody starts jumping on the bandwagon accusing Whittington and others of making the wrong decisions and showing favoritism toward Commissioner Sutton. Un-informed buffoons from the GBI and the Gwinnett Sheriff’s Office (click here for AJC article “GBI, sheriff question DeKalb handling of wanted commissioner”) jump in and give their two cents worth.

Small problem though. See, the warrants were issued on January 8, 2008. According to O.C.G.A. 17-3-1 (2009), there’s this little ole sentence that reads: “Prosecution for misdemeanors must be commenced within two years after the commission of the crime.” So, if Commissioner Sutton had been arrested, then that could have caused big problems for all involved. (Also see Pickens v Hollowell and Opinion of Thurbet E Baker, Georgia Attorney General).

This story continues to develop in truly odd ways, so it felt appropriate to give it a new post.

The AJC reports the story of the DeKalb Commissioner with four outstanding warrants NOT being arrested by DeKalb Police after a traffic accident has now attracted the attention of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, who says they might want “to look at [DeKalb's] procedures and process to see if there were extenuating circumstances or retraining was needed for the officer.”

And that’s the latest piece of the “Why didn’t the police arrest DeKalb Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton?” puzzle.

But what about the “Why did the judge recall warrants?” question?  In this latest article, Gwinnett majistrate judge Gene Cantrell told the AJC that the merchant [Costco] asked for the charges to be dropped and that they didn’t know “who is person was.”  So why was Costco so eager to recall warrants that sat open for years?  Still no answer on that front.

Read the rest of this entry »

Budget gaps are no fun.  Once a local government starts implementing hiring freezes and proposing tax hikes, constituents immediately become more sensitive to any and all expenses.

And the AJC knows it.

Splashed across the front page of this morning’s paper, a story about the DeKalb County Commission’s recent approval of up to $101,000 to repaint and wallpaper government buildings.

Commissioner Connie Stokes explained to the paper that the wallpapering is not just a cosmetic expense, but will replace “flood or water-damaged wallpaper.” And though the paper cites real estate agent Mark Ponzer as knowing “that some wallpapering can be put on hold”, no specific examples are provided to refute Stokes claim.

However, the commission did not respond to questions about why any of the county’s 8,000 employees could do the work, instead of contracting the work out.

I’ve learned many things about myself in the 2+ years of writing this blog.

And one of them is that while I may admittedly feel that left-leaning guilt on many social issues, I’m not married to any political party.  Instead, my most fundamental beliefs seem to congregate around the importance of local communities and a need for civil discourse between parties.

So imagine my total lack of surprise this morning when I “opened” AJC.com to see a lack of “communication” cited as the given reason for one of DeKalb’s most recent blow-ups.

In a great piece about DeKalb County Schools recent meltdown over the Superintendent Crawford Lewis’ $15,000 salary increase – you heard about teachers’ black outfits and shouting at school board meetings haven’t you? – Kristen Torres reports…

Read the rest of this entry »

I guess its a “power of words” sorta day.

In yet another documented instance of Atlanta news orgs referring to incorporated DeKalb as “Decatur”, thanks to a Decatur mailing address, the AJC first reported this DeKalb motel shooting as “Decatur motel shooting victim now in critical condition”, according to Andisheh.

Not the first time this has happened.

The location was reported as Decatur. An hour later, it’s changed to DeKalb without any note.

As we’ve noted before, it might not matter to most, but countless shootings and other illicit acts reported as “Decatur” but really in DeKalb, aren’t all that great for the city’s image.

Maybe a specialized “Decatur: We’re incorporated!” ad campaign would help.