Feeling stressed because there’s a primary tomorrow and you haven’t done your homework on who’s running in all these confounded elections? If you live in the future city of Dunwoody, you only care about one thing. Smoking hot cityhood. But if you’re living anywhere else in the general Atlanta vicinity, its possible that you might have some late-night homework to do.

Luckily the Atlanta Press Club has a whole host of debates up on their website from all over the metro area…including a July 13th debate featuring all of U.S. Senate Democratic hopefuls. [h/t: GriftDrift]

GriftDrift and DecaturGuy’s both have their endorsements posted. Along with InDecatur, all are for Burrell Ellis. I concur. Our mutual distaste for Vernon Jones is enough for me.

But for Senate, I’m still not ready to give up my own youthful idealism, so I’ll be voting for smart ‘n sexy Rand Knight.

Paris wants to reduce car traffic 40% by 2020. And the only way the city thinks they can convince motorists to give up their cars is by making them “live in hell”.

A big first step in the “motorists must live in hell” initiative is the Vélib’ cheap bike rental program (roughly $46 a year), which is already a big hit in Paris after only one year, according to the New York Times. Putting 20,600 bikes on the road at 1,450 self-service stations across the city, has resulted in a 70% increase in bicycle usage. And though 3 Velib riders have been killed since January and 70 injured, the overall accident rate on Paris streets has declined 20% according to TimesOnline.

Now, I recognize that Paris is one of the densest cities in the world, so taking any sort of Parisian solution and applying it directly to sprawled out Atlanta is going to be a bit of a stretch. We can’t even manage build an efficient and far-reaching rail system. But many denser U.S. cities (New York?) might start considering such solutions in the near future, potentially making them even more desirable to a population suffocating on high gas prices.

But before that can happen, we Americans need to figure out if we would really be able to wear dress shirts, slacks, skirts, or dresses on a bike. We can’t all be changing in the bathrooms before and after work. And don’t even get me started on the helmet-hair.

[photo courtesy of the New York Times]

Of course its kinda hard to tell what the papers mean when they say “Decatur” (be it the city or just the zip code)

The details are kinda vague.

From the Gainesville Times…

Authorities have identified Michael U. Abrams Sr., 49, of Decatur, [editor's note: the AJC has his name as "Michael Abram"] as the man who drowned Saturday in a small cove of Lake Lanier, across from Holiday Marina in South Hall.

Three men from the Atlanta area were fishing off the shore when Abrams decided to go for a swim.

The man swam about 20 yards from the shore before he became distressed and yelled for help, said Hall County Fire Services Capt. Scott Cagle.

Another man swam out to help him but was unsuccessful. The victim went under and did not resurface.

Emergency workers received a call about the incident shortly after 12:15 p.m.

The body was pulled from the lake at about 1:40 p.m.

It took members of the Hall County Fire Marine Rescue Team about 45 minutes to recover the drowning victim, who was in waters thick with vegetation about 12 feet deep, Cagle said.

There have been four drownings and three boating fatalities on Lake Lanier this year, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Four people drowned in the lake last weekend, although two of the deaths were listed as boating fatalities because the men jumped from a pontoon boat, officials said.