Thomas Wheatley reports that after 3 years of gridlocky nothingness, the issue of transportation funding has finally made it out of  committee and will be voted on by the state House and Senate tonight.  Wheatley lays it on the table…

It’ll be up to the voters to ultimately vote on the measure in 2012. So don’t get too excited if it does pass. Money won’t start trickling in for another few years.

Senate President Pro Tem Tommie Williams of Lyons said the revenue generated from the one-cent sales tax can’t be used to pay for the operations of existing transit projects. New transit projects, however, can tap the cash to run trains and buses. That means MARTA’s current financial woes won’t be helped by any new cash. Should the transit agency expand, however, that’s a different story.

The proposal also gives MARTA a three-year reprieve from using half of its revenue for capital improvement projects, even when it can’t afford to operate day-to-day.

After a whirlwind week in Washington D.C., DHS teacher Chris Billingsley writes in…

Many of you are aware that the DHS Close Up Club recently spent a week in Washington, D.C.  I was unable to provide daily updates because of network problems but the following is a summary of the Close Up and DHS activities of our week in D.C.  To my blog friends, sorry for the late news.

Sunday, April 11- Students and parents arrived at DHS at 3:00 A.M. to make a 6:00 early bird flight.  We eventually arrived at Hartfield, moved through security, and made it to our gate with time to spare. The flight was a very smooth one.   The United flight stewards treated us, especially the girls, like first class passengers.

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From the Little Shop website…

Rick Riordan not quite Book Release Party for The Red Pyramid on Friday, May 7th!

Rick is actually releasing this first book in The Kane Chronicles series in New York earlier in the week, but this is still pretty darn cool! The author of the phenomenal Percy Jackson & the Olympian books returns!!! This event is being co-hosted with the wonderful people at Emory University’s most excellent Michael C. Carlos Museum and will be held at Emory’s Glenn Memorial Auditorium.

Little Shop’s David Shallenberger tells DM that Riordan is “Little Shop’s best selling author in our five year history” and each time he makes an appearance “it just gets bigger, and this time it will be just plain huge.”

Little Shop of Stories is a DM sponsor

From cleaning yogurt off your counter to building a house, the “greenest” option isn’t ever obvious.

h/t: The Daily Dish

UPDATE: The city’s Cheryl Burnette informs us that Animal Planet is filming a commercial in the park.

What’s filming bright and early in Adair Park this morning?  Looking into it…