Decatur and Atlanta are two of 15 southeastern cities sharing a $20 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to retrofit homes and businesses for improved energy efficiency.

I’m still digging around to find out the how much, the what and the when. I’ll update this post as I gather the gritty nitty.

UPDATE: Lena Stevens, Decatur’s Resource Conservation Coordinator, e-mailed some details. She doesn’t yet know the exact dollar amount Decatur will receive, but says the majority of the funding will go to residents and businesses for investments in energy conversation. Her entire note after the jump.

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This is the week Georgia’s candidates for Congress, statewide offices, district attorneys and the General Assembly are required to formally submit their applications to appear on the ballot. The hip kids refer to this ritual as qualifying. It’s not exactly thrilling, but the list inevitably yields a couple “who’s running and who isn’t” surprises.

Rep. Karla Drenner (D – Avondale) is the only Decatur or Decatur-ish representative on the list so far. We’ll keep an eye on it this week and let you know if there are any surprise additions or omissions.

If you have an extraordinarily high tolerance for boredom, the Secretary of State’s office updates its online list as the papers come in.

(Post by Andisheh Nouraee, filling in for Mr. DM)

Area festival goers may be familiar with the illustrators Sherry and Larry Paulsen. The Paulsens make and sell brightly colored illustrations of local landmarks throughout the Southeast. They’re perfect festival fodder because they express the same love and enthusiasm for community that draws so many to our neighborhood festivals in the first place.

For Metro Atlanta, the Paulsens have created iconic images of the metro-wide landmarks like The Fox Theatre, the Varsity, and the Big Chicken (among others) – as well as hyperlocal landmarks like Inman Parks Trolley Barn and the Tudor-style commercial district in Avondale Estates.

Browsing their collection of prints yesterday at the Inman Park Festival, my wife and I noticed they didn’t have any prints depicting Decatur. Larry Paulsen told me the slight isn’t intentional. They simply haven’t been able to come up with a singular, iconic image for Decatur. He’s considering, he says, an image of Agnes Scott (the college, not the woman) and Eddie’s Attic. He then gave me his business card and asked to let him know if had any suggestions.

So I’m addressing the mob – name some Decatur buildings or streetscapes worthy of devotional iconography? Eddie’s? Agnes? CVS? Okay, maybe not CVS.

(Post by Andisheh Nouraee, filling-in for Mr. DM)