Saturday, December 5, 2009
News The Blotter
Posted by Lauren Keating on Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 3:00 PM
'TIS THE SEASON: An officer got a call about a man allegedly damaging trees at Atlantic Station. "When I arrived, [the man] had in his possession, Christmas lights from the trees," the officer wrote. "He admitted removing the lights, but could not explain why. He damaged the trees while doing so." The man, 47, was ticketed for disorderly conduct.
HOLIDAY CHEER: A 33-year-old man called police to report an argument he had with a City of Atlanta Public Works employee. An officer arrived to take the report. The man said he was riding his bike home when he noticed four Public Works employees standing outside their cars. The man said the employees were just standing around and not working "hard enough" so he took out his video camera and started to record them "not working on city time," the officer wrote. The man said while he recorded the employees standing around their cars, he was taunted to "turn off that camera, you white cracker." The man said one employee threatened to hit him over the head with a camera if he didn't turn off his camera. The man said more words were exchanged and the employees left in their cars. The officer wrote, "I asked [the man] why did he feel the need to record the city workers and he stated that he just got his tax bill and felt that his tax money was being wasted." Nothing further.
Continue Reading "The Blotter"
(Photo Illustration by Tray Butler)
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
News 5 things to do: Tuesday
Posted by Amber Robinson on Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 12:00 PM
1) The 39 Steps opens at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.
2) El Vez and Los Straightjackets perform at the Earl's Viva Christmas!
3) Art Opening & a Movie at Plaza Theatre includes a screening of They Live and a conspiracy-themed art show.
4) Real Estate performs at 529. The Last Dragon on Earth opens at the Center for Puppetry Arts.
5) Insane Clown Posse performs at the Masquerade.
(Photo by Craig Schwartz)
Monday, November 30, 2009
News Gay vote still up for grabs in mayor's race
Posted by Scott Henry on Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 9:58 PM
As the mayoral candidates themselves made their final push to win over undecided voters, gay news website Project Q has posted competing op-eds to help readers make their decision. Ryan Lee, editor of the now-defunct David magazine and a former SoVo reporter, makes "The gay case for Kasim Reed":
Along with people like state Sens. Vincent Fort and Nan Orrock, and openly gay state Rep. Karla Drenner, Reed has been part of a core group of progressives at the Gold Dome that have led the case for gay rights any time an issue came before the General Assembly.
Lee cites Reed's work on such legislation as the hate-crimes bill and the gay-marriage amendment. He also takes a jab (or two) at Reed's opponent:
Let’s be real: Mary Norwood has never done jack for the gay community while serving as a citywide council member for the last eight years. She was AWOL during the marriage fight, AWOL during the Druid Hills fiasco, reflexively protective of the Atlanta Police Department in the early hours after the Eagle raid and was by far the biggest supporter of the culture-killing rollback in bar hours in 2003. Yet somehow, in a race against a proven gay rights ally, Norwood has become the savior of gay voters simply because she offers generic support in a political fight in which she will never engage.How bamboozled can you get?
Making the case for Norwood is, um, her lesbian step-daughter, Dorsey Norwood:
My step-mom is anything but status quo. She’s had the courage to butt heads with folks in the city her entire life while trying to make Atlanta work for everyone. She’s done a pretty good job considering how so many folks have continued to put up roadblocks to her work for our neighborhoods. I know as mayor, she’ll finally be in a position to clean up our city and make many of the changes she’s fought so hard for so long to make as a neighborhood activist and council member.
That's touching, but I suspect the piece might be more persuasive if it had been written by someone who wasn't a member of the candidate's immediate family.
News Last week's top posts: Mary Norwood gets dirty, Chief Pennington gets going and Paula Deen gets a ham to the face
Posted by Mara Shalhoup on Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 8:58 PM
Here are the Fresh Loaf high points you might have missed while gorging yourself on gooey casseroles, mountains of starch and far too much tryptophan. Enjoy!
1. Mary Norwood campaign gets down and very dirty (Anti-Reed flyer is so misleading that CL asked a poli-sci professor at Emory how far a candidate is allowed to stretch the truth about his or her opponent.)
2. Atlanta Police Chief Pennington resigns (Don't miss Mayor Franklin's response in the comments section. The photo shouldn't be missed, either. Wow.)
3. Mary Norwood lands second pol endorsement (State Rep. Margaret Kaiser lines up for Norwood.)
4. Paula Deen takes a ham to the face (Food Network historians believe it’s the closest an unbattered, non-deep-fried meat has ever gotten to Deen’s mouth.)
5. Gidewon nightclubs hit by legal challenge (Opening of controversial Midtown clubs delayed until 2010.)
Uncategorized New Tyler Perry play "Madea’s Big Happy Family" to tour in 2010
Posted by Web Editor on Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 8:53 PM
that he’s donning his best gray wig, nylon stockings and lipstick to hit the road with a new stage play featuring his iconic alter ego, Madea early next year. The show entitled Madea’s Big Happy Family is the thirteenth stage play written and produced by Perry.
Continue Reading New Tyler Perry play "Madea's Big Happy Family" to tour in 2010.
News H. Lamar Willis ethics complaint — no, not that one — is dismissed
Posted by Thomas Wheatley on Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 8:29 PM
Atlanta City Councilman H. Lamar Willis has had a rough couple of months.
In September, the AJC reported that the Post 3 At-Large member and attorney owed more than $40,000 in back taxes. Then he was slapped with a $25,000 court fine for misrepresenting his scholarship foundation as a nonprofit charity. All this and a re-election campaign to run.
On Nov. 19, however, Willis — who on Election Day edged out challenger Shelitha Robertson to win another four-year term at City Hall — finally received some good news.
After months of investigation, the Atlanta Board of Ethics dismissed a complaint filed against Willis that alleged he courted a conflict of interest — and used his council title to his advantage — when he represented an Atlanta police officer on domestic abuse charges in early 2009.
Uncategorized Freeside Atlanta makes space for local hackers
Posted by Wyatt Williams on Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 8:16 PM
At a regular Tuesday night meeting of Freeside Atlanta, there's talk of building a RepRap machine. A RepRap, treasurer Raiford Storey explains, is a prototyping device that can make its own parts. Once one's built, it can be used to create another and another and so on. Thousands of machines could be made, replicating one another like a hive of robotic insects gestating inside Freeside's Metropolitan Warehouses space. A 2006 Guardian article suggested the RepRap might "bring down global capitalism, start a second industrial revolution and save the environment." But no one here is talking about post-capitalist apocalyptic visions. The collective members of Atlanta's recently opened hackerspace are simply brainstorming another project, something new to make.
The term hacker calls to mind a time when the Internet still trafficked through dial-up modems – or a mid-'90s Hollywood movie starring Matthew Lillard and Angelina Jolie. In a way, the folks at Freeside Atlanta are the direct descendents of that time and culture. Almost everyone in the hacker collective has some sort of technological background, whether as a Georgia Tech alumnus, Linux administrator, or an information security researcher. But the focus here isn't only on programming or circuitry. "You don't just have to hack computers," says interim President James Sheheane. "You can hack metal, you can hack wood."
Fostered by Make magazine and Boingboing.net, members of the current generation of hackers are as likely to call themselves "makers" and cite a background in woodworking or welding as tantamount to their skills with computers. The common principle of making, rather than buying, things guides this technologically bent, do-it-yourself culture, which has blown up in the form of community spaces across the U.S. and Europe over the past two years. Noisebridge in San Francisco, Pumping Station: One in Chicago, and c-base in Berlin are among the leading hacker groups that inspired the founding of Freeside Atlanta.
Three friends from Columbus, Sheheane, Storey and Ken Wehr, initiated the project earlier this year after moving to Atlanta. Instead of securing a space and then seeking out members, the trio first tried to find people who wanted to collaborate. "We said, 'Let's get a bunch of people and let them pick the space,'" Storey says. "Once the word got out around Georgia Tech and places like that, it really exploded." Weekly meetings at Manuel's Tavern regularly attracted about 30 or 40 people. The group moved into its warehouse space in late June and currently counts 55 official members.
Continue Reading "Freeside Atlanta makes space for local hackers"
(Photo b Joeff Davis)
Uncategorized Man vs. Toddler
Posted by Curt Holman on Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 7:42 PM
Maybe you've seen this by now:
News Last-minute mayoral politicking rages on
Posted by Scott Henry on Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 6:51 PM
Down to the wire. A real nail-biter.
If someone assures you that he knows with any certainty who'll be elected Atlanta's next mayor tomorrow, tell him he's a liar.
Every poll says the race is a dead heat and even most campaign insiders aren't willing to wager on Tuesday's outcome.
And so, the candidates and their supporters spent the weekend stumping and scrapping for every last vote. Mary Norwood hit Grant Park, Kasim Reed hit Inman Park — and flyers hit mailboxes.
In reaction to a pair of negative mailers sent out by Norwood last week alleging that Reed was late paying his property taxes, Reed struck back with his own mailer headlined: "Mary Norwood took $57,715 from the City Council slush fund and let our budget run out of control."
News SHOCK: Foreigners behave similarly to humans
Posted by Andisheh Nouraee on Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 5:21 PM
According to the AJC, sales at local "ethnic" stores have dropped because local ethnics are also feeling the "sting" of recession.
It's as if those born in other countries behave, like, actual humans or something. Weird!
This shouldn't surprise me. As an underemployed Ethnic-American, I buy less camel conditioner and bomb-making materials than I used to.
