• Joeff Davis

1. Former United Nations Ambassador and Mayor Andrew Young celebrated his 80th birthday last night with hundreds of celebrities and local notables at Medieval Times the Hyatt Regency in downtown Atlanta. Mayor Kasim Reed danced with Oprah Winfrey, who most likely shouted the name of every single person she met.

2. Maria Saporta says the campaign urging metro Atlanta voters to support the regional transportation tax need to pay more attention to inside-the-perimeter residents — the people who might actually be more likely to support the measure. (Coming out in full force during this weekend's Atlanta Streets Alive was a good start.)

3. Republican voters this summer will be asked nonbinding questions on their primary ballots about ethics reform and casino gambling. The results will then quickly be forgotten by party leaders so they can focus on more important issues such as permitting silencers on hunting weapons and destroying the United Nations.

1. The AJC looks at the July 31 sales tax referendum. The story focuses on what sort of traffic reduction folks in the 'burbs can expect, instead of taking my preferred approach which is to tell them, hey, you're the ones who moved to another city, so suck it. When it finally gets to the mass transit measures — which in my admittedly biased worldview are the elements of the plan most crucial to its long-term impact — the story does a little he-said, she-said expert quoting and then asks some folks whether they'll change their morning commute habits. Look, that's not what's important about the transit portion. There are plenty of good reasons to vote for or against the bill, as Thomas pointed out in his column this week. But the fact is that cities can no longer hope to retain or attract young talent if they don't offer at least the hope of comprehensive urban mass transit. Whether it's this plan or the oh-so-perfect, yet-to-materialize "Plan B," understand that this is not a vote about whether you can shave minutes off your commute, but whether Atlanta will be a first-, second-, or third-tier city 20 years from now.

2. The NAACP voted Saturday to support same-sex marriage as a civil right. We'll have a Last Word column this week that looks at this issue and how it's dealt with in the black community — specifically in black churches.

3. So, tropical storms are a thing in Georgia, I guess? Awesome.

4. If you're already sick of hearing about the John Travolta massage lawsuits, prepare to get sicker. John Doe No. 2 — referred to as "the Atlanta masseur" — has hired pit bull celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred and will probably file new charges against the actor.

...and hello to culture coverage on Fresh Loaf! We've got a lot of blogs here at CL and sometimes that means you don't get to see all of the coverage we have on movies, television and the arts because it can be difficult to find. We're about to fix that, though. Starting Monday, May 21, our arts blog Culture Surfing and our movies and tv blog Screen Grab will merge with Creative Loafing's main blog Fresh Loaf.

So now you won't have to jump all around to find out local movie gossip, read the latest about Screen on the Green or check out our latest theater or visual arts review. You'll also be able to filter content however you like, so if you only want to see movie coverage, just click on the "Movies" category button. Very easy and convenient for you.

Here's a terrible Power Rangers robot gif to help you visualize the change and superpowers this bigger, badder version of Fresh Loaf will posses.

GIFSoup

• Joeff Davis

1. Dr. Larry "Jeff" Payne, a Governor Deal appointee to the State Properties Commission, resigned after the AJC found he'd not disclosed that he'd leasing a building he owns to the state. (It's not against the law, it just has "conflict of interest" stamped all over it.) According to the terms of the lease, Payne will receive $140,000 a year for 10 years, although the deal must be renewed every year (and the state must pay as steep fee if it cancels the lease.) Couple things: One, I make that trade-off ($140k x 10 vs. serving on b.s. state board) every time. Two, with a name like Payne, why have the nickname "Jeff"? Why not "Max" or "Royal" or "Chronic"? I see a missed opportunity.

2. According to the sleuths at Channel 2 Action News, Georgia is seeing "a little bit higher rate" of snake bites this year. To summarize: don't go outside, or snakes will kill you.

3. Police are guarding school buses and children at bus stops on the last day of the semester in Clayton County after a man pointed a rifle at a school bus full of children yesterday. Police recovered the rifle and a notebook listing bus numbers. The lesson, as always: the suburbs aren't safe. Move to Atlanta proper, people.

• Joeff Davis
• Common Cause says the new international terminal is unnecessary and was fueled by campaign contributions

1. Atlanta will pay $3 million lawsuit to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who slipped and fell on a cracked sidewalk in 2008. Alex Jenkins, who's blind, had warned the city for years about the problem. Fixing the sidewalk would have cost $2,000. I'm terrible at math but apparently the city missed an opportunity?

2. Amid all the fanfare and hullabaloo over yesterday's grand opening of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport's new terminal, ethics watchdog Common Cause of Georgia singled out the $1.4 billion facility as unnecessary and fueled by campaign contributions. The group, which tangled with Mayor Kasim Reed over "pay-to-play" during the approval of airport concessions last year, once again urged the city to limit campaign contributions by vendors and contractors who conduct business with the city. City officials say allegations of pay-to-play are baseless and that the new terminal is necessary to handle future growth.

3. Oooo, finally there's a TED controversy! The wonky idea-sharing conference is declining to post a speech about income inequality at one of its conferences by Seattle venture capitalist Nick Hanauer. His take? The rich should pay more taxes and the middle class, not the rich, are society's true "job creators." TED's curator says the talk was too partisan.

• Joeff Davis/CL File
• A protest banner at a 2011 anti-HB 87 rally asserts that immigrants aren’t criminals, but the system is.

Home to both a newish legislative crackdown on illegal immigrants as well as the country's largest immigrant detention facility, Georgia finds itself positioned at the center of what's become a contentious conversation nationwide.

Conditions in Georgia's immigrant detention facilities — those that are privately owned in particular — have widely been reported to be substandard. Current and former detainees have complained about unreasonable guards, an insurmountable language barrier, limited access to legal resources, poor-to-non-existant medical care, and inadequate food. (CL visited the Corrections Corporation of America-owned Stewart Detention Facility — the largest the country — in Lumpkin, Ga. last year. Although we were unable to gain access, family members and immigrant advocates detailed many similar complaints.)

The ACLU of Georgia released a study today — the product of more than three years of research — that echoes many of those complaints. Based on detainee interviews, as well as interviews with detainees' friends and family members, facility tours, and FOIA requests, the study outlines several areas of concern, including due process, living conditions, and inadequate medical care at Georgia's four immigrant detention facilities: Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, North Georgia Detention Center in Gainesville, Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, and Atlanta City Detention Center. Three of the four facilities are privately owned.

The 112-page study goes into great detail facility-by-facility, but here are some highlights of their findings from the executive summary:

Some detainees are being held long after they were supposed to be released ...

At Stewart, at least two detainees interviewed by the ACLU of Georgia were still in detention more than six months after their final orders of removal were issued. In light of the serious due process concerns presented by indefinite detention, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that detention exceeding six months violates detainees’ right to liberty without sufficient justification or adequate procedural safeguards where detainees’ removal is not reasonably foreseeable.

Most guards and ICE officials can't communicate with detainees ...

Although the majority of immigrant detainees in Georgia only speak Spanish, the majority of detention facility staff and medical staff do not. Of the four facilities, Irwin had the largest bilingual staff with 20 percent of the staff able to speak Spanish; however, even at that facility, it is still common practice to have other detainees interpret. At ACDC [Atlanta City Detention Center], one detainee was afraid to interpret for other detainees since he was previously put in the segregation unit for interpreting.

Some detainees aren't being fed properly ...

Detainees had three main concerns about the food served at each detention facility: unusual mealtimes, insufficient quantity, and poor quality. Some detainees complained about the 15-hour period between dinner and breakfast. Most detainees also complained that portions were too small and some detainees began to work in the kitchen just so they could eat more. Detainees reported weight loss; one detainee lost 68 pounds while at Stewart. Several detainees also reported being served expired food or beverages and finding foreign objects in their food; this was especially prevalent at Stewart.

Detainees claim guards are retaliatory and abusive ...

For example, after the ACLU of Georgia interviewed a detainee at Stewart, he was sent directly to the segregation unit and confined for 29 days. Although he was not given a reason for being put in segregation, his wife believed that he was put in segregation as a consequence of speaking to the ACLU of Georgia. Other forms of retaliation include denying detainees recreation, food, law library access, or telephone privileges. In 2009 and 2011, detainees at Stewart documented instances where CCA guards sent detainees to the segregation unit for complaining about the quality of the water.

The study concludes with a long list of recommendations, the most pointed of which is, "Mandatory detention of immigrants must end." The entire study is available here.

1. The CDC has released its lengthy annual report (583 pages!) on health in the U.S. Teen pregnancy is down, obesity is up, and we're slowly becoming immortal. (My professional, medical summary.)

2. Do you hear that clanging sound? That's just Douglasville Mayor Harvey Persons and his gigantic, brass balls a'coming down the street. Persons vetoed a unanimous city council decision to let voters decide in November whether they want the ability to buy alcohol on Sundays. In a statement, Persons said: "I am opposed to this and I feel there already is sufficient time during the week when people can make purchases of packaged beer, wine and spirituous liquor." MAYOR PERSONS HATH SPOKEN.

3. While responding to the shooting death of 28-year-old Matt Lenix at Starlight Drive-In on Monday night, DeKalb County Police hit and killed another man, 27-year-old Clifton Hightower, as he crossed the street toward a gas station. More on both incidents in a bit.

4. George Zimmerman's family doctor says his patient, who's accused of murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on February 26 in a Sanford, Fla. subdivision, had a broken nose, two black eyes, and cuts on his head when he came in for an exam the day after the incident. The Martin family's attorney continues to point to the fact that the "ER personnel did not believe his injuries were significant enough for him to go to the hospital" the night of the incident.

• Joeff Davis/CL File

1. Details are scarce, but apparently someone was shot and killed at Starlight Drive-In at around midnight last night.

2. I distinctly remember sitting on my mom's lap and driving around our apartment complex in Yonkers, New York at, like, seven years old (for more on my idyllic and potentially dangerous childhood read my memoir "Neil Simon's Sloshed in Yonkers") but this story is different because the child was driving not on a lap and also drove through a house in Conyers.

3. The University of West Georgia is holding a blood drive in honor of Aimee Copeland, the grad student who contracted a flesh eating disease after cutting her leg when a homemade zip line broke. Does anyone else live with the innate fear that they'll suffer a serious injury whilst doing something that's supposed to be fun? I'm assuming other people do. And that's why this is national news (Fresh Loaf commenters, I'm talking to you).

4. You think pink slime is gross and now people don't have jobs and it's all your fault.

Aimee Copeland, the University of West Georgia grad student who contracted a flesh eating disease when she fell from a broken zip line near the Little Tallapoosa River, is still in critical condition in the burn unit of an Augusta hospital. But her parents say they're encouraged by signs that she's improving, for instance, that they've been able to read her lips with the help of a nurse — and she says she wants ice cream.

Sadly, it doesn't appear that Aimee is aware what's happened to her since the accident. After doctors discovered she'd contracted a flesh eating bacteria, her left leg was amputated at the hip and there's a chance she could lose her right foot and her fingers. The Copelands say Aimee has asked things like where she is, how long she's been there, and whether she's missed school or work.

Here's what the Copelands had to say to the Today Show's Ann Curry this morning ...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

• Joeff Davis/CL File
• State Sen. George Hooks

2. The Rev. Raphael Warnock, Ebenezer Baptist Church's pastor, carefully waded into the debate over gay marriage (without taking a yea-or-nay position) during the Sunday service at Martin Luther King, Jr.,'s former church. In short: keep an open mind and don't let the issue dominate the presidential election.

3. The battle for Fulton County Tax Commissioner's office might actually be a little interesting.