Fresh Loaf

CBS 46 (”We ask the tough questions! Eat that, liars!”) reports Atlanta City Council President Lisa Border’s Southwest Atlanta home  was burglarized a few hours after Mayor Shirley Franklin’s Monday speech in which she said crime in the city had gone down. The robbers, who kicked in Borders’ front door, made off with a 26″ flat-screen television. (Click the link above to view the report.)

Another tip of the hat to Grayson for sending the link.

Bookmark It

Atlanta’s “Crime Stoppers” program is offering a $5,000 reward for info that leads to the identification of the four gunman responsible for the murder of John Henderson. Henderson was gunned down execution style early Wednesday inside the Standard Food & Spirits on Memorial Drive in north Grant Park.

The gunman had thrown a brick through the front door and ordered Henderson and a female bartender into the Standard’s office. After handing over money to the gunman, Henderson was shot four times — for no apparent reason. The woman, who slipped away to hide in a cabinet, was not harmed.

According to a Crime Stoppers press release:

Due to the heinous nature of the crime, the reward pool is being increased.  In most cases the maximum reward amount is $2,000.

“Whenever there is a heinous crime of this nature, citizens naturally want to do their part to help,” says Dave Wilkinson, CEO of the Atlanta Police Foundation. “Crime Stoppers allows them to have a voice.  Citizens can either phone in information anonymously or donate to the reward pool.”

Chief Richard Pennington is asking for the public’s help.  “We are following all possible leads at this time, but believe there are citizens out there that can help us identify these suspects.  By calling Crime Stoppers citizens can get that information to us without fear of reprisal”, stated Pennington.

If you are interested in donating to the reward pool, go to www.atlantapolicefoundation.org or www.crimestoppersatlanta.org. To give a tip, call 404-577-TIPS(8477) or log onto www.crimestoppersatlanta.org.

Bookmark It

Tired of swallowing Xanax every time you jump on a plane to visit the folks? You might get an alternative, my weary friend.

A new multi-state study says high-speed rail is feasible along I-85 from Charlotte, N.C. to Macon. Greenville, S.C. and Atlanta would be stops along the route.

From a press release about the study:

The Charlotte-Macon Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor study assesses the capacity and speed capabilities of the corridor and estimates possible ridership, revenue, operating and capital costs associated with extending high-speed passenger rail from Charlotte, N.C. to Macon, Ga., along the I-85 corridor. The report also addresses the feasibility of train speeds up to 150 miles per hour, including new track construction in locations that would increase speeds and avoid congested areas. The study was conducted by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Mass.

“This effort supports our shared belief that we must seriously consider — and plan for — transportation alternatives in these rapidly developing areas,” said Georgia Transportation Commissioner Gena Evans. “Given the growth our states continue to experience, we must explore every tool in our tool box in order to move the needle on transportation reform.”

…

High speed rail service, where appropriate, will provide business and leisure travelers with a competitive alternative to air and auto for trips between 100 and 500 miles.

Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia are working together with the business communities in each state to plan, develop and implement high speed rail in the Southeast. If implemented, the system would be developed incrementally, upgrading existing rail rights of way where possible.

What’s next? More studies, of course, including environmental assessments and modeling to gauge how viabile it would be to connect high-speed rail to other cities such as Washington, D.C. and Boston. Nowhere in the release does it mention how much the project would cost, which, in the end, is what determines whether it gets off the drawing board and into reality.

The complete study is also available online for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Full press release is after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Wonder World Amusement Park

America’s got more Wiis than diabetes, but many critics and gamers regularly disparage the little white box. Their tremendous skepticism might seem like sour grapes, as if nontraditional gamers are trampling over their hallowed subculture, but it’s not entirely unwarranted. Despite a few great releases early in the year (No More Heroes, Boom Blox, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Okami), 2008 saw a painful dearth of high-quality traditional video games for the Wii.

There wasn’t much to appease gamers interested in the sort of long-form, story-based experiences that have typified gaming since the original Nintendo Entertainment System. That doesn’t mean the Wii had a light release schedule, though; there was a deluge of Wii titles in 2008, both technically minimized installments of multi-platform hits (Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Lego Batman), and mounds of carelessly produced rush jobs that have helped earn the system its bad reputation.

At first glance, Guinness World Records: The Video Game and Wonder World Amusement Park both look like the latter. Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

Tell all your friends! It’s time for the 8th annual CL Fiction Contest Party!

Joins us TONIGHT from 7-9 p.m. at Eyedrum (290 MLK Jr. Drive, Suite 8, 404-522-0655, www.eyedrum.org).

We received more than 200 entries and had to whittle them down to our three faves. It wasn’t easy, believe us. We had amazing help from our three local judges: award-winning children’s author Carmen Deedy; author, playwright and professor Phillip DePoy; and bookworm, aspiring author and Wordsmiths Books marketing guru Russ Marshalek.

The party, which is FREE!! and open to the public, is a great chance to mingle with writers in the community, listen to author readings from the three winning stories, dance to some smooth party jams by local band Night Moves Gold and indulge in refreshments from Highland Bakery.

Aside from the readings, live music and food, Wordsmiths Books will be on hand to sell books, CL will open up its press closet for a book swap and party co-sponsors Oxford Comics and Eyedeology, who’ll be collecting old eyeglasses, will have tables at the event.

Come help Creative Loafing support Atlanta’s burgeoning literary scene. We think you’ll like what you hear.

Bookmark It

OK, I’ve covered Franklin’s speech. Now for the dish, Peach Buzz-style.

Former mayors Sam Massell and Andy Young were both seated at the front table. Ex-jailbird Bill Campbell, however, freshly released from his stint in a Florida halfway house, was nowhere to be seen — probably because the Omni doesn’t have craps tables.

Norwood harshes Shirley's buzz

Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens and new DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis were also present, as was former CEO Liane Levitan. Ellis told me he’d received a surprise message from his predecessor, Vernon Jones, apologizing for missing his swearing-in ceremony this past Monday. (Apparently, Vernon was out of town and didn’t want Ellis to take his absence as a dis.)

Of course, the event was packed with movers and shakers from the business community, from Coke CEO Muhtar Kent to Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce President Sam Williams and all the usual suspects.

The mayor even took a moment to acknowledge her adult children, son Cabral and younger daughter Kali, adding that for all her supposed power and authority, they still treat her like “just mom.”

Finally, all of this year’s mayoral candidates were working the Omni ballroom like bears in a salmon spawn. Sighted were Sen. Kasim Reed, attorney Jesse Spikes, and Council members Ceasar Mitchell and Mary Norwood, as well as Council President Lisa Borders, who has dropped out of the race, but you never know…

Ever the omnipresent gadfly, Norwood had just come from Grant Park and the pre-dawn vigil for slain Standard bartender John Henderson, where she publicly implied that the murder was a result of Franklin’s budget-driven cutbacks in police man-hours.

As soon as she got back to City Hall, Franklin e-mailed out a response:

Councilmember Norwood has never sought to discuss the budget recommendations with me and I find her remarks today to be ludicrous and irresponsible.

And thus was the mayor’s good mood irretrievably squashed.

Bookmark It

Grayson Daughters produced an excellent video of this morning’s vigil for John Henderson, the Standard Food and Spirits bartender who was murdered early Wednesday morning during a robbery at the Memorial Drive restaurant.

Bookmark It

As Valentine season draws near, so does CL’s celebration of unquenchable desire, debilitating crushes and white-hot attraction: our seventh annual Lust List.

We’re not looking for strippers, models, actors or anyone who makes money off their looks. We want to hear about the unappreciated goddesses of the service industry, the unsung gods of blue collar grime, the angels of retail, the hunks of hourly wages.

Tell us where and how we can find the objects of your lust, as well as what makes them hot. And if possible, upload a photo. We don’t care where it comes from — Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, clandestine camera phone shot, etc. Or, if that’s too complicated for you, just add a link to a pic in the comment field.

Deadline for online ballot submission is January 23, 2009.

Check out Creative Loafing’s Feb. 11 issue to see if your crush made the cut!

Bookmark It

Mayor Shirley Franklin (CL file photo)

Shirley Franklin didn’t need to say a word before finding out how Atlanta’s business/civic leadership feel about her tenure as mayor. Even as she stepped to the podium in an Omni Hotel ballroom to deliver her State of the City address this morning, she was greeted with a long, enthusiastic standing ovation by the near-overflow crowd.

It may have helped that the audience had been primed by a slick, 15-minute video produced by Coke extolling Franklin’s accomplishments: the sewer overhaul, the purchase of the King papers, the completion of the fifth runway. But even some of Shirley’s detractors later told me they were surprised by how warmly she was received by the business community. It was not polite applause heard this morning; it was genuine affection for a mayor who – whether or not you appreciate her style or the results of her efforts – hasn’t backed away from tackling some very formidable challenges since coming into office.

Thankfully, Franklin didn’t give the same speech she delivered to the City Council on Monday, which was simply a disjointed litany of statistics and trivia designed to tout her accomplishments as mayor, with little real acknowledgment of the city’s recent setbacks

Read the rest of this entry »

Bookmark It

PARENT TRAP? An officer responded to a fight call at an apartment on Forrest Park Road. A 35-year-old man said he was inside his apartment when two women kicked in his front door and tried to steal his baby’s clothes from his home. The man said he has two kids with one of the door-kicking women, but they don’t live together. He said he tried to push his kids’ mother out of the apartment, but the two women grabbed a tiki torch near his door and started beating him in the face and arm. He said a third woman — who was inside his apartment — grabbed a gun and told the other two women to leave. He said the two women ran over to his car, a Ford Explorer, and used a cement brick to do more than $1,000 in damages.

Read more from the Blotter.

(Illustration by Tray Butler)

Bookmark It

As mentioned in Joeff Davis’ earlier post about this morning’s vigil at the Standard, local residents Kyle Keyser and Tessa Horehled have started an advocacy group for Atlantans to connect and stay informed about crimes and other issues affecting the community.

The group, called Atlantans Together Against Crime and Cutbacks, is in its beginning stages. (Residents can share stories and information about crimes with other members on the group’s Facebook page.)

Keyser writes:

The Facebook forum will be for sharing accounts of violent crime that effect those within our community, as well as posting updates on news, protests, and other tools to help bring awareness to this issue. The mailing list below will be used to share information on gatherings, protests, and lobbying efforts to fight cutbacks. You will not be inundated with email and will only notify you of big events (estimated at a few emails a month).

Bookmark It

Rubi Cuautle, at a vigil for John Henderson

Tears, laughs, prayers, cigarettes and calls for organizing against crime were the orders of business this morning at a vigil in front of the Standard Food & Spirits — where, one day earlier, 27-year-old bartender John Henderson was murdered during an armed robbery.

Police estimated that more than 200 people, including Henderson’s friends and supporters,