Education for the Electronic Age

I found a neat little story at the BBC about how one school in Kenya is trying to combat the costs of textbooks that many poor families struggle with.

However, in Class Five, things are just a little bit different. Fifty-four 11-year-old students are willing guinea pigs in an extraordinary experiment aimed at using technology to deliver education across the continent.

In the Eduvision pilot project, textbooks are out, customised Pocket PCs, referred to as e-slates, are very much in.

They are wi-fi enabled and run on licence-free open source software to keep costs down.

"The e-slates contain all the sorts of information you'd find in a textbook and a lot more," said Eduvision co-founder Maciej Sudra.

"They contain textual information, visual information and questions. Within visual information we can have audio files, we can have video clips, we can have animations.

"At the moment the e-slates only contain digitised textbooks, but we're hoping that in the future the students will be able to complete their assignments on these books and send them to the teacher, and the teacher will be able to grade them and send them back to the student."

Pocket PCs were chosen in place of desktops because they are more portable, so the children can take them home at night, and also because they're also cheaper, making them cost-effective alternatives to traditional methods of learning.

Of course, other problems arise such as the fact that many of these students do not have access to electricity needed to continually recharge batteries, not to mention the lack of durability associated with travel across such strenuous terrain, but it most certainly is a novel idea, and I am confident that there will be solutions.

I wonder how such an educational medium would fare in the industrialized world, where electricity is plentiful. In the United States, state governments could subsidize the handhelds, which could ultimately save it money as textbook costs are replaced as software updates are more frequent than the state would be willing to pay for the books themselves. Of course, similar experiments have taken place in Western countries , but what were the findings and results of such studies? I mean, it is already true that today's teenagers are more technologically savvy than ever. How immersed were the students and teachers in using such devices for educational purposes? The 21st century brings many possibilities.

Miami Vice

How in the world did I miss this? A Miami city politican, distraught by the Miami Herald's reporting of his corruption, committed suicide* in the lobby of that paper. But the story gets stranger; the Herald has apparently fired its star columnist, Jim DeFede, because he taped a phone conversation with Councilor Teele hours before Teele's suicide, an act which is a violation of state law. In other words, tragedy has turned into scandel at the Herald. Miami Vice indeed.

*Warning: Graphic images.

Big Trouble In Little League

Remember the days when the biggest controversy to affect Little League baseball was when 14-year olds pretended to be 12? Well those days are over, as Little League has gotten downright despicable.

Ump's language ban incites protest

METHUEN, Mass. (AP) -- Coaches on a Little League team filed a protest with the league after an umpire ordered the players to stop speaking Spanish during a state tournament game this week.

Coaches said the order demoralized the Methuen players and cost the team the game.

"This never should have happened," coach Chris Mosher told the Eagle-Tribune newspaper. "These are 14-year-old kids who should not have to deal with any of this, especially in Little League baseball."

Boy says coach told him to hit teammate

UNIONTOWN, Pa., July 29 (UPI) -- An 8-year-old Pennsylvania boy testified a baseball coach told him to throw a ball at the head of an autistic teammate to get him out of a game.

Keith Reese said at a hearing in Uniontown, Pa., that Mark Downs, his T-ball coach told him to throw a ball at the head of 9-year-old Harry Bowers Jr., and when that ball missed, hit the ground, and then hit his teammate's groin, the coach offered him $25 to throw another ball at the boy's head "harder," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Friday.

Youth sentenced to detention center in baseball bat killing

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A 13-year-old boy convicted of beating his friend to death with a baseball bat was sentenced Thursday to a youth detention facility until he is 25 years old, although he could be paroled before then...

Witnesses said the 13-year-old's team had just lost its first game of the season, and he was getting in line at a snack bar when he and Rourke got into some sort of scuffle. Some witnesses said there was a dispute between the teens over their place in line; others said Rourke teased the suspect over the loss.

Maybe this is just a marketing stunt by the producers of the new Bad News Bears flick?

44 for 43

President Bush's approval rating is now at an all-time low of 44%. Compare that with President Clinton's approval rating of 73% directly after he was impeached. If anything though, this speaks of the ineptitude of the Democratic political machine as we were unable to beat this man back in November. Sad.

Purple Rage

While I think New Line Cinema's marketing stunt was sleazy, I wonder why the outrage that caused that production company to remove the offending material from the Wedding Crashers website couldn't even garner an apology from the Republican Party.

**edited for my apparent inability to spell

Labor Pains

It seems that the largest coalition of organized labor has done the inevitable and split up. It wasn't an issue of if, but when. I was just surprised that the growing rift within the AFL-CIO didn't recieve much coverage until now. In regards to the overall debate over the direction of the AFL-CIO, I think I stand with Stern, the SEIU, and the Teamsters on this; you won't make any headway by doing the same things. As an aside, I think it's really interesting that Stern and the SEIU are playing second fiddle to Hoffa and his Teamsters in regards to media coverage. If you are interested as to what has been happening as of late, be sure to check this out. And for you Wal-Mart opponents, that corporation played a big part in the recent turn of events, so be sure to read.

Oh yeah, the guy in the picture is John L. Lewis, former president of the United Mine Workers of America and founder of the Committee of Industrial Organization. Look him up, and see why with these recent events, he's as relevant as ever.

Tuberculosis, Southern Style

Georgia recently ranked as the 6th worse state for tuberculosis outbreaks.

Georgia ranks sixth worst among states for TB. Atlanta's rate — 14.2 cases per 100,000 — is 2.5 times the national average.

Last year in Georgia, 537 cases of TB were reported and 25 deaths. Fulton County saw 116 new cases; black people accounted for about 78 percent of the cases but comprise 44 percent of the county's population.

That's pretty ironic, considering Atlanta is the headquarters for the Center for Disease Control.

Crashing the Party

Pennsylvania's Democratic Lt. Governor, Catherine Baker Knoll, is in hot water over an incident in the Pittsburgh suburb of Carnegie. Apparantly, not only did she attend the funeral of Pennsylvanian marine, but "passed out her business card and made a remark about the state government being against the war." Now, that seems pretty atrocious, but I'm going to reserve judgement until I hear what Knoll and her people have to say. I mean, I can't easily imagine that Pennsylvania's second highest ranking official would be belligerent enough to pull a campaign stunt like this. We will see...

Life After Death

In the lastest development to legitimate hip-hop in mainstream Americana (the postively reviewed Hustle & Flow also comes to mind), it seems that Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Biggie Smalls a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G., is getting a biopic. Even if it turns out to be a bad movie, the soundtrack should certainly be top notch. If Biggie's lyrics are any indication, expect a rags to riches story.

I made the change from a common thief
To up close and personal with Robin Leach
And I'm far from cheap, I smoke skunk with my peeps all day
Spread love, it's the Brooklyn way
The Moet and Alize keep me pissy
Girls used to diss me
Now they write letters 'cause they miss me
I never thought it could happen, this rappin' stuff
I was too used to packin' gats and stuff
Now honies play me close like butter played toast
From the Mississippi down to the east coast
Condos in Queens, indo for weeks
Sold out seats to hear Biggie Smalls speak
Livin' life without fear
Puttin' 5 karats in my baby girl's ears
Lunches, brunches, interviews by the pool
Considered a fool 'cause I dropped out of high school
Stereotypes of a black male misunderstood
And it's still all good

Nuclear(er) India

Indian Prime Minister Mamohan Singh spoke before Congress in order to get their support for the dissolution of laws that would prevent the United States from forwarding nuclear materials to India (we placed nuclear sanctions on India for detonating bombs in 1998). President Bush is all for the initiative.

During an Oval Office meeting, the two leaders broke new ground on nuclear power, with Bush offering U.S. help in India's civilian nuclear program despite its military nuclear capabilities and its refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. India remains one of only four states that have not signed the treaty.

According to a joint statement issued after their meeting, Bush "stated that as a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology, India should acquire the same benefits and advantages as other such states."

What I think complicates the situation exponentially is that it could certainly put a dent in the United States' recent honeymoon with Pakistan, a nation that also has a nuclear arsenal, and was on the brink of nuclear war with India back in 1998.

And certainly, there are other concerns in all of this:

While improved relations with India are desirable, "it's unfortunate they picked the nuclear area and the missile/space areas in which to do this because it really erodes certain fundamental principles," said Leonard Spector of the Monterey Institute's Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

The belief that the spread of nuclear weapons must be curbed "is being trumped by a view that there are worthy holders of nuclear weapons and unworthy holders and that universal rules are going to be modified in a way that favors those countries considered more worthy," added Spector, a former Clinton administration official.

At least the President is consistant though. In the first presidential debate, he was deliberate in his opposition to nuclear proliferation in the hands of terrorists, as opposed to Senator Kerry's opposition to proliferation entirely, which is also consistant with his desire to expand non-military nuclear technologies. At the risk of making an understatement, it doesn't change the fact that any way you cut it, nuclear technology is dangerous and accidents are long term problems.

It's Roberts

Apparently. And so it begins...

*edit* I can't spell apparEntly...

Westmoreland update

Well that story got pushed to the back really quickly. Here is the article from CNN. I guess I feel that this is a big deal because in my mind, Westmoreland was to Vietnam what MacArthur and Nimitz were to World War II.

William Westmoreland Dead at 91

It doesn't matter how you feel about America's role in Vietnam, when America loses a piece of its history, it's a sad moment.

Little Green Footballs

I rarely agree with Oliver Willis anymore, but I think he hit the nail on the head when he calls out the Republican National Committee for endorsing the right-wing weblog, Little Green Footballs. The Islamophobia that goes on at LGF is one thing, but as Willis points out, the fact that President Bush has been careful about his characterization is Islam, calling it a religion of peace and conducting the fight against terrorism with those sensitivities in mind (despite what Dick Cheney tells us), it seems that for the RNC to endorse LGF undermines the President's agenda.

A Quick Note

Sorry for the week long hiatus by the way. I recently purchased Gran Turismo 4 and the latest incarnation of EA Sport's NCAA football series, so along with working out (I can go 3 miles consecutively now!), the week seemed to fly by. My bad.

Oy

This has to be one of the worst articles I've seen in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. You'd think they could go two sentences without a corny reference to Judaism. And although I'm not Jewish, I'm not a fan of how Jewish culture is being exploited in order to sell alcohol, but that's just me.

Sketch

Think you've gotten pretty good at avoiding those radio advertisements? Guess again.

Steve and Vikki, the morning tag team on Star 94-FM, are gabbing on-air about a comedian.

Out of the blue, Steve McCoy blurts, "Maybe you can suggest she could use a Swiffer WetJet at home."

Vikki Locke, on cue, tells radio land how she sponged up spilled soy sauce just last night. "With the Swiffer WetJet," she sing-songs, "it was so easy and fast to clean."

For 2¸ minutes, which includes an amusing debate on how long dropped food can linger on a floor before it becomes inedible, they name the mopping gizmo a combined eight times. (That doesn't count unsolicited mentions from two callers.) McCoy recounts his sons' duels with the devices, light sabers that spray cleanser on the enemy.

Listeners, savvy and unsuspecting, have just been exposed to what might be considered stealth advertising. The WetJet maker paid the station for 60 seconds worth of yak time and compensated the disc jockeys. The runover 90 seconds? A freebie.

Steve and Vicki (strange for me to refer to them this way, but I grew up listening to them in the mornings) defend this practice, because as Vicki argues, "If I don't use it, or I don't like it, I don't do it." I don't think that justifies the practice though, because they are still being paid for an act that they would not do otherwise unless they were being prompted to do so. The fact that all of this is scripted, no matter how much the DJ is giving their true endorsement for a particular product, takes away from the random and conversational nature of talk and morning shows, which is a big reason why people listen to them in the first place.

The Thrill Is Gone

Georgia State Superintendent Kathy Cox (not the same person as gubernatorial candidate Cathy Cox, although Kathy ran in the Republican primary for Governor back in 2002... confused?) is "thrilled" that 80% of Georgia schools made it within guidelines established by No Child Left Behind.

This represents the biggest percentage of schools to ever make AYP. “I’m thrilled with, but not surprised by, the results,” Superintendent Cox said. “I have been around this state and have seen how hard teachers, administrators and students are working.”

Not so fast! Considering that Georgia is currently ranked 46 of 51 in terms of educational achievement, I don't think "we should be all to thrilled" as we have tons of work that still needs to be done. However, it is good news that, as ALEC points out, "Georgia (+109.2 percent), followed closely by Maine (+108.1 percent), led the nation in increased spending since 1981." So at least we're trying.

Only In Dixie

One of those things that could only happen south of the Mason-Dixon line:

Strippers Arrested in Alleged Spanking
JACKSONVILLE, Ark. — Three strippers and two nightclub managers have been arrested for allegedly spanking a trucker at his 31st birthday bash and severely bruising his backside.

After his friends paid $25, Keith Lowery was handcuffed and spanked with a 3-foot-long paddle and a belt while one of the strippers restrained his head with her legs, investigators with the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office said.

Kelly Eslick, 21, a stripper at Sensations nightclub in Jacksonville admitted to police that she used a paddle drilled with holes for less air resistance while the two other dancers, Lisa Nolen, 23, and Charlene Smith, 23, used the belt.

The three women were charged with misdemeanor battery, and they and two other club employees — James Daugherty, 31, and Dena Mitchell, 30 — were charged with participating in an obscene performance at a live public show, a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Daugherty had planned to have patrons sign a waiver releasing the club from liability, but investigators said the club has agreed to discontinue all spankings. All five club employees were arraigned Friday, then released after receiving an Aug. 4 court date in Pulaski County District Court.

Givin' the Guv'ment It's Due

Here's an interesting story making the rounds in Georgia:

The Georgia Department of Revenue uncovered 2,209 fraudulent tax returns during the recent tax-filing season — including 10 filed by its own employees.

The employees, who were caught claiming unauthorized dependents, all resigned or were fired, Revenue Department spokesman Charles Willey said.

The department is demanding that the former employees reimburse the state a total of $4,042. The agency stopped refunds totaling about $2.8 million to the others, Willey said.

My favorite part of the story though?

In May, officials said they had started garnisheeing the wages of 32 state employees for back taxes. The list included two metro Atlanta lawmakers, Rep. Ron Sailor (D-Decatur) and state Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta).

The reason being, Ron Sailor is my state representative. Fun times.

Curbing Teen Drivers

The Georgia government recently finalized a law making the completion of driver's education courses the only route in which 16 year olds can get driver's licenses. Otherwise, they hae to wait until they are 17.

The bill imposes a five percent surcharge on traffic fines to help fund driver training courses around the state, and teens would be required to take that course or wait until they are 17 to get a driver's license. They now can be licensed at 16.

But as Gov. Purdue argues:

Perdue says he was troubled by some aspects of the financing mechanism and by the fact that students unable to take a course at their local schools would have to pay for private courses or wait a year for their license. Perdue says the author, Senator Preston Smith of Rome, has agreed to work with him on changes next year.

I agree with the Governor on this. Many families have teenagers that work to help out around the house, or even just simply allow families to multitask better, and considering the sprawling nature of metro Atlanta, driving can be essential means of transportation. But then again, I'd rather such a surcharge to towards investment in Atlanta's public transportation infrastructure.

Contributions Update

When I made my original post about the recently disclosed financial contributions to candidates for statewide constitutional offices in 2006, I noted:

Christian Coalition leader and Republican Lt. Governor candidate Ralph Reed's disclosure information is not listed there. Neither is Democratic Secretary of State candidate Shyam Reddy's information. Maybe they didn't file electronically? I really would like to know the answer.

Well, the answer seems to be a lot simpler than I had thought; they just hadn't been posted on the Secretary of State's Disclosure Reports page. Well, here are the results for those two candidates:

Ralph Reed (R) - $1,379,045.21
Shyam Reddy (D) - $143,806.19

Now, both these numbers are particularly impressive. In regards to Reed, the AJC reports:

Meanwhile, Republican lieutenant governor hopeful Ralph Reed, former leader of the Christian Coalition, reported collecting $1.4 million during the period, doubling the total of his GOP rival, state Sen. Casey Cagle (R-Gainesville). Reed has continued raising money despite a steady stream of news reports and documents from U.S. Senate hearings that put him at the edge of a Washington scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his dealings with Indian tribal clients. Reed has not been accused of wrongdoing.

As for Reddy, he raised double what fellow Democratic challengers Angela Moore and Carol Jackson did, combined. Not bad for a 1st-generation Indian-American community activist who has never held public office.

She's Back

Paula Jones is planning on making a very, very public trip to the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Paula Jones plans to make her first visit to the Bill Clinton presidential library a profitable one — she plans to wear a T-shirt emblazoned with a sponsor's name.

"I'm going to make a big show out of it," said her publicist, David Hans Schmidt. "Paula is basically going to go to the Clinton Library and go on a tour like the faithful taxpayer that she is."

Her new nickname should be "NASCAR Paula."

Where's Tanya Harding when you need her?

Not Exactly Great News

Today, political candidates in Georgia were required to disclose fundraising amounts. So far, it's not looking good for Georgia Democrats. Here are the total contribution results from today's filing for the more contentious constitutional offices:

Governor
Sonny Purdue (R) - $7,673,068.28
Mark Taylor (D) - $3,362,361.71
Cathy Cox (D) - $2,119,760.82

Lt. Governor
Greg Hecht (D) - $425,810.00
Casey Cagle (R) - $626,228.00
Jim Martin (D) - $230,119.76
John Oxendine (R) - $522,524.00

Secretary of State
Carol Jackson (D) - $29,055.00
Perry McGuire (R) - $114,983.59
Angela Moore (D) - $55,500.00
Bill Stephens (R) - $227,235.00

A couple of things strike me after having browsed through the Secretary of State's Financial Disclosure Reports page. Christian Coalition leader and Republican Lt. Governor candidate Ralph Reed's disclosure information is not listed there. Neither is Democratic Secretary of State candidate Shyam Reddy's information. Maybe they didn't file electronically? I really would like to know the answer.

While this is a bit worrisome, incumbents traditionally start off with significantly larger amounts of money than their challengers. It should also be noted that Gov. Purdue has no significant Republican challenger, so his donors would not be split like those of Cathy Cox and Mark Taylor. In regards to the Democratic candidates, it is of interest that Mark Taylor recently had strong endorsements from several of Georgia's labor unions (he had already received an endorsement from the Communication Workers of America, and according to this, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers contributed $5,000 to his campaign), and I believe that shows in his profiting over Cathy Cox.

In regards to the other constitutional offices, there have been mixed results for Democrats:

In other races, Republicans did well raising money even against incumbents. In the race for agriculture secretary, long-serving Democratic incumbent Tommy Irvin raised $118,781. That's just a hair over the total raised by Republican state Sen. Brian Kemp, who raised $117,025, and less than the sum raised by Republican farmer Gary Black of Commerce, who raised $121,670.
...
One of the few competitive down-ticket races where Democrats had an advantage for the first six months of 2005 was for insurance commissioner. In that race, Democrat Gaeton Drexinger raised $106,616. Incumbent Republican John Oxendine raised $27,250. But again, incumbency means Oxendine started the year with about $719,000.

Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond, a Democrat, raised $46,695 for his re-election during the first six months of the year. So far he has no announced opposition for 2006.

As an aside, I think I should share the fact that I contributed $50 to Cathy Cox's campaign.

London Calling

What a difference a day makes. I had originally planned to post about a bit of an embarassing moment that President Bush had at G8, pointing out how similar it was to a particular The West Wing episode (strangely enough, the only episode of The West Wing that I have seen), and even more strangely enough, it was the second time in the past year or so that he had an incident with a bicycle. But when I got home today, I learned about the bombings in London, although I had heard bits and pieces about it at work.

My thoughts go out to the people of London and the United Kingdom. It certainly is such an unfortunate turn of events there. The UK had been on cloud 9 these past few weeks, with leadership and activism from the British people with Live 8, with Tony Blair's leadership in trying to get the West to invest in more aid to Africa with the G8 Summit, and with yesterday's announcement that London would host the 2012 Olympic Games.

I'll end with the second verse of the British national anthem:

O Lord, our God, arise,
Scatter her enemies,
And make them fall.
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On thee our hopes we fix:
God save the Queen.

Happy Freedom from British Tyranny Day!

So, after a day of breaking my personal distance record and running 2.5 miles, cooking out, thunderstorms, a Braves shut-out, and watching Cool Hand Luke, I seem to be left with only 15 minutes to post something for Independence Day and for that post to still be relevant. I can't really think of anything inspirational in these last few minutes and I'm not really in the mood to write anything about how much I love or hate my country, so I will leave y'all with a simple question:

Are you more likely to call today's holiday the "4th of July" or "Independence Day," because I've noticed today after several "Happy 4th of July!"s that Independence Day isn't as popular of a distinction for the holiday as I had thought, even though that's what it is officially called. Any thoughts?

I tried googling and this is what I got:

Results 1 - 10 of about 204,000 for "happy 4th of july". (0.15 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 55,900 for "happy independence day". (0.09 seconds)

Fun times.

Oh, and tomorrow (which is in like 11 minutes), July 5, is my birthday. I'll turn 22. Wish me happy birthday or something.

Jus' Noodlin'

God I love the South.

***update*** Link fixed!

Gee Golly

The Minnesota state government has shut down for the first time in the state's history. Considering the Independence Day celebrations this weekend, the shut down could not have come at a worse time. From the Washington Post:

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- More than 9,000 state employees were told to stay home Friday and drivers found highway rest stops closed at the start of the busy Fourth of July weekend as a budget stalemate led to the first government shutdown in Minnesota history.

The Democrats, who control the state Senate, were locked in a standoff with Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the GOP-controlled House over how much to spend on schools and health care and how to pay for it. As a result, the new fiscal year began Friday, just after midnight, with only a partial spending plan in place.
...
The shutdown led to finger-pointing by both parties, with the Democrats accusing the governor of making shifting demands, and the Republicans charging that the Democrats wanted at least a brief shutdown to hurt Pawlenty as he prepares for a 2006 re-election campaign.

Frankly, I'm a bit unimpressed by the Minnesota Democrat's defense; what the hell are "shifting demands." At least the state's GOP accusation has a bit of penache.

Minnesota isn't the only state that was unable to push a budget through by the July 1 deadline: however, of the 11 total states that had no budget by the deadline (which includes California, Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin) Minnesota is the only one of them that compels a shut down of the state government.

Every state suffers different consequences if it fails to pass a budget funding state services.

At least 20 states would order a government shutdown.

In 12 states, government services would continue without legislative action, such as our neighbors in Wisconsin, who would operate month-to-month if the state didn't reach a budget agreement.

And 11 states require funding resolutions.

This tells me that that the reformation of how the state handles missed budget deadlines should be at the top of its agenda at its next session; that way, 9,000 people won't be out of work.

Of course, the shut down won't keep the state from partying like it's 1905, as Minnesota is set to celebrate it's 100th birthday.

A number of events are planned for the Fourth of July as part of a yearlong series of commemorations to mark the Capitol's centennial. An all-comers public chorus will sing patriotic songs at the Capitol at noon, while there will be additional singing and dancing inside and outside the building.

Actors portraying historic figures, including Cass Gilbert, the architect who designed the Capitol, and John Johnson, who was Minnesota's governor when it opened in 1905, will roam the events. Tours of the Capitol will be available.

A parade that had been planned to commemorate the day has been canceled. Instead, there will be vintage 1905 games, including an ice-cream eating contest and sack races, according to Sylvia Olson of Tunheim Partners, which is helping coordinate the events.

Nothing says fiscal crisis like ice cream and sack races.

"Project Lithonia"

In order to combat its financial woes, community activists in my hometown of Lithonia are apparantly planning a big fundraiser:

Thursday morning on Main Street in Lithonia is as stiflingly still as the muggy June air that barely stirs the American flags draped from the city's light poles.

Many storefronts along either side of the street are vacant. Few cars drive by. In a 30-minute period, exactly three people pass by on the sidewalk.

"It feels like poverty is hovering over the city," said community activist Joyce McKibben, giving a reporter a tour of the town. "This place is a dead zone."

This Independence Day weekend, with a little help, maybe the dead will rise.

McKibben and a group of volunteers are hosting a fund-raiser, Project Lithonia, during which a fish fry, a softball game and an outdoor concert will be used as leverage to try to lift this dolorous little town (population 2,127) in southeast DeKalb County out of its financial and spiritual slough.

Lithonia's woes are too well known.

The town owes about $250,000 to various entities, including the IRS, according to its mayor, who last year was the object of a failed recall. The police force was shut down throughout May because the city couldn't afford to pay insurance on city vehicles, including squad cars.

If any of y'all don't know what Lithonia is like, upon his visit, a good friend of mine best described Lithonia as "countretto"--that is, country and ghetto at the same time.

Eat It, Chi-Town

From AJC:

Atlanta's airport, already the world's busiest in terms of people, is on the way toward becoming the busiest for flights as well.

Hartsfield-Jackson International handled 497,019 flights in the first six months of the year, Federal Aviation Administration officials said Friday.

Its closest competitor, Chicago's O'Hare, handled 483,473.

Hartsfield-Jackson has been the busiest in people terms for several years, handling 83 million last year. But O'Hare had retained the busiest title for flights until now.

One reason for the switch is that the FAA has told airlines to cut schedules at O'Hare to reduce peak-time delays there. Meanwhile, Delta Air Lines has added flights in Atlanta as part of a restructuring.

Chicago officials point out that their city has a second commercial airport, Chicago-Midway, while Atlanta does not.

We can ignore that last sentence in the article... for now...

"Luther" Dead at 54

Luther Vandross, affectionately revered in the black community as simply "Luther," has passed away.

(CNN) -- Legendary R&B artist Luther Vandross died Friday, CNN has confirmed. He was 54 years old.

The popular crooner suffered a debilitating stroke in April 2003. Even so, his album "Dance With My Father," co-written with Richard Marx, sold nearly a million copies in its first month of release that June. And the album won him four Grammy Awards, half his lifetime total, including song of the year.

Vandross' songs and emotionally charged ballads carry a signature soulful, silky sound.

It was after a chance meeting with David Bowie at a recording studio that Vandross was asked to sing backup on Bowie's hit 1975 album, "Young Americans."

Later, Vandross would serve as Bowie's opening act.

Vandross also sang backup for Bette Midler and Barbra Streisand, while lending his voice to commercial jingles.

When record companies rejected him, Vandross used his own money to produce his 1981 debut album, "Never Too Much."

It went on to top the R&B charts and sold 2 million copies.

Other hit singles followed, like "Any Love" and "Here and Now."

Vandross struggled with health and image problems, claiming that he lost 100 pounds -- 13 times. He suffered from diabetes and hypertension but refused to slow down until his stroke two years ago.

And Then There Were Eight...

Sandra Day O'Conner, first female Supreme Court Justice, quintessential SCOTUS swing voter, and arch-conservative, has retired from the Supreme Court. If the battle over federal circuit court judgeships has shown us anything, the nomination of a replacement for O'Conner should certainly be a fun ride.