Anyone know the significance to today’s code?

“Today” by Zero 7. 

1. The Dutch Transportation Board released a YouTube report of their finding into MH17’s crash. Even if you only watch the first 3 minutes of the report it is utterly engrossing, thorough, damning and altogether Dutch. 
2. It turns out when you have to replace 51 points per game, you’re going to have to take a step backwards: GSU ranked 139th nationally. 
3. The top two GOP POTUS hopefuls: a blowhard and someone “who has lost his mind”. Really, either can be used for both Trump and Carson. 
4. Again: if you give to Susan G. Komen, you really are wasting your money and perpetuating a cancer-awareness charity that is more concerned with generating revenue than, you know, curing cancer. 
5. U.S. coastal cities are guaranteed to sink due to global warming–but there’s still room to question the data!
6. I somehow doubt anyone from PP has read past point 3, certainly by point 5 they ceased listening to me.
7. Atlanta Fed says Real GDP grew at 1 percent. Who is more trustworthy the KC Fed? Come on!
8. Is Governor Deal trying to pack SCOTGA?
9. Only the New York Times would say of Young Thug: “Harnessing his sui generis gift has been a more perplexing challenge.”  
10. Did you know there was 1) an African-American Mormon talk-show host and 2) she is from Atlanta? 

Jimmy Carter is 91 today, something that makes his still busy work and travel schedule even more remarkable. He’s also probably going to remain the only POTUS born in Georgia for quite some time.

Should you wish to get in the spirit of the festivities that are bound to sweep the nation, the Carter Center hung this wonderfully low-key display and is offering 91 cent admission all day on Thursday. It’s also #AskAnArchivist day on Twitter for the presidential libraries but I believe that was an independent event.

Happy birthday to President Carter!

John Lewis said he is running for reelection for the 5th Congressional District representing Atlanta.

Speaking to the AJC on Wednesday and surprising perhaps no one, Lewis said:

“Yes, yes. I’m doing it. I’m doing it. I know there are a few people who think: ‘Oh, maybe he’s going to give it up.’ But I’m not giving it up. Not now. Thank you for asking me.”

I’ll make a bold prediction and say he wins easily in 2016 making him one of the most senior members of congress. And in a body that prizes seniority, you don’t want your long-time representatives going anywhere.

“Why is the GOP the only science-climate-change denying party on Earth?” Totally unrelated but I’ve found when you’re the only one who believes something–you’re the one who is wrong.

1. The Blackmail Caucus: AKA the GOP. 
2. Atlanta Fed: Looking around Midtown Atlanta, it is easy to wonder if multifamily housing construction is getting ahead of itself.
3. ARC says Atlanta must continue to innovate. 
4. Georgia Aquarium can’t import Belugas. 
5. Georgia Tech helped find that water on Mars. 
6. Must be why they couldn’t find their offense on Saturday.
7. GT players’ likeness used (without permission) for the it’s-basically-gambling site FanDuel.
8. Too bad, Taka was excellent. 

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro paid a visit to Atlanta on Monday where he announced that Atlanta was one of five cities to be awarded a Choice Neighborhoods Initiative Implementation Grants. In Atlanta, $30 million will go toward the University Choice Neighborhood in the city’s west side.

From a statement sent out by HUD:

As part of the Administration’s overall drive to reinvest in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, President Obama’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is intended to transform distressed public and assisted housing into sustainable, mixed-income housing with access to community assets and services and to support positive outcomes for families living in the development and in the community. The five awardees have proposed to replace more than 1,650 distressed public housing units with more than 2,800 new mixed-income, mixed-use housing units as part of an overall effort to revitalize neighborhoods. For every $1 in Choice Neighborhoods funding they receive, the awardees and their partners will leverage an additional $9 in public and private funding for their project proposals.

“The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative is responsible for transforming what were once vacant lots, crumbling parks and storefronts and distressed housing into vibrant communities,” said Castro. “It has become one of our nation’s most important tools in the fight to ensure that every family — no matter where they live — has the resources and strong foundation to succeed.”

I believe there was something in there about how this proves ITP is better than OTP (once and for all) but I could be mistaken.

The full release is below.
Read more

I’m running for the GOP presidential nomination. And why not? There’s enough folks dropping out I should be able to win, right?

“Up From the South” by The Budos Band. 

1. If you support Kim Davis, fine, whatever. But it’s clear now she has no intention of fulfilling the law and is trying to milk another 15 minutes of fame. So choose your martyrs wisely. 
2. Tech, Emory in top 50 world’s most innovative universities. 
3. Yeah, because tracking every student for three years to figure out what causes students to drop out and then preventing them from doing so isn’t innovative.
4. Totally unrelated to point number three: GSU and Spelman will receive $11m in grants to study how to boost retention and graduation rates. 
5. Atlanta’s health statistics neatly divide into two. You might be surprised to find that those two Atlantas almost completely mirror the racial divide in the city (but you probably aren’t). 
6. Fascinating multi-media profile on Atlanta-based artist and former tagger. 
7. Last winter cost GDOT a cool $8 million. Get it? Cool–like winter weather? 
8. Atlanta Biz Chronicle publisher Ed Baker returning home to GSU. 
9. We mentioned Kasim Reed’s interview with Atlanta Magazine earlier but the whole thing is worth a Reed. Get it? (Seriously though, it is really good). 

Georgia State is first in the Sun Belt Conference football standings. 

“Ain’t No Stopping Us Now” by McFadden & Whitehead.

1. Well… that’s not good… promised pedestrian bridge for Braves park seems in jeopardy. 
2. Mayors from way OTP want rail connections to Atlanta. 
3. SRO for casino hearing. 
4. Let’s see, hot-shot CEO flies in with a well-oiled lobbyist machine and splashy campaign… yeah the bill’s gonna pass.
5. FTA likes the Beltline, MARTA expansion. 
6. Atlanta one city used in study to determine how current segregation destroys black wealth. 
7. NYT: Atlanta a “gentrified, urban grid.”
8. UPS will hire 95k temporary workers for Christmas. 
9. UGA loses out again–only has the fourth-highest number of Walmart fans. 

Ugh. 

“Expiration Date” by Blockhead. 

1. WaHo served it’s 1 billionth waffle yesterday in Atlanta (I would hang that plaque over my mantle). 
2. Ted Cruz is officially a joke: a brilliant man wants people to ignore the SCOTUS’ authority when it suits his agenda. He can no longer be considered a serious candidate who has any desire to uphold the Constitution. 
3. GE might just be putting ATL through the wringer (or GE-made washing machine) about a potential move here. 
4. Coke now allowing proxy process for some shareholders. 
5. Experts are now opposed to GSU’s plans to demolish the not used in three decades Bell Building. 
6. UGA will remain the closest team to the SEC Championship through 2027, but the proximity still won’t help the Dawgs get in. 

What characters will you nerds be dressing up as this weekend?

“Come On! Feel the Illinoise!” by Sufjan Stevens (what a bad album that got so much love at the time–I feel like that’s applicable to every Sufjan album).

1. They said it would never happen but they were wrong! The APS cheating trial finally and mercifully came to an end. 
2. More Dekalb incompetence: their boys in blue don’t know the right house to enter, can’t tell cops from suspect and then shoot the dog of the house to boot. 
3. Keep it up Dekalb and you might soon be at Brookhaven levels of incompetence!
4. Hey Atlanta: you should already give up on trying to get home on Thursday. 
5. Pilgrims head to Plains to pay homage to Carter. 
6. David Perdue says he won’t run for VP. Despite being part of the world’s most exclusive club and now, very much part of the political system, Perdue also doubles down on his patently absurd claim of being an “outsider.” 
7. Ten years later, what did Atlanta learn about disaster readiness from Katrina? 

Truly a nation holds its breath. But does anyone remember when Georgia had a self-inflicted third and 57, narrowly avoiding two personal foul penalties but then picked one up after the punt? No? Well refresh your memory. 

“Royalty” by Lou Barlow

1. Atlanta’s socialists pounding the pavement in SC for Bernie Sanders. 
2. Did you know that Atlanta is the third-most honest city in America! Just kidding we’re number 1. (See what I did there?)
3. State Elections Board fines Fulton County $18,000.
4. Another big-time corporate HQ relocation in the works for Atlanta? GE said to be looking at an Atlantic Station site. 
5. Dennis Lockhart, president of the Atlanta Federal Reserve, says interest rates will rise “sometime this year.”
6. Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains is rallying behind its most famous member (Jimmy Carter). 
7. Seriously y’all, if we replace everything with condos, what’s the point of living in Atlanta? 
8. Related: do people not realize the Bell Building hasn’t been used for 32 years? It’s not serving anyone. And do people really think Jeff Fuqua really cares about its preservation? Nevermind that the grant money allocated to buy the building calls for it to be removed. Be angry at the Woodruff Foundation–not GSU. 

Louis Elrod, a Habersham County native and now Atlanta resident, was elected president of the Young Democrats of America on Saturday.

His victory will also give Georgia a greater role in selecting the Democratic Presidential nominee next year. By virtue of being YDA President, Elrod will be a Superdelegate. If my math is correct, Georgia could have as many as 12 Superdelegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Elrod is the second Georgian to serve as president of YDA.

At a press conference on Thursday at the Carter Center, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says his doctors found four “very small spots” of melanoma in his brain. Carter will begin radiation treatment later today.

From the New York Times:

He added that he would reduce his schedule “fairly dramatically.”

“I can’t really anticipate how I’ll be feeling, obviously,” he said. “I’ll have to defer quite substantially to my doctors.”

“I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” said Mr. Carter, who noted that, when he first learned that the cancer was in his brain, he believed he “had just a few weeks left.” His life, he said, is in God’s hands.

But Mr. Carter will instead embark on a treatment course that doctors hope will stretch for several months.

On Aug. 12, Carter announced he had been diagnosed with cancer.

Thanks to Teri for filling in the last two weeks. If there’s one person who can approach my level of awesomeness, she would be considered.

“Remember” by Figurines.

1. Roy Barnes calls for pardon of Leo Frank. 
2. Despite being diagnosed with cancer, Jimmy Carter still made church and Sunday school. 
3. Hizzoner and the police union still aren’t cool with each other. (More like, cool to each other!)
4. Vincent Fort not afraid to find a controversy where none exists. 
5. Watch out, Buzz! MARTA could be headed your way! Soon. Ish. 
6. Bell Building to be demolished. Lots of people who have just know learned of it coming out of the woodwork calling for the building’s preservation.
7. Ever wondered how Zoo Atlanta gets gorillas to brush their teeth? Well wonder no more!
8. Not satire: a federal judge will hear a case that claims the public was defrauded by the Mayweater/Pacquiao fight. 

There’s only one Smyrna City Council member who truly lives up to the ethos of being a workhorse, not a showhorse and that’s our own Teri.

According to Facebook, today is her birthday so wish her a festive time on this her day of jollification.

PS: In honor of Teri’s birthday I did a YouTube search for “Tulane Football Greatest Moments” and the top result was this video from Memphis’ 62-20 victory over the Green Wave at the Superdome in 1992. Interestingly enough, that might also be one of the better moments for Tulane football.