Shortly before Thanksgiving 2004, I took my three kids camping in Mistletoe State Park near Augusta, Ga., with my best friend and his two kids. After six years in Savannah, my family was about to move to France for my wife’s new job as an administrator for an American company. We had all been camping together before and figured the trip would be a great getaway from all of the packing, painting and stresses of moving, and would allow the kids to be together for one last time. Our wives decided to stay home to organize the packing and spend some quiet time together to say goodbye.

For us, camping has always been a back-to-basics experience. We pack in all food and supplies to our remote site and take out trash and whatever is not consumed. For toilets, we dig holes with entrenching shovels and cover our traces. We teach our kids respect and responsibility in the forest. And we teach them to have a good time.

During the three-day weekend trip, we fished and cooked kielbasa, hot dogs and marshmallows over an open fire. We pitched our tents near the tip of a small peninsula jutting into Clarks Hill Lake, where red clay beaches rimmed our site. We scoured the water’s edge for mussel shells and arrowheads and skipped sleek stones on the water. The days were clear and cool, with high blue skies and wisps of moving clouds. Although the nights were cold, the weekend was as perfect as we could have hoped for.

The kids ran from one thing to the next with abandon, one minute scavenging wood for a fire, and the next returning breathlessly to tell us they had spotted a deer. At night, the tall pines sawed in the wind as my friend, whom I’ll refer to as Rusty, melted aluminum cans in the campfire using a tin can as a crucible. His crude alchemy and the sudden sense of the world as laboratory lighted our imaginations as he poured the quicksilver-like liquid over the rocks ringing the fire. The kids grew excited and impatient, studying the metal-coated rocks and waiting for the aluminum to cool into odd-shaped medallions they salvaged as mementos.

Later, after the kids had gone to bed in their tent and the cold descended, Rusty and I sat in our camp chairs, having a beer and warming our boots a little too close to the fire. I still wear that pair of Wolverines with the half-melted soles. And every time I put them on, I think of what happened when we returned from that weekend and how it changed all of our lives.

As usual during the trip, we took several photos. Because I forgot my digital camera, I bought a disposable camera at a gas station on the way to the campground. I took pictures of the kids using sticks to beat on old bottles and cans and logs as musical instruments. I took a few of my youngest daughter, Eliza, then age 3, skinny-dipping in the lake, and my son, Noah, then age 8, swimming in the lake in his underwear, and another of Noah naked, hamming it up while using a long stick to hold his underwear over the fire to dry. Finally, I took a photo of everyone, as was our camping tradition, peeing on the ashes of the fire to put it out for the last time. We also let the kids take photos of their own.

When we returned on Sunday, I forgot the throwaway camera and Rusty found it in his car. He gave it to his wife, whom I’ll call Janet, to get developed, and she dropped it off the next day with two other rolls of film at a local Eckerd drugstore. On Tuesday, when she returned to pick up the film, she was approached by two officers from the Savannah Police Department. They told her they had been called by Eckerd due to “questionable photos.”

One officer told Janet “there were pictures of little kids running around with no clothes on, pictures of minors drinking alcohol,” she recounted for me in an e-mail. “I asked to see the pictures and was told I couldn’t. I explained there must be a mistake. I was kind of laughing, you know, ‘Come on guys. There must be an explanation. This is crazy. Let me see the pictures.’ The officer told me that he personally did not find [the photos] offensive and that he had camped himself as a kid and knows what goes on.” But the officer also told Janet that “because Eckerd’s had called them and that because there were pictures of children naked, genitalia and alcohol, they would have to investigate.”

(more at salon.com)

The maker of an instrument used in circumcisions claimed that injury was impossible with its use, but after an infant lost a portion of his penis during an operation with the Mogen clamp, a judge awarded $10.8 million in damages against the company.

The judgment handed down Friday in New York involves an Atlanta lawyer who has been crusading against circumcision as a dangerous and unnecessary practice.

Attorney David Llewellyn won a similar case in Atlanta last year and the injury behind that prior lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court put the New York clamp manufacturer on notice about the danger of the device, his current lawsuit said.

The baby in the current case, identified in court documents only as L.G., lost the entire glans, or head, of his penis after it was pulled into the jaws of the clamp, according to a federal magistrate’s order. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein ordered Mogen Circumcision Instruments of New York to pay $10.8 million in compensatory and punitive damages to the Florida boy, now 3, and his parents.

The parents “are extraordinarily distraught and angered that this company tells people it can’t happen,” Llewellyn said.

It’s unclear whether they will ever collect the money. Mogen is already in default on a $7.5 million judgment in 2007 from a Massachusetts lawsuit, Llewellyn said.

(more at ajc.com)

One man and five minors were arrested in Piedmont Park on Friday night after an assault and robbery of a gay couple, according to an Atlanta police report.

At approximately 10 p.m., Jarvis Johnson, 19, and five other males ranging in age from 13 to 17 approached two men having a picnic in Piedmont Park, asked if they were gay and then threatened them, the report states. The suspects then began to attack each individual separately.

“We were just finishing up dinner and playing cards when they came up to us and asked if we were gay,” Joshua Noblitt, 32, told the AJC on Tuesday. “It wasn’t very organized. I don’t know if they thought gay men in the park would be an easy target based on stereotypes and stuff, or what.”

Noblitt said one of the suspects used a large stick to assault him, which he grabbed away from him and turned on his assailant.

The report states that Noblitt and his boyfriend, Trent Williams, 25, “began to get the best of the suspects,” and Johnson used his cellphone to call for help from friends.

(more at AJC.com)

It’s July! JULY! You know, that month that brings America independence, fireworks, BBQ, and afternoon and evening thunderstorms. It also means we’re about 6 weeks away from BP possibly finally maybe probably not cutting off their massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurrah! Wait, whut?

The summertime song is allegedly destined to be “California Gurls” by Katy Perry featuring Ludacris. But you know, I’m more particular to Kat DeLuna’s “Push, Push” (featuring Akon, cause you know everything features someone.) And then there is that patently silly “Pretty Boy Swag” by Soulja Boy. Wait, he’s a pretty boy? Oh… wait.. no… he says “no homo” in the song. Psha! Like us respectful fags would accept you, assclown.

On to more important news: The economy seems to still blow for most, but thankfully my local economy is really picking up some steam. I’m trying very hard to adjust and make sure I’m putting some away now that I’m not spending so much on things like car payments and full coverage insurance. I could use some health care, god knows. And I don’t mean the kind that comes in a cocktail glass.

Pride Weekend is once again moving in Atlanta. We didn’t have it in June -again- which blows donkey balls. Last year, it was on Halloween which apparently worked out really well. I just went to the parade which was cold but nice as always. The Latinos looked like they were celebrating the hardest. The rest of us should look to that and be reminded what it’s like to have some real fire in our pride. This year Atlanta Gay Pride is on my birthday weekend, October 9th.

But before that happens, I gotta do the Alchemy thing with Kaze up in the North Georgia Mountain. It’s kind of like Burning Man, but on a smaller scale.

Also coming up is another fine edition of DragonCon. It’s Labor Day Weeekend, always, always, always. Maybe you should come and join me. It’s a lot of fun, the most accessible geek celebrities, and will make you rethink that whole “nerds don’t get laid” stuff.

Finally, I’ve been thinking a lot about Magic: The Gathering again suddenly. I bought a terrible terrible version of it on Steam the other day called Duels of the Planeswalkers. It’s also on XBOX. It’s horrid. Don’t buy it. It was a waste of money to be sure. You can’t even build your own deck? WHAT? Magic: Online is cheaper and certainly is making me think about it a bit. There’s also a new Core set coming out in two weeks. Is this something I could get into again? If it’s still played, maybe I could even make some new friends. I’d chalk this nostalgia up to the fact that I’m 31 (almost 32), but that would imply that I’ve grown up in the meantime, which we all fucking know is not true.

Anyway, that’s the update for now. Don’t forget to buy some books.

Remember that guy who bit little girls? Well, we got more. Or rather that reporter over at the AJC that yelled at me for copy pasta articles does. First, here’s a link to the original story. (Don’t worry dude, it has a link to your original story too.)

And now here’s the blurb that leads to a link to the update. (I said don’t worry dude, I got your linkage coming.)

Gordon Kent Nelson, 44, of Cumming, charged last month with biting two 8-year-old girls on separate occasions, was arrested Monday for aggravated stalking of one of the families.

Captain Frank Huggins of the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office said that the family of one of the girls was in a Walmart near Alpharetta when Nelson entered the store. The family left the store, and Nelson followed them into the parking lot and began arguing with the girl’s uncle and also blew kisses at the family.

(more over at that dude’s paper, you know, so he don’t yell at me again.)

Four high schoolers accused of tossing a bleach-filled balloon that hit a 14-year-old Gwinnett County boy in the face, seriously injuring him, told police they were only trying to ruin his clothes.

Lilburn police on Wednesday said the four Meadowcreek High students were responsible for the attack last week on Miguel Mesa, a student at Lilburn Middle School.

One was arrested and taken to a youth detention center, while the other three were expected to be in custody Wednesday night, police said.

Charges were pending against the four. Three are juveniles and one is an adult, but the adult’s name was not released.

Tips from the community led police to the suspects who threw the balloon from a van, said Lilburn Police Capt. Bruce Hedley.

“We’ve recovered the bleach bottle and balloons used,” Hedley told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

And that’s where you can find more of this story including a picture of the poor kid.

Forsyth County deputies jailed a man Tuesday on two counts of misdemeanor battery for biting 8-year-old girls in separate incidents, Sheriff Ted Paxton said.

Gordon Kent Nelson, 44, of Buckingham Circle in Cumming turned himself in after a monthlong investigation.

He already was facing a lawsuit from the parents of one victim, who allegedly was bitten last August.

The victim reported she was bitten when spending the night with Nelson’s daughter. A deputy investigated, but no charges were filed, so Paul Holbrook, the victim’s father, sued Nelson to recover medical costs for treating the bite on the calf and for punitive damages.

(more at AJC, ironically from that reporter that commented over here a while back that I shouldn’t copy pasta from AJC. I hope this meets with his approval.)

The seventh-grade girl at Cumming’s Liberty Middle School sent the nude photo of herself by cell phone to three boys at three middle schools in Forsyth County.

The 10th-grade boy at Forest Park High School sent the naked image of himself with his phone to a 16-year-old girl at his Clayton County school and it was forwarded to four other students, one of them 14.

The girl and boy were punished the same day last month in metro Atlanta school systems about 40 miles apart. Their consequences were quite different.

(more)

Maybe one day in the future we’ll figure out that our naked bodies aren’t inherently evil. And maybe one day legislatures will create laws that make functional and practical sense. And maybe one day monkeys will fly out of my butt. If so, I’ll make sure to take a pic of it and send it to you okay?

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Five middle school students are facing criminal charges for attacking a DeKalb County student, police said.

A school district police report said the 12-year-old boy was held by several students, touched inappropriately, then stuffed in a locker.

It happened March 10 at Stephenson Middle School in Stone Mountain.

The 12-year-old victim said he went into the locker room to change clothes after track practice, and that’s when the group of six boys approached him, the report said.

Channel 2 Action News investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer spoke to parents about the incident. “This is something I had to talk to my son about because, he saw, and I’m trying to explain to him that’s something not supposed to happen at school and you’re not supposed to see this,” said Troy Ray.

Two 14-year-olds are facing sexual battery charges, three more students are facing reckless conduct charges and the sixth boy is not criminally charged, the report said. All students detained are facing school discipline.

“This was an incident, a situation that is intolerable, that’s not accepted by DeKalb County School system and we’re addressing it,” said district spokesman Dale Davis.

Davis also said this was an isolated incident and that the school environment in DeKalb is safe.

COCHRAN — Derrick Martin had a question he couldn’t answer, so he did what any 18-year-old would. Fingers tapping, he logged on to his computer last December and Googled the following words, which changed his life:

“I’m gay. Can I go to the prom?”

He can, and will. But those eight little words have done more than ensure the high school senior can take a same-sex date to Bleckley High School’s prom next month.

Seeking that answer has thrust him to the forefront of a national discussion. It’s touched off heated discussions in beauty salons and restaurants here and elsewhere, and made this small middle Georgia town a focal point in the debate over gay rights. Some applaud him for bravery. Others say his soul’s in peril.

All he really wanted, he says, was a night to remember.

“I didn’t anticipate this,” Derrick said earlier this week, a few days after news got out that he would bring his boyfriend, a young man from Tift County, to his prom. “I thought this might run on the second page of the paper.”

Instead, he’s Derrick Martin, sudden celebrity. As he sat on a bench underneath a bare oak tree outside a Bleckley school building, a Ford pickup, kids hanging out of its cab, zipped by. Derrick! Derrick! young voices belled.

A Honda sped past. It sprouted arms from every window. Hey, Derrick!

Derrick sighed. “If I could have just brought him without asking, I would have done that.”

‘You better sit down’

Derrick Martin is young enough that his facial hair is still spotty; like the rest of him, it’s not done growing. His 160 pounds are stretched across a frame nudging 6-foot-3. He is as long and narrow as a church pew, and only slightly more comfortable discussing all that’s happened since his Google query.

As he searched Web sites, Derrick came across the legal defense site for the national gay-rights organization Lambda. A representative of the group told him that if a school system didn’t have rules forbidding same-sex dates, then Derrick likely could bring his boyfriend.

“They did warn me that the school system could cancel the prom,” he said.

That wasn’t just conjecture. School officials in Itawamba County, Miss., canceled a prom recently after 18-year-old Constance McMillen said she wanted to bring a girl to her school’s April 2 dance. The American Civil Liberties Union, claiming the school board violated her right to free expression, has demanded that McMillen be allowed to attend.

Nothing like that occurred in January, when Derrick requested a meeting with Bleckley High Principal Michelle Masters. Because his date isn’t a Bleckley student, school rules required Derrick to fill out a form identifying him. He decided to check with Masters first.

“You better sit down,” he began.

Masters took the request to the Bleckley County Board of Education. When the board next met, it also discussed another Martin — Derrick’s father, Ray, a math teacher at the high school. Board members named him Bleckley’s teacher of the year.

Then they turned to his son. In early March, the board announced that Derrick could bring his boyfriend to the prom. School Superintendent Charlotte Pipkin, who declined comment, earlier this week released a two-paragraph statement.

The board decision, the statement said in part, “is not an endorsement of any particular practice or life style, but rather recognition of the legal environment in which public schools operate today.”

Bleckley High School, home of the Royals, would hold its prom April 17, as originally planned. The junior class would plan it, as well as decorate the school gym. This is a BHS tradition.

But tradition, people soon learned, was about to get a test.

A town debates

Cochran, about two hours south of Atlanta, is a confluence of U.S. and state roads that come together for a few blocks before fanning out again across rolling land that yields peanuts and cotton. A museum near the police department is dedicated to those agricultural staples.

About 5,200 people live here. Wednesdays at noon, much of downtown adheres to a practice that has just about gone the way of the mule. Stores close. People head to the municipal golf course, visit Macon to shop, or catch up on the latest events.

A lot of catching up these days focuses on Derrick’s decision, and how it reflects change — not just in Cochran, either.

Barbara Anderson’s shears snipped quickly, as if they were as indignant as she.

“I think they [the school board] ought to do like that other state and cancel the prom,” said Anderson, who owns a styling salon here. “They won’t allow us to have God in school, but they’ll allow this?”

Across the street, waitress Victoria Cagle took a break after the lunch rush. She is a 2009 Bleckley grad who hopes to attend nearby Middle Georgia College and teach high school biology.

“I think what they [the board] did was the right thing,” said Cagle, 19. “I think what he’s doing is awesome.”

Merchant Jason Ledbetter isn’t so sure.

“It bothers me,” said Ledbetter, 47, part-owner of a downtown music store. “By him doing that, it shows we accept it.”

Business partner Kenny Laney wasn’t as ruffled as Ledbetter. “It’s like an inter-racial couple,” said Laney, 54. “I thought we would have gotten over that by now, and gotten over this, too.”

The boys may face a divine reckoning, said resident Faye Ortiz. “What they do is up to them,” said Ortiz, 45, who recently moved back to central Georgia from Texas. “They’ve got to answer to God.”

Dealing with fallout

Opinions aside, Derrick’s action has come at a cost. He’s no longer living at home. Staying there, he said, became intolerable as news spread that he was taking his boyfriend to the prom. For now he’s staying with a friend, the girl he escorted to last year’s prom.

“She’s my best friend,” he said.

He also has friends who are gay, Derrick said. He expected some of them to stand with him when he took his request to school officials.

“I thought I would have had a little bit of backup,” he said, disappointment creeping in his voice. “But it’s just me.”

His boyfriend, who’s also 18 and a school senior, has not made any public comments. Derrick’s parents are remaining silent, too.

So Derrick talks. He talks about school. Kids there have known he is gay for a while. Most of them, he thinks, are on his side.

He talks about work. He is an after-school tutor for elementary and middle school kids at risk of not passing state tests.

He talks about the future. He’s planning to attend Georgia Southern University, which he said has given him a scholarship in recognition of his 92.5 average. He wants to go to law school, maybe someday become the state or U.S. attorney general. “That would just be so awesome.”

He also thinks about what has happened these past few months.

“I only wanted to be honest,” he said. Now, he feels an obligation. If he has to be the face of gay rights, OK.

A big lesson to learn from eight little words.

MomoCon, the downright cheap excuse for an anime convention held on the campus of Georgia Tech, is coming very soon. In fact, it’s two weeks away! Now, presale tickets for the exact cost of $0.00 have already been sold out. I say that, because, well, because the previous conventions have been so well attended (even during inclement weather) they have to put a cap on how many can come this year.

That doesn’t mean you still can’t see what all the fuss is about.

If you pony up some cash in a donation by March 7th, then you can get a pass mailed to you. Of course, those who registered for free badges (that will have to pick them up during the convention) you all should bring a few extra bucks to throw at this thing too. It ain’t a huge ass convention, so it needs all the love you can give it.

I’ll be there along with dozens of much more talented folks than I am hocking their anime wares. Come and have a great time with me trying to convert others to shotaluv March 20th and 21st.

For more information, you can visit the MomoCon website.

They say that March comes in like a lion, but goes out like a lamb. Well, this year, I’m starting March a couple of days early. Sorry, February, I already know you get the short end of the stick with that 28 days crap. Hell, you even had a movie called “Leap Year” come out and it wasn’t even a Leap Year for you.

But alas, I got bigger fish to fry.

I mean, maybe if I move the calender up a few days, the weather will cooperate. Actually, the Deep South is expecting another snow storm to come blowing through here on Tuesday. WTF!

At least the dance floors here in HOTlanta will be getting an early dose of summertime goodness with DJ Abel tonight spinning a mega party at Jungle.

And speaking of parties, pixiesticks.org is celebrating its 9th Birthday on March 11th, so you know you can expect some surprises then.

And the personal celebrations just keep on coming! March 23rd will see me having quit smoking cigarettes for 1 whole year.

So normally while March is just such a tumultuous month, not to mention those Ides of March you gotta worry about, maybe this year by kind of starting it just a hint early, we can make this one something special.

A zebra from the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus escaped his handler and led police on a chase through downtown Atlanta on Thursday afternoon.

The black-and-white striped animal was spotted all over town — in the parking lot near the Richard B. Russell Federal Building, near Centennial Olympic Park, CNN and on the Downtown Connector. He was finally captured on the interstate near the Grady curve. According to witnesses, he was galloping between lanes of traffic on the Downtown Connector before his capture.

The 12-year-old zebra, named Lima, was exercising to prepare for Thursday night’s circus performance at Philips Arena when “something spooked him,” Ringling Brothers spokeswoman Crystal Drake told the Associated Press. The zebra broke away from his trainers and bumped up against a fence before wiggling through an opening and running off, she told the AP.

“We’re not sure what it was that startled him, but we’re looking into that,” Drake told the AP.

Daniel Nance saw a westbound zebra zipping down Alabama Street near MARTA’s Five Points station.

“All of a sudden, a freaking zebra comes running down the street like a car. Five or six police cars were in hot pursuit. And a bunch of officers on foot. But then I got scared, thinking … what else is loose?” a laughing Nance said.

Soon after, a man working with police got a hold of the zebra in the parking lot of the Richard B. Russell Federal Building, said Jonathan Harris, a MARTA worker who was outside the Five Points station taking a break. But only for a moment.

“It just started dragging him,” Harris said.

Minutes before, Prapik Jani saw the animal jogging along Baker Street a half mile away next to Centennial Olympic Park. Jani, who manages the Baja Fresh Mexican Grill, said several of his customers gasped. He looked outside and saw an African creature running down the pavement. “It was wild,” Jani said. “I thought I was seeing things.”

Jani said there were “a bunch” of police on bicycles chasing after the zebra.

Using a combination of reports from AJC staffers and eye-witness accounts, here’s the route the zebra took:

4:37 p.m.

An AJC staffer spotted the zebra on Fairlie Street behind the Atlanta Journal-Constitution building. A circus trainer said the zebra had to have gotten through a hole in the gate.

The zebra walked down along a ramp on Spring Street and went up to Marietta Street.

It then ran to Luckie Street and over to Broad Street.

From Broad Street, the zebra ran up through the Five Points area and was near the Five Points MARTA station.

Nance and Harris saw the zebra run along Alabama Street — toward the circus animal holding area, which is across the street from the CNN Center.

5:00 p.m.

The zebra was contained in the parking lot by the Richard B. Russell Federal Building, near the CNN Center and Philips Arena.

Trainers were walking with the zebra when it started to charge, dragging one of the trainers momentarily before it took off again, running across the railroad tracks and through a gate. One of the trainers was holding on to the zebra as it ran through the gate.

The zebra ran through the parking lot and down through the tunnel between Philips Arena and the CNN center.

It then came out onto Baker Street and turned left, running onto Williams Street. It followed the ramp onto the downtown Connector.

The zebra was cornered on the downtown connector just before the Martin Luther King Jr. exit.

Police cruisers blocked off all southbound lanes of Interstate 75 and were able to herd the zebra over to the right shoulder and off an entrance ramp, where his trainer was on hand to capture and soothe him, Drake told the AP.

“He obviously was excited, but he was in good shape,” Drake told the AP. “His handler calmed him down.”

The animal suffered cuts on his hooves from his long run, Drake said. The show’s vet was examining him, but Drake said he would likely perform as scheduled.

This isn’t the first time a zebra has been out on the highway in recent years. A young zebra was found stranded and injured on I-75 in Butts County in April 2008. Then a zebra who usually lives on a farm across from Oxford College’s Newton County campus was zebra-napped and deposited inside the college’s Seney Hall as part of a prank.

Zebras’ stripes stick out on the highway or on campus, but they help them hide among tall grasses in Africa, especially from lions, the color-blind predator.

“Each zebra has an individual stripe pattern, similar to a person, which has its own unique fingerprint, ” Lisa Smith, Zoo Atlanta’s curator of large mammals, told the AJC in 2008.

There was a THIRD zebra story. Also in April of 2008. Apparently we love our zebras here.

It’s been snowing here on the south suburbs of Atlanta since about 1pm. About two inches are already on the ground and they expect it to continue snowing for several more hours before ending around 10pm. While it may not be measured in feet like in the northern states, this will certainly be enough to shut the whole place down. Falling temperatures into the mid to lower twenties tonight will make sure of that.

This is a reminder that you need to pre-register this year to go to MomoCon over at Georgia Tech this March 20th and 21st. Registration is still free, though there are benefits to forking over some bucks.

If you’re local and you’re attending, shoot me an email or something. I’d love to get together and meet some of you loverlies.

Gayer than Bloomington, Ind., and Iowa City, Iowa?

Yes. According to The Advocate magazine, Atlanta rates as the nation’s gayest city, followed by Burlington, Vt., Iowa City, Bloomington and Madison, Wis. Don’t bother looking for San Francisco, New York or Los Angeles — those alleged gay meccas don’t even place in the Top 15 in the rankings compiled by the nation’s oldest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender publication.

Though their research was admittedly unscientific, it’s not without merit. Correspondent Mike Albo awarded points based on same-sex households per capita, statewide marriage equality, gay elected officials, gay dating and “hookup” profiles per single male population, gay bars per capita, cruising spots per capita, and gay films in Netflix favorites.

“I buy that,” said Joe Pennington, 23, a barista at Outwrite Bookstore in Midtown. “Odds are 50 percent that if you’re gay and lesbian, you’ll eventually end up in Atlanta.”

While Georgia has only a few gay elected officials and no laws endorsing same-sex marriage, social and cultural metrics vaulted Atlanta to the top of the Advocate’s list.

“Atlanta is undoubtedly our gayest city — with 29 gay bars here, there’s a reason it’s dubbed Hotlanta,” Albo wrote. “Atlanta guys are hunky, the ladies are gracious, the gay sports leagues are seriously well organized, and its housewives (and their gay BFFs, complete with handbags and heels) are now camp icons. And who doesn’t love the sweet lilt of a Georgia accent on a knockout guy or gal?”

Pennington, who moved from Cincinnati six months ago, said the contrast between his adopted home and his birthplace is stark.

“I love Cincinnati, but for gay people, there’s no comparison,” he said.

Albo said the study reflects the mainstreaming of gay people into contemporary American life, noting that Iowa City, Austin, Texas; and Asheville, N.C., have more gays per capita than the major metropolises.

Dacula, GA: Ryan Lewallen was supposed to meet Jacob Bullock and Marvens Mathurin, fellow eighth-graders at Osborne Middle School, in a Dacula subdivision Saturday afternoon. But he was running a little late.

Lewallen’s father, David, can’t help but wonder what would have happened had Ryan gotten there earlier. The day before, David Lewallen had lectured his son not to try walking on their iced-over swimming pool.

“Children being children, you don’t know what could have happened,” David Lewallen said Sunday. “I would like to think he would have stopped them altogether.”

Bullock, 14, and Mathurin, 13, died after falling in an iced-over lake in the Daniel Park subdivision. Another friend, Mill Creek High freshman Alex Paul, was able to climb out of the water. He suffered hypothermia but was released from the hospital late Saturday night.

The boys were playing in the middle of the lake when the thin sheet of ice cracked, fire officials said.

David Lewallen said Mathurin fell in first, prompting Bullock and Paul to try to save him.

Rescue workers were dispatched at 2:29 p.m. Saturday. Paul was out of the water and trying to find the other two when crews arrived, Fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge said.

The lake, surrounded by houses, sits beside a covered pavilion, basketball courts and a grassy area where neighbors say the boys likely accessed the lake. Rescue workers backed their trucks into the grass to try to rescue the boys.

Firefighters used a boat to move across the lake, through broken ice. Using 10-foot poles, they were able to locate the boys at the bottom of the lake, estimated at 8 to 10 feet deep.

“They were in there for almost an hour,” Rutledge said.

On Friday, Ryan Lewallen and his 8-year-old sister were in the backyard talking about walking on their frozen swimming pool.

“That’s children — they’re drawn to that,” their father said. “Even my 15-year-old, he’s like, ‘Dad, I can walk on that. Even if you fell through, you can just come right back up.’ I was trying to explain to him, ‘Son, it’s not that simple. When you’re talking about freezing water, it doesn’t happen that way.’”

Bullock and Mathurin were pronounced dead Saturday evening at Gwinnett Medical Center. Rescue workers had hoped their youth would help them survive the incident.

“This is a very tragic situation,” Rutledge said. “Our thoughts and prayers are now with the family and friends.”

The teens’ deaths come after nearly 30 reports of children playing on frozen bodies of water in Gwinnett County, Rutledge said. Although frozen ponds and lakes might look safe to walk across, they’re often not strong enough to support a person’s weight.

“We cannot stress [it] enough,” Rutledge said. “We know it is tempting, but it is important that people stay off the ice.”

Tomorrow could get interesting as snow is in the forecast for my area. Snow and Georgia drivers do NOT get along to be sure.

I have to work and the system looks to be coming in around noon. Could be big money though, but if things get too crazy, I really don’t think I wanna press my luck.

However, my car still has full coverage, so that’ll be good. Of course, it’s also almost paid for. I sure would like to enjoy a paid for car for once for a while.

Weather Channel meteorologist Kim Perez was stunned Sunday night when her boyfriend interrupted her live broadcast with a marriage proposal.

Her boyfriend, Kennesaw police Sgt. Marty Cunningham, had set up the surprise with the producers and crew. They added music and a background with the words, “Will you marry me?”

Watch the proposal and Perez’s reaction here.

Perez was a weather forecaster and observer in the Air Force before joining the Atlanta-based Weather Channel.

The Cobb County district attorney plans to move forward with the prosecution of a teacher who had sex with a 17-year-old student, even though a judge last week found that a similar romance was “gross” and “awful” but not illegal.

Cobb County Superior Court Judge Robert Flournoy ruled Dec. 9 that former Marietta High School teacher Christopher King was not guilty of sexual assault charges stemming from a relationship with a 17-year-old female student.

The judge’s decision echoed a Georgia Supreme Court ruling in June that stated it is not illegal for a teacher and a student who is 16 or older to have sex. The age of consent in Georgia is 16.

Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head said he disagrees with Flournoy’s ruling. He plans to move forward with the case against Steven Martin Parkman, a former teacher at Harrison High School in west Cobb.

Parkman, 34, is accused of having consensual sex with a 17-year-old female student.

“The judge and I differ on our opinion about whether expert testimony regarding consent is a factual issue for the jury or not,” Head said in an e-mail. “Obviously, I think it is and he does not.”

Head said he will ask a grand jury to reindict Parkman within the next few weeks and add a charge of sodomy against the former orchestra teacher. Parkman resigned in lieu of termination before his arrest April 14, 2008.

Parkman’s lawyer, Noah Pines, said the continued prosecution of his client is “ridiculous.”

Letters, texts and Facebook posts indicate that the alleged victim willingly had sex with Parkman, Pines said.

Pines said he will file a motion to dismiss the sodomy charge on the grounds that it is unconstitutional if his client is reindicted. The state law prohibiting sodomy, which is defined as either oral or anal sex, is seldom enforced when it involves consenting adults.

Sodomy is a felony punishable by one to 20 years in prison and a lifetime on the sex offender registry. The punishment is much harsher for a couple caught engaging in oral sex than it is for a couple caught having intercourse in public. Public indecency is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of 12 months in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Parkman told investigators that he had sex with the student in the orchestra room at school and in his car. The student has since graduated from high school and entered college, Pines said.

“If they present the case on sodomy, they are selectively prosecuting my client,” Pines said. “The law applies to anyone who gives or receives [oral sex]. She is just as guilty as my client.”

A Cobb County judge used a rare procedure to rule that a former Marietta High teacher was not guilty of sexual assault charges stemming from an affair with a 17-year-old student.

Judge Robert Flournoy bypassed the jury and issued a directed verdict Wednesday afternoon in the case against 36-year-old Christopher King, who admitted to having a sexual relationship with the girl.

“It’s gross, it’s awful, but it ain’t illegal,” said Flournoy. “This was a consensual relationship.”

In June, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that, when the student is a willing participant and is 16 or older, the student’s consent can be a defense for teachers facing a sexual assault charge. The judge referenced that decision in his ruling.

“I have a feeling the Georgia Legislature is going to amend this law,” Flournoy said.

Defense attorney Scott Semrau said it wouldn’t be surprising if this case were used by legislators as a reason to change the consent defense. Semrau doesn’t know of any similar case that’s been prosecuted since the state Supreme Court ruling.

“That ruling really guts the prosecution,” Semrau said.

The judge’s decision followed Wednesday morning testimony from the girl, who as a state witness testified the affair was consensual.

Asked by Semrau if she ever felt intimidated or coerced by King, the girl responded, “Absolutely not.”

“Have you ever wavered on that point?” Semrau asked. “No,” the girl said.

The girl looked in King’s direction several times during her testimony, smiling nervously. Though she admitted to jitters, her answers were resolute.

If he had been convicted of sexual assault, King faced 10 to 30 years in prison.

“[The student] was obviously persuasive, ” said Semrau. “She was thoroughly knowledgeable about what she wanted.”

Semrau said his client, who is now a salesman, would like to resume his relationship with the girl.

“I know he cares very deeply about her, but at this point the ball’s in her court,” he said. As for teaching again, Semrau said, “Realistically, [King]‘s put [that] behind him.”

The girl’s testimony revealed that King began personal correspondences in the fall of 2008, soon after they first met as student and teacher. “He called about a Steelers game,” the student said.

Her father, who testified Tuesday, said he was concerned that a teacher was contacting his daughter at home about an issue not related to school.

“My dad overreacts to everything,” she said. “He has very high moral standards. He’s never gotten a speeding ticket.”

Since the romance with King became public her relationship with her father has suffered, she said.

Her involvement with King was much more relaxed, she said.

“We’d go shopping, we’d go out to dinner, we’d go to movies … things dating couples do,” she said. “Piedmont Park, that was like our place.”

King was in the process of divorcing his wife, with whom he has two small children, when they began dating, she said.

“He was unhappy in his marriage,” she said.

She confirmed details that were revealed in court Tuesday about when their relationship became sexual.Their first tryst took place at a hotel on Barrett Parkway, she said.

“It evolved the way I assume any sexual encounter does,” she said.

She said when the relationship became public after King’s arrest she lost some friendships and transferred to a college preparatory program at Kennesaw State from Marietta High.

On Tuesday, Semrau acknowledged that his client was engaged in a sexual relationship with the girl.

“They were in love,” Semrau told jurors. “This may be a bad idea, it may be taboo, but it’s not illegal.”

Cobb County prosecutor Maurice Brown unsuccessfully argued that King used his position to take advantage of a romantically naive teenager. “He led her to believe he was in love with her,” Brown said in his opening statement. “He led her to believe she was in love with him.”

Brown refused comment following the verdict.

King’s relationship with his student turned physical last March, when the two met for a hike at Kennesaw Mountain. There, they shared their first kiss, and within a month they were having sexual intercourse, facts neither side disputes.

“The only thing that ended this relationship was Mr. King’s arrest (on May 27),” Semrau said.

For three years The Body Shop has dominated the after hours scene here in the Atlanta gay community, mostly by playing by the rules and providing some kick ass parties.

I even used to work there.

This New Years Eve will be the next to last as they are closing shop. The DJ will be Eddie Baez who hails from NYC. He’s also playing earlier in the evening at Heretic, but will absolutely bring a dark deep but joyful tone to the final celebration.

Then on January 2nd, the final curtain call will be made with DJ Lydia Prim up in the DJ booth. Well, it’s more like a DJ Pedestal as long time Body Shop fans know.

The event will likely have a line down the block, in spite of it being an after hours engagement, as Atlantans have to deal with yet another nightspot shuttering the doors.

I received this information today that may be of interest to otaku that live in or around the Atlanta area are are interested in this convention:

MomoCon 2010 is rapidly approaching and we have some big news about the event.

First off, we are proud to announce some of our first guests: Seraphina, Otaku Belly Dancer, the Steampunk musical stylings of Extraordinary Contraptions, and expert cosplayers Alethia Burns and Bill Winans.

MomoCon also wants to announce that due to crowding issues in the current venue, the 2010 event will have an attendance cap of 7000 attendees. MomoCon encourages everyone to pre-register to ensure badge availability, pre-registration is now available at www.momocon.com thanks to our partner FandomU. We are in the works for securing a larger venue in 2011, and encourage attendees to take advantage of the new Donor options for pre-registration. Donors of different levels can experience benefits such as mailed-out badges, early dealer room access, and custom numbered artwork.

Info on registration levels can be found here:
http://momocon.moonfruit.com/#/pre-registrationdonations/4534818906>

A publication aimed at filling the void left by Southern Voice has decided on a name that might ring a bell.

GA Voice (pronounce it as you wish, its creators say) is set to debut early next year both online and in print. Gavoice.com will take over its web domain next week, providing updates on the official launch while posting occasional news items.

“We’ve pretty much got the money for the pre-launch expenses,” said Chris Cash, founder of Southern Voice and publisher of the soon-to-debut GA Voice. “We’re in the process now of forming our core team.”

Cash expects GA Voice to debut sometime in early 2010. “You’ll probably see us online before you see the print version,” she said. Former SoVo editor Laura Douglas-Brown has been working with Cash to get GA Voice up and running.

Last week the Lloyd E. Russell Foundation gave the duo $12,000 in matching funds for the new news outlet. Cash said they’re still seeking donations at www.savesovo.com.

Window Media LLC closed SoVo and a handful of other gay publications last month after years of struggling financially. Windows was forced into receivership earlier this year by the Small Business Administration.

A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday against the city of Atlanta on behalf of 19 patrons searched and detained during the Sept. 10 raid of the Atlanta Eagle gay bar.

Police Chief Richard Pennington and 48 of his officers, including members of the department’s Red Dog unit, also are named in the civil rights suit, which claims violations of federal and state law.

“The illegal activity going on in the Atlanta Eagle that night was committed by the APD,” said Greg Nevins, an attorney in the Atlanta office of Lambda Legal, which is representing the plaintiffs.

According to police records, undercover vice officers had been to the Ponce de Leon nightclub and witnessed men having sex while other patrons watched. The department also received complaints alleging drug sales on the premises.

No charges were filed against any of the 62 patrons forced to lie down on the bar floor during the raid, though eight Eagle employees were arrested for permit violations. Pennington said the patrons were “frisked” for the officers’ safety. No search warrant was served.

“My first thought was, ‘we’re getting robbed,’” said one of the plaintiffs, Geoffrey Calhoun, who works as a local 911 dispatcher. He described feeling “dehumanized and humiliated” by the officers conducting the raid. “It needs to stop here. Silence is no longer an option.”

Last month at a community forum, Deputy Chief Carlos Banda defended the use of the Red Dog unit, which is known for its aggressive tactics.

“The procedures are very strict and they go bam, bam, bam by the numbers,” Banda told the forum, organized by Atlantans Together Against Crime. “Sometimes the tactics are a little more aggressive than we would see on regular patrol because of the enforcement problems we are given.”

Attorney Dan Grossman, a co-counsel in the lawsuit, said Tuesday that policy contradicts constitutional law regarding probable cause.

“Police didn’t care whether they were suspected of a crime or not,” he said. “I couldn’t believe police officers would have such a callous disregard for people’s human rights.”

Grossman said the suit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, also aims to change police procedure.

“It’s unfortunate we need a federal judge to make our police department follow the law,” he said. “Since [police] don’t think they did something wrong they’re going to do it again.”

Acting city attorney Roger Bhandari said he would reserve comment pending review of the complaint.

Before she could say “no”, a Cartersville, Georgia man showed a woman a picture of a man’s genitalia in a grocery store parking lot.

Stephen Joseph Woods Jr., 29, was at the Aldi store in Acworth when he confronted the woman, according to police. He was arrested earlier this week and charged with distributing obscene materials.

The woman, who the AJC is not identifying, told Acworth police a man approached her and asked if she “wanted to see something,” according to the warrant. Woods then showed her the image on his phone.

Police executed two search warrants, including one for the phone and one for the photographs. Three photos of a man’s genitals were found on the phone, according to the warrant.

The photos were printed, and the woman identified one of the images as the one she had been shown.

Woods was arrested late Wednesday night and released several hours later after posting $2,500 bond.

(Ed note: Sadly we aren’t told if the pictures were of the suspect. I’d kind of like to know if he was hot. Hopefully if it goes to trial there won’t be a hung jury. What? WHAT?)

Kellogg Company said that due to “a confluence of events” — including flooding at its Bucknell Drive manufacturing facility — Eggo brand frozen waffles will be in short supply for some time to come.

Grocery store inventories, the company said, are expected to remain limited through the first half of 2010.

The Atlanta plant, south of I-20 and west of I-285 near Thornton Road, opened in 1969 when it was owned by Fearn International. Kellogg temporarily halted production in September due to flooding driven by heavy rains, the company said.

Kellogg said the Atlanta facility is back in production. But problems with equipment at the company’s largest waffle bakery in Rossville, Tenn. require extensive repairs and improvements, taking several lines out of operation.

The Eggo shortage is nationwide, the company said.

“We are working around the clock to restore Eggo store inventories to normal levels as quickly as possible,” Kellogg spokesperson Kris Charles said.

Kellogg said that for competitive reasons it doesn’t disclose the number of employees at the Bucknell Drive plant, or the number or variety of waffles it produces annually.

With a simple three-sentence notice taped to the door, the publishers of Southern Voice and David magazine ended two decades of gay media in Atlanta on Monday.

The publications, owned along with several others by Window Media and Unite Media, abruptly closed their doors overnight Sunday, ending a months-long battle with federal receivership that imperiled the gay media company.

Laura Douglas-Brown, the paper’s editor since 2006 and an employee for nearly 13 years, says the closings are a significant loss for her personally and for metro Atlanta’s LGBT population.

“Of course, I’m personally reeling as is all of the staff,” Douglas-Brown said Monday morning. “What is the most tragic and breaking my heart the most is that this publication that so many people for the last 20 years have put in so much hard work and has received so much support from the community, that it has reached this point.”

Douglas-Brown joined a handful of the company’s nearly two-dozen employees at the offices off Briarcliff Road on Monday. Some employees of the company were told of the closure through a text message from a co-worker about 1 a.m. Monday. Others discovered the news through a three-sentence note taped to the front door of the Atlanta office from Myers and longtime Window executive Mike Kitchens.

It is with GREAT regret that we must inform you that effective immediately, the operations of Window Media, LLC and Unite Media, LLC have closed down.

Please return to this office on WEDNESDAY, November 18th, 2009 at 11:00 AM to collect personal belongings and to receive information on your separation stipulations. Please bring boxes and/or containers that will allow you to collect all your personal belongings at one time.

Regretfully,
Steve Myers
Mike Kitchens

The websites to Southern Voice and David, which were online early Monday, were shut down by 8:30 a.m. Visitors to the sites received an “unexpected error” message.

Later Monday, Myers confirmed that the five publications, their websites and the web-only Houston Voice, were closed.

“It is a sad, sad day for Window Media and the gay community. Three major newspaper voices are being quieted now for a period of time, along with David and 411,” Myers said. “Right now, it is out of our hands. I would hope something would continue to go on, but I can’t say for certain. It’s been taken our of hands.”

Myers declined further comment about the company’s financial picture and what contributed to its collapse over the weekend.

“We knew about the receivership, obviously, but we had always been led that the way this would end is with the company being sold. I had no inkling and certainly no sign. We were working on Friday night and we were working on Saturday. We just came off of a tremendous Pride. No one knew or thought that this would happen today. Of course people are reeling, but I trust that Steve and Mike did everything in their power to keep it from coming to this point,” Douglas-Brown said.

Southern Voice opened in 1988 and was acquired by Window Media a decade later. David first published in 1998 and was acquired by Window in 2004. The company also owns the storied Washington Blade, Houston Voice, South Florida Blade and 411 Magazine.

“The thought of them not being around is very sad,” says Ryan Lee, editor of David and senior reporter for Southern Voice. “I’m incredibly appreciative of being part of both Southern Voice and David and truly believed that we offered an affirmation of gay life in Atlanta and won’t be able to do that anymore.”

Lee was told by a co-worker about 6 a.m. Monday and joined former staffers at the office so they wouldn’t arrive to see the sign posted in the window and with the locks changed. Lee, like Douglas-Brown, has worked for the company his entire professional career. He started at Southern Voice as an intern after graduating from Auburn University.

“It is more surprising than it would have been earlier in the year. Shortly after I became editor [in January 2009], right around that time, the financial struggles had started pressing down and it was a big concern. During the summer, things seemed to turn around – ad pages were up, paychecks were going back to a consistent schedule. So it makes it a little more surprising,” Lee said.

John Nail, the longtime production manager for Southern Voice and David, said he realized the publications might one day close, but held out hope they would continue publishing through this year.

“I have been kind of steeling myself up for this day,” Nail said Monday. “But I thought we could hold out until next year. Things appeared to have been turning around. Ad sales were picking up a little bit. Our Pride issue was down from previous years, but it was better than I expected. That we just get this bomb dropped – there was no inclination this was coming up. Other media have been writing Window Media’s obituary for over a year and we held out longer than anyone predicted.”

Nail worked for the company twice for a total of nearly seven years. But as a graphics artist, he faces both the loss of a job and a profession in an industry that continues to change and downsize.

“It’s not just losing this particular job, but sort of feeling as if I’ve lost my entire livelihood as far as my career choice. It’s not like I can just go to another paper. I’m having to consider a completely new line of work in my 40s,” Nail said.

Nail said he and other co-workers, despite their bracing for the possible shutdown of the company, were surprised to learn of it through a note taped to the office door and media reports.

“I thought we would get some warning that things are breaking down. I am disappointed in the fact that we didn’t get a personal notice, a phone call,” Nail said. “For so many people that worked there, it was more than just a job. It was a calling. We were the gay voice of Atlanta. To just see that disappear—as much as I have been mentally preparing for it for many months, now the day has arrived. Like any death, I am going through all of the various stages. I think I’m alternating between shock, grieving and anger.”

The company struggled with paying freelancers and those financial difficulties later impacted its fulltime employees. Earlier this year, paychecks were often delayed a week or more and payments were staggered among employees, Lee said.

The publications suffered from a steep decline in advertising that impacted the newspaper industry as well as the fallout from a federal receivership. The company lost its CEO in early July among speculation he was forced out by the Small Business Administration.

In April, the paper’s publisher left after a few months on the job in a revolving door that had brought four publishers in about two years. The executive that hired that publisher in 2008 later quit the company, too, but only after folding its national gay glossy Genre.

News broke in February that the company had been in federal receivership since August 2008. The New York-based investment company that owned a majority stake in the publishers of all five gay publications, Avalon Equity Fund, was sued by the SBA, which had the option of selling the media assets as it dissolved the company.

Southern Voice and David join other casualties among Atlanta’s LGBT media offerings. Labrys, a five-year-old Atlanta-based publication for lesbians, ended its monthly print edition earlier this year and shifted to a redesigned website.

“The two company presidents, Steve and Mike, I don’t begrudge them at all in this situation. I know it was a difficult choice for them. I know they did everything humanly possible to keep those operations up. They inherited a situation that was beyond repair,” Lee said.

Young men of Morehouse, pull up your pants, remove your do-rags and remove your shades and hats when you enter a building.

Thanks to a new policy on the campus of Morehouse College, they are no longer permissible.

The new policy is an effort to “get back to the legacy” of Morehouse leaders, said Dr. William Bynum, vice president of the Office of Student Services.

“We expect our young men to be Renaissance men,” said Bynum. “When people go about campus we want them to represent the college in an appropriate manner.”

The policy details 11 expectations of students, including:

* no caps, do-rags and/or hoods in classrooms, the cafeteria, or other indoor venues

* no sun glasses worn in class or at formal programs

* no jeans at major programs, as well as no sagging pants on campus

* no clothing with derogatory or lewd messages either in words or pictures

* no wearing of clothing usually worn by women (dresses, tops, tunics, purses, pumps, etc.) on the Morehouse campus or at college-sponsored events.

Students that violate the new rules risk academic suspension.

Bynum said most students are supportive of the policy.

Cameron Thomas-Shah, the student government co-chief of staff, is one of them. While working as a resident’s assistant (RA) he said he noticed freshmen dressed in a way that was unflattering to Morehouse.

“The image of a strong black man needs to be upheld,” he said. “And if anyone sees this policy as something that is restrictive then maybe Morehouse is not the place for you.”

Daniel Edwards, co-president of Safe Space, a gay straight alliance student campus organization said he has heard from students that are for and against the policy, but he believes it is discriminatory.

It is the restriction to women’s clothing that has many students up in arms.

“Some believe that this restriction is what the entire policy is correlated around,” added Edwards. “It is all an issue of perception and what manner of image you want to prescribe to.”

But the new policy is not meant to be discriminatory, said Bynum.

“This is necessary, this is needed according to the students,” he said. “We know the challenges that young African-American men face. We know that how a student dresses has nothing to do with what is in their head, but first impressions mean everything.”

Morehouse is not the only college to enforce a dress policy.

Hampton University also has a dress code, including within its business school where students with braids or dreadlocks are encouraged to cut their hair. And Bennett College, in Greensboro, N.C., has enforced a policy similar to Morehouse’s.

“Epic” is how officials are describing the floods that hit metro Atlanta earlier this week.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the floods were a “once in 500 years flood,” meaning the odds of such a thing happening are less “than 0.2 percent in any given year.”

“It is epic!” said Brian McCallum, assistant director for the USGS Water Science Center in Georgia. “The USGS can reliably say just how bad these floods were.”

They are calling this a 500-year flood because of the likeliness of it occurring is so rare, said McCallum. “We could have another flood next year, or floods back-to-back and still be considered 500-year floods because of the probability.”

The data was gathered from their “real-time stream-gauging network,” said the USGS.

Here’s some data gathered from the Atlanta area:

* USGS crews measured the greatest flow ever recorded on Sweetwater Creek near Austell as 28,000 cubic feet per second.

* The Yellow River stream gauges in Gwinnett, DeKalb and Rockdale counties measured flows between the 1 percent chance (100-year) and 0.5 percent chance (200-year) flood magnitude.

* Flows caused by the rain at Peachtree Creek in Atlanta were only near the 10 percent chance (10-year) flood magnitude, but the backwater effects from the Chattahoochee River pushed water levels over the 0.2 percent chance (500-year) flood at the gauge location.

* On the Chattahoochee, USGS measured a 1 percent chance (100-year) flood at Vinings and Roswell.

Twenty gauges were damaged during the downpour.

“We expect that all but one gauge should be operational by the end of the day,” said McCallum. “Fixing the gauges is our priority now.”

Four people have been confirmed dead after heavy rains have flooded many parts of metro Atlanta, closing highways, railroads and schools. Emergency crews across the region are searching for countless more reported missing amid the flooding waters.

A 2-year-old boy was found dead in Carroll County Monday afternoon after his family’s mobile home was swept into a rain-swollen creek, WSB-TV is reporting. The mobile home split apart after being carried away by Snake Creek. After about three hours in the water, other family members, including a 1-year-old child, were rescued, but the 2-year-old remained missing until 1:30 p.m. Monday.

The fire chief in Carroll County told WSB-TV that Snake Creek had risen to 20-feet deep. It’s typically 2-feet deep, he said.

Two men died in Douglas County in separate incidents, officials said. Spokesman Wes Tallon said a man’s body had been found downstream from where a car was swept into a creek on North Helton Road. WSB-TV is reporting a second man, identified as 29-year-old Kevin Hodges, was found along Banks Mill Road.

Also in Douglas County, five or six people have been reported missing, including a mother and two children, according to authorities.

A Gwinnett County woman has also died. Seydi Burciaga, 39, was driving on Desiree Drive near Lawrenceville Highway in the unincorporated Lawrenceville area around 5 a.m. when her van was swept into a rain-swollen creek. Firefighters arrived to find the area under several feet of water with one motorist standing on the roof of his car to escape the deluge, said Gwinnett fire spokesman Capt. Thomas Rutledge.

A swiftwater rescue team deployed an inflatable boat and firefighters on foot also used a rope system to help them navigate the rising tide as they waded in to search for the woman. They found her deceased inside the van, Rutledge said.

Relatives told authorities that they had been on the phone with Burciaga during her ordeal and relaying information about her condition and location to 911. However, they eventually lost contact with her, Rutledge said.

Albert Lester, who lives two houses up from the swollen creek, said he saw the van drive past at a fast pace just before it hit the water.

“I saw her coming and wondered why she didn’t brake or anything,” Lester said. “I heard her hit (the water). She didn’t have a chance.”

Lester said this is the second time he has seen the creek rise this high in his 33 years in the neighborhood.

A next-door neighbor, Chad Sullivan, 28, said Burciaga had a husband and two kids, a girl and boy who appeared to be about 4 or 5 years old.

Burciaga was swept away just a few feet from the front door of Emanuel Istudor, 26, who lives adjacent to the creek on Desiree Drive. There are no street lights on that stretch of the road. With heavy rain, visibility would have been practically nil, Istudor said.

“You’d think it was a puddle if you were driving with no visibility at 4 a.m., but it was really six feet of water,” Istudor said.

He said that water was knee-deep on the first floor of his house at 4 a.m. when he and his parents woke up, and cars were floating in the front yard. The family pushed the cars into the street to block people from attempting to drive on it and then left at 5:15 a.m. to get to higher ground.

“We feel horrible, but there was nothing we could do,” Istudor said.

Neighbors said Burciaga was coming home from her job at a local Sam’s Club store when the incident occurred.

The raid of an Atlanta gay nightclub by the police has over the last week developed into a pretty huge story. There is a lot of false information out there and a lot of people want to know more and what they can do to help. Here is a clearing-house page that hopes to accomplish those goals.

ATLANTA, GA (WABE) – Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington won’t comment on allegations that officers illegally detained and searched the 60-plus patrons at the Atlanta Eagle.

Monday, he did clarify APD policy:

“Each person would’ve had to have been frisked for the police officer’s safety. Now whether or not they searched the person, I don’t know that and we won’t know that until we conduct an investigation. Now if they ran the person’s name through, we do that in normal procedures to make sure the person’s not wanted.”

“You don’t have the right to detain the person beyond the frisk, beyond making sure that the officers are going to be safe.”

WABE legal analyst Page Pate says a systemic policy of running an ID check on everyone in an establishment, even if there is illegal activity there, is unconstitutional.

“You cannot simply keep them there. You cannot keep them there, and you cannot ask them for their identification and run background checks without their consent.”

Pate says APD policy, as stated by Chief Pennington, violates patrons’ First and Fourth Amendment Constitutional rights. The Fourth Amendment guarantees citizens the right against unlawful search and seizure. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of assembly. He says the Eagle’s customers were treated as suspects for no other reason than being present when the raid went down.

“Any post-certified police officer knows you cannot go into an establishment and start arresting and detaining people without probable cause that those people have broken some sort of law.”

No patrons were charged, although eight Atlanta Eagle employees are charged with operating without a proper business license.

Chief Pennington has asked anyone present during the raid to come forward and give their accounts.

He’s promised a full investigation.

UPDATED NEWS STORY LINKS:
http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0508.html

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2009/Report__Atlanta_Gay_Bar_Raided/

Atlanta Police’s liaison to the gay community said the volume of complaints she’s received from patrons at a Midtown leather bar that was raided Thursday night suggests an investigation is warranted.

“There’s too many people saying the same thing for there not to be some validity to it,” said Danni Lynn Harris, Atlanta Police’s LGBT liaison.

Several customers at Atlanta Eagle say they were harassed without prompting. They were forced to the ground and frisked, according to several witnesses.

“Our problem is with the way our customers were treated,” said one of the Eagle’s owners, Richard Ramey.

Eight employees of the bar were arrested around 11:30 p.m., charged with providing adult entertainment without a city permit.

“I’m thinking, this is Stonewall. It’s like I stepped into the wrong decade,” said Nick Koperski, 31, who had just gotten to the bar when the raid commenced.

Only Eagle employees, including co-owner Robert Kelley, were arrested, and six of the eight remained behind bars until late Friday afternoon, when two Atlanta City Council candidates, Miguel Gallegos and Shelitha Robertson, intervened on their behalf.

“I had no idea what the hell was happening,” Koperski said.

(Ed note: Awesome… raiding bars again are we? Shouldn’t you be figuring out who’s attacking all of those people at GA Tech Atlanta PD? Do you want me to tell you what you were looking for at The Eagle? There are male customers sucking and fucking one another behind closed doors. It happens. Now while it probably is a crime to do such, I believe there probably is more important things you could be doing.)

1. William Shatner isn’t always an ass. He actually can be brilliantly entertaining even if he mostly appeared like he was talking with co-panelist Lenard Nimoy. Reoccuring themes included why he wasn’t in the movie, picking on Georgia natives (Nimoy has a lot of history in this city actually), the ongoing feud with George Takaei, and getting the lowest fare on priceline.com. Nimoy wins the battle however since he hates Glenn Beck as much as I do.

2. Movie trailers are always a big draw. People like watching them in the theatre, people like watching them at a convention. Even an hours worth of them can really be entertaining filler during a day’s worth of activities. The screen is big and you may get to see some you (or perhaps even the general public) has never seen. Avatar looks downright stellar if Second Life-like.

3. The name of your panel is very important. If you’re going to talk about the books rather than the television show, don’t call your panel True Blood. Call your panel The Sookie Stackhouse Novels. Because otherwise, it just looks obnoxious to bitch and whine and complain about the HBO series. This goes for any fandom really. You all need to get over the fact that books and television or movies are DIFFERENT. That’s why they’re called ADAPTATIONS.

4. The Con Suite really stepped it up this year. Either that or I got really lucky with what times I decided to drop in. For the uninitiated, this is a room set up by the staff, run 24 hours (except for a moments here and there for cleaning) that features food and drink. Sometimes you get something like Chex Mix, sometimes you get bacon and eggs like I did one morning. Other awesome dishes were red beans and rice, and Pocky. One of the misses was a huge ass pickle at 3am. Thanks but um, well I kind of wanted a real penis at that hour, I mean srsly.

5. Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) has indeed become the hot delicious young adult I knew he’d be. Another member of the “delicious accent club,” he also has the benefit of playing a bad guy who finally found himself in The Half-Blood Prince. He couldn’t help but constantly flood the panel with fan service stating his favorite scene was with Harry in the toilets, that he actually prefers a Draco x Ron pairing, and that he’s a bit unsure about the photo-real slash out there.

6. I’m still unsure why the whole MST3K gang can’t seem to get back together all together even now. They all seem to talk about how they can’t get work in Hollywood and they really like doing their projects Cinematic Titanic and RiffTrax respectively. They all share a deep seeded hatred for Jim Mallon. Why not put your peanut butter in their chocolate already?

7. Malcolm McDowell was one of those celebrities that did indeed charge a premium for pix and autographs… HOWEVER!!! Unlike many of those other crappy actors that aren’t really worth the oxygen they’re sucking up at their empty Walk of Fame table, this guy is a real nice man who if you don’t have the money will still chat for a moment. I told him that I really like his work, which is technically true since I HAVE INDEED seen so many of his films that even he probably doesn’t remember doing. You know, because they’re bad.

8. I missed out on seeing Adam Savage because I got my hotels mixed up. It was in the Sheraton not the Marriott. The 4th hotel was added I believe last year and it’s kind of a haul as it sits away from the main three (which are lined up in a row across the three blocks). It was also ice cold for other panels like Crow vs Crow — No matter who loses, Tom Servo wins — and so maybe it’s not so bad I missed out seeing another Mythbuster this year. Besides, would it be right to see Adam without Jamie?

9. 3 Years ago in the Self Publishing panel it was filled with so-called experts who said it wasn’t a good idea. You should polish your letters and send them out to all the publishers and get yourself a good stack of rejections. This year they say that this is the way of the future and that while there still will be the big names, this is the best way to go forward. Durr. I told you so. That’s why I self-published “Later, Skater” and “Freakshow” and ignored your so-called advice. Bitches.

10. Steam Punk has taken over. An instant fandom (just add water) this re-envisioning of the way the world works if only we powered things by steam. While this isn’t exactly a new concept, per say, this is the first year it got its own track of programming at DragonCon. Yes, they did underestimate the appeal and gave it too small of a room. But considering how obviously overwhelmingly popular it was, I think that’ll be remedied quite quickly. The fact that Best in Show at the Masquerade went to a steam punk group will not be lost on those in charge, I’m sure. I’m quite pleased to be honest. It’s a far more interesting concept than Twilight or Browncoats or sucking the teat of Joss Whedon that’s for goddamn sure.

Dishonorable Mention: Furries still suck. Not content to stink up the internet, they continue to troll our conventions this time wearing shirts with the acronym FAP (Furry and Proud.) Die in a fucking fire.

State health officials have confirmed a case of swine flu involving a 14-year-old student at Eagles Landing Christian Academy in McDonough.

The private Henry County school is now closed for the next 14 days, officials said.

Elizabeth Ford, director of the state Division of Public Health, also revealed more information on three additional probable cases of swine flu: A 36-year-old pregnant woman from DeKalb County; an 8-year-old girl from Clayton County; and a 3-year-old boy from Cobb County.

Ford said the testing indicates there is a high likelihood that the three probable cases also will be confirmed as swine flu by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ford said the 14-year-old at Eagle’s Landing may have obtained the illness from a younger sibling who had flu-like symptoms during the school spring break. That 12-year-old sibling is now well.

Eagle’s Landing is about 25 miles south of Atlanta. According to the school’s Website, it has an enrollment of over 1,100 on its 86-acre campus.

On Monday, 16-year-old Matthew Calhoun recalled how anytime classmates coughed last week, they were ribbed for possibly having the H1N1 virus, commonly called swine flu.

But last Friday during a prayer request at the private Christian school, another student asked that they pray for a sick middle-schooler suspected of having the virus.

“Then I just wanted to go home,” he said.

On Sunday, Matthew received a text from his best friend that school was canceled because of suspected swine flu. Moments later, officials from the school in Henry County phoned his father, Dwayne Calhoun, and said school was canceled indefinitely as authorities tried to determine whether the unnamed student had contracted swine flu.

The H1N1 virus has sickened more than 200 people and killed one in the U.S., according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .

Dwayne Calhoun, whose 6-year-old son also attends Eagle’s Landing, said he was impressed with the school’s handling of the case.

“I’m thankful they are taking the precautions they are,” he said. “They keep the parents pretty well informed.”

Calhoun said his family isn’t alarmed by the news and is taking basic precautions of frequent hand-washing. Matthew said he and his friends are a bit shaken by the news.

“At first there was only one case in Georgia, and then the odds of the second case [possibly] being in our school is pretty wild,” he said.

In the first case, a woman visiting Georgia from Kentucky was sent on to the CDC for final testing, and it tested positive for swine flu. She remains in a hospital in stable condition in LaGrange.

Matthew and his friends do not know the student in question.

On its web site Monday, Eagle’s Landing President Tim Dowdy said the school is undergoing a deep cleaning as a precaution.

Cowdy added that the health department will be contacting any student who may have been exposed to the virus.

(Ed note: Oh lawd! Shota’s got swine flu in my area!)

* White House aide’s family suspected of swine flu.

* 1st US death a toddler in Houston, Texas

* Mexico closes federal government, asks businesses to shut down.

* A few schools close in US.

* N95 Masks are big sellers.

* 130 confirmed cases in the US, including 1 now in Georgia.

A Fulton County jury has awarded $1.8 million in damages to a boy whose penis was severed in a botched circumcision.

The state court jury gave another $500,000 to the boy’s mother in the decision rendered Friday.

The case involves a child, identified only as D.P. Jr., who was born at South Fulton Medical Center in 2004. In a suit filed two years later, his mother contended that the doctor who circumcised him removed too much tissue and that his pediatrician failed to respond when a nurse complained of excessive bleeding.

The tip of the penis was placed in a biohazard bag and might have been reattached if a urologist had attended to the boy within eight hours, one of the mother’s lawyers, David J. Llewellyn of Atlanta, said.

The jury found that both the pediatrician, Dr. Cheryl Kendall, and the physician who performed the circumcision, Dr. Haiba Sonyika, were negligent. South Fulton Medical Center was absolved of liability.

The pediatrician’s lawyer, Roger Harris, said he disagreed that the jury’s decision indicated that Dr. Kendall was negligent because she didn’t go to the hospital. He hinted at an appeal. “We believe there was error committed during the course of the trial,” he said.

Dr. Sonyika’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Llewellyn said the money awarded by the jury is to cover the cost of medical treatments and psychiatric counseling for the boy and his family. The jury did not award punitive damages. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not naming the mother to avoid identifying the child.

“This case does point out one of the dangers of circumcision that every parent must seriously consider when having the procedure done,” Llewellyn said. He contended that parents are not told of the risks of the procedure.

(Ed note: Sure to continue the hot debate over the topic of circumcision. I must reiterate that I do prefer uncut and commercial free guys.)

Gwinnett County police are investigating the apparent suicide of a man found hanging from an interstate overpass Tuesday morning.

The body was discovered shortly after 6 a.m. on the Indian Trail Lilburn Road bridge over I-85.

Gwinnett police Cpl. Illana Spellman said several drivers on I-85 called 911 when they saw the adult male hanging by a rope from the bridge.

“Some personal papers and effects found at the scene may point to personal problems as the reason for the suicide. However, that has yet to be confirmed,” Spellman said.

Police closed the ramp from Indian Trail to southbound I-85 for about an hour while the body was removed.

The man’s identity has not been determined.

(Ed note: Normally you’d either hang yourself, typically in private, or jump off a bridge, typically in public. This certainly is an odd combination of the two.)