1. Leslie Fink is hosting a Meet & Greet Happy Hour tonight for Ken Hodges, one of two Democratic candidates for Attorney General, at 5 Paces Inn in Buckhead from 6 to 8:30pm.

2. The Southern Center for Human Rights is holding their fourth annual benefit party on Thursday, June 18th - Justice Taking Root.

The event will feature dance performances by BE | Brooks Emanuel Dance, hot hors d'oeuvres, DJ and speakers. All proceeds will benefit the Southern Center for Human Rights, an Atlanta-based, nationally-recognized public interest law firm that represents people facing the death penalty and brings class action litigation to protect the civil and human rights of people in the criminal justice system.

OK, so you hate the "quote" about the Circuit Court being the place where law is made. Yes, there's video.  Your more fair minded friends might benefit from watching more of it than they're showing on TV.  The whole thing can be found here, start at about the 40 minute mark for some context.  

A reporter for a small newspaper was forcibly removed from a press area near Air Force One shortly before President Barack Obama arrived at Los Angeles International Airport to depart California early Thursday.

Airport security officers carried the woman away by the feet and arms as she protested her removal. She later identified herself as Brenda Lee, a writer for the Georgia Informer in Macon and said she has White House press credentials. The newspaper's Web site says it is a monthly publication, and a Brenda Lee column is posted on it.

Link.

Why is it always a Georgian? Sigh.

I think that they say that Rush Limbaugh is the 800 lb. gorilla in the Republican Party, but I think that's mean spirited to say that because I think he's down to 650 lbs., so I think one should be fair to him about this whole thing.

-- Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA)

Happy Friday.

I was originally going to live blog this, but it was a little smaller event than I was expecting. In any case, I would be remiss not to start a post so intertwined with the environment without capturing this wonderful weather outside.

I admit that I was initially underwhelmed with the size of the event at the Georgia World Congress Center. I overheard that 2,000 people or so are expected (the event runs through tomorrow), which with the $5 admission price wouldn't exactly make anyone rich, but wouldn't be a bad start. I talked with Martin Kabaki, one of the event organizers, who said this was the first year of what he hoped would be an annual event. He said that a similar event had already been held in Jacksonville, with other events planned for Gainesville and Miami. As you can see, the scale was pretty small, but it didn't prevent me from spending a full two hours exploring what was here. (Herb Butler wouldn't have stepped foot in any place named for Zell Miller, but hey, some things can't be helped...)

I took note of every exhibitor at the expo, but I will admit up front that I only talked to those that seemed to have something interesting going on. I'm quite frankly skeptical of the "magic health products" types, which don't really strike me as particularly "green" anyway.

Obama's ideological elusiveness has perplexed liberal and conservative court watchers alike. Critics may see his ambiguity as just another example of his instincts to swaddle ideological divisions in the soothing rhetoric of bipartisanship and compromise, to reconcile the irreconcilable. Obama, however, may be looking to synthesize and transcend the established legal categories -- articulating a genuinely new vision for what it means to be a liberal justice in the 21st century.

The new fiscal year for Georgia schools is fast approaching, but unfortunately, many of the state's poorer school districts will be hurt by the new budget shortfalls:

A fund designed to help poor school districts provide an education comparable to what's available in wealthier systems was slashed $112 million this year by Georgia lawmakers looking for ways to balance an unsteady state budget.

The more than 20 percent reduction in so-called "equalization" funding for the fiscal year that starts July 1 is just the latest blow to poor school systems already slashing staff and salaries, crowding classrooms and killing extracurricular programs.

The article goes on to describe how suburban counties like Gwinnett are using a loophole in the formula to eek out extra cash, meanwhile poorer districts like the City of Pelham are forced to cut jobs, salaries, and benefits. The Governor's office argues that changes to the formula can't happen without legislation, so in the meantime, poorer districts have to suffer. That argument is understandable, and we obviously aren't the only state in a crunch right now. But I also think waiting on the legislature to take action is simply inadequate.

What about all of that stimulus money that got all of the school districts hyped up a couple of months ago?

Consider that the Georgia Board of Education approved distributing over $351 million for low-income students and schools a few months ago. Going back to the examples provided by the AJC, Gwinnett County will receive $8,876,600 in both FY '09 and FY '10 for low-income students. The City of Pelham, on the other hand, will receive $231,300 in both FY '09 and FY '10. Now granted, Gwinnett is significantly larger than Pelham, but if Gwinnett is essentially exploiting the equalization fund as Governor Perdue and other officials claim, then why couldn't the Perdue-appointed Board of Education offset the money that Gwinnett is receiving in equalization by giving more Title 1 stimulus money to poorer districts like Pelham? I mean, it was the Board of Education that had a final say in what stimulus money went where. And considering that many of these underfunded operational expenditures also meet the Title 1 funding criteria (warning: opens a Word document) established in No Child Left Behind, I don't see why this couldn't be a viable solution to fixing a $112 million shortfall that is killing valuable jobs and educational programs across the state.

  --Jon "Boog" Sciambi is prepared, knowledgeable and entertaining. A top-notch acquisition by the Braves.

  --Joe Simpson is insightful, well-spoken, occasionally funny. Could be more critical, an understandable shortcoming related to his long stay here.

   --Don Sutton, as an analyst, brings a most welcome pitcher's perspective to the booth. Well-researched, full of anecdotes.

   --Don Sutton, on play-by-play, is too chatty. Forgets he's calling the game and keeps telling his analyst's stories.