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Campbell claimed he was a Champagne-aholic to shave 4 months from his sentence — “But in December 2006, a few months after beginning his prison term, Campbell wrote prison officials that he was a champagne alcoholic whose drinking problems were ‘painful and embarrassing to recount.’ He also alleged that government witnesses at his trial testified ‘without contradiction that I was consuming bottles of champagne on a regular basis,’ court records say. There was no such testimony in Campbell’s trial, prosecutors said. In fact, witnesses testified that Campbell didn’t drink, although he would make sure champagne was waiting in a hotel room for his longtime mistress, Marion Brooks, when she arrived in Atlanta. Prosecutors also disclosed a memo summarizing an interview Brooks gave federal authorities, in which she said Campbell ‘does not drink alcohol.’”

Last peach tree on Peachtree Street is gone — “A nearby pine tree, towering and rotten, came crashing down, blocking access to Fairhaven. It was removed from the road, but not immediately cut up. Some neighbors took to it with chain saws and reduced it to little more than kindling. Then someone looked over and saw the peach tree — leafless, budless, dormant. It was over in seconds.” I guess that little peach tree was just in thw wrong place at the wrong time.

$138 mistake led to release of 22 billion gallons from Lake Lanier — Trying to save $138 on a new pulley, the Army Corps of Engineers got faulty gauge readings and drained water equal to “what the Atlanta metro area consumes from Lanier and the Chattahoochee in 118 days, according to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.” In the midst of a drought, we lost nearly a third of a year’s water supply.

Atlanta newspaper endorses Obama — “For reasons largely outside her control, Clinton is also one of the more reviled figures in American politics. That sentiment is unfair and irrational, and she has done little to deserve it. But it exists nonetheless, and it would limit the amount of public support she would be able to rally as president. Obama, on the other hand, has demonstrated an appeal across many of the lines that have divided America. That is a critically important attribute, because the scale of changes that must be made to correct America’s course cannot be accomplished with majorities of 50 percent plus one.”

Don’t Live In Atlanta? You Can Still Help Make Our Drought Worse! — Dasani bottled water is drawn directly from Lake Alatoona and the Chattahoochee River (yes, Dasani is glorified Atlanta tap water), 8.4 million gallons of it in November, and Gatorade comes from the Chattahoochie as well (the Pepsi Gatorade plant is the city’s largest water user), to the tune of over 70 million gallons per month. So, buy a case of Dasani water or Gatorade, and you can deprive an Atlantan of a future shower!

Georgia’s water crisis: How did we get here? — “Metro Atlanta has had a lot of time to get right with water. In 1969, engineers concluded in a regional planning document that without dramatic action water would be in critically short supply by the time the area reached between 3 and 5 million people — metro Atlanta’s population today. It isn’t as though Georgia never planned beyond a rainy day, said Wayne Hill, a former chairman of the Gwinnett County Commission. ‘Implementation,’ he said, ‘hasn’t been worth a flip.’”

Water crisis: Too soon for worst-case fears? — “We have not gotten to the planning stages for someone running out of water because we don’t think we’re even close to being there,” said Tim Cash, chairman of the state’s Drought Response Working Group, when asked what would be done if Atlanta ran out of water. “Right now, I don’t have a vision for a worst-case scenario,” he said. How … encouraging … to know the people in charge have no vision of a worst case scenario, nor how they would deal with it. I’m so … reassured.

Lives altered by fatal, botched police raid one year ago — It was one year ago that 92 year old Kathryn Johnston was murdered in a bad raid: “The FBI investigation into the Atlanta Police Department and its officers, especially those assigned to narcotics at this time last year, continues. But Chief Richard Pennington said he expected the year-long federal investigation of his department to be completed within a few weeks.” And I hope that makes his butthole pucker, ‘cuz they would not spend a year … on nothing.

Electricity demand guzzling state’s water — “Electric utilities are the single largest users of the region’s freshwater. A family of four can use three times more water to power their home than they use to drink, bathe and water their lawn [...] The average Georgia household burns 1,100 kilowatt hours of electricity a month. That translates to about 27,000 gallons of water. By comparison, a family of four goes through about 9,000 gallons a month for household uses such as washing clothes, flushing toilets and showering.”

SoutheastGreen.com — A newly launched client site “for consumers and business professionals who want to locate and learn about green products & services that will help them save money, save energy and become more environmentally responsible.” It’s a soft launch with lots of content yet to be added, but there’s a weblog, and the topic lately is, you guessed it, water and drought.

Again we ask — when will Lanier run out? — Atlanta Water Shortage blog does the math: “268 days later (August 9, 2008), we go below the dam and we’re in trouble.”

We’re really screwed now: Bush officials meet with Perdue on drought — Quote from Gov. Perdue: “I am confident the president of the United States will not allow Georgia citizens to run out of drinking water.” Sonny, I’d be a lot more “confident” if you would assume the opposite (a reasonable assumption, based on historic trends), and act accordingly in your role as Governor. We’re on our own, Sparky.

Atlanta’s New Slogan: Where The Stars Of Music Come To Get Arrested – Last weekend, T.I, this weekend, Kid Rock. But isn’t this like a Jeff Foxworthy joke? “If you’ve ever been arrested for fighting over a woman at a Waffle House … you just might be a redneck.” This restaurant location, a half mile from my home, shall hereafter be referred to as “Kid Waffle.”

Atlanta Water Shortage — “Like you, we’re quite concerned about the water crisis in Atlanta. This blog is intended to serve as a single point for you to get all of the latest news about this situation.”