This and That

Some interesting tidbits from the day:

• Big news for the alma mater as Berry scores a $4 million donation for new residence halls and the Cage Center, as well as endowing a new scholarship program that gets Berry back to its roots. Berry also picked up two wins over archrival Shorter on the hardwood the other night, which always brings a smile to my face.
  
• Are we trying to do too much too fast when it comes to transportation? So far this session, we have at least three bills that will dramatically change transportation in Georgia. Will any of them pass? See this story for the Governor's plan to reorganize transportation governance. Wasn't this what GRTA was supposed to do? Lets keep our fingers crossed that something gets accomplished this session.
• This is really impressive. Perhaps Clarke should consider something similar as it seeks to expand its landfill. $250,000 per year is nothing to sneeze at either.
  
• Georgia Power has been pushing a bill in the legislature that will allow the company to stretch the charges for a planned nuclear plant over a number of years, basically, effective immediately, despite the plant won't be on line for many years. This appears to make a lot of financial sense for Georgia Power, and perhaps for their rate payers. Initial opposition came from usual suspects -- Democratic interest groups, anti-nuclear activists, environmentalists. Things seemed to be moving along smoothly, and they even fended off an unusually strong challenge from Clark Howard and announced polling results that show Georgians on their side. But now the battle is truly joined. Conservatives at Peach Pundit have decided it is not a good idea, and are making a fight of this thing. This will be an interesting test to see how strong the new media movement is and if it can impact policy, and also an interesting clash of social networks and old fashioned networking. Georgia Power is perhaps the state's best and most prominent corporate citizen, investing heavily in local communities all over the state and building a lot of goodwill. Will be interesting to see if Erick Erickson and his crew slow things down for Georgia Power.
• We're about to get to work identifying historic homes and properties in Watkinsville. We are particularly focused on preventing "demolition by neglect" which has already occurred to at least two Main Street properties in the past five years. Let me know if you have any suggestions.
  
• I just don't understand how we're thinking about cutting revenue in Georgia right now. While I'm not as vehement as JMac, one of the big problems with our state's tax policy right now is a lot of well intentioned tax breaks that add up to a lot of $$$$. This is one reason Rep. Bob Smith had a point when he called for a constitutional convention (an idea which appears to have disappeared, by the way).
  
• Interesting post from Maria Saporta on the challenges facing Metro Atlanta. This is right on target, and the rest of the state needs to pay attention. As Atlanta goes, so goes Georgia.
• I'm sorry Coach, but you can coach attitude and effort. Sometimes you have to. In fact, I would argue at many levels in many sports, it isn't the X's and O's that make coaches great, but it is the coach's ability to get the most out of his or her players. Exhibit 1. Exhibit 2. Exhibit 3.
  
• Be sure you read this story. Sportsmanship still lives, and it's a very good thing.