The Creative Loafing this week has a special section called the “Urban Explorer’s Handbook to Atlanta.” I just finished reading it and I highly highly recommend it for you if you want to learn more about some neighborhoods that you probably don’t know that much about (Buckhead and Midtown aren’t mentioned in here). Plus, they staved off snarky bloggers by having it look like someone has already written snarky comments in it already. Smart move.

So how long has 96.7 The BuzZ been around without my noticing? And who looked at the Atlanta radio market and decided that what it really needed was a station like 99X but without the “’90s alternative” part?

If someone had asked me, I would’ve begged for an all-’80s station, which is why nobody asked me, since 105.7 bombed (with a tiny little playlist, it should be noted — I never want to hear “Dance Hall Days” again) and Star 94 dropped its “Friday Night ’80s” special soon after.

Meanwhile, Rodney Ho’s AJC radio news blog continues to be a worthy addition to the AJC blog empire. Check out this early February entry where he details how often local for-profit stations play “unique” songs. Stations should use this in their advertising: after reading the numbers he presents I want to pay more attention to Eagle 106.7.

Ho also mentions 99XWatch.org, a left-wing-minded blog that monitors the political opinions expressed on the Toucher, Jimmy & Leslie show. I’ll go Ho one up and call 99XWatch.org really interesting (and how long before there’s a conservative blog keeping a similarly critical eye on the Bert Show?). Although I’m a little surprised that the blog puts a specific date — mid-2004 — on the 99X swing to the right; while I interviewed Leslie Fram once and found her a real sweetheart, I was tuning out the Morning X four years ago in response to Jimmy Baron’s homophobia.

Now there’s an interesting question: is 99X swinging right as a response to the much more liberal/libertarian (from what I can gather) Bert Show? The Atlanta Magazine Bert Show profile didn’t go into that (disclaimer #1: I used to work for Atlanta Magazine), though it did, obviously, talk about Melissa Carter’s being openly out (disclaimer #2: I have a big crush on Melissa Carter). But I would like to see the demographics and political leanings of the two audiences compared: maybe the Bert Show attracts more young women and Democratic-leaning men, whereas The-Morning-X-minus-Barnes-Plus-Some-Other-Guy gets more young Republicans. Mr. Ho?

Residents who live near DeKalb-Peachtree Airport have complained for years of giant aircraft swooping over their rooftops in the cover of night and commercial airliners parked on the runways.
But tales of secret operations and hidden records at the north DeKalb County facility largely were dismissed as conspiracy theories from a band of extremists.
Now a previously unheralded lawsuit filed last year has enlivened a cause that once conjured images of mythical black helicopters and has brought unprecedented scrutiny to how a neighborhood airfield became the second-busiest airport in Georgia.
The lawsuit accuses DeKalb County of illegally concealing information about its expansion of the airport as a haven for the private jets of some of Atlanta’s major corporations. The allegations bring to the surface three decades of community fears of a “Hartsfield North” encroaching on their homes.

It’s reports like this one about the Dekalb Peachtree airport that make you really understand the importance of having an open government. The AJC has a page set up to lobby against the ‘secrecy in government’ act and for Sunshine laws. The discussed bill is located here.
(some links via Jen)

The more and more I think about Nichols and the massive “manhunt” that resulted on Friday, the more I’m convinced that Jessica is completely right below when she said “What worries me most is this is a case where the four most seriously injured victims were all connected to law enforcement themselves. If there are that many mistakes made when the cops have such an obvious vested interest in capturing the guy, what happens when it’s just an ordinary case?”

Exactly.

I’ve been listening to some of the coverage on Ashley Smith (who Nichols took hostage in her apartment). Combine it with the fact that, when asked if the car had left the deck, the attendant at the parking deck’s only exit said she hadn’t seen it. Now, I understand that sometimes stuff happens and things fall through the cracks of investigation. But if there is an inkling of evidence that the car hadn’t left the deck, then it probably shouldn’t take 13 hours to find the car one story down from where it was. If there is an inkling of evidence that the suspect was going to Lenox – like, for example, he asked for directions to Lenox – then probably there should be some sort of search there. Now, I’m not a detective, so maybe there is some really strange reason that these clues didn’t tip anything off, but I can’t think of any.

Anyway, it makes me feel, without any intended disrespect, that the authorities fell ass-backward into capturing Nichols.
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I was looking for it earlier, and here it is.

I cannot swear that people will be on said trolley on Friday night at 9:30 pm, when Tech plays GW, wearing various combinations of black, gold, and white and reminiscing about Dennis Scott. But it wouldn’t surprise me.

There’s another gathering of local bloggers tomorrow evening (7:30ish) at the Prince of Wales in Midtown.

I’ll be there, as well as Daniel. Feel free to stop by for a pint!

So if Fulton County sheriff’s deputy Cynthia Hall dies of the injuries she suffered Friday morning — which remains a distressingly possible outcome — the office will have its very own snuff film, courtesy of the surveillance cameras that were rolling at the time. Yet she wasn’t found — even after other deputies chasing Brian Nichols ran right by her — until someone noticed she was missing.

You can take your pick as to which aspect of the Friday-Saturday chase was the most ridiculous: putting out an alert for a green Honda Accord found (11 hours after it was originally carjacked) one floor below its original spot; being so sure the suspect had fled in said Accord that shutting down MARTA was seen as not necessary (Nichols got from the Omni station to Lenox with, apparently, little trouble); that nobody (as best I can tell) seems to have looked in Buckhead, despite the fact that Nichols apparently at one point asked directions to Lenox, until Saturday morning when a customs agent was found murdered in the area.

I will say, though, that the arguments that Hall should not have been left alone with the suspect because he was a big, angry guy and she was a petite woman don’t hold water to me. Hall may be only 5’0″, but she had 16 years’ experience: this can not have been the first time she handled a large, angry prisoner. And as anyone who’s ever taken a self-defense class can tell you, there are techniques a petite woman can use to immobilize a man twice her size. The problem doesn’t seem to have been Hall’s size or gender — Nichols overpowered a male deputy a few minutes later — but the element of surprise.

There are two elements here: Nichols’s own story, which seems genuinely tragic (in the classical, not sentimental, sense of the word), and the mistakes made by law enforcement. What worries me most is this is a case where the four most seriously injured victims were all connected to law enforcement themselves. If there are that many mistakes made when the cops have such an obvious vested interest in capturing the guy, what happens when it’s just an ordinary case?

The AJC and 11alive.com are reporting that Nichols has been captured in North Atlanta (Gwinett) after a hostage situation. Apparently, a customs agent was found shot to death – tt’s unclear as to how related it is.

The AJC headline now reads that Nichols “surrenders to police.”

[update]
This is an interesting excerpt from the customs agent story

Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Don O’Briant, who police say was beaten and his car stolen by Nichols on Friday, wrote that his attacker asked him directions to Lenox Square mall, near the site of the shooting.

(The agent was found near Lenox) Does this seem odd to anyone? Nichols pistol-whipped O’Briant and stole his car (which, it seems he only took down one floor), but took the time to ask directions to Lenox from someone he had attacked. Answer – He asked for directions and then pulled the gun. That makes a lot more sense…

Here’s the CNN story.

This AJC story has a pretty good timeline of the entire event. They have an interactive timeline as well.

[short update]
Not to make light of this at all, but I just wanted to point out that the AJC posted the news online at 11:33 am. I, thanks to Octane’s WiFi found out at 11:35, along with some other patrons, and the entire coffeeshop knew less than a minute later. WiFi – is there anything it can’t do?
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From the AJC: “A Fulton County deputy and three other people were shot Friday morning at the Fulton County Courthouse on Pryor Street in downtown Atlanta, police dispatchers said.”

A judge and court reporter are dead, some schools have been locked down, and an AJC reporter was hurt (though not seriously) when the suspect carjacked him.

What the &$*#%#!?! I hope all our downtown-working readers are safe.