See any city employees behaving unethically? Is that APD beat cop too busy yakking on his cell phone to help you out? Now you can let the City’s law department and Board of Ethics (!) know about it — call The Integrity Line. The number is 800-884-0911 and is available 24 hours a day.

Who classifies as a city employee, you say? Glad you asked:

All Agencies, Authorities and Organizations, that are affiliated with the City of Atlanta; Zoo Atlanta; Fulton County Government; Enterprise Leasing of GA; Atlanta Empowerment Zone Corporation; Atlanta Development Authority; Atlanta Housing Authority and Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau

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via The Tip Line: Help Select the Atlanta Reads Book: Voting Begins April 21

Beginning Friday, April 21 through Sunday, April 30, residents can cast their vote for the first book selection in “Atlanta Reads: One Book, One Community,” the City of Atlanta’s city-wide literacy program.

[...]

Voting locations will be at Atlanta Borders and Waldenbooks stores and the Atlanta-Fulton libraries. On May 9, Mayor Franklin will announce the book selection. All Atlanta Public Schools (APS) rising seniors and senior residents who participate in City Office of Recreation programs will receive a complimentary copy of the selected book. APS will include the book in its curriculum for the 2006-07 school year. In September, the book’s author will host a series of events in Atlanta, including a town-hall book club meeting.

The inclusion of a city-wide reading program to help improve the quality of life of Atlantans seems like a good idea. Similar programs have had success in Baltimore, New York City and San Francisco. Also, the list of books looks promising:

• Jimmy Carter’s “An Hour Before Daylight”
• Pearl Cleage’s “I Wish I Had a Red Dress”
• Ernest Gaines’ “A Lesson Before Dying”
• Tony Kushner’s “Caroline or Change”
• Ferol Sam’s “Run With the Horseman”
• Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”

Get out and vote and read!

The Hawks finished up their season tonight with a close loss to Cleveland, who rested most of their stars for the playoffs.

The Thrashers, in turn, also came up short in their bid to become a playoff team, narrowly missing their first trip to the playoffs but setting some wonderful team and individual records.

The Braves are looking to extend their streak of playoff appearances/division titles and held off the Mets 2-1 today.

My question is this: is anyone excited at all about the prospect of pro sports in Atlanta or are we all biding our time until October to witness another fizzle by the Braves and the return of Mike Vick and the Falcons to our Sunday afternoons?
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Do you LOVE short films? Well, gang, here’s the bomb just for you! Thursday, April 20th at 7pm.

The best of the 30 years of the Atlanta Film Festival shorts program comes to Cinefest on Thursday, April 20th at 7pm. The evening will be hosted by Atlanta Film Festival Director Jake Jacobson, with nearly two hours of shorts including:

The Accountant – 2002 Academy Award® winner Best Live Action Short
Eternal Gaze – Multi-Award Winning stop motion film on life of Italian artist Alberto Giacometti
Ryan – 2005 Academy Award® winner Best Animated Short
And many many MORE!

THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2006 at 7:00PM
Cinefest Theatre, GSU Student Center, 66 Courtland Street, Suite 240, 2nd Floor
404.651.3565 :: cinefestml@yahoo.com
$5.00 General Public, FREE to IMAGE members and GSU students

If you’re looking for an excuse to try out the new Inmanm Park location of Inman Perk Coffee, here’s one for you:

Our Inman Park location welcomes “Petals” — an exhibit of floral photography shot locally and abroad by Atlanta photographer Sabrina Sexton.
Join us for a free reception to view the exhibit and meet the photographer on Saturday, April 22, from 7 to 10 p.m. “Petals” will be on display through May 13, 2006.
“Petals” is sponsored by Sugar7, who will donate 7% of every print and notecard sale to a non-profit organization.

Ms. Sexton is a local blogger and left this message for us (with some editing, if that’s okay)

I’m having a reception for the opening of my photography show at Inman Perk Coffee in Inman Park this Saturday (4/22) from 7 to 10 p.m. My father recently passed away, and his own photography was a huge inspiration to me growing up. I’m dedicating the show to my dad and will also have some of his photos on display during the reception… I’m really looking forward to sharing my dad’s photos with everyone. They’re mostly black and whites from his time in Korea in the 70s. My photos are flowers shot in Georgia, Hawaii, Beijing, and Hong Kong. Free desserts and free coffee too. “Petals” will be on display through May 13.

The next weekend, Octane Coffee is having a Calligraphiti show that seems pretty cool. I tell you, featuring local artists is one of my favorite parts of local coffee shops. It’s a great advantage they have over more national chains (though, it’s unclear to me why local neighborhood Starbuck’s don’t display some local art. Or do they and I just haven’t been in a while?).

Let’s just hope it’s nothing major.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport officials closed down all security checkpoints Wednesday afternoon after a “suspicious device” was detected in a screening machine. The airport still remained open and operating, although airport spokeswoman Felicia Browder acknowledged there was no way for passengers entering the airport to get to their airplanes.

Chances are you may not know much about the West End, Downtown’s southwestern neighbor and home of the Atlanta University Center. Here’s a few trivia facts for you to get in the know:

• Settled in 1835, the original name of the West End was White Hall (after the White Hall Inn); it was renamed in 1867 after London’s theatre district.
• White Hall Inn, a two-story building located on the corner of Lee Street and Ralph David Abernathy Blvd, was so named because it was painted white when most buildings of the time were unpainted.
• White Hall Inn was also the stagecoach shop, tavern, post office and home of the 503rd Militia district, as well as the election precinct.
• West End officially became a part of Atlanta on January 1, 1894.
• The West End District was the first locally designated historic district in the City of Atlanta.
• The layout of the original West End was a main street and adjacent grid pattern streets; three right turns and you were back where you started.

• Sources: The West End Newsletter, Kay Wallace, National Park Service

AOL Cityguide’s Best Of for Atlanta are now online.Hardly any of the one’s that I voted for won. And some of the winners are just offensive (as in, “they offend me because of other people’s bad taste.”)

• Flying Biscuit won best breakfast. It’s decent enough, but really Thumbs Up is far superior.
• Fado won best bar. Seriously?! I mean, Fado is decent and all but a national chain pub is hardly the best bar in Atlanta. If we must go Irish, let’s go Meehan’s or at least something locally grown.
• Dante’s Down The Hatch won Best First Date Place. Now, I like Dante’s. But it’s only good for a first date if you have a desire to spend tons of money on that first date with someone you barely know. Something a little more relaxed and casual is a little better. Dante’s is better third date fare.
• Intermezzo won Best Coffeehoue. Yet another accolade for the place in Atlanta with the slowest possible service and the priciest coffees. The thing is, if you want a cool coffeehouse, you don’t go somewhere like Intermezzo – that’s where you go when you want a dessert. For the coffeehouse, try a place like Octane, Aurora, or JavaVino.

Just my opinions…

Update: Chintan corrects me in the comments. Fado is “home grown.” Still, I think there are many better bars in Atlanta

I’ve beeen deliquent in my duties because of some deadlines I’m up against, but as Greg mentioned below, we’ve got a new feature on the site where you can submit something that you’d like for us to talk about/mention/advertise or something like that. Just click over on the right. Of course, submission does not guarentee that one of us will write about it, but it’s probably better than leaving a suggestion in the comments. There are a lot of things that are going on in this city so this is just another way of keeping up to speed. Feel free to submit to your heart’s content.

Planning to be in the ATL on Mother’s Day (sans Mom) next month and looking for a constructive way to give back to the women in your life?

Join me at the Komen Atlanta Race for the Cure!

Come on, you know you want to. Not a runner? Good. I’ll be heading up the t-shirt distribution fun-for-all again this year and I’d love to have your bright smiley stalker faces there at 6am helping sort out 10 thousand t-shirts for the participants.

Scared of getting up early for a good cause? Psha. Doooooooooooooo it.

I’ll be waiting for your e-mails.