Blog posts by Blake Aued, Editor
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Dawg Drawer and 'Mad' Founder Jack Davis Has Died
Blog: Culture Briefs
Renowned illustrator Jack Davis, a UGA graduate best known as a founder of the satirical Madmagazine, has died at age 91.
Born in 1924 in Atlanta, Davis attended UGA on the G.I. Bill and loved to draw Bulldog-related images throughout his career.
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Drive-By Truckers Urge Democratic Party Unity
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Screenshot via MSNBC
MSNBC’s Kate Snow interviewed Athens-based band the Drive-By Truckers Tuesday afternoon at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Co-frontman Patterson Hood addressed party unity, saying that he’s now backing the party’s nominee, Hillary Clinton, after supporting Bernie Sanders initially.
“It’s what needs to happen. The stakes are too high right now to sit around and cry because our first choice didn’t get to go on the way. I’m definitely totally on board” with Hillary Clinton, Hood said.
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Is This Anti-Discrimination Law Strong Enough?
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones/file
Hundreds marched through downtown in January in support of an ordinance banning discrimination by local businesses.
After a six-month wait for the county attorney to draft it, Athens-Clarke County commissioners are fast-tracking a local anti-discrimination ordinance—but local activists say the proposed law doesn’t go far enough.
Last fall, the UGA Student Government Association—prompted at least partly by a racist shot served at the Confederate-themed bar General Beauregard’s—collected dozens of complaintsfrom minority students about discriminatory practices at student bars downtown. Black students said they’ve been denied entry to certain bars based on dress codes that aren’t applied to white patrons, and that they’ve been turned away because doormen told them the establishment was closed for a private party but allowed in others. Such practices are a “pretext to deny somebody admission based on race or other characteristics,” ACC Attorney Bill Berryman told the commission’s Government Operations Committee July 21.
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Tell ACC What You Think About Parks and Rec Programs
Blog: In the Loop
Do you have an opinion about Athens-Clarke County Leisure Services? You probably do. If so, the ACC Office of Operational Analysis would like to hear from you.
The OOA, formerly known as the auditor’s office, is conducting a comprehensive audit of the Leisure Services Department and has scheduled seven public input sessions over the next two weeks. They will be held:
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MillerCoors Buys Majority Stake in Terrapin
Blog: Grub Notes
Are Terrapin commercials coming soon to a Super Bowl near you?
Beer giant MillerCoors is buying a majority stake in the Athens brewery, the companies announced today. Terms were not disclosed.
Terrapin will become a unit of MillerCoors’ craft and import beer division, Tenth and Blake, the owner of brands like Blue Moon, Leinenkugel, St. Archer and Pilsner Urquell.
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Commission Poised to Extend Free Bus Rides for Athens Youth
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones/file
Athens-Clarke County commissioners are poised to extend free bus rides for Athens youth—at least for a year—but some are concerned that not requiring them to pay sends the wrong message.
The commission approved a pilot program in February allowing all riders ages 5–17 to ride Athens Transit for free from May 20 (the last day of school) until Aug. 9 (the first day). The program was recommended by the Mayor’s Youth Development Task Force, a group appointed by Mayor Nancy Denson to dissuade youth from joining gangs.
“This was enthusiastically endorsed by the community, our partnership,” said Commissioner Harry Sims, who chairs the task force. “People were really excited about it.”
As a result, youth ridership increased 600 percent, from 48 riders per day to 340, according to Athens Transit.
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Hear The B-52s' Take on the 'Squidbillies' Theme Song
Blog: Homedrone
Photo Credit: Joseph Cultice
Legendary Athens band The B-52s put a rockabilly spin on David Allen Coe’s country downer of a theme song for this week’s episode of “Squidbillies,” airing Sunday at 11:30 p.m. on Cartoon Network.
For the uninitiated, “Squidbillies” follows a family of, yes, hillbilly squid led by paterfamilias Early Cuyler and their shotgun-and-party-liquor-fueled shenanigans in a thinly disguised version of Douglas County, GA.
Here’s the upcoming episode’s title sequence:
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Athens Sen. Bill Cowsert Is Voting for Trump
Blog: In the Loop
State Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens).
Early on in the Republican primary, state Sen. Bill Cowsert (R-Athens) endorsed Ohio Gov. John Kasich for president.
Kasich—spoiler alert!—didn't win. Now, Cowsert, who is a delegate to the GOP national convention, is falling in line behind presumptive nominee Donald Trump.
Cowsert writes an occasional syndicated column, and in the latest installment, he lets it be know that efforts to deny Trump the nomination are doomed to failure.
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Athens Power Rankings for the Week of July 18
Blog: In the Loop
Welcome to Athens Power Rankings. In the spirit of sports rating systems, through painstaking analysis, we rank the top movers and shakers in the Classic City each week. Who's hot? Who's not? Find out below. -
Writers: The Dawgs Are Gonna Be Mediocre This Year
Blog: Culture Briefs
Photo Credit: Emily Selby/UGA Athletics
"Third place? Really, guys?"
New UGA football coach Kirby Smart knows he needs to win and win in a hurry to keep the fan base happy.
Unfortunately for him (and us), the media doesn’t have a whole lot of faith.
At the SEC Media Days conference in Hoover last week, sportswriters picked Georgia to finish third in the East, behind predicted division winner Tennessee and Florida.
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Everything You Need to Know About Mike Pence
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore
Who is Mike Pence?
Indiana’s Republican governor and former congressman will be Donald Trump’s running mate, the Trump campaign confirmed this morning.
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Creature Comforts Releases 'Southern Lager' Mutualism
Blog: Grub Notes
Creature Comforts is releasing a “Southern-style farmhouse lager” called Mutalism, a collaboration with Austin, TX-based Jester King Brewery.
The limited-edition beer is available in 750-milliliter bottles at the brewery only starting today.
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ACCPD Chief: No Tolerance for Violent, Racist Officers
Blog: In the Loop
Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Scott Freeman.
Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Scott Freeman will fire and arrest any officer who violates a citizen’s civil rights, he said at a community forum on racial issues Tuesday night at the ACC Library.
“If you do your job, I will back you up to the hilt, even if it costs me my career,” Freeman said he tells his officers. “If you violate somebody’s constitutional rights, I will fight the GBI to be the first one to put handcuffs on you.”
Freeman defended an officer who shot an armed suspect earlier this year. He also fired and pressed charges against another officer, Jonathan Fraser, who beat up a drunken UGA studentlast August.
Freeman said he wants the right to more easily fire officers like Fraser. “He should have been fired years prior to that taking place,” he said.
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Athens Is Overrun With High, Naked UGA Bros
Blog: In the Loop
"We're going streaking to the poke stop!"
As we say in the journalism business, “two is a trend,” and so it’s officially a trend that UGA bros are getting hella faded and running around in public without any clothes on.
Actually, “turnt” might be the better word to describe the 22-year-old UGA senior who jumped into the back of a garbage truck downtown while naked on May 29. (IDK, somebody look it up on Urban Dictionary for me; I’m old and don’t know how to use the Google.)
It took four police officers to drag Benjamin Abele out of the truck because he “violently fought them off, and… it was difficult to get a hold of him because he was extremely slick from being coated with a foul-smelling liquid,” according to the Athens Banner-Herald. He was shot with a Taser twice with no effect.
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Athens for Everyone Celebrates Second Anniversary
Blog: In the Loop
Tim Denson admits that at times he wasn’t sure Athens for Everyone would last two months when he and supporters formed the organization following his 2014 run for mayor.
But two years later, A4E is still going strong. The group celebrated its second anniversary Friday with an open house at its new office in the Chase Park warehouses.
“It’s two years later,” he said. “We’re growing and growing and growing. We’re getting bigger and better.”
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Hundreds Gather for Athens Black Lives Matter Rally
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones
Several hundred people gathered outside Athens City Hall on a sweltering Sunday afternoon for a Black Lives Matter rally in the wake of two more African Americans dying at the hands of police and the revenge shootings of a dozen police officers in Dallas.
Speakers urged respect, both for African Americans and for police.
“All the people who want the violence and killing to stop, we need to come together, because we don’t want this to happen in our community,” said Mokah Jasmine Johnson, a teacher and hip hop promoter who organized the rally, as well as one against discrimination at downtown businesses in January.
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New UGA Apparel Store Opening Downtown
Blog: In the Loop
A rapidly expanding chain of college-themed apparel stores called Tailgate is moving into the Broad Street space formerly occupied by the Cajun restaurants NONA and Harry Bissett's.
American Eagle bought Tailgate last year from Todd Snyder, a noted designer of both high-end menswear and "vintage-inspired" collegiate clothing. The company sells clothing emblazoned with dozens of schools’ logos online and has a brick-and-mortar store in Iowa City.
The Athens store will open in October, said Maggie Long, the company's communications director.
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Tasers Are Now Legal at UGA
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Jason Esbain/Wikimedia Commons
Guns are still illegal at the University of Georgia, but Tasers are A-OK!
House Bill 792—sometimes referred to as “campus carry lite”—is among a number of new laws that took effect July 1. The law allows people 18 and older to carry electroshock weapons such as Tasers and stun guns on college campuses and use them—but only for self-defense.
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R.I.P. Allen's Owner Billy Slaughter
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Jeff Montgomery
William "Billy" Slaughter, former owner of the famed local watering hole Allen's Hamburgers, died Thursday at the age of 79.
Slaughter was a halfback on the state champion Athens High and SEC champion Georgia football teams in the 1950s, going on to earn a law degree from UGA.
Later, he bought Allen's from Allen Saine. The bar and restaurant in Normaltown was one of the centers of the Athens music scene in the 1970s and '80s, as well a popular hangout for students, townies and sailors at the Navy Supply Corps School (now the UGA Health Sciences Campus). Future governor and senator Zell Miller worked there, and members of the B-52's, R.E.M. and Widespread Panic were patrons.
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Athens' Republican Congressmen Hate the Supreme Court's Abortion Ruling
Blog: In the Loop
Pro-abortion rights protesters outside the Supreme Court.
Athens is represented in Congress by two Republicans who also happen to be Baptist ministers, so it’s no surprise that they’re extremely unhappy with yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, striking down Texas restrictions on abortion clinics that would have closed most of the clinics in the state.
Here’s Rep. Doug Collins (R-Gainesville) on the 5-3 decision:
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latest stories
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Culture Briefs | July 27, 2016 2:15pm
Dawg Drawer and 'Mad' Founder Jack Davis Has Died
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In the Loop | July 27, 2016 12:50pm
Drive-By Truckers Urge Democratic Party Unity
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In the Loop | July 22, 2016 2:25pm
Is This Anti-Discrimination Law Strong Enough?
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In the Loop | July 21, 2016 11:33am
Tell ACC What You Think About Parks and Rec Programs
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Grub Notes | July 20, 2016 4:46pm
MillerCoors Buys Majority Stake in Terrapin
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In the Loop | July 20, 2016 1:05pm
Commission Poised to Extend Free Bus Rides for Athens Youth
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Homedrone | July 19, 2016 3:25pm
Hear The B-52s' Take on the 'Squidbillies' Theme Song
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In the Loop | July 18, 2016 2:02pm
Athens Sen. Bill Cowsert Is Voting for Trump
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In the Loop | July 18, 2016 12:38pm
Athens Power Rankings for the Week of July 18
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Culture Briefs | July 15, 2016 3:29pm
Writers: The Dawgs Are Gonna Be Mediocre This Year
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In the Loop | July 15, 2016 11:51am
Everything You Need to Know About Mike Pence
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Grub Notes | July 14, 2016 3:50pm
Creature Comforts Releases 'Southern Lager' Mutualism
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In the Loop | July 13, 2016 4:19pm
ACCPD Chief: No Tolerance for Violent, Racist Officers
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In the Loop | July 12, 2016 2:22pm
Athens Is Overrun With High, Naked UGA Bros
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In the Loop | July 11, 2016 1:40pm
Athens for Everyone Celebrates Second Anniversary
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In the Loop | July 11, 2016 11:14am
Hundreds Gather for Athens Black Lives Matter Rally
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In the Loop | July 7, 2016 12:57pm
New UGA Apparel Store Opening Downtown
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In the Loop | July 6, 2016 12:43pm
Tasers Are Now Legal at UGA
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In the Loop | July 2, 2016 6:08pm
R.I.P. Allen's Owner Billy Slaughter
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In the Loop | June 28, 2016 11:37am
Athens' Republican Congressmen Hate the Supreme Court's Abortion Ruling