- What you're looking at ... as you see, things look a little different. That's going to continue for the next day or so. Martin, being the all-around good guy he is, is tinkering with our layout to update the additional content - and more diverse types of said content - that we've added to BTT. In order to keep the blog up, it means said tweaks are being done in real time, and those tweaks and changes mean you might experience a glitch here and there. Apologies in advance, but the end result will be a better organized and more functional BTT.

- Additionally, we've got a pair of other announcements we'll roll out later this week. Both of them have both Martin and I giddy.

From my Sunday column in the Athens Banner-Herald ...

Implemented in 2001 under the budget reconciliation process, the tax cuts included a sunset provision that ensured they would expire after 10 years. Internal rules in the U.S. Senate forbid using reconciliation to increase the deficit, which is what those tax cuts did, since they lacked a corresponding spending cut to offset their fiscal impact.

As a result, politicians are debating a policy put in place roughly a decade ago, far removed from today's economic uncertainty. Democrats wish to extend the cuts for everyone who makes under $200,000 a year, while Republicans want to extend the cuts across the board.

During a recent visit to the Athens Rotary Club, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said he was confident some compromise between the two parties would be reached to extend the bulk, if not all, of the cuts.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division has ordered J & J Chemical Company to take the appropriate steps to clean up its site that was damaged by fire and a resulting chemical spill.

The consent order charges the company with pumping contaminated water from Trial Creek and filtering it through activated carbon filters at Olympic Drive and Athena Drive until the EPD tells them to cease. Additionally, the remains of the burned building will be demolished and its remains will be disposed of properly, and the site will be secured to ensure that rainwater does not contact burned debris and contaminated materials.

The company has been instructed to properly monitor the water twice a week until contaminants are no longer detected.

Additionally, the EPD reported that the level of toxins in the creek continue to steadily fall.

An interesting discussion on education policy from Dana Goldstein and Katherine Mangu-Ward that includes the former suggesting longer class days might be a central component in combatting poverty and ensuring better nutrition.

She goes into further detail at her blog ...

When I say "longer school day," I am not at all envisioning kids sitting in rows looking at a blackboard for three or four extra hours. Rather, I'm imagining something like what the best public, private, and charter schools are already doing: a mix of additional instructional time and mealtimes with small group break-out activities like reading clubs, sports, board games, supervised computer time, library browsing time, and art and music lessons.

First off, a big thanks to all five of the candidates running for Clarke County Board of Education for their responses to us. And my thanks to Bertis Downs for posing the questions we used.

In case you missed them, here are the links to the five candidates ...

Jill Cauldill

Sarah Ellis

Carole Lumpkin

David Redman

Carol Williams

Some thoughts and observations after sifting through them ...

- Ellis, who works as a realtor in town, said an international baccalaureate program would be a worthy investment for the area schools. Rather specific, but a solid proposal.

John Bull prepares authentic jerk chicken.

At the end of qualifying week for local, non-partisan elections in Athens-Clarke County, Bertis Downs submitted a letter to the editor to the Athens Banner-Herald requesting additional information related to not just why the five declared candidates for Clarke County Board of Education were seeking office, but also where they stood on a variety of issues confronting the local schools. BTT decided to take his questions and ask them of all the candidates, and this is the third installment of those responses. Jill Caudill's responses are here, Sarah Ellis's responses are here, Carole Lumpkin's responses are here and David Redman's responses are here.

Carol Williams is up ...

1. How do we attract and retain quality teachers, the key ingredient in any child's education?

The Georgia Democratic Convention will be held at The Classic Center in Athens-Clarke County beginning tomorrow at 9 a.m. The Democratic Party of Georgia has released the following schedule for tomorrow afternoon's festivities ...

1:30  Sen. Robert Brown takes stage to recognize state senate nominees.

1:38  Reps. Dubose Porter & Calvin Smyre take stage to recognize state house nominees.

1:53  Hon. Michael Thurmond to stage to accept US State Senate Nomination.

2:23 Constitutional officer nominee speeches:

Ken Hodges address

Georganna Sinkfield address

Darryl Hicks address

J.B. Powell address

Mary Squires address

Keith Moffett address

Joe Martin address

2:51 Carol Porter takes stage to accept nomination for Lt. Governor.

Classes begin at the University of Georgia on Monday, and when they do more than 6,100 new undergraduate students will flood the campus.

This new class also figures to be more racially and ethnically diverse than in previous years with almost 30 percent of the incoming freshman identifying themselves as 'non-Caucasian' compared to 22 percent last year. More than four percent of the class is Hispanic, while 7.6 of incoming freshmen are African American.

This new class also spans the globe, with more than 200 freshmen hailing from 51 different counties. A little more than 13 percent of the freshman are from out of state, with more than 450 Georgia high schools in 140 counties sending students to Georgia.

Applications also spiked with 17,730 students, the most ever at UGA, applying for admission.

- A very innovative use by Fowler Drive Elementary. Kudos to them. In fact, I'd like to see all new public buildings in Georgia built with similar water conservation systems, as well as a future attempt to systematically renovate all existing buildings in the state.

- A report from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources indicated that local and state officials knew Trail Creek contained toxic runoff shortly after the spill, which is in contrast to the information made available to the public on July 29.

- You know what's interesting about every response from Nathan Deal ... no refutation of any of the actual criticism.

- At some point, it would be refreshing for some scientist to say 'yeah, all this bad stuff is happening because we're being absurdly foolish in changing our own selfish behavior.'