Kicking and screaming it seems, Georgia is being dragged into the pursuit of federal funds for high-speed rail ...

The Georgia Department of Transportation is working with its counterpart in Tennessee to seek $34 million in federal funds to build a high-speed rail line linking Atlanta with Chattanooga, Tenn.

Earlier this summer, the Federal Railroad Administration announced that states could apply for funding through the U.S. High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail program created by Congress last year. The money would be used to plan and implement high-speed rail service along approved corridors.

It's now, officially, the sewer line that simply won't die.

Hoping that the fourth time is the charm, Athens-Clarke County staff has put forward a proposal to run sewer lines along Sandy Creek. The most recent proposal came in June, prompting Athens-Clarke County District Four Commissioner to quip ...

(Utility officials) need to understand that line's not going to be there and move on to other issues.

And, just as in the previous instances, commissioners unanimously rejected the idea because of environmental concerns and questions regarding future development.

Now, in this incarnation, a scaled-back extension of sewer lines snake their way through areas that are, according to staff, already heavily developed in an attempt to prevent the future failure of septic tanks (though this proposal also includes recommendations for increased oversight on existing septic tanks not affected by the expansion).

Ted Olson was the Solicter General under President George W. Bush and the attorney who argued for the former president in Bush. v. Gore. Now, Olsen has teamed up with lawyer who squared off against him, David Boies, to overturn Prop 8 in California. In this interview with Fox News's Chris Wallace, Olson argues for a conservative judicial philosophy to justify the rights of gays to marry.

A fascinating read put together by Dylan Matthews who works for Ezra Klein's blog at The Washington Post where he went to various policy experts, politicians and political activists seeking information on where the infamous 'Laffer Curve' begins to bend.

The interesting thing was the non-partisan tax experts put the ideal number somewhere around 60 percent, while liberal wonks reflexively said 70 percent and conservative wonks - and pundits - said much, much lower (19 percent was the answer from The National Review's Donald Lumskin).

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 second installment of those responses. Jill Caudill's responses are here.

Sarah Ellis is up ...

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

To attract the highest-quality teachers, you have to provide the highest-quality job.  Treat teachers with the highest-level of respect.  Create the best working atmosphere possible for them through environment and support.

- OK great, but ... on July 29 local and state officials were telling the public the water posed no toxic threat to aquatic wildlife or the residents who use the impacted areas. So, yes, it's definitely encouraging to see the dillution of those dangerous chemicals, but they weren't dilluted during a time when a lot of folks were saying everything isn't as bad as it looks.

- The three finalists for the Oconee County Board of Education's Post Five vacancy have been selected.

Medical School Partnership student Rachel Taylor unloads books at her locker on the first day of class Monday at the Interim Medical Partnership Building in Athens-Clarke County.

Photo courtesy of Dot Paul/University of Georgia

Palin-mania has come and gone, and we're all a little worse off.

Consider this truly ridiculous reasoning by Sarah Palin ...

Georgia Right to Life actively campaigned against Handel in the primary. “[Palin] has a son with Down Syndrome (sic), and under Karen Handel’s laws, Handel would have felt like it was OK to go in and abort that child, ” the news website Politico quoted Melanie Crozier, the executive director of GRTL’s political action committee, as saying.

Crozier later said she regretted her remark.

Palin was not assuaged today — though she didn’t mention GRTL by name:

“I know that Karen Handel is pro-family. She’s pro-life. You’ve got really great pro-life organizations here in this state that make a positive difference…Unfortunately, a few – maybe one of these organizations, kind of crossed a line, using my baby Trig in a pretty disgusting, certainly unnecessary attack on your candidate.”

As of this afternoon, Athens-Clarke County is the only governmental body to have agreed to a meeting with four local and state environmental agencies regarding the response to the chemical spill that impacted area water ways.

Ben Emanuel, the Oconee River Projects Coordinator for the Altamaha Riverkeepers, told BTT that Alan Reddish, the county manager of Athens-Clarke County, notified Justine Thompson of GreenLaw of the community's intention to participate in the meeting. He said the participation of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division in this discussion was crucial ...

I would really hope that EPD would be amenable to this meeting. I've fell all along that there is plenty of areas for us to discuss, and based on Reddish's response, it's very encouraging to see the local government get involved. I've always thought from the very beginning that everything hinged on what EPD was doing. (Athens-Clarke County) needed to get the information from EPD, so, in my mind, the public information and intergovernmental coordination is something that could be improved.

Since Sarah Palin is up in Atlanta stumping on behalf of Karen Handel, this seems like a pretty good time to point out that PolitiFact debunked - again - a claim from Palin that President Obama and Democrats in Congress are angling to push through the largest tax increase in American history ...

Palin, the former governor of Alaska, made several points in her rebuttal, the primary one being that the Democrats haven't put forward a plan stating how they intend to address the expiring Bush tax cuts. Palin's comments on Fox News Sunday gave the impression that Democrats want to see them all expire.

In fact, Democrats have repeatedly stated they only intend to let lower tax rates expire for individuals making more than $200,000 or couples making more than $250,000. And that's nowhere near the largest tax increase in history, as we noted in our rating.