Mayor Heidi Davison is going to the mat for her budget as commissioners look for ways to trim it by $1.75 million to avoid a tax increase.

Davison is especially interested in protecting poverty-related expenses like $192,500 for more frequent bus service along Atlanta Highway, Barnett Shoals Road and Cedar Shoals Drive, $93,000 to start a fund for affordable housing and $26,900 to hire a coordinator for a new mental health court.

Democratic activist Maddy Powell and Athens Grow Green’s Beth Gavrilles both forwarded an e-mail Davison is sending around encouraging citizens to tell commissioners they’ll accept a tax increase for such programs. Says the e-mail:

I didn’t really want to print this story about Athens-Clarke County lifting part of its outdoor watering ban. I wanted to e-mail it y’all instead.

Mayor Heidi Davison said something interesting in passing during last Tuesday’s commission meeting. She said she wanted to lift the total ban ASAP, and said the Upper Oconee Basin Water Authority – which I hate for its ungodly acronym – should either call a meeting to ease up or vote by e-mail.

Vote by e-mail? From a woman who thinks her work-related e-mails are off limits to the public, that’s scary stuff.

Bio-defense labs make strange bedfellows.

One of the odd things about the NBAF debate is the way some opponents are lumping Athens elected officials in with President Bush and the bogeymen at Homeland Security.

Much has been made recently of a letter Mayor Heidi Davison wrote to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff in support of bring the lab to Athens, as if she was conspiring with those Republican fascists to kill us all in the name of the almighty dollar.

So a criminal justice task force is looking into reducing overcrowding at the Clarke County Jail

Big deal, you say. That’s exactly what we need is another hand-wringing committee stacked with the mayor’s cronies to spend our money for us. Besides, those inmates ought to be stacked up like crates on portable beds. They’re criminals, after all. And what do I care about the jail, anyway? I’m a law-abiding citizen, not some junky thief or rapist.

Ordinarily, I might agree with you. But this task force really is important. Pinky-swear. Either we build this jail on our own terms, or a federal judge will make us build it on his. Just look at Fulton County.

The Sunshine Project has folded, according to the British magazine Science. There is also a better Chronicle of Higher Education article, but it’s subscription-only.

The group, with offices in Texas and Germany, was probably the only organization in the world solely committed to investigating and criticizing bio-research. The local anti-NBAF group FAQ invited U.S. director Edward Hammond to town last month to give a talk on the dangers of such research, to mixed reviews, and I had interviewed him for an article back in September.

I’m just going to throw this out here. This is what Paul Broun said about the State of the Union:

“While I agree with the President that the state of the Union is strong, there are several steps we need to take to make it even stronger,” said Broun. “First, I support an economic stimulus plan that contains tax cuts for job-creating small businesses that are broader than those described by the President. Second, I think we need to encourage the President to follow through with tonight’s pledge to contain excessive and wasteful earmarked spending. Finally, I wanted to hear the President address the critical issue of illegal immigration with more emphasis placed on securing the border and enforcing current laws. I think these three issues provide a positive agenda for the country and our Union would be stronger if the President advanced them.”