The Breakroom: Rainbow Crossing, Flint Water Crisis, Michael Vick

Caption

A temporary rainbow crossing at 10th and Piedmont in Atlanta. There's a plan to make this design permanent. / flickr

The Breakroom gang joins host Celeste Headlee to weigh in on the week's news. The panel includes Sam Burnham of the blog “All the Biscuits in Georgia,” Emory University Senior Director of Communications Tomika Depriest, Connect Savannah community editor Jessica Leigh Lebos, and NPR correspondent Sonari Glinton.

 BREAKROOM TOPICS:

1) We talked this week about lead contamination in Georgia’s water systems. This issue got national headlines because of Flint, Michigan. Five current and former Michigan health officials were charged with involuntary manslaughter in a Legionnaires' Disease outbreak that killed 12 people. Do you think these charges are prosecutorial overreach?

2) Speaking of legal problems: Michael Vick’s NFL career was certainly stained by them. He served 21 months in prison and two months in home confinement for an illegal dogfighting conviction, but he ended up back in the NFL. Vick retired this week with the Atlanta Falcons. Falcon officials compared him to Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan because of his impact on Atlanta's culture. That sound right to you?

3) The Atlanta Falcons new home opens in a couple of months. Mercedes-Benz Stadium will no doubt be a major Atlanta landmark. But the city’s favorite now? An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll says that’s Stone Mountain. Would you vote for that or something else?

4) This week, a couple more shootings … one of them at a baseball practice of Republican lawmakers. Fortunately, no one was killed in the attack, except the perpetrator. Does the Virginia shooting, and the one that followed in San Francisco, warrant a new conversation about gun safety?

5) Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed says the city will make the rainbow crosswalks at the corner of 10th and Piedmont a permanent fixture. Do you think the rainbow colored crosswalk is a good idea?

6) This week, the Southern Baptist Convention denounced white nationalism and the alt-right movement. Since many alt-right groups claim to be are Christian-based, could that make a difference?

7) NBC is getting a lot of pushback from some advertisers for the choice to air an interview host Megyn Kelly did with Alex Jones. Jones believes Sandy Hook was a false flag operation and has insulted the grieving parents and he believes 9/11 was an inside job. So, should NBC have aired the interview with Alex Jones?

8) In England, a man called the police when he discovered his girlfriend and her cat had eaten his bacon. He wanted to press charges against both of them, girl and cat. Has our love affair with bacon gone too far?