Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten signed a proclamation Monday calling for Topeka to be known for the month of March as "Google, Kansas %u2014 the capital city of fiber optics."

Bunten told city council members about the proclamation prior to a special meeting of the council held at noon at City Hall to hear the first reading of a proposal that wasn't linked to local efforts to convince Google to make Topeka a test site for an ultrafast Internet connection.

Bunten asked the seven council members on hand if they had a problem with his issuing the proclamation, which also encourages Topekans to recognize and support continuing efforts to bring Google's fiber optics experiment here. None objected.

"I support pushing the 'send' button," Councilman Jeff Preisner said.

Bunten told reporters afterward that the proclamation was "more 'fun' than anything else."

He said he hoped it would set Topeka apart from other cities vying for Google's attention, which include Grand Rapids, Mich., and Baton Rouge, La.

Bunten noted that Topeka's efforts to attract Google drew the attention of the New York Times, which published an Associated Press article about it at http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/28/business/AP-US-Topeka-Google.....

Bunten said he had heard the suggestion to change Topeka's name to "Google" from Jim Ogle, general manager of WIBW-TV Channel 13.

Ogle told the council Monday about how Mayor Joan Wagnon in August 1998 issued a proclamation temporarily changing Topeka's name to "ToPikachu" in recognition of the nationwide kickoff here of the "Pokemon" media franchise, which features a fictional species of creatures named "Pikachu."

Ogle said that if Topeka could change its name "for a small doll that sounds like I sneezed," it could certainly do the same for Google.

City attorney Jackie Williams told the council Monday that legally, the city couldn't change its name to Google for a short time period and then change it back. However, he said he saw no legal problem with Bunten's issuing a proclamation calling for Topeka to be referred to as "Google."

The council on Monday discussed the possibility of taking a vote to show support for Bunten's proclamation. But after Williams told members their rules would prevent any such vote until next week, Bunten said he'd just go ahead and issue the proclamation.

That proclamation recognizes Think Big Topeka, a new local group that on Feb. 11 initiated a campaign to gain support for the Google campaign. Think Big Topeka organized a Facebook group in support of the movement that has more than 10,000 members.

Also on Monday, Shawnee County Web administrator David Eldridge said the county that day had begun an online survey it would conduct through Saturday at www.snco.us/survey to determine interest in Google's ultra-high speed Internet service.

"We will use it to better understand local interest and may use portions of it in an application to Google to bring the fiber experiment here," he said, adding that the county wouldn't share personally identifiable information.

At Monday's special city council meeting, members Preisner, Karen Hiller, John Alcala, Sylvia Ortiz, Larry Wolgast, Deborah Swank and Richard Harmon heard the first reading of a proposed ordinance seeking an exception to the city's liquor ordinance to allow the consumption and possession of alcohol from 10 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. March 17 in a barricaded area on the sidewalk adjacent to The Office, 124 S.W. 8th.

The Office is located at the northeast corner of S.W. 8th and Jackson, the traditional starting point for the St. Patrick's Day parade held annually beginning at noon March 17.

The council had planned to hear the first reading Tuesday and then act March 9 on the requested exception, which could have been enacted upon publication in the city's official newspaper on March 15.

But after the council voted last week to cancel Tuesday's regular meeting, city officials realized that would push back the first reading of the proposal to March 9, meaning it would have been considered by the council on March 16 and %u2014 if approved %u2014 enacted on March 22, well past St. Patrick's Day.

Monday's special meeting was scheduled with the sole purpose of hearing the proposal's first reading. The meeting began at 12:04 p.m. and ended at 12:09 p.m., said city clerk Brenda Younger.

(h/t Kat)

Join Carol Howard Merritt and Bruce Reyes-Chow as they welcome David Batstone, author of Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade–and How We Can Fight It and the Founder and President of the Not For Sale Campaign.  Also joining Carol and Bruce are Jan Edminston (A Church For Starving Artists) and Kris Thompson (Calvary Women’s Services).

One of the joys of producing God Complex Radio is the variety of shows that we get to do. Last week, Carol and Bruce talked about sex, sexuality, and intimacy and it was informative and raucous (you only wish you could hear the un-edited version!) and a crap-load of fun. It was a great episode and we all really enjoyed making it.

This week's show is quite different in tone, but no less good.

What I love about David Batstone is how hopeful he is, even when talking about something as sick, degrading and disgusting as human trafficking and modern slavery. He just inspires you to make sure you're doing what God has called you to do, because he is so obviously doing that in his life.

Take a listen and subscribe. This show just keeps getting gooder and gooder.

My good, good friend Chad Herring asked me to preach with him as he was installed as the Moderator of Heartland Presbytery (stand and clap...) this past weekend. It was such an honor to be asked and such a joy to participate in. I hope you find it meaningful as well.

We can only dream that someday, when our condition is more widely understood, when perhaps an Introverts' Rights movement has blossomed and borne fruit, it will not be impolite to say "I'm an introvert. You are a wonderful person and I like you. But now please shush.

Often funny, and uber-informative. Please read it and heed it.

Not to be dramatic or anything, but I basically cried through this entire article. No lie. I'm getting tired of not being able to be me.

Although my dear friends at Gizmodo claim this is a humorous look at 10 reasons to avoid talking on the phone, to me it looks like a neatly bullet pointed list of all the reasons I avoid the phone like the plague. Seriously, I don't even talk to my best friend in Ohio more than 2-3 times a year.

I'm an introvert (just like Jesus, FYI) so, generally, human contact is not preferred. I can handle it if I know you fairly well, and prefer to only hang with a maximum of 5-7 of you at a time.

So, when it comes to communication, for the love of God, just text me, DM me, IM me, or send me an email.

But if you have to call: please, please, pretty please, with a cherry on top, get to the point and let me get off the phone. Unless I really like you.

You know who you are. ;)