Major league baseball players will be taking a midseason break for the All Star game, so we’ll take our own midseason break and catch up on developments in some of the stories highlighted in earlier columns. Construction is proceeding on a new football stadium for Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank that will be partly financed with $200 million from Atlanta’s pot of hotel-motel tax revenues. Common Cause Georgia is still fighting that questionable use of the taxpayers’ money by launching a petition drive to put the issue on this fall’s city election ballot.