Top Stories Atlanta

Archive for the ‘Atlanta’ Category

When kids all across the country return to school Tuesday, some
will see a welcoming message from President Barack Obama and some
won’t.

Obama’s planned address to students has touched off yet another
confrontation with Republican critics, who have battered the White
House over health care and now accuse the president of foisting a
political agenda on children.

The president will speak directly to students Tuesday about the
need to work hard and stay in school. His address will be shown
live on the White House Web site and on C-SPAN at noon EDT, a time
when classrooms across the country will be able to tune in.

Schools don’t have to show it. But districts across the country
have been inundated with phone calls from parents and are
struggling to address the controversy that broke out after
Education Secretary Arne Duncan sent a letter to principals urging
schools to tune in.

Districts in states including Texas, Illinois, Minnesota,
Missouri, Virginia and Wisconsin have decided not to show the
speech to students. Others are still thinking it over or are
letting parents have their kids opt out.

Some conservatives, driven by radio pundits and bloggers, are
urging schools and parents to boycott the address. They say Obama
is using the opportunity to promote a political agenda and is
overstepping the boundaries of federal involvement in schools.

“As far as I am concerned, this is not civics education _ it
gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality,” said
Oklahoma Republican state Sen. Steve Russell. “This is something
you’d expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein’s
Iraq.”

Arizona state schools superintendent Tom Horne, a Republican,
said lesson plans for teachers created by Obama’s Education
Department “call for a worshipful rather than critical
approach.”

The White House plans to release the speech online Monday so
parents can read it. The president will deliver the speech at
Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.

“I think it’s really unfortunate that politics has been brought
into this,” White House deputy policy director Heather Higginbottom
said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“It’s simply a plea to students to really take their learning
seriously. Find out what they’re good at. Set goals. And take the
school year seriously.”

She noted that President George H.W. Bush made a similar address
to schools in 1991. Like Obama, Bush drew criticism, with Democrats
accusing the Republican president of making the event into a
campaign commercial.

Critics are particularly upset about lesson plans the
administration created to accompany the speech. The lesson plans,
available online, originally recommended having students “write
letters to themselves about what they can do to help the
president.”

The White House revised the plans Wednesday to say students
could “write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their
short-term and long-term education goals.”

“That was inartfully worded, and we corrected it,” Higginbottom
said.

In the Dallas suburb of Plano, Texas, the 54,000-student school
district is not showing the 15- to 20-minute address but will make
the video available later.

PTA council president Cara Mendelsohn said Obama is “cutting out
the parent” by speaking to kids during school hours.

“Why can’t a parent be watching this with their kid in the
evening?” Mendelsohn said. “Because that’s what makes a powerful
statement, when a parent is sitting there saying, ‘This is what I
dream for you. This is what I want you to achieve.’”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, said in an interview with
the AP that he’s “certainly not going to advise anybody not to send
their kids to school that day.”

“Hearing the president speak is always a memorable moment,” he
said.

But he also said he understood where the criticism was coming
from.

“Nobody seems to know what he’s going to be talking about,”
Perry said. “Why didn’t he spend more time talking to the local
districts and superintendents, at least give them a heads-up about
it?”

Several other Texas districts have decided not to show the
speech, although the district in Houston is leaving the decision up
to individual school principals. In suburban Houston, the
Cypress-Fairbanks district planned to show the address and has had
its social studies teachers assemble a curriculum and activities
for students.

In Wisconsin, the Green Bay school district decided not to show
the speech live and to let teachers decide individually whether to
show it later.

Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer said in a statement he was
“absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread
President Obama’s socialist ideology.” Despite his rhetoric, two of
the larger Florida districts, Miami-Dade and Hillsborough, plan to
have classes watch the speech. Students whose parents object will
not have to watch.

The Minnesota Association of School Administrators is
recommending against disrupting the first day of school to show the
speech, but Minnesota’s biggest teachers’ union is urging schools
to show it.

Quincy, Ill., schools decided Thursday not to show the speech.
Superintendent Lonny Lemon said phone calls “hit like a load of
bricks” on Wednesday.

One Idaho school superintendent, Murray Dalgleish of Council,
urged people not to rush to judgment.

“Is the president dictating to these kids? I don’t think so,”
Dalgleish said. “He’s trying to get out the same message we’re
trying to get out, which is, `You are in charge of your
education.’”

___

Libby Quaid reported from Washington. Associated Press writers
April Castro, Monica Rhor, Zinie Chen Sampson, Christine Armario,
Jessie Bonner, Scott Bauer, Tim Talley, Martiga Lohn, Tammy Webber
and Alan Zagier contributed to this report.

Two boys were injured in a drive-by shooting in southeast
Atlanta.

The shots were fired just before midnight near a housing complex
on Thomasville Boulevard.

Police said a 16-year-old was hit in the hand and leg.

He was taken to Grady where he is listed in stable condition.

A 9-year-old boy was grazed by a bullet.

He was treated on the scene.

No arrests have been made.
auto insurance home  insurance life   insurance health insurance

The Atlanta Police Department said it will partner with the
Governors Office of Highway Safety in an effort to decrease and
deter the number of preventable accidents and fatalities over the
holiday weekend.

The Department will be enforcing a Zero Tolerance for drivers
operating vehicles under the influence.

The Governors Office of Highway Safety had life-saving advice
for motorists with travel plans for the Labor Day holiday driving
period. “Buckle-up, Slow Down and Drive Sober,” says GOHS Director
Bob Dallas.

The DUI crackdown starts Friday.

Georgia’s Highway Safety Office delivered a sobering statewide
warning that the Georgia State Patrol, local police and sheriffs
deputies are ready to repeat at Operation Zero Tolerance sobriety
checkpoints across the state as the official holiday travel period
begins at 6pm this Friday, September 4th and runs through midnight
Labor Day, September 7th, 2009.

Atlanta police are still trying to find the person who shot a
Spelman College student to death.

Authorities said 19-year-old Jasmine Lynn was hit by a stray
bullet just after midnight Wednesday when at least six shots were
fired during a fight at Clark Atlanta University.

Atlanta police Lt. Keith Meadows said Friday that police
questioned a “person of interest” Thursday at Grady Memorial
Hospital but don’t have a reason to suspect he was involved. The
man was being treated for injuries received in the fight.

Meadows said police are “looking at some people” and trying to
get information on whether they might have been involved.

Police are asking anyone with information to call CrimeStoppers
at 404-577-TIPS.

The search for a burglary suspect continued Thursday night along
Jolly Road in south Fulton County. The suspect eluded police by
slipping into a storm drain.

The search was still on Thursday, but police said they weren’t
sure if the man was still in the storm drain.

The incident started Thursday afternoon when police officers
spotted a man they say was wanted for previous break-ins.

Officials said there was a struggle between the officer and
suspect, and then a chase ensued.

Police said they believe the man hid in a storm drain near
Heritage Elementary School.

The man hasn’t been seen since.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents said Thursday that they
were no closer to determining how a Lavonia preacher was killed
during a police drug sting. Parishioners said the officers who shot
Pastor Jonathan Ayers made a horrible mistake.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said a
passenger in Ayers’ car was under investigation, but the
28-year-old pastor of Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Lavonia was not
a target in the probe.

The shooting occurred after Ayers dropped the woman off at a
store in downtown Toccoa Wednesday afternoon.

Bankhead said agents approached Ayers for questioning but the
pastor tried to avoid them, putting his car in reverse before he
struck one of the agents.

An agent shot at the car and Ayers suffered a gunshot wound to
the torso. The cause of his death was pending the results of an
autopsy.

“They didn’t know who he was,” Bankhead said.
“That’s why they wanted to question him. There were
witnesses around.”

Bankhead said Ayers died about an hour after he had surgery. He
said the agent who was hit by Ayers’ car was taken to the
hospital and was treated for minor injuries.

Bankhead would not reveal the woman’s identity, saying she
is being questioned by authorities. The woman was charged with
cocaine possession and distribution.

A big Georgia transportation project was completed Thursday. The
14th Street Bridge in midtown Atlanta was reopened. The fate of
future transportation projects could hinge on behind-the-scenes
talks at the state capitol.

Competing proposals for a sales tax increase to pay for
transportation improvements has stalled at the capitol. Momentum
has been building to break the logjam and put the final decision in
the hands of voters.

A ribbon was cut and champagne was poured Thursday as the city’s
14th Street Bridge reopened. Among those celebrating was Executive
Chef Jamie Adams of Atlanta’s Vini Vidi Vici. The bridge reopened
ahead of schedule after a year of construction work.

In the midst of the toasting, the Georgia Department of
Transportation is facing a cash crunch for future projects.

State legislative leaders have been quietly meeting to hammer
out the terms of an agreement that could lead to voter referendums
on sales tax increases to pay for transportation improvements.

State senate leader Tommie Williams is heavily involved in the
transportation talks. The state house and senate have been divided
on two plans. One plan would allow a statewide referendum on a
sales tax increase for transportation the other would allow
counties to hold separate sales tax votes.

In a statement a spokesman for the house leadership said,
“Conversations between the house and senate are ongoing to find a
transportation funding solution that will address the state’s
needs.”

Legislative approval would be needed in the next General
Assembly session in order for voters to make a decision on
transportation funding in the 2010 general election.

The pressure will be on for the Republican controlled
legislature to show results on transportation funding before next
year’s election.

A Gwinnett County man was in jail Thursday without bond, accused
of attacking a teenage girl. Authorities said the attack could have
been much worse had the girl not sent a text message to one of her
friends asking for help.

Jose Hernandez-Ruiz was charged with sexual battery, kidnapping.
The victim in the case is 16-years-old.

Investigators said during the attack, the victim was able to
send a text message to a friend asking for help. The victim said
her friends responded and were able to put a stop to the
attack.

Hernandez-Ruiz was arrested and taken to the Gwinnett County
jail. Hernandez-Ruiz was also held for federal immigration
purposes.

State Rep. Ralph Long endorsed mayoral candidate Mary Norwood
from the heart of his heavily black southwest Atlanta district.

Long is the first black leader to back Norwood, the only white
candidate seen as a frontrunner in the Nov. 3 contest. Long
condemned a racially charged memo that circulated last week among
black Atlantans encouraging them to rally behind Lisa Borders, who
was cast as the leading black candidate.

Norwood has held a citywide council post for 8 years. Flanked by
dozens of mostly black supporters, Norwood on Thursday reiterated
her commitment to representing the entire city.

Long said his endorsement was based on her support of a
homegrown police chief and economic development, especially in
blighted areas.

Lori Geary has the details.