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Uniform dress policy in all Clayton schools
Khaki is not cute. That was the consensus among high school students in Clayton County on Friday as they learned jeans, tiny tees, black leggings and camouflage cargo pants would be replaced with khaki and polo shirts next year. "I can't be looking cute in khakis," Jonesboro High School sophomore Taylor Boyd said as she waited for a ride Friday afternoon. "You walk down the hallway now and a boy looks at your butt. You got no butt in khakis."
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Counties debate, decide to take $81M in foreclosure aid
Georgia's largest local governments have all agreed to ask for federal money to create governmental house-flipping programs in hopes of propping up values in neighborhoods beset by foreclosures. In all, Atlanta and Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Clayton and Cobb counties stand to get about $81 million in federal aid through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. There's a total of $153 million headed to Georgia. The program is part of the federal government's ongoing efforts to resolve the economic and foreclosure crisis. It allows local governments to buy problem foreclosures, fix them up and then sell or rent the properties to some of the same folks who have lost their homes during the crisis. They can also use it to create special financing to make the properties affordable.
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Dry cleaner found unconscious in pool of liquid; area evacuated
Clayton County authorities reopened a road about 5:45 p.m. Wednesday after a hazardous materials incident at at Clayton County dry cleaners left one man hospitalized and caused authorities to evacuate a dozen businesses. Clayton Fire Chief Alex Cohilas said the owner of Femrose Cleaners, on Ga. 138 near the Clayton-Fulton border, was found unconscious about 1 p.m. in a pool of an unknown liquid. The man, whose name was not released, is in serious condition at Southern Regional Medical System in Riverdale, Cohilas said. Clayton County haz-mat teams arrived and stopped all westbound traffic on Ga. 138 for about five hours. A dozen businesses in Crossroads Plaza and the Center for Progressive Training, a nearby traning school, were evacuated.
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Clayton officials were warned of overspending in 2007, records show
Financial auditors warned Clayton County officials almost a year ago that they were overspending and not properly recording county expenses. Records show Clayton officials ignored the auditors' warning and spent $22 million of the county's reserve funds. The overspending has caused the county's savings to dip close to the minimum required by the state. Low reserves also mean the county likely will have to pay millions more in interest for bonds, said Edmund Wall, the county's financial advisor.
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MARTA, 10 other agencies plead for financing guarantee
Leaders from 11 transit agencies, including MARTA, pleaded with Congress for help Tuesday as long-term financing deals with investors collapse amid the global credit crisis. The officials warned that 31 of the nation's largest transit systems could face at least $2 billion in payments in the coming months if hundreds of the deals go bad. The fallout could cripple rail and bus systems at a time when ridership is soaring. "Time is not our friend," said MARTA General Manager Beverly Scott. "The innocent victims will be the millions of riders who rely on public transit every day."
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Clayton firefighters capture world titles
Clayton County firefighters won three first-place awards at the Firefighter Combat Challenge World Championships in Las Vegas last weekend. The firefighters placed first in the open relay competition, along with challenges for women and men over the age of 40. This was the first year Clayton's female firefighters participated, said Battalion Chief Landry Merkison. Clayton is the only fire department in the history of the event to sweep three first-place titles, Merkison said.
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Falcon, volunteers help build playground
Atlanta Falcons linebacker Keith Brooking and 250 volunteers built a playground for the Lewis Academy of Excellence in Riverdale on Tuesday. Despite temperatures in the 30s, the group — which included 150 volunteers from Home Depot — completed the playground in one day, spokeswoman Mandy Hunsicker said. About 500 students in kindergarten through fifth grade attend Lewis Academy. The charter
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Detective recalls how robbery led to slaying
The manager of a Riverdale video store that fronted an illegal gambling operation was shot in the neck after picking up his own gun in self-defense during a brazen Sunday afternoon robbery, a police detective testified Tuesday morning. Riverdale police Detective Michael Tarrant testified during a preliminary hearing Tuesday that accused triggerman Gary "The General" Kilgore shot Souphoth Thammavongsa when Thammavongsa reached for his own gun during the Oct. 19 robbery of Thai Video. "Then he moved the body, he robbed the body and picked the victim off the floor to show the other people who were there," Tarrant testified. "He told them, 'You see what we did to this [profanity deleted]? You're next. Where's the money?'"
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County overspends; chairman seeks audit
The Clayton County Commission Chairman says it overspent by $22 million during the 2007-08 fiscal year because it was unaware of how much money it had in its accounts. Coupled with record foreclosures and lower than expected sales tax revenue, the loss is a blow to Clayton's finances, County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell said Tuesday night. The commission is mulling a hiring freeze and other cuts, but Bell said the county needs an audit immediately.
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Clayton again delays vote on moving historic graves
For the second week, the Clayton County Commission has decided to postpone a decision on whether to move 311 historic African-American graves. Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell said he postponed the vote because Commissioner Virginia Burton Gray will not be at tonight's meeting. The cemetery is in Gray's district. Stephens MDS, a College Park recycling company, is seeking a county permit to relocate the graves from a quarry behind Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport's fifth runway to Carver Memorial Gardens in Riverdale. The recycling company rediscovered the abandoned graves which date back to the 1880s and may include former slaves while expanding its 200-acre landfill for demolition debris.
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Minivan carjackers lead Clayton police on chase
A pair of suspected armed carjackers led Clayton County police on a high-speed chase into Atlanta early Sunday morning before being caught, officials said. Angelo Bell Jr., 18, of Forest Park and Antonio Pernerre Carter, 17, of Atlanta are charged with armed robbery, carjacking, aggravated assault, obstruction of a police officer and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, police said. Police said the pair stole a 2000 Toyota Sienna about 12:30 a.m. from Anthony T. Cavo, 52, of Riverdale. Cavo had stopped his minivan at an Upper Riverdale Road store to buy cigarettes and soda. He said the men confronted him as he sat inside the vehicle, ordered him out and sped off in the vehicle, police said.
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Clayton runoff will fill 2 school board seats
The Clayton County school board still does not have all its seats filled. Two of the nine seats will appear will be on the Dec. 2 runoff ballot. Retired Mount Zion Academy headmaster Pam Adamson will face Fulton County teacher Cleopatra Ballantyne for the District 1 seat.
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Clayton schools ethics panel off to rocky start
Clayton County residents Thursday accused the schools ethics commission of being just as dysfunctional as the school board it's supposed to watch after commissioners canceled their first meeting because they lacked a quorum. The seven-member panel was to meet Thursday evening to begin policing the troubled Clayton school board. But after an hour, only four members — one person short of a quorum — showed up. Minutes after the secretary announced the meeting would be canceled, a fifth member, Deborah Jester, arrived. She hurried into a private room, where the five commissioners met for several minutes and refused to let the public in.
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Haralson schools could lose accreditation
A west Georgia school district has five months to make improvements or face losing accreditation. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools voted Sunday to place the Haralson County schools on probation, SACS president and chief executive officer Mark A. Elgart said. Haralson County, which has 4,000 students, is about 50 miles west of Atlanta on the Alabama border. SACS cited Haralson for problems similar to the issues that led to Clayton County schools' accreditation loss. On Sept. 1, Clayton, which has 50,000 students, became the first district to lose accreditation in the nation in the past 40 years.
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1 arrest in Riverdale High athlete's slaying
Atlanta police have arrested a man on murder charges in the shooting death of a teenager outside a south Atlanta nightclub last weekend. Jarquavius Tisinger, 19, is accused in the Sunday killing of Joshua Richards, 17, a senior at Riverdale High School, Atlanta police spokesman Eric Schwartz said. Tisinger is being held in the Fulton County Jail. Richards was a shortstop on Riverdale's baseball team and hoped to get an athletic scholarship to play in college.
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