Verizon Creates Additional 600 Georgia Jobs

A major wireless communications company is expanding its operations in the state, bringing more investment and jobs to Georgia. Verizon Wireless will open a new customer service center in metro Atlanta’s Alpahretta. Jeff Mango, president of Verizon's Georgia/Alabama region, says the move brings 600 news jobs and $27 million in investment to the area:

"That brings us over 90 facilities across the state of Georgia. And these 600 employees, is added to our existing Verizon Wireless employess of 4,000 across the state."

Mango says recruiting and hiring for the jobs will continue through May. Training for all 600 new employees would be complete by early next year.

Integrity Bank 10th US bank to fail this year

Integrity Bank of Alpharetta, has become the 10th U.S. bank to fail so far this year. Regions Bank of Birmingham, Alabama, will assume all of Integrity Bank's 974 million dollars in insured and uninsured deposits. Region's will also assume about 34-and a half million of the bank's 1.1 billion dollars in assets. The remainder of its assets will be retained by the FDIC. It’s estimated Integrity's failure will cost the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund up to 350 million dollars. A spokesman for the FDIC says the bank failed due to its aggressive pursuit of construction loans, falling real estate values and "inadequate risk management." Integrity's five metro-Atlanta branches will open after Labor Day as Regions Bank branches.

Integrity Bank, which opened for business in November of 2000, specialized in real-estate lending in the Atlanta area with a self-described "faith-based culture." While the housing market was booming, Integrity Bank grew into a billion-dollar, publicly traded company. When the real estate market started faltering, the bank found itself in trouble. The bank fired its chief executive last August and voluntarily delisted from the Nasdaq Global Market in March of this year. The Nasdaq had been threatening to delist the company for failing to comply with reporting standards. FDIC spokesman Rickey McCullough says the bank failed due to its aggressive pursuit of construction loans, coupled with falling real estate values and "inadequate risk management."

Canadian charged with attempting sex with child

Georgia police have helped the FBI catch a Canadian man they say came to Georgia to have sexual contact with a child. 57-year-old Brian Schumaker of Ontario was arrested in Atlanta. He allegedly communicated over the Internet with an undercover Alpharetta police officer posing as an 11-year-old girl and her mother. The prosecutor, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias, calls it “yet another disturbing case of a middle-aged man who allegedly traveled a long way with the intent of sexually exploiting a child.”