A former Georgia congressman has been charged in connection with illegal campaign contributions during a 2005 Atlanta city council election.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard says former Rep. Pat Swindall and two business associates were charged with one count of felony conspiracy to commit a crime and four felony counts of false statements.
Swindall was a two-term congressman whose political career ended in 1988 after he was convicted of perjury charges linked to a federal money-laundering investigation.
Prosecutors say the three men sought political favors by contributing $8,000 to the campaign of Atlanta City Councilwoman Joyce Sheperd in her run-off bid for re-election. The law allowed a maximum contribution of $1,000 at the time.
EquityDepot.net says more than 10,000 foreclosed properties are scheduled to be sold on courthouse steps in the Atlanta area in April.
EquityDepot.net, which tracks foreclosures, says the 10,130 figure breaks the previous record of 8,425 that were scheduled for sale in March.
In the new foreclosure numbers, Fulton County leads with 2,181 properties scheduled for sale, followed by Gwinnett, DeKalb and Cobb counties.
The Georgia Labor Department says the jobless rate in metro Atlanta is 8.7 percent, the highest rate reported since the measurement was standardized in 1976.
Foreclosure sales are held on courthouse steps the first Tuesday of each month. --- Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com
The state's top court has reversed the conviction of a Fulton County assistant principal sentenced to 22 years in prison for shooting his wife. Rodney Denson, who worked at Kennedy Middle School, had pleaded guilty to aggravated assault after shooting his wife, Elletta Bailey at their home in Fairburn. The Georgia Supreme Court's unanimous opinion handed down Monday reverses the conviction. It says that according to court transcripts, Denson was never advised that by pleading guilty he was waiving his constitutional right protecting him from testifying against himself.
State elections officials are a step closer to officially determining whether Georgia’s U.S. Senate race will have to go to a runoff. That closer step came just before midnight, when election workers in Fulton County wrapped-up the counting of nearly 31,000 absentee ballots. Certification should come by tomorrow.
Fulton county has been in spotlight for taking overtime to count votes, which has drawn the anger of Secretary of State Karen Handel, who’s called for an investigation. On Wednesday morning, Fulton County poll workers were allowed to leave early for a rest. Handel threatened to report the county to the state elections board for violation of Georgia election laws. But Fulton County Voter Education Coordinator Mark Henderson says the county took steps to make sure no laws were broken:
"Our director called our board chair, who then called the county attorney to interpret the election code to see if it would be a violation. Our county attorney didn't see a violation based on the state of Georgia's elections code".
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports this morning that the Office of Inspector General will conduct a complete investigation of Fulton County.
Fulton County elections officials are in hot water with state officials over uncounted ballots. Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel says she will report county officials to the state election board. The reason—sending workers home while thousands of ballots remained un-counted earlier this week. Handel says the tally of more than 30,000 absentee ballots could have been finished had workers not left early Wednesday morning following a long election day Tuesday. Fulton County officials say workers needed the rest. Fulton has key ballots important to the determination of the U.S. Senate race not yet tallied.
The mother of two of T.I.'s children has sued the platinum-selling rapper for child support, saying she is having a hard time supporting the boys and now wants a court-ordered arrangement for payment.
Lashon Dixon and T.I. have known each other since they were teenagers and dated before he reached megastar status. They have two sons together, ages 7 and 8.
Dixon says T.I. currently gives her about $2,000 a month to care for the boys, but now she wants to schedule a more stable stipend that is commensurate with his success. Both parties appeared in Fulton County Superior Court on Thursday.
In March, T.I. is expected to be sentenced to at least a year in prison after he pleaded guilty to federal weapon possession charges.
Click here for more GPB News coverage of this story.
A Fulton County judge has rejected a lawsuit challenging electronic voting machines in Georgia. Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson also refused to declare the machines unconstitutional. He issued summary judgment on behalf of the state, which said the voting machines are reliable and that there have been no documented cases of fraud. A coalition of groups calling itself Voter Georgia argued the system is illegal and unconstitutional because it fails to give voters a record showing their ballot was recorded correctly. The state started using the machines in 2002, becoming the first in the nation to implement such a system statewide.
A coalition of voter groups will have a legal challenge heard today in a Fulton County courtroom. Voter Georgia wants to get rid of electronic voting machines in the state, saying the lack of a verifiable paper trail is illegal and unconstitutional. Georgia started using the machines in 2002, becoming the first in the nation to implement that type of system statewide. A record number of people are expected to flock to the polls for the general election now less than two months away.
State health officials say the recent discovery of a group of mosquitoes carrying the West Nile Virus is the first case this year in Georgia. The mosquitoes were trapped in a Fulton County park in an area of Atlanta called Buckhead. But they are cautioning Georgians not to panic -- because the virus is in bugs, not a person. Last year there were 50- human cases of West Nile Virus related illnesses and one death. State health officials say Georgians should use bug repellant when outside and emptying stagnate water from flower pots and buckets.
The wife of a Fulton County judge gunned-down in an Atlanta courthouse 3 years ago will get over $5-million dollars. The $5.2 million dollars to be paid to Claudia Barnes will settle one of several suits against Fulton County and sheriff Myron Freeman. Judge Rowland Barnes was one of four people killed in the shootings in March 2005. Brian Nichols is the accused gunman. Jury selection is underway for a trial that has been delayed several times.
Several of Georgia's most prominent defense attorneys on Thursday urged a Fulton County judge to keep an ailing public defender program from firing four full-time attorneys. Contract staff would replace the lawyers.
The program created a statewide network of full-time attorneys to represent Georgia's poor.
Critics say the move could set an "unconscionable" precedent. They say the step threatens the program's mission by slipping back to a much-maligned system of contract attorneys that once represented Georgia's indigent.
"This is not about the right of lawyers to have a job," said Stephen Bright, director of the Atlanta-based Southern Center for Human Rights. "It's about the right of clients to be represented."
But the system's administrators facing budget cuts say their hands are tied, and replacing permanent attorneys with private sector staffers is a necessary reality in a tough economy.
"It's sad for the four lawyers who got laid off. It's certainly unfortunate," said Devon Orland, a state attorney. "But in this state, there's no right to have a job."
The indigent defense program was created in 2003 to replace a patchwork system in which some counties assigned indigent defense cases to attorneys with little experience or knowledge of criminal defense.
The new statewide system started in 2005 and was applauded in legal circles, but it has earned only lukewarm support from state legislators. Concerned that administrators are mismanaging public dollars, they have cut funding to the system from $42 million to $35 million over the last three years.
Fulton Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland is expected to rule in the case next week.
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The murder trial of accused courthouse gunman Brian Nichols will not be held in the Fulton County Courthouse. Fulton County commissioners approved a lease with the city of Atlanta Wednesday to hold the trial at the Atlanta Municipal Court, which handles traffic cases. Superior Court Judge James Bodiford ordered the trial to be moved last week from the Fulton County Courthouse. Nichols is charged with killing four people on March 11, 2005, in a shooting spree that began inside the courthouse.
In a landmark ruling with national implications, The Fulton County Superior Court today reversed a previous administrative court decision on an Environmental Protection Division (EPD) permit allowing the construction of a coal-fired power plant in southwest Georgia.
"We are in a moment of elation," said Justine Thompson a lawyer for Greenlaw, who represent a coalition of local residents and environmental groups that are fighting the plant's construction.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore reversed a previous decision by Atlanta Administrative Law Judge Judge Stephanie Howells, giving the go-ahead for the project.
Wyatt said in her ruling regarding the plant's projected carbon dioxide emissions:
"Faced with the ruling in Massachusetts that CO2 is an “air pollutant” under the Act, Respondents are forced to argue that CO2 is still not a “pollutant subject to regulation under the Act.” Respondents’ position is untenable. Putting aside the argument that any substance that falls within the statutory definition of “air pollutant may be “subject to” regulation under the Act, there is no question that CO2 is “subject to regulation under the Act."
Howells, in an 108-page decision reached on January 11th, had ruled affirming the EPD decision to issue an air quality permit:
"...the weight of the evidence demonstrates that limits imposed by EPD are reasonable and supported by law.”
The Houston-based Dynegy Company wants to build the 1200-megawatt Longleaf power plant on the Chattahoochee River in Early County.
The opponents last year filed an appeal to stop the construction. The say the plant would emit unchecked levels of carbon dioxide, and unacceptable amounts of other pollutants.
Proponents say the 1.2-billion dollar project will provide hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenue for the poor rural area.
The plant would be the first such facility to be built in Georgia in the last 20-years.
Environmentalists said the decision marks the first time that a judge has applied a U.S. Supreme Court finding that carbon dioxide is a pollutant to emissions from an industrial source.
The court's April 2007 decision said the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which are blamed for global warming.
"We will be taking this decision and making the same arguments to push for an end to conventional coal," said Bruce Nilles, who oversees the Sierra Club's National Coal Campaign.
The plant's developers, LS Power and Dynegy Inc., said they planned to appeal.
"We are surprised with Judge Moore's ruling against us in every respect," said Mike Vogt, a spokesman for the energy plant. He also downplayed the ruling's impact on other pending lawsuits.
"I don't know what type of legal precedent a superior court judge in one state has over judges in other states," he said.
At a June 3 hearing, lawyers representing state regulators and plant developers said there was no federal standard yet to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and warned that a ruling to regulate the gas would "short-circuit" legislators' work to develop new rules.
The plant is expected to create more than 100 full-time jobs and give millions of dollars in tax revenues to Early County, where almost a quarter of the 12,000 residents live in poverty. It would power more than a half-million homes through utilities in Georgia, Alabama and Florida.
Each year it would emit as much as 9 million tons of carbon dioxide, worrying critics who say it could cause health problems in a county that already suffers above-average air pollution.
The decision will force state regulators to reconsider coal-fired power plants and could push state regulators toward cleaner and more efficient energy, said Patti Durand, director of the Sierra Club's Georgia chapter.
"It's a scandal that energy companies are still trying to build coal plants even though they cause global warming," she said. "I can't be more thrilled. It's a huge ruling. This is a new day in the United States, and I'm thrilled."
Click here for more GPB News coverage about the Longleaf power station.
Officials say a part-time Fulton County magistrate, his deputy sheriff son and daughter-in-law are accused of luring a nanny from India then forcing her to work in their home for free.
William D. Garrett Jr. of Alpharetta, Forsyth County Deputy Russell Garrett and Malika Garrett of Woodstock were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges including human trafficking, alien harboring and witness tampering.
U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said Wednesday that the three conspired to induce the woman to come to the United States in 2003 to work as a nanny for the younger Garretts' children, but later made her work for up to 16 hours a day, and threatened that if she didn't, they would have her jailed and deported.
Heavy thunderstorms and possible tornadoes on May 20, caused some $40 million in insured damages in Cherokee and north Fulton counties, according to Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John Oxendine:
“After one week of documenting damage in the North Metro area, the insured losses there are at least $40 million,” Oxendine said. “Actual losses are much higher when you consider things like infrastructure damage and uninsured losses.”
Click here for more GPB News coverage of the recent severe weather statewide.
Months after two state bridge inspectors admitted to falsifying bridge inspections, state transportation officials say they have completed re-inspections of bridges. The state says the bridges are safe. The Georgia Department of Transportation had to direct all its bridge inspectors from across the state in February to reinspect bridges in Rockdale, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties.
President Bush has approved Governor Sonny Perdue’s request for a federal disaster declaration for Georgia, following last weekend’s severe storms. The move provides federal assistance for clean up and recovery efforts statewide, with monetary federal aid immediately available for victims in Fulton County. State officials say they expect other counties affected by the storms will become eligible for aid once federal workers begin assessments around the state.
Foreclosures in the Atlanta area have reached an all-time high. Numbers from Alpharetta-based Equity Depot show foreclosures are up 38% from last month. They are up 49% over last October. The total estimated value of the properties in metro Atlanta was more than 1 billion dollars. Fulton County has the most foreclosures with 1,731 properties.
A top child welfare official in Fulton County stood trial today in Fayette County accused of beating her daughter. 38-year-old Cylenthia Clark is assistant director of the Fulton County Division of Family and Children Services. Police say Clark struck her 8-year-old daughter 34 times with a leather belt. Clark admits to spanking her daughter but denies abusing the girl.
Hundreds of thousands of voter registration cards in Fulton County ended up in the trash. Now elections officials there could face penalties. County officials said the 93,000 records were inadvertently dumped when the county moved from one storage center to another. Secretary of State Karen Handel has asked the Attorney General’s office to advise her office on how and whether to hold Fulton County accountable.
