I recently spoke to a group of students at a technical college in Georgia. These students all possess a bachelor’s degree, but like many highly educated Americans, they are struggling to find employment. They are participating in a program at Southern Polytechnic State University called Fast Track to Employment. The program is designed to inform unemployed professionals with a bachelor’s degree or higher of new, expanding industries and technologies in hopes of getting them over the unemployment hump. …read more
Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia, Inc. (KMMG), the plant that produces the Kia Sorento crossover and Optima sedan, celebrated today as a Snow White Pearl 2014 Sorento SXL rolled off the assembly line at the 2,259-acre site, marking the one-millionth Kia to be produced on US soil.
Located in West Point, Georgia, KMMG was Kia Motors America’s first manufacturing plant in the US and represented an initial investment of $1 billion. The plant started producing the 2011 Sorento on November 16, 2009 and is responsible for the creation of 11,000 jobs in West Point and the surrounding region. Production of the Optima sedan, Kia’s best-selling car in the US for the past 18 months, started at the factory in 2011, and, in 2012, the completion of a $100 million expansion upped annual vehicle production capacity to 360,000.
“Building one million vehicles in less than four years is a tremendous achievement and one that each one of our more than 3,000 team members can take great pride in,” said Byung Mo Ahn, Group President and CEO for Kia Motors America and KMMG.
The one-millionth vehicle to roll out of KMMG, the white 2014 Sorento pictured above, will be sold in one of Kia’s 765-plus US dealerships. Check out the press release below.
A 14-year-old Georgia boy died Sunday after he was struck by a police patrol car while riding his bicycle.
Chandler Jacob Weems of McDonough, Ga. died Sunday morning at an Atlanta hospital after being struck on his bicycle Saturday afternoon as he was exiting a driveway.
MyFoxAtlanta.com reports Chandler was riding from one friend’s house to another with a group of teens when he was struck.
Henry County police Sgt. Joey Smith told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the officer “could not avoid the accident,” which happened as he was going on duty. Smith says the officer, identified as Denise Allyson Romano, was “very distraught” after the accident.
The accident is being investigated by the Georgia State Patrol. The accident occurred at about 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
One adult and four young children have been killed in an early morning fire in a Georgia city about 30 miles southwest of Atlanta.
A spokesman for the state insurance commissioner says a call about the fire came in at 1:17 a.m. Saturday. Glenn Allen says Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens has ruled the fire accidental. He says the origin was an electrical panel in the home’s den area.
Allen says 27-year-old Alonna T. McCrary, 5-year-old daughter Eriel McCrary and 2-year-old daughter Nikia White were killed in the fire. Three-year-old Messiah White and 2-year-old McKenzie Florence also died. Allen says the two were sleeping over at the home. Another daughter, 11-year-old Nautica McCrary, was taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation. Allen says her condition is unknown.
By NFL.com Newly signed Baltimore Ravens linebacker Rolando McClain was arrested Sunday night in Decatur, Georgia and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Lots of people get intense cravings for fast food, but one Georgia officer’s alleged Big Mac attack might earn him some time behind bars — and we don’t mean these kind.
DeKalb County police Sgt. Scott Biumi is charged with felony aggravated assault after allegedly pulling a gun on a customer in the drive-thru line of an area McDonald’s on April 9. Video of the incident — captured by security cameras at the restaurant — appears to show a man in a business suit draw a gun and point it at a driver at the head of the line.
Authorities say graves at one of Georgia‘s oldest cemeteries have been desecrated and they are trying to find whoever removed a child’s casket and dumped a soldier’s uniform on the ground.
A reward of more than $2,000 is being offered for clues about the desecration at the Old Church Cemetery, which dates to 1758 and is located in the east Georgia countryside.
Leroy Bell Jr., commander of the American Legion post that cares for the cemetery, discovered the damage Saturday. He said a casket containing remains of a 14-month-old girl buried there in 1884 was removed and its contents dumped out.
Burke County sheriff’s Sgt. Sean Cochran said clothing buried with a soldier was removed, leaving his bones exposed. Cochran said relic hunting was a possible motive.
A coastal Georgia teenager has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the slaying of a baby that authorities say was shot in the face during an attempted robbery on a street.
Court records show 15-year-old Dominique Lang waived arraignment before a judge Thursday in Brunswick and entered his plea in writing. Attorneys told the judge a second suspect, 17-year-old De’Marquise (day-mahr-KEESE) Elkins, had also waived arraignment but there was no record of his written plea in the court file.
Elkins’ attorney, Kevin Gough, declined to comment.
The suspects are charged in the March 21 slaying of 13-month-old Antonio Santiago. Authorities say Elkins shot the child in his stroller as he and Lang tried to rob the baby’s mother.
A metro Atlanta police sergeant accused of pulling a gun on a customer in a McDonalds drive-thru as been arrested.
Forsyth County sheriff’s spokesman Courtney Spriggs Wednesday said DeKalb County police Sgt. Scott Biumi has been charged with aggravated assault after authorities say he pointed a gun at a man during an argument on April 9.
Sheriff’s officials say surveillance footage from inside the restaurant shows the 48-year-old sergeant step between the man’s car and the drive-thru window. Authorities say he pointed the weapon into the car as he leaned into the driver’s side window.
Authorities say the April 9 incident was caught on surveillance video, MyFoxAtlanta.com reported.
The station identified the alleged victim as 18-year-old Ryan Mash.
“I’m just like, ‘I don’t want to die. I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,'” Mash recalled.
Mash told MyFoxAtlanta.com that he was waiting for his food, and he said he told Biumi that’s the only reason he was still sitting in the line.
“And he’s like, ‘Whatever,’ and walked back to his car,” Mash said. “Then I was like, ‘Sorry for the inconvenience, sir,’ and he got back out and started yelling at me.”
Mash said Biumi told him, “You don’t want to mess with me,” before putting his hand on Mash’s shoulder and pulling out his gun. Two of Mash’s friends were in the pick-up with him, and they say they couldn’t believe what was happening.
“I was terrified,” said Luke Avera. “I didn’t know what to think. My heart was racing.”
Mash’s friend Drake Thomas said he saw Biumi’s badge under his shirt. Thomas got Biumi’s license plate number, and according to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department.
Spriggs, the sheriff’s spokesman, says Biumi was booked into the Forsyth County jail on $22,000 bond.
It is unclear if he has an attorney. Spriggs says a court date is scheduled for May 23.
A Pennsylvania woman who lost her life while coming to the aid of a victim of domestic violence is one of 22 people honored with Carnegie medals for heroism.
The awards announced on Thursday honored Stacey Lynn Feiling of Mount Pleasant, who died in June, 2010, after stopping to rescue Janet Piper, who was fleeing her husband. But Piper’s husband confronted Feiling and mortally wounded her, while Piper fled to safety.
Other medal winners honored were from Michigan, Canada, Vermont, Tennessee, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, New Jersey, Florida, Nebraska, and Georgia. Among them were three New Jersey men who rescued two people from a burning van that had crashed.
Carnegie medalists or their heirs receive financial grants approved by the commission.
Many dog owners have their pets spayed or neutered to help control the pet population, but new research from the University of Georgia suggests the procedure could add to the length of their lives and alter the risk of specific causes of death.
The attorney for a mother charged with child cruelty in the dog mauling death of her 21-month-old daughter says the woman was studying in her bedroom when the girl was attacked.
Attorney Tom Edenfield said Wednesday the mauling was a “tragic accident.” Authorities in southeast Georgia say the toddler slipped through a doggie door into the backyard last month and was attacked by her family’s seven dogs.
The attorney says the child’s mother, 18-year-old Summer Laminack of Ellabell, loved her daughter and is still suffering from the trauma of her death March 27.
Authorities say Monica Renee Laminack was killed by the seven pit bulls and pit bull mixes. Edenfield was charged Tuesday with second-degree child cruelty, a felony punishable by one to 10 years in prison.
A former Georgia state trooper who pleaded guilty in a crash that killed the wife of an Atlanta Braves trainer has been sentenced to two years in prison.
Donald Crozier was also ordered Tuesday to serve eight years of probation and educate law enforcement on dangers and responsibilities associated with their jobs. He pleaded guilty Monday to vehicular homicide and violating his oath of office in the crash that killed 54-year-old Kathy Porter, wife of Atlanta Braves trainer Jeff Porter.
Authorities have said Crozier was riding with his lights and siren on when he slammed into a vehicle the Porters were riding in on their way to the Chick-fil-A Bowl on Dec. 31, 2011.
Crozier was put on administrative leave after the accident and was later fired.
An advocacy group is calling the Colorado River the nation’s most endangered waterway.
An annual American Rivers report being released Wednesday doesn’t call pollution the problem. It instead cites drought and demand.
The federal Bureau of Reclamation said the same thing last December.
The Colorado River supplies cities including Denver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix. The report says that over the next 50 years, the river will run short of supply for the more than 40 million people it serves in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
Already, the river is drained of nearly every drop before it reaches Mexico.
The Flint River in Georgia ranks second in the American Rivers report, due to the threat that it’ll run dry. The San Salba River in Texas ranks third.
Federal prosecutors have charged former University of Georgia football coach Jim Donnan and a business partner with operating a Ponzi scheme.
U.S. District Attorney Michael J. Moore in Macon announced the 85-count indictment that was unsealed Tuesday. The indictment says Donnan and Gregory L. Crabtree of Proctorville, Ohio, ran the scheme between 2008 and 2010.
Lawyers for Donnan and Crabtree did not immediately respond to calls and emails seeking comment. They were set to appear in federal court in Macon Tuesday afternoon.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last year filed a complaint against Donnan in federal court in Atlanta. It said Donnan used his influence to get high-profile college coaches and former players to invest $80 million into a pyramid scheme. That case is still pending.
The mother of a Georgia toddler who slipped outside through a doggie door and was mauled to death by her family’s seven dogs has been charged with child cruelty.
Bryan County Sheriff Clyde Smith Tuesday says 18-year-old Summer Laminack surrendered Tuesday in the southeastern Georgia county.
Authorities have said Laminack’s 18-month-old daughter, Monica, was mauled to death in the backyard of their Ellabell home by pit bulls and pit bull mixes.
Smith says Laminack is free on $5,000 bond. A call to Laminack’s attorney was not immediately returned.
A deputy warden and seven members of a specially trained team of guards at a Georgia prison have been indicted on charges of repeatedly attacking inmates.
The indictment, filed this week in U.S. District Court, accuses members of the Correctional Emergency Response Team of beating inmates in retaliation for previous assaults on prison guards at Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe.
The indictment outlines several attacks that prosecutors say was carried out by the guards.
For instance, five of the team members are accused of either attacking an inmate in a prison gymnasium or watching the attack and not preventing it around Dec. 14, 2010.
The defendants are also accused of taking steps to mislead investigators about the attacks and cover up evidence.
Dave Martin/APTechnicians monitor the refueling process on a reactor at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Athens, Ala., in March 2011. Republicans are blasting a plan by President Obama to consider selling the Tennessee Valley Authority, a New Deal-era agency.
By MATTHEW DALY
WASHINGTON — In a political role reversal, Republicans are blasting President Barack Obama‘s plan to consider selling the Tennessee Valley Authority, an icon of the New Deal long targeted by conservatives as an example of government overreach.
Obama‘s 2014 budget proposal calls for a strategic review of the TVA, the nation’s largest public utility with 9 million customers in seven states from Virginia to Mississippi.
Selling the U.S.-owned power company could reduce the federal deficit by at least $25 billion and “help put the nation on a sustainable fiscal path,” Obama says in a budget document.
“It’s one more bad idea in a budget full of bad ideas,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a longtime TVA champion.
“There is no assurance that selling TVA to a profit-making entity would reduce electric bills in the Tennessee Valley, and it could lead to higher electricity rates” for customers in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, Alexander said.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., vowed to “carefully study any proposals to restructure TVA” to ensure it continues to deliver affordable electricity throughout the region.
Privatizing TVA has been proposed before “and been determined to be a very bad idea,” added Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn.
Administration officials emphasized that privatization was just one option being considered. Sale of the agency has been discussed by prior administrations, but nothing has happened.
Indeed, proposals to sell TVA date back to soon after the agency was created in 1933 to reduce the risk of flooding in the region and bring electricity to rural communities in poor areas of Appalachia. It was a key part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program, which used government spending to help the nation recover from the Great Depression.
President Dwight Eisenhower called TVA “creeping socialism,” while President Ronald Reagan criticized it as an example of big government. Republicans from Barry Goldwater to Newt Gingrich have pointed to the TVA as an example of where the private sector could provide services more cheaply and effectively than bureaucrats.
Republican antipathy for the TVA led many in the Southeast to assume that any proposal to sell TVA would come from the GOP — not a Democratic president fresh off winning a second term.
The privatization proposal “is making our heads spin here in Tennessee,” said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a nonprofit group that promotes alternative energy throughout the region.
In 1954, the United States Supreme Court ended school segregation via the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education—a decision holding that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” Since that memorable turn in American history, not only have our nation’s schools become integrated but so too have the sports teams and other activities occurring within these places of education come to include all students, no matter their race or place of origin.
