DeKalb County - Mentoring Viable Prospects

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A P U B L I C AT I O N O F A C E I I I C O M M U N I C AT I O N S • AVA I L A B L E O N L I N E 2 4 / 7 AT W W W. C H A M P I O N N E W S PA P E R .COM • FRIDAY, JULY 25, 2008 • VOL. 11, NO. 17 • F R E E
tration by Travis
Hudgons
CEO breakdown: Who’s got the money?
o Illus
Photo and Phot
Ellis
Watson
by Andy Phelan
[email protected]
Resources tell the whole story.
That, according to political consultant Warren Mosby, is all political junkies need to know on how the
Aug. 5 runoff race for CEO will play
out between county commissioner
Burrell Ellis and state Rep. Stan
Watson.
Ellis, 50, a real estate attorney and
Ivy League graduate, earned 46 percent of the primary vote, while vice
president of government affairs for
healthcare company Matria and Navy
veteran Stan Watson, 54, took 26
percent.
“He who has the resources will
get his message out,” said Mosby, son
of Nate Mosby, the second African
American ever on the DeKalb County
commission.
As of the most recent campaign filings, Ellis raised more than $420,000
and has more than $75,000 on hand.
Watson reported raising more than
$149,000 with about $17,500 on
hand.
Money = message?
But whether it was money or message, precinct-by-precinct primary
results show Ellis’ message is getting
through.
While pundits expected the more
polished Ellis do well in north DeKalb
and community champion Watson to
own south DeKalb, poll results show
Ellis is resonating on Watson’s turf
but Watson isn’t playing as well north
of Memorial Drive.
In south DeKalb precincts such as
Browns Mill, Chapel Hill and Marbut
that saw above average turnout, Ellis
scored consistently above 30 percent
while maintaining his base in central
and north DeKalb by earning between
40 to 80 percent.
At the Panola Road precinct, just
down the road from Watson’s headquarters in south DeKalb, Ellis got 30
percent of the vote.
By contrast, Watson scored just
12 percent of the vote at the Ponce de
Leon precinct near Ellis headquarters
in Decatur.
Other notable north precincts with
above average turnout, such as Mt.
Vernon West in Dunwoody, Sagamore
Hills in Atlanta and Lakeside High
north of Decatur, Watson earned an
average of just 9 percent of the vote.
Just 23 percent of eligible voters
cast ballots in the primary. Linda Latimore, director of Voter Registration
and Elections, said it is likely much
fewer will turn out for the runoff.
“If only 23 percent came out for
the primary, we can’t expect a whole
heck of a lot for the runoff,” said Latimore. “Hopefully we’ll get a good
turnout, but I expect it to be about 10
percent.”
QUICK FINDER
CEO turf battles
While pundits expected the more polished Ellis do well in north DeKalb and
community champion Watson to own south DeKalb, poll results show Ellis is resonating on Watson’s turf but Watson isn’t playing as well north of Memorial Drive.
South DeKalb precincts:
Browns Mill
ELLIS 32%
WATSON 41%
Chapel Hill
ELLIS 31%
WATSON 39%
Marbut
ELLIS 32%
WATSON 29%
Graphs are not to scale
North DeKalb precincts:
Mt. Vernon
West
ELLIS 55%
WATSON 8%
Sagamore
Hills
ELLIS 73%
WATSON 12%
Lakeside
ELLIS 82%
WATSON 8%
At the Panola Road precinct down the road from Watson’s campaign headquarters, Ellis snagged 30% of the vote. In contrast, Watson scored just 12% of the
vote at the Ponce de Leon precinct near Ellis’ home base.
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Education ....................... 17
Opinion ......................... 5-6
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News
THE CHAMPION FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, JULY 25, 2008, PAGE 2A
Youth collide with the arts in summer theater project
by Gale Horton Gay
[email protected]
They’ve had to write, discuss, interact, listen to instruction and direction and write
some more. Welcome to a
summer camp-like experience
that has left at least two teenagers raving about the intense
analysis, contemplation and
creative process of theatrical
production.
The Collision Project is
an Alliance Theatre program
that gives metro Atlanta high
school students the opportunity
“to collide with classic dramatic texts, respond to themes
and ideas from the play and
then create a new play for teen
audiences.”
This year 21 students were
selected for the project, which
drew to a close last weekend
after three weeks and was
capped off by Friday and Saturday performances by the
students.
Decatur residents Christiane Jones and Kenneth
Matthews applauded working
with the other students, playwright Rajendra Ramoon
Maharaj and the project’s director Rosemary Newcott.
Matthews, 17, described his
time at the Alliance as “amazing,” noting that although the
teens came from different
schools and communities they
quickly and easily coalesced
because there was work to be
done.
“I have strengthened my
writing skills and strengthened my social skills,” said
Matthews. “I’m not shy, but
it takes awhile to get to know
me.”
Matthews said he attended
an arts school in California
before moving to Georgia,
where he is currently enrolled
at Southwest DeKalb High
School. He’s come away from
the program wondering if his
desire to become a pilot might
be challenged by his newfound
love of writing.
Now in its seventh year, the
Collision Project is designed
so that Alliance Theatre professionals and guest artists
help the teens understand the
play in detail, analyze it to discover its most potent elements
(themes, characters, plots, subplot, dialogue, action, etc.) and
identify elements in their own
environment that correspond to
the play. This year for the first
time in the project’s history,
a famous speech rather than a
play was chosen.
Newcott explained that the
Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech
was selected in part because
this is its 40th anniversary and
so that the project’s student
performances could be included in the National Black Arts
Festival’s lineup.
“I was thrilled to find it was
a very rich experience,” said
Newcott of using the speech to
work with the students.
Newcott explained that
the playwright pulls from the
students’ many writing assignments during the project and
those pieces are incorporated
into the end-of-project show.
Jones, 17, who attends
DeKalb School for the Arts
and is a singer and dancer, said
the writing aspect was “pretty
new for me. I was able to re-
ally get into it.” Through the
project, she wrote a song based
on her impressions of what the
Freedom Riders went through
and that piece was incorporated into the student performances.
Newcott said she hoped the
students gained an understanding of the impact of literary
works and speeches on individuals and the many ways in
which works touch people.
THE CHAMPION FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, JULY 25, 2008
Former DeKalb
cop indicted in
’06 shooting
GBI director
named Georgia’s
Police Chief of Year
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP)
The Georgia Association of
Chiefs of Police has named
Vernon Keenan, director
of the Georgia Bureau of
Investigation, its Police
Chief of the Year for 2008.
Keenan was presented
the award July 15 during
the association’s annual
summer training conference
banquet in Savannah.
He was selected the
recipient for his proactive
contributions to his agency,
to the GACP and to the
state’s law enforcement
community.
Defendant’s
attorney: We’ll seek
change of venue
by Andy Phelan
[email protected]
A former DeKalb County
Police officer was indicted July
17 on felony murder charges
for his part in the 2006 shooting death of an unarmed man.
Officer Torrey Thompson,
31, will now stand trial for
the murder of Lorenzo Matthews after a county grand jury
indicted him, said District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming’s
spokeswoman Jada Hudspeth.
He could face a life sentence if found guilty on all
charges.
Thompson, who also faces
charges of voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault
and violation of oath, is the
only officer to be criminally
prosecuted related to a spate
of police-related shootings in
2006.
Thompson appeared at a
news conference briefly after
posting $100,000 bail at the
DeKalb County Jail.
Thompson’s attorney Bill
Atkins, who indicated he
might seek a change of venue
because of unfavorable media
coverage, said his client is innocent.
“I am 100 percent confident
when an ordinary jury of 12
citizens reviews all the evidence–something no jury has
yet done–Mr. Thompson will
be exonerated,” Atkins said.
“This is a good man. I am not
going to allow a man like Torrey Thompson to be the fall
guy.”
On the change of venue,
Atkins said the media coverage has been “slanted in favor
of the state and the [shooting]
victim’s family.”
According to a special
grand jury report on the 2006
shootings released in March,
on Sept. 12, 2006, Thompson,
along with three other officers,
were pursuing Matthews at
a Stone Mountain apartment
complex.
Matthews was wanted
on hit-and-run and weapons
charges.
Able to elude the other officers but with Thompson in
quick pursuit, Matthews escaped an apartment and made
it to the edge of a wooded area,
the report said.
That’s when Matthews
turned to look at Thompson,
who fired four rounds at the
suspect, the report said. Once
in the woods, Thompson fired
another four rounds at Matthews.
Although Matthews jumped
a fence and appeared to get
away, a police dog later found
See indicted on Page 11A
Page A
Group pushes petition
to recall maligned mayor
by Andy Phelan
[email protected]
A group calling itself Citizens and Businesses for Better Government is pushing
to recall Lithonia
Mayor Joyce
McKibben.
It started the
day McKibben
was elected last
November by a
slim 76-74 margin, and trouble
for the community activist hasn’t
let up since.
McKibben
First her residency was challenged, then the validity of
her election win.
After a brief but shining
coronation, McKibben began
almost immediately to lock
heads with some city council
members and Police Chief
Willie Rosser.
She tried to fire the chief
for what she said was impropriety, but it was overturned
by the council, which at one
point had the mayor’s associates arrested. Squabbles over
payroll, business licenses and
who has the power in Lithonia – the mayor or council
– threatened to nearly shut
down this city of 2,000
people in southeast
DeKalb.
“The mayor refuses
to conduct city business,” said concert
promoter Jason Lary,
who is part of the recall group but does not
live in the city. “Here
we are in mid July,
and we’re still waiting for our businesses
licenses.”
McKibben said that’s patently false. Not only is it the
city clerk who issues businesses licenses, she said, but
Lithonia law says the licenses
must be reviewed and approved by the mayor and/or
city council.
“Besides, I’ve never even
seen his business license application,” McKibben said.
“I’ve never been asked to sign
one.”
Plus, said McKibben, she’s
had to operate out of a virtual
office for months since the
council and police denied her
access to her city hall office.
McKibben and Lary got
into a high-profile scrape last
spring when state Sen. Ronald
Ramsey claimed Lary had
threatened McKibben’s life
in a conversation the two had
shortly after she was elected.
Magistrate Judge Glen
Galbaugh dismissed the case
in April, saying there was no
evidence Lary ever threatened
McKibben.
Lary, who was taking signatures for the recall at Lithonia
Middle School on July 15, said
he had about 175 signatures.
The group, which started
July 11, needs 333 signatures
from city residents in 30 days
to complete the petition. At that
point, county Elections Director Linda Latimore would
certify the signatures and a new
election would be held.
If recalled, McKibben could
run for the seat again.
Emory’s Barton Child Law Clinic names director
Karen Worthington has been appointed
director of Emory University School of Law’s
Barton Child Law and Policy Clinic effective
in August. Worthington served as the Barton
Clinic’s director from its opening in 2000 until 2006 and has served as part-time co-director for the last two years.
Worthington also serves as a senior fellow
of Emory’s Center for the Study of Law and
Religion, also based at the law school, and has
been chosen to participate in Emory’s inaugural Academic Leadership Program.
Prior to joining Emory Law, Worthington
served as director of program development
for Fulton County Juvenile Court, as a staff
attorney with the Juvenile Advocacy Division
of Georgia Indigent Defense Council, and as
director of the Georgia Supreme Court Child
Placement Project.
The Barton Clinic is dedicated to effecting
systemic policy and process changes for the
benefit of children in Georgia’s child welfare
and juvenile justice systems. The clinic serves
these children by providing multi-disciplinary,
child-focused research, training and support
for practitioners and policymakers and by
training the next generation of child advocates.
WHO HAS THE
FINAL WORD?
In recent years, funeral directors and probate
attorneys have noticed a significant increase
in the number of cases in which families
dispute over the disposition of a loved one’s
body. While such matters can be largely laid
to rest by funeral prearrangements made by
the deceased, that does not prevent some
of the contentious feelings from coming to
the surface. Some of this disruption can be
traced to higher rates of divorce and remarriage in recent years, which may place second
spouses and the children of the deceased at
odds. However, we all have it in our power to
make our wishes known to others well before
the time comes to carry them out.
Pre-need is a option that offers a person
the opportunity to determine ahead of time
how they want their death to be commemorated. That includes if they prefer cremation,
or where they will be buried. Making those
decisions can alleviate any issues that may
arise, and relieve those left behind from
dealing with such difficult matters at their
time of loss. Contact GREGORY B. LEVETT &
SONS FUNERAL HOME, INC. We will arrange a
confidential meeting where we answer your
questions regarding how pre-need can work
for you. We are located in Scottdale, Decatur
and Lawrenceville. We look forward to hearing from you.
Editorial
Guest Editorial
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PUBLISHER: Dr. Earl D. Glenn
Managing Editor: Gale Horton Gay Editor: Kathy Mitchell
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Georgia as a battleground state
by Gene Walker
Contributing Writer
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Guest Editorial
Billions for war,
peanuts for disaster
by Saul Landau
“The richest country in
the world should do something to help people,” a
woman resident of New Orleans told me in mid June.
“Bush and them spend
more money in one week in
Iraq than it would take to
fix up all our homes.” Two
plus years after Katrina,
only 133,966 out of almost
200,000 households in Orleans Parish could receive
mail and only 40 percent of
pubic schools had reopened.
She shook her head. “Just
look at this place.”
Everyone remembers the
August 2005 TV images
of the 9th Ward, showing
people floating in rising
waters, others waiting helplessly in the streets. No
response from government
agencies. Dead bodies festered in the summer sun.
After President George
W. Bush’s late arrival and
notorious compliment to
the now disgraced FEMA
Chief Michael Brown
– “You’re doing a heckuva
job, Brownie” – he finally
admitted: “The results are
not acceptable.” Duh!
Congress reluctantly returned from holiday to offer
$10.5 billion in aid.
The Pentagon offered
National Guardsmen to
stop the looting, not to save
lives or help people.
Hungry, thirsty and sick
refugees at the New Orleans’ Convention Center
waited for food, water and
medical attention. Bodies
wrapped in sheets lay on
the convention center floor.
At the hospital, staff had
piled corpses on the stairs.
Mayor Ray Nagin cried on
the radio. He had failed to
tell people to leave before
Katrina hit, to send school
buses afterwards, or to mobilize any city resources.
The Mississippi River’s
power alone didn’t dislodge
hundreds of thousands of
mostly poor and Black
people. Nature needed help
from Mr. Bush’s incompetent appointees and misguided priorities to accomplish its act of obliteration.
Both before and after
Katrina, Bush and company
paid little attention to poor
people. Indeed, government officials at all levels
ignored victims’ plights. As
Nero fiddled while Rome
burned, so President Bush
played video golf while
New Orleans flooded. In
light of such dramatic
negligence and incompetence, how can you blame a
mighty river?
Unfortunately, the U.S.
government has not yet
learned the lessons of Katrina. The rapid erosion
of New Orleans parallels
the erosion of small town
America. Up and down the
Mississippi, travelers see
business districts boarded
up and factories rusting.
Young people are strikingly absent. In late June,
victims of the latest natural
disaster – the Midwestern
floods – saw bridges floating away, dams and levees
See Disaster on Page 5
What could be more fun
than having Georgia as a key
presidential battleground
state? Why, that would be
having the battle over whether
Georgia is a key battleground
state!
The first salvos have
already been fired, yet you’d
never know it. That’s all a
part of the plan.
There are only three
months left before the most
historical election for president since the founding of
this nation. Over the past
several years, Georgia has
been regarded as an unrelenting Republican stronghold.
The far right would like you
to continue to believe that, so
that you may think that voting
is futile. A flimsy strategy to
be sure, especially since a
cursory review of polling data
suggests the opposite.
Twenty-two of the 50
states have been identified
by US Election Polls as battleground states, and one of
those states is Georgia. Matt
Towery reports that in an
Insider Advantage poll shows
John McCain and Barack
Obama locked in a tight race
in Georgia with 46 percent
and 44 percent of likely
voters, respectively. This is
important to note, as Insider
Advantage is the Georgia conservatives’ daily read.
Needless to say the two
Georgia Republican U.S.
senators do not agree with
these polls and contend that
McCain has a solid lead in the
Peach State. The strategy here
is to keep the conservatives
thinking they have a chance,
while putting a damper on
the groundswell of Obamania sweeping the nation.
Similarly, an Atlanta Journal
Constitution columnist Jim
Wooten, himself a die hard
supporter and apologist for
President Bush, “McBush,”
and all other ultra conservative right wingers, is in on it,
penning a column saying that
Barack Obama will not win in
Georgia.
The problem for our two
senators, Mr. Wooten and the
rest of the lot is that there
are other poll numbers that
support the U.S. Election Poll
and the Insider Advantage
poll. Electoral-vote.com offers up a daily national tracking poll combining the polling
of organizations such as Zogby, Rasmussen, Mason-Dixon,
Survey USA and a host of
others. They make available a
graph that has been tracking
McCain and Obama since the
end of February 2008. The
daily national tracking polls
show that in March of 2008
McCain was ahead 54 percent
to 42 percent, but by the first
of July, they were nearly tied.
Clearly, Georgia is indeed
a battleground state, signaling a serious crack in what
has been a solidly Republican
state.
Towery’s Insider Advantage informs us that Obama
is making inroads for several
reasons, including the fact
that Georgia has one of the
highest African-American
voting age populations in the
nation along with an unusually young voting age population. The Obama campaign is
also saturating the state with
TV ads.
One could only imagine
what those numbers would
be in Georgia and the other
southern states if former U.S.
Senator Sam Nunn receives
the vice presidential nomination, or some sort of cabinet
appointment, as has been
speculated for months. That
most likely ensures a majority
of Georgians voting for the
Democratic ticket.
The Insider Advantage,
while a conservative read,
is accurate in its analyses of
why Georgia is a battleground
state and the things Obama is
doing to win Georgia. Obama
should take advantage of this
opportunity and put together
a Georgia strategy which
maximizes his strengths and
specifically addresses the
propaganda and the smoke
and mirrors the right is using
against him.
We’ve all read the allegations: the association with
Reverend Wright, the missing
flag lapel pin and misquotes
about working class values.
We used to call these “red
herrings,” today its known
as “swift boating.” Whatever
you call it, the Obama campaign must strongly lash back
by emphasizing the specific
changes his administration
will make in addressing our
serious economic problems,
bringing our troops home
from Iraq, making health care
available to all and improving
education. These bread-andbutter issues are important
to the people of Georgia and
given the poll results thus
far, the Georgia voters are
not likely to be distracted by
name calling and personal
unfounded allegations against
Obama and his wife.
Oh, and a word about the
dismissive musings of high
ranking Republicans and
their propaganda arm: Don’t
believe a word of it.
PAGE 5A
The silent demise
of environments
by William A. Collins
The concept of an endangered environment has never changed personal
behavior very much in this country, or
anywhere else for that matter.
Intellectually we may grasp the
ominous significance of urban
sprawl, or the destruction of
Lake Baikal, or the collapse of
fishing grounds, or the spread
of toxic chemicals, but competing daily priorities always seem
to loom higher in our array of
personal concerns.
For example: the craving
for segregated schools keeps
suburban sprawl on the march; Collins
the quest to meet annual cotton
quotas did in poor old Lake Baikal; the
pursuit of family income destroyed ocean
fishing grounds; and old-fashioned corporate greed has spread many deadly toxins.
We all have our own priorities.
Even with global warming (now commonly accepted) forced down our throats
by Al Gore, we managed precious little
behavioral change until gas prices spiked.
Now SUVs are on the endangered species
list along with polar bears, but not because
we longed to respond to a world danger. We
just couldn’t afford to fill the things up.
Here’s a more subtle illustration of how
the system works. An unintended consequence of our response to the oil crisis
lies in the much-abused Gulf of Mexico.
Reacting to skyrocketing gas prices, agribusiness saw a chance to cash in by making ethanol. Those hungry new factories
persuaded farmers to plant every square
inch in corn, thereby upping their need
for nitrogen fertilizer, which increased
its seepage into the Mississippi River and
down to the Gulf. There it fertilizes algae
into a giant bloom that depletes oxygen
and makes the water uninhabitable for
fish, shrimp, crabs and shellfish. This in
turn puts harvesters of those delicacies out
of work.
Long Island Sound is suffering a like
fate, but from suburban sprawl rather than
from farming. Being mostly enclosed, it
faces tremendous human runoff pollution.
No, not from booming population growth
– nobody moves to New England anymore – but from folks moving from the
city out to the suburbs. Absorbent forest
and meadow are lost while more asphalt,
lawns, rooftops, catch basins, and septic
tanks take over. The result is the same as
in the Gulf –algae blooms and dead shellfish.
These and a hundred other day-to-day
personal decisions degrade nature without
our even thinking about them. Take the
choice of having a third (or
fourth) child, an SUV, a huge
TV, a swordfish dinner, a boat,
an ATV… These are actually
the most treacherous decisions
in society because nature is
rarely even in the debate, either public or family. Such
decisions wreak their awful
havoc with no one but experts
being the wiser.
Uglier and even more socially reprehensible are conscious industrial decisions.
Canada may have just set aside 25 million
acres of God-forsaken, black fly-infested
northern wilderness as protected forest,
but it is simultaneously tearing up other
millions of acres to wrestle oil from its
reluctant Alberta tar sands. This leaves a
scar that even Mother Nature may never
be able to heal.
Smaller but equally evil are Canada’s
digs for diamonds up in the wilderness by
Yellowknife. No stone is left unturned.
West Virginians know how that goes.
They watch as no mountaintop is left unturned in the endless search for coal. That
quest, once turned into electricity, spurs
our equally endless appetite for cute new
appliances.
Elsewhere in the United States and beyond, the quest is for gold, silver, copper,
zinc, aluminum, sugar cane, exotic wood,
exotic animals, and forage for herds.
These also decimate the land.
And as we indirectly consume the output of this devastation, we mostly don’t
even realize what we’re doing. Indeed, we
don’t WANT to realize what we’re doing.
Do we really care to know that gasoline
fuels the oil war in Nigeria, or that each
new computer fuels the cobalt war in
Congo, or that each hamburger flattens
more rainforest in Brazil? Uh-uh.
With mounting population and mounting consumption, the United States thus
promotes hardship and hostility the world
over. Unfortunately, the building of permanent bases in Iraq won’t quell that animosity.
Columnist William A. Collins is a
former state representative and a former
mayor of Norwalk, Connecticut. Distributed by MinutemanMedia.org.
Disaster
Continued From Page 4
surrendering, aging sewage systems
collapsing. Their crops and animals
floated away.
On July 4, politicians repeated
the “We’re the greatest” rhetoric
while ignoring the country’s decrepit infrastructure. The American
Society of Civil Engineers estimates
that an additional expenditure of
$1 trillion is needed to bring infrastructure up to par with modern
needs and standards, not counting
the cost of repairing damage caused
by the recent floods.
Mr. Bush requested $1.8 billion
for flood recovery–a drop in the
proverbial bucket. While billions
per week flow to Iraq and Afghani-
stan, thousands of deteriorating
bridges, levees and dams await attention.
The president, nevertheless,
continues to offer this “model” to
the world. The late George Carlin,
winner of this year’s Mark Twain
award, said what Twain might have
said: “A politician’s insincerity can
best be measured by how far around
the world our soldiers are.”
Saul Landau is a fellow of the
Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. His latest book is A
Bush and Botox World (AK Press,
2007). – www.ips-dc.org. Distributed by MinutemanMedia.org.
Page 6A
Obama follows
an erratic course
Greg Goodwin
Champion of the Week
by Donald Kaul
Columnist
It looks as though the reason Barack Obama is reluctant to
have multiple debates with John McCain is because he’s having
too much fun debating himself. (OK, that was a cheap shot; so
what? Some days, you pass up the cheap shot, you don’t get any
shot at all.)
The thing is, he has so “refined” his positions on a number of
issues lately that they resemble political gummy bears, all chewy
and sweet.
For example:
– He announced his administration (if any) would support faithbased initiatives by private religious groups, saying that the
social problems facing the country are too great and complex to
be solved by government action alone. Separation of church and
state anyone? The faith-based initiative, remember, was the lure
that George Bush used to get evangelical voters into his boat.
Could Mr. Obama be trolling the same waters?
– When the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, knocked down a law
that called for the execution of rapists of children, Obama spoke
out against the ruling.
Aren’t real liberals supposed to be against the death penalty?
Period? Cruel and inhumane punishment, the chance of murdering
an innocent person, that sort of thing? Apparently Obama felt that
child rape was an issue he had to come out against, and he didn’t
care how many votes it cost him.
– But when the Supreme Court said that the District of Columbia’s
ban on handguns was unconstitutional, Obama agreed with it.
He said that while he believes in the government’s right to regulate handguns, he also believes in the right of individuals to own
them. He didn’t straddle the issue, he surrounded it.
– He supported a bill establishing electronic surveillance rules for
the government’s eavesdropping program, even though it granted immunity to telecommunications companies that conducted
warrantless wiretaps in the past.
He said that the bill was no prize but it was a big improvement
on last year’s bill. Besides, there’s a war on.
– And finally, he said he might reassess his timetable for the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq after he’d gone there and talked
to our military commanders. The granola liberals of the anti-war
left squealed loudest at this, hearing in it the echoes of John
McCain’s endless-war strategy.
No, he said, he remains committed to ending the war, and he
reiterated his previously stated position that “we had to be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in.”
This might have turned out to be a bigger deal but for the fact
that Iraq’s leaders, our allies, are refusing to sign a treaty with the
United States unless it contains a firm commitment for the timely
withdrawal of American troops. They also indicated that they
didn’t want any American bases left behind either.
Excuse me, but doesn’t this put the government of Iraq slightly
to the left of Obama on the issue? And way, way to the left of
McCain, who talks of keeping troops there forever or 100 years,
whichever comes first. (Yeah, I know, he’d only keep them there if
they weren’t needed, but still.)
But you know what? None of that so-called flip-flopping matters much to me. I may be less than enthusiastic about some of
those positions but they all seem reasonable to me, something
about which we can agree to disagree.
Religious organizations have a history and an expertise in helping people in dire straits and if the government can give them a
little boost it’s money well spent.
I’m also against capital punishment but if you’re going to kill
anyone, child rapists are a good place to start. The D.C. gun law
is a joke, ineffective and unenforceable. Besides, what’s so wrong
with a politician changing his mind? John McCain used to be
against Bush’s tax cuts, now he’s for them. He’s allowed a second
opinion. For the past seven years, we have had a president who
never changed his mind about anything.
How’s that working out for you?
Don Kaul is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-losing Washington
correspondent who, by his own account, is right more than he’s
wrong. Email: [email protected].
At Redan High School, Greg Goodwin mentors and encourages more
than 1,500 students. During summer
break, Goodwin keeps the practice
going at Mentoring Viable Prospects
(MVP), an organization that exposes
minorities to careers in baseball.
Goodwin and his partners recently
completed their organization’s fifth
year, culminating with a six-team tournament attended by more than 75
baseball scouts. “People were saying
that there were no African Americans
in baseball, but we wanted to show
them that they were playing and they
were playing well in the South.”
Goodwin has been with the DeKalb
County School System for 21 years. His
career began in 1986 where he taught
social studies at Miller Grove Middle
School, and also worked as an assistant baseball coach at Redan.
In 2007, 34 of the 38 players who
participated in the MVP tournament
were selected in the Major League
Baseball draft.
For more information visit, www.
viableprospects.org.
If you would like to nominate someone to be considered as a future Champion of the Week,
please contact Kathy Mitchell at [email protected] or at 404-373-7779, ext. 104.
Speculators and our food: E-I-E-I-O!
by Jim Hightower
Columnist
Oh, this is just dandy! Hedge fund schemers
and Wall Street manipulators–the very characters who brought us the Great American Housing Collapse–have a new target for their fastbuck profiteering: farming. E-I-E-I-O!
Speculators have long messed with farmers
by artificially manipulating prices on everything
from corn to soybeans. But now they’re pooling
up billions of dollars from global investors to
go after the farms themselves, as well as fertilizer plants, grain elevators, ships and barges,
and other basic tools for producing, shipping,
and storing our food supply. As one hedge fund
operator says, “It’s going on big time. There is
considerable interest in what we call ‘owning
structure.’”
By “owning structure,” they mean centralizing control of food in the hands of financial
manipulators who have only one crop in mind:
fat profits. These multibillion-dollar funds are
buying thousands of farms in the United States,
Brazil, Africa, Britain and elsewhere, turning
farmers into corporate laborers and viewing
farmland and water as disposable inputs for the
huge short-term profits investors demand. Rural communities? Move to the city. Quality of
food? Advertising will cover that.
Price? Aha! That’s what consolidation of
farms and storage facilities is all about. If you
can lock down production and stockpile the
supply–you can control price. If corn prices
are lower than what investors want them to be,
simply store the corn and force prices up. Or, if
corn prices are down in the United States, ship
corn to Japan or wherever else might be more
profitable. And if these distortions cause a food
crash? Hey, the speculators will already have
sucked out billions in profits, and they will just
move to the next hot investment.
Hedge funds bring nothing but greed and
grief to the farm economy and our food supply,
and they should be banned from “owning structure.”
For more information on Jim Hightower’s
work – and to subscribe to his award-winning
monthly newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown,
visit www.jimhightower.com
Lawmakers mull second
suit over Dunwoody
by Andy Phelan
[email protected]
There will be only one
county lawsuit against
Dunwoody – for now.
County commissioners
deferred a resolution on
July 22 supporting a county
lawsuit against Dunwoody for
taking a part of the Perimeter
Community Improvement
District or PCID.
On July 15, more than 80
percent of residents in the
north DeKalb enclave voted to
create the county’s 10th city.
Part of the tax base being used
to run the city of about 40,000
residents is the Perimeter Mall
and corporate offices that are
inside the PCID.
The county, represented
by former Gov. Roy Barnes
at the behest of CEO Vernon
Jones, already filed a lawsuit
July 10 against the state and
Gov. Sonny Perdue over
HB264, which changed the
way the Homestead Option
Sales Tax or HOST exemption
is distributed.
It did not become law until
the citizens of Dunwoody
voted to form their own city.
The PCIDs – self-taxing
districts that use additional
property taxes to help
accelerate transportation and
infrastructure improvement
projects – have leveraged
millions in county taxpayer
money to bring in millions
more in state and federal
dollars that have gone to help
keep the district, one of the
Southeast’s largest corporate
office markets.
It’s home to more than
115,000 jobs today, but
projections indicate that will
grow by another 100,000 jobs
by 2013. It accounts for a $3
billion real estate investment.
Commissioners voted 5-2
to defer the issue until their
Aug. 26 meeting.
“The PCID is one of the
most valuable assets we have
in DeKalb,” said Commissioner Lee May, author of the
resolution. “But in their taking
part of the district is unjust and
unfair. It affects everyone. I’m
not saying we’re going to win,
but we ought to try.”
Some commissioners said
a suit over the PCID would be
“premature.”
“We might be adding to the
problem by entangling ourselves in lengthy litigation,”
said Commissioner Burrell Ellis, who acknowledged Barnes
had met once with commissioners on the matter.
“By his own advice, Barnes
said a suit over the PCID
would be costly and protracted
– you the taxpayer would be
paying well into the future,”
he said.
Finance Director Michael
Bell told commissioners the
county expects about a $9
million hit to the budget from
residential property taxes and
about a $6 million to $7 million loss on business fees and
taxes collected at Perimeter.
That money would be going to
Dunwoody instead.
Ellis and four other
commissioners agreed to wait
until they had met with Barnes
again over Dunwoody and the
PCID before deciding how to
proceed.
MILITARY BRIEF
Army National Guard Pfc. Cody D. Griffith has graduated from the Infantryman One Station Unit Training at
Fort Benning, Columbus, Ga. The training consists of Basic
Infantry Training and Advanced Individual Training.
During the nine weeks of basic combat training, the
soldier received training in drill and ceremonies, weapons employment, map reading, tactics, military courtesy,
military justice, physical fitness, first aid skills, and Army
history, core values and traditions. Additional training included development of basic combat skills and battlefield
operations and tactics, and experienced use of various
weapons and weapons defenses available to the infantry
crewman.
The Advanced Individual Training course is designed to
train infantry soldiers to perform reconnaissance operations; employ, fire and recover anti-personnel and antitank mines; locate and neutralize land mines and operate
target and sight equipment; operate and maintain communications equipment and radio networks; construct
field firing aids for infantry weapons; and perform infantry
combat exercises and dismounted battle drills, which
includes survival procedures in a nuclear, biological or
chemical contaminated area.
Griffith is the son of Linda Murray of Tucker, and David Griffith of Social Circle. The private graduated from
Parkview High School, Lilburn.
Page A
Cardwell moves on
after senate defeat
by Andy Phelan
[email protected]
Don’t expect to see U.S.
Senate candidate and former
WSB-TV investigative reporter Dale Cardwell back on the
tube anytime
soon now
that he is officially out
of running
for a seat in
Washington,
D.C.
Cardwell,
45, who
lives in
Cardwell
Doraville
with his wife and two children, came in a distant third to
DeKalb County CEO Vernon
Jones and former state Rep.
Jim Martin in the race to
become the Democratic nominee to run against incumbent
Saxby Chambliss [R-Georgia] in November.
“I really don’t know
what I’m going to do now,”
said Cardwell. “When I told
people I didn’t have a cushy
job waiting for me or a soft
landing, I was telling the
truth. I don’t want to cover
car wrecks and shootings anymore.”
One of the biggest issues in his campaign was
not to take PAC money or political action committee cash.
Cardwell said he hoped to run
a grassroots campaign where
individuals
would give
$5, $10 or
$20. While
he raised
more than
$150,000,
in the end
it wasn’t
enough.
Jones
Garnering more than 77,000 votes
statewide – nearly 12,000 in
DeKalb – Cardwell said he’s
proud of his campaign.
“I always told the truth and
worked hard,” said Cardwell,
who is endorsing Martin. “I
think the mainstream media
fell down on the job by not
doing background checks
on all the
candidates,
which is
routine.”
For
those holding out
hope that
their favorite investigative
Martin
reporter
might consider a comeback.
“I could see myself as
a consumer reporter – still
fighting for people,” he said.
“It’s just tough. There aren’t
a lot of opportunities out
there.”
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Ch
Page 8A
Election allows many
incumbents to retain their seats
Here are the DeKalb
County results of the
July General Primary
and Special Election:
U.S. Senate
U.S. House of
Representatives, District 4
Georgia State Senate,
District 5
Democrat
Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr.
(Incumbent)
100 percent– Retains seat
Democrat
Curt Thompson (Incumbent)
100 percent – Retains seat
Republican
Saxby Chambliss (Incumbent)
100 percent – Will face Democratic
challenger Nov. 4
There were no Republican candidates
for this seat
Democrat
Vernon Jones –
42.5 percent – In Aug. 5 runoff
Jim Martin
Dale Cardwell
16.9 percent
Rand Knight
5.63 percent
Josh Lanier
2.08 percent
Public Service
Commission District 1
H. Doug Everett (Incumbent)
65.6 percent
Rick Collum
34.3 percent
U.S. House of
Democrat
John Lewis (Incumbent)
77.5 percent – Retains seat
Markel Hutchins
12.7 percent
“Able” Mable Thomas
9.6 percent
for this seat
U.S. House of
Democrat
Bill Jones
100 percent – Faces Republican
challenger Nov. 4
There were no Democratic candidates
for this seat
Republican
Tom Price (Incumbent)
100 percent– Faces Democratic
challenger Nov. 4
Public Service
Commission District 4
U.S. House of
Democrat
Jim Powell
82.1 percent
Republican
Deborah Honeycutt
100 percent– Faces Democratic
challenger Nov. 4
Bob Indech
17.8 percent
Republican
Lauren W. McDonald Jr.
53 percent
Pam Davidson
46.9 percent
Democrat
David Scott (Incumbent)
69.4 percent - Faces Republican
challenger Nov. 4
Donzella James
36.6 percent
for this seat
Georgia State Senator,
District 10
Democrat
Emanuel Jones (Incumbent)
for this seat
Georgia State Senate,
District 40
Democrat
Martin McConaughy
challenger Nov. 4
Republican
Dan Weber (Incumbent)
87.2 percent - Faces Democratic
challenger Nov. 4
Paul D. Achey
12.7 percent
District 42
Republican
Altaf Galeyev
100 percent – Faces Democratic
challenger Nov. 4
Democrat
David Adelmen (Incumbent)
challenger Nov. 4
District 43
Democrat
Ronald B. Ramsey Sr. (Incumbent)
55.9 percent – Faces Republican
challenger Nov. 4
Angela Moore
44.8
Willie Hinton
Republican
challenger Nov. 4
District 55
Gloria Butler (Incumbent)
Robert Crowder
13.5 percent
for this seat.
Georgia House of
Republican
Fran Millar (Incumbent)
challenger Nov. 4
Keith Kaylor
challenger Nov. 4
Georgia House of
Democrat
Keith Gross
challenger Nov. 4
Republican
Mike Jacobs (Incumbent)
challenger Nov. 4
Georgia House of
Republican
Jill Chambers (Incumbent)
challenger Nov. 4
Democrat
Chris Huttman
68.7 percent – Faces Republican
challenger Nov. 4
Cecillia Hailey
31.2 percent
See Election on Page 9A
Election
Georgia House of
Representatives, District
93
Continued From Page 8A
Democrat Billy Mitchell (Incumbent)
Georgia House of
Robford Hill
20.8 percent
Democrat
Kevin Levitas (Incumbent)
for this seat.
There were no Republican candidates for
this seat.
Georgia House of
Democrat
Earnest “Coach” Williams (Incumbent)
84.9 percent – Retains seat.
Democrat Mary Margaret Oliver (Incumbent)
for this seat.
Clyburn Halley
15.1 percent
Colet Odenigbo
7.6 percent
this seat.
Jim Sendelbach
2.3 percent
Georgia House of
Georgia House of
Representatives,
District 94
Georgia House of
Democrat Stacey Abrams (Incumbent)
for this seat.
Georgia House of
Democrat
Stephanie Stuckey Benfield
(Incumbent)
challenger Nov. 4
Republican
Kenneth Brett Quarterman
challenger Nov. 4
Georgia House of
Democrat Karla Drenner (Incumbent)
for this seat.
Georgia House of
Democrat Michele Henson (Incumbent)
for this seat.
Georgia House of
Georgia House of
Democrat
Howard Mosby (Incumbent)
Felix Lawson
21.3 percent
this seat.
Georgia House of
Democrat
Rahn Mayo
Rita Robinzine
Democrat
Dee Dawkins-Haigler
Malik Douglas
KaTesha Sagers
12.5 percent
Traci Waites
8.9 percent
Democrat
Randal Mangham (Incumbent)
Andrew Bostic
20.0 percent
There were no Republican
candidates for this seat.
District Attorney –
Stone Mountain District
Democrat
Gwen Keyes Fleming (Incumbent)
100 percent - Retains seat.
Page A
There were no other candidates for
this seat.
DeKalb County Clerk
of the Superior Court
Democrat
Linda A. Carter (Incumbent)
James E. Stodghill Jr.
13.87 percent
Sheriff of DeKalb
County
Democrat
Thomas E. Brown (Incumbent)
Tony J. Scipio
14.18 percent
Aldranon A. English
5.3 percent
DeKalb County
Tax Commissioner
Democrat
Claudia G. Lawson (Incumbent)
Chief Magistrate
Democrat
Winston P. Bethel (Incumbent)
See Election on Page 11A
Otis Marks II
22.5 percent
Bryon Wilson
6.76 percent
Tracey Sims McMeen
6.16 percent
this seat.
Georgia House of
Democrat
Pam S. Stephenson (Incumbent)
George Turner
20.4 percent
this seat.
The City of Pine Lake, Georgia
Land Development Code Update
Notice of Public Hearing
August 11, 2008 and September 8, 2008
5:30pm – Court Room
The City of Pine Lake, Georgia will be holding a Public Hearing on August 11, 2008, and
September 8, 2008 at 5:30 pm located at 459 Pine Drive, Pine Lake, GA 30072, on a
proposed Ordinance to update the Land Development Code, by amending the land
development, landscaping, use, and subdivision regulations; modifying the boundaries of
zoning districts; creating subareas in certain districts; and revising the Architectural
Review Board (ARB) procedures. All interested parties are encouraged to come.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
2009 DeKalb County Human/Community Services
Grants (General Funds and Victim Assistance Funds)
The DeKalb County Human Development
Department is accepting 2009 grant applications for
General Funds and Victim Assistance Funds. Starting June
20, 2008, applications are available Monday through
Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Human
Development Department, 39 Rogers Street, N.E., Atlanta,
Georgia 30317. Applications will also be available
electronically by visiting www.co.dekalb.ga.us, clicking on
the “Departments” link, and going to “Human Services.”
Only applications from incorporated non-profit
organizations with a tax-exempt status will be considered.
These organizations must also meet other guideline criteria
for consideration.
Considered applicants must have a prevention or
early intervention focus and meet an urgent community
need. Services provided must address issues related to
economically disadvantaged individuals, families, children,
youth or seniors adults including under-served and difficultto-serve populations.
For more information, call Lisa Thomas at 404-2701176 or Jewell Collins at 404-270-1174 in the DeKalb
County Human Development Department. For information
on obtaining victim assistance program certification,
contact the State of Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating
Council at 404-657-1956.
Completed applications must be received no
later than 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 30, 2008, in
order to be considered for 2009 funding.
Calendar
Special Events
July 26. Monthly Singalong. Group singing just
for fun–no performances.
Open to all. We sing folk
music, old standards, gospel, political songs, pop,
freedom songs, country,
show tunes and more. The
event will take place at
East Lake Commons common house, 900 Dancing
Fox Road, Decatur at 7:30
p.m. For more informations, directions and gate
code, contact Bob at (404)
378-5424.
July 26. DeKalb branch
NAACP health and wellness fair. The DeKalb
Branch NAACP, Commissioner Larry Johnson and
the Memorial Drive WalMart SuperCenter extend
an invitation to the general
public to take part in the
2008 NAACP Health and
Wellness Fair that will be
held from 11 a.m. until 3
p.m. at the Memorial Drive
Wal-Mart in Decatur. Some
of the planned services
include blood pressure
checks, blood glucose
monitoring, vision checks,
information on prostate
cancer, HIV/AIDS, lupus,
sickle cell, organ donation and others. Residents
are urged to come out
and take advantage of the
screenings provided and
the information that will be
made available. The Health
and Wellness Fair is free
and open to all. For more
information contact Cherry
Willis (404) 626-8505.
August 1. Rock On!
DeKalb Medical’s series,
Puberty Rocks, opens
the lines of communication between mothers and
daughters, ages 9 to 13
years old. DeKalb Medical OB-GYN Kay Entrekin,
M.D., will lead a discussion
on the physical and emotional effects of puberty,
body changes, peer pressure, stress, sexual development and Gardasil®, a
cervical cancer vaccine.
Located at DeKalb Medical,
2701 North Decatur Road,
Decatur at 7 p.m. The
event is free but registration is required. Call (404)
501-WELL or visit Classes
& Events at www.dekalbmedical.com.
August 7. Monthly Sacred
Harp Singing. Early American hymns sung in powerful exuberant style, as seen
in Cold Mountain. Beginners welcome; instruction
provided. Located at Emory Presbyterian Church,
fellowship building, 1886
North Decatur Road. For
more information or directions, call (404) 892-6836
or www.atlantasacredharp.
org.
Tuesday evening lectures. “Looking at the current Middle East geopolitical scene through the lens
of scripture” is presented
in biblically illuminating
lectures by a world traveled
Jewish believer. Learn how
end times and messianic
prophesies from the Hebrew scriptures are fulfilled.
Informal and free lectures
are on Tuesday evenings,
at 7:30 p.m. in the Fel-
Items for the calendar may be e-mailed to [email protected] or faxed to (404) 3703903. Include a contact name and phone number.
Note that items in this free listing should concern
community and non-profit events.
Events are placed on a space-available basis and
priority is given to DeKalb County events.
Items for the community calendar should reach
The Champion no later than one week before the
date they are to be published.
lowship Hall of the First
Alliance Church, 2512
N. Druid Hills Rd. For
information, call Gary at
(770) 354-1501.
Regular Meetings
Free Motivational
Workshop at DCVB.
Attendees of this workshop will be taught to
seek the straightest path
to the most positive attitude. The workshop is
suitable for employees
from upper management
to front office personnel. Taught by Renny
Roker, this class seeks
to maximize the potential of each individual
to enhance productivity
and work toward a positive bottom line. Roker’s
presentation is designed
to motivate participants
to eliminate the negative
influences and capitalize
on their positive attributes. All workshops are
held at DeKalb Convention & Visitors Bureau,
1957 Lakeside Parkway,
Suite 510, Tucker. The
next class will be held on
Aug. 20 from 8:45 a.m.
to noon. Registration is
required, call (770) 4925020 or visit www.dcvb.
org.
Keep Them Coming Back - Customer
Service. Bob Beeland
teaches attendees the
value of true customer
service. Beeland emphasizes that customer
service is mediocre at its
best in today’s society.
DCVB’s customer service
class originates from
the desire for guests in
DeKalb to have such a
welcoming visit that they
will want to return. One
of the best ways to ensure this is by providing
quality customer service.
Beeland teaches participants how easily this can
be achieved. All workshops are held at DeKalb
Convention & Visitors
Bureau, 1957 Lakeside
Parkway, Suite 510,
Tucker. The next class
will be held on Aug. 6
from 8:45 a.m. to noon.
Registration is required,
call (770) 492-5020 or
visit www.dcvb.org.
DeKalb Community
Service Board Meetings. The DeKalb Community Service Board, a
public, nonprofit, behavioral health-care agency,
will conduct its monthly
meetings in the Bohan
Auditorium of the Richardson Health Center,
445 Winn Way in Decatur. The monthly meeting
schedule for 2008 is as
follows: Sept. 16, Oct. 21
and Nov. 18. The public
is invited to attend.
For those with disabilities in need of assistance or accommodations to participate in the
meeting, please notify
the Office of Community
Relations. For more information about the mental
health, developmental
disabilities or addictive
diseases services offered
through the DeKalb CSB,
contact the Office of
Community Relations at
(404) 508-7875.
Survivors Network
for those abused by
priests and other
clergy (SNAP) support
group meets the fourth
Thursday of each month
from 7 until 8:30 p.m. If
you or someone you
know has been sexually abused by clergy,
this group is for you.
For more information,
contact Denise Weaver,
Atlanta SNAP Leader, at
(678) 665-7631 or Mona
Brewer, co-leader, (404)
805-7575 dweaver@
stop-csa.com. Visit www.
survivorsnetwork.org.
Decatur Communicators Toastmasters
meeting. Do you want
to improve your public
speaking skills or leadership abilities? Decatur
Communicators Toastmasters meets every
first, third and fifth
Saturday 10 – 11 a.m. at
Avondale Pattillo UMC
at 3260 Covington Hwy,
Decatur. For more information, contact Richard Nagode at (404)
294-8082 or by e-mail
[email protected].
Volunteer Needed
DeKalb Rape Crisis
Center is looking for dedicated volunteers to staff
its 24-hour crisis line. The
organization also needs
volunteers to serve as
hospital companions for
rape survivors. Its summer 2008 training begins
in early June. The crisis
center is also looking for
online hotline volunteers,
volunteers to be part of
its speakers’ bureau, outreach and special events
committees. Summer semester internships at the
center are available. Applications can be found
at www.dekalbrapecrisiscenter.org. Contact
Allison White, director
of volunteer services,
at (404) 377-1429 or by
e-mail at [email protected] for
more information.
LifeLink volunteers
needed. LifeLink of Georgia is seeking volunteers
to assist with educational
programs pertaining to
organ and tissue donation and transplantation
in Georgia. Volunteer
activities include public
speaking, staffing information tables at driver’s
license offices and health
fairs, presentations to
nursing and medical staff
and more. All volunteers
are formally trained by
LifeLink staff. To learn
more, contact public relations at (800) 544-6667 or
visit the Web site at www.
lifelinkfound.org.
NEWS BRIEFS
Firefighters hurt in
DeKalb house fire
LITHONIA, Ga. (AP)
Six firefighters were injured while battling a huge
house fire in south DeKalb
County.
Fire crews were called
to the residence on Sandy
Lake Drive at about 8 a.m.
July 17.
DeKalb County Fire
Captain Eric Jackson said
the firefighters were hurt
when a floor collapsed. He
said all their injuries were
minor.
No one was inside the
house.
Jackson said the twostory brick dwelling was
destroyed and investigators
have not determined how it
started.
One DeKalb
location open for
advanced voting in
runoff
Advanced Voting for
the Aug. 5 runoff election
will be from Monday, July
28, through Friday, Aug.
1 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
and only at the main office
location, Memorial Drive
Complex, Ste. 300, 4380
Memorial Drive, Decatur,
across the street from the
jail.
2 sentenced for
bomb threat at CDC
ATLANTA (AP) Two
Georgia men have been
sentenced to federal prison
for telephoning a bomb
threat to the Atlanta-based
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention and making
false statements to the FBI
about the call.
Officials say 28-year-old
Quantavious Greene of
Jackson was sentenced July
16 to four months and 21year-old Elijah Chandler of
College Park got six months.
The CDC received a call
April 14, 2006, ostensibly
from a fired employee, saying a bomb had been placed
in the building. A search revealed no bomb.
The FBI determined that
the former employee had not
made the call, and the investigation led to Chandler, a CDC
contract worker, and Greene,
who finally admitted making
the call at Chandler’s urging
so he could leave work early.
Congressman still
snagged in no-fly
list mix up
WASHINGTON (AP)
Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta
says a name mix up on a terrorist watch list is still wreaking havoc on his air travel
some five years after the
problem first popped up.
The 11-term Democrat
wrote in a letter to the House
Homeland Security Committee this week that he’s still
subjected to repeated airport
searches and required to provide multiple forms of identification. The problems persist
even though he has tried for
years to clarify that he’s not
on the no-fly list, and despite
efforts by the Homeland Security Department to improve
its screening, he wrote.
If it’s still happening to a
congressman, he wrote, average Americans must be suffering even more.
Indicted
Matthews dead from gunshot wounds behind a strip mall on
Memorial Drive. Nearby, a black cell phone case was found on
the ground.
The DeKalb County Police Review Board determined
Thompson violated department policy by using deadly force on
a man who was running away.
All accounts show that Matthews was ordered repeatedly to
stop by Thompson and others but continued to run from the officers.
Thompson, who was working for the Barrow County Sheriff’s Department, must now put his life on hold. A former Marine who served with special security forces in Cyprus and Peru,
Thompson has had a clean record before and after the 2006
incident.
“He has an impeccable record,” Atkins said.
Page 11A
Election
Atlanta rapper Lil
Scrappy arrested
after fight
DECATUR, Ga. (AP)
Police say Atlanta rapper
Lil Scrappy is out
of jail after being
arrested
following
a fight
with his
sister’s
Richardson
boyfriend.
The 24-year-old performer, whose name is
Darryl Richardson, was
released from the DeKalb
County jail Sunday on
$1,500 bond.
DeKalb County police
spokesman Marcus Hodge
said Richardson got into an
altercation with his sister’s
boyfriend the afternoon
of July 18 after the couple
argued. Richardson was
stabbed during the fight,
but the injuries were not
serious.
Police arrested Richardson and charged him
with felony marijuana
possession, felony use of
a weapon during a crime,
misdemeanor obstruction
of police officers and misdemeanor battery.
The boyfriend was not
charged.
Chief Executive
Officer – DeKalb
County
Democrat
Burrell Ellis
Stan Watson
Ann Kimbrough
13.62 percent
Steen “Newslady” Miles
9.43 percent
Joe Bembry
4.99 percent
DeKalb County
Commission,
District 1
Republican
Elaine Boyer
88.01 percent – Faces
Democratic challenger Nov. 4.
Terri Burdine Fischer
11.99 percent
Democrat
Larry Danese
challenger Nov. 4
DeKalb County
Commissioner,
District 4
Democrat
Sharon Barnes-Sutton
49.65 percent-In Aug. 5 runoff
Viola “Unhappy Taxpayer”
Davis
17.53 percent-In Aug. 5 runoff
Lawrence N. Sharp Jr.
15.37 percent
Will Thomas
11.26 percent
Calvin E. Sims Sr.
6.18 percent
DeKalb County
Commissioner,
District 5
Democrat
Lee May (Incumbent)
DeKalb County
Commissioner,
District 6
Democrat
Kathie Gannon (Incumbent)
George Maddox
19.68 percent
Don Broussard
17.33 percent
Board of Education
question
Yes – 74 percent
No – 26 percent
Dunwoody question
Yes – 81.23 percent
No – 18.77 percent
PAC’s Kids
Atlanta Leadership
& Arts Camp
Summer Show
When: July 26, 2008 @ 7p
Tickets: $15 Adult / $10 youth (under 17)
Where: Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts
Peace Garden
5616 Memorial Drive
Stone Mountain, GA 30083
404-298-4222
www.tasf.org
Page 12A
Page 1A
7th annual DeKalb Blues & Jazz Festival draws 40,000
The seventh annual DeKalb County
Blues & Jazz Festival attracted more
than 40,000 attendees during the threeday event held July 18-20 at Wade
Walker Park in Stone Mountain. The
festival featured music from hip-hop to
blues, showcasing artists such as Whodini, Con funk Shun, Heat Wave, Kurtis Blow, Tammy Allen, Ken Ford,
Chick Willis, Theodis Ealey, Warren
Hill and others.
“The Blues & Jazz festival was start-
ed in 2001 to give families in DeKalb
an opportunity to enjoy music and fun at
an affordable price,” said DeKalb CEO
Vernon Jones, who originated the festival as a community give-back event.
“Every year, we have kept DeKalb residents in mind by keeping the price the
same and residents respond by continuing to support this event.”
The first Blues & Jazz festival was
held at the Southeast Athletic Complex
Stadium in Lithonia.
Stay entertained and informed on what’s going on in your
county, tune to the Emmy Award Winning
“Inside DeKalb”
For a programming guide visit www.co.dekalb.ga.us/dctv
DCTV 23 - Your guide to what’s going on in our county
The Champion Weather
Seven Day Forecast
THURSDAY
Mostly Cloudy
High: 87 Low: 70
FRIDAY
Isolated T-storms
High: 89 Low: 71
SATURDAY
Isolated T-storms
High: 89 Low: 72
SUNDAY
Isolated T-storms
High: 90 Low: 73
MONDAY
Isolated T-storms
High: 87 Low: 71
In-Depth Local Forecast
*Last Week’s Almanac
Date
Hi Lo Normals Precip
Tuesday
89 67
90/71
0.00"
Wednesday 90 71
90/71
0.00"
Thursday
89 70
90/71
0.00"
Friday
90 69
90/71
0.00"
Saturday
92 70
90/71
0.00"
Sunday
94 70
90/71
0.00"
Monday
96 73
90/71
0.00"
Rainfall . . . . . . .0.00" Average temp . .80.7
Normal rainfall . .1.21" Average normal 80.5
Departure . . . . .-1.21" Departure . . . . .+0.2
Local UV Index
0 - 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11+
UV Index
0-2: Low, 3-5: Moderate,
6-7: High, 8-10: Very High
11+: Extreme Exposure
Dunwoody
85/69 Lilburn
Smyrna Doraville
86/70
86/70
86/70
Snellville
Decatur
87/70
Atlanta
87/70
87/70
Lithonia
College Park
88/70
88/70
Morrow
88/70
Union City
88/70
Hampton
89/71
July 24, 1980 - Claudette, a
weak tropical storm, deluged
southeastern Texas with torrential rains. The Houston
suburb of Alvin received a
total of 43 inches, a 24-hour
record for the United States.
July 25, 1956 - The Andrea
Dora sank in dense fog near
Nantucket Lightship, Mass.
The Swedish-American liner,
Stockholm, rammed the ship
45 miles off the coast of
Massachusetts. Fifty-two people lost their lives.
*Data as reported from De Kalb-Peachtree Airport
Local Sun/Moon Chart This Week
Last
7/25
WEDNESDAY
Partly Cloudy
High: 88 Low: 72
Weather History
Today's Regional Map
Today we will see mostly cloudy skies with a
slight chance of showers and thunderstorms,
high temperature of 87º, humidity of 58%
and an overnight low of 70º. The record high
temperature for today is 100º set in 1952.
The record low is 61º set in 1947.
TUESDAY
Partly Cloudy
High: 85 Low: 71
July 24, 2008
New
8/1
Day
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Sunrise
6:43 a.m.
6:44 a.m.
6:45 a.m.
6:46 a.m.
6:46 a.m.
6:47 a.m.
6:48 a.m.
Sunset
8:44 p.m.
8:43 p.m.
8:42 p.m.
8:41 p.m.
8:41 p.m.
8:40 p.m.
8:39 p.m.
Moonrise
No Rise
12:11 a.m.
12:46 a.m.
1:28 a.m.
2:19 a.m.
3:19 a.m.
4:29 a.m.
Moonset
12:57 p.m.
2:05 p.m.
3:15 p.m.
4:27 p.m.
5:36 p.m.
6:40 p.m.
7:35 p.m.
Tonight's Planets
First
8/8
Full
8/16
National Weather Summary This Week
The Northeast will see partly cloudy to cloudy skies with scattered showers and thunderstorms today through Saturday, with the highest temperature of 91º in Mount Vernon, Ill.
The Southeast will see partly cloudy skies with isolated showers and thunderstorms today
through Saturday, with the highest temperature of 97º in Kinston, N.C. The Northwest will see mostly clear
to partly cloudy skies today through Saturday, with the highest temperature of 100º in Boise, Idaho. The
Southwest will see mostly clear to partly cloudy skies with a few showers and thunderstorms today through
Saturday, with the highest temperature of 110º in Blythe, Calif.
Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus
Rise
Set
6:12 a.m. 8:27 p.m.
7:43 a.m. 9:29 p.m.
10:06 a.m.10:49 p.m.
7:35 p.m. 5:33 a.m.
9:32 a.m. 10:33 p.m.
11:05 p.m.10:52 a.m.
Weather Trivia
What weather disaster
causes the most deaths?
?
Answer: Flooding.
© 2008. Accessweather.com, Inc.
StarWatch By Gary Becker - Bright Light in the Southeast
Is it Christmas in July? What is that bright star low in the SE after sundown? If you live where I live in Coopersburg, PA, then it even points in the general direction of Bethlehem—that’s Bethlehem, PA. Currently, with Venus too close to the sun for easy viewing, it is the third brightest object in the sky. By Jove, if you’re
thinking Jupiter, then you are right on target. Jupiter is not only the largest and most massive of the eight planets in our solar system, but it has influenced our
neighborhood in space second only to the sun. In fact, because of its large gravitational attraction, Jupiter, and to a lesser extent Saturn, have helped to cleanse
and protect the inner solar system from the myriad of comets that are sent sunward by other stars passing close to Sol. We witnessed this “Jupiter Effect” in July of 1994 when
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, first broken into 21 fragments by Jupiter’s strong gravitational field, slammed into Jove to produce the best solar system fireworks ever witnessed
by humankind. This same gravitational field holds 63 moons in its grasp. Most are small, captured asteroids that wandered into Jupiter’s influence, but its four largest satellites,
Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, create a solar system in miniature, depicting changes in composition and size which reflect what we see happening in our own planetary
landscape. The inner solar system is composed of smaller, denser worlds which are composed of materials that have higher melting and boiling temperatures. The same can be
said about Io and Europa. Outer moons, Ganymede and Callisto, are larger, less dense, and composed of ice and rock. The outer four planets of our solar system are larger, more
massive, and made up of matter with a lower melt-boil temperature. I’ll talk more about Jupiter next week. www.astronomy.org
PAGE 15A
Wanted is a videogamer’s fantasy land
by Nigel Roberts
Contributing Writer
Wanted, the movie is more like
today’s popular video games than a motion picture. As with many video games,
the storyline doesn’t have to make
sense, and the objective is to drive fast
cars recklessly and to kill. In the private, surreal world of video games and
Wanted, there are no consequences for
actions. This movie is a perfect example
of the new wave of action films that
unite advanced digital special effects,
graphic violence and martial arts supermen.
In the opening scene, a super assassin defies gravity by leaping through the
window of a skyscraper and onto the
roof of another high-rise building. He
batters several gunmen on the rooftop
only to die by a rogue assassin’s bullet—shot from miles away.
Shortly afterwards, we meet Wesley
Gibson (James McAvoy)—a nobody.
He’s a scrawny man who suffers from
anxiety attacks. Wesley’s best friend
and girlfriend are seeing each other
behind his back. Wesley knows about
the infidelity but says and does nothing
about the situation. And his workplace
is no haven from his private life. Wesley’s boss bullies him in front of his coworkers. Worst of all, Google searches
comes up empty when he enters his
name into the Internet search engine.
But Wesley’s life changes radically
one night when the lovely assassin,
Fox (Angelina Jolie), approaches him
in his neighborhood drug store, where
he’s filling a prescription for pills that
soothe his anxiety attacks. Fox informs
Wesley that a rogue assassin killed his
father, who had abandoned him and his
mother, and now the assassin wants to
kill him.
After a shootout in the pharmacy and
a computer-enhanced car chase scene,
Fox brings an unconscious Wesley to
the assassins’ headquarters. Sloane
(Morgan Freeman), the paternalistic
chief assassin, informs him that his
father was the greatest assassin in the
1,000-year-old secret fraternity. Wesley
has assassin DNA flowing through his
veins, and his anxiety attacks are really
caused by an excess of adrenaline, the
enigmatic Sloane tells the young man.
Sloane offers to teach Wesley how to
control his adrenaline and to develop
his superhuman potential.
Eventually, Sloan recruits the awkward Wesley into the Fraternity of Assassins. Wesley sees the fraternity as the
only way to become somebody. During
weeks of brutal training, Wesley learns
all the tricks of the trade, such as how
to knife fight, take and give a beating,
and shoot bullets around objects to hit a
target. After finishing his training, Sloan
informs Wesley about the fraternity’s
origins.
According to Sloane’s story, 1,000
years ago a secret society of textile
weavers in Europe decided that they
could alter the destiny of the world by
assassinating key evil individuals. This
fraternity still lives. How do they decide
whom to assassinate? They take orders
from the Loom of Fate.
This magical loom provides a binary
code that issues the name of targets. It’s
called the Loom of Fate because the assassins never question the loom’s judgment, and they have full faith in destiny.
The loom produces names but no rhyme
nor reason as to why assassins should
kill an individual. On Wesley’s first as-
signment, he balks at bending a bullet
to kill an anonymous man. Wesley wonders: What did he do to deserve this bullet? Does he have a family? But Wesley
learns not to question his assignments.
But always, in the back of Wesley’s
mind, he knows his purpose is to kill
the rogue assassin. Ultimately, Wesley
knows they will have a showdown.
To enjoy Wanted, one must suspend
reality, the laws of physics and believability for 110 minutes. It’s a stretch
that Wesley could become a coldblooded, skilled super assassin in a few
weeks. And can we take the fraternity
of assassins seriously? For 1,000 years
it has sought to alter the course of history in a positive way by assassinating
targets based on names from a magical
loom. OoooK. Did Hitler’s name ever
come up?
As with many of today’s video
games, Wanted takes pleasure in graphic
violence. Director Timur Bekmambetov offers abundant footage of bullets
slowly entering and exiting heads. For
those who enjoy viewing that kind of
thing, Bekmambetov does a masterful
job of drawing the audience into a fantasy world.
Arts center to be named
after ‘trailblazing’ Sanford
by Andy Phelan
[email protected]
The Board of Commissioners voted unanimously July 22 to
name the South
DeKalb Performing
Arts Center after
former commissioner Porter Sanford
III.
It ends weeks of
behind-the-scenes
negotiations to name
the center after San- Sanford
ford who died in
2006.
Commissioners used words
such as “trailblazing,” “integrity” and “legacy” to describe
Sanford, who started the first
minority-owned real estate
company in the county.
Commissioner Burrell Ellis said, “Porter is the most
worthy candidate to have the
arts center named after him.”
Some say outgoing
CEO Vernon Jones
wanted the center
named after him.
Sanford is
roundly regarded
as the father of the
arts center after he
secured more than
$1.2 million to
begin the process
more than a decade
ago.
“I am very appreciative of the honor,” said
Porter’s wife, Bobbie Sanford. “He was an honorable
man. I’m pleased the commissioners wanted to name the
center after Porter.”
Page 14A
Around
ATLANTA
Sculpture exhibit to open at Callanwolde
The opening night reception for an exhibit of sculptures by Harry
Zmijewski, “Production: American Work Ethic,” in Callanwolde’s gallery will open on Friday, Aug. 1, with a reception for the artist from 7
to 9 p.m., and run through Sept. 12. Admission is free and the public is
invited.
“Before studying, teaching and making art, I was actively involved
in industry as a production machinist and welder,” the artist said. “My
sculptural images are derived from real factories and warehouses.”
The gallery is located on the second floor of the main building in
the Callanwolde mansion at 980 Briarcliff Road, Atlanta. Viewing hours
are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on
Saturday. For more information call (404) 872-5338.
DeKalb
Dunwoody
Yoga classes to be held at Dunwoody Library
Yoga classes will be held at the Dunwoody Library on Wednesdays, Aug.
6, 13, 20 and 27, 11 a.m. – noon. Presented by Ma Yoga Shakti, founder and
director of Himalayan Heritage Center, the program is for adults 18 years
old and over. Ma has been practicing yoga for 35 years and is a yoga therapist and holistic health counselor. No experience is necessary and classes
are free and for all levels. Participants should bring yoga mats if they have
them. No registration is required. The Dunwoody Library is located at 5339
Chamblee-Dunwoody Road. The phone number is (770) 512-4640.
CLARKSTON
Johnson to host Small Business Day & Town Hall Meeting
Congressman Hank Johnson, a member of the House Small Business Committee, will host a free Small Business Day & Town Hall meeting on Thursday, Aug. 14, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., at DeKalb Technical College,
495 North Indian Creek Drive, Clarkston. Registration begins at 8:30
a.m. For information and to register visit http://hankjohnson.house.
gov/business_day_signup.shtml or call (770) 987-2291.
The event, which will have more than 35 exhibitors, is being held in
conjunction with the U.S. Small Business Administration, DeKalb Small
Business Development Center, DeKalb Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Black Chamber of Commerce, DeKalb Office of Economic Development and other organizations.
There will be workshops on procurement, starting a small business,
hiring a small-business attorney, financial management and strategic
planning.
The Small Business Town Hall meeting, moderated by journalist
Ray Metoyer, will feature in addition to Johnson, Mary McClanahan
of the Georgia Economic Development Dept. and the governor’s office, Terri Dennison of the Georgia Small Business Administration,
Roger Campos of the Minority Business Roundtable and Allan Adams of SBDC.
decatur
Eagle Eye Book Shop hosts authors
Eagle Eye Book Shop recently announced that it is hosting Meet
the Author events Saturday, July 26, for Jeff Abbott and Robert
Hartle. Abbott, the international bestselling author of nine novels,
including Fear, Cand Run, Black Jack Point, and A Kiss Gone Bad, will be
at the store at 6 p.m. Hartle, who is launching his book Atlanta’s Druid
Hills: A Brief History will be at the store at 2 p.m. Both events are free
and open to the public. Books will be for sale.
Eagle Eye Book Shop is located at 2076 N. Decatur Road, Decatur.
For more information, call (404) 486-0307 or visit www.eagleeyebooks.com
LITHONIA
Event to celebrate cultural diversity of church, community
A colorful parade, cultural activities and cuisine from around the world
will be among the featured attractions at the 2008 International Festival
scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 9, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. at Christ Our Hope Catholic
Church, 1786 Wellborn Road in Lithonia.
Festival chairperson Mireya Cadogan—a native of Panama—says the
goal is to acknowledge not only her church’s diversity, but that of the entire community. “I’ve lived in south DeKalb for many years now,” Cadogan
said. “With each passing year, the diversity has grown in the area, and it’s
also reflected where I worship. The International Festival gives us especially
good reason to gather and celebrate these differences and also our oneness in faith.”
The annual event will include rides, games, prizes, multi-cultural dancers and a ‘Taste of the Nations’ highlighting foods from as far away as Africa
and Asia and as near as south Georgia. Vendors also are invited to participate and provide services and products for festival attendees.
“We’ve designed this as an ecumenical event that embraces all of Atlanta,” said Christ our Hope pastor Fr. Guyma Noel who grew up in Haiti.
Church members hail from more than 50 countries.
Pre-event tickets are on sale now and cost $7.50 ($8 day of event). A
family of four can purchase an all-event band, along with 32 Take a Taste
coupons for $28 ($30 on festival day). For more information, call (770) 4825017.
Post office dedication scheduled
Hank Johnson, Georgia’s 4th District congressman and a member of
the House Armed Services Committee, will host the dedication ceremony
for the Specialist Jamaal RaShard Addison Post Office (Lithonia Post Office) on Aug. 2 at noon. Jamaal Addison was the first Georgian killed in
the Iraqi war. The federal facility is located at 3035 Stone Mountain Street,
Lithonia. The public is invited. For more information call the Congressman’s office at (770) 987-2291.
Visit us online. www.CHAMPIONNEWSPAPER.com
Page 16A
Historic Oakhurst home damaged
by tree and heavy winds
A brick bungalow style
home located at 222 Feld
Road in the Oakhurst district
of Decatur was heavily
damaged Monday evening
around 10:30 after a large oak
tree fell across the roof.
Rosemary Robertson,
an occupant of the home,
said she heard a loud noise
and first thought that a
transformer had blown.
“The house shook and then
the children, who were in
the kitchen getting ready to
eat, started screaming and
ran toward the front of the
house,” said Robertson.
A large tree in the back
yard crashed through the
roof of the home destroying
the kitchen and one of the
four bedrooms. The upper
limbs of the tree covered the
depth of the home causing
considerable damage to the
entire roof. There were no
injuries reported.
The home, built in the early ‘40s, is owned by Pearlie
Caldwell, who purchased the
house 33 years ago with her
sister. The sister has since
died and Caldwell is the sole
owner of the home. A total of
12 people currently live in the
home and are now looking
for a place to stay until repair
work can be completed and
the homeowner is given permission to again occupy the
Photos by John Hewitt
dwelling. The home is paid
for; however, there was no
homeowners’ insurance.
A fund has been established with Decatur First
Bank to assist the family
with housing needs and
to help raise the money
required to repair the
home. Contributions can
be mailed to The Pearlie
Caldwell Disaster Relief
Fund, Decatur First Bank,
ATTN: Angela Carter,
1120 Commerce Drive, Decatur, GA 30030. For additional information, contact
either Carter or Pam Bradley with Decatur First Bank
at (404) 373-1000.
DeKalb communities Certified Work Ready
Gov. Sonny Perdue announced last week that 34 additional Georgia counties, including DeKalb, have made a
commitment to earning Certified Work Ready Community
status as a means to drive the
state’s economic development
and ensure citizens have the
skills necessary to succeed.
“In less than two years, Work
Ready has helped transform our
state and make our workforce
our number one competitive
advantage,” Perdue said. “This
initiative is creating new opportunities for Georgia workers and
ensuring our state’s employers
have a stable, talented workforce to help them succeed.”
The state’s newest Certified Work Ready communities
in-progress include: Berrien,
Bleckley, Bryan, Camden, Candler, Cherokee, Colquitt, Crawford, DeKalb, Dodge, Early, Effingham, Emanuel, Habersham,
Henry, Jeff Davis, Johnson,
Liberty, Lincoln, McDuffie,
Morgan, Pulaski, Rabun, Randolph, Screven, Taylor, Telfair, Terrell, Treutlen, Turner,
Wheeler, White, Wilkinson and
Worth counties.
To be designated a Certified
Work Ready community, counties must drive current workers
and the available workforce to
earn Work Ready Certificates,
demonstrate a commitment to
improving public high school
graduation rates and build community commitment for meeting
these goals. Each community
must create a team of economic
development, government and
education partners to create
programs to meet the certification criteria.
“We set aggressive goals
and have found that Georgia’s
communities are equal to the
challenge,” said Debra Lyons,
GOWD director. “The Road to
Readiness award recognizes
these communities’ extraordinary efforts and encourages
them to continue to strive to
meet their goals.”
Georgia’s Work Ready ini-
tiative is based on a skills assessment and certification for
job seekers and a job profiling
system for businesses. By identifying both the needs of business and the available skills of
Georgia’s workforce, the state
can more effectively generate
the right talent for the right jobs.
Since January 2007, more than
16,500 Georgians have earned
Work Ready Certificates. Additionally, 20 companies have
hired 965 Work Ready Certified
Georgians over the past 12 to
18 months.
For more information on the
Work Ready initiative, visit the
Web site at www.gaworkready.
org.
Georgia joins list of outbreak states, CDC says
ATLANTA (AP) A Midwest E. coli outbreak traced to recalled beef has spawned
at least one case in Georgia, health officials
said last week.
Georgia has one lab-confirmed case of a
bacterial infection that is a molecular match
to 44 previously reported cases in Michigan,
Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and New York,
according to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Georgia health officials are investigating
at least seven more cases of E. coli, all of
them in Colquitt County, said Taka Wiley,
spokeswoman for the Georgia Department
of Human Resources.
Beef from a Moultrie restaurant tested
positive for E. coli, health officials said.
All 45 illnesses in the outbreak are attributed to the same type of E. coli, one
that causes a potentially deadly bacterial
infection. The great majority—41—were
in Ohio and Michigan.
The illnesses began between May 27 and
June 24. CDC officials say 23 of the victims
have been hospitalized and one developed
kidney failure, but no one has died.
The outbreak has been traced to beef
sold in Kroger supermarkets in Michigan
and Ohio. The Kroger Co. last month recalled ground beef sold in Michigan and
Ohio stores, then this month expanded it
to include other states. Nebraska Beef Ltd.
supplied the meat, ultimately recalling 5.3
million pounds of beef.
Georgia health officials said the Moultrie restaurant got some of its meat from
Nebraska Beef.
Emory researcher
wins Ladies Home
Journal health
breakthrough award
Donald Stein, Ph.D., Asa G.
Candler Professor of Emergency Medicine, Emory University
School of Medicine, has been
named
by Ladies
Home
Journal as
one of four
winners of
the Health
Breakthrough
Award for
2008.
Stein
The
honorees
are featured in the August 2008
issue of Ladies Home Journal.
Stein, director of Emory’s
Department of Emergency
Medicine Brain Research Laboratory, has pioneered discoveries regarding the neuroprotective effect of the hormone progesterone following traumatic
brain injury (TBI). He first
discovered the neuroprotective
properties of progesterone in the
laboratory, and members of his
research team have been studying its properties for nearly 20
years. They recently found that
giving progesterone to patients
soon after brain injury may reduce the risk of death and lower
the degree of disability.
Stein was named with three
other medical professionals who
have transformed an area of
health with results that dramatically benefit women and families. The award winners were
selected following a search of
more than 80 health care organizations, medical schools,
teaching hospitals, universities
and government agencies.
Progesterone is naturally
present in small but measurable
amounts in the brains of men
and women. Laboratory studies suggest that progesterone is
critical for the normal development of neurons in the brain
and exerts protective effects on
damaged brain tissue.
In a study published in the
April 2007 issue of Annals of
Emergency Medicine, Stein and
his colleagues reported that only
13 percent of severely braininjured patients who received
natural progesterone died from
traumatic brain injury compared
with 30 percent of those given
a placebo (inactive substance).
After 30 days, the researchers
say, functioning had improved
in nearly 56 percent of patients
who received progesterone after a moderate TBI, including
improved motor response and
ability to communicate.
Traumatic brain injury is
now the leading cause of death
and disability among children
and young adults. In the United
States alone someone suffers
from a TBI every 15 seconds—
resulting in more than 1.2 million injuries and 50,000 deaths
each year. Few clinically effective therapies currently exist for
stroke, and nothing is widely
available for trauma.
Education
Emory appoints three
new alumni trustees
Three new alumni trustees will join Emory University’s Board
of Trustees this fall and include a top administrator at Princeton
University, a global leader in investment banking and the head of
the world’s largest provider of distribution facilities and services.
The new trustees are:
Rick Rieder, president and CEO of R3 Capital Partners in
New York, spent 21 years at Lehman Brothers, most recently as
managing director and head of global principal strategies. He
graduated from Emory’s Goizueta Business School in 1983. A
longtime supporter of urban education in America and abroad,
Rieder is chairman of the board at North Star Academy Charter
Public School in Newark, N.J., and recently was named to the
National Leadership Council for the Communities in Schools
Foundation.
Kathy Rohrer is vice provost for academic affairs at Princeton University. Prior to being named vice provost in 2001, she
served for eight years as associate dean of the faculty. Rohrer has
been a faculty member at both Princeton and Columbia universities. Following an undergraduate degree in music from Emory in
1974, Rohrer earned a master of fine arts degree (1976) and doctorate in musicology (1980) from Princeton.
Jeffrey Schwartz is chairman, CEO and a trustee of ProJunior Achievement host Julie Borenstein, center, shows off award, joined by Richard Reid, Chestnut’s
Logis, a global provider of distribution facilities and services,
principal, left, Junior Achievement coordinator Kevin Fletcher, second from right, and others.
based in Denver. Following his graduation from Emory in 1981,
Schwartz earned an MBA at Harvard University. He was the
founder and managing partner of the Krauss/Schwartz Company,
which was acquired by ProLogis in 1994. Throughout his career,
Schwartz has been a strong proponent of sustainable development.
The 37-member board of trustees oversees the governance
and long-range fiduciary health of the university. With the addiDeKalb County School System’s Chescurriculum. Students, teachers and parents
tion of Rieder, Rohrer and Schwartz, the board will include 11
nut Charter Elementary School recently rehave said they are pleased with the success of
alumni trustees, who serve six-year terms as full board members;
ceived the Bronze Award at the annual Junior
the program since its inception in 2001.
term trustees serve eight years.
Achievement of Georgia Corporation, Board,
Junior Achievement (JA) is an international
“These three new trustees represent the wide range of alumni
and Partnership Awards Ceremony.
organization that “educates students in grades
expertise and talent,” said Rosemary Magee, vice president and
Chesnut was the only elementary school
K-12 about entrepreneurship, work readiness,
secretary of the university, who works closely with the board of
to win the honor at an event held June 26 at
and financial literacy through experiential,
trustees. “They will serve Emory extremely well as we continue
the Georgia Power Company Auditorium in
hands-on programs.”
on the trajectory of becoming a national and international destiAtlanta.
JA depends heavily on the talent and renation university.”
The DeKalb elementary school was chosen sources of corporate, education and communibecause of its seven years of commitment to
ty partners in its efforts to inspire and prepare
Junior Achievement and the uniqueness that
young people to succeed in a global economy.
their program is fully run by trained Chesnut
All JA of Georgia programs and activities
parent volunteers.
are aligned with the Georgia Performance StanParticipation in Junior Achievement of
dards.
Georgia is a popular component of Chesnut’s
Chesnut Elementary earns bronze
junior achievement award
National Merit Scholarships
announced for DeKalb students
University of the Virgin Islands
to hold reunion in Lithonia
Parents, rising seniors and
the community-at-large can
learn about the University
of the Virgin Islands (UVI)
and its programs on Sunday,
July 27, at the Second Annual
“VI Picnic” at the Bransby
Outdoor YMCA in Lithonia.
The picnic starts at 2 p.m.
and is free. Events will include
family-orientated activities
such as old-fashioned potato
sack races, a 3-on-3 basketball
tournament, sand court
volleyball, tennis, dominoes,
spades and bid whist card
games, field games and the
moonwalk.
There is also an Olympicsize swimming pool that will
be open during the afternoon.
St. Thomas’ own DJ
Patrick Adams will play
traditional Caribbean music
as well as top-40 crowd
favorites. The Mocko Jumbie
Stilt Dancers, who were such
a hit last year, are slated to
perform.
LaVerne Ragster, UVI’s
fourth president, will attend
the picnic and field questions
from the public.
The University of
the Virgin Islands South
Atlantic Region Alumni
Chapter sponsors the event
which includes alumni from
Alabama, Georgia, North
Carolina, South Carolina and
Tennessee.
The Bransby YMCA is
located at 1185 Rock Chapel
Road in Lithonia.
For more information,
please contact Imani MarleyHusbands, alumni chapter
president at (404) 668-3118
or e-mail the chapter at uvi_
[email protected].
National Merit Scholarships have been announced for these
DeKalb County students:
Daniel W. Cellucci from Chamblee High School has
received a National Merit University of Georgia Scholarship. He
says that his probable career field is ship construction.
Gregory E. Levitt from Paideia School has received a
National Merit University of Georgia Scholarship. His probable
career field is education/physics.
Connor A. LaPorte from Chamblee High School has
received a National Merit Georgia Institute of Technology
Scholarship. His probable career field is engineering.
Catherine S. Carr from Chamblee High School has
received a National Merit New York University Scholarship.
Her probable career field is fashion photography.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
CITY OF PINE LAKE
A PUBLIC HEARING IS SCHEDULED FOR AUGUST 11, 2008, AT 7:30 P.M. IN THE COURTROOM LOCATED AT
459 PINE DR. IN PINE LAKE, GEORGIA FOR THE PURPOSE OF PUBLIC COMMENT ON A VARIANCE HEARING
TO ALLOW ADDDING ONE-HALF STORY ABOVE EXISTING FIRST FLOOR OF RESIDENTIAL STRUCTURE TO
ALLOW AN ADDITIONAL 4-1/2 FEET IN ROOF HEIGHT AND ALLOW THE RAFTERS TO REST ON A KNEE WALL.
THE PROPERTY IS LOCATED AT 4609 PARK DRIVE. ALL INTERESTED PARTIES ARE ENCOURAGED TO
ATTEND.
Printed on 100%
post-consumer recycled paper
Business
McDonough Street Market opens
by Brian Egeston
[email protected]
Women are innovative.
When a group of more than
15 business owners needed
retail space, they became part
of a newly opened co-op in
downtown Decatur. McDonough
Street Market is home to Jake’s
Ice Cream, but the 3,000 square
feet is now being shared by
small businesses all owned
by women. Tenants pay rent
starting at $200 per month and
the rent increases based on the
space occupied. One or two
tenants will work shifts selling
the wares of all members of the
co-op.
Organizers of the project
scheduled two months to get
the doors open. “I’ll tell you the
low-down,” said Manager Susie
Caldwell. “We did it in three
days.”
The market is an urban
market co-op, consisting of
local artists, craftspeople and
other creative vendors. The
space features handcrafted art,
including jewelry, re-fashioned
vintage items, pet portraits and
children’s clothing. Some of
the items are imported from
African villages. It also includes
a florist, stationery, organic skin
McDonough Street
Market Vendors:
3 Piece - www.3pieceonline.com
Bargain Books Are Us
Beverly Huffer - Unique Jewelry,
Handbags, and More
Beaded Energy
www.beadedenergy.com
Decatur Paper
www.decaturpaper.com
Delectables Floral Couture
www.floralcoutureatlanta.com
Forties Forward
www.40sforward.com
The Gardener’s Table Gifts on a
Mission - www.giftsonamission.com
LeAnn Christian - Glass Art
www.leannchristian.com
Little Bird Beads
www.littlebirdbeads.com
Mitzi Rothman - Pet Portraits
www.mitzirothman.com
Sally B’s Skin Yummies
www.sallybskinyummies.com
Sencha Teahouse
www.sencha-teahouse.com
care, handmade soy candles, organic
tea, preserves, and hand-made Kenyan
items benefiting artists in that country.
Sweet Sara’s Vintage Recreations
For More Information visit: www.
mcdonoughstreetmarket.com
Emory rated as ‘Great College to Work For’
Emory University has been
recognized in an online survey
conducted by The Chronicle of
Higher Education as one of the
2008 “Great Colleges to Work
For.”
Emory was rated among the
top five in 13 of 27 categories
in the survey of 15,000 respondents at 89 colleges and universities. Results are reported for
small, medium and large universities, with Emory included
among the large universities
with 2,500 or more employees.
“This is a very satisfying affirmation of Emory, but our real
goal is not recognition—it’s
being a community that values
the needs and contributions of
every individual. In that sense
everyone at Emory helps to
make this a positive place to
work,” said Emory University
President James Wagner.
Emory ranked among the
top five universities in the nation for:
• Healthy faculty/administration
relations
• Teaching environment
• Facilities and security
• Job satisfaction
• Work-life balance
• Confidence in senior leadership
• Internal communications
• Connection to institution and
pride
• Physical workspace conditions
• Supervisor or department
chair relationship
• Perception and confidence in
fair treatment
• Respect and appreciation
• Engagement index
The assessment process,
which also included an analysis
of demographic data and workplace policies at each participating college or university, was
administered by ModernThink
LLC, a human-resources con-
sulting firm that has conducted
many “Best Places to Work”
surveys.
With 21,129 employees (and
approximately 3,200 faculty),
Emory is the largest employer
in DeKalb County and the largest private employer in metro
Atlanta. The total includes Emory University, Emory University Hospital, Crawford Long
Hospital, The Emory Clinic and
Wesley Woods Inc.
The Chronicle of Higher
Education’s 2008 “Great Colleges to Work For”:
http://chronicle.com/indepth/
academicworkplace/.
DeKalb real estate organization reports home sales trends
“The June 2008 DeKalb
County Residential Home
Sales statistics indicate that
the housing market has not
shown much improvement
when compared to June 2007.
We have seen a 21.9 percent decrease in closed sales
from January through June
of 2008, 4,721 units in 2007
versus 3,688 units in 2008.
There has been a 13.7 percent
decrease in the average sales
price of single family homes
compared to the same month
last year,” said Barbara
Campbell, president of the
DeKalb Association of RE-
ALTORS®.
“With prices down and great
interest rates, it is an excellent
time to explore purchasing a
home,” Campbell said.
The organization also reported that home sales units
decreased by 30.1 percent from
934 units sold in June 2007 to
653 units sold in June 2008.
June’s average sale price for single family homes decreased by
13.7 percent to $217,240 from
$251,744 in June 2007.
The median sales price, the
price at which half the homes
sold above and below, dropped
by 22.1 percent from June
2007’s $193,670 to $150,500
in June 2008.
The average sales price
for condo/town homes was
$192,670 in June 2008, compared with $153,638 in June
2007, a 25.4 percent increase.
The median sales price increased by 13.5 percent from
$143,750 in June 2007 to
$163,191 in June 2008, the
real estate association stated in
a recent news release.
The DeKalb Association of
REALTORS also reported that
average days on the market for
single family homes increased
from 108 days in June 2007
to 129 days in June 2008, and
condo/town homes increased
from 144 days in June 2007 to
155 days in June 2008. Pending
sales (those transactions subject
to contract but not yet closed)
decreased by 5.6 percent from
797 in June 2007 to 752 in June
2008. The 1,893 listings added
during June 2008 decreased by
16.6 percent from 2,270 added
in June 2007. Total active listings for single family, condos
and town homes are down by
7.3 percent when compared with
the same month in 2007, from
11,328 in June 2007 to 10,506 in
June 2008.
Health
Fewer nonsmokers breathe cigarette fumes, CDC says
by Mike Stobbe
ATLANTA (AP) Nearly
half of nonsmoking Americans
are still breathing in cigarette
fumes, but the percentage has
declined dramatically since
the early 1990s, according to a
recently released government
study.
A main reason for the decline in secondhand smoke is
the growing number of laws
and policies that ban smoking
in workplaces, bars, restaurants and public places, said
researchers with the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Another factor is the drop
in the number of adult smokers: It has now inched below
20 percent, according to 2007
CDC data.
The new study found about
46 percent of nonsmokers had
signs of nicotine in their blood
in tests done from 1999 through
2004. That was a steep drop
from 84 percent when similar tests were done in the late
1980s and early 1990s.
But health officials stopped
short of celebrating.
“It’s still high,” said Cinzia
Marano, one of the study’s authors. “There is no safe level of
exposure.”
Cigarettes cause lung cancer and other deadly illnesses
not only in smokers, but also
in nonsmokers who breathe in
smoke, studies have shown.
For nonsmoking adults, secondhand smoke increases their
lung cancer risk by at least 20
percent and their heart disease
risk by at least 25 percent. Children exposed to secondhand
smoke are at increased risk of
asthma attacks, ear problems,
acute respiratory infections and
sudden infant death syndrome,
health officials say.
The new CDC report drew
its data from the National
Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a unique govern-
ment study that sends mobile
trailers out to communities.
Participants are asked about
their health, get blood tests and
physical exams.
The blood tests check for
cotinine–a byproduct of nicotine that usually is detectable
for up to four to five days.
The blood tests are important, because many people
underestimate their exposure to
secondhand smoke, said Terry
Pechacek, associate director
for science in the CDC’s Office
on Smoking and Health.
The new report focused on
data collected on about 17,000
nonsmokers in the years 1988
through 1994, and about the
same number in the years 1999
through 2004. People ages 4
and older were included.
The decline in secondhand
smoke exposure was not as dramatic in Black nonsmokers as
it was in Whites and MexicanAmericans. The proportion of
Blacks with a recent exposure
to tobacco smoke dropped from
94 percent to about 71 percent,
for Whites it dropped from 83
percent to 43 percent and for
Mexican-Americans, 78 percent to 40 percent.
Also troubling—the exposures for children did not
decline as dramatically as it did
for adults. More than 60 percent
of children ages 4 through 11
had recent exposure to cigarette
smoke in the 1999-2004 period,
the researchers found.
“Obviously, the exposure is
at home,” said Thomas Glynn,
the American Cancer Society’s
director for cancer science and
trends.
It’s not clear if adult smokers are smoking more at home
or in their cars because of the
bans. But they’re probably not
smoking much less in those
places, which would explain
why their kids’ exposure to tobacco smoke didn’t decline as
much as their friends’ and coworkers’, CDC officials said.
“Parents need to be aware that
this is very dangerous, and
they need to take actions to
ensure that their children are
not exposed,” Pechacek said.
The study is published in a
CDC publication, Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report.
A FEW NEW SMILES IN THE
NEIGHBORHOOD . . .
LET’S GET
ACQUAINTED…
Dental One Associates has opened
a new, full-service dental office in
your area! Come meet our friendly
doctors and staff, and walk away
with a beautiful new smile.
Bring this
ad to your
appointment
and receive
$50 off!
Contrary to popular belief,
everybody likes a quitter
1-877-270-STOP
GeOrGia TObaccO QuiT Line
CALL FOR A CONVENIENT APPOINTMENT TODAY!
404-327-4404
Dr. Larry A. Sweeting and Associates
Thompson Corner Shopping Center
2882 N. Druid Hills Rd., NE, Suite A
Atlanta, GA 30329
Together we can.
Page 20A
The Champion
CLASSIFIEDS
TO PLACE
A
CLASSIFIED
RATES:
AD
www.CHAMPIONCLASSIFIEDS.com
We do not knowingly accept
advertisements that discriminate,
or intend to discriminate, on any
illegal basis. Nor do we knowingly
accept employment advertisements
that are not bona-fide job offers.
All real estate advertisements are
subject to the fair housing act and
we do not accept advertising that
is in violation of the law. The law
prohibits discrimination based on
color, religion, sex, national origin,
handicap or familial status.
aUCTionS
AUCTION-REAL Estate,
1302 US Hwy 98, Daphne,
AL, (Eastern Shore Mobile
Bay) formerly auto dealership 175,000 sf +/- (4+/-
ACRES), 29,000 +/- sf
multi use building – Aug 14
1:00PM. GT AUCTIONS.COM,
800.996.2877, GRANGER,
THAGARD & ASSOCIATES,
INC. Jack Granger#837.
BUSINESS CONNECTION ADS
$325.00
FOR
3
MONTHS
FOR NEXT PUBLICATION DATE THE CHAMPION IS NOT
RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES RESULTING FROM
ADVERTISEMENTS. ALL SALES FINAL.
ness! Easy. Smart. Fast. 74%
Approved last week. Georgia
Money for Georgia Businesses. Any purpose, including
debt restructuring, IRS. Call
FCA 888-640-4567.
BidS & propoSalS
BUSineSS SerViCeS
The Bernard Johnson Group,
Inc. is bidding on RFP #
08-500086; Professional
Land Acquisition Services for
Parks Bond & Greenspace in
DeKalb County. SUB-CONTRACTORS ARE NEEDED
FOR ANY & ALL AREAS OF
LAND SERVICES. If interested, please contact Bernard
Johnson@619-466-7800 by
JULY 31, 2008.
Need Quality Home Improvement? Call Rob at 404-2072875 or 678-410-1728 for
an estimate. GA Licensed &
Insured. www.atmconstructors.com
BUSineSS CapiTal
driVerS
Working Capital
for x
your
Champion Newspaper
(4
6)Busi-
ARE
ADS DUE BY FRIDAY- NOON
FOR PRICES, DEADLINES AND INFORMATION
CALL 404-419-6011
D I S C L A I M E R
ALL ADS ARE PREPAID!$30.00 FOR 40
WORDS OR LESS, EACH ADDITIONAL WORD $0.60
ALL CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED!
Power of Red is *Home Time
*Pay Choices *Fleet Options
*Safety * 5% more paid miles.
Experience The Power of Red.
ROEHL TRANSPORT Students
Welcome. Class A CDL req’d.
Training Available. GoRoehl.
com 888-867-6345.
Drivers – Competitive pay,
Great home time, Van and
Flatbed Fleets. Accepting
Recent Grads. 23 YO, 1 yr
OTR, CDL-A, Smithway Motor
Xpress 888-619-7607. www.
smxc.com
**ALL CASH CANDY ROUTE.
Do you earn $800 in a day?
Your own local candy route.
30 Machines and Candy. All
for $9,995. 1-800-460-3321.
ATTENTION OTR Drivers. The
Driver – BYNUM TRANSPORT
– Qualified drivers needed for
Regional & OTR positions.
Food grade tanker, no hazmat
or pumps, great benefits, competitive pay, new equipment.
866-GO-BYNUM. Need 2 years
experience.
Driver: CDL/A, S. E. Regional.
$850-$1000/wk, Home wkly
OTR: .34-.43/mi O/O: .92/mi
loaded. $1000 Bonus, Students: Tuition Reimb. Med/
dental/vision/401k. 866-3232181 KLLM.Jobs EOE
Gaming (Entertainment)
means education funding
creating more than 100,000
jobs in the state. Jobs that
will impact the state agricultural business which has seen
a loss of more than $1.2
billion dollars, primarily
because of drought conditions. We invite your local
legislative delegation and
public to visit our website
www.gaschrc.org.
BANK ORDERED ABSOLUTE AUCTION
To Be Sold To The Highest Bidder Without Minimum or Reservation
Homes & Lots Throughout Metro Atlanta
Absolute Online Only
3%1$!53'312
BUY
FORECLOSED HOMES
3 Ready-To-Build
Home Sites in
Emerald Pointe
Subdivision,
Carrollton, GA
SALE 2: 11:00 AM
=27
0)5%/(2-17)5-9)
%'5)
=27
0)5%/(2-17)5-9)
%'5)
=273%/%1)%'5)
3721 Brookcrest Cir.
Decatur, GA
New Executive Homes
Premier Subdivision Lots
and Commercial Real Estate
=64*7
&)(5220
&%7,
SALE 3: 11:30 AM
115 Clyde St.,
Cedartown GA
=)%87-*8/&5-'.,20)
=64*7&)(5220
&%7,
=
64*7
&%7,
SALE 7: 4:00 PM
SALE 4: 1:00 PM
Bidding Ends
Tuesday -:- July 29
Wednesday -:- July 30
Thursday -:- July 31
3924 Old Austell Rd.
Powder Springs, GA
=
64*7&8-/(-1+3)5*)'72*>')
255)()9)/230)17:-7,);')//)179-6
-&-/-7<
=17)56)'7-212*%5-)77% 72:()5
35-1+6(%1(/(867)//2%(
800-323-8388
GAL AU-C002594
3502 Spring Circle
Cedartown, GA
3721 Brookcrest Circle
=64*7&)(5220&%7,>5)
(%0%+)(
#-6-7
*25'203/)7)%8'7-21()7%-/6
! 35%0610%,)3,3##%11&3+")$$%014)++$%/.1)2.&2(%/30#(!1%/0)#%
)-#+3$)-'35%0610%,)3,!-$)1$3%2.$!5)-2(%&.0,.&#!1(#!1()%061#(%#*/%01.-!+
.0#.,/!-5#(%#*/+31!0%!+%12!2%1!+%1#.-20!#2,312"%1)'-%$!+!-#%)1$3%)-
#%02)&)%$&3-$1!2#+.1)-'
3406 Bennington Drive
SALE 6: 3:30 PM
3502 Spring Circle
Decatur, GA
Visit RowellAuctions.com for
Complete Property Information and Bid Closing Time for
Each Specific Property
10% Buyers Premium
SALE 5: 2:30 PM
=64*7
&)(5220&%7,,20)
=;')//)17-19)670)17
125 Foreclosed Homes
Metro Atlanta
For Details Call
SALE 1: 10:30 AM
3406 Bennington Dr.
Decatur, GA
3502 Spring Circle
"$==-'
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Drivers – Home Weekends,
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Drivers: 13 Drivers Needed.
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Driver – 5K Sign-On Bonus for
Experienced Teams. Solo &
Dedicated Lanes also available. O/O’s & CDL-A grads
welcome. Call Covenant (866)
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DRIVERS – Owner Operators
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from Jacksonville, FL/Savannah, GA. All miles paid. Home
weekly. 100% Fuel Surcharge.
Free on-board computers.
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Owner Operators: 70% TO
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mile! 800-845-4932 ext. #231
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EQUIPMENT INSTALLATION
TECHNICIAN responsible for
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Page 21A
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or for prices, deadlines and information,
Call 404-419-6011.
Sports
Photo by Brian Egeston
DeKalb residents help African Americans in baseball
by Brian Egeston
[email protected]
A
group of men gathered in a
room just above the spectators’ seats at Georgia Tech’s
Russ Candler Baseball Stadium. Among them were
two former Major League Baseball
(MLB) Players, an MLB scout and
a program coordinator. Between innings, they were cutting deals and
making arrangements. Arrangements
that would secure the future of several Black high school athletes.
“I talked to a mother this morning,” said Walter Smith, an athletic
trainer for Georgia Tech. “Her son
plays baseball and wanted to know if
she can get him on a team.” The men
in the room didn’t hesitate. “Get him
here, and we’ll help him out,” said
Greg Goodwin, one of the organizers and founders of Mentoring Viable Prospects (MVP). Goodwin, a
die-hard baseball fan, is principal at
Redan High School.
Goodwin flipped open his cell
phone and made a quick call. “Is the
Johnson kid in or out? I’ve got to
know right now.” On the other end
of the phone, a confirmation came.
One more baseball player would
travel to Los Angles with the program where he too would be evaluated by college coaches and professional scouts in hopes of earning a
college scholarship or a chance to
play professional baseball.
A sport once known for the talent and showmanship of the Negro
League as well as great players
such as Jackie Robinson and Hank
Aaron, has gradually changed hues.
Three decades after Blacks comprised almost 30 percent of MLB
scouts attended the first day of the
tournament this year, according to
Goodwin.
The tournament, held after the
MLB draft, tries to showcase play-
‘We wanted to show people that [African
Americans] are playing and playing heavily
in the South.’
– Greg Goodwin
teams, they now make up about 8
percent. In 1959, after every team
had been integrated, Blacks made up
17.25 percent of the league.
Goodwin, along with Greg Davis,
Kenneth Glenn, Milton Sanders,
Paris Burd and Melvin Traynum
began the program five years ago
when they heard claims that Black
boys weren’t playing baseball anymore. “We wanted to show people
that [Blacks] are playing and playing
heavily in the South,” said Goodwin.
The first two years were played
at Perimeter College and the tournament moved to Georgia Tech in
2005. This year, MVP hosted six
teams in Atlanta, including clubs
from Florida, Virginia, Chicago and
California. More than 50 baseball
ers’ individual skills in preparation
to better their lives. That’s where
the men in the room come in to play.
Each of them is networked in the
world of baseball and has the ability
to pick up phones and ask coaches
to take a look at a kid who may have
gotten overlooked or be an unknown
but who’s got a rocket arm or a
sledgehammer for a bat.
Players who don’t make it to the
big leagues still have options for
other careers in baseball. Smith has
been at Georgia Tech for 24 years.
During the MVP tournament, he
conducted a seminar on becoming
an athletic trainer. Players can also
find baseball careers in marketing,
public relations, operations or as
pro scouts. Danny Montgomery, a
scout for the Colorado Rockies and
a former pro baseball player, said
the MVP league is a valuable asset.
“These guys do a great job and this
tournament gets better and better every year. There’s a lot of talent down
here in Atlanta with players like Tim
Beckham and Xavier Avery,” he
said. Beckham and Avery are both
MVP alums. Beckham was drafted
first overall pick by the Tampa Bay
Devil Rays in the 2008 MLB draft,
and Avery was drafted to Baltimore
in the second round. In 2007, 34 of
the 38 MVP participants were selected for the draft. Beckham is the first
player from a Georgia school to be
selected first overall since Mike Ivie
was picked from Atlanta’s Walker
High School in 1970.
According to Sportkid Magazine,
2.9 percent of high school seniors
play basketball at an NCAA college
and 1.3 percent of college seniors
are drafted by an NBA team while
.03 percent of high school seniors
are drafted by an NBA team. In football 5.6 percent of high school seniors play football at an NCAA college and 2 percent of college seniors
are drafted by an NFL team. The
chances of playing pro baseball are
better than the chances of playing
the other two major sports. Approximately 5.6 percent of high school
seniors play baseball at an NCAA
college, but 10.5 percent of college
seniors are drafted by MLB and .5
percent of high school seniors are
See Sports on Page 23A
Page 23A
Flip City Tumblers win medals
Mariah Johnson and
Garrett Wheeler of the
DeKalb County tumbling
team the Flip City Tumblers
recently attended the National Junior Olympics, Trampoline and Tumbling Tournament. The event was held in
Kansas City July 1-6.
Johnson,12, of Lithonia,
attends Champion Middle
School and has a 3.4 GPA.
Although Johnson has been
competing for only one year,
she has won a number of local and state accolades and
was named the Georgia state
champion in April. While at-
Sports
Continued from Page 22A
tending the Junior Olympics,
Johnson competed against
29 gymnasts from across the
United States. She placed
fourth in her flight, 11th
against the other national
competitors.
Wheeler is 13 and lives in
Ellenwood. He attends Aus-
tin Road Middle School, and
has a 3.0 GPA. Garrett has
been competing for one year
and has received multiple accolades including the Georgia
state champion title. During the Junior Olympics, he
competed against 20 athletes
from across the country and
received the bronze medal for
his third place standing.
The Flip City Tumblers
are coached by Frank John
Riley III. The team members include Noah Riley,
Kevin Mba, Tredontavious
Bush, Valentine Mba, and
Justin Freeman.
Percentage of African Americans in Baseball
drafted by MLB.
Manny Upton knows all too well the sacrifice associated with travel baseball and getting
young players seen by scouts. His sons, B.J.
and Justin, are alums of the MVP tournament.
Both brothers are now playing professional
baseball. “When I took B.J. and Justin to showcases, it was $300-$400 and that’s not including hotel, gas and meals. It was nothing for us
to spend $1,500 in a weekend. And that can
deter kids if it’s not subsidized.”
MVP is one of the few tournaments where
the players pay little to no money for their participation. This year, the player registration fee
was $100. Some teams that participate in the
MVP tournament are sponsored by MLB teams.
In all, nine games were played in the MVP
tourney while college and pro scouts were on
hand with radar guns and stopwatches at the
ready. One month after the draft, the scouts
were back at work.
“It’s getting to the point where it’s 11
months out of the year,” said John Castelberry, a scout for the Philadelphia Phillies.
“It starts right after the draft. MVP is a great
venue, because it sort of lets us isolate players
early. It’s good for us because it’s one venue
and we’re not going from 500 fields to another.
For us that’s huge.”
For more information visits www.viableprospects.org.
   






Atherton Elementary
3131 Old Rockbridge Rd.
Avondale Estates, GA 30002
678-875-0148
T-W-TH-F 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
Monday 8:30 a.m.- 8:00 p.m.
Avondale Middle
3131 Old Rockbridge Rd.
Avondale Estates, GA 30002
678-875-0148
T-W-TH-F 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
Monday 8:30 a.m.- 8:00 p.m.
McNair Middle
2190 Wallingford Dr.
Decatur, GA 30032
678-874-5147
M-T-W-F 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p. m.
Thursday 8:30 a.m.- 8:00 p. m.
E. L. Miller Elementary
919 Martin Rd.
Stone Mountain, GA 30088
678-676-3333
T-W- TH-F 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
Monday 8:30 a.m.- 8:00 p.m.
Cedar Grove Middle
2300 Wildcat Rd.
Decatur, GA 30034
678-874-4248
T-W-TH-F 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Monday 8:30 a.m.- 8:00 pm
Sequoyah Middle
3456 Aztec Dr.
Doraville, GA 30340
678-676-7945
M-T-TH-F 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday 8:30 a.m.- 8:00 p.m.
Fairington Elementary
5505 Phillip Bradley Dr.
Lithonia, GA 30038
678-676-8724
M-W-TH-F 8:30 a.m. 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday 8:30 a.m - 8:00 p.m.
Chapel Hill Middle
3535 Dogwood Farm Rd.
Decatur, GA 30034
678-676-8548
M-T-W-F 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p. m.
Thursday 8:30 a.m.- 8:00 p. m.
Cross Keys High
1626 N. Druid Hills Rd., NE
Atlanta, GA 30319
678-874-6139
M-W-TH-F 8:30 a.m - 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday 8:30 a.m.- 8:00 p. m
Jolly Elementary
1070 Otello Ave.
Clarkston, GA 30021
678-676-5832
M-T-W-F 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
Thursday 8:30 a.m- 8:00 p.m.
Columbia Middle
3001 Columbia Dr.
Decatur, GA 30034
678-875-0546
M-T-TH-F 8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday 8:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m.


Page 24A
Latin American Association youth play ball with the Atlanta Braves
Atlanta Braves players, coaches and broadcasters led a baseball
clinic for 100 Latino youth July
18, at the Atlanta Braves Baseball
Academy. The youth, ages 11-13,
from the Latin American Association received batting, fielding,
pitching and base running instruction from the pros as Braves players and coaches, including Jorge
Campillo, Omar Infante, Eddie
Perez and Chino Cadahia, led a
baseball skills clinic.
After the clinic, Braves broadcasters Fernando Palacios and
Pete Manzano took part in a
question-and-answer session
with the youth about the history of Latinos in Major League
Baseball and their contributions
to the game.
Photos provided
A-58878 (A_SM) 07/24/08
publ i x . c o m / a d s
Lean Ground Beef
........................
299
lb
7% Fat, Publix Beef, USDA-Inspected, Ground Fresh
Several Times Daily, Any Size Package
SAVE UP TO 1.00 LB
(Patties ... lb 3.19)
Ragú
Pasta Sauce
3
A 500
............
Assorted Varieties, 16 to 26.3-oz jar
or 13.5-oz pkg. (Excluding Organic.)
SAVE UP TO 1.87 ON 3
Asparagus
High in Folate and a Good Source of Vitamin C
SAVE UP TO 1.50 LB
Jif
Peanut
Butter
B
Am
..............
Creamy, Reduced Fat Creamy,
or Extra Crunchy, 40-oz jar
Quantity rights reserved.
SAVE UP TO 5.63
199
..............................................
Keebler
Chips
Deluxe
Cookies
lb
Italian Five Grain Bread
299
Choose From Wheat or White, Contains: Oats, Cracked Wheat,
Barley, Millet, Flaxseed, and Sunflower Seeds,
From the Publix Bakery, 16-oz loaf
SAVE UP TO .60
B
Am
.........
Assorted Varieties, 12.5 to 18-oz pkg.
SAVE UP TO 3.99
Prices effective Thursday, July 24 through Wednesday, July 30, 2008.
.............
Thomas’
English
Muffins
B
Am
.........
The Original, Plain, 12-oz pkg.
SAVE UP TO 2.99
Select locations only.
Effective in all Metro Atlanta Publix Locations. Quantity rights reserved.
072408_ATL_INC_HALF_SML.indd 1
7/16/08 11:49:56 AM

DeKalb County - Mentoring Viable Prospects

Transcription

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