Atlanta News

Police cordoned off a field where the body of a woman was found Friday but declined to speculate whether the body was that of missing 19-year-old college student Brianna Denison.

New rules being issued by the State Department mean people who are HIV-positive are no longer automatically disqualified for the U.S. diplomatic corps.

The toddler's words to investigators were chilling: "Mommy's crying. Mommy broke the table.

A camera clicks catching your car running a red light.

A ticket arrives in the mail.

But what if you weren't driving?

That's the situation facing Byron Pugh. On Aug. 17th, his car was photographed running a red light at the intersection of Highway 85 and Church Street in Riverdale. The problem is, he wasn't driving.

"I went to court, and you know, I couldn't argue that that was my car," Pugh tells Channel 2. "Obviously the tag number matches and everything."

ATLANTA -- Students in all of Greene County's regular public schools will be separated by gender starting next fall, a move educators hope will improve rock-bottom test scores and reduce teen pregnancy and discipline rates in the small, rural system.

The school board approved the measure last week, drawing vocal protests from some students, parents and community members. It exempts only a charter school, which is public but operates independently from the rest of the system and has a limited attendance zone.

School officials say they need drastic change to save the low-performing district from slipping further behind the rest of the state. "This school district is in bad shape," said Superintendent Shawn McCollough. "We've made very positive incremental steps in the last two years. Our kids need help faster than what we're doing, and that's why we're moving to a faster, more innovative program."

Districts nationwide have been scrambling to implement single-sex education, since federal officials finalized rules to ease the process in 2006. Nationally, there are 366 public schools that are either entirely single sex or have single-sex classrooms, according to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.

But Greene County officials say they believe they are the first in the country to convert the entire district to a single-gender model.

Leonard Sax, head of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, said he knows of no other public school district that has switched entirely to single-gender classrooms. He called the move illegal.

Federal law allows single-sex classrooms or schools but parents must also have the option of a publicly funded coeducational experience for their children, Sax said. "This is the worst kind of publicity for our movement," he said. "It misses the whole point. Our movement is about choice, about giving parents a choice. One size does not fit all. Even a small school district needs to provide choice." He called the news of the school board's vote "very embarrassing."

U.S. Department of Education officials did not return several request for comment. Georgia Department of Education spokesman Dana Tofig said the district does not need state approval to convert to single gender.

LOGANVILLE, Ga -- Police have charged a care-giver with changing her story in the death of a woman in Walton County.

They say that Jessica Jones made false statements while they investigated the death of Mary Ann Gower. Gower was an Alzheimers patient and was found dead in her bed at the Southern Plantation Assisted Living Center last month.

Gower's death certificate indicates her death was accidental, but Loganville Police are continuing to investigate the case after evidence they found at the assisted living center.

Meanwhile, Gower's family says they're speaking out for their mother and for seniors everywhere. They tell Channel 2 aides were sleeping, not checking on patients.

If they just would've been doing their job, she would be with us now, Mary Ann Gowers daughter-in-law Debie Gower said.

She had rolled off and her head was between the sidebar of the rail and the mattress, Mary Ann Gower's son Mike Gower stated.

He said the staff told him they found his mother on the floor and she was still breathing when they put her back in the bed at 5:30 a.m. They say when they went back into her room a hour later, she had passed away.

ATLANTA -- The Georgia Department of Education has ordered more than two dozen school districts across the state to stop serving beef supplied by a California slaughterhouse under federal investigation for mistreating animals.

Georgia Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox says 28 districts, including Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties, have pulled the meat after the U.S. Department of Agriculture alerted state officials that it could be tainted. Cox says officials will not know for sure whether the meat was tainted until Feb. 19 when federal authorities finish their investigation into the Chino, Cal.,-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Company.

We have no evidence any of the meat was tainted, Cox said in a hastily called news conference at the Department of Education offices in downtown Atlanta. I believe the cautious approach was the right approach.

Federal officials are looking into whether the slaughterhouse shipped meat from disabled animals -- known as downer cows because they are considered too sick or injured to walk. Federal regulations call for keeping downer cows out of the food supply because they may pose a higher risk of E. coli, salmonella contamination or mad cow disease.

The facility is a major supplier to a USDA program that distributes beef through the National School Lunch Program.

ATLANTA -- There were new revelations Tuesday about what investigators found inside confessed killer Gary Hiltons van. Channel 2 got an exclusive copy of the report for his van. In January, Hilton admitted to killing Georgia hiker Meredith Emerson.

Whenever Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents get a search warrant they are required to file a document which lists everything they found inside. It is an extremely detailed document and the GBI told Channel 2s Jodie Fleischer that some of the items listed are still considered evidence in other pending cases against Gary Hilton.

When agents with the GBI caught Hilton January 4, he was at a DeKalb County gas station. His white van was parked near the vacuum cleaner and officials say, he was trying to destroy evidence. But he did not get it all.

He lives in it, it's his home and everything he owns probably was in that van and so when you think of it that way it was potentially a big evidentiary catch, said John Cagle with the GBI.

The list is lengthy and detailed. Twenty shirts and a dozen pair of pants, eight jackets, 29 hats and three sleeping bags.

“Now we have a determined body”

Desperate for water amid a historic drought, some Georgia lawmakers are trying to reopen an 1818 border dispute with Tennessee. via The Knoxville News Sentinel

“Too much of my life story has found itself into the public domain already”

Salman Rushdie has banned himself from appearing in any of his future novels, the author said in a speech Sunday in Atlanta. via Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Police in Florida have arrested two people and charged them with the murder of an Atlanta teacher. Police have charged 36-year-old Raymond Torres Jr. and 22-year-old Max Jasper with the murder of 36-year-old Antonio Coleman of Riverdale.

Coleman was found shot to death in his car outside a Hillsborough County, Florida nightclub in January.

Investigators do not think Coleman was the intended target of the shooting.

Coleman was the 2004 Elementary School Teacher of the Year for Atlanta Public Schools.

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. -- Police said 14-year-old Demario Jackson tried to rob an Atlanta Police Department recruit who was sitting in his car at the Parkside Crossing Apartments Saturday.

Authorities said the police recruit was in his vehicle on his laptop when the Jackson tapped on his window and pointed a shotgun in his face.

Police are not naming the recruit, but they say he used his own gun and had a permit to carry it.

Investigators say the shooting appears to be justified self-defense and are searching for a second suspect. Jackson's family members told Channel 2 they don't know what to believe.

Police said they found the keys to a stolen car from East Point on Jackson

Larry Bach has made a career out of generating some of the finest cakes in Central Florida. His specialty is wedding cakes. His shop, Sprinkles Custom Cakes, has made more than 5,000 since 1994. However there is one cake that Bach admits that if he never sells it again, it wouldn't leave him with a sour taste in his mouth.

The story started six years ago when a familiar face stopped by his shop.

A lady came into my store, standing in my doorway, and she says to me, do you remember me?

Well, let me guess, Bach said to her. I did your wedding cake.

The woman said Bach had baked the cake for the womans wedding, 18 months prior, and she said it had been the best part of her marriage. So when the marriage ended, she had Bach bake her a divorce cake to share with the bridesmaids.

I think it's a healthy thing, Bach said. You have to go with the end of something bad and the beginning of something good. That's probably cause for celebration.

Bach has made about five divorce cakes in all, and all but one featured a groom pinned at the bottom of the cake to reflect the marriage falling on top of the person that the other felt was at fault.

The bride got pinned in the other.

Bach sells the divorce cakes for about $185 apiece. His wedding cakes tend to cost much more than that.

A 19-year-old man was shot outside of McNair High School in Dekalb County on Friday night, while a high school basketball game was going on inside.

Hundreds of kids were pouring out of the school just after the basketball game when the shooting occurred.

DeKalb police are looking for the shooter and trying to figure out what started it all. The shooting happened at about 8:45 p.m., just off McNair High School's campus.

Investigators said a 19-year-old victim was waiting at a bus stop on Bouldercrest Road. They said that the victim was shot in the backside. Police said they believe the victim and shooter had nothing to do with the basketball game going on at McNair, just that the victim happened to be at that particular bus stop when he was shot.

Plenty of students said they saw what happened. A lieutenant with DeKalb County school police described what happened.

"The student came up and mentioned there was someone outside with a gun," said Lt. Jeff Catron. "We had some deputy sheriffs working the game to come out and check it out. When they came outside, they heard some gunshots. They proceeded down to the area, where they found a young man at the bus stop who came up and identified they had been shot."

"Everybody was just running," said student Andrea Ruff. "They just ran into the school, when I heard the shots. A lot of students left, and a lot of concerned parents came and got their children. It's really scary."

The unidentified victim was taken to a local hospital, where he is in good condition. Police said they have no suspect in the shooting, and have not determined a motive yet, either.

A man knocks on your door, saying his here to repair a water or gas leak. Would you let him in? Newton County sheriff deputies are searching for a man, who investigators say is using that scheme to force his ...

ATLANTA (AP) -- Customers checking their bags curbside for flights on Delta Air Lines could soon be charged $2 per bag as part of an effort to cut costs.

Airline spokesman Kent Landers says the airline is considering such a fee but says no decision has been made.

The airline said Monday it is handing off its skycap jobs at airports in Atlanta and Los Angeles to a lower-paying subsidiary, Delta Global Services.

Delta is one of the few major airlines that doesn't charge extra for curbside check-ins.

Landers says Delta is not considering such fees for check-ins inside the airport.

He says Delta plans to eliminate the jobs of about 65 skycaps in Atlanta and 10 in Los Angeles on March 1. The employees will be offered other airport customer service jobs or could transfer to Delta Global Services.

Skycaps rely on tips made during the curbside check-ins to boost their salary.

WINDER, Ga. (AP) -- The attorney for the owners of a Winder restaurant being sued by four black former employees who say they were unfairly strip searched says the parent company has done nothing wrong.

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued New Capital Dimensions of Millegeville, which owns the Krystal restaurant in Winder. The lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta claims that in 2005 white managers forced three black employees to submit to strip searches to prove they hadn't stolen money from a cash register that a white employee had operated.

Savannah attorney Sara Lamar represents New Capital Dimensions. She tells the Athens-Banner Herald that her client denies the allegation and that she believes "justice will prevail."

The lawsuit says one employee never returned to work after he was forced to strip in front of his employer. The lawsuit says the other three employees were later fired after complaining to their managers that only black employees had been singled out for the strip search.

ATLANTA -- A couple was held in jail Thursday on charges of kidnapping their granddaughter from her Georgia home after authorities discovered the 5-year-old in their Lynchburg house. A U.S. Marshals Service spokesman said authorities had been searching for Joy Angelique Madden since she was abducted from her father's home in Atlanta when she was a year old. "She was shocked when I told her I was her father," Carlton Madden told WSB-TV Channel 2 reporter Eric Philips as they were reunited. "She gave me a big hug."' A news release said federal officers and Lynchburg police went to the home of David and Sharon Duncan on Wednesday night, where they found the girl and six other children under age 12. The Duncans were members of the House of Prayer in Atlanta who were convicted of cruelty to children in 2002 along with two other church members and the church pastor, the Rev. Arthur Allen. David Duncan, 50, and Sharon Duncan, 46, were at Blue Ridge Regional Jail pending extradition proceedings on Georgia charges of kidnapping and custodial interference. According to neighbors, the Duncans had been living in Lynchburg "for some time," Deputy U.S. Marshal Ron Donelson said. He said the children all appeared to be in good health, but Lynchburg police were investigating whether additional charges would be filed. The 5-year-old was reunited with her father Wednesday night and they returned to Atlanta on Thursday, Donelson said.

MOBILE, Ala. -- An Alabama woman whose body was found last week outside her locked sport utility vehicle at a North Carolina mountain parking lot died of hypothermia after being unable to reach her keys inside, authorities said. The body of 47-year-old Sandra Ordner was found hours after she had phoned home on Jan. 31 to tell her husband she was going hiking. A funeral for the Atlanta native was held Wednesday in Norcross, Ga. Macon County, N.C., Sheriff Robert Holland told the Press-Register in Mobile for a story Friday that it had been extremely cold and raining in the hours before Ordner's body was discovered in the parking lot of the Whiteside Mountain Trail. Ordner's keys and cellular telephone were locked inside her 2002 Landrover sport utility vehicle, Holland said. Holland said Ordner was alone and her husband, Paul William Ordner, was at home in Daphne. She had called her husband using her cell phone to tell him she was going to hike the trail. Her death initially was investigated as a homicide, but the autopsy determined that she died from hypothermia, Holland said. Holland said that the presence of "smudges" on the SUV windows suggested that Ordner had tried to break the glass with her hands. Ordner's husband called the Franklin Police Department in Macon County at 1:17 a.m. on Feb. 1 to report her missing. A person living in the area discovered the body at 10 a.m. that same day.

“This is the most consequential legal ruling in the 18-year history of the water war, and one of the most important in the history of the State of Alabama”

A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out an agreement that Georgia reached with the Army Corps of Engineers for water rights to a major federal reservoir outside Atlanta, handing Alabama and Florida a major victory in the states' years-long water wars.

The 2003 agreement with the Corps would give Georgia about a quarter of Lake Lanier's capacity over the coming decades and is the foundation of Georgia's long-term plans for supplying drinking water to the rapidly growing Atlanta region.

Alabama and Florida challenged the pact, arguing that Georgia doesn't have any legal right to the federal reservoir, which was initially built for hydropower. The withdrawals would dry up river flows into their states that support smaller municipalities, power plants, commercial fisheries and industrial users like paper mills. Read more