*Atlanta rapper Ludacris stopped by Dobbs elementary school to push his ‘Living Green and Luda Leadership’ inititiave. Ludacris’ first order of business: to teach gardening to a group of second graders. And the kids loved it. He stressed the importance of eating healthy and developing a healthy lifestyle saying, “You’re never to young to do the right thing.” The day came [...]

*Pit bulls are no longer a restricted household pet in DeKalb County, a zoning change that its advocates say should help the county focus more on all dangerous dogs and possibly improve the adoption rate from its shelter. Because the dogs have been overbred, the shelter took in thousands of the dogs in recent years, though, driving up DeKalb’s euthanasia [...]

The way Georgia punishes thousands of nonviolent offenders will forever change when Gov. Nathan Deal signs landmark legislation Wednesday. It represents a first step in the governor’s long-term plan to reserve prison beds for the state’s most violent criminals. Georgia criminalizes minor traffic offenses — more than 2 million a year — while most other states treat them as violations with a [...]

ATLANTA (AP) — Gov. Nathan Deal has signed legislation that would require parents who apply for the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to pay for and pass a drug test that would cost at least $17. TANF provides temporary financial help to low-income families with children. Passing the drug test once would be a condition of eligibility to receive [...]

The HIV rate among black women living in some U.S. cities is the same rate as that of some African countries, according to a new multicenter study presented Thursday at the 19th Conference of Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. The jarring findings acknowledge that HIV is not an infection that has been eradicated, but one that has been somewhat forgotten, researchers [...]

ATLANTA (WXIA) — One of the suggestions being floated by state democrats to overhaul the HOPE Scholarship situation is to reverse at least one thing Gov. Deal put into place just last year. Anyone receiving a HOPE Grant and attending a technical school is required to maintain a 3.0 grade point average (GPA) once they’re enrolled. Light said 143,000 students [...]

*Georgia’s chief justice on Wednesday called on lawmakers to enact sentencing reforms that steer nonviolent offenders away from costly prison sentences, saying, “we now know that being tough on crime is not enough.” In a 25-minute address before a joint session of the Legislature, Chief Justice Carol Hunstein asked lawmakers to adopt proposals by the Special Council on Criminal Justice [...]

If you have any information about Parker, please contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation at (706) 552-2309 or the Black and Missing Foundation’s tip line. Here are the details of Parker’s disappearance below: Charles Stephen Parker Case Type: Endangered DOB: Jan 01, 1987 Missing Date: Jan 15, 2012 Age Now: 25 Missing City: Monroe Missing State: GA Gender: Male Race: [...]

Mitsubishi Electric Cooling & Heating will break ground Friday on a division headquarters in Suwanee, Ga. The more than 500,000-square-foot facility at 1340 Satellite Blvd. will employ 198….more Tweet Share on Tumblr

AJC REPORTS: Atlanta parents face a $1,000 fine and up to 60 days in jail when their students skip school under a 2009 ordinance city officials say they now plan to enforce. t stands out as one of the toughest truancy penalties among metro Atlanta school districts. But Atlanta has a troubling truancy problem. Almost 44 percent of high school [...]

*(Via abc news) – Leaders of a Georgia-based ministry that provided discounted groceries to needy families across the U.S. have been indicted and face a wide range of charges, including using organization funds to buy jewelry, athletic equipment, clothes and to make a down payment on a jet, says the Associated Press. A 49-count federal indictment filed Tuesday against the [...]

*Justice Pate, 12, looks on with parents as he accepts awards, medals and certificates from Dekalb County, Georgia, for his heroic act of saving a 7-year old boy drowning in a hotel pool in Georgia. *There has been a huge campaign to get African Americans swimming because the unfortunate truth was revealed a couple years ago that blacks and other minorities were [...]

Students at Roswell High School Raise $13,000 to Fight Cancer! Students at Roswell High School raised $13,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Pennies for Patients program under the leadership of the National Honor Society members. Read More Tweet Share on Tumblr