Blog posts by Blake Aued, Editor
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Athens Police Release Video of Officer Shooting
Blog: In the Loop
A screenshot of video from Officer David Kelley's body camera.
A video released by Athens-Clarke County police appears to show a suspect reaching for a gun before he was shot by an ACCPD officer at the Golden Pantry on Barnett Shoals Road early Saturday morning.
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ACCPD Officer Involved in Shooting; Homeless Woman Found Stabbed to Death
Blog: In the Loop
An Athens-Clarke County police officer shot a man who reached for his gun in a gas-station parking lot on the Eastside early this morning, according to law enforcement authorities.
Officer David Kelley was patroling near the Golden Pantry on Barnett Shoals Road at about 3 a.m. when he saw two men—one of whom, Justin Trammell Scott, was carrying a gun—pouring liquor into cups, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Kelley "gave multiple commands to Scott when Scott reached for his firearm, at which time Officer Kelley fired shots, striking Scott," GBI said in a news release. "After being shot, Scott fled and was apprehended a short distance later by another ACCPD officer who responded to the scene."
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Michael Stipe, Indigo Girls, Tituss Burgess Oppose Campus Carry
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Twitter via @REMHQ
Recently a group of University of Georgia poets decided they want to bombard Gov. Nathan Deal with photos of writers and other Athenians holding signs opposing the campus carry bill and hopes he’ll veto it. Well, a few celebrities have joined the fun.
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UGA Paid Ludacris $65,000 for His G-Day Concert
Blog: Homedrone
Photo Credit: David Barnes/UGA Athletics
Ludacris performed for a capacity crowd at Sanford Stadium on Saturday.
Did the UGA Athletic Association pay a ludicrous amount of money for a 15-minute concert before last Saturday’s G-Day game?
OK, sorry. Now that the bad puns are out of the way, the Macon Telegraph reports that the association paid Atlanta rapper Ludacris $65,000 to perform a medley of hits (including “Stand Up,” “What’s Your Fantasy” and, appropriately, “Money Maker”) before kickoff.
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Eric Norris Named New Athens Judge
Blog: In the Loop
Gov. Nathan Deal has named Watkinsville lawyer Eric Norris the fourth judge for the Western Circuit Superior Court.
Norris.
Norris also serves as a part-time magistrate court judge in Oconee County. He received his bachelor’s degree from North Georgia College & State University and his law degree from Regent University, a Christian college in Virginia.
The Western Circuit covers Clarke and Oconee counties. Norris joins David Sweat, Lawton Stephens and Patrick Haggard on the bench. He’s expected to spend most of his time in the Watkinsville courthouse, whereas the other three are mainly based in Athens.
After years of lobbying by the local legal community because of population growth and a rising caseload, the legislature approved the fourth judgeship last year.
Superior Court handles felony criminal cases, civil lawsuits and family law, such as divorces and child custody.
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Jack Kingston Endorses Doug Collins for Congress
Blog: In the Loop
Jack Kingston.
Former congressman Jack Kingston has endorsed Rep. Doug Collins (R-Gainesville) over former Athens congressman Paul Broun and two other challengers in Northeast Georgia’s 9th District Republican primary.
Kingston is an Athens native who represented Savannah in Congress for 20 years until, like Broun, he left his seat to run for Senate. (Broun finished fifth with 10 percent of the vote, while Kingston lost a runoff to David Perdue.) Kingston also served with Collins, who was first elected in 2012.
Here are the statements from Kingston and Collins released by the Collins campaign on Monday:
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Wave Goodbye to the Prince Avenue Flags
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Uma Nagendra
The bright orange flags at two Prince Avenue crosswalks are gone—for good this time.
The Athens-Clarke County Transportation and Public Works Department placed the flags at crosswalks near The Grit and Daily Grocery for people to wave at drivers as they crossed the busy street more than a year ago, but they didn't work, according to ACC traffic engineer Steve Decker.
A study done by TPW and police found that waving the flags did not make more drivers slow down or stop, so TPW stopped replacing the flags.
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Creature Comforts' Second Anniversary Is Saturday
Blog: Grub Notes
Tomorrow is G-Day, so good luck parking, but Creature Comforts—which opened on Twilight weekend in 2014—will celebrate its second anniversary Saturday with tours featuring a bunch of special one-of beers (in addition to the old standbys).
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UGA Poets Oppose Campus Carry Bill
Blog: In the Loop
A group of University of Georgia poets has joined the widespread opposition to HB 859, the "campus carry" bill that would lift a ban on guns in university classrooms and offices.
Magdalena Zurawski, a UGA creative writing professor who was featured in Flagpole last year, and Jenny Gropp, managing editor of the Georgia Review, have created a group called the Poetry Action Network to oppose the bill. They're asking people to send in photos of themselves holding signs stating their opposition to the bill (an example is above) so the photos can be forwarded to Gov. Nathan Deal's office. Deal has until May 3 to sign or veto the legislation.
Here's the full letter from Zurawski and Gropp that's circulating around town:
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Nuçi’s Space Wins Grant for Solar Panels
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Blake Aued
Nuçi’s Space Executive Director Bob Sleppy with Gretchen Elsner of Solarize Athens, Mayor Nancy Denson and Colleen McLoughlin of Environment Georgia.
The local nonprofit Nuçi’s Space is getting rooftop solar panels thanks to Solarize Athens, a program that offers local residents and businesses bulk discounts on solar-panel installation.
Solarize Athens and the environmental nonprofit Environment Georgia announced an $11,000 grant to Nuçi’s Space this afternoon to help pay for the $20,000 panels. Nuçi’s Space won the grant from among four nonprofit applicants.
“Solar made the most sense for Nuçi’s Space and would have the biggest impact on their energy bills,” said Colleen McLoughlin, solar campaign organizer for Environment Georgia.
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Weigh In on Closing Newton, Chase Street Bike Lanes
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones/file
Since the Athens-Clarke County Transportation and Public Works Department, at the Bottleworks owners’ urging, reversed a one-way block of Newton Street from northbound to southbound in 2013, the number of crashes there has risen by 40 percent.
It’s a small number—only three per year, on average, according to TPW Director David Clark. Most of those crashes involve people waiting to turn left from Prince Avenue onto Newton and getting rear-ended, he said.
TPW is floating a plan to close the block of Newton between Taziki’s and The Grit to create an outdoor cafe (along with three on-street parking spaces and enough room for emergency vehicles). The idea came from UGA professor Jack Crowley’s downtown master plan.
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Michael Stipe Joins Bernie Sanders at New York Rally
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Yamiche Alcindor via Twitter.
Former R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe is looking forward to the day when a Bernie Sanders presidency isn't merely a Coney Island of the mind.
Stipe (and his Marxist beard)—who endorsed Sanders in a February Rolling Stone interview—introduced him at a Coney Island rally on Sunday. (Sanders grew up in Brooklyn, while Stipe is a part-time New Yorker.) The Vermont senator is trying to cut into former New York Sen. Hillary Clinton’s double-digit lead in the Empire State’s Apr. 19 primary.
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Actor Tituss Burgess Shames 'Shady' Georgia and UGA
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: "The Late Show" via Twitter
Athens native Tituss Burgess, star of Netflix’s “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” had some harsh words for his home state during an appearance on “The Late Show” Friday.
The Emmy-nominated actor, who graduated from Cedar Shoals High School and the University of Georgia, told host Stephen Colbert that he wants to give a commencement speech at UGA. The hypothetical speech, he said, would take aim at student apathy and the “religious liberty” bill passed by the state legislature but vetoed by Gov. Nathan Deal last month. He gave Colbert's audience a preview:
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Paul Broun's Ex-Chief of Staff Indicted
Blog: In the Loop
Former Athens congressman (and current candidate) Paul Broun's former chief of staff was indicted today on eight charges in an FBI investigation related to his alleged misuse of taxpayer money, according to the AJC.
David Bowser has been charged with one count of obstruction of proceedings, one count theft of government property, one count of concealment of material facts and five counts of making false statements.
Bowser is accused of paying consultant Brett O'Donnell $43,000 in taxpayer money to prepare Broun to debate opponents in his 2014 run for Senate and urging O'Donnell to portray himself as a campaign volunteer. O'Donnell plead guilty of lying to investigators in U.S. District Court last year.
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School Board Candidates Tackle Questions at Forum
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones
Kamau Hull (left) and John Knox at a Federation of Neighborhoods meeting Monday night.
In spite of increased interest in the inner workings of the Clarke County School District since thealleged sexual assault at Cedar Shoals High School came to light, only one Clarke County Board of Education seat is being contested this year.
In District 8, out on the Eastside, University of Georgia geography professor and father of a recent Cedar Schoals graduate John Knox is facing Kamau Hull, a lawyer and CSHS grad with a son in the district.
Hull and Knox—along with unopposed incumbent Charles Worthy and Jared Bybee, the lone candidate for an open seat on the board—appeared at a Federation of Neighborhoods forum Monday night. Here are a few of the questions they tackled, and their responses.
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Athens Power Rankings for the Week of Apr. 4
Blog: In the Loop
Welcome to Athens Power Rankings. In the spirit of sports rating systems, through painstaking analysis, we rank the top movers and shakers in the Classic City each week. Who's hot? Who's not? Find out below.
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CCSD's Charter District Application Has Been Approved
Blog: In the Loop
After nearly a year’s wait. the state school board has approved Clarke County School District’s application to become a charter district.
The application had been held up by several issues—most notably a dispute with the state over governance of CCSD’s career academy—but those issues have now been ironed out.
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Downtown Sewer Line Repairs Finished for Now
Blog: In the Loop
Photo Credit: Athens-Clarke County Water Conservation Office
Yes, that's raw sewage. Hug a Public Utilities worker today.
Athens-Clarke County workers have repaired 150 feet of clogged sewer line on Broad Street downtown—for now.
The Public Utilities Department finished temporarily patching up the sewer line late Wednesday night, but a permanent fix wasn’t possible because of a rainstorm coming through Athens, PUD Director Gary Duck said. Workers will have to go back in, probably early next week, Duck said.
“We’re going to need several days of good, clear weather,” Duck said.
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Watch Michael Stipe Cover David Bowie
Blog: Homedrone
Former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe—who appears to be modeling his look after Luke in The Force Awakens these days—performed a spare, piano-driven rendition of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” on “The Tonight Show” last night.
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Opposition to 'Campus Carry' Bill at UGA Grows
Blog: In the Loop
Members of the University of Georgia community continue to add their voices in opposition to House Bill 859, the “campus carry” bill that would allow guns on most parts of the UGA campus.
In the past week, parents of children enrolled in UGA daycare facilities and the College of Education faculty Senate have written letters to Gov. Nathan Deal urging him to veto it. They’ve joined the university administration, University Council, Franklin College faculty Senate and numerous individual students and faculty members.
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latest stories
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In the Loop | April 24, 2016 2:33pm
Athens Police Release Video of Officer Shooting
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In the Loop | April 23, 2016 5:19pm
ACCPD Officer Involved in Shooting; Homeless Woman Found Stabbed to Death
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In the Loop | April 20, 2016 3:12pm
Michael Stipe, Indigo Girls, Tituss Burgess Oppose Campus Carry
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Homedrone | April 20, 2016 12:53pm
UGA Paid Ludacris $65,000 for His G-Day Concert
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In the Loop | April 19, 2016 11:53am
Eric Norris Named New Athens Judge
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In the Loop | April 19, 2016 11:27am
Jack Kingston Endorses Doug Collins for Congress
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In the Loop | April 18, 2016 3:45pm
Wave Goodbye to the Prince Avenue Flags
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Grub Notes | April 15, 2016 3:09pm
Creature Comforts' Second Anniversary Is Saturday
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In the Loop | April 14, 2016 3:59pm
UGA Poets Oppose Campus Carry Bill
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In the Loop | April 13, 2016 5:34pm
Nuçi’s Space Wins Grant for Solar Panels
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In the Loop | April 12, 2016 11:31am
Weigh In on Closing Newton, Chase Street Bike Lanes
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In the Loop | April 11, 2016 11:24am
Michael Stipe Joins Bernie Sanders at New York Rally
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In the Loop | April 11, 2016 10:50am
Actor Tituss Burgess Shames 'Shady' Georgia and UGA
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In the Loop | April 6, 2016 6:51pm
Paul Broun's Ex-Chief of Staff Indicted
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In the Loop | April 5, 2016 3:04pm
School Board Candidates Tackle Questions at Forum
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In the Loop | April 4, 2016 3:55pm
Athens Power Rankings for the Week of Apr. 4
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In the Loop | April 1, 2016 11:26am
CCSD's Charter District Application Has Been Approved
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In the Loop | March 31, 2016 5:12pm
Downtown Sewer Line Repairs Finished for Now
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Homedrone | March 30, 2016 1:49pm
Watch Michael Stipe Cover David Bowie
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In the Loop | March 29, 2016 11:04am
Opposition to 'Campus Carry' Bill at UGA Grows