In the Loop
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Suspect Arrested in Shooting of Pregnant Woman
Photo Credit: Blake Aued
Auriel Callaway's mother LaShanda, uncle Bryant Gantt, Police Chief Cleveland Spruill, sister Kearia Rucker, cousin Vanessa Johnson and Deputy Chief Jeff Clark.
Athens-Clarke County police arrested a Clarke Gardens resident Wednesday night and charged her with the murder of neighbor Auriel Callaway during a gunfight at the Eastside apartment compex Monday.
Although others were also shooting, police say Kiresa Shanice Cooper, 27, fired the bullet that killed Callaway, 24, who was walking with her 3-year-old son when the gunfire broke out. Callaway was trying to get her son to a safe place when she was shot, according to Police Chief Cleveland Spruill. She died, along with the unborn child she was carrying, at a local hospital shortly after the shooting Monday night.
"I cannot think of a more tragic circumstance that for an innocent mother to be gunned down in front of her residence while her child looked on," Spruill said at a news conference this afternoon to announce Cooper's arrest.
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Pregnant Woman Shot and Killed in Front of Son
ACCPD spokesman Geoffrey Gilland speaks to reporters Tuesday.
An Athens woman was shot and killed Monday night while walking outside with her three-year-old son.
Athens-Clarke County police received a call about gunshots fired at the Clarke Gardens apartment complex off Barnett Shoals Road at 9:37 p.m. Monday. When they arrived at Carriage Court, they found 24-year-old resident Auriel Callaway on the ground, bleeding.
Police provided first aid until EMS arrived to transport Callaway to a local hospital, where she died. Callaway was four months pregnant, according to police, and the fetus she was carrying did not survive. Her son was unharmed and is staying with relatives, police said.
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Will Merger Mean More Cuts at the ABH?
Photo Credit: Michael Rivera
The Athens Banner-Herald could be facing more cuts if, as the Wall Street Journal reported last week, owner GateHouse Media takes over another major newspaper chain, Gannett.
It's no secret that newspapers are in big trouble and have been for a decade, and the Columbia Journalism Review reports that a merger could buy the resulting behemoth company—which would own 265 dailies with a combined circulation of 8.7 million—a few years to figure out how to make their digital operations profitable. The best-case scenario is readers don't notice a difference.
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Arena Makes Final SPLOST List; BOE Extends Means' Contract
Classic Center Executive Director Paul Cramer.
A controversial proposal for an arena at the Classic Center will be on the ballot this November after the Athens-Clarke County Commission included it on the final SPLOST list Thursday night.
Commissioner Tim Denson joined commissioners Mariah Parker and Melissa Link's proposal to set aside the $34 million earmarked for the arena into a more general downtown development pot. But the other seven commissioners voted against Parker and Link's plan.
Supporters say the 5,500-seat arena, which will be partially funded by the Classic Center and the private sector, will create 600 jobs and generate millions of dollars in sales taxes. A senior living facility, office building and hotel are also included in the project.
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Climate Change Is Going to Make Athens Hot as Hell
It was 97 degrees in Athens yesterday. You think that's bad? Just wait.
Greenhouse gas emissions are projected to cause an 8-degree jump in global temperatures over pre-industrial levels, and a group called the Union of Concerned scientists calculated what that would mean for individual counties..
Clarke County averages 61 days a year with a heat index above 90. (Sort of like wind chill, the heat index combines the temperature and humidity level into a number that expresses how hot it feels.) Nine days a year on average, it rises above 100 degrees, and twice, it hits 105.
If nothing is done about climate change, the heat index will hit 90 110 times a year by mid-century, and it'll hit 100 six times as often as it does now. For nearly a month out of the year—29 days—the heat index will be 105 or above.
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School Board Seeks Applicants for District 4
Former District 4 BOE member Jared Bybee.
The Clarke County Board of Education is now accepting applications for the vacant District 4 position on the board.
The remaining eight members of the school board will select someone to replace former president Jared Bybee at their Aug. 8 meeting. Bybee resigned in May.
The board chose District 7 representative LaKeisha Gantt to replace Bybee in his role as president last month, but the District 4 seat remains vacant.
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Deborah Gonzalez Is Running for District Attorney
Former state Rep. Deborah Gonzalez is running for Western Circuit district attorney, she announced Thursday.
“All of us want to keep our communities strong and protected, but we know that the old tough-on-crime way of administering justice has been too tough on our communities,” Gonzalez said in a video posted online. “It’s left us all less safe, less whole and with less opportunity. It’s time for a new approach to justice and crime. It’s time for new leadership.”
Gonzalez is a media and entertainment lawyer with no experience as a prosecutor, but in the House she served on the committee that handles bills related to criminal justice, and she also served on a criminal justice task force for the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators.
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Mail Delivery Resumes at Bethel Homes
Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones/file
The U.S. Postal Service resumed delivering mail to Bethel Midtown Village today after a meeting with Athens-Clarke County Police Chief Cleveland Spruill.
Spruill met with Atlanta District Post Office Operations Manager Anne Berger to "clear up confusion and misinformation regarding crime in the community," according to an ACCPD news release. Berger agreed to temporarily resume mail delivery at Bethel, and a meeting on permanently restoring mail delivery is scheduled for next week.
Commissioner Ovita Thornton said at the July 2 commission meeting that Bethel residents had not received their mail for over a week.
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