Blog Topic: Breaking News

In the Loop: Athens Is Getting a Civil Rights Committee, and No One Is Too Happy About It

By Blake Aued | November 2, 2016 4:01pm

Photo Credit: Blake Aued

City Hall was packed out Tuesday.

Every single Athens-Clarke County commissioner favors forming a local civil rights committee to deal with issues of discrimination in Athens, and so did almost every single one of the 100 people who packed City Hall for a commission vote on the topic Tuesday night. So why did most of them leave mad?

A bizarre 6-2 vote instructing county staff to bring forward a framework for the civil rights committee revealed rancor between not only the citizen activists pushing for the committee and the commissioners who approved it, but behind the rail as well.

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In the Loop: Daylight Saving Time Ends Sunday, Nov. 6

By Gabe Vodicka | November 4, 2016 1:12pm

Photo Credit: Matteo Ianeselli/Wikimedia Commons

Remember to set your clocks back Saturday night.

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In the Loop: Early Voting at the Tate Center Is Crazy Right Now

By Blake Aued | November 1, 2016 1:28pm

Photo Credit: Houston Gaines

University of Georgia students are lining up in droves today to vote at the Tate Student Center—the first time Athens-Clarke County has set up an early-voting site on campus.

As of about 11:30 a.m., more than 800 people had already voted today at Tate, according to Student Government Association President Houston Gaines. He was kind enough to send some photos of lines snaking through the building and out the door, which are posted above and below.

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In the Loop: ACC Commissioners Will Probably Approve a Civil Rights Committee—But Which One?

By Blake Aued | October 31, 2016 1:45pm

Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones/file

Hundreds of protesters marched on City Hall in September to demand a commission vote on a civil rights committee.

Tuesday's Athens-Clarke County Commission meeting just got a lot more interesting.

The commission is scheduled to vote on an ordinance banning bars from using bogus private events or selectively enforcing dress codes to keep out people of color. Local activist groups have been lobbying for a civil rights committee to supplement that narrow ordinance.

Until a couple of days ago, it seemed that a majority of commissioners were resisting that idea. Now, though, there are three different versions of a civil rights committee headed to the floor Tuesday.

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In the Loop: RIP Athens Civil Rights Leader A.R. Killian

By Blake Aued | October 26, 2016 2:40pm

Killian in 2013.

The Rev. Archibald “A.R.” Killian, Athens’ first black police officer and an outspoken local civil rights leader for decades, died Tuesday at age 83.

Killian was born in Athens and served as a military policeman during the Korean War. After leaving the Air Force, he nearly took a job as a police officer in Los Angeles but returned to Athens instead.

When Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter integrated the University of Georgia in 1961, Killian let Holmes live in his house and protected him from white mobs.

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In the Loop: Moody's Downgrades Piedmont's Credit After ARMC Merger

By Blake Aued | October 25, 2016 1:39pm

Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones/file

Athens Regional Medical Center, before it was renamed Piedmont Athens Regional earlier this month.

The investment rating firm Moody's isn't optimistic about Piedmont Healthcare's future after it acquired the hospital formerly known as Athens Regional Medical Center.

Moody's gave three upcoming bond issues totaling $406 million an Aa3 rating (i.e. really safe) but downgraded Piedmont's credit outlook to "negative" in part because of the debt the company is taking on to acquire ARMC and its subsidiaries, according to Saporta Report, a news site run by longtime Atlanta journalist Maria Saporta.

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Grub Notes: La Dolce Vita, Hip Pops Are Closing

By Hillary Brown | October 6, 2016 2:04pm

Photo Credit: La Dolce Vita via Facebook

Let's just put all the bad news in one post. La Dolce Vita, upstairs from what was its sister restaurant, Etienne Brasserie, is now also closed, announcing its shuttering on Facebook. It's been a bad year for that block of Broad downtown, between Jackson and Wall streets, which now houses only the bar Bourbon Street.

Shiraz, which retails wine and snacks in the Leathers Buiding, on Pulaski, hasn't updated its Facebook page yet but has sent out an email announcing a temporary closing, with no date when it might reopen.

And Hip Pops, in the Tracy Street warehouses, has announced that it will close its retail location for good (although the popsicle cart will still show up at events and can be hired for catering) in the next few weeks.

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In the Loop: Gov. Deal Orders Georgia Coast Evacuated as Hurricane Matthew Approaches

By Blake Aued | October 6, 2016 11:34am

Gov. Nathan Deal has ordered more than half a million coastal Georgia residents to evacuate as Hurricane Matthew approaches.

The mandatory evacuation order applies to everyone in Bryan, Chatham, Liberty, McIntosh, Glynn and Camden counties who lives east of I-95. Another 30 southeast Georgia counties are urged to voluntarily evacuate.

Eastbound lanes on I-16 between Savannah and Dublin have been reversed. All lanes are now westbound.

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In the Loop: Mayor Denson Will Allow a Vote on the Anti-Discrimination Ordinance After All

By Blake Aued | October 5, 2016 1:57pm

Mayor Nancy Denson will put a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance back on the agenda next month, she announced at the Athens-Clarke County Commission meeting Tuesday night, shortly after hundreds of protestors marched on City Hall to demand a vote on the ordinance.

Photo Credit: Joshua L. Jones

About 200 protesters marched from the Arch and gathered outside City Hall, then entered the building singing and chanting as the meeting was getting underway. Several dozen of them stood in the back of the commission chamber continuing to sing as new Public Utilities Director Frank Stevens attempted to introduce himself to the commission.

Denson told the protesters that she would have police escort them out if they didn’t quiet down. “I think it’s not loud enough, if you ask me,” one woman replied. But the crowd did grow quieter when Denson said she would put the ordinance up for a vote Nov. 1 after blocking a vote for the past two months.

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In the Loop: UGA: No Choice but to Change Pay Schedule

By Blake Aued | September 21, 2016 4:02pm

UGA administrators say they're sympathetic to employees whose pay will be delayed in November as the university implements new federal overtime rules, but that they have no choice but to switch from a monthly to a biweekly pay schedule.

"I deeply care about our staff and want to make this transition as smoothly as we can," President Jere Morehead said at his quarterly media briefing this morning.

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