Blog Topic: Breaking News

In the Loop: The Loop's Prince Avenue Interchange Is Open Again

By Blake Aued | October 16, 2015 8:22pm

Photo Credit: Jeff Montgomery

ACC workers repair a water main break off Jefferson Road Friday.

Just in time for the deluge of cars rolling into town for the Georgia-Missouri game Saturday night, the Georgia Department of Transportation has reopened two ramps at the Loop-Prince Avenue interchange.

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In the Loop: Water Main Breaks on Jefferson Road

By Blake Aued | October 16, 2015 10:41am

Photo Credit: Jeff Montgomery

A water main break in western Athens has forced authorities to close part of the Loop and advise some residents to boil water before drinking or cooking with it.

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In the Loop: Ort Goes to Court, Cleans Up His Carport

By Pete McCommons | October 12, 2015 9:38pm

Photo Credit: Pete McCommons

Ort's carport.

After a somewhat convoluted hearing in Athens-Clarke County Municipal Court Monday afternoon, Judge Leslie Spornberger Jones found William Orten Carlton guilty of two counts of probation violation and ordered that he remain on probation for another month while he finishes cleaning up his property.

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In the Loop: Ort's Trial Is Monday

By Blake Aued | October 6, 2015 4:57pm

Photo Credit: Blake Aued/file

Well-known local writer, DJ, record collector and beer connoisseur William Orten "Ort" Carlton will go to trial Monday in Athens-Clarke County Municipal Court on charges of having a bunch of crap in his yard.

Ort will face a probation-revocation hearing stemming from citations he received for violating local quality-of-life ordinances last October. He spent a night in jail last month after Judge Leslie Spornberger Jones ruled that he hadn't done enough to clean up his property in the ensuing months, in spite of several extensions.

"Our main goal is compliance," County Attorney Bill Berryman said after a brief hearing this afternoon to set a trial date. "We don't want to punish them [people who are cited by the Community Protection Division]. We want them to fix it."

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In the Loop: Police Make Arrest in Greenway Attack

By Blake Aued | September 30, 2015 12:12pm

Photo Credit: Blake Aued

The greenway near College Avenue.

Athens-Clarke County police arrested Pedro Alvarado, 43, on Tuesday in connection with a reported assault on the North Oconee River Greenway.

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In the Loop: The UGA Medical Training Class That Killed Dogs Really Lasted Until 2014

By Blake Aued | September 24, 2015 12:05pm

On Monday, the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it was filing a federal complaint about a University of Georgia veterinary college program that trained National Guard soldiers in battlefield medicine using live goats, pigs and dogs.

UGA at first defended the program, then said that it had stopped in 2013.

Tuesday, PETA provided documentation that it said showed that the program had continued on into 2014. When asked about it at a media briefing that day, UGA President Jere Morehead said he didn't have any information to that effect.

But Wednesday, the university released a letter from Vice President for Research David Lee to PETA confirming that the program was not, in fact, completely discontinued until last year.

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In the Loop: Ort Is in Jail

By Blake Aued | September 22, 2015 12:52am

Photo Credit: Jason Thrasher

Ort cleaning up his back yard.

Well known Athens personality Ort is spending the night in the Clarke County Jail after receiving a series of tickets in recent month over his messy yard.

Ort (born William Orten Carlton) was booked into jail at 10:22 p.m. on a probation violation charge. He's being held without bond.

A warrant was signed out for Ort's arrest after he allegedly received additional quality-of-life citations regarding his property, according to his attorney, Bill Overend. The charge "ultimately amounts to not keeping his yard clean," Overend said in a Facebook post.

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In the Loop: UGA: Program Criticized by PETA No Longer Exists

By Blake Aued | September 21, 2015 8:54pm

Photo Credit: Ruth Ellison

This is a stock photo of a random beagle.

Earlier today, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals announced that it's asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate a UGA medical training program involving dogs, goats and pigs that PETA deemed unethical, unnecessary and possibly illegal.

UGA initially responded that it has reviewed the program—in which Georgia National Guard soldiers trained in field medicine using live but anestheticized animals that were later euthanized—and the program met the university's ethical standards for humane treatment of animals.

Now, however, the university says that the program was discontinued in 2013:

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In the Loop: PETA: UGA Is 'Mutilating' Dogs in Training Course

By Blake Aued | September 21, 2015 4:11pm

Photo Credit: PETA

The animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate a UGA training program in which PETA says “dogs and other animals [are] mutilated and killed in a cruel and archaic training course.”

The UGA College of Veterinary Medicine course trains Georgia National Guard soldiers in field medicine by practicing procedures on 30 live animals, including goats, pigs and dogs. However, “dogs are the preferred animals for this laboratory because of their anatomic similarity to humans,” according to a university document.

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In the Loop: Grocery Store, Apartments Planned for St. Joe's Property

By Blake Aued | September 15, 2015 3:45pm

A Greenville, SC, developer has been meeting quietly with Athens-Clarke County officials and neighborhood groups and is expected to release plans for the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church property soon.

According to Davis Property Group’s website, the development firm, which specializes in multifamily mixed-use development, is tentatively planning 125 apartments and 25,000 square feet of retail space on the property at the corner of Prince Avenue and Pulaski Street.

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