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Archive for November 2009

Local grocers donate turkeys to Hosea Feed the Hungry

HFTH director Elisabeth Omilami is flanked by DeKalb County Sheriff Thomas Brown, left, and Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker.
The hungry need help now more than last year or the year before that, Elisabeth Omilami said Nov. 12. Donations to Omilami’s organization, Hosea Feed the Hungry (HFTH), have decreased 35 percent since the country suffered a recession that began las...

Stokes frustrated over not receiving preliminary budget info

DeKalb County Commissioner Connie Stokes said Nov. 13 she’s frustrated over the county’s preliminary budgetary information for next year – specifically because she hasn’t been able to see it. As the commission anticipates dramatic cuts, inclu...

Levitas wants to create ethics commission for school system

State Rep. Kevin Levitas plans to pre-file legislation next week that would subject the DeKalb County School System to an ethics commission designed to prevent school board members from serving with conflicts of interest. The bill, called the DeKalb ...

Customer service has helped American Designer Flowers flourish since 1992

In the past five years, Chris Fahmie has had to endure ongoing roadway construction that shrunk his parking lot along Memorial Drive and led some passersby to think his shop was closed. A troubled economy hasn’t helped matters. But through it all F...

Hot on the SW Louisiana Boudin Trail

Boudin. It’s a staple of life in Southwest Louisiana. Smoked boudin. Mild boudin. Shrimp boudin. Alligator boudin. Crawfish boudin. Hot boudin. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and in between, locals hunger for it and tourists clammer to find it. And it’...

Dance on the menu at lunch and learn

As dancers make fluid motions around a studio on Sycamore Street in Decatur, an audience keeps its eyes on the movements while munching on salad and pasta and bread, applauding appreciatively at the end of the work. This may not be what immediately c...

Constituents thank Johnson for support of ‘historic’ House health care plan

Constituents thank Johnson for support of ‘historic’ House health care plan
When the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) passed 220 to 215 in the U.S. House of Representatives Nov. 7, Rep. Hank Johnson (GA-04) was among those who voted for the legislation. On the morning of Nov. 12, supporters gathered at his ...

High court settles dispute over Decatur property

In a decision released on Nov. 9, the state Supreme Court unanimously denied a woman’s claim to a Decatur property that federal authorities acquired in a drug-related bust. At issue was whether a mother’s plea bargain 20 years ago, which involved...

County hires Georgia State to recommend staff reductions as budget shortfall looms

As it faces the specter of budget shortfalls and staff reductions next year, the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners is looking to Georgia State University for advice. The board voted Nov. 10 to pay the university more than $48,000 to conduct a staf...

County schools face decisions with reclassification upcoming

Wouldn’t it be interesting to have a super-region with Stephenson, Southwest DeKalb, Tucker, Marist and Dunwoody all together? New high school enrollment numbers released last week by the Georgia High School Association present several scenarios. T...