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Emergency Pet Adoption Day in Cleveland on Saturday 09/03/2010 Save the Animals of Northeast Georgia will be holding a pet adoption drive this Saturday, September 4th from 10 am until 2 pm.
The shelter is extremely full, and the pets need to be adopted before the Animal Control puts the animals down.
There will be a number of breeds and sizes available for adoption, and the number to call for more information is 706-865-7452. Or you can go online to sanganimalrescue.com Northeast Georgia Senior Games Rescheduled 09/03/2010 The Northeast Georgia Senior Games official "Welcome Back Field Day Celebration" has been rescheduled for Tuesday, October 26, 2010. The Games will be held at the HCPL East Hall Community Center from 9 a.m. till 1:00 p.m.
Check in will begin at 9:00 a.m. and the Opening Ceremonies will take place at 10 a.m.
This event is for all area residents ages 50 and over. Athletes must turn in their registration form, waiver of liability, and $ 10 registration fee by Tuesday, October 19, 2010.
There will be events such as tennis, horseshoes, table tennis and Wii Games. There will also be food, exhibitors, door prizes and lots of fun! For more information or if you are interested in registering as an athlete, volunteer, exhibitor or sponsor please contact us at 770-535-8280 or e-mail knorman@hallcounty.org. Nathan Deal Releases Tax Returns 09/03/2010  (AP) - Republican gubernatorial nominee Nathan Deal late Thursday released cover pages for 29 years of personal income tax returns, spanning his time in elected office.
But he declined to make public filings for his Gainesville auto salvage business that became the focus of a congressional ethics probe. And tax "schedules" - that would provide more details on things like capital gains and rental income - were not included in the documents the Deal campaign posted online Thursday night.
Deal spokesman Brian Robinson declined to explain why.
"With these tax forms, combined with 18 years of financial disclosures, Nathan Deal provided a full financial picture as it relates to Nathan Deal," Robinson said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
The cover pages show Deal and his wife, Sandra, earned $229,123 in 2009. They paid $36,087 in taxes for that year and received a refund of $10,688.
Tax returns have emerged as an issue as the race to become Georgia's next governor heats up.
Deal's Democratic rival Roy Barnes has been pressuring the former congressman to take the wraps off his taxes for several weeks. Barnes - who in May made public 25 years of his tax returns - has hammered Deal with television ads, suggesting Deal's refusal to let the public look at his taxes meant he had something to hide.
"I'm not going to let Mr. Barnes dictate how I run my campaign," Deal fired back at a campaign forum over the weekend.
The Barnes campaign argued on Thursday that Deal was still not providing a full look at his finances and was making "a mockery of transparency."
"By releasing only the cover pages of his returns Rep. Deal is hiding more than he's disclosed," Barnes spokesman Emil Runge said.
Deal faced questions about his taxes as part of a congressional ethics probe.
A report released earlier this year by the Office of Congressional Ethics alleged Deal reported $75,000 in wages from his Gainesville auto salvage company on his 2008 tax return, while reporting the same amount as dividend income on his financial disclosure filed with the U.S. House.
If the amount had been reported as wages on his congressional disclosure, Deal would have been in violation of a congressional cap on outside income. The cap in 2008 was $25,830 beyond a representative's annual salary of $174,000.
Deal resigned from Congress in March before the Office of Congressional Ethics issued its findings and before the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct decided whether to take up the matter. Deal was never fined or charged. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Classifying the money as earned income was a mistake made by Deal's accountants on the tax forms, Robinson said. He said the mistake covered returns filed for 2006, 2007 and 2008.
The tax forms posted online for those years on Thursday are the amended returns, Robinson said. The original returns were not provided.
The cover pages show that Deal's income has climbed steadily over the years. In 1981, the Deals reported $44,519 in income.
Deal listed his net worth at $2 million on a disclosure he filed earlier this year to run for governor.
Deal was elected to the state Senate in 1980 and served there until his election to the U.S. House in 1992.
The practice of providing tax returns has become common in recent gubernatorial campaigns. Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue and his Democratic challenger, then-Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, offered them up for inspection in 2006.
Community Service Center Receives Grant to Prevent Child Abuse 09/03/2010  Hall County Community Service Center Director Phillippa Lewis Moss received the news yesterday that the Governor’s Office for Children and Families has awarded her department a grant for $274,616. This System of Care: Caring Communities Grant Program will allow the Community Service Center, Northeast Georgia Medical Center and the Hall County Family Connection Network to create a coordinated streamlined approach to reducing incidents of child abuse and neglect.
The three parties worked for over a year to write the grant. “This award is an example of what can happen when agencies collaborate,” Moss said.
Paige Ferrell, Program Manager at Northeast Georgia Medical Center and co-author of the grant, said this grant will create a coordinated system of care that targets infants born at the hospital and whose families reside in Hall County. “This award is a very big deal for us. Finally, we will be able to pull together several helping agencies to provide a direct approach to serving families,” Ferrell said.
Mary Parks, Executive Director of Hall County Family Connection Network and another co-author of the grant, said, “At a time when resources are dwindling for human service programs, we are thrilled to have this award and to keep children and families front and center in our community.”
AAA, BUDWEISER OFFER FREE RIDE TO PREVENT HOLIDAY DUI'S 09/03/2010  This weekend many people will be enjoying barbecues, going out to eat, and many could be drinking.
AAA Auto Club South and Budweiser will help protect roadways throughout the Labor Day weekend with the 'Tow to Go' program.
Anyone, members and non-members, can call for a 'Tow to Go' ride, Friday, Sept. 3 through Monday, Sept. 6.
'Tow to Go' provides a confidential ride and tow home from any bar or restaurant free of charge to anyone in Georgia who may have had too much to drink.
If you’re interested in taking advantage of this service, call 1-800-AAA-HELP (4357).
‘Tow to Go’ safely removed more than 11,660 drunk drivers off roadways since the program began in 1998.
By: Rebecca Stewart / Sky 104 News
Number of Illegal Immigrants Drops 09/03/2010 AP - The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. has dropped for the first time in 20 years.
That's according to the Pew Hispanic Center, an independent research group. The analysis suggests that the decline might be due to the nation's economic downturn and increased border enforcement.
The study estimates that 11.1 million illegal immigrants lived in the United States in 2009. That represents a decrease of roughly 1 million, or 8 percent, from a peak of 12 million in 2007.
The study, based on an analysis of 2009 census data, puts the number of illegal immigrants about where it was in 2005.
Illegal immigrants make up roughly 4 percent of the U.S. population.
States in the Southeast and Southwest saw some of the biggest declines in the number of illegal immigrants from 2008 to 2009, including Florida, Nevada and Virginia.
Arizona saw a decrease, but it was too small to be statistically significant. That state's controversial new immigration law is being challenged in federal court. White County Fire Department Monthly Activities Report Released 09/02/2010  The White County Fire Department has released their monthly activities report for the month of August. The Fire Department had another very busy month, with 95 calls being responded to.
The most calls that they received were medical calls with 49. There were 21 motor vehicle collisions that required the assistance of firefighters.
There was 1 structure fire, 4 smoke investigations, 3 odor investigations, and 4 weather related calls. The weather calls were pertaining to trees down on power lines, or in the road, as well ground collapses, such as the one at Sonic in Cleveland two weeks ago.
Firefighters also had to answer a mutual aid Habersham County in looking for the lost kayaker over the weekend.
Digitalizing of Cemetery Gets National Award 09/02/2010 The revitalization and the digitalizing of the Historic Cleveland Cemetery has been honored nationally. Cleveland Better Hometown has received a national technology award for their work to make the information at the cemetery digitally available online.
Maria Flynn, Executive Director of Cleveland Better Hometown, says that the awards that the organization is receiving are just a testament as to how good the organization has been for the city of Cleveland.
Public Safety Monument Planned 09/02/2010  Cleveland Better Hometown is working on a Public Safety monument that will honor those people who work in the public safety fields, such as policemen, firefighters, and emergency personnel.
One of the ways that Cleveland Better Hometown is planning on raising money for the monument is a "Celebrity Auction". Citizens can bid on a fly-fishing trip with Judge Garrison Baker as well as playing a golf game with Sheriff Neal Walden.
Flynn says, "It's a very exciting project, it pulls together our local public safety agencies, and gives us an opportunity to honor them and what they do here in the community."
Cleveland Better Hometown hosted a meeting today in the White County Courthouse to get ideas as to what to put into the monument and how it should look.
White County Ninth Grade Academy Has Over 4 Thousand Votes in Competition 09/02/2010 Four local schools in Georgia have been selected as Spirit Awards finalists in Windstream’s Classroom Connections program. The Spirit Award is a $5,000 donation that schools can use to fund anything from computers and text books to band uniforms to athletic equipment. These schools are among thirty finalists selected from over 120 online video entries, and an online vote will determine the top 10 schools to receive the award.
The local schools that have made it to the top 30, and total votes for those schools are:
Commerce Middle School – Commerce, GA - 8,158 votes
White County Ninth Grade Academy – Cleveland, GA - 4,387 votes
Winder-Barrow Middle School – Winder, GA - 3,555 votes
North Murray High School – Chatsworth, GA - 2552 votes
The deadline for voting has been extended to September 7th, and all of these schools need your help to rally and get more votes! Go to www.lifetimetour.com/topvideos.php to view each school’s video entry and vote for their local school to win. SPLOST Projects Coming to White County Schools 09/02/2010 The White County Board of Education has approved over 6 hundred thousand dollars worth of SPLOST projects to go to projects ranging from new computers to security cameras.
The security cameras will be installed at the White County Intermediate School, and Jack P. Nix Primary School. The computers will be going to the Ninth Grade Academy, and the Intermediate School.
Estimates show that the security cameras will cost over 50 thousand dollars to install at each school, with the computer costs being around 4 hundred thousand dollars.
Truett McConnell College Deals with Record Enrollment 09/01/2010 With Truett McConnell College having a record year in terms of enrollment, Dr. Emir Caner, who is the President of Truett McConnell, says that students are still the most important part of what they do.
Caner says, "We want to invest in him or her in a way that benefits both body and soul. In terms of the number (of students) itself, it's stunning. The previous record enrollment was 524, and we are now at 751."
Caner says that TMC is now filled to capacity, but they are working on buildings that would expand their infrastructure to help house an even bigger class for next year.
The Bridge Church has opened their doors to TMC, to allow them to teach two classes there as well as have chapel in the church.
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