(Thursday, 20 November 2008) Georgia's unemployment picture is far from pretty; the widow of one of Brian Nichols' victims brings a gun to the courthouse; TI is expected to testify in the trial about his best childhood friend's murder. Read more about the latest KISS News Now!
Georgia's unemployment rate is the highest it's been in 16 years. At 7%, it's even higher than the national average. Since October of 2007, 61,300 Georgians have lost their jobs, and that's the largest-ever one-year drop the state's ever recorded.
Speaking of which--if you're among the 343,000 Georgians looking for work--don't fall for an old e-mail scam offering to sell you information about how to get a dream job with the post office. The US Postal Service is not hiring, despite old e-mails saying they are, and furthermore, you should never pay money to get a job. Plus, the scammers often get your credit card or bank account number for permission to charge you $2.00 for some sort of list of jobs and exam prep documents, and then end up running the charge for something like $60.
The Atlanta Regional Commission's Regional Snapshot shows metro Atlanta's high-paying jobs are decreasing--and the number of low-paying service sector jobs is on the rise. More than 40,000 jobs paying an average of $5,700 a month have been lost since 2001.
Prosecutors keep pushing to get the needle in Brian Nichols' arm. Jurors have heard a jailhouse phone call in which Nichols tells his brother he wished he'd killed more people the day of the shooting rampage. "Yeah, I did that s***, and I'd do it again," Nichols says on the call. "Matter of fact, if I could do something different I'd stop down on the 3rd floor and shoot your a**." The third floor is where the district attorney's office is located.
Fulton County deputies are finding contraband from those attending the trial. Nichols' brother had a razor refill on him--but his mom tells a reporter that her son's a barber in Florida and simply forgot it was in his pocket. Candee Wilhelm, the widow of the customs agent Nichols killed, said she forgot her .380 pistol was in her purse when she came to court this week.
Condemned killer Troy Anthony Davis gets another day in court. An Atlanta federal appeals court will hear arguments December 9 on whether Davis can launch new challenges to his death row conviction for shooting a Savannah cop. The 11th Circuit issued Davis a stay of his execution three days before he was slated to be put to death October 27.
Former President Bill Clinton rallies for Jim Martin at Clark Atlanta, telling voters not to send someone to Washington who'll be a "firewall to the future!" Martin and Saxby Chambliss are in a December 2 runoff for the US Senate; early voting is underway. Mr. Clinton told a crowd that the man who wins this election will be the one "whose supporters want it most."
Atlanta considers furloughing firefighters to close a big budget gap. The City Council president says the council will give up $2 million of their budgets to help keep fire stations open.
Cherokee, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett Counties want $80 million in federal funds to create a "house flipping" program in areas hit hard by foreclosure. Their idea is to buy problem homes, fix them up, and sell or rent them--in many cases to the same people who lost homes to foreclosure in the first place.
TI is expected to testify tomorrow in the Cincinnati trial of the man accused of killing TI's best friend two years ago. Philant Johnson was shot to death following a squabble at an after-hours party; TI narrowly escaped being hurt himself.
The Final Four comes back to Atlanta; the Georgia Dome hosts in 2013.
Al-Qaida's number-two man slams Barack Obama. Al-Qaida's first tape since the election calls Obama, Colin Powell and Condi Rice "abeed al-beit," which they translate to mean "house negroes." Ayman Al-Zawarhi says all three do the bidding of whites and are the direct opposite of the honorable Malcolm X.
Today is Vice President-elect Joe Biden's 66th birthday; his boss, President-elect Obama, gave him a dozen cupcakes--with candles.
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