Posted: 11:51 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009
Military Mom Assaulted Amid Racial Slurs; President's 'Jackass' Remark About Kanye (AUDIO)
By Veronica Waters
- An Army Reserves captain is recovering from bruises, and her daughter from emotional trauma, after a south Georgia man beat and kicked the 35-year-old woman outside a Cracker Barrel in Morrow. Police say 47-year-old Troy West (below) went off on Tashawnea Hill when she cautioned him to "be careful" after he flung open the restaurant door, nearly hitting her 7-year-old daughter. West, a white man, told cops Hill had spit on them, but they say a review of the surveillance tape which captured the attack doesn't back that up--and neither did the eyewitnesses.
As West jumped on her, Hill told him she was in the military--but he kept on with his assault, she says, saying, "No, you're an effing black [expletive] and he punched me in my face."
As her daughter screamed, cops say Hill was punched and kicked in the head by West, who yelled racial slurs. The FBI is reviewing the surveillance tape, and federal hate crimes charges could be filed. Cracker Barrel has sent Hill's family a gift basket. - Spelman and Clark Atlanta are among two historically black colleges in an initiative to train female students for careers as entrepreneurs. Coeds will receive one of 31 scholarships for their junior and senior years, and a mentor from Goldman Sachs.
- President Obama weighs in--off the record--on Kanye West stealing Taylor Swift's spotlight at the VMAs. He'd finished an interview with CNBC after his Wall Street speech "The young lady seems like a perfectly nice person, she's getting her award, what's he doing up there?" "Why'd he do that?" asked someone. "He's a jackass," the president replied. "Now, I'm assuming all this stuff...come on, guys. Cut the president some slack. I got a lot of other stuff on my plate."
But ABC's Terry Moran tweeted about it to his million followers on Twitter:
When he learned that the tidbit was not going to be used on abcnews.com, Moran took it down--but it had been online for about an hour. ABC has apologized to the White House and to CNBC.
Kanye West, meanwhile, has personally apologized to Taylor Swift, calling her at The View yesterday after she finished her appearance on the show and discussed the incident there. While View insiders won't reveal details of the pair's conversation, they say Swift accepted West's apology, and she confirmed that later in a radio interview. - Grief counselors will be in action today at Usher Elementary in northwest Atlanta. That's where 5-year-old Everett Johnson was a kindergartner. He was killed after being hit by his school bus; the driver thought all the children were clear, but Johnson had bent over to pick up his dropped book bag near the right front tire--and he was run over. Charges are pending, and the bus driver's name hasn't been released.
- Today, a federal judge in Columbus is expected to rule in the case of an Army officer at Fort Benning who's fighting deployment to Afghanistan. Captain Connie Rhodes contends President Obama was born in Kenya, so he has no authority as commander-in-chief. A similar challenge filed by another reservist was tossed out this summer.
- "Mrs. Sonny Perdue" is on the run. Police in Pooler, a town near Savannah, are looking for a woman who did a poor impersonation of Mary Perdue. She'd come inside the gas station to pay for the $37 in fuel she'd pumped into her Ford Explorer and a bag of Cheetos. Her check and debit cards weren't approved, though, so the woman whipped out a cell phone, declared she was the governor's wife and pretended to be on the phone with the FBI. She snatched the Cheetos and walked out without paying.
- Homeowners in parts of north Fulton and south Forsyth Counties say something stinks--their water. They're talking about a nasty, sulfur-like odor coming from the taps for at least a week now. An Alpharetta spokesman says they haven't found any leaks or spills or the source of the smell in Big Creek, but that the water is safe--even though it smells, as one resident declared, like rotten eggs.
- Beverly Hall Furniture is rolling up its carpets in Buckhead, after 50 years in business. The location on Piedmont is a victim of the economic downturn, says the owner. A public liquidation sale starts Friday; the stores in Roswell and Hilton Head are not affected.
- The KISS 104.1 weather forecast: cloudy, hazy and muggy; a 60% chance of showers or thunderstorms, and a high near 81.
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