Posted: 10:08 a.m. Monday, Feb. 21, 2011
Decatur Court Clerk Arrested; Mom Makes Son Stand With '1.22 GPA' Sign; Poker Playing, Modeling Mom
By Veronica Waters
- An assistant court clerk in Decatur may have been lining her own pockets on the job. Sonequa James is out of jail on bond after being charged with felony theft, and her termination is pending. James' co-workers became suspicious when a man came in to complain that he had paid a ticket, but had gotten a notice that the bill was still outstanding. He produced a receipt that showed he'd paid in cash. Staffers checked the books and now believe James, 37, has stolen at least $10,000.
- Four teenagers were shot, another grazed by shrapnel in a shooting at a 'Sweet 16' birthday party in Snellville. Descriptions of the suspects are as varied as the 50 guests inside the Loch Ness Lane house. All the victims were treated and released. The house has about a dozen gunshots in it.
- The vice-chair of the Clayton County Board of Commissioners is nailed on a DUI arrest in Atlanta. An officer reported seeing a red Ford Mustang roar out of a Metropolitan Avenue parking lot around 2:30 Saturday morning; when pulled over, he says the driver, Wole Ralph, was uncooperative and put up a brief struggle. The 33-year-old Ralph is charged with DUI, reckless driving, failure to maintain lane and obstruction.
- A Tampa mother makes her 15-year-old son stand on the corner wearing a sign saying "GPA 1.22 ... honk if I need education." Ronda Holder says she and the boy's father have tried several solutions to get his grades up, but that she was fed up with his apathetic attitude. James Mond wore the sign for nearly four hours; someone reported Holder to the Department of Children and Families, but she's also accepted an offer for free tutoring from a program for at-risk students. Mond is set to start an intensive five-day-a-week schedule.
- She was driving, he was riding shotgun--but they were having words and that's when things got ugly. Marietta Police report that the 23-year-old woman stopped the Dodge Durango in the middle of Cobb Parkway-- and while her passenger was climbing out, the SUV was rear-ended by a Lexus ES350. Everyone had to go the Kennestone to be treated for injuries. No word what the couple's argument was about.
- You know all the advice that you should stretch before running? Forget it. George Washington University researchers studied runners over three months, and found the risk of injury was the same for the group that stretched as for the group that didn't--16%. Researchers say that runners who suddenly begin a different routine are more likely to experience an injury.
- Michael Vick is being replaced by David Arquette on "Oprah.'' Oprah Winfrey tells the Hollywood Reporter that she and her staff had been working for months on the Vick interview. They'd already pre-taped segments with him. Vick said he had personal reasons for pulling out of this Thursday's episode. Some owners of his rescued pit bulls said they think he ditched because he didn't want to be confronted by them on TV. "He said personal reasons," Winfrey told The Hollywood Reporter. "We did a field trip with him. We had been shooting with Michael Vick. And the fact that he pulled out and all his people...We move on."
- Another scandal rocks Oprah's elite South African high school. Police are investigating whether to file charges after the body of a newborn baby was found on the campus of the girls' school. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy said in a statement that it was awaiting the outcome of the police investigation, and providing counseling for students. Soon after Winfrey's school opened in 2007, a dormitory supervisor was accused of trying to kiss and fondle students. The supervisor was acquitted of sexual assault charges last year.
- Like many modern women, Ebony Kenney is a working mom: up by 7:00, breakfast for the kids, kids off to school, mom off to work. But unlike most modern moms, Kenney does her day's work at the tables. The Miami-area mother of two is a professional poker player. The 28-year-old has $80,000 in recent winnings--including a $24,000 tournament win last month in Pompano Beach. She says her kids, ages 4 and 9, know that "Mommy plays poker." But it's not an easy life. She says last summer she was so down on her luck--coupled with her lavish spending so out of control--that she was broke, and her kids had to live with their father. Kenney was crashing on couches. She called that her "rock bottom," and bounced back. Friends sponsored her $500 entry into a local tourney with a promise of half of any Kenney winnings--which they got when she came away with the $9,000 pot. Now, she plays poker full-time, and models on the side. You may recognize her from her stint in the T-Pain video "Rap Song."
- Most guys his age are partying with a frat or buckling down into their major classes at college. But 20-year-old Trevor Bayne isn't studying history--he has just made it. One day after his 20th birthday, Bayne became the youngest driver ever to win the Daytona 500, stunning NASCAR's biggest names witn a thriller overtime win. He was so excited, he missed the turn pulling into Victory Lane and had to get directions.
- Atlanta's school board is holding an emergency meeting to discuss litigation amid a state investigation into test-tampering. Board members will convene in public at 4:00 today, then go into executive session. They will meet with outgoing superintendent Beverly Hall to question her about allegations that her top aide encouraged principals not to cooperate with an investigation into possible cheating on the CRCT.
- The KISS 104.1 weather forecast: partly cloudy, high of 70, lows mid-40s overnight.
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