Posted: 10:34 a.m. Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Obama: 'Dangerous Game' On Debt Limit; Jaywalking Mom Faces Time For Son's Hit & Run; Hampton Bans Sagging Pants
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- President Obama says Americans are fed up with a town where "compromise" is a dirty word. Monday night, he urged voters to contact lawmakers and tell them to settle on an agreement over raising the nation's debt limit.
"This is no way to run the greatest country on earth," said the president in a primetime address. "It's a dangerous game that we've never played before, and we can't afford to play it now."
House Speaker John Boehner accuses the president of just wanting a blank check and says he tried to work out a deal but that Mr. Obama "would not take yes for an answer."
If the government defaults, as of August 3 the US will have about $170 billion in the bank to pay bills--and more than $370 billion in bills due for payment. - Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says the nation's busiest airport could be affected if Congress fails to resolve the debt limit debate. Already, the final $10 million payment for the construction of the fifth runway at Hartsfield Jackson International Airport has been delayed.
- Sentencing is today for Cobb County mother Raquel Nelson, who faces up to three years for 2nd-degree vehicular homicide in last year's death of her four-year-old son. Nelson was convicted of jaywalking when her family crossed Austell Road outside of a crosswalk after getting off a CCT bus. The hit-and-run driver who pleaded guilty in the case, Jerry Guy, served six months of a five-year sentence, with the balance being on probation.
- Atlanta's General Larry Platt sang about it; now a Henry County town is doing something about it. Hampton is turning its cops into fashion police, and banning pants on the ground--or at least those that sag below the booty. If the pants hang three inches or more, and also expose skin or underwear, violators can get tickets starting at $50. Repeat offenders may face fines up to $200.
- Gwinnett County Police will stop writing tickets--because they're going electronic. Police, fire marshals, animal control and code enforcement workers will now have hand-held devices to record your ticket, upload it on a cellular modem and print it on the spot. The police chief says the technology will allow officers to operate more efficiently, and lead to less time spent on paperwork.
- The family of Amy Winehouse welcomes friends and family to hold a private funeral Tuesday for the singer, who was found dead last week at the age of 27. Monday, an autopsy failed to find her cause of death.
- A South African man wakes up to find himself inside a morgue refrigerator. Workers who heard Sizwe Kupelo yelling for help first ran far away in fear--then went back to the drawer to let him out. He was checked out at the hospital and sent home. Kupelo's family had called the undertaker 21 hours before, after he collapsed from an asthma attack. The morgue driver had checked his pulse and breathing and didn't get a response, so thought he was dead. Kupelo urged South Africans to call on health officials to confirm that their relatives are really dead.|
- Cobb County commissioners today decide whether the raise the county millage rate 17%. It would be the first Cobb tax hike in more than 20 years. Clayton County tonight votes on a 34% tax increase. The alternative is a 14-day furlough of county employees.
- "Separate and unequal." That's what one analyst says about the state of blacks and whites' finances in the United States. The recession and the uneven recovery from it have wiped out a lot of the economic gains made by lower-income Americans--and now the wealth gap between whites and people of color is at its biggest in 25 years.
"A third of all black households and a third of all Hispanic households have either zero or negative net worth," says the Pew Center's Paul Taylor. "So they are really living life at the margins, and when bad economic times come, there's nothing for them to draw on."
Taylor says in 2009 when the recession was officially over, the median wealth of white households was 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households. - An Oklahoma man who took his Chinese cups made of rhinoceros horn to the Antiques Roadshow gets the biggest appraisal in the show's history--$1.5 million. He says at least he won't have to live on Social Security anymore. Check your attics, folks: Antiques Roadhsow comes to the convention center in College Park August 6.
- The NFL lockout is finally over, as the players and owners agree to a 10-year deal. Club facilities are open, teams can now talk to veteran free agents and sign draft picks, and training camps may open as early as tomorrow.
- The first test of the new law allowing the governor to revamp troubled school boards comes today. Atlanta School Board members make their case in a courtroom-style hearing for why they should keep their jobs after coming under the critical spotlight of the SACS, the school accrediting agency.
- As customers give Netflix an earful over its recent rate hike, the world's largest retailer steps in to give it some competition. Wal-Mart is now renting and streaming movies online--many the same day they come out.
- The KISS 104 weather forecast: partly cloudy, isolated showers and highs in the upper 80s-low 90s.
About Veronica Waters
Veronica Waters is the morning news anchor on KISS 104.1 and B-98.5FM. She is also an anchor and reporter for 95.
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