A Doraville police officer has been arrested in connection with the death of a 16-year-old Norcross teen whose body was found off State Route 316 last week.
Gwinnett County police are still investigating how Susana Morales died. She went missing last July while walking home and her body was found near the Gwinnett-Barrow county line on February 6.
Gwinnett law enforcement officials have not released details of how Doraville Police Officer Miles Bryant was involved in the Morales case. He has not been charged with killing Morales, but he has been charged with false report of a crime and concealing the death of another. Bryant is a Norcross resident, according to Gwinnett County police.
Doraville police said they were notified on Monday afternoon that arrest warrants would be served against Bryant.
Doraville officials said Bryant is no longer employed by the city's police department.
A new bill would prohibit transgender Georgians under 18 from receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy or surgery. The Bill’s main sponsor is Senator Clint Dixon, a Republican from Gwinnett County. The eight-page bill includes a long list of procedures that would be barred, including gender-affirming hormone therapy and surgical procedures. The legislation includes some exceptions, including for people who are “born with a medically verifiable disorder of sex development” and for the treatment of “a physical disorder … injury … or illness that is certified by a physician.”
A physician who provides any of the services to a person under 18 would be considered to have committed “unprofessional conduct” and would be subject to discipline by their licensing board. The bill would also require school employees to inform parents if their child is transgender. Medical groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, support gender-affirming care for transgender children when the physician and family deem it appropriate. One unintended consequence of the bill could be the prohibition of circumcision, said state Senator Kim Jackson, a Democrat from Stone Mountain. That’s because the bill includes a provision that would prohibit the removal of “any healthy or nondiseased body part or tissue.”
Circumcision is a common practice and is a required or strongly encouraged in some religions, including Judaism and Islam.
A statue of Martin Luther King Jr. that will be featured at the Rodney Cook Sr. Peace Park will reside in Atlanta, but it has major Gwinnett County connections.
Local philanthropists Clyde and Sandra Strickland are helping fund the statue — which will depict Dr. King in a pastor's robe and holding an open Bible — and longtime Gwinnett artist Kathy Fincher is one of the sculptors.
Fincher and the Stricklands are lifetime friends, and their collaboration on the MLK statue was born out of a mutual desire to depict the civil rights leader in a way he had not been previously shown. Kathy Fincher wanted to emphasize the role faith played in Dr. King’s life. That's why she wanted to show him in a pastor's robe, looking upward while delivering his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, which was also the wish of the National Monument Foundation. The sculpture, which she is working on with Athens artist Stan Mullin, also shows a Bible open to scripture about Moses. The statue will be unveiled on April 1 followed by a World Peace Revival "Peace Walk." Clyde Strickland said the sculpture will not only make its mark on that day, but for decades to come.
Legislation introduced into the Georgia House of Representatives Monday marks the latest effort to legalize sports betting in Georgia.
House Bill 380, sponsored by state Representative Marcus Wiedower, a Republican from Watkinsville, is being supported by the Metro Atlanta Chamber. Like sports betting legislation floated in past years in the General Assembly, Wiedower’s bill calls for sports betting to be overseen by the Georgia Lottery Corp.
Unlike previous sports betting bills, the new measure would allow for two types of sports betting licenses. It calls for awarding up to 16 Type 1 licenses to companies that would provide online sports betting services.
A second variety of licenses – known as Type 2 – would go to brick-and-mortar businesses in Georgia that would offer in-person sports betting. Sports betting legislation in past years has been limited strictly to online betting.
Licensees would pay 15% of their adjusted gross incomes to the state in the form of a “privilege tax” that would be set aside to help fund education in Georgia.
The bill sets out penalties for violators and includes provisions requiring companies involved in sports betting to offer programs to help problem gamblers.
North Gwinnett Middle School orchestra teacher Sarah Ball has been honored with the 2023 Elizabeth A. H. Green School Educator Award.
According to Gwinnett County Public Schools officials, Ball earned the recognition "for her profound impact on string education in her community, state, and beyond." The honor is a national award presented annually by the American String Teachers Association to one school string teacher with a current and distinguished career in a school orchestral setting. From her award nomination letter, her co-teacher Amy Clement stated, “… she is a passionate music educator who enjoys sharing her love of teaching with others. She has recruited countless numbers of students, mentored many student teachers, inspired hundreds of music educators, and of the highest compliment, she has even had several former students become orchestra teachers to follow in her footsteps.”
As a creative mind and innovative advocate for string education, Ball has connected, inspired, taught, coached, and developed current and future generations of string students and teachers. According to GCPS officials, Ball has not only been a leader in Gwinnett County schools "but also shared her light beyond her school district with incomparable engagement and motivational strategies in state, local, regional, and national presentations, and guest clinician performances. Her service to the profession is greatly valued and appreciated." The award reviewers also noted these activities as incredibly influential – including serving as GMEA orchestra division chair, as Georgia ASTA president, and as a member-at-large on the national ASTA board. The impact that she has made in guest conducting roles not only influences those students in the ensembles, but also their teachers and families. Ball will receive the award during a presentation at the national conference in Orlando in March.
Cherokee Bluff already knew Seckinger wasn’t an ordinary first-year boys basketball program after the regular season meeting between the two teams in December.
In case the host Bears had forgotten, however, the Jaguars gave them a reminder during their Region 8-AAAA Tournament quarterfinal Monday night at Cherokee Bluff.
Seckinger got balanced scoring and held off multiple Cherokee Bluff attempts at a rally to earn the program’s first state tournament bid with a 65-54 victory. Carter Watkins led Seckinger with 15 points, 10 rebounds and three assists, but had plenty of help, with three other players in double figures and a fourth nearly joining them.
That total team effort not only put the Jaguars in the state tournament, it also moved them into the region semifinals, where they will take on Number 4 state-ranked Madison County on Thursday night.
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