Gwinnett County legislators, District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson and U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath participated in a remembrance marking the two-year anniversary of two shootings that shook the local Asian-American community.
The shootings happened on March 16, 2021 at two Asian-owned spas in metro Atlanta, one in Atlanta and another in Cherokee County, and resulted in the deaths of eight people. Many people have labeled the shootings as racially-motivated hate crimes because most of the victims were Asian-Americans. The anniversary brought pledges from elected officials to tackle hate crimes and gun violence. US Representative Lucy McBath, said supporters of gun control legislation must rededicate themselves to fighting for laws to be passed address gun violence. She highlighted the passage, last year, of the Safer Communities Act in Congress.
Gun control is something which has been a signature issue for the congresswoman, who lost her son to gun violence more than decade ago.
It is becoming harder for frontline workers — such as police officers, firefighters, nurses and school teachers — who work in Gwinnett County to also live in the county, according to the head of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s Board of Directors.
ARC Board Chairman Kerry Armstrong said housing is a major issue facing Gwinnett County, and the Atlanta region as a whole, as he addressed the Gwinnett Chamber this week. Armstrong said there are a number of issues that face the metro Atlanta region, including transportation, resiliency in areas such as water, homeland security, infrastructure and equal access to opportunity remain challenges the area has to continually address.
But, he added that a lack of affordable housing is an issue that can threaten the region’s sustainability if it not addressed, particularly with metro Atlanta’s population expected to grow by 1.8 million people — the equivalent of metro Nashville’s entire current population — by 2050. The ARC set up the Metro Atlanta Housing Strategy a few years back in an effort to address the housing affordability issue on a regional scale. The strategy is designed to provide local government officials with information about their housing situation, and to show them potential solutions that can be used to address affordability issues.
Gwinnett County Police Department officials say violent crime was down in 2022, but they are taking steps to further reduce it by taking a new approach to tackle crimes that involve guns.
The department has created a new Gun Crimes Unit that will use technology and data, as well as intelligence gathered by investigators, to connect the guns used during crimes to criminals. The new unit, which currently has two investigators, was launched on February 1. The Gun Crimes Unit is one step the police department announced it is taking to address violent crimes and solve them. Uniform officers are receiving new training on collecting shell casings from crime scenes and they will work more closely with the department’s Gang Unit to investigate gun thefts, illegal possession and illegal sales cases.
The police department already has some data that sheds light on crimes that involve guns. One such fact that they are highlighting is that 91% of guns which are stolen in Gwinnett County are taken from a vehicle.
That has led to the department’s Community Affairs Section offering firearm safety and security classes, which are available to all Gwinnett residents. The department is also offering residents free gun locks which can be picked up at the GCPD headquarters as well as all of its precincts.
As a youngster racing Bandolero and Legends cars on Atlanta Motor Speedway, Joey Logano won many races, but as a NASCAR Cup Series driver he never got to victory lane at AMS.
Until Sunday. Logano started from the pole, dominated the first two stages, and led a race-high 140 laps, but it all came down the last lap.
Logano and Brad Keselowski battled the last several laps with Keselowski running the outside line in first and Logano running in second place on the bottom.
On the final lap, Logano was able to take the lead and cross the finish line in first. Logano said with all the memories of him and his dad racing at AMS, getting the win was his career coming “full circle.”
Registration is open for the 2023 Gwinnett Football League season for both youth football players and cheerleaders.
The GFL, which feeds Gwinnett County’s high school programs, features member associations at school clusters around the county. Age groups range from 6- and 7-year-olds up to eighth grade.
For details and registration forms, go to gflsports.com under the Parents tab/page. Each cluster school association’s page will have complete registration details and can be accessed from the main GFL page.
Becca Wilson had a gut feeling that, after her son, Caiden, was hit in the head with a baseball before a game in April 2022, that his injury might be worse than it initially appeared.
Caiden, who plays for North Gwinnett High School’s baseball team, was knocked unconscious after the ball hit him during batting practice before a game against Loganville High School. He had been loading balls into the pitching machine and couldn’t get behind a protective screen in time before a teammate hit a line drive up the middle.
Caiden regained consciousness pretty quickly, but had bruises and was repeating himself, so his mother took him to the hospital. That mother’s intuition turned out to be right. Caiden had suffered a concussion, temporal bone fracture, traumatic epidural hematoma, nasal bone fractures, uncial herniation, and a subarachnoid hemorrhage.
While he was getting a CAT scan in the hospital’s emergency department, his condition began to deteriorate, which doctors refer to as decompensating, and he fell into a coma. Doctors immediately took him into surgery to remove a clot and relieve pressure on his brain. Caiden quickly recovered and is back as the starting third baseman for the Bulldogs, just 10 months after his injury. Caiden said his recovery was tough at first, but the prospect of being an athlete again, and getting back to baseball, drove him to get better.
For more information be sure to visit www.bgpodcastnetwork.com
https://www.lawrencevillega.org/
https://www.fernbankmuseum.org/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
