Archived News

Hearing for accused killer set for April 12 

A teenager who is accused of killing two people at a Stone Mountain apartment complex will have a pretrial hearing on Thursday, April 12.

DeAndre White, 18 at the time of the killings, will appear before Judge Daniel Coursey with the opportunity to enter a plea. If White does not plead guilty to the crimes, the trial is expected to begin the week of April 16, according to chief assistant district attorney Nicole Marchand.

White is charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of 26-year-old Andre Harlan and 22-year-old Michelle Smith. The victims were sitting in a car at The Colony apartment complex on North Hairston Road when they were shot.

Committee to hear complaint against Clarkston mayor

The City of Clarkston Ethics Committee will hold a hearing April 12 to review a complaint against Mayor Emanuel Ransom.

The complaint alleges violations of the city’s ethics codes stemming from Ransom’s alleged representation of Talar’s International Foods in a city code inspection matter.  The hearing will be open to the public and attendees will be allowed to make statements regarding the complaint at the end of the hearing. The ethics committee will issue a written determination and recommendations to City Council after the hearing.

The hearing will take place at 7 p.m. in council chambers at City Hall. 

Adopt-A-Stream program wins state award

The DeKalb County Adopt-A-Stream (AAS) program was among four statewide to win a 2011 Adopt-A-Stream Watershed Award presented by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Achievements of the DeKalb AAS in 2011 included hosting 39 workshops that certified 639 volunteers.  Furthermore, the program provided basic chemical testing kits to all new monitoring groups and loaned out other monitoring program equipment to volunteers.  The training of volunteers led to 253 monitoring events, an increase of 146 percent from the beginning of 2010.  Also in 2011, there were 22 new monitoring sites and 39 active sites.  DeKalb AAS also supported stream cleanups through Rivers Alive.  Last year, 519 volunteers provided 1,048 work hours to remove 24,650 pounds of trash and debris from area waterways.