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Police searching for suspect in Stone Mountain bank robbery

DeKalb County police are searching for a man who robbed a Stone Mountain bank on Aug. 17.  The man walked into the Wachovia bank at 4798 Redan Road and passed a note to the teller saying he was armed and demanding cash at 12:51 p.m., said Jason Gagn...

Shuttered church sues Avondale Estates

Pastor Willie Hawkins, left, Pastor Rose Ann Thomas and Chief Apostle E.M. Byre inside the sanctuary at Christ Liberty Family Center.
The city of Avondale Estates shut down the Christ Liberty Family Life Center – a church – in April because it didn’t meet the city’s acreage and frontage requirements. Now, the church is fighting back – with a lawsuit. The suit, filed late ...

County looking for public input on strategic plan

The DeKalb County government is looking for public input on the creation of its strategic plan. The county will hold several community forums to allow residents, business owners and other stakeholders to give input into the plan. The planning proces...

Schools open across DeKalb County, but not without a few hitches

An Avondale Elementary School teacher leads students down a side street after school. Photos by Jonathan Cribbs
Schools opened across DeKalb County on Aug. 9 mostly without a hitch, school officials said. More than 93,000 students showed up at their desks in the morning. Learning abounded. But the day didn’t progress without incident. Principal Rita Harper-H...

Avondale Estates hires city planner

Keri Stevens was hired as Avondale Estates’ first city planner. She started July 13 and previously worked at Pond & Co., an Atlanta architectural and engineering consulting firm. Photo by Jonathan Cribbs
Keri Stevens said she regrets the fact that they don’t really make buildings the way they used to. She said she admires classic Atlanta structures like the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills in the Cabbagetown neighborhood. When an F2 tornado tore through...

School district budget outlook brightens as administrators wait for state revenue hit

The DeKalb County School System’s budgetary outlook could see an additional $13 million to $18 million in property tax revenue, but district officials are holding their breath before celebrating. The county’s tax digest, initially projected by co...

New commissioner prepares to take seat, Carter, Johnson gear up for November

Stan Watson
Sitting outside a breakfast restaurant in downtown Decatur on July 23, Stan Watson was already wondering how the CEO and the board of commissioners might better communicate with each other when the next budgetary season arrives in December. “I donâ...

Stopping the summer brain drain

Summer reading programs first started in the late 1800s to give urban students something to do during their breaks while their rural counterparts sweated it out on the farm. Now they’ve got a new purpose: stanching our youth’s collective summer b...

Watson takes county commission district 7 race

Watson addresses the crowd at a forum in the DeKalb History Center.. Photo by Travis Hudgons
Former state representative Stan Watson easily defeated three other candidates in the race for the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners’ district 7 seat. Watson won 68 percent of the July 20 vote, according to preliminary county results. Kathryn Ri...

Johnson to face Carter in November election

U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson fended off Vernon Jones and Connie Stokes in the Democratic primary July 20 and will face Republican Liz Carter in November’s general election. Johnson narrowly avoided a runoff for the 4th congressional district that could h...