A speech therapist from Stone Mountain was found guilty Thursday of defrauding the Georgia Medicaid program of nearly $60,000, the state Attorney General's Office announced. Janine Wright was sentenced to four years in prison and six years of probation.

The man charged with trying to kidnap a 7-year-old girl from a west Georgia Wal-Mart was convicted of killing his uncle in 2004 in DeKalb County, according to documents obtained Thursday. Thomas Andrew Woods, 25, of Austell was taken into custody and questioned before being arrested Wednesday afternoon, Bremen Police Chief Keith Pesnell told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In a process that revealed racial and geographic tensions, DeKalb County’s House delegation was unable Thursday to choose new boundaries for seats on the county school board. Working on a deadline imposed by the state House, the delegation was supposed to select a map Thursday.

The window is rapidly closing for DeKalb County to make tough service or personnel cuts before a midyear budget review this summer. Thursday, the county commission’s budget committee held its second daylong hearing, asking department heads how they would operate with a 5 percent and a 10 percent reduction to their spending.

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida A&M University trustees Thursday called on a group of outside experts to help come up with solutions to hazing, which led to the death of a student band member from DeKalb County last fall. FAMU president James Ammons announced the school's new anti-hazing committee, which will start work immediately, at a university board of trustees meeting.

DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James will talk Friday about a recent grand jury that called for an investigation of the local school system. James said in a written statement Thursday that two school board members, Chairman Eugene Walker and Vice Chairman Tom Bowen, will be with him at the county courthouse to speak on the issue.

Authorities in Morris County say they've caught a fugitive burglary suspect from Lithonia known as the "Office Creeper." Gerald Broadwater was arrested Thursday morning in Newark by state police and members of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Authorities are looking for the mother of a toddler left Thursday with Stone Mountain police. DeKalb County police were called in to help find the 18-month-old boy's parents and facilitated getting the child to state Department of Family and Child Services officials, police authorities said.

The cost of using the I-85 HOT lane on Thursday morning tied the record high that was set 24 hours earlier. Wednesday and Thursday morning's price of $4.70 surpassed  the previous record of $4.55 set on Monday and matched again on Tuesday. According to the State Road and Tollway Authority, the new benchmark to drive the 16-mile stretch of I-85 in the HOT lane was set at 7:11 a.

Parents, educators and advocates are expected to pack the room today, when DeKalb County’s House delegation approves the county’s school board map for the next decade. The delegation also will vote on new political lines for the County Commission at its meeting, but there is little controversy over small changes to those districts.

One person was injured in a fire at a DeKalb County apartment building Wednesday night, Channel 2 Action News reported. The incident happened at the Lenox Summit Apartments in the 2400 block of East Club Drive off Peachtree Road around 8 p.m. Nearly 200 elderly and disabled residents were evacuated, and the fire was contained to one first-floor unit of the five-story building, Channel 2 said.

Mental health courts in DeKalb and Cobb counties were among 20 statewide that received $353,676 in grants, the Administrative Office of the Courts said. The DeKalb Magistrate Court's Diversion Treatment Court received a $37,500 grant, and the Cobb Family Dependency Treatment Court and Cobb Juvenile Drug Court were each awarded $4,473.

Chamblee Charter, DeKalb School of Arts, Dunwoody and Lakeside high schools have been named AP Honor Schools by State School Superintendent Dr. John Barge. AP classes and exams are administered by the College Board, and students with good enough grades can get college credit.

A motorist was killed early Wednesday in a single vehicle wreck in south DeKalb County. Channel 2 Action News reported that a car hit the South River bridge on Waldrop Road and went down an embankment. The driver was killed, and a passenger in the vehicle fled the scene following the wreck.

Members of the Georgia General Assembly will give a public update about proposals to redraw school board lines. Rep. Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth), Sen. Fran Millar (R-Dunwoody) and Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) were invited to the panel hosted by the Emory Lavista Parent Council.

Goodbye, city of Brookhaven, at least for now. A House committee agreed Tuesday that residents of north-central DeKalb County should be allowed to vote this summer on whether to create a city there. But over objections of state Rep. Mike Jacobs, the Republican from the area leading the cityhood fight, the name will be Ashford.

Cheryl Atkinson had just landed the job as superintendent of DeKalb County Schools when she foresaw the problem of overstaffing at the central office potentially spilling into the district's Race to the Top grant program. In 2010, DeKalb was awarded $34 million as one of 26 local school districts that signed onto the state's successful grant application.

The DeKalb County School System will host a public forum on Feb. 15 to gather opinions about technology needs for its triennial technology plan update. Officials will be assessing technology needs in the classroom and offices before applying for grants, including federal eRate funds, to make upgrades.

A DeKalb County man accused of shooting a sheriff's deputy during a 2010 standoff pleaded guilty Monday, opting for a 20-year prison sentence. Joshua Matthew Waller was also sentenced to 20 years' probation after he pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted murder, four counts of aggravated assault, simple assault, terrorism and gun possession.

An Atlanta woman remained in jail Monday after being arrested Saturday because police said she abandoned her 3-year-old daughter at a bus stop on Bouldercrest Drive. Rochelle Payton, 41, is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday on a cruelty to children charge after a witness said she left the child at the stop and ran away, Channel 2 Action News reported.

Bishop Eddie Long has apologized for last Sunday's service at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church that drew the ire of Jewish groups and religious scholars. "The ceremony was not my suggestion, nor was it my intent, to participate in any ritual that is offensive in any manner to the Jewish community," Long wrote in a letter sent Saturday to Bill Nigut, Southeast Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League.

Two committees of DeKalb County lawmakers that are working to redraw political lines for the County Commission and county school board districts postponed voting on new maps Monday but expect to act by the week’s end. The state House committee looking at the redistricting map for the school board received several proposed boundaries over the weekend, and Chairwoman Simone Bell, D-Atlanta, said she wanted to give members time to review the offerings.

One person was killed Monday morning in a wreck on a busy south DeKalb County thoroughfare. The crash happened before 10:30 a.m. on Covington Highway near Wesley Chapel Road. DeKalb police Lt. Antonio Catlin said one person died in the two-car crash. The identity of the person killed was not immediately released.

A DeKalb County man who said he tried to revive a woman after she committed suicide in their apartment was in jail Saturday facing drug trafficking charges. When police arrived at the Gable Apartments on Sheridan Road on Friday evening, they found Quiana Roache, 20, dead from a suspected suicide by gunshot.

Local tax assessors this spring will be allowed to raise property values for the first time in four years unless state lawmakers intervene. Because home prices in a few metro Atlanta neighborhoods — including parts of north Fulton and DeKalb counties — have risen, so, too, should the values of some those homes for property tax purposes, assessors say.