SundayAJC: Five must-reads for the Nov. 8 edition

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The AJC is committed to bringing our readers the best investigative coverage in Atlanta in each Sunday’s newspaper. Here’s an excerpt of a story coming in this Sunday’s AJC:

Every time someone in Georgia purchases a pre-paid cell phone, a fee is tacked on to the purchase. Under state law, the money — more than $15 million raised thus far — is supposed to go to improvements at 911 call centers around the state.

But not a penny has gone where it was supposed to.

The fee is just one of dozens the state collects on everything from added surcharges on some criminal fines to the purchase of new tires to the purchase of hunting and fishing licenses.

In 2009 alone, the state collected more than $86.5 million from 14 fees collected by county civil and criminal courts. Tens of millions more come from hundreds of other fees the state collects. But only a sliver of the total amount goes to the programs the fees were created to help fund.

Read the rest of the story in Sunday’s AJC.

Also in this Sunday’s newspaper, check out these must-reads:

-- The recent dangerous landing of a Delta jet on a Hartsfield-Jackson airport taxiway: how common are such incidents?

-- Every day is Veterans Day for the soldiers responsible for laying their comrades to rest with honor in the North Georgia soil.

-- Federal, state and local taxpayers spent a small fortune to lure 6,000 Kia jobs to Georgia. Was it worth it?

-- We’ll have full coverage of the health care vote scheduled for Saturday in the U.S. House, including how Georgia’s representatives voted.

Plus the deepest, smartest analysis of what to expect in the intense runoff for Atlanta mayor.

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