http://www.ajc.com The latest headlines from AJC en-us Copyright 2008, Cox Newspapers Inc., AJC Sun, 23 Nov 2008 12:16:39 EST Newspapers COXnet RSS Generator v1.0 http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/08/17/52/image_1352178.jpg http://www.ajc.com 5 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/business/stories/2008/11/23/atlanta_businesses_recession.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=6 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/business/stories/2008/11/23/atlanta_businesses_recession.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=6 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:48:22 EST When Phil Prebor's aircraft mechanic job flew away for the fifth time, he decided he had had enough. "I realized that the only way I was going to have steady work or control my destiny was to work for myself," said Prebor, who started a repair business in Peachtree City after he was laid off by Delta Air Lines in 1994. After two weeks of handing out fliers and knocking on doors, Prebor knew he and his new business, Routine Maintenance, could prosper by fixing folks' cars, homes, airplanes or whatever. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/stories/2008/11/21/toll_hov_lanes_atlanta.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/stories/2008/11/21/toll_hov_lanes_atlanta.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:09:17 EST Georgia transportation officials are abuzz over the prospect that the U.S. Department of Transportation will give the state millions of dollars to add tolls to HOV lanes in a 14-mile section of I-85, mostly in Gwinnett County. Four people close to the project said word was spreading that a high-ranking federal official, maybe even Transportation Secretary Mary Peters herself, may come to Atlanta to present local officials with a hefty sum, perhaps $110 million. The plan would require the state to put in money, too. Some said the announcement could come as early as Tuesday. Toll roads are still unusual in Georgia, but state policymakers have concluded that more are necessary to help meet transportation funding gaps. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/21/gwinnett_stadium_name.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/21/gwinnett_stadium_name.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:52:57 EST The take-no-prisoners economy is threatening to take down yet another target: the naming rights deal for Gwinnett County's new baseball stadium. "The expectation of doing a naming rights deal right now is not as good as it was eight or 10 months ago," project manager Preston Williams said Friday. Williams, who is the general manager of the Gwinnett Convention and Visitors Bureau, said uncertainty over the economy has made it virtually impossible that a deal will be signed before the stadium opens in April to house the top minor-league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/2008/11/21/suwanee_train_tunnel.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/2008/11/21/suwanee_train_tunnel.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:26:21 EST Crews in Suwanee continue to work Friday on a tunnel under the Norfolk Southern Railroad track running between the public library and City Hall. Workers have been digging around the clock since Nov. 10 and punched through in six days vs. the expected two weeks, city officials said. "They were really moving," Suwanee spokeswoman Lynne DeWilde said. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/21/atlanta_vision_lawsuit.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/21/atlanta_vision_lawsuit.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:16:53 EST The co-owner of the semipro Atlanta Vision basketball team has reached a settlement with investors who alleged he swindled them out of $200,000. Quentin Townsend, agreed to pay off $150,000 of the debt in three installments, court documents show. The first payment of $25,000 is due Dec. 31. An identical payment is to be paid March 30 and a final payment of $100,000 is due June 30. The men who sued Townsend agreed not to collect on the remaining balance, according to court documents. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/20/gwinnett_police_scanners.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/20/gwinnett_police_scanners.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:27:56 EST The recent switchover to a digitally encrypted emergency dispatch system in Gwinnett County has drawn a veil of secrecy around police communications even as it has made transmissions clearer and more secure. The $35 million Motorola P25 digital 911 system was paid for by the voter-approved penny sales tax. Static and interference typical on the old analog system have been virtually eliminated since the switchover Monday, said Angie Conley, the Gwinnett 911 center's communications manager. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/21/gwinnett_garbage_haulers.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/21/gwinnett_garbage_haulers.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:53:23 EST County Commissioner Bert Nasuti called the additional fees from garbage companies for cart collection "unscrupulous and despicable." But garbage haulers in Gwinnett County say they are only trying to save their companies by charging a collection fee to recover thousands of garbage and recycling receptacles by the end of the year. And they also have a few choice words for how they think they were treated by the agency tabbed to run the county's new waste collection program. While only two companies, Allied Waste and Waste Industries, have announced garbage can recovery fees, the process is going to create a flurry of activity as the county's seven current haulers pull out. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/20/snellville_crematory_suit.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/20/snellville_crematory_suit.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:15:30 EST A controversial crematory in Snellville, ordered to shut down in October after its operating licenses were revoked, is fighting back. The attorney for Chris Nuzum, owner of Cremation Society of the South, has filed a lawsuit against the city of Snellville, its planning department director and its appeals board, directing the city to reissue certificates of occupancy "to avoid further injustice." The appeals board ruled Oct. 14 that the building plan submitted by the crematory in 2006 differed substantially from the actual operation that opened Sept. 2, including the installation of a smokestack. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/20/duluth_city_hall.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/20/duluth_city_hall.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 Thu, 20 Nov 2008 13:21:32 EST Duluth already has decided on the fate of the old City Hall and adjacent museum. What's next to decide is how to redevelop the downtown block while preserving the area's historic sensibility. That was a big question Wednesday night as about 50 residents turned out to offer input on plans for a multi million-dollar mixed-used development at the old City Hall block. Mayor Nancy Harris, who moderated the public hearing in Duluth's new City Hall, said given that the property "is the core piece of the downtown area," the key issue is what the development will "look like, be like and feel like." http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/20/meadowcreek_players_arrested.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/11/20/meadowcreek_players_arrested.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13 Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:40:48 EST Four Gwinnett County teenagers — three of them members of this year's Meadowcreek High School football team — are in jail without bond following their arrests this week on armed robbery charges. Sean Frezell and Simon Terzian, both 18, and Cory Huck and Atiim Henderson, both 17, were arrested Monday and charged in connection with the Nov. 3 robbery of a man at the Orchard Park Apartments in Norcross, according to Gwinnett police Cpl. Illana Spellman. Each was charged with armed robbery, while Terzian was also charged with aggravated assault and Huck was also charged with loitering and prowling, according to the jail's Web site.