Monday, Oct. 7, 2013 | 5:09 p.m.
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M.B. Pell
M.B. Pell is a member of the AJC's investigative team. He has a background in data analysis.
Latest from M.B. Pell
Super liens a super risk to homeowners
Using a loophole in Georgia’s foreclosure laws, savvy investors are snatching houses away from taxpayers who get behind on bills, short-circuiting legal safeguards designed to help them keep their homes. It’s done by putting claims against properties that are so swift and powerful they’re called “super liens.” In the worst ...
Reform legislation is retaliation, tax commissioner says
For the third year in a row, the legislature is considering limiting the sale of tax liens to private collection companies. And for Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand, this time it’s personal. Ferdinand is the only tax commissioner in the state to rely on the sales to collect a ...
Theft charges dropped against Glock investigators
Three men have emerged unscathed from a duel with the Smyrna-based, gun manufacturing giant Glock over allegations that they overcharged the company by millions of dollars. Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds on Thursday announced he would not to prosecute former federal prosecutor James Harper, Marietta accountant Jerry Chapman and ...
State may target tax lien sales
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation has spurred some state lawmakers to try to reel in Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand, outraged that his quick sale of tax liens may have deprived the county of up to $20 million. Fulton County Commissioner Liz Hausmann says the AJC’s findings also warrant an ...
ISUE4U: Georgia sued over banned vanity plates
Issuing vanity license plates now may officially be more trouble than it’s worth. Hours after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a story last week about the state’s arbitrary approval process of vanity license plates for motor vehicles, two free-speech lawyers filed a lawsuit against Robert G. Mickell, the commissioner of the ...
Georgia bans some vanity license plates on a whim
A slew of insults. Anatomical descriptions that would launch an auditorium of middle school boys into howls of laughter. A cornucopia of illegal drugs. Invitations of a highly personal nature. The state has rejected thousands of vanity license plates with such themes to protect the public from offensive language. Most ...
Dunwoody pet rescue group hopes crate thieves get collared
Forty homeless, whimpering, tail-wagging dogs hoping for a holiday miracle will have to wait a few more weeks for their shot at adoption. Earlier this week someone stole 40 dog crates from Park Pet Haven Rescue in Dunwoody. Without the crates, the rescue organization cannot show the dogs at the ...
Fake medical providers slip through Medicare loophole
Dorsey Med Group is conveniently located for Buckhead-area patients looking for a good internist. On paper, the clinic is headed by a respected physician with 39 years of experience. Patients might be a little put off by its size, though. The medical office could easily hold a box of sterilized ...
Federal rehab program struggles in sea of foreclosures
Hundreds of Atlanta-area homes have been rehabbed in the past three years thanks to more than $68 million in federal grants aimed at stabilizing neighborhoods hard hit by the housing bust. DeKalb, Cobb, Gwinnett and Fulton counties and the city of Atlanta used the initial round of federal grant funding ...
More cheating scandals inevitable, as states can’t ensure test integrity
The stain of cheating spread unchecked across 44 Atlanta schools before the state finally stepped in and cleaned it up. But across the country, oversight remains so haphazard that most states cannot guarantee the integrity of their standardized tests, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has found. Poor oversight means that cheating scandals ...
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