Here's a look at stories the AJC is pursuing today.
APS PLEAS – Friday is the deadline for negotiated guilty pleas in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating case. Former Parks Middle School principal Christopher Waller and Sandra Ward, teacher at Parks, are among those expected to enter pleas today.
HOME SALES – Metro Atlanta home sales are down 10 percent in January, and prices are up 20 percent. It's because inventory is low. Weather didn't help either.
LOITERING – A brand spanking new House member was verbally spanked Friday in the state House over a bill he has introduced that would ban loitering laws and end restrictions that keep child molesters away from schools and playgrounds. Rep. Sam Moore, R-Canton, has made quite a name for himself in just the two weeks he has been a legislator. In addition to HB 1033, he has also introduced legislation declaring Obamacare illegal, another that says no police officer may stop a person from filming or taking photos of them and, finally, a bill that would appear to make it legal for a homeowner to shoot a police officer on his or her property. Moore's Republican colleagues, including Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, blasted Moore and his loitering bill.
FILMING DEATH -- A member of a Savannah-based film crew was struck and killed by a train while filming on the tracks in Wayne County on Thursday afternoon, and several of her colleagues were hurt. The victims, not yet named, were filming a "a dream sequence that involved a mattress on the tracks" for the biopic 'Midnight Rider,' which is based on the life of Greg Allman, and the film company had secured permission to film.
