1. Georgians travel to the front lines of Syrian refugee crisis.
The blank expressions on the Syrian refugee children's faces have stayed with Bill Hampton. It was almost as if the kids were looking through the Catholic deacon from Peachtree City as he volunteered to feed and clothe them in Europe this year. He wondered whether they had seen and done too much during the 5-year-old civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of their countrymen and displaced millions of others. Read more.
2. Painful fallacy some white doctors might believe about black patients.
Taneisha, a black woman, hobbles into an emergency room with a leg fracture and is in obvious pain. Five minutes later, Katelyn, a white woman, walks into the same emergency room with a fractured wrist. She, too, is hurting. They'll both get the appropriate assessment and treatment for their pain, right? A University of Virginia study released this week says that racial bias, down to the perception of whether a patient has a stereotypical African-American or white name, can determine whether or not the patient's pain is correctly diagnosed and treated. Read more.
3. Clarkston to consider decriminalizing marijuana.
Clarkston leaders may try to make their city the first in Georgia to decriminalize marijuana. Clarkston Mayor Ted Terry said the City Council's public safety committee this month will review whether to make possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana a ticket-only offense, putting it on the same level as a run-of-the-mill traffic violation. He expects the full council to bring it to a vote as early as May. Other Georgia cities have flirted with the idea, but they've failed to gain traction. An effort in Athens sputtered recently when the city attorney concluded that state laws that make possession of the drug a misdemeanor crime take precedence over local ordinances. Read more.
4. Georgia woos recruit as N.C., Miss., face fallout of LGBT laws.
Threats of canceled conventions and lost jobs in North Carolina and Mississippi could not have come at a better time for Georgia. Laws passed in the Tar Heel and Magnolia states that are viewed as discriminatory to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people come on the heels of Gov. Nathan Deal's veto of similar legislation in Georgia — and just in time for The Peach State's biggest business recruiting event of the year. The Red Carpet Tour, with about two dozen top economic development prospects, is making its way across Georgia this week. The four-day schmooze-fest designed to lure companies to Georgia is capped by VIP access for the first and third rounds of the Masters golf tournament in Augusta. Read more.
5. Gwinnett's effort to regulate donation drop boxes winds up in court.
Eager to help the needy or just to clean out their closets, Metro Atlanta residents have found donation bins at local shopping centers a handy place to unload their stuff. But those convenient bins have become a nuisance for some local business owners. They appear in parking lots without notice or permission. Used mattresses and other items pile up and become an eyesore. And though residents may think they're donating to charity, many of the bins are placed by for-profit companies that property owners say leave them to clean up the mess. Now an effort to address the problem has landed Gwinnett County in federal court. Read more.
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