1. Georgia executes inmate for 1994 murder.
Georgia executed Joshua Daniel Bishop by lethal injection Thursday night for the 1994 Baldwin County murder of Leverett Morrison. Bishop, 41, was put to death at 9:27 p.m. at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Center in Butts County shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution. He is the third killer Georgia has executed this year, and the state is preparing for yet another lethal injection in less than two weeks. Bishop's final words were to apologize. After the warden left the execution chamber, Bishop looked at Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee and Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills, and nodded in acknowledgement. Read more.
Some of the two dozen or so Atlanta schools at risk of potential state takeover because of poor performance likely have improved enough to avoid that fate, Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said Thursday. But preliminary College and Career Readiness Index ratings also suggest that other schools scored poorly enough to risk that fate themselves. The State could take them over, close them, run them itself or convert them to charter schools if Georgia voters approve Gov. Nathan Deal's Opportunity School District plan in November. The district has embarked on an expensive and far-reaching effort to improve Atlanta schools. Like the outermost ripples from an ocean liner hanging a u-turn, the progress hints that the district may be straining towards recovery from a districtwide cheating scandal, a dysfunctional bureaucracy and too many schools that failed to educate children. Read more.
3. Cobb County man killed dog in jealous rage, prosecutor says.
An Acworth man who killed a 12-pound dog was enraged over the attention his girlfriend was giving the animal, a Cobb County prosecutor said Thursday. One time, Sidney Walker Taylor slammed the Pomeranian-Chihuahua mix named Lilly to the ground, knocking out three of her teeth. A week later, he beat Lilly so severely that she died of multi-organ hemorrhage, a necropsy determined. Now, Taylor, 23, is headed to prison after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals. As part of a plea deal, he received a 10-year sentence, including three years in prison, the Cobb County District Attorney's Office said. Read more.
4. Social studies school standards provoke debate among educators.
The Georgia board of education on Thursday postponed implementing new social studies standards after teachers and others questioned changes made by the state superintendent. A committee comprising teachers and other experts spent more than a year designing the proposed overhaul of the standards, which outline what students should know by the end of each grade. Superintendent Richard Woods, however, changed some of their recommendations without consulting them. Some educators are upset over a letter written by a state senator to Woods and the school board requesting changes. Concerns raised by Sen. William T. Ligon, R-Brunswick, appear to be reflected in the changes by Woods. For instance, Ligon complained that the teacher committee wanted to call America a "representative democracy" rather than a "republican form of government." Read more.
5. Fulton leaders move closer to vote on transportation tax.
Fulton County leaders have figured out how to work together just in time to agree that they could really use half a billion dollars to buy some transportation improvements. At a Thursday meeting of county commissioners, mayors and other city representatives, the leaders agreed to pitch a new tax to their cities. If approved, the estimated $568 million in collections over five years would fund everything from road repaving and striping to airport improvements at Fulton County's Charlie Brown Field. The cooperation greatly increases the likelihood that a referendum on the tax will make the November ballot. Read more.
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