1. KSU president Dan Papp retiring after a decade of leadership.
An announcement about an interim president for Kennesaw State University is expected in coming weeks after President Dan Papp decided to step down. The university grew during his 10-year tenure into one of the largest institutions in the state. Papp and his wife have been thinking about his retirement for about three years, he said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He announced his retirement in a letter to the campus community late Tuesday after a phone call to Hank Huckaby, chancellor of the state's University System. His retirement is effective June 30. Read more.
2. Judgement Day looms for season of secrets in Cobb and Paulding counties.
The fall of 2013 was an exciting time for local governments with big secrets. In Cobb County, Commission Chairman Tim Lee went off the grid to drag the Braves across the Chattahoochee River and out of Atlanta. On May 24, in a GOP primary, Lee's voters will have their first opportunity to pass judgment on his covert activities. He's likely to be rewarded — but may have to suffer through another runoff. Secrecy has not played so well in neighboring Paulding County. Only weeks before Lee and the Braves drew back the curtain on their surprise, county commissioners in Paulding unveiled a thunderbolt of their own that had been a year in the making — a plan to break the metro Atlanta "monopoly" on air travel held by Delta Air Lines and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport by introducing commercial flights into the local airport. Read more.
3. Hapeville official leaves trail of fraud allegations, ruined lives.
A Hapeville city councilwoman facing trial for stealing more than $100,000 has a history of preying on her tax clients and is now under investigation by the state for preparing thousands of suspicious tax returns, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Channel 2 Action News investigation has found. Last Friday, after AJC and Channel 2 reporters presented their findings to the state Department of Revenue, agents searched Ruth Barr's offices in Hapeville and hauled away a truckload of boxes and file cabinets containing thousands of tax returns. The search warrant alleged forgery, false statements and tax fraud. Read more.
4. Grade changes at Atlanta schools drop ~80 percent after investigation.
The Atlanta school district has cracked down on the grading practices that previously allowed principals and others to change students' final grades with little justification. With a new policy, new safeguards and monitoring, the number of after-the-fact grade changes dropped by nearly 80 percent this year compared to the previous school year. The changes come after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News reported last year on numerous allegations of improper grade-changing, awarding students grades they didn't earn and other wrongdoing involving grades at Atlanta high schools. Read more.
5. Gwinnett to resume garnishments under new Georgia law.
Georgia's new garnishment law, which offers more protections to people who owe money, goes into effect Thursday — eight months after a federal judgedeclared the previous law unconstitutional. During those eight months, some garnishments were prohibited in Gwinnett County, where the suit was filed. Other counties also stopped accepting garnishment filings, at least temporarily, while they waited for the law to be changed. The new law fixes a number of issues. The state's previous garnishment lawdidn't require creditors to tell debtors that some money — like Social Security benefits, welfare payments and workers' compensation — is off-limits to garnishments. Read more.
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