Georiga News

Keeping with a recent theme of education, not all is bad in Georgia. Two Georgia universities made Kiplinger's magazine's 2009 "100 Best Values in Public Colleges." The University of Georgia ranked fourth and Georgia Tech was ranked at 16th in the annual survey.

Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders home was robbed. The AJC pointed out that "Property crime increased in Atlanta by 15 percent between 2005 and 2007, police department figures show. Between January and October 2008, residential burglaries were up by 21 percent over the same time period in 2007, according to police records." Hmmmmm. Seems like something that the Atlanta City council might want to address.

Savannah Aldermen Mary Ellen Sprague, Tony Thomas and Larry Stuber all hope to be big losers come June- they have challenged each other to a "Biggest Loser" style weight loss competition.

Also in Savannah,  Georgia Power announced it would ramp up efforts to complete a $51.5 million project to update the dilapidated system. They are meeting to update local Savannah business today.

It turns out that Kathy Cox is smarter than a fifth grader, but not smart enough to stick to a budget. After her family business declared bankruptcy last monthly, she has requested an increase in class size for Georgia schools. Budget concerns were cited as the reason for the request, which was approved by the state school board unanimously. The kindergarten cap will be 20 students; grades 1-3 will be 23, and grades 4-8 will be 30. The high school core cap will remain at 32.

Sunshine Mortgage Corp. is closing its doors. The company is looking for a buyer, as reported by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

The Chronicle also reports that Cigna is axing 50 customer service jobs in Atlanta.

Former President Jimmy Carter will be attending today's services for former U.S. Attorney Griffin Bell, a leading Georgia attorney who died of kidney failure at the age of 90 on Monday.

National News.

The unemployment rate hit a 16 year high today- it stands at 7.2 percent

Sarah Palin fires back (finally). See video of the next president of the United States here.

US News and World Report brings us the following: "The town of Edwardsville, Ala., with a population of 194 people, might raise a few eyebrows with its bid to receive $375 million from the economic stimulus package being assembled by Barack Obama and lawmakers in Congress." That's almost 2 million dollars a person...

Illinois legislators will decide whether or not to Impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Two top Al Qaeda operatives were killed in a missile attack yesterday.

War rages on in the Middle East and the media, and Israel fights to protect itself on both of these fronts.