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... 71 percent of the 2,500 black students in APS who took the Mathematics II exam in 2011, failed and only 1 percent, 25 students, passed with distinction (Pass Plus). By contrast, only 21 percent of white students failed with 79 percent passing and 23 percent of those passing with distinction. In Fulton County, where 62 percent of black students failed the Mathematics II exam, 90 percent of the white students passed, 32 percent with distinction. The failure rates and achievement gaps throughout most of the school districts in the metro-Atlanta area are astonishing. The consequence of this reality is...

... Department spokesman John Chafee says a man was shot in the leg and a woman was shot in the arm Sunday afternoon. Chafee says the shooting happened on Northside Drive near Markham Street, about three blocks south of the Georgia Dome, where thousands gathered to watch the Falcons play the St. Louis Rams.

For the third straight day, high temperatures in Atlanta are breaking records for how low they are. Saturday’s high was 66 degrees as against the normal high in the upper 80s. The temperatures put a chill over, “It’s kind of a freak of nature that it’s even cold – it’s August and we’re wearing jeans and coats, and it’s very weird,” said Regan Koski, event manager for Decatur’s Blues, Barbecue and Bluegrass Festival. “I’m from Atlanta, and I still can’t believe this weather. It’s crazy,” Wynn said. “I would expect this in November. Not in August. Not in Atlanta.” Thursday...

Banks still might have a future in Atlanta, media sources reportThe Atlanta Falcons have waived Brian Banks, a Los Angeles linebacker who was imprisoned for five years after being convicted of a rape that never happened. Banks, 28, spent five years in prison and five years on probation following his conviction of rape and kidnapping charges a decade ago. The woman who made the charge when Banks was a 16-year-old football standout later recanted her accusation. The conviction was overturned by a California court last year.

In between bowls of chicken poodle soup and deciding to provide air cover for al-Qaeda in Syria, our Dear Leader, Barack Hussein Obama, found time to meet with mayors from our crumbling major cities. From Justin Sink of The Hill: *** "President Obama told a collection of big-city mayors Tuesday at the White House that he would continue to use executive actions to combat gun violence plaguing major cities. In the meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder and the mayors of 18 cities from across the nation, Obama discussed commonly applicable strategies to reduce youth violence. 'He also vowed to...

A former Atlanta third grade teacher tearfully testified Monday that she gave in to pressure from an administrator to cheat on standardized tests. Stacey Smith, who taught at Usher-Collier Heights Elementary School, said testing coordinator Donald Bullock dropped off test booklets at the end of a day when students had been taking the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test in 2009.

Courageous and Compassionate Christian Woman Prevents School Shooting The Story: Yesterday a mentally ill man carrying an AK-47 rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition entered an elementary school outside of Atlanta. The potential tragedy was averted when a courageous and compassionate Christian woman talked the gunman into giving himself up. The Background: "He had a look on him that he was willing to kill," said Antoinette Tuff, a school clerk. "He said he didn't have any reason to live, and he knew he was going to die today." According to the Washington Post, Tuff began telling him the story of...

ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) - Atlanta's high temperature on Thursday was only 73 degrees which is the coolest high temperature on record for August 15. The previous record was a high of only 77 degrees from 1908. The average high temperature for this time of year is 88 degrees, putting Thursday's high 15 degrees below average. Atlanta has seen a cooler-than-average summer due to a lot of rain. We're about 15 inches above average on rainfall this year.

Maggots found in Atlanta airport sandwich, food inspections enhanced ATLANTA — Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport officials tell Channel 2 Action News they are enhancing the way they inspect restaurants inside the airport after a man showed Channel 2 Action News a sandwich he purchased from an airport vendor had maggots. The passenger told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri he bought a sandwich at an airport restaurant Wednesday morning. When he opened it he said he was stunned to find maggots on it. Joel Woloshuk says he got out his phone and recorded video of the bugs crawling on his focaccia...

An Atlanta crook picked the wrong Waffle House to target early Monday morning. That’s because when the bandana and hoodie-wearing bandit walked into the restaurant and pointed a gun at patrons, one of them reached for his gun and fired back. Police say the suspect entered the Waffle House in south Fulton County just before 2 am, brandishing a pistol and demanding money. “Nobody move and open the cash register,” the suspect, 20-year-old Ashton Macafee, allegedly said according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC). What he didn’t know was that seated together at a booth were off-duty Atlanta police officer...

(Newser) – Detroit spent the last decade spiraling into bankruptcy, while Atlanta spent it growing like mad. But the two cities have something in common: "Both are places where the American dream seems to be dying," writes Paul Krugman at the New York Times. Social mobility is low in both cities—meaning the poor are staying poor. Why? Well, a new study suggests that it might be because they're just too spread out. "Sprawl may be killing Horatio Alger." The study found that social mobility was correlated with how far apart various classes lived from each other. "In Atlanta, poor...

Falcons wide receiver Roddy White caused another digital firestorm with a tweet last night after the outcome of the George Zimmerman trial was announced. White called for the jurors to kill themselves.

New York Giants star receiver Victor Cruz tweeted an ominous prediction for George Zimmerman shortly after Zimmerman was acquitted of murder, and then quickly deleted the tweet. And later apologized for it. The NFL star tweeted to his more than 334,000 follwers, “Zimmerman doesn’t last a year til the hood catches up to him.” The tweet has since been deleted. In a series of follow up tweets, the Giant said that his angry tweet was “my initial interpretation of the reaction I was reading on twitter.I immediately realized my tweet was a mistake and I apologize.” Cruz was not the...

Atlanta Falcons receiver Roddy White responded to the George Zimmerman not guilty verdict Saturday night by tweeting: “All them jurors should go home tonight and kill themselves for letting a grown man get away with killing a kid.”

The biggest issue facing the Atlanta Falcons' eye-popping new football stadium: whether to build it just north of the current Georgia Dome, which would mean greater distance from hotels, the airport, transit, and the city's skyline, or just south, which would mean buying the land presently occupied by a pair of historic churches. The team prefers the south site. Those churches also prefer the south site. Friendship Baptist, established in 1866 and the wellspring for both Morehouse and Spelman colleges, has rejected the city's offer of $13.5 million for the property, asking for nearly double that. Mayor Kasim Reed told...

A man who tried to rob people standing in line to buy the new $180 LeBron James Nike sneakers was shot and killed by one of the customers, according to a story in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. The customers were waiting in line at an Atlanta area store early Saturday morning to be the first to get the newly released shoe when a man approached the group, pulled a gun and told them to give him their money. A man who was in line pulled his own weapon and shot the would-be robber, killing him. According to the story,...

This is one of those stories that you have to read and check twice to make sure it's not some delayed April Fools Day joke. Guess what government agency needs a little "mail room quality control"?  or what agency doesn't seem to care just how much they spend on postage? The answer is the IRS, the "Star Trek" or "line dancing IRS"! Here is the story:  The IRS mailed 23,994 refund checks to the same address in Atlanta. Wonder what the neighborhood mail man said about that?  Did he notice a heavier bag or a stuffed mail box?  Did...

There's poop in public pools, according to a new report. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found genetic material from E. coli bacteria in 58 percent of public pools they tested during the summer of 2012. This shows that "swimmers frequently introduced fecal material into pools," which could spread germs to other people, the researchers wrote in their report. E. coli bacteria are normally found in the human gut and feces. They also found genetic material from bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, whichcan cause skin rashes and ear infections, in 59 percent of pools. The fecal material...

Bill Ayers, a retired professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in no uncertain terms takes aim in this post at federal school policies that led to the Atlanta cheating scandal. Ayers, a radical activist during the 1960s and ’70s, had the national spotlight thrown on him during the 2008 presidential campaign when right-wing commentators tried, incorrectly, to say he had a close relationship with then candidate Barack Obama. In any case, Ayers is a well-known Chicago educator who worked with mayor Richard Daley on school reform and who taught and did research for years at the...

After dropping the format for Spanish Sports “ESPN Deportes” in late September, Clear Channel will return 640 WGST Atlanta to Talk on Monday, June 3. The new WGST lineup will exclusively feature syndicated programming including Wall Street Journal This Morning, Glenn Beck, Andrea Tantaros, and Dave Ramsey. Beck and Ramsey currently air in the market on “News Talk 1160” WCFO. Prior to its flip to Sports, WGST was also heard on 92.3 W222AF. The translator is now “Comedy 92.3” rebroadcasting 94.9 WUBL-HD3