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The failure of Alpharetta’s Integrity Bank has likely wiped out the investments of some notable Atlantans, including CNN anchor Lou Dobbs and a legislator that serves on the state Senate’s bank committee.

We cannot say farewell to the 2008 Olympics without offering a 21-gun salute to the fine U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, based at Fort Benning. (Not to be confused with the three-volley salute common at funerals, the 21-gun salute is typically reserved for the president as part of the "Hail to the Chief" ceremony, and for other heads of state.) The unit brought home two gold medals: Spc. Walton Eller III for the double trap competition and Pfc. Vincent Hancock for the skeet. Eller set two Olympic records with a score of 145 in the qualifying rounds and 190 in the...

Minneapolis — Monday’s deference to Hurricane Gustav was proper and good, but Tuesday was the day this party got started. Georgia delegates to the Republican National Convention said there is important work to do the rest of this week. Doug Chalmers, an alternate delegate from Georgia who leads a lawyers’ committee for McCain, was eager to get back to business. “Yesterday was, frankly, rather dead for a variety of reasons, and all of a sudden everyone thinks he has the momentum back,” Chalmers said. “Things are starting to roll.” Delegates feel good and are “galvanizing around Sarah Palin,” Chalmers said...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Alpharetta, Georgia-based Integrity Bank has been closed by regulators and its assets have been transferred to Regions Financial Corp., Regions said in a prepared statement late Friday. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. assumed some $900 million in total deposits from Integrity and has transferred them to Regions (RF), Regions said, adding that, "the FDIC will retain most of Integrity Bank's loan portfolio for later disposition."Integrity's closure is the 10th bank failure so far this year. The bank had $1.1 billion in total assets and $974 million in total deposits as of June 30, the FDIC said.

ATLANTA – Bob Barr, a former Georgia congressman and the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president, responds to concerns that he’ll siphon votes from Republican John McCain. “The fact of the matter is the Republican Party has problems that go far deeper than Bob Barr,” he said. Barr is fundraising in Georgia over the weekend. “Our goal is to impede the chances to be president for both Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama,” Barr added. Barr is one of two former Georgia congressional representatives running on third party tickets. Cynthia McKinney is the Green Party’s presidential nominee.

Republican Sen. John McCain enjoys a 16-point lead -- 51 percent to 35 percent -- among Southern voters over rival Democrat Sen. Barack Obama, a new poll by Winthrop University and ETV shows. And, the further into the South you go, the larger McCain's lead grows, the poll of likely voters in 11 Southern states shows. Likely voters in the Deep South -- those in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina -- preferred McCain by a 25-point margin, 56 percent to 31 percent. Southern voters said what they want most in a president is honesty, experience and shared values....

<p>Police made an arrest Tuesday night in the drag racing accident that shut down part of Interstate 85 during the morning rush hour.</p> <p>Police said the crash sent an innocent victim to the hospital with serious injuries.</p> <p>Police have confirmed the arrest of a 24-year-old man who they said was the behind the wheel of a car -- drag racing at high speeds -- on Interstate 85 near Union City Tuesday morning.</p>

Since all my predictions about Obama made back in November, when the press was calling him dead in the water (look it up!) have all come true. (Win Iowa , lose New Hampshire, win nomination) I know the world will be hanging on this one, made shortly before noon Tuesday August 19. (Okay I did, at a later date, predict Jim Webb as veep choice and that seems unlikely. He withdrew his name, though I wouldn’t rule out him being “persuaded”.) But I do have a strong feeling now that if Obama is as smart and shrewd as I think...

Text of the letter below: To date, the following 38 Senators have signed the letter: Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), Wayne Allard (R-Colorado), John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), Bob Bennett (R-Utah), Kit Bond (R-Missouri), Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), Jim Bunning (R-Kentucky), Richard Burr (R-North Carolina), Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia), Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota), Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Pete Domenici (R-New Mexico), John Ensign (R-Nevada), Michael Enzi (R-Wyoming), Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia),...

The tropical system currently over Hispanola has been teasing weather watchers for days, as hurricane hunters were unable to locate a surface center of circulation. Meanwhile, the system has looked remarkably like a tropical depression for greater than 24 hours. Local Florida weather forecasters are urging Floridians to keep a close eye on this system. Updates:Atlantic Tropical Info Satellite:Visible Image LoopInfrared Image LoopWater Vapor Image LoopRGB (Vis/IR combo) Image LoopFunktop Image Loop Caribbean BuoysWestern Atlantic BuoysFlorida BuoysRadarPuerto RicoGuantanimo Bay CubaKey WestBahamasMiamiFlorida LoopStorm Track Models Category Wind Speed Barometric Pressure Storm Surge Damage Potential Tropical Depression < 39 mph < 34...

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign in Georgia spent the weekend training more than 2,500 volunteers for a statewide push to register voters and boost Election Day turnout, a massive grass-roots mobilization that is part of the campaign's national strategy to drive up the mostly Democratic black vote and capture longtime Republican strongholds. Mr. Obama has vowed to increase black voter participation by 30 percent, which likely would redraw the electoral map by reclaiming once-Democratic Southern states - including Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia - that turned Republican in 1964.

So it really was a rubber suit. The excitement over a supposed Bigfoot body that built all last week, culminating Friday in a circus-like press conference in Palo Alto, Calif., collapsed like a wet soufflé over the weekend as an independent investigator found out it was all fake.

Jim Martin, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate after defeating Vernon Jones in a run-off primary election earlier this month, is now trailing incumbent Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss by just six percentage points. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the Peach State finds the incumbent ahead of his challenger 48% to 43%. When “leaners” are included, Chambliss leads 50% to 44%. Though the latest numbers could represent a temporary primary “glow” for Martin, the poll marks the lowest level of support for the incumbent since tracking of this year’s election began.

California's unemployment rate soared to 7.3 percent in July, with nearly 400,000 more workers in the jobless ranks than a year earlier, indicating that we still haven't hit bottom in this recession. What started out as a sudden meltdown in the housing industry has spread to many other sectors, most obviously retail sales. Auto dealers are closing their doors throughout the state, and the Mervyns department store chain has sought bankruptcy protection, to cite but two examples. Steve Levy, who runs the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy, has devised a "misery index" of unemployment and inflation...

ALBANY,GA. -- In the 2008 General Assembly state lawmakers passed House Bill 89 which allows people with gun permits to carry weapons aboard public transportation and into restaurants. A Georgia state senate committee has begun hearing arguments from both sides of the gun rights issue. State Representative Ed Rynders who voted for House Bill 89 says he is a strong supporter of the second amendment and believes in the rights of citizens to defend themselves. State Representative Freddie Powell Sims says she too is a supporter of the right to bear arms and adds that “Criminals are the ones we’re...

Bigfoot Expert Weighs In: "I'm Extremely Skeptical"Adam Hadhazy                   A press conference in Palo Alto, Calif., tomorrow is planned to showcase yesterday's bold claim that the remains of a Sasquatch, or bigfoot, have been found in northern Georgia. Matthew Whitton, a police officer, and Rick Dyer, a former corrections officer, who, along with veteran bigfoot tracker Tom Biscardi of Searching for Bigfoot, Inc., said they came across the seven-foot, seven-inch (2.3-meter), 500-pound (227-kilogram) body of a simianlike creature in the woods. The group also said DNA tests are being carried out and that...

To the untrained eye, it may look suspiciously like a cast-off from a fancy dress party. But to Bigfoot believers, this is the latest “evidence” that the mysterious ape-man said to dwell in the forests of North America is more than just a hairy myth. Named Rickmat in honour of Rick Dyer and Matthew Whitton, Bigfoot hunters who claim to have bagged the 500lb ’corpse’ during an expedition in the US state of Georgia, it was being hailed today as potentially the “greatest discovery of the millennium” - by its finders, at least. But that was not all they found...

Here are the misguided Senators who joined the Gang of 10. Please let them know what you think of their actions. I've included their contact information and the press releases bragging about their participation in the gang of 10. Sen. Lindsey Graham:http://lgraham.senate.gov/public/ Email:http://lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.EmailSenatorGrahamSenator Graham Press Relases Contact: Wes Hickman (202) 224-5972 or Kevin Bishop (864) 250-1417 Date: 08/01/2008'Gang of 10' Introduces Bipartisan Energy Proposal WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) helped draft and signed on to a bipartisan energy proposal that enables our nation become more energy independent.  The proposal, New Energy Reform Act of 2008 from the...

View This E-mail As A Web Page The American people are telling our elected officials: "Drill Here and Drill Now!" But five Republicans-in-Name-Only (RINOs) are siding with the NO NEW DRILLING CROWD in Congress and basically betraying American families suffering severe financial hardship because of the high price of gasoline at the pump. You've probably already heard the news. Five RINOs are trying to strike a deal with the devil and they're calling it a "compromise." But like last year's so-called attempted "compromise" on amnesty for 12-20 million illegal aliens... it is NO SUCH THING! In actuality, it's a complete and...

A Georgia company looking to solve America's energy problem has finally teamed up with the federal government, hoping to make millions of barrels of oil every day from virtually anything that grows out of the Earth. Bell Bio-Energy, Inc. says it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Defense Department to build seven test production plants, mostly on military bases, to quickly turn naturally grown material into fuel. "What this means is that with the seven pilot plants – the military likes to refer to them as demonstrations – with those being built … it gives us the real-time engineering...

Bigfoot may have been found. Maybe. We'll see. Two Northern California men and two Georgians say they've got a body, a photo and DNA evidence pertaining to the elusive forest-dwelling man-ape — and that they'll reveal all at a press conference in Palo Alto, Calif., on Friday. "I think you'll find that this is the real deal," Robert Barrows of Redwood City, Calif., told the Bay City News local wire service.

A Federal Judge in Georgia has decided to ignore state law and uphold an airport ban on firearms. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue had previously supported gun rights in the public, non-secure areas of airports, citing not only public safety but also the fact that there is no law against it on the books in Georgia. "If my wife wanted to carry a gun, if she was going from the parking lot, walking from one of those far parking lots to pick up a grandchild or something like that, I think that's a good idea, yes," he was quoted as saying...

An aspiring Savannah rapper who was shot and later died was committing a crime when it happened, police said Wednesday. Kareem Omarr Grant, 25, was shot in the back of the head July 19 during an attempted robbery of two people, said Judy Pal, a Savannah-Chatham metro police spokeswoman. The robbery victim shot Grant in self-defense, she said. Pal said police are not disclosing the identities of the two men who were being robbed "for their safety" and because the investigation remains open. "Everything will come out in the court soon," Pal said. Grant's death is being classified as a...

Parents concerned with latest math curriculum Georgia parents were outraged after thousands of students failed statewide math exams in May. Now with the start of a new school year, parents fear for their children as the state expands the new math curriculum to high schools. Fayette County parent Wendy Ashabranner worries how her son will handle this new math when he starts at Fayette County High on Monday. He was among the 38 percent of the state's eighth-graders who failed the state's new, redesigned math exam, which was based on harder material. While parents and teachers expected some students to...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2008 – The idea of getting people involved in a letter-writing campaign to reach all servicemembers currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan -- about 178,000 -- may seem a little far-fetched for the average person, but Cody Anderson is by no means “average.” For several years, Anderson has been collecting, packing, shipping and delivering care packages and phone cards to U.S. troops stationed around the world. Anderson, 53, a resident of Mineral Buff, Ga., has raised $50,000 in supplies, including personal hygiene items, games and snacks; $50,000 in phone cards; and $21,500 in Beanie Babies, to...

A large contingent of Georgia Army National Guard soldiers flew to the Republic of Georgia on Sunday for joint military exercises at a time when tension is brewing in the region. The soldiers, mostly from the metro area, will be part of "Immediate Response 2008," which will amount to the largest U.S. footprint on the crossroads of Asia and Europe since the Cold War began. Recent headlines: The three-week operation also provides practical training for the 48th Infantry Brigade's 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment just months before a pending deployment to Afghanistan. "We're going to a sensitive part of the...

Politicians grabbing Barack Obama’s coattails should take note: In the Georgia democratic Senatorial primary runoff held yesterday, Jim Martin defeated Vernon Jones by a 60% to 40%. Martin will now face the Republican senior Senator from Georgia, Saxby Chambliss, in November’s election. This doesn’t seem to bode well for Obama’s presidential quest. Jones’s campaign hoped to emulate Obama’s impressive primary victory in Georgia (he defeated Senator Hillary Clinton in Georgia, 66.4% to 31.1%), but now he’s failed to even make it to November’s ballot. In fact, Jones distributed campaign paraphernalia consisting of a picture of himself and Obama, with the...

Letting the facts do the talking seems to be a lost art among university bureaucrats today, at least at Georgia Tech. Honesty takes a back seat to misinformation, distortions of the truth and the assumption that those with opposing views are inherently wrong and deserving of retribution. It doesn't help when some members of the media leave this unchallenged. But now a federal judge has made note of Tech's apparent "lack of candor." In March 2006, the Alliance Defense Fund —- Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith —- filed a...

It is with great sadness I tell you our Freeper YaYa123 passed away during the night.

Georgia Power asked Georgia utility regulators to approve its request to build two, 1,102 MW nuclear generating units at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant. Its share of the plant would be between $4.4 billion and $6.6 billion. The regulatory body is expected to rule on the proposal in March 2009. Georgia Power also informed the PSC that it is in the final stages of evaluating the conversion of Plant Mitchell, an older coal-fueled power plant, to burn biomass wood. If approved, this plant would be one of the largest wood biomass plants in the United States. Georgia Power expects to...

A former state employee living as a transgender woman on Friday filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against leading Georgia lawmakers and the supervisor who fired her. Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn, a former employee in the General Assembly Office of Legislative Counsel, was fired after she told supervisors she no would no longer come to work as a man. The lawsuit names the office's director, Sewell Brumby, House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram), Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Senate President Pro tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah). Glenn is represented by lawyers with Lambda Legal, a gay rights advocacy group. According to the lawsuit, Brumby...

ALBANY — A Tallahassee man has been jailed, charged with shooting a man he believed was tampering with his car outside an Albany motel Tuesday morning, police officials say. Charlie Henderson, 19, was shot in the arm and the chest after fleeing a parking lot near Comfort Suites off Dawson Road in his 1994 Mitsubishi Mirage, police officials say. He was taken to Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital where he underwent surgery Tuesday morning, police reports show. The man arrested in connection with the shooting, 20-year-old John Underwood, had spoken to police earlier in the evening about a suspicious man he...

ATLANTA --- What began a few years ago as an online forum for gun-rights advocates has exploded into the leading group for expanding Georgia's gun laws. Since its incorporation in 2006, Georgia Carry has fired off a steady stream of lawsuits against local gun bans by leaning on a state law that bars any entity but the General Assembly from regulating the carrying and possession of firearms. Georgia Carry appears to be winning the fight against Georgia's restrictions, which it calls the most stringent in the country, according to John Monroe, the group's vice president and attorney. Restrictions on where...

Southern U.S. town proud of its mandatory gun law KENNESAW, Georgia (Reuters) - The Virginia Tech killings have set off calls for tighter U.S. gun laws but anyone wanting to know why those demands likely will make little headway should visit Kennesaw, a town where owning a gun is both popular and mandatory. The town north of Atlanta had little prominence until it passed a gun ordinance in 1982 that required all heads of a household to own a firearm and ammunition. Kennesaw's law was a response to Morton Grove, Illinois, which had passed a gun ban earlier that year...

Recently, my fiancee and I had the honor and privilege of being part of the escort for Cpl. Jonathan Ayers, the Snellville [GA] soldier and Shiloh graduate who was killed during an insurgent raid in Afghanistan. We, along with 165 other motorcycles in the Patriot Guard Riders, staged at the airport in Lawrenceville and formed a flag honor line on the tarmac as his flag-draped coffin was removed from the plane and presented to his grieving family and friends.It was loaded into the hearse by a six-member military honor guard while all of the Patriot Guard Riders stood at attention,...

The empty storefront in the strip mall at Oak Grove and LaVista roads got the neighborhood buzzing when word spread an ice cream emporium was coming. But word of mouth took off when the owners posted a five-page list that was part employee guidelines, part company manifesto. At first blush, the owners of the newest Jake's Ice Cream seem to be demanding taskmasters —- with a sense of humor, that is. In the old days, all one needed to scoop ice cream was pimples and a sturdy right forearm. But these days, some entry-level jobs are high-end. To start with,...

Come commencement, many [college graduates] linger for months or years, prolonging the intermediate stage between college and the rest of their lives. “This generation doesn’t know what to do with its own freedom,” says Ethan Watters, author of “Urban Tribes: A Generation Redefines Friendship, Family and Commitment.” “As the average age of marriage continues to rise, the length of time that college graduates live alone before starting a family is unprecedented. People now have 10, even 15 years where nothing much is expected of them.” Parents who help cover health insurance, and sometimes rent, unwittingly encourage a few extra years...

<p>A fallen soldier returned home to a hero’s welcome Wednesday.</p> <p>The body of Cpl. Matthew Phillips arrived Wednesday morning at 9:35 a.m. at Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport in Gainesville aboard a chartered jet from Dover Air Force Base.</p> <p>It was met by an honor guard from the U.S. Army, which placed the casket into a waiting hearse for the trip to a funeral home in Cumming where his body will lie in repose until a funeral on Saturday.</p>

The media already have gone over the top with their coverage of Sen. Barack Obama's international man-of-mystery tour. The endless photo sessions with the troops, foreign leaders, waving crowds -- it's just the most contrived pack of junk I've ever seen. But shame on the folks running the McCain campaign. They knew this week of endless glory for Obama was coming. Their response? They tell McCain to attend a baseball game, hold another boring town-hall meeting, have his photo taken with another Bush, and visit an oilrig. Sounds like the work of strategists bound and determined to destroy their candidate....

Kennesaw, GAGeorgia's 6th & 11th Districts Monthly Meeting is every third Saturday at 9 a.m. The meeting takes place at the Golden Corral on Barrett Pkwy in Kennesaw. Date: Saturday, July 19, 2008Time: 9:00 AM Repeat on the third Saturday of the month until 07/20/2008 This event does not require an RSVP. Registered users can request event reminders. Register

In fact, as much as he despised Clinton, Barr thinks President Bush is worse. "What George W. Bush has done to the fabric of our constitutional government, to separation of powers, to a government of limited powers is absolutely unforgivable," he said. That prospect is greatest in Barr's home state of Georgia. Obama is already running ads targeting an untapped pool of African Americans and younger voters. State polls suggest Barr's single-digit following pulls mostly from McCain. "If Barr can win 5 or 6 points of the total vote -- it's an if but it's conceivable -- then Obama could...

McALLEN - The strain of salmonella that sickened people across the country was detected in jalapeños distributed by a Rio Grande Valley company, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported Monday. Peppers from Agricola Zaragoza carried the saintpaul strain of salmonella. This is the first time the agency found the strain in food since the outbreak was announced in June. The FDA has not determined how or where the peppers were contaminated, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. It has been testing produce from distributors all over the country. Agricola Zaragoza is recalling jalapeños it has shipped...

Specialist Matthew Philips was killed in the attack on the base in Afghanistan on Sunday, July 13. He will be laid to rest on Saturday, July 26 at 1:00 at Coal Mountain Baptist Church in Cumming, Georgia. His body will be taken from Ingram's Funeral Home, in downtown Cumming, north on Highway 9. The church is on Highway 9, the burial will be at Coal Mountain Cemetery just down the road from the church following the service. Please join me if you can to show our support for his family and our brave military by lining the road with supporters....

“The Appalachian voting bloc will be critical in the … 2008 presidential election,” former Democratic National Committee executive director Mark Siegel says. Yet his broad statement comes with its own geopolitical caveat: location. “It all depends on what part of Appalachia you are talking about,” says Siegel. “If they live in Pennsylvania and Ohio, then, yes, without a doubt they are the key voters. If they live in West Virginia, then no, because for the Democrats that is not a state that is in play.” Appalachia is not a single state but a region that has its own unique frame...

A major American city has undergone big demographic changes overnight. Will others follow? ___ There is really only one way to put it: Atlanta is becoming whiter, and at a pace that outstrips the rest of the nation. The white share of the city's population, says Brookings Institution demographer William Frey, grew faster between 2000 and 2006 than that of any other U.S. city. It increased from 31 percent in 2000 to 35 percent in 2006, a numeric gain of 26,000, more than double the increase between 1990 and 2000. The trend seems to be gathering strength with each passing...

A Bainbridge man refused to be robbed when he was accosted around 5 a.m. Saturday morning. The complainant, a resident of Spruce Street, told BPS that he was sitting on his front porch smoking a cigar and drinking a cup of coffee. According to the resident, a man wearing a mask and carrying a large knife approached and demanded that he hand over his wallet. The citizen said he told the masked robber that he had to go inside the house to get the wallet. The homeowner returned, not with his wallet in hand, but instead wielding a pistol, which...

Last July, Paul Broun shocked Georgia pundits when the poorly funded physician narrowly defeated a longtime legislative leader in a GOP primary for a special election in an overwhelmingly Republican U.S. House seat. Party grandees were convinced Dr. Broun's victory was a fluke and this year backed a challenge from state Rep. Barry Fleming, who hails from the district's population center of Augusta. Mr. Fleming promptly raised nearly $1 million and proceeded to throw the kitchen sink at Dr. Broun, including mailers chiding him for failing to bring home earmarks for the district. Well, Dr. Broun will be going back...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will cut its workforce by 8 percent, or about 189 jobs, and eliminate all of its geographically targeted news sections as part of a cost-cutting plan announced Wednesday.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will cut its workforce by 8 percent, some 184 jobs, and eliminate its "geographically targeted news sections" as part of a cost-cutting plan the paper announced Wednesday. "The moves come amid an advertising revenue slump that has ravaged the newspaper industry and has been made worse by rising costs for fuel and newsprint," the paper reported. The paper reported that "job cuts, which will occur between August and October, will mainly affect the news and advertising departments at the company. They will be accomplished through voluntary buyouts, layoffs and job eliminations." The company currently has about 2,300...