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Two very different police recruitment videos: Decatur, Georgia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIgt8pmh7CUNewport Beach, California: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_rKA6ROAVk Where would you rather live: in a place which polices like Decatur, or a place which polices like Newport Beach?

The 65 page indictment unsealed Wednesday outlines a massive conspiracy to defraud employees, IHOP corporate, investors, the Internal Revenue Service and federal, state and local law enforcement. Background Prior to 2003, Tarek Elkafrawi owned and operated two IHOP franchises; one in Decatur, Illinois and the other in Evansville, Indiana. During his time in Decatur, the indictment alleges, Elkafrowi began a social friendship with Autumn Lee Tangas, an employee of IHOP Corporate in Decatur. Between 2003 and 2006 Elkafrawi purchased, either entirely or in partnership with other investors, 6 other IHOP franchises. Those stores are located in Toledo (2), Holland, Findlay,...

NOTE The following text is a quote: Masked Armed Bank Robber Arrested ATLANTA—Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Brian D. Lamkin, FBI Atlanta, in conjunction with the Atlanta Police Department, announces the arrest of the following individual, responsible for September 9, 2010 robbery of the Chase Bank, located at 3330 Piedmont Road, Atlanta, Georgia: Abdul Khaliq Amin, age 52, was arrested after an FBI SWAT entry was made at a Decatur, Georgia residence earlier this morning. A crucial tip from a viewer of a local area television station broadcasting photographs of the robber prior to donning his robbery mask was considered...

DECATUR, AL -- Decatur police have arrested one suspect in a Sept. 11 gang-style shooting at Funland Park and are searching for a second suspect who is considered to be armed and dangerous. Jose Luis Gonzalez, 19, was arrested Tuesday at the B&B Trailer Court on Modaus Road and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, three counts of attempted murder, three counts of second degree assault, shooting into an occupied vehicle and shooting into an occupied vehicle. He's being held in the Morgan County Jail on bonds totaling $400,000. Police are still searching for Samuel Trejo Carbajal, 19, of Elkmont....

CHICAGO (AP) — A 29-year-old Illinois man who idolized American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh has been arrested after attempting to detonate what he thought was a bomb inside a van outside a federal courthouse, officials said Thursday. Michael C. Finton, also known as Talib Islam, was arrested Wednesday and charged in a criminal complaint with one count of attempting to murder federal officers or employees and trying to detonate a weapon of mass destruction. Federal officials said the case has no connections with the major terrorism investigation under way in Colorado and New York. "This alleged plot drives home...

Note: The following text is a quote: September 11, 2009 ICE works with local law enforcement to arrest 23 gang members BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Twenty men, two women and one juvenile with ties to the violent gangs Sureno-13, La Quemada, MS 13, Brown Pride 13, Southside Locotes, Lejion Negra (Mexico) and Judas 13 (Mexico) are facing deportation following a four-day enforcement operation involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and several local law enforcement agencies. The arrests were made as part of an ongoing initiative by ICE's National Gang Unit dubbed Operation Community Shield. As part of the initiative, ICE...

Caterpillar Inc. is emptying out its Illinois factories at the fastest rate in a quarter-century as it copes with a wrenching drop in global demand by accelerating a shift to producing equipment in lower-cost locales. After the latest cutbacks, which have been playing out in recent weeks, the number of United Auto Workers members on the job at Caterpillar's factory near Aurora is expected to be down by nearly half, to about 1,100, says Local 145 President Mark Patton. Plants in Pontiac and Decatur are expected to see equal drops, union leaders estimate. And at plants in the company's hometown...

In the year 1803, the conventional wisdom in Europe was for tribute. The best and the brightest of Paris and London, seeing that European ships were being routinely seized by pirates along the Barbary Coast, with the crews of those ships then imprisoned, and often sold into slavery, reached an enlightened and sophisticated decision. Since it proved impossible, after many attempts, to defeat the pirates, the practical solution was to pay the Algerians, the Moroccans and the other Barbary States, in order to induce them to seize fewer European ships. What many of today don't realize, was that in addition...

I was doing the Mancow radio show talking about my candidacy for the 5th Congressional District (Rahm Emanuel's seat) I was honored to meet the guy who made this movie. We talked and I told him I would help him get the word out. It will premiere in Chicago on March 13th 2009. It will be playing in alot of diferent cities. Please support the film. The movie trailer is AWESOME!

DECATUR, Ala. -- Decatur police are searching for one of their own who went missing from his office Friday night. Officers found signs of a struggle between Sgt. Faron Eugene White and another person in his office at the Decatur Police Department Training Center, where he was working alone that night, police spokesman Lt. Jonathan Green said in a statement this morning.

Several Decatur County voters are concerned about problems with the voting machines at the Election Commission Office. Voters claim they tried to vote for McCain for President but the machine checked Obama instead. At least three voters encountered the problem when casting their early ballot on Saturday morning. Franklin Boroughs says he intended to vote for Republican but rather the computer had checked the Democratic candidate instead. Wanda and Barney Blasingim similarly said they tried to vote for McCain but the machine switched the vote. "I noticed the problem immediately," Wanda said Monday. She says she touched the "button" for...

DECATUR BOY RESCUES LITTLE SISTER Thursday, February 19, 2004 cmccool@kalamazoogazette.com 388-8575 DECATUR -- The ground opened up and swallowed his little sister, and Vaughn Copeland jumped in after her. Some people grow old wondering whether they'd make the right split-second decision in a crisis. At the age of 7, Vaughn proved himself a hero. He saved his little sister's life Monday. The siblings were playing outside in the family's back yard Monday night when an abandoned septic tank suddenly collapsed beneath Alexanna Copeland. The 4-year-old girl fell into a cavity filled with water well over her head. "She knows how...

On the opening day of the Illinois Republican Party's quadrennial state convention in Decatur, please standby for this special message for Illinois Republicans: Hoping your political opponents get indicted is not an electoral strategy. The combination of euphoria and self-righteous indignation streaming out of GOP politicos on the occasion of Tony Rezko's conviction on public corruption charges this week is predictable if not well thought out. Considering he was elected Governor by running against that which has become the hallmark of his administration, it is natural for Republicans to delight in the possibility that Rod Blagojevich may soon be joining...

Novelist Salman Rushdie will join the faculty of Emory University and donate his archive to the institution, marking the writer's first extended relationship with a university, Emory officials said Friday. Rushdie will join the school in the spring of 2007 and lead a graduate seminar, participate in undergraduate courses and deliver lectures during his five-year appointment. "We'll have one of modern literature's giants on our faculty," said Emory President James Wagner. "And students will have access to his records - and the man himself. We're very, very pleased." Rushdie, the author of "The Satanic Verses," was forced into hiding for...

For the past 27 years, Point Mallard Park has been the sight for the September Skirmish, a Civil War reenactment of the beginning of the Battle for Decatur, Alabama, a small part of the 1864 Franklin-Nashville Campaign. The annual 3-day event this year included open Confederate and Union war camps, troop drills and weapon demonstrations, dinner and a dance in period dress. A civilian support camp was also erected, housing shops for Civil War era food, drinks, clothes, weapons, and even a chapel. I spent Saturday roaming the camps and once again enjoying the company of soldiers, and managed to...

Decatur is best known for his 1816 toast to the nation at a dinner party in his honor. Raising his glass, he said, “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country right or wrong.” ... Then there are those like Hollywood film star George Clooney and Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy who today have their own takes on Decatur’s words.

BATTLE CRY By Kay Day for W. Thomas Smith, Jr. He thought he heard it first in the oak trees, within boughs he chose for lookouts, sturdy perches where he spotted enemy encroaching fields of peanuts or cotton: fierce Hessians with scraggly beards and beefy arms, earnest Yankees in blue, Braves in feathers and paint, his enemy shaped in tales he’d heard or read. He heard it again in the water, pulling him along the rivulets where he dodged arrows and musket balls, a call urging attack, defend. The sound was the sweetest he’d known since he was an infant...

Gangs of Decatur: Residents concerned By Chris Paschenko DAILY Staff Writer cpaschenko@decaturdaily.com When gang members shot her mother's car two months ago, Amber Woods felt helpless. And when gang members chased and shot at her brother's car in March, missed and hit a sleeping Mississippi couple's recreational vehicle, Woods nearly gave up hope. Woods, 18, and her fiancée, Joe Manz, were two of about 150 people in attendance Tuesday at an Austinville community meeting, voicing their opinions on crime and gangs to Police Chief Joel Gilliam, Mayor Don Kyle and other city officials. "My complaint is I live on Russell...

After enduring months of intense heat, long hours, dust and Spartan living conditions since their arrival in May, Army postal units have nearly completed turnover of military postal operations to contractors. The turnover began in October, when the first KBR postal workers began to arrive, said Lt. Col. Steven Heggen, commander of the 461st Personnel Services Battalion, an Army Reserve unit from Decatur, Ga. Originally, the Joint Military Mail Terminal here was manned exclusively with soldiers from the 461st PSB and units from the National Guard, Army Reserve and active Army, numbering about 300 in all. Now, except for a...

NEWS RELEASEHEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND 7115 South Boundary Boulevard MacDill AFB, Fla. 33621-5101 Phone: (813) 827-5894; FAX: (813) 827-2211; DSN 651-5894 December 20, 2003Release Number: 03-12-52 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE COALITION FORCES MAKE SECOND MAJOR DRUG SEIZURE IN FIVE DAYS Aboard USS Enterprise – Five days after nearly 10 million dollars worth of hashish was found aboard a dhow in the Arabian Gulf, coalition forces have made another significant drug interception. Intelligence gained from the Dec. 15 raid by USS Decatur (DDG 73) led the U.S. Navy to board two dhows in the North Arabian Sea, this time discovering...