News Nearby: Duluth Woman Killed During Shooting, Illegal Fireworks Cause Fire

– Duluth Patch

The Gwinnett County Police Department Homicide Unit quickly arrested a suspect in a double shooting that resulted in the death of a Duluth woman and wounded a Duluth man Thursday night.

James Rashad Clay, 24, of Duluth has been charged in the shooting that occurred about 9:56 p.m. July 5 at the in unincorporated Duluth, according to Cpl. Edwin Ritter, public information officer for the department.

He said nvestigators are searching for a motive.

Gwinnett County Police Uniform officers responded to the hotel, located at 2350 Stephens Center Drive, regarding shots fired. Upon their arrival officers discovered two victims, each suffering from a single gunshot wound.

The woman victim, identified as Rashanda Patterson, 36, of Duluth, died on the scene from a gunshot wound to her head. Joseph Emener, 36, of Duluth suffered a non-life threatening gunshot wound and was transported to a local hospital for treatment, Ritter reported.

– Norcross Patch

Gwinnett County Fire Investigators believe illegal fireworks caused damage to two business in Lawrenceville. 

Crews were called to World Finance and Las Canas at a shopping plaza at 1956 Duluth Hwy. at 4:35 a.m. Thursday. When they got there, they found smoke and fire coming from the center of the roof. They were able to quickly extinguish the fire on the roof.

The roof over World Finance suffered minor damage. That business also had minor damage inside due to fire and water used as firefighters fought the flames.

– Northeast Cobb Patch

A Northeast Cobb homeowner is "occupying" his foreclosed home with members of several rights groups in order to broker an agreement that will keep him in his home.

Steve Boudreaux, who lives on Rubes Landing in Marietta, is staging a 24-hour, seven day a week protest on the front lawn of his home, reminiscent of the "Occupy" protests that occur in larger cities worldwide.

– Roswell Patch

As the TSPLOST issue has gained more publicity over the last several months we have been treated to many working examples of the media-as-advocate instead of media-as-reporter. 

The coverage seems designed to reinforce the Maven/ARC/Chamber message rather than to examine the facts about the project list objectively.  

Things you hear and see repeatedly:

• Atlanta is choked with traffic.
• TSPLOST will fix our congestion problems.
• TSPLOST will fuel Atlanta’s growth. 

Things you never hear or see:

• Over 52 percent of the funds go to transit.
• Transit does very little to reduce congestion. The metro region has too little density for transit to work.
• $500 million of the projects are going to fix MARTA’s maintenance backlog, which does nothing for congestion.
• $600 million is going to fund the city of Atlanta’s beltway project, which does nothing for congestion.
• The Citizen Review Panel is a toothless, for-show-only politically appointed body that has no enforcement power.
• ARC’s Chief Planner has stated publicly that the entire project list when completed will not change commute times very much.