05.31
Murderer, wife beater, ex-LaFayette cop Sam Parker is appealing his 2009 murder conviction.
Parker’s public defender will appear before the GA Supreme Court next Monday to argue that evidence used to convict Parker was obtained illegally and the jury was pressured to find him guilty.
IF the court decides Parker’s case was investigated improperly, blame for the decision will fall solely on the unprofessionalism of Steve Wilson’s Walker County Sheriff’s Office – the same department whose unprofessional behavior led to Parker murdering his wife in the first place. 
According to doctors and family members, LHS Principal Culberson’s surgery on Friday “went well.”
Culberson fell out of a tree earlier this week trying to retrieve a model plane and broke both wrists, among other injuries.
Catoosa County foster parent who was arrested in Chattanooga a week ago, accused of murdering a child in her care, has been extradited back to Georgia and sits in the Catoosa Co. Jail.
LU has learned that the woman, 59-year-old Clara Edwards, wasn’t working through regular DFCS foster care but with a private for-profit foster care service based out of Nashville: Omni Visions, Inc.
Omni Visions has local offices in Ringgold, Dalton, and Chattanooga; agency works with children who are disabled or difficult to place. The child who died was from Blue Ridge GA, about an hour away from Catoosa County.
A big blow to state plans for privatizing foster care.
A woman in her 30’s and a teenager were involved in a 4-wheeler accident on Marble Top Rd. this morning, before noon. Both sustained injuries and LifeForce was called out. No other details are immediately available.
Be careful out there as you ride around.
Gov. Deal suggests that ethics reform in Georgia should also include a review of “whistleblower” law, removing protections from many state employees who report supervisors or other bureaucrats who break the rules.
Deal and the state were recently slapped in a court case over the firing of someone who did just that to him.
Finster Fest – big music and art festival in Summerville – begins today and runs through Sunday night. Portions of the festival are free to the public but the concert tonight is not.
You’ve just GOT to look, don’t you?
Walker Co. Schools and YMCA are sponsoring two free summer lunch programs for kids in LaFayette while schools are out. One is offered weekdays 11:30 to 12:30 at the main rec. department, starting last week. The other will be at Max Stoker Rec. every day from 12 to 1, starting next Monday.
President Obama has included a 15-county region of Northwest GA (including Walker) on a list of “Manufacturing Communities” eligible for federal grants.
Don’t get too excited, it’s a huge region and most of the money will go to the area’s multitude of overlapping useless Development Authorities.
GA Attorney General’s office attempts to force a college student to remove documents from his blog after they were released to him by a state university. AG Olens’ aggressive tactics backfired and brought the blogger (and the files) more attention that they would have gotten otherwise.
But Olens sure as hell doesn’t care when you have trouble GETTING files like that from local government.. He’s absolutely not an advocate of open government and needs to go.
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