Isolated to widely scattered showers will continue across north Georgia on Thursday night as a flood watch remains in effect through at least Saturday morning. An area of low pressure has stalled over the state and is feeding high amounts of moisture across Georgia. The FLASH FLOOD WATCH has been expanded to include most of N GA. Through Saturday AM, plan on an additional 2-4' (with higher amounts possible). This could very well be extended longer, as even more rain arrives this weekend and sticks around. #gawx pic.twitter.com/1D2mPFdBUy — Katie Walls (@KatieWallsWSB) May 24, 2018 Severe Weather Team 2 says parts of north Georgia could see an additional 2-4 inches of rain by Saturday morning, with higher amounts in isolated areas. The isolated showers will thin out overnight Thursday and into Friday morning, but will intensify again with the heating of the day Friday. [DOWNLOAD: WSB-TV's Weather App for alerts on severe weather] “There could be a lot of rain in eastern Georgia,” said Severe Weather Team Chief Meteorologist Glenn Burns . “For Athens, down to Lake Country and Eatonton, there’s pretty good chances of rain, with one area of rain rolling on top of another, that’s conducive to that flash-flooding of creeks and streams in the area.” What viewers can only get on Channel 2 Action News: Updated hi-resolution models showing when/where the heaviest downpours develop Thursday afternoon. New projections showing how much additional rainfall to expect. New models pinpointing where a tropical system could make landfall this weekend along the Gulf, bringing flooding rain to the Gulf Coast, Florida and eventually North Georgia. Friday afternoon and into the evening, there will be a few isolated showers in and around the metro. Those showers and possible thunderstorms will remain a possibility through at least 11 p.m. As we move through the Memorial Day weekend, the rain will stick around through at least mid-week next week, with highs in the upper-70s and low 80s.
A Georgia rape victim was awarded a $1 billion settlement verdict Tuesday by a Clayton County jury in a civil lawsuit, according to court documents. Hope Cheston, who is now 20 years old, sued a security company whose employee, Brandon Lamar Zachary, was convicted of rape and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The rape occurred in October 2012 when Cheston was 14. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s policy is to not name rape victims, but Cheston has chosen to speak out after the verdict. “Sexual assault is sexual assault,” Cheston said at a news conference Wednesday. “It’s not right, and it needs to be punished.” She said the verdict was a pleasant surprise that validates her struggles and emotional pain. >> Read more trending news “For the longest (time), I thought it would be pushed under the rug and no longer mattered ... but come to find out 12 strangers feel like what I went through and my story and how I feel six years later is worth a billion dollars,” Cheston said. She originally filed the civil suit against the apartment complex, HACC Pointe South Inc., the property management company, Hammond Residential Group, Inc., and the security company, Crime Prevention Agency Inc. HACC Pointe South Inc. and Hammond Residential Group Inc. were eventually dismissed from the suit. The State Court of Clayton County ruled in Cheston’s favor against the security company, handing her the huge settlement, according to a statement from her attorney. “This is a huge victory for women,” Cheston’s attorney, Chris Stewart, said at the news conference. Stewart said Crime Prevention Agency Inc. has since changed its name to International Security Agency Inc., which he said has prompted a subsequent lawsuit. “You can’t change names or try to hide from your responsibility,” Stewart said. Zachary, who is now 28, was arrested on charges of rape, statutory rape and child molestation, according to the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office.
A former NAACP leader in Washington state whose life unraveled after she was exposed as a white woman pretending to be black has been charged with welfare fraud. Rachel Dolezal, who legally changed her name to Nkechi Diallo in 2016, was charged this week with theft by welfare fraud, perjury and false verification for public assistance, Spokane news station KHQ-TV reported Thursday. She illegally received $8,747 in food assistance and $100 in child care assistance from August 2015 through November 2017, court documents said. An investigation started in March 2017 when a Washington state investigator received information that Diallo had written a book. The investigator reviewed Diallo's records and found that she had been reporting her income as usually less than $500 per month, court documents said. A subpoena for her self-employment records, which included copies of her bank statements, showed Diallo had deposited nearly $84,000 into her bank account between August 2015 and September 2017, without reporting the majority of it to the Department of Social and Health Services. The money came from authoring her memoir, 'In Full Color,' speaking engagements, soap making, doll making, and the sale of her art, according to the case file. Diallo did report a 'change of circumstance' to the state agency, saying she did a one-time job in October 2017 worth $20,000, court documents said. The former civil rights activist told investigators she 'fully disclosed her information' and declined to answer further questions, the documents said. She has said previously that she grew up near Troy, Montana, with religious parents and that she began to change her perspective as a teenager, after her parents adopted four black children. She decided to become publicly black years later, after a divorce. The ruse worked for years until 2015, when her parents, with whom she has long feuded, told reporters that their daughter was white but was presenting herself as a black activist in the Spokane region. The story became an international sensation, and she was fired as head of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP and kicked off a police ombudsman commission. She also lost her job teaching African studies at Eastern Washington University. ___ Information from: KHQ-TV, http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3082888/
A man armed with a pistol walked into an Oklahoma City restaurant at the dinner hour and opened fire, wounding two customers, before being shot dead by a handgun-carrying civilian in the parking lot, police said. The shooting happened around 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Louie's On The Lake, a restaurant on Lake Hefner. A woman and a female juvenile were undergoing surgery for gunshot wounds but apparently 'are going to survive,' said Capt. Bo Matthews, a police spokesman. A man suffered a broken arm while trying to escape the shooting. A family member told KOCO-TV that her daughter and 12-year-old granddaughter were shot while entering the restaurant for the girl's birthday dinner. Authorities have not identified the injured patrons. The dead suspect's identity also was not immediately known, Matthews said. 'We have no reason to believe this is a terrorist type of incident,' Matthews said. The motive was unclear otherwise, and the investigation at the scene was expected to extend into the early morning hours as law enforcement personnel interview about 100 eyewitnesses, he said. In April, a restaurant patron wrestled an assault-style rifle away from a gunman at a Waffle House in Nashville, Tennessee. Four people were killed in that shooting. Police have said there would have been far more casualties if it weren't for the patron's quick thinking.
Survivors of last week's shooting at a high school near Houston told gripping stories of dodging bullets, hiding from the attacker and seeing classmates get shot as they pleaded with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for more armed security to keep campuses safe. The emotional three-hour discussion on Thursday marked the end of three days of meetings Abbott held on school safety and mass shootings. And while the governor has appeared to embrace ideas of boosting security and tracking student mental health, there is little expectation the staunch gun-rights supporter will push for major changes to restrict owning firearms or buying them. The Republican, who is campaigning for re-election, organized the mostly closed-door meetings shortly after eight students and two substitute teachers were fatally shot inside Santa Fe High School. Abbott said he wanted to find 'swift and meaningful' ways to stop future shootings. He hasn't said when or what he'll recommend, but told the survivors and their families Thursday 'we are going to do more than just talk, we are going to act.' So far, the governor has ignored calls from a handful of state lawmakers from both parties to call the Legislature into special session to address gun laws, which is a sharp contrast to the response in Florida after a high school shooting in February killed 17 people. Three weeks after that massacre, Florida politicians, who were already in session, passed a gun-control package after a lobbying campaign led by student survivors of the attack. Lawmakers aren't scheduled to meet until January 2019 in Texas, a state that embraces its gun-friendly reputation and has more than 1.2 million people licensed to carry handguns. And unlike the students in Florida, several students at Santa Fe High School have been vocal opponents of increased gun control, including some of those who were invited to meet Abbott on Thursday. The only tweaks to gun safety Abbott mentioned as possibilities were stronger laws on gun storage and reporting of lost or stolen weapons, and quicker reporting to law enforcement when a court order denies someone access to a firearm. Several of the families who met with him Thursday said they didn't want to talk about gun restrictions or the politics of gun rights. 'This is not a gun thing,' said Jay Horn, whose son was injured in the shooting and hospitalized. 'Evil's going to happen with anything.' Abbott has signed bills in recent years that reduce the cost and training needed for a handgun license and expanded where handguns can be legally carried. During a National Rifle Association meeting earlier this month, Abbott said the violence problem isn't caused by guns but by 'hearts without God.' This week's meetings included representatives of both gun rights and gun control groups. However, Alice Tripp, legislative director of the Texas Rifle Association, an affiliate of the NRA, said her group found 'no common ground' on gun restrictions and would be cautious of anything that would deny access to buy or own guns. Thursday's meeting included more than 30 students, families and staff members from Santa Fe High School. Scot Rice described hiding behind a parking lot garbage bin, hearing bullets whiz by as he could see his wife Flo, a substitute teacher, pretending to be dead after getting shot. She survived. A police officer was able to carry her to safety. Also attending were two survivors of the November church shooting in rural Sutherland Springs, Texas, that left more than two dozen people dead. Stephen Willeford, the church neighbor and former NRA gun instructor who was hailed as a hero for grabbing a rifle and firing back at the attacker, also was at the meeting. Several students and parents said schools need more armed security guards and armed teachers to prevent attacks. Texas law allows school districts to arm teachers who pass training courses and they must keep their guns concealed. Others debated whether schools should have metal detectors. 'Arming teachers, and not knowing who is armed, that is what we need,' said Grace Johnson, a Santa Fe senior who hid in a band room attic during the attack. 'I cannot tell you how much safer I feel in public with my father having a gun on him.' Johnson said her government class wrote to Abbott's office in February after Santa Fe High School had a three-hour lockdown that month, shortly after the shooting at the Florida high school. 'We wrote letters to you, my entire government class, on why is this happening and what can we do to fix it. We didn't get anything back. We didn't get acknowledgement,' she told Abbott. 'It finally happened to our school and we weren't surprised. ... It's happening everywhere.' Abbott spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said the governor's office has no record of the letters, but that Abbott 'appreciates the time Grace took to bring her concerns directly to him today.' Better security, metal detectors and new programs to track student mental health would cost money, and the state's public schools are already living under strained budgets. The Texas State Teachers Association has resisted calls by Texas Republicans to arm more teachers. Texas Democrats urged Abbott to address gun issues. 'Greg Abbott's track record is that nothing of substance will come out of this that keeps weapons out of the hands of school shooters,' said Manny Garcia, deputy director of the state Democratic Party. 'Texans need leadership at a time when they are afraid to send their kids to school.' Rhonda Hart, a military veteran whose daughter Kimberly Vaughan was killed in the Santa Fe shooting, has been outspoken this week on the need for more gun control. She wasn't invited to the meetings this week. 'You should have to wait a week, have counseling and walk through lines of protesters who tell you you're a murderer' to buy a gun, Hart said.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers have gotten classified briefings about the origins of the FBI investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election, a highly unusual series of meetings prompted by partisan allegations that the bureau spied on Donald Trump's campaign. Democrats emerged from the meetings saying they saw no evidence to support Republican allegations that the FBI acted inappropriately, although they did express grave concern about the presence of a White House lawyer at Thursday's briefings. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News he had learned 'nothing particularly surprising,' but declined to go into detail. Still, the extraordinary briefings drew attention to the unproved claims of FBI misconduct and political bias. The meetings were sought by Trump's GOP allies and arranged by the White House, as the president has tried to sow suspicions about the legitimacy of the FBI investigation that spawned a special counsel probe. Initially offered only to Republicans, the briefings were the latest piece of stagecraft meant to publicize and bolster the allegations. But they also highlighted the degree to which the president and his allies have used the levers of the federal government — in this case, intelligence agencies — to aide in Trump's personal and political defense. Under direct pressure from the president, Justice Department officials agreed to grant Republicans a briefing, and only later opened it up to Democrats. The invite list evolved up until hours before the meeting — a reflection of the partisan distrust and the political wrangling. A White House lawyer, Emmet Flood, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly showed up for both briefings, although the White House had earlier said it would keep a distance, drawing criticism from Democrats. 'For the record, the president's chief of staff and his attorney in an ongoing criminal investigation into the president's campaign have no business showing up to a classified intelligence briefing,' Sen. Mark Warner tweeted after the briefing. The White House said the officials didn't attend the full briefings, but instead delivered brief remarks communicating the 'president's desire for as much openness as possible under the law' and relaying 'the president's understanding of the need to protect human intelligence services and the importance of communication between the branches of government,' according to a statement. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Christopher Wray and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats attended both meetings — the first at the Department of Justice and the second on Capitol Hill. Trump has zeroed in on, and at times embellished, reports that a longtime U.S. government informant approached members of his campaign in a possible bid to glean intelligence on Russian efforts to sway the election. The president intensified his attacks this week, calling it 'spygate' and tweeting Thursday that it was 'Starting to look like one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history.' It was unclear how much information was given to lawmakers. According to a U.S. official familiar with the meeting, the briefers did not reveal the name of an informant. They brought documents but did not share them, and made several remarks about the importance of protecting intelligence sources and methods. The person declined to be identified because the briefing was classified. In a statement, House Speaker Paul Ryan wouldn't say what he learned, but said he looked forward to the 'prompt completion' of the House Intelligence Committee's work now that they are 'getting the cooperation necessary.' House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, an ardent Trump supporter, had originally requested the information on an FBI source in the Russia investigation. The original meeting was scheduled for just Nunes and Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, but the Justice Department relented and allowed additional lawmakers to come after Democrats strongly objected. Nunes and other Republicans already eager to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation used Trump's complaints to obtain the briefing from the Justice Department, whose leaders have tried for months to balance demands from congressional overseers against their stated obligation to protect Mueller's ongoing investigation into ties between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. Nunes attended both briefings Thursday. According to the U.S. official and another person briefed on the Capitol Hill meeting, Nunes did not speak at all during the briefing. The second person also declined to be named because the meeting was classified. Democratic lawmakers declined to comment on the substance of the briefing, but gave a joint statement afterward saying their view had not changed that 'there is no evidence to support any allegation that the FBI or any intelligence agency placed a 'spy' in the Trump Campaign, or otherwise failed to follow appropriate procedures and protocols.' The statement was issued by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, and the top Democrats on the Senate and House intelligence panels, Warner and Rep. Adam Schiff. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr also attended the briefing but did not comment afterward. The back and forth between Congress and the Justice Department has simmered for weeks. The Justice Department had rejected Nunes' original request, writing in a letter in April that his request for information could put lives in danger. Negotiations over release of the information stalled but restarted when Trump demanded, via tweet, on Sunday that the Justice Department investigate. In response to the tweet, the Justice Department immediately asked its inspector general to expand its ongoing investigation to look into whether there was any politically motivated surveillance of the campaign and agreed to hold the classified briefings. It remained unclear what, if any, spying was done. The White House gave no evidence to support Trump's claim that President Barack Obama's administration was trying to spy on his 2016 campaign for political reasons. It's long been known that the FBI was looking into Russian meddling during the campaign and that part of that inquiry touched on the Trump campaign's contacts with Russian figures. Mueller took over the investigation when he was appointed special counsel in May 2017. ___ Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman, Jonathan Lemire, Lisa Mascaro, Chad Day and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
In the first of three debates before the November elections, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton battled over who would make the best commander-in-chief, as Trump said Clinton did not have the “stamina” to be President, while Clinton assailed Trump’s economic plans, saying they would be a boon to the wealthy.
“It’s trickle-down economics all over again,” Clinton said in a familiar refrain about Republican economic policies, which she labeled, “Trumped-Up, Trickle-Down.”
Trump responded by accusing Clinton of looking to do one thing – increase taxes.
“You’re going to raise taxes big league,” Trump said, as he repeatedly tried to portray Clinton as the candidate of the status quo – essentially the incumbent – arguing she’s responsible for the country going in the wrong direction.
“She’s been doing this for thirty years,” Trump said, “and now you’re just starting to think of solutions.”
Trump hits Clinton: "typical politician – all talk no action – sounds good doesn't work"
Both candidates used a bevy of familiar phrases and arguments from their respective campaign speeches, as they tangled over Clinton’s email server, Trump’s tax returns and more.
“Maybe he’s not as rich as he claims to be,” Clinton said dismissively of Trump and his tax returns, using a Trumpian type line to go after the real estate mogul.
“It must be something really important, even terrible, that he’s trying to hide,” Clinton said.
Trump vowed to release his tax returns, but only when Clinton produces thousands of emails that she deleted from her time as Secretary of State.
“It’s all words, it’s all sound bites,” Trump said as he dismissed a Clinton attack on his business record.
On recent unrest over a police shooting in Charlotte, North Carolina, Trump said Clinton was not doing anything to help quell violence in poor neighborhoods
“We need law and order in the inner cities,” Trump said. “Secretary Clinton doesn’t want to use a couple of words – ‘law and order,'” Trump added
On the fight against terrorism, Trump agreed with Clinton on one issue, whether to stop people who are on the ‘no-fly’ list from buying firearms in the United States.
“I agree with you, when a person is on the watch list or the no-fly list,” Trump said, “I tend to agree with that, quite strongly.”
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