All Things Considered

In the daylight, it was a much quieter and subdued Georgia Tech campus. Last night, a vigil for Scout Schultz, the student who was shot and killed by campus police on Saturday, erupted into a violent protest, with a police car being set on fire from a flare. Like us on Facebook Today, dozens of students gathered by the Skiles Classroom Building near the student center to write notes with sharpies and chalk to Schultz’s family and to the Georgia Tech Police Department. But there was clearly a divide around Schultz’s death and the campus police's response. Written in chalk on the sidewalk, someone wrote, “We heart GTPD.” But that sparked concern. Even someone nearby mentioned, “It feels like a slap in the face.” So the group washed away part of the writing and added some letters for the phrase to read, “We heart LGBT and GTPD.” Asked about campus police response, third-year student Mykala Sinclair was hesitant. "Um, I'm not completely sure how to answer this,” she said. “I don't know if

Under a new federal law called the ‘ Every Student Succeeds Act ,’ all states are required to submit a comprehensive education plan to the federal government. The deadline is Monday. Georgia spent more than a year seeking input and developing a proposal . However, some state officials are still at odds over some of the specifics. Like us on Facebook The main controversy revolves around the way the state evaluates schools. A draft of Georgia’s plan uses test scores and several other factors to evaluate a school’s performance. The Georgia Department of Education submitted the plan to Gov. Nathan Deal’s office last week. However, the governor recommended giving test scores more weight in evaluations. In a letter to Deal, State Schools Superintendent Richard Woods refused to make that change. He said it would, "take us back to the days of impossible expectations for schools, narrowing of opportunities for students, declining/stagnating performance, and overemphasis on testing.” The

The Atlanta City Council passed a resolution Tuesday night calling for the city police department to limit cooperation with federal immigration officials. Like us on Facebook The resolution, which passed 9-1, came in response to President Donald Trump’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which has protected about 800,000 young immigrants across the country from deportation. City Councilman Kwanza Hall said the legislation is a resolution to show the city is a welcoming place for immigrants, but he said it does not have the full force of the law. “It reaffirms some of the things that we’ve already been doing in practice without it actually being written as a formal law as an ordinance,” Hall said. “Why on earth would we not to, at least, express that Atlanta stands with people who are being pushed to the margins further?” The resolution calls for the city police department to not arrest or detain people based solely on requests from U.S.

The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it was ending an Obama-era program that’s shielded young undocumented immigrants from deportation. Like us on Facebook Federal officials said the government would stop accepting new applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, after Tuesday. Current DACA recipients would be allowed to have their two-year work permits until they expire, officials said. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Obama-era program “was an unconstitutional exercise of authority” by the executive branch and that the Department of Justice could not defend it. In Georgia, more than 24,000 people have been approved for DACA program according to federal data . Marisol Estrada, 23, watched the announcement of the decision to end DACA Tuesday morning with her co-workers. Estrada came to the United States with her mother when she was 5 years old, and recently graduated from Armstrong State University in Savannah. She said she felt

Congress is back in session this week, and lawmakers are supposed to pass a budget by the end of the month. One matter to decide is whether to preserve funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. Like us on Facebook President Donald Trump wants to zero out the NEA's budget. An initial House plan ignores that request, but Georgia arts groups are taking the threat seriously. A good place to see NEA dollars at work is Atlanta's Center for Puppetry Arts. For years, it's received funds for various shows. Puppetry Center development director Heather Karellas says, “Typically our NEA grants range from 10,000 to 30,000. They do cover a portion of building the puppets, building the sets -- all of the work that goes into producing those shows.” Karellas says, without that money, the center would have to make noticeable cuts. "In terms of our creative vision and our creative leadership, I couldn't tell you how that conversation would play out -- except that it would be a difficult

All of the Georgia State University students who started the school year staying in a hotel are now living on campus. But there are still about 150 waiting for permanent placement. Like us on Facebook When the semester started, there were about 500 more students who'd been promised on-campus housing than there were beds available. GSU officials said the overbooking was caused by lack of cancellations. While the university waited for more beds to become available, students were asked to double up in dorms in exchange for money off the semester’s rent. Some students volunteered their space. But others, like Cameron Lineberry who lives in the University Lofts, had their rooms or suites chosen by the university as a place hold. "People have just been like kind of like moving in and out. So one guy is still stationary here. The other guy that moved in just moved out but then yet they brought another person in,” said Lineberry, whose suite is designed for four students. “So, still, we have

The AJC Decatur Book Festival kicks off Friday with a panel called Journalism in our Current Environment . Public radio host and author Brooke Gladstone will participate. It’s at 8 p.m. at Emory’s Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Like us on Facebook Gladstone's new book is called "The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time.” Gladstone will speak about that publication Saturday at 11:15 a.m. at the First Baptist Decatur Sanctuary . That’s also part of the festival. Ahead of those events, Amy Kiley spoke with Gladstone about the panel and book.

Cobb County’s police chief said Thursday it was in the process of firing an officer who was shown in a recording making racially charged statements at a traffic stop last July. Like us on Facebook The officer, Lt. Greg Abbott, is shown in a dashcam recording telling a woman who’s worried about reaching for her cellphone – “But you’re not black. Remember, we only kill black people.” Abbott’s attorney, Lance LoRusso, said late Thursday that Abbott made the decision to retire after 27 years of service. In a news conference Thursday afternoon, Cobb's Police Chief Mike Register said the comments weren’t justified. “I feel that no matter what context you try to take those comments in, the statements were inexcusable and inappropriate,” he said. Abbott's attorney said early Thursday that his client was attempting to de-escalate the situation with the driver. Register, who became chief three months ago, said the department has been working to build trust with the community. “Those comments

Colonial Pipeline is shutting down a key line that supplies gasoline to the South due to refinery shutdowns and other impacts from Tropical Storm Harvey, meaning prices at the pump could rise even more in many states. Like us on Facebook The pipeline, a crucial artery in the nation's fuel supply network, provides nearly 40 percent of the South's gasoline. It supplies 75 percent of metro Atlanta's gasoline. The other 25 percent Atlanta gets from the Plantation Pipeline. It runs out out of Louisiana, and it's still operating. Gasoline prices have been on the rise even before the pipeline shutdown. Harvey's devastating strike on the Gulf Coast has prompted one of the summer's largest one-week price surges, AAA reported. Among the reasons: About one-quarter of the Gulf Coast's oil refining capacity was taken offline, according to the Oil Price Information Service. "We're seeing increases of anywhere from 10 to 15 cents the past couple of nights, each night – but you will see retail prices