Behind the Investigation with Atlanta News First

Eminent domain, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is defined as the right of a government or its agent to appropriate private property for public use, with payment of compensation. In Georgia, the process starts by first condemning the site.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/12/04/railroaded-georgia-family-farm-fights-land-seizure-claims-eminent-domain-abuse/

For the past 30 years, Georgia State University has run a program for experienced teachers to learn a curriculum called Reading Recovery, which is intended to help children learn how to read.

Reading Recovery is one-on-one instruction in the classroom for the lowest performing students in first grade struggling to read. School districts in Georgia and across the country used its teaching methods for decades.

Once hailed as one of the most effective intervention models, a study published in the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness in 2023 raises questions about its effectiveness. While the results show the short-term impact to students “largely positive,” researchers say the results completely flipped once the children reach third and fourth grade.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/12/10/georgia-state-university-accused-teaching-debunked-reading-methods/

One of the world’s largest carpet manufacturers claims it was tricked into using a group of chemicals it did not know was harmful to people and the environment.

The allegations are part of a pending lawsuit filed by Mohawk Industries, based in Dalton, Georgia, against 3M and other chemical manufacturers.

The lawsuit claims the chemical companies “concealed and misrepresented material information regarding the environmental and health risks of PFAS chemicals” when it sold “treatment products” to Mohawk for decades.

On Monday, the city of Dalton itself filed a lawsuit against Shaw Industries, claiming one of the city’s largest employers contaminated its sewage system with PFAS chemicals. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Georgia in Rome.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/12/10/erin-brockovich-you-have-pfas-contamination-its-big-one/

With a single sentence, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has ended a nationwide program that had seized untold millions in cash from airline passengers without arrests.

“I am directing that the DEA suspend conducting consensual encounters,” wrote Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in a Nov. 12, 2024, directive to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The directive was an immediate response to a report from the Justice Department Inspector General that was set in motion by Atlanta News First Investigates. The award-winning investigation, In Plane Sight, has been viewed millions of times on YouTube. One of those viewers took action because of it, setting off a chain of events that led the Justice Department to shut the program down.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/12/03/airline-informant-received-thousands-passenger-cash-seizures/

A metro Atlanta daycare was behind on her bills due to delays in payments from Georgia agencies; insulin deserts are plaguing Georgia communities; and an Atlanta Falcons superfan was arrested after an Atlanta News First investigation.

These are some of our award-winning team of journalists' most popular reports from 2024.

Atlanta's top consumer reporter Harry Samler has been helping our community's residents solve their problems for more than 20 years. In this year-end special, he recaps some of his top reports from 2024, including a metro Atlanta daycare owner almost having to close because of past due payments from the government; an unlicensed contractor in over his head; a $300,000 water bill; mystery parking violations; how a man wound up with TWO car payments; and an oversized tax bill.

A fake landlord tries to evict an Atlanta family from their home;  an Atlanta couple is furious with Amazon over a rushed delivery that caused thousands of dollars in damages to their home; scammers are using AI-generated images of military personnel to them into their romance scams; and a Georgia town is accused of using their police department to ticket drivers for the city's profits. 

Relive all of these riveting reports from 2024 from the award-winning team of Atlanta News First Investigates reporters.

Misdeeds, an investigative series produced by Atlanta News First from September 2023 through June 2024, exposed a loophole in Georgia law that left local families robbed of their most valued asset: their home.

 Our reporting uncovered a pattern of deed thefts at the center of real estate fraud. It’s a crime that often goes unpunished.

 Misdeeds got immediate results, creating a new state law. Previously, state policy did not require ID to file a deed on a house.  

 Clerks were not even allowed to ask for IDs. 

 The more metro Atlanta became a hotspot for real estate, the more deed theft seemed to happen—thieves exploiting the loophole in state law to steal and transfer the title of homes. Because of the new Georgia law created as a direct result of this investigation, homeowners’ largest investment is now protected.

Read and watch the full series here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/news/investigate/stolenhome/

Zenobia Willis was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Willis is a small business owner who runs a transport service for disabled adults, seniors and dialysis patients. She said the state agency she works with, the Northeast Georgia Regional Commission (NEGRC), owed her $61,000. Willis said the state-funded agency had not paid her since July.

“There is no reason why it should take three months to get paid,” Willis said. “You cannot run a business, especially a transportation business, without money.”

NEGRC is based in Athens, Georgia, and services 12 counties and 54 cities. It is one of twelve regional commissions in Georgia created “to foster the implementation of joint local, state, and federal programs.”

Acting Director Burke Walker confirmed payment delays to 18 vendors, including Willis.

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/11/22/georgia-department-confirms-statewide-payment-delays-vendors/

Daydrianna Hefner is a Cherokee County, Georgia, mother of two who had a history of substance abuse, evident by a string of mugshots from years ago.

Hefner’s addiction led to prison and intervention from the Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), which placed her two kids in foster care in October 2021.

While behind bars, Hefner decided to get sober. “I needed to get arrested to have that long clear frame of mind,” she said, and today cites her sobriety date as May 28, 2022.

When she was released, Hefner agreed to a DFCS case plan to get her children back, which included random drug screens. But now Hefner said some of the results make no sense, arguing “the department is saying I failed drug screens and I know I haven’t used any drugs.

“I don’t know what to do and feel helpless.”

Read the full story here: https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2024/11/14/georgias-contracted-drug-labs-under-scrutiny-over-alleged-false-positives/