The Sports Pig

Fans rushed to Academy Outdoors in Buford as the Georgia Bulldogs beat the TCU Horned Frogs in the National Championship game for a chance to get some of the new gear first. 

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The Gwinnett County Public Library in Suwanee and the Suwanee Arts Center are working together to bring knowledge about the visual arts and art programming to Suwanee and surrounding communities with a new program called Art Ties.

Officials said the goal for the collaboration is to provide art education for all ages while encouraging creativity and engagement in the visual arts.

The new program begins this month with the first edition on January 17. After that, it will be held quarterly.

The first programs feature two Suwanee Arts Center Photographers: Traci Dickson, who will present “The Photographer’s Eye — The Wonder of Looking Closely,” for children ages 10-13; and Gary Bowlick, who will present “The Wonder of Photography: Light, Subject and Composition,” for adults interested in gaining knowledge about photography. Both one-hour programs will take place simultaneously at the Suwanee Library, located at 361 Main St., at 4 p.m.

Suwanee Arts Center board member Rhonda Starling and Radha Ashok, who is branch manager of the Suwanee Public Library, are the co-creators of Art Ties.

Although the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band enjoyed a great deal of success with a host of radio-friendly songs, there’s little question that the group’s signature creation was the 1972 album “Will the Circle be Unbroken,” which paired the band with country and bluegrass legends like Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Vassar Clements, Merle Travis, Mother Maybelle Carter and Roy Acuff.

The three-record release was a bestseller, yielded two subsequent albums and has been lauded as a vital link between Nashville royalty and the rock music community, lifting the veil on what was to one day be regarded as the Americana music movement.

String wizard John McEuen, a founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, was among the key architects in the construction of “Circle” and is back on the road this winter, celebrating the group’s opus with a concert full of songs and stories from the celebrated release, which is back on the charts thanks to Ken Burns’ 2019 docu-series “Country Music,” an episode of which prominently featured McEuen, the Dirt Band and “Circle.” The celebrated guitarist, banjo picker and mandolinist, who in December celebrated his 77th birthday, and the Circle Band will perform at 7 p.m. on Saturday, January 14 at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur. Although the album has been around for more than 50 years, McEuen said its songs have long been part of his repertoire. For more information on John McEuen and his performance on Saturday  at Eddie’s Attic, visit johnmceuen.com

A park in the Lawrenceville area has a new field for young people to play football, soccer and lacrosse on.

Sports Turf Company announced it has finished the renovation of the recreation field at Rock Springs Park. The renovation included replacing the natural grass field with an artificial turf. The park is used by the Collins Hill Athletic Association, the Gwinnett Football League and the Gwinnett Lacrosse League. the renovation will enable the field to be used by multiple sports — including football, girls and boys lacrosse and soccer — in a variety of weather conditions.

As part of the field turf replacement, Sports Turf company also did concrete work, replaced fences, installed new goal posts, and made landscaping, irrigation and stormwater detention improvements.

The Braselton Woman’s club is partnering with the town’s community development department to display original artwork from students in the historic 1904 building.

“Creativity stARTs Here — A Kids View of Braselton” is a collaboration between the club, town and local schools to showcase students’ artistic talents. The first display began this month and exhibits will rotate in seasons and among schools.

Fourth- and fifth-grade Panther Leader students representing West Jackson Elementary School helped create the first display of art that models and exemplifies the history of Braselton and community life.

The 1904 building originally housed the Braselton Brothers mercantile store at the corner of Georgia Route 53 and Davis Street.

The Gwinnett Stripers are once again launching a virtual search for national anthem performers.

All interested singers, vocal groups (five singers or less), and musicians can send a digital submission (video or audio) of their acapella or unaccompanied performance of the ational anthem to [email protected] by January 31. Candidates will be judged on tone, pace (90 seconds or less), and clarity. Beginning in February, top candidates will be invited to participate in virtual auditions. No in-person auditions will be held. Those who have been chosen from the virtual auditions will be contacted to schedule a date to sing the national anthem during the 2023 season.

Gwinnett Stripers’ Opening Night at Coolray Field is set for March 31 vs. Jacksonville.

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The city of Norcross recently announced that its NorcrossWorks web site has been relaunched.

According to the city, NorcrossWorks is a user-friendly website whereby employers can post and advertise openings at no cost. All a business has to do is complete a simple form which will be reviewed and posted by the Economic Development Department.

Likewise, job seekers can access job postings and apply.

"This platform aims to address some of the city’s labor, income and educational gaps, which have all been exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapidly changing nature of the global economy," a statement from the city said. "The goal is to serve both businesses (employers) and individuals in the labor market (job seekers) by connecting both parties together."

Norcross Mayor Craig Newton said the relaunch is particularly timely due to current economic conditions. To learn more about the site, go to norcrossworks.com.

And now here’s your Gwinnett County sports update presented by Tom Wages funeral home. Grayson head football coach Adam Carter has resigned to become head football coach at Lowndes, Lowndes County Schools announced Tuesday morning.

Carter has been the Rams’ head coach the last four years with a 45-9 record highlighted by going 14-0 and winning the Class AAAAAAA state championship in the pandemic-affected 2020 season. Grayson also made the 2021 semifinals and the quarterfinals in 2019 and 2022. Prior to being hired at Grayson, Carter went 12-1 in one season as Creekview’s head coach. He was previously an assistant at Camden County, Paulding County, Marietta, Reinhardt and South Carolina State, as well as head coach at Bradwell Institute in 2013.

How strong is the upcoming partnership between Lawrenceville and the Gwinnett/Walton Habitat for Humanity group?

Strong enough for the city to pledge 15-person weekend shifts by city employees to help on two of the builds for the nonprofit.

That's the unique part of the agreement, which the city announced at its Dec. 14 council meeting. The City Council approved a project to build four houses  in the upcoming year in the Lawrenceville city limits, located in the Saddle Shoals neighborhood off Springlake Road. The project will begin in the first quarter of 2023. Part of Habitat for Humanity’s business model is for future owners and community leaders to work side-by-side to make their dreams of homeownership a reality. But what makes this project unique is the fact that other city employees from Lawrenceville will help with the builds.

According to city officials, Lawrenceville will provide $100,000 to the project using ARPA funding for construction. Gwinnett/Walton Habitat for Humanity will sell the homes to individuals meeting the income requirements of the Habitat program.

City officials said the homes will contain at least 1,500 square feet of heated space, a two-car garage and a working fireplace and chimney.

A group of Georgians is suing the state over its failure to provide health benefits for transgender people through the State Health Benefit Plan, which provides health coverage for state employees, including public school employees.

Two of the plaintiffs in the case work for the state, while one is the son of a state employee covered by the State Health Benefit Plan. The lawsuit maintains the failure to provide the medical services, including gender-confirming surgery, amounts to discrimination based on sex. The Campaign for Southern Equality, an LGBTQ advocacy group with members in Georgia, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Medicare and many other private insurance companies already cover the treatments. Recent lawsuits have successfully pushed other health plans in Georgia to provide gender-confirming treatment, including surgery. A lawsuit forced the University System of Georgia to cover the medical care in 2018. Earlier this year, a federal district judge ruled employers cannot deny or exclude coverage for gender-confirming care for transgender people after a Houston County policy denied coverage for a county employee who wanted the surgery. In July, the state Medicaid program changed its policy to cover transgender health-care, including gender-confirmation surgery, as part of a settlement in a separate lawsuit.

The state Public Service Commission (PSC) approved a $1.8 billion rate increase requested by Georgia Power Tuesday that embraced most of an agreement between the agency’s staff and the company presented last week.

Commissioners slightly lowered the upper limit on profits Georgia Power will be allowed to keep and sweetened incentives to be offered to encourage the development of solar energy and the deployment of electric vehicle charging stations. But the PSC stopped short of more far-reaching changes proposed by Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, who provided the lone opposition in Tuesday’s 4-1 vote.

The $1.8 billion rate hike – down from Georgia Power’s original request of $2.9 billion – will raise the average residential customer’s bill by $3.60 per month starting Jan. 1. That’s down significantly from the $14.90 monthly increase customers would have seen next year under the original front-loaded three-year request the company proposed in June. Instead, customer rates will go up by 4.5% in 2024 and again in 2025 under the agreement between Georgia Power and the PSC’s Public Interest Advocacy Staff.

The commission set the return on equity (ROE) for the utility at the staff-recommended level of 10.5%, down from the 11% the company sought.

But commission Chair Tricia Pridemore amended the upper limit of the “earnings band” – the range within which the utility can earn profits for its shareholders without sharing them with customers – to 11.9%, slightly below the 12% Georgia Power requested and currently receives. The PSC staff had recommended reducing the upper limit to 11.5%.

Chris Womack, Georgia Power’s chairman, president, and CEO, said in September the company expects to file a request in February for unrecovered fuel costs to account for the volatility of the energy market resulting from factors including rising natural gas prices and the impacts of the war in Ukraine.

The utility also will be looking to the PSC to recover the costs of bringing into service the two new nuclear reactors being built at Plant Vogtle.

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North Gwinnett head football coach Bill Stewart announced his resignation Wednesday night after accepting a job at Georgia Tech.

Stewart, who led North to its only state football championship in 2017, will serve as an analyst at Tech under new head coach Brent Key.

“I am turning over a new chapter in my life and will be coaching for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets,” Stewart posted on social media. “I want the North family to know my heart is filled with extreme gratitude for the time that I have been your head coach. I have been blessed to work alongside an incredible coaching staff with great men of character. I would like to thank our principal, Nathan Ballantine, and our athletic director, Matt Champitto, for believing and entrusting me with the football program.

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To say Braselton teen Austin Moore was raised to love no other college football team but the Georgia Bulldogs would be an understatement.

As the high school senior and his mother, Cathy, waited outside the Academy Sports+Outdoors in Buford after the Bulldogs defeated TCU to win its second consecutive national championship late Monday night, Moore was dressed head to toe in red and black.

He wore a Georgia beanie, Georgia sweatshirt and jacket as he waived a giant Georgia flag while waiting in the line to get in the store.

He even wore red contact lenses for the occasion.

Academy stores across the state of Georgia reopened late Monday night to sell UGA fans the first pieces of national championship gear as soon as the title game ended just before 11 p.m.

Louis Bonora, the store director for Academy's Buford store estimated about 300 to 400 people showed up at that location alone between the time its doors reopened at 10:55 p.m. and the time the last customers filed out just after midnight.

Fans who showed up late Monday night after the game were the first to snap up national championship shirts, sweatshirts, hats, beanies, drink cozies, pennants, car window stickers and lanyards.

Moore and his mother were already on their way to the store before the game even ended. It wasn't their first time showing up at an Academy store immediately after a local team won a league title, however.

It's something of a tradition for the family. They did it when UGA won this year’s SEC title, last year’s national championship, and when the Atlanta Braves won last year’s World Series. Many other fans were similarly eager to wait in line late Monday night to get their championship gear. They were even more excited, however, by UGA's dominating 65-7 victory over TCU in the national title game and the fact that the Bulldogs are back-to-back national champions. In honor of the University of Georgia's historic feat, Times-Journal, Inc. is publishing a commemorative championship edition with a special poster page, stories, highlights and photos from the national title game defeat of TCU. The edition will be available for purchase for $3 beginning on Wednesday at the Daily Post offices. Copies can also be ordered online

Gwinnett County police announced on Monday that they have identified and arrested a suspect in the death of a woman who was killed last month at a south Gwinnett used car dealership where she worked. Master Police Officer Hideshi Valle said Lilburn resident Wesley Vickers  has been charged with felony murder, malice murder and aggravated assault in the death of Snellville resident Courtney Owens. Police arrested Vickers with help from the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office Fugitive Unit on Friday.

Police have not yet released information on a possible motive for why Vickers allegedly killed Owens.

Owens was shot and killed inside the used car dealership on Centerville Highway on December 9. At the time, police said they thought Owens or someone else at the business may have known the shooter, although they had not identified a suspect at that time.

Vickers is being held in the Gwinnett County jail.

A homeless person was taken to the hospital on Sunday after suffering from smoke inhalation outside a vacant home that was on fire.

Gwinnett County Fire Capt. Ryan McGiboney said crews were called to the home near the intersection of Sterling Hill Drive and Towler Road at 2:59 a.m. One person who reported the fire to 9-1-1 told dispatchers that fire had begun spreading to the nearby woods.

Firefighters arrived five minutes later and found the crawlspace of the home, which had been a single-family dwelling that had at some point been converted to a business, was on fire. They then found the homeless person near the building.

Firefighters removed the plywood from the home's windows, which had been boarded up, to battle the flames before deploying several fire hoses. Crews got the fire under control at about 4:09 a.m.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but the search crews that went into the building after the fire determined it was vacant.

Chloe Brothers broke the Gwinnett County six-dive record Saturday, highlighting Brookwood’s sweep of rival Parkview in swimming and diving.

The Broncos completed an unbeaten regular season under new head coach Willie Hildebrand, and retained the Battle of Five Forks Trophy with victories in the overall points competition, as well as wins in both the boys and girls divisions. The boys won 264-194, while the girls posted a dominant 311-142 victory.

Brothers’ girls county record was 314.90 points to break the old mark of 305.55, set in 2011 by Duluth’s Sarah Haliburton. Brothers also broke the county 11-dive record earlier this season. In addition to Brothers’ victory, Hailey Dopson won two events for the Brookwood girls — the 200-yard freestyle and the 100 backstroke. The other Bronco girls who won individual events were Addison Curtis, Sophie Hamilton, Mary Kate Weitzel and Cameron Pritchett .

Both Kyler Heffner and Nolan Patterson were double-winners for the Brookwood boys. Heffner was first in the 200 free and 100 fly ,and Patterson won the 50 and 100 free. Teammate Baylor Stanton took first in the 100 breaststroke in 58.82, and Ethan Walker gave the Broncos a win in boys diving.

Parkview was led by a pair of double-winners, Landon Plumlee on the boys side and Hannah-Claire Jowers on the girls side. Plumlee was first in the 200 IM and 500 free, and Jowers won the 100 free) and the 100 breast. The Panthers’ Jack Dunbar was first in the 100 back at 52.07.

 Georgia officials expect the state will receive more than $181 million after joining national settlements with four companies over allegations they contributed to the opioid crisis.

The Peach State will use the money from Allergan, CVS, Teva and Walgreens to help fund treatment, prevention, reduction and recovery initiatives.

CVS and Walgreens were not defendants in Georgia’s ongoing litigation against opioid distributors, though Teva and Allergan were named in the state’s action targeting opioid manufacturers. According to Georgia officials, CVS and Walgreens proactively approached the state with settlement offers.

Walgreens will make a $58.7 million base payment to the state, CVS will pay $50.1 million, Teva will hand over $44.9 million, and Allergan will pay $27.4 million. CVS will pay $5 billion nationally, while Walgreens will hand over $5.7 billion. Teva will pay more than $4.25 billion nationally, while Allergan will distribute more than $2.3 billion.

Georgia joined the settlements with Teva and Allergan on December 19 and the settlements with CVS and Walgreens on December 21. Local governments have 90 days from when the state joined the settlements to join.

Three Gwinnett County players and two local coaches participated in the prestigious All-American Bowl over the weekend.

Those five helped the East to a 55-17 victory in the annual high school football showcase televised by NBC.

Mill Creek grad Caleb Downs, Buford grad Justice Haynes and Grayson grad Michael Daugherty played for the East, while the coaching staff included Buford head coach Bryant Appling and Meadowcreek head coach Todd Wofford.

Haynes rushed for 87 yards and a touchdown, and Downs had an interception.

Caleb Downs is a 5 star safety signed to play for the University of Alabama. Justice Haynes is a 5 star running back, also signed to go to Alabama. And Michael Daugherty is a 4 star safety, who is signed to go play for LSU.

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Two Snellville men are facing charges for shooting and beating a man who tried to enter their home — which he previously lived in — by mistake on Thursday while he was experiencing a medical incident.

Snellville police said Terrell Downie tried to enter the home on the 2500 block of Lake Commons Court, near Rockdale Circle, at about 8:37 a.m., but they added he was not trying to force his way into the home.

The men who currently live at the home, Frederick Sherman and Eugene Days, chased Downie from the home. Sherman allegedly shot Downie in the leg and Days allegedly got into a physical altercation with him, according to police. “People inside a home thought someone was trying to make entry into their home,” Snellville Police said on their Facebook page. “This is bad and something that deserves immediate attention. Protection of yourself and a call to the police.

“Those people confronted, and chased the man from the house, and out of the neighborhood. A person shot him and another beat him. This is not even close to being lawful.”

On Thursday, Snellville police said in a statement that they were investigating allegations that Downie was trying to break into the home and commit a burglary. They later said on Facebook that it did not appear he was trying to break into the home and no charges were expected to be filed against him.

Police implied he was trying to enter the home by mistake.

A Snellville police lieutenant who responded to a call about the incident saw Days “beating” Downie when he arrived, according to the police department’s statement on Facebook. The lieutenant separated the two men and applied a tourniquet to Downie’s leg to stop his bleeding.

Downie was taken to a hospital where he was treated for his injuries and then released.

Sherman has been charged with aggravated assault and felon in possession of a firearm while Days is facing a misdemeanor battery charge. Both men were arrested and taken to jail on Thursday.

Sherman was still being held in the Gwinnett County jail on Friday, but Days was released on bond on Thursday.

A Gwinnett County Public Schools bus driver was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries after their bus was hit head-on by a pickup truck on Hamilton Mill Road on Friday.

The accident happened early Friday morning on Hamilton Mill at Bart Johnson Road, prompting law enforcement to close the road for several hours as officers investigated what happened. Police said no children were on the bus when the accident occurred.

A photo that Gwinnett police released showed severe damage to the front ends of both the bus and the pickup truck.

Gwinnett County Public Schools spokesman Bernard Watson said the bus driver was alert when they were taken to the hospital, and that their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening.

The condition of the pickup truck’s driver was not immediately available on Friday afternoon.

After three days of voting for other Republicans in the U.S. House speaker voting, U.S. Representative Andrew Clyde flipped his support to U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy in the 12th round of voting on Friday.

Clyde, whose district includes northern Gwinnett, had been one of the 20 Republican members of Congress who have been backing GOP challengers to McCarthy’s bid to become Speaker of the House.

Clyde had been the only GOP member of Georgia’s congressional delegation who was not backing McCarthy in the speaker race. Democrats in the delegation had repeatedly backed U.S. Representative Hakeem Jeffries in round after round of voting. The stalemate created a major problem for the House. Congress couldn’t conduct any other business, including swearing in its members and setting rules for the chamber, until a speaker is chosen, leaving the chamber unable to function.

This is the first time in a century that a vote on selecting a speaker has gone to multiple ballots.

 After tense discussions and a near physical altercation between two congressmen, Speaker McCarthy finally received t majority of the votes late Friday night, just before the clock struck midnight. The members of Congress were eventually sworn in in the early morning hours on Saturday after McCarthy officially became speaker.

It typically takes time for first-year high schools to experience athletic success, but one Seckinger team is ahead of the curve.

The Jaguars’ boys basketball team is off to a 12-4 start in its inaugural season, and it enjoyed a major milestone Sunday with its first state ranking, appearing at Number 9 in Class AAAA in the Sandy’s Spiel poll. Seckinger won its opener 61-54 over Chamblee on the way to a 3-0 start to the season, and is 5-1 in Region 8-AAAA play under Hamilton, a Brookwood grad who was previously a Gwinnett assistant for eight of his nine years in coaching. He spent the 2021-22 season at Lambert after two years as community coach at Brookwood, two years at Archer and four years at Buford, where he worked under legendary coach Eddie Martin and won the 2019 state title.

Martin’s son, Brent, is a key member of Hamilton’s first staff at Seckinger alongside fellow assistants Jaylen Clement and Craig Begalle. That staff and a young, talented group of players have picked up wins while drumming up excitement among the faculty and students at a brand-new high school.

That success, surprising to many outside the program, has picked up even more steam of late. The Jaguars have won six of their past seven and three in a row, opening up 2023 on Friday with a 62-52 win over Chestatee after going 2-1 after Christmas — losing 65-63 to a talented Monroe Area team before defeating Brookland-Cayce from South Carolina 70-53 and Monsignor Donovan Catholic 93-61.

North Gwinnett’s wrestling team broke a long drought with a first-place finish in Saturday’s Region 7-AAAAAAA Duals at Duluth.

North defeated Norcross 54-27 in the finals after beating Meadowcreek 78-6 in the semifinals. It the first wrestling region or area championship for North since 1995. Nicolas Owens, Mason Urie, Logan Weaver, Conner Weaver, Aiden Villarreal, Nathan Choi, Ronan Sherwood, and Kenneth Tinoco each went 2-0 for the Bulldogs.

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 A northeast Georgia resident charged with threatening to bomb the Athens-Clarke County Democratic Committee Campaign headquarters in Athens last month and lying to federal investigators was remanded from state to federal custody at her recent initial appearance.

Jessica Diane Higginbotham, aka Jessica Harriod, 35, of Elberton, had her initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Charles Weigle at the U.S. Courthouse in Macon; the government’s motion to detain Higginbotham was granted by the Court. Higginbotham is charged with one count of communicating a bomb threat and one count of making false statements. If convicted of communicating a bomb threat, Higginbotham faces a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. If convicted of making false statements, she faces a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

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Family members and Peachtree Corners officials are mourning the death of Debbie Mason, the wife of Mayor Mike Mason who took pride in being the "First Lady" of the city.

The city announced her death on Thursday. In a Facebook post, her son, Nick, said she had been battling cancer for awhile.

City officials said Debbie Mason "represented the best of Peachtree Corners."

She played a key role in the creation of Peachtree Corners as the campaign chairwoman for the Peachtree Corners YES Campaign. She also served on the United Peachtree Corners Civic Association's Board of Directors.

State Rep. Scott Hilton, who is a former president of the United Peachtree Corners Civic Association, called Mason a "pillar of our community." He said she was also involved in the annual Peachtree Corners festival and played an active role efforts to improve the aesthetics around the city in addition to her efforts to help get the city created.

On her Facebook page, Mason identified herself as the "first First Lady of Peachtree Corners." In fact, she is the only first lady that Peachtree Corners has ever had in the 10 years since it became a city. Gov. Brian Kemp and his wife, Georgia First Lady Marty Kemp, and their daughters expressed their sympathies for the Mason family on Thursday as well.

“The community theatre scene in metro Atlanta is a true community,” said Brandi Kilgore of Norcross’ Lionheart Theatre.

“Our theatres are constantly borrowing costumes, set pieces, and props from each other for our respective productions.”

It makes sense, then, that Lionheart has offered their stage for a unique “Ten Minute Community Theatre Play Festival” which runs Jan. 13-22.

The Festival will be the first production of Lionheart’s 2023 season, and it promises to be a fast-paced event that will introduce theatre-goers to new artists from across the Atlanta area.

Performances will be on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and on Sundays at 2 p.m. All performances are at Lionheart Theatre, located at 10 College Street in Norcross.

The scripts that will be performed come from a group called Merely Writers which is sponsored by Merely Players Presents, a group that gathers to hear works in development read aloud by actors. During this process, writers can hear their own words and get feedback. Lionheart Theatre Company will present “Dead Giveaway” by Daniel Guyton and “Wedding Reception Rewards Program” by Peter Dakutis.

Live Arts Theatre is also a Gwinnett nonprofit arts organization. The group will perform “Bump in the Night” by John Mabey and “Speed Dating” by Nedra Roberts.

Main Street Theatre hails from Tucker. The group will present “Accusations” by Steven D. Miller and “Pre-Need” by David Davis.

Merely Players Presents is located in Doraville. Their two plays are “Roughing It” by Judy Klass and “Broken Hearts” by Karen Ruetz.

Onstage Atlanta is located in Scottsdale. The group will perform “The Wedding Night Tweets” by Daniel Guyton.

The stage manager for the festival is Janet Conant.

This nine-play collection was selected to be a combination of dramas and comedies. Scripts were divided up among the five theater companies, and each theater is responsible for casting its plays and each play’s direction.

Gatorade announced Friday morning that Mill Creek standout Caleb Downs is the 2022-23 Gatorade Georgia Football Player of the Year.

Downs, who begins classes at Alabama this month, is the first Gatorade Georgia Football Player of the Year to be chosen from Mill Creek High School.

The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes Downs as Georgia’s best high school football player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Football Player of the Year award to be announced in January, Downs joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Trevor Lawrence (2018-19 & 2016-17, Cartersville High School), Matthew Stafford (2005-06, Highland Park High School, Texas) and Emmitt Smith (1986-87, Escambia High School, Fla.).

The 6-foot, 195-pound senior safety and running back led the Hawks to a 14-1 record and the Class AAAAAAA state championship this past season. Downs recorded 76 tackles and made five interceptions, returning two of them for touchdowns. Downs also rushed for 390 yards and 20 scores, including three TDs in the Hawks’ 70-35 win over Carrollton High School in the state final. Ranked as the nation’s No. 13 recruit in the Class of 2023 by 247Sports.com, he also had 36 receptions for 422 yards and three scores.

Downs has volunteered locally with Gen50, a faith-based peer leadership group, and as a youth football coach. He has also donated his time as a member of the Mill Creek High School football leadership council and as part of local food drives.

A company that specializes in nuclear fuel cell technology and consulting solutions has signed a lease for an office in Peachtree Corners.

Lincoln Property Company Southeast announced NAC International signed the lease for 23,000-square-feet of space at the 2 Sun office building in Technology Park Atlanta. The 98.040-square-foot 2 Sun building was recently renovated to add campus-wide Wi-Fi internet, food delivery service for tenants and an outdoor patio.

Lincoln said the northeast Atlanta submarket has outperformed other submarkets in recent years and its 15.9% vacancy rate is the lowest among major areas in metro Atlanta.   

Looking for a fun way to start off the new year with your kids? The Children’s Museum of Atlanta has you covered as it opens a new exhibit at the end of the month.

“Splash and Bubbles: Dive In, Lend a Fin!” opens on Jan. 21. The exhibit is based on the popular PBS Kids TV show, “Splash and Bubbles,” a hit animated series that encourages children to explore ocean science and marine biology through character-driven comedy. The series is co-produced by The Jim Henson Company and Herschend Entertainment Studios. According to museum officials, the new exhibit builds on kids’ connections to the characters and their habitats, immersing them in a larger-than-life marine environment and introducing them to the incredible world of ocean exploration.

While exploring the early childhood STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) based exhibit, children will be encouraged to build both scientific inquiry and social-emotional skills as they learn how to protect the ocean and its ecosystems, museum officials said.

Ocean conservation is a key message within the exhibit, encouraging families to understand that they can create “a small ripple to help our big ocean.” Featuring a variety of hands-on exhibit components, “Splash and Bubbles: Dive In, Lend a Fin!” invites children to discover a whole new world as they navigate an under-the-sea maze in a kelp forest, explore a sunken ship that has become an artificial reef, interact with puppet characters created by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and more.

The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum served as the creative producers for the new exhibit, created in partnership with The Jim Henson Company and Herschend Enterprises.

The exhibit is made possible thanks to generous support from Tim and Elizabeth Swank, Anna and Jim McKelvey and the Graybar Foundation. Local media sponsorship is provided by the Nine Network.

The exhibit will be at Children’s Museum of Atlanta through April 30 and is free with museum admission.

For more information, go to: childrensmuseumatlanta.org.

The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners was scheduled to appoint Commissioner Jasper Watkins III as its vice-chairman for 2023 on Tuesday.

That was the way it was listed on the board's meeting agenda. Things changed during the meeting, however.

When the item came up for a vote, Watkins instead nominated fellow Commissioner Ben Ku for the position. The commission then voted to affirm the choice. So, Ku will now serve as the second-in-command on the commission for the next 12 months. That means he will be the person who presides over meetings when Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson is unavailable to do so.

It's probably not too surprising that Watkins was not the person who ended up getting picked to serve as vice-chairman, however. The commission has traditionally rotated the vice-chairmanship between its members and Watkins was the vice-chairman in 2022.

Ku, who has served on the board longer than any of his colleagues, previously served as vice-chairman in 2019.

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Local hospitals welcomed the first babies of 2023; Caleb Downs is the Georgia Gatorade Football Player of the Year; And Brookwood's Marching Band participated in the Rose Bowl Parade. 

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One of the 20 Republican members of Congress who have been backing GOP challengers to U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy's bid to become Speaker of the House is also one of Gwinnett's three congressional representatives.

U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde a Republican, is the only member of Georgia's congressional delegation who is backing U.S. Representative Byron Donalds, a Florida Republican, in the speaker vote. As of Wednesday afternoon, Congress had voted six times over a span of two days to elect a speaker, but none of the three candidates — including one Democrat — have received the 218 votes needed to become speaker. Republicans make up a narrow majority in the House, but McCarthy, who has been a house minority leaders for years, has been 17 votes shy of the total needed because 20 Republicans aligned with the Freedom Caucus have chosen to support other Republicans for the speaker's seat. On Wednesday, the group of Republicans refusing to back McCarthy, which also include Representatives Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert, pooled their support around Donalds.

Congress can't conduct any other business, including swearing in its members and setting rules for the chamber, until a speaker is chosen, leaving the chamber unable to function.

This is the first time in a century that a vote on selecting a speaker has gone to multiple ballots. In truth, all three of Gwinnett's congressional representatives are backing a different person in the speaker vote. As expected, Representative Lucy McBath, a Democrat, is backing her party's nominee for the seat, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York. It's how the two Republican members of Congress who represent he northern half of Gwinnett vote that is key, however.

While Clyde is backing Donalds, new Representative Rich McCormick, also Republican, is backing McCarthy.

Prior to the four rounds of voting on Wednesday, when he began supporting Donalds, Clyde backed Representative Andy Biggs, of Arizona in the first round of voting on Tuesday, before moving his support to Representative Jim Jordan, of Ohio — even though Jordan himself was backing McCarthy.

Although it wasn’t necessarily a vacation, the Brookwood High School Bronco Marching Band recently completed a history-making holiday sojourn to Southern California.

On January 2, the Bronco Marching Band performed in the iconic Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif., the first high school ensemble from Gwinnett County to take part in the parade, which has been a holiday tradition for more than 130 years. A collection of more than 330 people, including 215 performers, family and friends made the trip to California. It typically takes a bad 7 to 8 years to be selected after they apply to perform in the parade. Brookwood had originally applied to take part in the 2018 parade but the COVID pandemic prevented an earlier trip. Students had to raise about $2,800 each for the trip, which also included visits to Disneyland (where a New Year’s Eve parade performance in the park was scuttled due to the weather), Universal Studios, the El Capitan Theatre (where they saw “Avatar: The Way of Water”), the Griffith Observatory and a walking tour of Hollywood movie locations. The parade itself appears both thrilling and exhausting, covering some 5.5 miles, starting at the corner of Green Street and Orange Blossom Boulevard and heading to its conclusion on Villa Street in the City of Roses. Slotted fifth in a parade of 88 participants, the Bronco Marching Band (one of only 15 high school marching bands in the parade) performed “From Now On” from “The Greatest Showman” for the first mile and then played the song in rotation with Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” and “The Hey! Song” from “Dr. Who.” The Bronco Marching Band also performed in the 42nd annual Tournament of Roses Bandfest at Pasadena City College on December 30.

Two Norcross residents have been arrested and charged with murder in the death of the Norcross man who was found dead near the doorway of his home last month.

Nelson Cisneros died near his home on Stanfield Court in unincorporated Norcross on December 15. At the time, police said he had been shot but they had not identified suspects or a motive for Cisneros' death.

On Wednesday, however, Master Police Officer Hideshi Valle said detectives identified Norcross residents Requel Rayshawn Johnson, and Antonio Montez Payne , as suspects. They have each been charged with felony murder and aggravated assault.

Gwinnett County Jail records show Johnson was arrested on December 27 and Payne was arrested on Tuesday. Valle said the Gwinnett County Police Department's Gang Unit as well as the Gwinnett Sheriff's Office Fugitive Unit assisted detectives in arresting Johnson and Payne.

The suspects are being held in the county jail without bond.

Police have not yet released the motive for the murder.

Rebekah Blankenship, an eighth grade social studies teacher at Berkmar Middle School, was recently named a recipient of the June Bryant Teacher of Promise Award by the Georgia Council for Social Studies.

The award recognizes a beginning social studies teacher who shows exceptional promise in the field of teaching social studies. Recipients of the honor must demonstrate efforts toward the improvement of student learning and engagement in social studies and implement activities that demonstrate the beginnings of service and foster the development of democratic values and citizenship in the classroom, school, and community.

Additionally, the teacher seeks out and uses multiple sources to enhance social studies instruction while engaging in ongoing professional development. During her first two years of teaching, Blankenship has demonstrated the ability to develop and implement engaging lessons for students, her principal said.

Encouraging special-needs students to become part of the fabric of Jones Middle School has been a priority for Jaclyn Boyce and Ashley Saye for more than a dozen years, but the special-education teachers have cranked it up a notch for the 2022-23 school year.

Boyce, who teaches students with severe and profound intellectual disabilities, and Saye, who teaches students with moderate intellectual disabilities, are both firm believers in getting their charges out of the classroom and into the general student population in an effort to improve their sense of belonging at the Buford school by participating in daily activities.

Starting 13 years ago with the establishment of the Buddies Club, Boyce and Saye developed a host of initiatives to get their students out and about in the halls and they’re constantly seeking out new opportunities for the students to interact with their schoolmates. Buddies Club also includes monthly social events taking place both in and outside of the school walls, with visits to a nearby corn maze and movie theaters as highlights. Other inclusive efforts include having students serve on the student council and as peer leaders, which Saye said gives students a chance to develop and display leadership skills and boost confidence alongside their same-age peers.

Some students — there are about 15 intellectually disabled students at Jones Middle — also visit home rooms to interact with students and teachers, help out in the school’s media center, eat lunch in the cafeteria (or invite students to dine with them in their classrooms) and take part in Connections classes, which Boyce said provides great opportunities for social experiences.

Perhaps the most novel recent initiative has been “JonesDash,” based on the popular DoorDash food delivery service. Several times a week, faculty members place orders for snacks and drinks and students do the rest, writing receipts, tracking down the items requested in the school’s small “store,” delivering the orders to teachers and collecting payments.

Carmen Smith, a Sugar Hill Elementary School advanced math teacher, has been nominated for the 2022-2023 National LifeChanger of the Year Award.

Sponsored by the National Life Group Foundation, LifeChanger of the Year recognizes and rewards the best K-12 educators and school district employees across the United States who are making a difference in the lives of students by exemplifying excellence, positive influence, and leadership.

Smith was nominated by her friend and neighbor, Nikki Soroko, for her humility and work in the classroom. Each school year, the LifeChanger of the Year award receives hundreds of nominations from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Eighteen individual LifeChanger of the Year awards will be given during the 2022-2023 school year, including:

♦ One grand prize winner who will receive $10,000 to be shared with their school/district.

 Four grand prize finalists who will receive $5,000 to be shared with their school/district.

♦ 10 LifeChanger Award winners who will receive $3,000 to be shared with their school/district.

♦ One Spirit Award winner. This award is given to the nominee whose community demonstrates the most support for their nomination. The winner will receive $5,000 to be shared with their school/district.

♦ One Capstone Award winner. This award is given to a nominee retiring at the end of the 2021-22 school year. The winner will receive $3,000 to be shared with their school or district.

♦ One Spotlight Award winner. This award is given to a nominee in a specific discipline each year. The winner will receive $5,000 to be shared with their school or district.

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