Latest news with #ClaytonCounty
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Construction training program propels Clayton County students into career opportunities
Friday was graduation day in Clayton County, and the diplomas came with a bonus. Thaddeus Brown told Channel 2's Berndt Petersen he liked the math. 'At least 45 to 47, to 120, and maybe 200,000,' Brown said. That's dollars, salaries for qualified construction professionals who got trained by the metro Atlanta nonprofit Construction Ready. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Most of the 19 graduates just finished high school, then successfully completed the nonprofit's intense four-week pre-apprenticeship program at Clayton Schools' Perry Career Academy. 'This is for students who aren't going to college or into the military. This is another option for them to get into our industry very quickly and make a lot of money and have a long-term career in construction,' the nonprofit's CEO Scott Shelar said. 'It has been amazing in terms of the lives we have impacted through this partnership,' Principal Terry Young said. The graduates have already had interviews with local construction companies. They're prepared to report to a job site today, and some are thinking big about tomorrow. 'I will start my own business in construction,' graduate Sanna Brown Tucker said. Brown said he can't wait to get to work. 'The more you're willing to learn, the farther you will go,' Brown said. Industry experts say 7,000 construction jobs are currently unfilled in Georgia. TRENDING STORIES: Teen who went viral for working drive-thru with graduation medals on gets dream opportunity Driver killed in I-20 crash identified Meteorite hunters searching for fragments in Henry County [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Supreme Court's Dobbs bombshell helped pave the way for this week's blow to trans rights
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming for minors. The 6-3 ruling is a major blow to transgender rights, including in the dozens of states with similar bans already enacted. To a striking degree, the majority's analysis— and the opinions of several concurring justices — relied on cases that restricted another right: the right to choose abortion. This week's holding shows how the fallout from the end of Roe v. Wade extends far beyond abortion. The case, U.S. v. Skrmetti, began in 2023 when three transgender teenagers, their parents and a Memphis physician argued that Tennessee's law constituted unconstitutional sex discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The Biden administration eventually joined the suit and, in June 2023, the district court blocked the law from going into effect. Later that year, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. The plaintiffs relied on a 2020 case called Bostock v. Clayton County, a 6-3 ruling which held that sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1963 also encompassed sexual orientation and gender identity. In the majority opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the court reasoned that there was no way for an employer to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity without accounting for a worker's sex too. In other words, gender identity discrimination always involved sex discrimination. The plaintiffs in Skrmetti argued that the same logic applied to their case. To rebut this, Tennessee pointed to Dobbs. In undoing a right to choose abortion, the Supreme Court rejected the determinations in Roe that the right to choose abortion was (as the Roe majority wrote) 'founded in the 14th Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action.' But the court also rejected the idea that abortion bans were fueled by sex discrimination, and thus violated the same amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law. That latter finding figures prominently in Skrmetti. There were a variety of ways of arguing that abortion bans discriminate on the basis of sex: for example, pointing to the bans' frequent invocations of stereotypes and generalizations about motherhood. But in Dobbs, the court concluded that the discrimination argument was 'squarely foreclosed by our precedents' — in particular, the rarely cited, often-pilloried 1974 ruling Geduldig v. Aiello that ruled that discriminating on the basis of pregnancy didn't count as sex discrimination. States could regulate a 'medical procedure that only one sex can undergo,' the Dobbs majority concluded, unless there was evidence that the legislation was mere pretext for discriminatory animus. In ruling that Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care didn't involve sex discrimination either, the majority opinion didn't mention Dobbs directly (though concurring opinions by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito did). Nevertheless, the reasoning of Dobbs ran throughout the majority opinion as well. Even if transgender individuals were the only ones to seek out treatment for gender dysphoria, the court suggested, that didn't matter. 'A State does not trigger heightened constitutional scrutiny by regulating a medical procedure that only one sex can undergo,' Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, citing Geduldig but using the language from the Dobbs ruling. In addition to Dobbs, the majority also relied on a 2007 case called Gonzales v. Carhart, which upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. The federal statute prohibited a specific procedure, dilation and extraction, that the plaintiffs argued would be safer for some women (because it involved fewer passes with a sharp instrument). The high court upheld the law, however, because there was enough scientific uncertainty about the benefits of the procedure. That uncertainty, of course, was no accident: anti-abortion groups had not just fielded their own experts, but launched new organizations to establish that the procedure was unnecessary. In upholding bans on gender-affirming care, the Supreme Court in Skrmetti cited Gonzales v. Carhart to justify giving lawmakers 'wide discretion to pass legislation in areas where there is medical and scientific uncertainty.' It's true that gender-affirming care is a rapidly developing area of study. But the court used that fact to give state legislatures a free pass. Tennessee's law is hardly nuanced: Violators can face penalties of $25,000 per treatment. Other states' bans include prison sentences of five or even 10 years. None of that sounds like lawmakers carefully weighing incoming evidence about a specific treatment. But the court could fall back on its abortion cases to let legislators do whatever they want. The message sent in the Skrmetti ruling reaches further than just the issue at hand, and not just because much of the majority's logic would shield bans on gender-affirming care for adults too. If legislators can convince the justices that they are regulating based on a medical procedure or medical condition, the court may simply wave away any concern about sex discrimination. This offers conservative lawmakers and activists a roadmap for circumventing protections against sex discrimination in other contexts. The Southern Baptist Convention recently endorsed overturning Obergefell v. Hodges, the decision recognizing same-sex couples' right to marry, which relies partly on the Equal Protection Clause. The conservative Christian legal movement despises Bostock. And the Dobbs and Geduldig rulings prove that the meaning of sex discrimination has already narrowed for women. The more these cases can be framed on turning on biological difference, the more likely the court will sign off on discriminatory laws. The court's ruling in Skrmetti shows how much the undoing of abortion rights will reverberate beyond Dobbs, changing how the Supreme Court understands sex discrimination and transforming what equality under the law means. This article was originally published on
Associated Press
30-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
MARTA Selects CDM Smith to Design the Largest Bus Rapid Transit System in the State of Georgia
Atlanta, May 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CDM Smith was selected by the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) to design the Clayton County Southlake Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Alignment and Airport Connectivity project. CDM Smith and its partners will design approximately 15 miles of BRT with an elevated guideway into Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The effort is MARTA's largest BRT project to date. This project will greatly improve Clayton County residents' access to job opportunities and education and will open doors for further transit-oriented development in the area. Direct premium transit service to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and MARTA's rail system will greatly contribute to the local and regional economies. Planning and design work is funded by the one-cent sales tax approved by Clayton County voters in 2014. The project has submitted an application for a Small Starts grant award from the Federal Transit Administration's Capital Investment Grants (CIG) program. The current project budget is $355.6 million. In service of its goal to provide premium transit service throughout the county, the BRT system design will include an elevated guideway, elevated bus stations, and a pedestrian bridge connector to the airport terminal and MARTA train station. The design phase of this project will take two years to complete. Construction is estimated to take place from 2028 through 2030. 'We brought experience from our successful BRT project portfolio and remained focused on MARTA's goals and Clayton County's needs to create the right team to design this BRT,' said CDM Smith principal Chuck Deeb. Attachment Kelly Brolin CDM Smith 617.452.6153 [email protected]
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Clayton County police investigating deadly shooting at hotel
Clayton County police are investigating a deadly shooting. On Friday at about 10:27 p.m., officers responded to a report of a shooting at the Days Inn Hotel at 7385 Hannover Circle in Stockbridge. When they arrived, officers found an unconscious man suffering from a gunshot wound. He died from his injuries. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Investigators say the shooting began as a fight that escalated into gunfire. Police detained several people at the scene for questioning. Detectives are interviewing witnesses and reviewing evidence. There is no word yet on any arrests or motive for the shooting. TRENDING STORIES: Officer who arrested Ximena Arias-Cristobal resigns from department North GA man shoots, kills wife, girlfriend before turning gun on himself, police say Viral food critic Keith Lee awards metro Atlanta pizzeria $50,000 for community engagement [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
Clayton County Jail nurse says arrest for giving inmate Benadryl 'ruined my life'
The Brief A nurse in the Clayton County Jail says she was arrested for giving an inmate Benadryl. The charges against her were later dropped. She is now suing Clayton County for wrongful arrest, and speaking only with FOX 5's Rob DiRienzo. CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. - A former nurse at the Clayton County Jail says she was arrested for simply doing her job—and now she's fighting back. Jessica Cotney said she gave an inmate Benadryl from the jail's medicine cabinet, and it led to criminal charges of bringing in contraband. Those charges were soon dropped. "It really, really ruined every aspect of my life professionally, personally, financially," Cotney said. "I gave the Benadryl to [another nurse], and she went and took it to that inmate." Then, she realized something was up, she said. "The next thing I know, they're questioning her. What was that? Why did you give it?" Cotney said. "By that afternoon, I had a warrant out for my arrest for giving an inmate contraband and obstruction of an officer." What we know Cotney says after her shift ended at 2 a.m., jail staff tried to call her in for questioning. By that afternoon, she says there was a warrant out for her arrest. The Clayton County Sheriff's Office stated at the time she gave prohibited items to a prisoner. Those charges were later dropped, according to her attorney. What they're saying "I think I was honestly just in shock the whole night. The whole next day. I kind of was like, literally confused a little bit," Cotney said. "Just try to reestablish, like, my normalcy, my day-to-day life. You know, try to. I'm honestly like I'm scared at work even now. It's just a really weird feeling." Requests for comment from Sheriff Levon Allen and the Clayton County Board of Commissioners went unreturned Thursday evening. What's next Cotney has filed a wrongful arrest lawsuit against the county, seeking an unspecified amount for compensation and punitive damages. She said she is now working again as a nurse at a hospital while trying to rebuild her life and reputation. The Source This article is based off of original reporting by FOX 5's Rob DiRienzo, prior FOX 5 reporting, and the lawsuit filed by Cotney's attorney.
