Author Charles Frazier to Speak at Gwinnett Reads Ceremony.

Gwinnet County Public Library Gwinnett Reads is having an upcoming event fund raiser.

Gwinnett County Public Library has scored a coup: Charles Frazier, winner of the National Book Award for his bestselling novel Cold Mountain, will participate as keynote speaker of the 2008 Gwinnett Reads program featuring his latest book Thirteen Moons as its centerpiece.

The popular summer reading program encourages metro Atlanta adults to read the same book as they participate in activities throughout Gwinnett County ...In the coming weeks, a schedule of Gwinnett Reads activities and events will be released and available at all Gwinnett County Public Library locations and online.

full story here

No AT&T, no Classic

While I won't miss the traffic issues, I will miss the excitement and many local businesses will miss the revenue.

The PGA announced Monday that it the tournament would not return to Atlanta in 2009, but suggested that a Champions Tour event could replace it.

The event had been held in Gwinnett since 1997. AT&T had previously announced it planned to stop sponsoring the event, but organizers had been hopeful they could find a replacement sponsor in time.

Tour organizers estimated the event generated $14 million for the local economy and generated more than $16.5 million for charity, most of it benefiting Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

Story here: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/stories/2008/06/09/at_t_classic_fans_react.html

Upcoming Memorial Day Celebration

DULUTH

Ceremony of recognition May 24

At 6 p.m. Saturday at the Town Green in Duluth, there will be a Memorial Day Service along with a ceremony of recognition by the city of Duluth and American Legion Post 251 for active-duty U.S. Armed Forces and National Guard personnel and reservists and their families. All servicemen and women and veterans of the Gulf War will be presented with commemorative coins and Blue Star car magnets.

Internet for life?

A Lawrenceville GA Resident recently won Charter high-speed internet for life.

The winning bid was 71,500.00. I think they paid too much.

The bidder won the highest charter-high speed service in Market for life along with a gatewary modem and free installation.

For this to be a remotely fair price they would have to live about 140 years.

Employee Enters Gwinnett Courthouse with Gun

Employee claims she was unaware that a gun was in her handbag when she showed up for work at the Gwinnett County Courthouse. The gun was discovered in the X-ray machine. Even more scary than that is the fact that the gun wasn't noticed until the employee had left the screening area.

Deputies at the employee-only line of the security station saw the gun on the X-ray machine and stopped the belt to examine the bag.

After checking the bag on the belt, deputies realized that the bag containing the gun had already passed through the machine and been picked up, Bourbonnais said.

"She came through the employee line and they've been trying to process that line pretty fast," Bourbonnais said.

Deputies used surveillance camera footage to identify and track down the woman, but it took them several hours. By that time, the employee had already realized her mistake and returned the gun to her car, Bourbonnais said.

Know someone whose Christmas Needs Brightening

12Stone Church in Lawrenceville is looking to make someone's christmas bright.

Anyone with access to the Internet is encouraged to make a nomination — or two, or three. A committee of four church members will decide who gets what.

"We've become known for giving ourselves away," said Norwood Davis, chief financial officer at the Wesleyan church, which has about 3,600 people in attendance on Sunday mornings.

full story here

MLK Day Approved in Lawrenceville

The vote came more than 20 years after the federal government first observed the holiday.
“Probably a lot of people didn't realize it hadn't been adopted here,” said
Lawrenceville resident Inez Yarbrough. (read more)

I know I hadn't. I am glad it was.

500 more jobs at Scientific Atlanta

If news about the drought and record lforeclosures are getting you down, here is some news to pick you up. Scientific-Atlanta is bringing 500 more jobs to the area.

Scientific Atlanta plans to add 500 jobs to its Lawrenceville headquarters campus as part of a planned expansion, according to documents filed with Gwinnett County planners.

read more:

Little Cat Make Lawrenceville Big News

We may never know just how Heathcliffe the cat got here from his New Jersey home... but the fact that it happened makes a good news story:

Lawrenceville has developed an emergency water plan

The city is reactivating old water wells, digging new wells and developing an emergency water plan to distribute water from the wells. Councilman Mike Crow, who has worked with city department heads for the past three months to come up with the plan, presented it to the council Monday. The council voted to discuss the plan at its Nov. 21 work session.

They hope they will never have to use it... and so do I. read more here.

Fight against library porn continues...

A Lawrenceville mother called for the resignation of a Gwinnett County library board member Monday, saying he dismissed her concerns regarding easy access to pornography on the system's computers.

Ruth Hardy said that she complained to the board in September that she had witnessed a patron at the Collins Hill branch viewing a naked woman gyrating on a bed.
Story and discussions continued here

Teen Driving Deaths

A sixteen year old was killed last night in a car crash. The crash was a result of teen racing.

Yesterday a young lady at church was crying because her friend had died the previous week in a car accident.

On Oct 14, a man was killed in a wreck cause by racing drivers.

My own son will be driving in just 2 years. I want him to understand that driving is not something done for fun. It is a necessity and a privilege. Cars are potentially dangerous machines that should not be used to play kids games either.

But making him responsible is not enough. He has to not only drive for himself, but for everyone around him. Just because he is following the rules, and I assume he will, does not mean that is friends and peers will.

We lose so many young people each year due to car crashes. Something must be done to stop this trend.

Gwinnett Medical Center on 120 in Lawrenceville has expanded

Did you know the Gwinnett Medical Center on 120 in Lawrenceville has expanded?

Are you conserving water?

Yesterday, local ACJ blogger/ columnist Rick Badie wrote about the water restrictions in his article, "What a bunch of Poop" that talks about a family that have always reserved water being restricted from cleaning bird droppings off their porch. In the end, he mentions the problem coming down to there suddenly being a state of emergency when we (the legislators, and zoning people) didn't see this problem coming.

So the couple was told to salvage shower water to clean the porch. It's actually a good idea. As a matter of fact, I am going upstairs to take a shower right now and am bringing my shallow dish pan into the shower with me so I can water the plants on my porch that yesterday's rain could not reach.

Meanwhile, what are you doing to cut back on water use? Do you think this is a good idea?

Thinking about the Drought

Instead of turning our neighborhoods into a Police State with neighbors tattling on each other, why not reward those who can cut their water bill by say... 25 percent and penalize those who don't cut their water bill by 10%?

Do you think this is a crazy idea?
Please leave a comment stating Yes, or No, and why?

meanwhile... check your toilet for leaks