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September 3, 2014 | forsythherald.com | 73,500 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 17, No. 35
Tisdale arrested Families and airplanes at GOP rally By Aldo Nahed aldo@forsythherald.com
FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — From old warbirds up to the most modern commercial unmanned air vehicles (drones), enthusiasts and longtime members of Georgia Model Aviators
celebrated their 25th year with demonstrations, lunch and awards. The Georgia Model Aviators (GMA) celebration took place Aug. 23 at the GMA Airfield, 8250 Old Federal Road in Ball Ground in northwest Forsyth County. Members and the community were invited to celebrate the group’s 25th anniversary as an Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA)chartered club.
The group now has about 300 members. During the event, GMA pilots flew various aircrafts, from giant scale World War I and World War II hand-built war birds to giant scale true turbine jets. Jase “The Ace” Dussia, 14, of Michigan, XFC Champion and one of the best aerobatic pilots in the country, was invited
See AIRPLANES, Page 7
Latest controversy for blogger By Aldo Nahed aldo@forsythherald.com DAWSONVILLE, Ga. – It was a week of mixed emotions for Nydia Tisdale, the camerawielding citizen journalist. She received a positive ruling on her two-year-old Open Meetings case against the City of Cumming. However, two days later, she was kicked out of another political event and this time arrested in Dawsonville. On Aug. 21, Judge Robert Adamson ruled in favor of State Attorney General Sam Olens in a lawsuit filed on June 2012. In that case, Tisdale was told
I’m usually pretty quiet, I’m just recording.” NYDIA TISDALE Citizen Journalist by the City of Cumming Mayor H. Ford Gravitt to stop filming a council meeting that took place April, 17, 2012. She complained to the Attorney General who took on the case. Judge Adamson ruled
See TISDALE, Page 4
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Emerging snake disease confirmed in Georgia
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Sam Schwartz after taking his model airplane for a spin at Georgia Model Aviators Airfield.
ATLANTA — A disease that some scientists have compared to the illness killing bats by the millions has been documented in a wild snake in Georgia. An emaciated mud snake from Bulloch County tested positive last month for Snake Fungal Disease, according to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study. The mud snake is the first free-ranging snake from Georgia that the Athens-based cooperative has confirmed with Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, the fungus associated with the disease. Snake Fungal Disease is a severe dermatitis that causes
scabs, crusty scales, nodules, abnormal molting and other changes to a snake’s skin. First reported in a captive black rat snake from Sparta, Georgia, the disease has turned up in growing numbers of wild snakes in the eastern and midwestern U.S. since 2006. At least eight species, varying from milk snakes to eastern racers, have been infected. The severity of infection varies and the overall impact on populations is not clear. Yet, among Illinois’ last population of eastern massa-
See SNAKES, Page 20