Community
Election Conyers native lands leading role on Oxygen’s “Snapped”
Community DeKalb, Rockdale see steady trickle during first week of early voting
Page 3
Page 5
SERVING DEKALB, FULTON, GWINNETT, HENRY AND ROCKDALE COUNTIES
VOLUME 20 NUMBER 29
DeKalb Solicitor-General to host symposium to fight domestic violence
n
Page 9
WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/OCGNEWS
WWW.OCGNEWS.COM
OCTOBER 18, 2014
BRACING FOR EBOLA
FREE
Metro-Atlanta officials urge emergency workers, community to take precaution By Valerie J. Morgan and Joshua Smith
A
s top officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) respond to rising concerns over the deadly Ebola crisis, metro Atlanta officials are stepping up efforts to protect first responders and the public at large. Officials are going over drills and procedures on how to deal with deadly, infectious diseases. In recent days, the CDC has revised its protocol in dealing with the virus, including adding more stringent screening at airports and stipulating that health care workers who treat Ebola patients wear more protective clothing, covering themselves from head to toe. The changes follow heavy
Photos by Joshua Smith/OCG News
DeKalb County District Health Director Dr. Sandra Elizabeth Ford addresses concerned residents and the media at a community conversation on Oct. 14 in Decatur.
criticism and scrutiny of the CDC as Ebola jumps continents and spreads. Officials report that Ebola has claimed the lives of more than 4,000 people in West Africa. More
than 400 healthcare workers and missionaries from around the world have contracted the virus while treating patients and 200 of them have died from the disease, officials
say.
Atlanta has witnessed firsthand how emergency workers must See Ebola, page 6
DeKalb schools on Ebola alert, implement strict admissions policy DeKalb County Schools’ Superintendent Michael Thurmond said the district is not permitting the enrollment of any new students from Ebola-affected West African countries, and administrators should be on the alert for anyone at school exhibiting fever. The district issued the notice on Oct. 15 after a family from West Africa tried to enroll one of their children at Dunwoody Elementary and Dunwoody High School. The family reportedly
moved to DeKalb at the end of September from West Africa and was cooperating with district officials to provide medical documentation. Thurmond said anyone trying to enroll a child from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and other areas of West Africa, as well as affected areas in the U.S., would not be permitted to enroll or attend classes without proper medical documentation and permission from him. Thurmond said he’s also urging
principals and administrators to be vigilant in looking for symptoms of the virus. Staff members should ask those who seem sick if he or she has traveled to West Africa or other affected areas or come into contact with someone who has. If school officials encounter individuals whom they believe exhibit symptoms, they are to immediately separate the individual from contact with others and report it to the Regional See DeKalb Ebola, page 6
DeKalb County Schools’ Superintendent Michael Thurmond
Day 8: Judge orders jurors to keep deliberating in Ellis case
F
By Joshua Smith
or two consecutive days, jurors in the Burrell Ellis case told the judge they couldn’t reach a unanimous decision, increasing speculation the jury may not get past being deadlocked. Ellis, who is charged with 13 felony counts including extortion and bribery, is accused of pressuring vendors to give to his elections Burrell Ellis campaign or lose out on county contracts. At On Common Ground News’ Oct. 16 deadline, Judge Courtney Johnson had ordered the jury to continue deliberating. Johnson reminded attorneys that the jury had been deliberating only 35 hours, even though it has been over eight days. The jurors–12 women, along with three alternates– asked to listen to additional phone conversations that were secretly taped by the prosecution’s star witness, former DeKalb Purchasing Director Kelvin Walton. Still, the jurors could not agree after hearing the tapes. Jurors have also requested and re-watched a special grand jury
testimony of Ellis discussing DeKalb’s Watershed Management contracts. Craig Bradford, a retiree who has attended the trial as an interested citizen of Decatur, said it seems some of the jurors had reached the breaking point. One of the women had smeared mascara and appeared to have been crying. “You can tell some of them are getting frustrated from their facial expressions,” said Bradford, who said he has served as a juror on several occasions. “I mean talking over each other, pushing, shoving and how many times are they going to ask to hear these tapes? I pretty much know them by heart from hearing them so much.” Joe Newton, an Army veteran who has sat in for parts of the trial, said he was surprised it was taking the jury so long to reach a decision. “I don’t think what he (Ellis) did was wrong. It was just the way he went about it was wrong,” said Newton. “Burrell isn’t doing anything any other CEO hasn’t done. He could have easily just hired a college student or paid someone to work on his behalf to call for campaign dollars.” Story developing. Check back for updates on this trial at www.ocgnews.com.
Judge Courtney Johnson
Photo by Joshua Smith/OCG News