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Bl o Au u S MS_IEAN NS SEBTORD GWE WSPAPE PROJ CITHFS BREE MEAIN LI SGA ATHENS, GA 3060 Z-164% Serving Metro Augusta, South Carolina and The CSRA R e g September 2-8, 2004 Vol. 23, No. 1174 v' T Sk ‘ 5 B ey ! ’lfi*-~ A ‘ "4 ; ST f%‘vfi?‘ N\ : P B Only in America The Grand Old Party is seriously court ing African Americans. Boxing promoter Don King is apparently buying in. Page 2A Up, up and we’re out of here ; Continental Airlines is calling it quits in Augusta after 19 months. Page 3A. Medicaid privatization Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue is look ing to privatize the , state’s Medicaid Pro gram as a cost cutting measure. Page 3A Tough times, tougher schools Richmond County school superinten dent, Dr. Charles Larke apparently gets it. In spite of decreas ing state funding, he’s upped the ante and Richmond County schools are excelling any way. Page 8A ARTBEAT M2M3 showcases young performers Youngsters are show ing off their star power in the third annual From Mozart 1o Motown performance. Page 1B O O eOAR e S S R GOOD NEWS Masters City Tourney prep The annual Masters City Golf Association is prepping for its annual golf tourna ment. This organiza tion is celebrating 21 years. Page 4A A R R PA S SHIPS R Re e INDEX ARTbeat .......... 1B 8u5ine55..........6A City/Regi0n......3A Classifieds ......6B Good New5......4A Happenings ....2B LM“’ l'..ll'll'll“A Nation/World ..2A m ln-uu-n!u : W.'.....'11111.'1‘8 SPLOST V talks gridlock over arena and road improvements By HALEY A. DUNBAR Augusta Focus Staff Writer Months of political wrangling and debate over how SPLOST V funds should be spent came down to two issues - i 4 i.'). o e 3 *;‘S‘ ' i _‘“‘ "‘ 4 - . . % 'LsSt (e b O s %} ey ; e A . M e ‘. R b é 3 <T - WA ‘ :@* -5 : .»‘;’V : ,‘\"r ',.:\,.é»y.v AT pob ’.‘M.‘\ “ - . v : ] ke , RSO R Re AT W Ylg "% y pads & ‘4B, - s : ’ ) ALRSii ol i e o ’ X L ~§§:?" : oWm | : WQ - ‘ gg}‘?’. 3 . | o N ; SRtk . 84 @ M e ; adis B 8 7o BB L ot aass 4L — B # v oERs ; & ! [ 3 )k # g ‘- B g ; . i i ”2: . £ |‘ g ~\ f :v- ,?r:!"‘ l‘g 4 h 3 XB | P ) & B L e [ A ']- f ! S ] i ’ & ':*‘A':A;”“; . b 5 " ’ \ o - -~ *‘:_ ? “'“«".% i S - % ?*, «ir“ oy 7 J" i 2 T\ il “ ePAoI : ¥ y s T e % \F gt ‘ v e ey e 3 U N S e o R S~ Photo by Theresa Minor Davidson Fine Arts High School seniors, Latasha Louis (left) and Kristen Rouse, bone up for the SAT test that they will be taking this year. The pressure’s on the ciass of 2005 to better the score of 1178 attained by the class of 2004. Richmond County schools join the SAT ‘4600’ club By THERESA MINOR Augusta Focus Staff Writer The board of education con ference room was packed and ripe with anticipation. Super intendent Dr. Charles Larke could hardly contain a smile. It was easy to discern that he was about to make a big announce ment concerning local SAT scores. It was equally obvious that he wanted to milk the moment. “We have some good news that Georgia is no longer 50th,” he began, referring to the fact that Georgia edged out South Carolina to become 49th in the nation in SAT scores. “So now I'm going to release some great news. Our SAT scores have reached 1,000.” With that, the room of school board members, admin istrators, principals and teachers exploded in applause. The SAT is widely used to determine a student’s ability to succeed in college. But it has also become the proof of performance for educators under pressure to improve public education. “T'm proud of all of our A focus on labor: Overtime pay changes, who benefits? By THERESA MINOR Augusta Focus Staff Writer Labor law es —the likes of which hasll.emr:%t been seen since the industrial era— have human resources administra tors scratching their heads, try ing to understand what to make of them. “They appear to be cut and dry. But (EIC to the nature of the changes and making sure they're implemented correctly, that’s where the challenge lies,” said Dorothy Cummings, Human Resources Directol?gr the Walker Group. James Allen, a labor law Subscribe to the Augusta Focus, Call (706) 722-4222, extension 225 for county commission ers, how much money should go to projects for two of the county’s largest departments and at what cost. Members of the Augus teachers, administrators and board members. Without your su;()ipon we would not be here,” said Larke. This is the second consecu tive year that Richmond Coun ty scores were above the state average. The state average this year is 987 out of a possible 1,600. Four out of 10 public schools have even exceeded the national average of 1,026. They are Davion Fine Arts, AR. Johnson Health Occupa tional, Westside and Hepfii— ibah. In fact, Davidson was touted as being the top school in the state by Georgja Superin tendent of Schools, Cathy Cox during a news conference on Tuesday, August 31. “I was real pleased that we were being recognized as a top school for the state,” said Davidson Assistant Principal, Renee Kelly. She says the consistendy high performance is even more notable since Davidson is a fine arts school whose students are chosen based on their talent and not their academics. Kelly says the student’s creativity strengthens their academic abil -Ity. attorney sees the updated over time law from another perspec tive. Unlike labor issues such as discrimination, he says the revamping of the overtime law is a more sweeping change. “It applies to more employers and employees than any other labor law;” said Allen. Basically, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) which went into effect on August 23, is an economic boom for work ers making under $24-thou sand-a-year. FSLA requires employers to pay overtime (one-and-a-half times their reg ular pay) to these employees ta-Richmond County Commission spent much of their September 1 spe cial called meeting debat ing whether or not the more than S2OO million in public works and parks “Their talent makes them want to work harder. It teaches them discipline because they have to practice over and over | again. They understand you | cant give up on the first try;” | Kelly said. | This is the second academic | measurement this school year which has shown significant | improvement. Last month, | school officials reported that | the number of schools on the | state’s needs improvement list | had been cut in Ealf Larke says | the goal now becomes to have | every school making adequate | yearly progress. He also has | some ambitious plans for high | school students to take both a | vocational and college prep | track in the near future. Larke | is on record for refusing to allow educators say that chel largely urban student body | cannot perform well aca- i demically. He didn’t miss the opportunity to reiterate that point. “A failure to set high goals and to determine t.ghc stu- \ dent’s ability based on i poverty ang skin color is sinful,” said the superinten dent. who work more than 40 hours aweek. It breaks down as $455 a week. Previously, employees could make as little as $155 a week and employers could legally get away with not pay ing overtime by designating them as salaried workers. On the upper end of the pay scale, the labor law exempts workers making SIOO,OOO from overtime pay:. The changes have been brought about due, in part, to inflation. But what has had the most significant impact has been the litany of dass action lawsuits against companies over www.augustafocus.com and recreation projects should be under funded in order to pay for big ticket items such as the proposed sports arena. “I'm going to make a recommendation that we remove two items from the SPLOST V funding list and those are the civic arena and the amphithe ater,” said Commissioner Andy Cheek before adding, “The bottom line is that we don’t have enough money to do Image-conscious Atlanta frets over former mayor’s indictment By KRISTEN WYATT Associated Press Writer ATLANTA (AP) - If there’s anything Atlanta hates, it’s bad publicity. So when federal investiga tors announced Monday, August 30, that City Hall was rife with corruption as recently as 2002, it sent chills through Atlanta busi ness leaders and politicians, who worry the charges would take some shine off a city that has long called itself the Capital of the New South and an excellent place to do business. Former Mayor Bill Campbell was charged with bribery, fraud and racket eering in a federal indict ment unsealed Monday. The indictment depicts a rotten City Hall. “Our image is so very important,” said City Councilwoman Carla Smith, who was elected in 2002, the year Campbell left office. “Our morals and our ethics, that’s the South ern way. We're all just sit ting here with our jaws dropping open, in total shock.” Campbell was under fed eral investigation for five years, suspected of taking payoffs, dishing out con tracts to friends and using campaign money to buy himself clothes and trips to Disney World. the wage issue. Allen feels that even with the update, employ ers may not be out of the woods where lawsuits are con cened. He says dlass action lawsuits are still imminent because of wage earners who the new regulation fails to include —the middle income wage earner. “In the middle it will gener ate more lawsuits,” he said. “We can't be clear on the effect because it depends on what judges say. The regulations are clear. The effect is unclear.” The middle-income wage earners are in such a gray area PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID AUGUSTA GA PERMIT NO 302 FIFTY CENTS everything that we need to do.” The Engineering Ser vice Chairman’s state ment came early in the day after he presented the board with a list of pro posed public works proj ects. Cheek told the group that he, Public Works and Engineering Director Teresa Smith and other members of her staff developed the list in Sce SPLOST V, page 16A " A Bill Campbell Already 10 people who worked with Campbell have been convicted on corrup tion charges, including a strip club owner who said he gave Campbell $50,000 to push through a liquor license application. The FBI agent in charge of the Atlanta office, Grego ry Jones, said Campbell oversaw “a pervasive pattern of government corruption which victimized the citi zens of the city of Atlanta and deprived them of the honest services of their pub lic officials.” The indictment was expected, but it still hit city boosters hard. This intensely image-con scious has sold itself as a progressive city of the New South. It came through the civil rights era with little strife — and proclaimed Sec Mayor, page 16A that when surveyed, many of the nation’s % corporations say they would not make the August 23 deadline. Some say it would take nearly three months to come into compli ance with the law. Cummi says she too will need a lil:r?e more time. “The issue I'm concerned Bt oLo taEs ent o! r r the salaried people. I want to e (ot ot it e who are S rat s ustment. It gll?t%ccrdnm to make sure we're i;lidcjomplcte compliance,” she