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More than a century of covering our community | forsythnews.com | 5 S
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Fire ruled an acdident | 3A Ashway: Falcons reward fans | 1B
Man shot at RV park still in hospital
Suspects attorney: It was self-defense
By Alyssa Laßenzie
alarenzie@forsythnews.com
A 26-year-old man was
arrested early Sunday morn
ing in connection with a
shooting in south Forsyth
that left another man in crit
ical condition.
James Adams Dunleavy
AT
RENEWED FIGHT
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Jennifer Sami Forsyth County News
Official wants
group to retake
the offensive
By Jennifer Sami
jsami@forsythnews.com
Following some bad business
decisions nearly five years ago,
Jenny Beth Martin and her hus
band lost their home, cars and
lifestyle.
That loss, however, only
served to fuel the Georgia resi
dent’s passion.
“I'm so afraid that if the gov
ernment — if we don’t get the
spending under control now,
while we have the opportunity ...
where we can figure out and
actually solve the problems with
a calm and reasoned head — that
we're going to see what hap
pened in our personal life and
Georgia Senate approves
controversial new ethics rule
Gift cap at SIOO
By Sarah Mueller
FCN regional staff
ATLANTA — The Georgia
General Assembly kicked off its
2013 session Monday with the
Senate approving new ethics rules
for its members.
The rules change puts a cap of
SIOO on a gift that a registered lobby
ist or group of lobbyists can give to a
senator.
Gifts include merchandise, events
or meals, but there are also several
Volume 104, Number 9
© 2013, Forsyth County News
Cumming, Georgia
I
Many charges follow chase | 3A
has been charged with
aggravated assault, accord
ing to the Forsyth County
Sheriff’s Office. As of
Tuesday, he remained at the
Jenny Beth Martin, one of the co-founders of the national
Tea Party Patiots movement, speaks to the local chapter
Monday at the Central Park rec center.
our business life happen in our
country,” she said.
Martin, one of the co-founders
and coordinator for the Tea Party
Patriots movement, was the guest
speaker Monday at the local
chapter’s monthly meeting in the
Central Park recreation center.
Addressing a crowd of about 50
members of the Forsyth Tea Party
Patriot Alliance, she offered a
timeline of how the movement
has grown since forming in 2009.
The focus remains on fiscal
responsibility, a constitutionally
limited government and free mar
ket economic policies.
Martin, who grew up in Rome,
highlighted messages and battles
the nonprofit organization has
waged to reduce spending and
promote fiscal responsibility. She
said that fight continues today, as
congress soon will take up a
INSIDE
Forsyth's state legislative dele
gation talks about restoring
trust in government. | 4A
exceptions to the SIOO limit. Georgia
is one of three states in the nation
that has no cap on lobbyist gifts.
Ethics reform advocate Sen. Josh
McKoon, R-Columbus, said the
amended rules were just the first step
in writing new ethics laws that more
effectively cut abuse.
“Today is the day that we begin to
keep faith with the people of
Georgia,” McKoon said at a press
Abby 3B
Classifieds 4B
Deaths 2A
Horoscopes 2A
Legals 1C
Opinion 5A
Sports 1B
Forsyth County Detention
Center awaiting a bond
hearing.
According to Rick Doyle,
director of operations for
the sheriff’s office,
Dunleavy is suspected of
shooting Aubrey Zander,
28, in the Twin Lakes RV
measure to increase the debt ceil
ing.
“We have to make sure that
our message and the actions
we’re taking right now — espe
cially in the next four weeks and
then in the next eight weeks
beyond that — are focused with
laser-light precision on the bat
tles that we need to be fighting,”
she said. “It’s very easy to be dis
tracted because so much is com
ing at us.
“We have to make sure that
we’re not pawns for either party
and that we get our message of
fiscal responsibility out.”
Several people addressed
Martin during the question-and
answer portion of the meeting,
but largely to offer advice, opin
ions or to provide support.
See FIGHT|3A
conference with the Georgia Alliance
for Ethics Reform, which included
Common Cause Georgia, Georgia
Conservatives in Action, Georgia Tea
Party Patriots, Georgia Watch, and
the League of Women Voters in
Georgia.
“This is a historic first step, and it
is a first step, towards comprehgnsive
ethics reform in this state.”
Carl Cavalli, political science pro
fessor of the University of North
Georgia, said ethics reform can make
a difference, albeit a small one, in
restoring the trust in government.
See ETHICS | 4A
5 A Crawford:
Lawmakers
face choices
in session.
Park at 3300 Shore Drive,
where the men were next
door neighbors.
Zander was taken to
North Fulton Hospital after
being shot twice in the chest
and left shoulder, Doyle
See SHOT | 6A
CPD focus
on service,
not speed
like that ... speed doesn’t
apply a lot to the acci
dents.
“And that’s what’s sup
posed to be the goal is to
reduce traffic crashes.
And if speed’s not a
major contributing fac
tor, then why have some
body sitting out there
Officers no
longer using
radar guns
i
running speed detection
instead of somebody
looking for somebody
doing these other viola
tions that are a major
contributing factor.”
As some motorists may
have noticed, you won't
find Cumming police
officers standing on the
side of the road with
City Administrator
Gerald Blackburn agreed.
“[Cumming’s] a small
town and it’s got lots of
red lights for the size of
town it is,” Blackburn
said. “Within itself, it’s
just automatically set up
in a way where you don’t
have that much of an
opportunity to create a
lot of speed in town.”
| radar guns.
Police Chief Casey
Tatum recently con
firmed the department is
no longer using speed
detection devices — and
hasn’t been for about a
year.
According to Tatum,
the department dropped
the practice under his
predecessor, Scott
While small towns can
sometimes become
known as speed traps,
Blackburn said he and
other city officials didn’t
want that for Cumming.
“We don’t want any
body to think that the
city ... is a speed trap,”
he said. “We don’t want
to be looked on by peo
ple that are coming
through as a speed trap.”
As for the revenue
tickets generated by
speed-detection devices
may have brought in,
Tatum said there hasn’t
been a big drop-off since
the department stopped
using radar.
“It’s not caused a ton of
impact, no, because [offi
cers] have offset that with
other citations,” he said.
See RADAR | 3A
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Burgess, who left the
post in February 2012
due to health concerns.
Burgess had served as
interim and then perma
nent chief since 2009.
“It was done under the
previous administration
and Chief Burgess was
here at that particular
time and it’s just still
been going on,” Tatum
said.
He added that the shift
away from the radar
devices was a way for
the department to be
more efficient and effec
tive in its main goal of
reducing wrecks.
Speed is a contributing
factor in “very few of our
accidents,” Tatum said.
“Most of it is following
too close, improper lane
changes or disregarding a
traffic signal, something
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File photo
Cumming Police Sgt. Bryan Zimbardi uses a
speed detector in 2008. According to city offi
cials, police have shifted from using the devices.
lB Wrestling;
North team
competes
at state.
Dunleavy
56 /41
Forecast| 2A