Corps to cut release of water from Lanier
ATLANTA --- Beginning Friday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will reduce the amount of water released from Lake Lanier.
The reduction is not as much as Georgia requested, but the move could keep as much as 64.6 million gallons of water a day in the lake. That's about as much as Gwinnett County withdraws from the lake during the winter.
Lake Lanier is the main source of drinking water for metro Atlanta. The corps took the same action during the last drought in 2001 and 2002 to preserve water in the lake.
Georgia Environmental Protection Division Director Carol Couch issued a statement saying she appreciates the corps' evaluation of her request to cut the water releases through April 30.
The corps has released only enough water from Lake Lanier to meet metro Atlanta's water needs and the state's minimum required flow on most days since December.
Cremation video vexes funeral home's CEO
LAWRENCEVILLE --- The CEO of a suburban Atlanta funeral home wants to pursue civil charges against the people who posted a video of a cremation at the home on the popular Web site YouTube.
According to a police report, Rick Johnson, the chief executive officer of Tom M. Wages Funeral Service, says he came across the 32-second video on YouTube after performing a Google search of his business.
He says the clip possibly was recorded by a cell phone camera.
Mr. Johnson says the video shows a person opening a hatch to a crematory oven during the end of a cremation and an individual in front of the camera makes a comment about seeing the body's skull.
The video, which was posted Dec. 25, has since been removed after Mr. Johnson's attorneys filed an injunction against YouTube owner Google.
District Attorney Danny Porter says local police have identified the people who made and posted the video.
Although the funeral home wanted to file criminal charges, Mr. Porter says he's been unable to find a statute that would make posting the video a crime.
He says it's not clear in the video whether a cremated body is shown.
Hospital's governing board members named
ATLANTA --- Members of Grady Memorial Hospital's new nonprofit governing board were named Friday, three days before they are scheduled to hold their first meeting.
The 17-member board has not yet been approved to make decisions regarding the hospital. It is unclear when state and federal approval will be granted.
Grady recently switched to nonprofit governance at the urging of lawmakers and the business community in hopes of attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in financing to keep the hospital afloat.
Four of the nonprofit board members named are also on the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, the entity that has been in charge of Grady.
At the end of last year, the public hospital was facing a $55 million deficit and needs millions more in infrastructure improvements.
-- Edited from wire reports
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