Across Georgia

DeKalb police say arrest made in dog beating

DUNWOODY, Ga. - A 48-year-old man has been charged with felony animal cruelty in the beating of a dog with a sledgehammer in a park in north DeKalb County.

County police spokeswoman Keisha Williams said Joseph Waters was charged with beating the brown and black shepherd mix, which was found Tuesday morning at Murphy Candler Park in Dunwoody with a severe head wound.

Police said the dog was in critical condition Wednesday at a veterinary clinic.

Williams said animal cruelty investigators found a short-handled sledgehammer and believe the dog was attacked at the park.

Lawyers seek to block Photo ID law

ATLANTA - Civil rights lawyers are asking a three-judge federal panel to breathe new life into a lawsuit challenging Georgia's voter ID law.

Attorney Emmet Bondurant asked the panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday to reconsider a 2007 ruling by a federal judge who dismissed a lawsuit on grounds it didn't impose a significant burden on the right to vote.

Bondurant argued that the state had no evidence of voter fraud to back up the new rules.

Democrats have long targeted the law, which requires voters to present government-issued photo identification before they cast their ballots. State elections officials say the law helps prevent voter fraud.

Jimmy Carter writes new book on Middle East

ATLANTA - Former President Jimmy Carter has written a new book on the Middle East with a title he hopes will not be as controversial as the last one: "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."

Carter said Wednesday night that the new one, "We Can Bring Peace to the Holy Land," will be published in January, just after the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

"I was going to call it, 'Yes, We Can.' My wife talked me out of it," Carter joked toward the end of a panel discussion on human rights at The Carter Center.

As president, Carter brokered peace between Israel and Egypt, but Jewish groups and some fellow Democrats strongly objected to his book published two years ago because it compared Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories with former racial oppression in South Africa.

Report surveys public housing residents

ATLANTA - A group of Georgia State University researchers says demolishing public housing in Atlanta could increase levels of homelessness.

It's included in a report released this week that criticizes the city housing authority's sweeping plan to eliminate traditional public housing within the decade.

Author Deirdre Oakley is an assistant professor of sociology at Georgia State. She helped survey 387 public housing residents over the summer. The report found that many older residents felt forced out of their homes and that more than half of residents in general worried they would not be able to afford rent in private market homes, potentially ending up on the street.

A recent Georgia Tech study, however, suggests families that have already relocated from public housing under the plan thrive in new parts of the city. AHA spokesman Rick White says public housing is not the best strategy for low-income families and needlessly adds to taxpayer costs.