You're watching 11 alive Morning News
11 minutes of nonstop news starts now
moving forward. Despite ongoing
controversy over the future Atlanta
Public Safety Training Center,
plans are headed for the next step.
What city leaders have now
revealed all new this morning,
the FBI says it busted three nursing
schools for giving out fake diplomas.
And now the fallout is stretching to Atlanta.
How the scandal may have
affected care for our veterans.
Well, we're looking at the
rain ending this morning,
that's the good news.
But we still have some fog in place
and we'll have the clouds as well,
and the chance of rain returns
in full force tomorrow.
More on that coming up. First this
morning a family and nation preparing
to say goodbye to Tyree Nichols.
A funeral for the 29 year old
will be held in Memphis in a few
hours. It comes nearly a month after
cameras captured Memphis police officers
brutally beating him after a traffic stop.
Five officers were fired and now are
facing second degree murder charges.
Two other officers involved
were placed on leave.
While calls for police reform continue,
Nichols family says today will be
about remembering him as a person,
a father of a four year old boy.
A free spirit who loves skateboarding
and had a talent for photography.
Vice President Kamala Harris plans to
attend the funeral alongside former
Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Reverend Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy.
Right now, plans are set to
move forward for construction
of the controversial Atlanta
Public Safety Training Center.
The City made that announcement
even as tensions remain very high
between law enforcement and the many
protesters who want to save the forest.
Molly Oak joins us with the
next steps for the facility.
The mayor says that training facility
won't just be for police use,
the fire department will benefit as well.
It's something officials
say they desperately need.
Officials say the facility will also
include a fire department burn building,
a kennel and indoor outdoor training
facility for the canine units,
a gun range and an emergency vehicle
obstacle course for both police and fire.
During a press conference,
Mayor Andre Dickens says they'll
build on around 300 acres of
city owned land off of Key Rd.
In De Kalb county.
However, the training facility
will only use about 85.
Speakers,
the training center will sit on land that
has long been cleared of hardwood trees.
Arborists have confirmed the
existing vegetation on this land is
overwhelmingly dominated by invasive
species like vines and brush,
soft woods and weed.
So the mayor wanted to make
something very clear.
He says the new training facility
will sit where the previous one sat,
not in the wooded area.
Back to you all.
Continuing with your 11 minutes nonstop news,
the search continues right now for a
suspect who shot two men in Gainesville.
This all unfolding at a busy
shopping Plaza on Monday.
Investigators say the suspect is 42
year old Guillermo Vasquez Martinez.
They say he targeted those victims
at the village shops of Gainesville,
leaving them critically injured.
If you know where Vasquez Martinez may be,
call police. The race is on
to decide who will be Clayton counties next.
Sheriff Frodis got a chance to hear
from four of the candidates last night.
They talked about improving
conditions at the jail and investing
in training and more staff.
The special election will be held March 21st.
Clayton County's former longtime
sheriff Victor Hill will be sentenced
to prison on federal charges later this
month. We now know who will serve
in the Georgia House seat left
vacant after the death of former
House Speaker David Ralston.
North Georgia banker Johnny Chastain
defeated Ralston's widow Sherry,
in a runoff for the District 7 seat.
Chastain won by nearly 500. Vote.
And that was a look at your
Wednesday morning headlines. Alright
Chesley, another rainy start and
the rain pattern locking in. Yeah,
it's not gonna win anywhere
anytime soon for us.
And in fact I think the rain
will start to pick up later on
tonight into tomorrow morning.
We had the rain overnight,
but that rain is now pushing
further over toward the east.
We're left with the clouds and
some low level cloudiness as well.
We're dealing with some
fog in some spots folks.
Not as widespread as we saw
yesterday or not as dense,
but it's out there.
So be careful as you're driving
your drive in and out of that.
Temperatures around 51
degrees by 7:00 o'clock,
at least here in the metro area,
but we'll dip down I think into the 40s.
Briefly before rising back up by
noon to 5258 for an afternoon.
High temperature will drop back
down to 52 degrees by 7:00 o'clock
with some showers starting
to move back into the area,
isolated at best,
becoming more widespread through
the overnight going into Thursday,
Thursday morning.
So you're looking at the winter
weather that's back off to the
north and West of us and it appears
though it's coming our way now we
decide for these colors for you.
The white indicates the winter
storm warnings.
We have that over into Dallas,
believe it or not,
with those temperatures in
the 20s for highs today,
this purple area here.
It's around the Memphis area is
ice storm warning and they've
been already going through it,
had a couple rounds of ice
in the area already.
And so delays could be there
traveling obviously in and out of
that area and then extending all
the way up into West Virginia.
We have they winter weather advisory.
So our neighbors to the north
and West really going through it.
As far as the ice is concerned,
that's very dangerous when we talk about ice.
Snow is one thing,
but ice is a totally different ball game.
Not going to make it toward us
even though it appears as though
it's coming in our direction.
We're just going to see the liquid
form of precipitation here as our
temperatures will be warming up to
support that. That's good news for us.
Front has pushed through.
Our winds now out of the Northwest
will remain light today,
but we'll keep the clouds in place.
Folks,
you may get a sliver of sunshine or two.
That'll be it later on this evening
heading into tonight. Overnight.
We'll see the rain move back in.
Waking up tomorrow morning,
we'll have light showers around,
so it will be a wet commute
for us in the morning.
Certainly a wet commute
in the afternoon as well.
We'll hold on to scattered
showers through about noon.
After that,
the rain becomes a little bit
more widespread and turning heavy
at times on us as well.
Now look at that much in the way
of any thunderstorms at all,
but we'll keep that rain in the forecast.
At least through Friday morning.
That's when things will begin to subside.
And we'll get the sunshine
in here by Friday afternoon.
Looking pretty good for
your Friday as well.
In fact, through the weekend
we'll hold on to the dry sky
with temperatures cooling off.
Just a touch
Georgia lawmakers are
addressing gun safety with a new bill.
Some are pushing for gun
owners to actually be held
responsible if someone takes their
gun and uses it during a crime.
Ariana Moniz has a look
at the new legislation.
Representative Mary Margaret Oliver sees
her bill as a way to curb gun violence,
as in some cases a homicide,
shootings and accidental shootings.
Those guns involved didn't belong to
the person who pulled the trigger,
but oftentimes those guns were stolen.
Now, statistics from everystate.org
shows on average every year over
1600 people died and over 4000
were wounded by guns in Georgia.
Statistics also show that the state has a
tenth highest rate of gun violence in the US,
which is why representative
Oliver is backing this bill. HB.
135 and making it clear that this
is not about taking your guns away.
It's about making sure that if you own a gun,
you are responsible and held
accountable if you aren't,
Representative Oliver says she does
not expect her Republican colleagues
to bring up this conversation
in the General Assembly.
But she does hope that record high
homicides here in Atlanta encourages
her Republican colleagues to come to
the table and have real conversations
about ways to address gun violence
happening across the state.
Back to
you. Staying within the let the
state legislator a new bill directly
addresses children's mental health.
It will require all Georgia public
schools to provide suicide screening
services for students from ages 8 to 18.
The bill has bipartisan support in the House,
and it does have some flexibility,
giving parents the choice to
opt out. All new this morning in
your 11 minutes nonstop news 3
nurses at the Atlanta VA Medical
Center are off the job after a scheme
involving fake nursing diplomas.
We've been covering this
federal investigation.
As they uncovered a plot at three
nursing schools in South Florida,
they were accused of handing
out 7600 fake diplomas.
Police arrested 25 people.
The schools were closed.
One US attorney says the scandal put
patients at risk and erodes public trust.
the VA says the nurses were removed within
days of finding out about the scandal.
In a statement,
the Medical Center said the nurses
removals were very unfortunate,
but patient safety is and must
be the primary responsibility,
federal officials say nurses
who lost their certifications.
Over the scandal probably will
not face criminal charges.
Today we are kicking off Black History Month,
and this year will mark just 80 years
since the first black servicemembers were
allowed into all branches of the military.
A new documentary on the first Black
Marines in the US hopes to educate,
inspire and help more marines get
the recognition they deserve.
Do a lot of Marines started out of
mother part who was still overseas
in the ground Barrett and they
wasn't getting no recognition.
The Montford Point Marines faced brutal
racism and segregated basic training to
serve their country in World War Two.
In 2011, President Barack Obama signed
a law awarding all Montford Point
Marines the congressional gold medal,
20,000 black men who had made heroic
contributions during the war.
But there are still 18,000 who
don't know about the honor.
So if you know of a living
or deceased Montford Marine,
we have more information on 11 live.com.
Chesley.
Thanks a lot, Cheryl. Let's
take a look at our forecast. By noon today
you're looking at cloudy skies.
Temperatures right
around 52 degrees on our way into
the upper 50s this afternoon.
That's slightly cooler than
where we were just yesterday.
Temperatures were approaching
the 70 degree mark yesterday,
so it will be cool enough that I
think you should maybe grab a light
jacket just in case you need that.
Driving home this evening
looking at 54 degrees.
The clouds hang on, but the rain comes
in overnight going into Thursday.
Come on in, Chesley, help us say goodbye.
Goodbye.
The people longer walk than you think.
Great day everybody.