Some of This and That...

There's a lot of news making headlines in the legal and business communities today, so here it is in a nutshell.

Alpharetta: Alpharetta, Georgia, based Cratos Capital Partners LLC is opening an office in Chicago. This is the first office Cratos will open in the Midwest; Bradley Byrd was named director to oversee business development in the Midwest. The Atlanta Business Chronicle has a short story on it.

Atlanta:

According to Jim Galloway, expect the Georgia legislature, the NRA, and the Brady Center to go at it again soon. The issue is over whether employees should have the right to keep firearms in cars parked on company premises during work hours. Expect good entertainment when the issue hits the floor. See the Political Insider.

Atlanta City Councilman C.T. Martin has proposed an amendment to city indecency ordinances. The new ordinance would target young men with saggy pants and women who show a thong under their pants, wear jogging bras in public, or show "even the wisp" of a bra strap. The "local newspaper" and Yahoo! News have the story.

The Atlanta Regional Commission is seeking control of the money raised through the proposed one cent sales tax currently under consideration by the state legislature. The proposed tax is predicted to raise $1.1 billion in the affected 10-county metro area by the year 2030. The Atlanta Business Chronicle and the "local newspaper" have the story on the ARC

Augusta:

The Augusta Commission approved a new $20 million trade, exhibit and event center for conventions and trade shows. This comes two years after the voters approved it. Once opened, it is expected to provide $1.4 million to the city in tax revenues and have about a $25 million impact on the local economy. To help fund the center, the city hotels will be charging an extra $1 hotel occupancy fee.

Former Burke County Magistrate Court deputy clerk Nicole Hammock has been charged with racketerring and stealing more than $21,000 from the county as people paid fines, fees, and court costs. The Augusta Chronicle has the full story.

Dunwoody: The Ashford Alliance Community Association inquired to DeKalb County when it saw a sign go up for a pawn shop at the intersection of Ashford Dunwoody and Johnson Ferry. They determined that the area was zoned C-1, while pawn shops have to be in C-2, in areas such as Buford Highway or Peachtree Industrial. That area is undergoing quite a bit of change as a new Bat and Ball Pub is set to go into that shopping cneter, a new Pizza Corner restaurant is set to open across the street, and a mixed-use project is replacing public housing. The Dunwoody Crier has more information.

Norcross: Advanced Disposal Services is trying to build a transfer station on Button Gwinnett Drive, their third attempt to build a transfer station in Gwinnett County. This time, OFS, a fiber-optics company, is fighting the transfer station, saying that it could sink their plans for the area's redevelopment. The Gwinnett Daily Post has the story.

Georgia:

Pecan farmers are happy thus far with the expected pecan crop, although they are worried about any big storms or hurricanes that could damage the trees or blow the fruit off the trees. The hot and dry weather has even helped them avoid many of the problems relating to disease and insects. The story is at Gainesville Times.

The Small Business Administration announced that federal disaster loans are available to small businesses and small agricultural cooperatives located in Georgia, except Chattahoochee and Muscogee counties. The SBA notice declaring most of Georgia as an economic injury disaster is available (PDF). Information about the loans and other disaster relief is available from the SBA website.

Beazer Homes USA, Inc. recently delayed its fiscal third-quarter filing because it discovered "accounting irregularities." This delay puts into issue whether that is a default under many of the bonds and other loans worth about $1.38 billion. The company filed in U.S. District Court to stop creditors from forcing the company to repay this amount under the default provisions. The Columbus Ledger and Atlanta Business Chronicle have more.

When HomeBanc laid off more than 900 workers when it declared bankruptcy, it came as a surprise to many of those workers and made them very unhappy. Now, three of them have joined in a class-action lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, where the HomeBanc bankruptcy proceeding is taking place. The workers are claiming that the layoff violated employee rights under the Woerk Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act which requires 60 days advance written notice before conducting widespread layoffs. Workers from American Home Mortgage Investment Corp filed a similar lawsuit on August 9 when their company went into bankruptcy. More available from Columbus Ledger.

Elsewhere:

New York has passed a new law that prevents knockoff music acts from impersonating the real thing. This new law does not prevent "tribute" or "salute" bands, nor those that have at least one member of the recording group in it. See the Daily Report for more information.

Countrywide Home Loans promised to repurchase some loans it sold to investors if the homeowners got into financial difficulty. But Countrywide is in a dubious financial situation right now; Bank of America agreed to invest $2 billion into the troubled company. More available from the New York Times

In the past nine months, about 120 mortgage lenders have closed or declared bankruptcy. About 40,000 workers have lost jobs since the beginning of the year. See Yahoo! News.

Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Wachovia each borrowed $500 million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, just days after the rate and collateral standards were lowered. New York Times