News

Metro jobless rate drops to 8.3 percent

Submitted by Associated Press

Thursday, March 28th, 2013, 10:19am

ATLANTA -- Metro Atlanta's unemployment rate declined to 8.3 percent in Februray.

That's down from 8.7 percent in January and well under the jobless rate of 9.3 percent from February a year ago.

Forsyth County's unemployment rate was 6.4 percent in February.

The new numbers were released early Thursday by the Georgia Department of Labor.

Officials say the rate declined because the number of jobs increased and there were fewer new layoffs.

The number of jobs in metro Atlanta increased by 6,400, climbing to 2.37 million from 2.36 million in January.

Most of the growth was in professional and business services, and education and health care. Some seasonal jobs were lost in trade, transportation and warehousing.

The metro Atlanta unemployment data is not seasonally adjusted.

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Fired for being female?

Submitted by Blayne Alexander, 11Alive Reporter

Thursday, March 21st, 2013, 6:42am

CUMMING, Ga. -- As a marketing manager with CorFire, Andrea Ariza loved her job. She says during her nearly two years with the company, she developed much of their marketing strategy and received positive reviews.

So when she was fired last April, Ariza believed it didn't have anything to do with her performance, but stemmed directly from a human resources complaint she launched two months earlier.

According to her lawsuit, Ariza's former company, SK C&C (parent company of CorFire, a Korean mobile technology company) had announced plans to restructure. She and other marketing employees were called into a manager's office to discuss the change.

"He was clear in that he no longer wanted us to focus on strategy, that he wanted us to leave that to higher level people in the company who happened to be men," she said.

"And then he said, it's because 'you are women and you are perceived as weak.'"

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Healthy and unhealthy: A tale of two Georgia counties

Submitted by 11Alive News Staff

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013, 7:19pm

GRIFFIN, Ga. -- In metro Atlanta, one cannot find a less healthy county than Spalding County, according to a new ranking compiled by the University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Forsyth County is a prosperous suburban Atlanta county with a median household income of $85,137. It's also the healthiest county in Georgia, according to the University of Wisconsin study.

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How healthy are Georgia's counties?

Submitted by 11Alive News Staff

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013, 12:02pm

ATLANTA (USA Today) -- Residents of the nation's least healthy counties die at twice the rate of those living in their states' healthiest counties, despite a major improvement in the rate of premature deaths, according to a national survey of county health statistics released Wednesday.

In Georgia, Forsyth County ranked the "healthiest" while Clay County ranked dead last.

INTERACTIVE | Georgia County by County Comparisons

The full implementation next year of the 2010 health care law could improve health statistics overall, experts say, but real change in health statistics can come only if Americans start eating better and exercising more.

MORE | Georgia key health findings

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Body of missing boater recovered at Lake Lanier

Submitted by Associated Press

Monday, March 18th, 2013, 9:17pm

Body of missing boater recovered at Lake Lanier

ATLANTA -- Authorities from the Department of Natural Resources have identified the body of a missing boater pulled from Lake Lanier on Sunday morning.

The body was identified as 47-year-old George Marty Counts of Tucker. Counts disappeared Feb. 11 while fishing on the lake, investigators said.

Counts was an avid fisherman and was believed to be operating his boat that evening when it was spotted going in circles with no one aboard, the state Department of Natural Resources previously said. The boat ran out of gas and was on the bank when rangers arrived.

The initial search for Counts lasted several days and involved various agencies.

The body was located near Mary Alice Park.

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USA Today Metro Atlanta Super 25 Girls Lacrosse Poll

Submitted by Sam Crenshaw, 11Alive Sports Anchor

Friday, March 15th, 2013, 8:29pm

ATLANTA-- Game On! The USA Today Metro Atlanta Super 25 Girls Lacrosse Poll is here. A state champion from 2012 is leading the way.

Milton is on top of this week's list with Lassiter, Walton, Roswell, and Centennial rounding out the top five.

Westminster, Chattahoochee, Alpharetta, Mill Creek and Kell complete this week's top 10.

The Metro Atlanta Super 25 High School Polls are computer generated and produced by USA Today High School Sports exclusively for 11Alive and 11Alive.com.

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