ATLANTA -- Philips Arena announced Monday that Justin Timberlake will bring his latest tour to the venue on Dec. 17.
Tickets are expected to go on sale through Ticketmaster on May 13 for the show, which is part of his "JT The 20/20 Experience World Tour."
Along with the concert announcement, Timberlake announced his new album will be released on Sept. 30. The title of the new album has yet to be revealed.
JEFFERSON, Ga. -- Dakota Bray never thought she could be prom queen. But her fellow students disagreed and thought she was the perfect choice.
She is a straight talking girl who has battled health issues her entire life. Born with a tumor that could only be partially removed, Dakota is developmentally delayed.
But she has no shortage of friends. And her mother has the home video from the night she was named Jefferson High School's prom queen.
Caution tape surrounds a manhole that overflowed in Decatur.
DECATUR, Ga. -- DeKalb County officials blame heavy rain over the weekend for a major sewage spill off Superior Avenue in Decatur.
A report from DeKalb Watershed Management released early Monday indicates 51,050 gallons of sewage spilled and ran off into a tributary of the South Fork of Peachtree Creek.
A resident reported the overflowing manhole on Saturday, but crews weren't able to contain the flow until close to noon on Sunday.
This comes as DeKalb works to resolve years worth of sewer spills and environmental fines. The county's in the middle of a $1 billion overhaul of its aging sewer system.
The DeKalb Health Department and EPA were notified, but the report indicates no immediate harm to fish or water quality.
Mighty oak suspended on utility lines in Midtown.
ATLANTA -- A large oak tree crashed into the intersection of Juniper Street and 5th Street in Midtown Atlanta overnight, blocking traffic and knocking out power to about 50-customers.
PHOTOS | Heavy rain on Cinco de Mayo weekend
It was about 11PM, when the 40-foot oak was uprooted on the property of The Fifth Ivory, a restaurant and piano bar. The tree plunged into the intersection, but was miraculously suspended by the traffic signal wires.
But the tree's enormous weight tugged at the wires and snapped a nearby utility pole, sending 5th Street between Peachtree Street and Piedmont Ave, into darkness
Commuter Dude was live at the location all morning long and files this report, just before power was restored.
Ruslan Tsarni, uncle of Boston Marathon bombing suspects
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) - A Cambridge city official is urging the family of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the funeral director who has Tsarnaev's body not to request a burial permit in the city.
Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy says in a statement Sunday there has been no formal application for a burial permit or purchase of a cemetery plot.
MORE | Full coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing
Healy says it would not be in the best interest of the city to execute a deed for a plot at Cambridge Cemetery for Tsarnaev's body. He said the city would be "adversely impacted by the turmoil, protests and wide spread media presence at such an interment." He said the families who have loved ones interred there also deserve to have their deceased family members rest in peace.
The uncle of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev arrived in Massachusetts on Sunday to arrange for his burial, saying he understands that "no one wants to associate their names with such evil events."
Ruslan Tsarni, of Montgomery Village, Md., and three of his friends met with the Worcester funeral home director and prepared to wash and shroud Tsarnaev's body according to Muslim tradition. The 26-year-old died after a gun battle with police on April 19.
Funeral director Peter Stefan said he hasn't been able to find a cemetery in Massachusetts willing to take the body. He said he plans to ask the city of Cambridge, where Tsarnaev lived, to provide a burial plot, and if Cambridge turns him down, he will seek help from state officials.
Tsarni told reporters that he is arranging for Tsarnaev's burial because religion and tradition call for his nephew to be buried. He would like him buried in Massachusetts because he's lived in the state for the last decade, he said.
"I'm dealing with logistics. A dead person must be buried," he said.
He said he was grateful to Stefan for agreeing to arrange the burial and to his friends for accompanying him to Massachusetts to aid with the funeral.
"These are my friends who feel for me ... as I do understand no one wants to associate their names with such evil events," he said.
Tsarnaev, who had appeared in surveillance photos wearing a black cap and was identified as Suspect No. 1, died days after the April 15 bombing, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others. His 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar, was captured.
Stefan said he has received calls from people criticizing him and calling him "un-American" for being willing to handle Tamerlan Tsarnaev's funeral.
"We take an oath to do this. Can I pick and choose? No. Can I separate the sins from the sinners? No," he said. "We are burying a dead body. That's what we do."
A half dozen protesters gathered outside the funeral home Sunday holding signs and American flags and chanting "USA!" One sign read: "Do not bury him on U.S. soil." Several people drove by the funeral home earlier Sunday and yelled, including one man who shouted, "Throw him off a boat like Osama bin Laden!"
The state medical examiner ruled that Tsarnaev died from gunshot wounds and blunt trauma to his head and torso, and authorities have said his brother ran him over in a chaotic getaway attempt. Stefan said Sunday that the family won't request that an independent medical examiner perform a second autopsy, but representatives from the family's legal team might photograph Tsarnaev's body before it's washed.
Tsarni has denounced the acts his nephews are accused of committing and has said they brought shame to the family and the entire Chechen ethnicity. The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia who came to the United States about a decade ago with their parents. Both parents returned to Dagestan last year.
Tsarni said Sunday that he hopes to eventually see Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is in a prison hospital and faces a potential death sentence if convicted of the terrorism plot.
"This is another person left all to himself," he said.
Also on Sunday, the FBI conducted a court-authorized search in Cambridge as part of its ongoing investigation into the bombings, said Jason Pack, a supervisory special agent in the FBI's press office. He declined to elaborate further.
(Associated Press)
(USA Today) -- Statewide texting-while-driving bans have become an increasingly popular tool against the deadly practice since Washington state introduced the first one in 2007; 39 states and the District of Columbia now have such bans.
But a driver stands little chance of getting ticketed for texting by state police in most of the nation, with some state agencies averaging fewer than one citation per day, according to a USA TODAY survey of state police agencies.
Tennessee state troopers began tracking texting-while-driving citations on Jan. 1, 2010, says spokesman Kevin Crawford. Through April 25, they had cited 946 drivers - an average of about 24 per month.
Since the Louisiana ban on texting while driving was enacted on July 1, 2008, the Louisiana State Police have written 1,059 citations, says Capt. Doug Cain. That's an average of 18 per month.
In North Dakota, where the law was enacted Aug. 1, 2011, the Highway Patrol has issued 117 citations - about six per month.
These totals include only those citations issued by state police or troopers, and don't count tickets by city and county police agencies. In some states, like Wyoming, Alabama and Rhode Island, the vast majority of texting citations are written by state police; in other states, like Oregon, local police write more tickets.
"No one seems to really know (how often police are writing texting citations)," says Peter Kissinger, president and CEO of AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which is in the middle of a major study to determine how many texting citations are issued annually. "I think there's a general perception that there isn't (much enforcement)."
In some cases, even the police don't know how frequently texting laws are enforced: State police in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia say they don't track texting-while-driving citations.
"The Arkansas State Police does not have a means to track the number of violator citations for this particular charge," spokesman Bill Sadler says.
Numerous surveys have found that people view texting while driving as dangerous, but still do it. The AAA Foundation's Traffic Safety Culture Index for 2012, a survey of 3,896 people of driving age, found that 81% viewed texting while driving as "a very serious threat to safety." But 35% had read a text and 27%had sent one while driving within the previous month.
Research shows that texting while driving creates a crash risk 23 times greater than driving without distraction. In 2011, the most recent year available, 3,331 people were killed and 387,000 injured in distracted-driving crashes. Those stats don't break out texting accidents, but texting while driving is considered the deadliest form of distracted driving because it diverts a driver's eyes, hands and mind.
Good enforcement of texting laws is critical in curbing the practice among young drivers, who fear a ticket more than they fear an injury or death, says Sandy Spavone, executive director of National Organizations for Youth Safety, a collaboration of over 70 groups.
But many teens don't view getting ticketed for texting while driving as a real possibility. "I don't know anyone that's ever gotten pulled over for texting while driving," says Kari Wissel, 18, of Mount Summit, Ind. "If it's really enforced and you know the cops could pull you over, you're not going to do it as much."
In the first year of Pennsylvania's texting-while-driving ban, the state police issued 340 citations - among 1,302 written statewide. In most states, the number of citations grows each year after a law is enacted.
"The totals can sometimes be misleading," says Cain, explaining that troopers sometimes cite texting drivers for some other offense, such as crossing the center line or speeding. "The number of citations may not be indicative of the actual traffic stops for texting while driving."
As texting laws began to proliferate during the late '00s, a frequent complaint from police was that they were difficult to enforce. "What the law has done is made people move the phone from the steering wheel down into their lap," says Sgt. Mike Baker of the Colorado State Patrol. "They're doing more to try to conceal it now that it's illegal."
Justin McNaull, director of state relations for auto club AAA and a former Arlington, Va., police officer, says that texting-while-driving laws are still evolving. "Many state laws are less than five years old," he says. "It takes time for police to develop and disseminate effective enforcement practices.
He says it's much easier for police to enforce laws governing speeding or seat belt use than texting. "You're going from watching a 3,000-pound vehicle (that is) speeding, to texting, where you're looking at a driver with a smartphone that weighs a couple of ounces," McNaull says. "Ultimately, the goal of traffic laws and traffic enforcement isn't to write a certain number of tickets. It's to change behavior. It's to discourage people from engaging in dangerous behavior."
(USA Today)
(USA Today) -- Google is planning to launch a subscription service for some YouTube channels to raise revenue and help finance independent video producers, according to the Financial Times.
Under the new terms, viewers will be required to pay about $1.99 or higher per channel, the report says, citing people familiar with the plan.
The move, which could be announced as early as this week, will apply to as many as 50 YouTube channels.
YouTube told the Financial Times that it was "looking into creating a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our creators with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content, beyond the rental and ad-supported models we offer."
Analysts have long anticipated a subscription model for some YouTube channels as the video content by professional producers has become more sophisticated and compelling.
While YouTube's advertising revenue continues to grow at a rapid pace, its new plan opens the gate for another lucrative source for growth.
Digital video advertising is anticipated to grow to $4.14 billion this year from $2.93 billion last year, eMarketer estimates.
(USA Today)
