The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • B6

Filename: B6-METRO-AJCD0201-AJCD DateTime created: Jan 31 2013 Username: SPEEDDRIVER04 Magenta Black 6B AJCD Friday, Feb 01, 2013 METRO 6B B6 CREDIBLE. COMPELLING. COMPLETE. 3 THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION FRIDAY, FEB. 1, 2013 Metro Joyce Jones, 41, of Sonoraville was at home when the storm hit.

She sheltered inside an interior closet as the tornado moved her home about 20 feet off its foundation. Among the wreckage, she found an angel statue that belonged to her mother, photos by kent d. johnson kdjohnsonajc.com Georgia Search and Rescue members from the Dalton Fire Department continue to check homes in the area. year-old Adairsville resident Anthony Raines, crushed when a tree fell on his mobile home. The tornado was capricious, said Fite Casey, an employee of R.

Dudley Barton Son Funeral Home Inc. The Adairsville funeral home's main facility, housed in a home built about 1850, "didn't shed a shutter," he said. Eight blocks away, a former day care center the funeral home recently bought for administrative offices lost its roof and suffered extensive water damage. "It's sort of ironic," he said. "A 200-year-old building is not damaged, and a newer building gets hammered." Others will remember the twister for what it didn't do.

Kim Dant, a fourth-grade teacher at Sonoraville Elementary School in Gordon County, sat with worried youngsters for nearly two hours Wednesday. The day was dark, the wind high, the children scared. She was the calm presence, the soothing voice. "I will never let anything happen to you guys," she told them. "Are we allowed to pray?" one child asked.

"Yes," Dant answered. Another child: "Will we go to heaven?" Dant didn't have to answer. The funnel cloud, wide and dark and loud, really loud, didn't hit the school. The kids were safe. Residents clean up a subdivision on Beason Road in the Farmville community, heavily damaged by Wednesday's tornado.

The storm killed one person and left extensive damage in the Bartow and Gordon county areas. plagued by nightmares of that day. "I wake up every night with flashbacks," she said before lamenting how seemingly thoughtlessly Thandiwe took Watts' life. "Her life should've been valued. My life should've been valued.

Lauren's life should've been valued." Despite descriptions of Thandiwe's life as an extraordinary and kind young man, and pleas from friends and loved ones that he be given a chance to rehabilitate, Lee sided with her reservations that he could change. "I do have concerns that on any given day in the future he could have another relapse," she said. "And I'm concerned about his lack of remorse." Twister slapped through area Tornado continued from Bl weed-eater," Hudgens said. "We saw everything (imaginable) destroyed." The Georgia Emergency Management Agency estimated that 370 homes in both counties sustained damage. The tornado destroyed at least 30.

It killed 51- Mother: 'He's not a monster' Shooting continued from Bl be with Brittney again." Thandiwe's mother, Lynnae Thandiwe, pleaded with the judge for mercy. "He's not the 'Midtown she said. "He's not a monster. It's not consistent with who Nkosi is. Nothing can be gained by putting him in jail for the rest of his life." Ga.

lottery's stated odds are accurate AJCPolitiFact continued from Bl a ticket as "wins," the Georgia Lottery is overstating its odds of winning for each game. We decided to double-down on our lottery sources and take a serious look at the numbers game. Are these types of prizes considered "wins" by the lottery? And are the odds of winning skewed by claiming these types of prizes as The lottery is big business for the state. Since the first ticket was sold almost 20 years ago, the lottery has rung up $45 billion (yes, billion) in sales. On average, the Georgia Lottery offers 40 to 45 scratch-off games at any given time and has nine online, or computer Thandiwe, 23, was accused of fatally shooting Watts in the neck in a Midtown parking deck as she left her office for lunch, then taking her car, apparently hitting her body as he pulled away, and firing into a crowd of women that included Garcia and Ferenczy walking along Crescent Street as he sped off.

"He told you he shot Brittney Watts, Lauren Garcia and Tiffany Ferenczy because he had adopted all these racist ideals," Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Linda Dunikos-ki said to the jury, referring to Thandiwe's testimony on Wednesday. "If race disorder was a (mental illness), then the Ku Klux Klan could murder and kill with impunity." Public defender Wes Bryant ized, games, according to the lottery's website. Detailed odds for every prize level in every Georgia Lottery game are available on the lottery website, a lottery spokeswoman told PolitiFact Georgia. The prize levels include a free ticket. The odds for each game that involves a drawing are also printed on the back of each game's play slip.

The overall odds of winning a prize in instant games are printed on every game ticket. The odds include every prize level available in each game. So transparency is not a problem. Lynn, our lottery-playing reader, is well aware of the odds listed on the back. One of the scratch-off games he plays, Monopoly Millionaire, for example, lists the overall odds of winning as 1 in 3.27.

As all gamers know, playing carries risk, he said. But "any respectable gambler knows that winning another ticket is not getting ahead. And in my opinion it's deceitful to include these as wins." "I remember the moment between feeling my legs and the stark contrast that followed." The UGA grad said she went through months of painful rehabilitation, learning to function as a paraplegic. And she married her then-boyfriend soon after the shooting. She now works full-time for the Midtown advertising agency she was interning with when she was shot, but says private moments of sorrow still lie deep beneath the picture of resilience so many of her loved ones and supporters celebrate.

"I am a victim of a meaningless crime who has a grim outlook on life and her very best days behind her," Garcia said. Ferenczy, who was shot in the leg, told the judge she was cision Lab at the University of Georgia. The Center for Gambling Research, started in August 2012, is an independent fa cility not associated with the Georgia Lottery or any other state lottery. The CGR brings together researchers from diverse disciplines for research and continuing education and training on the diverse effects of gambling activity, according to its website. And because those tickets and face value prizes are included in the odds numbers, excluding them would indeed change the numbers, Goodie said.

PolitiFact Georgia also talked to several hard-core Georgia Lottery scratch-off players. They all agreed that getting a free ticket should be considered a win. Their reasoning was a bit cynical and went something like this: You generally expect to get hosed when you play the lottery. If you don't, due to a free ticket, you are ahead of the game. A winner.

Sort of. So how do we rule on this borrowed from the prosecutor's opening statement to suggest that Thandiwe may have been out of his mind when he shot the women. The jury took about 30 minutes to find him guilty Thursday of all the counts against him and the sentencing phase of the trial began immediately. He was charged with murder, felony murder causing a death during the commission of a felony several counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, armed robbery, carjacking and gun offenses. Thandiwe's two surviving victims then added to Brian Watts' description of the shooting spree's impact.

"I remember feeling the bullet hit my back," Garcia said. The Georgia Lottery explains it this way: There are multiple top-prize-winning tickets, as well as multiple prize levels (from free tickets to top cash prizes) available in all Georgia Lottery instant games. Players can win prizes, including cash or ticket prizes, in accordance with the rules of each instant game, said Tandi Reddick, the lottery's communications director. David Gale, executive director of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, a lottery trade group, says claiming a ticket or the face value of a ticket as a "win" is common practice among state lotteries. And so is including them in stated odds, he said.

What's the reasoning behind this? "Gambling is defined as taking a chance with something of value, and that something can be money or a car or a lottery ticket because it is an item that has some concrete value," said Adam Goodie, the director of the Center for Gambling Research and the Georgia De one, and what are the odds? A Politifact Georgia reader, Bob Lynn, says the Georgia Lottery is being "deceitful" by claiming prizes of another ticket or the face value of a ticket as "wins." Claiming these prizes as "wins" overstates the published odds of winning for each game, he says. These prizes may not count for Lynn, but they sure do for lottery experts, other lottery players and the Georgia Lottery. A free ticket is considered an item of material value, and it is therefore inherently considered a prize, just like cash, a car or any other prize offered by the gaming operator. The Georgia Lottery's stated odds printed on the Monopoly Millionaire instant game are accurate. We give the lottery a True on this one.

And we wish Lynn better luck next time. This article was edited for length. To see a complete version and its sources, go to www.politifact.com georgia. WHERE IN ATLA isLUVItr' i. tr4 2 aA.

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