A group of thieves believed to have committed a string of burglaries, were caught on camera ramming a stolen Kia Optima into the Hemp Haven smoke shop in DeKalb County, and then robbing it of a register that turned out to be empty.

ATLANTA – It has been no secret that the Atlanta mayor’s office and the inspector general (IG) do not always see eye-to-eye.

Now, that riff may be widening.

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) was created in 2020 after a federal probe into corruption at Atlanta’s City Hall led to several people going to prison.

Atlanta shaken by new ‘pay to play’ scandal involving city officials: report

Many city employees, and even the mayor’s office, have complained about IG Shannon Manigault’s tactics and procedures. That is why the mayor created a temporary task force to take a closer look at her office.

Some residents do not like the task force’s recommendations to the city council.

“NPU-N voted unanimously to authorize me to communicate with council our strong support for the office of the Inspector General and our absolute objection to recent efforts by the Dickens administration to defame our watchdog. I urge you to vote against resolution 24.R4518,” NPU-N chair Amy Stout told the council.

The task force’s recommendations are numerous. To name just a few, they have suggested the OIG have its own board, separate from the Ethics Office, to report to.

The recommendations also clarify that the IG must notify an employee if they are a target of an investigation and the employee is allowed to have counsel present during an interview.

The task force also recommends that an investigation can be initiated only if clear justification can be defined, not suspicion. 

Inspector General Manigault did not mince words.

“The approval of the recommendation to have the city attorney craft legislation and policies and procedures pursuant to the findings of the body. All of these things are serious. The short of it is, many of these recommendations, if implemented, would render this office, Office of Inspector General, in name only,” said Inspector General Manigault.

Task force member and Atlanta City Councilman Howard Shook said a lot of work went into the recommendations.

“She sees that as her needing the most authority she can possibly have to do the best job she can do, but we found no model where the Inspector General operates entirely independently of anybody or anything,” Shook explained.

The council held the measure on Monday. The recommendations are expected to be revisited again in two weeks.

GEORGIA — Elite Scholars Academy School in Jonesboro is the best public middle school in Georgia, according to a new ranking from U.S. News & World Report.

U.S. News researchers based the 2025 ranking of the nation’s best public middle schools on publicly available data from the U.S. Department of Education. The researchers analyzed 59,128 middle schools for the report.

The top 25 public middle schools in Georgia are:

• Elite Scholars Academy School, Jonesboro
• Dickerson Middle School, Marietta
• South Forsyth Middle School, Cumming
• Riverwatch Middle School, Suwanee
• Dodgen Middle School, Marietta
• River Trail Middle School, Duluth
• Piney Grove Middle School, Cumming
• North Gwinnett Middle School, Sugar Hill
• Webb Bridge Middle School, Alpharetta
• Autrey Mill Middle School, Alpharetta
• Rainey Mccullers School of the Arts, Columbus
• Davidson Magnet School, Augusta
• Rising Starr Middle School, Fayetteville
• International Charter School of Atlanta, Roswell
• Mabry Middle School, Marietta
• Hightower Trail Middle School, Marietta
• Bremen Middle School, Bremen
• Crews Middle School, Lawrenceville
• Taylor Road Middle School, Alpharetta
• Northwestern Middle School, Alpharetta
• Malcom Bridge Middle School, Bogart
• Newton County Theme School at Ficquett, Covington
• Simpson Middle School, Marietta
• Fulton Academy of Science and Technology, Roswell
• J.C. Booth Middle School, Peachtree City

Go here to see the full list of best Georgia middle schools.

The methodology for the rankings focused on state assessments of students who were proficient or above proficient in math and reading/language arts, while also accounting for students’ background and their achievements in core subjects. Student-teacher ratios were applied to break ties.

The rankings are intended as an evaluation tool to give parents a snapshot of how well schools provide a high-quality education and prepare students for a successful future, LaMont Jones, managing editor for Education at U.S. News, said in a news release.