Local
Gwinnett County focuses budget on Public Safety
On Tuesday, Jan 5, the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners approved a $1.5 billion budget focused on public safety and added jobs to court and sheriff departments. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, parts of the budget will go to longevity pay for employees, and a staff increase that has been demanded in the county for years.
National
First wave of illegal immigrants to be deported
Arrests of immigrants have begun with the first 121 ready for deportation and are called by the New York Times a “wave of removals of parents and children”. Federal immigration enforcement agents are deporting immigrants who did not win asylum by the courts back in 2014 during the border surge from Central and South America. Cases totaling 726 were ordered to be deported, mostly being Latino families.
World
Turkey has released journalist reporting on the Kurdistan Workers Party
After a call from the Committee to Protect Journalists, Turkey has released Vice News journalist Mohammed Rasool and British journalists Phil Pendlebury and Jake Harrahan. The journalists were captured by Turkish armed forces for allegedly helping the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Turkey, the European Union and the United States have listed the PKK as a terrorist organization, after their separatist move from Turkey, CNN reports. After four months of imprisonment, Rasool is back home with his family, as are the other two journalists, who were released back in August.
