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All content by Laura Corley | The Macon Newsroom
The Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections headquarters inside the Macon Mall.

[Photo] Bibb County elections supervisor plans to comply with new state rule on hand-counting ballots

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
October 3, 2024
A Macon Transit Authority bus wheels into the bus hub it shares with Greyhound late afternoon Tuesday.

[Photo] MTA butts heads with Greyhound, hot buses spark heated exchange

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
September 4, 2024
District 3 Macon-Bibb County Commissioner-elect Stanley Stewart talks with Vanessa Smith as she strolled down Central Street in the Fort Hill neighborhood Monday. The area is a hot spot for illegal dumping.

[Photo] Bibb County’s unending battle against illegal dumping

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
August 27, 2024
Macon-Bibb County Commissioner-elect Stanley Stewart hosts the first meeting of the east Macon neighborhood associations at Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church on Aug. 5, 2024.

[Photo] East Macon residents gather to discuss gambling machines, development and voting

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Felloe
August 6, 2024
Rep. James Beverly attending a CEA meeting in September 2022.

[Photo] Minimal oversight led to misspent money meant for Pleasant Hill, records show

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
July 18, 2024
The yellow house at 194 Forest Ave. is one of the homes the CEA relocated to the west side of Interstate 75. A woman living there a few months ago had to move out suddenly after the roof failed during a heavy rain because the CEA's insurance claim to fix it was denied.

The Macon-Bibb County Community Enhancement Authority build this house at 231 Moughon Street Lane in 2020. Four years later, it is vacant with trash on the porch, boarded up windows and tall grass.

[Photo] Macon authority created to fight poverty in Pleasant Hill can’t say how it spent millions

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
June 24, 2024
A man was hit by a car at Cotton Avenue and Cherry Street in early June.

[Photo] Macon wants to add ‘teeth’ to rules keeping downtown sidewalks clear

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
June 18, 2024
The Bibb County Board of Education met June 11, 2024, for a special called meeting and for its first public hearing on the fiscal year 2025 budget. No one signed up to speak during the hearing.

[Photo] Bibb County school board may hire a consultant to study potential school closures

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
June 12, 2024
Albert Kenneth Knight Jr. was asleep on the stoop in this downtown alley when he was bludgeoned to death with a cinder block late May 24, 2024. His body was discovered just before noon May 26.

[Photo] ‘I hope they find the person who did this.’ Suspect still at large in homeless man’s killing

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
June 10, 2024
A quote above the front door of The Little Richard House.

[Photo] Little Richard House closes indefinitely 

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
June 7, 2024
Macon Housing Authority offices at 2015 Felton Avenue.

[Photo] Macon Housing Authority plans first-ever development outside Georgia

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
May 13, 2024
Poverty metric bibb

[Photo] ‘Not a clear picture.’ Middle Georgia school districts prepare for voucher impact

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
May 21, 2024
The cremains of about 400 people are stored in boxes in the basement of the Bibb County Sheriff's Office.

[Photo] Hundreds of unclaimed human cremains to be scattered in upcoming ceremony at Rose Hill Cemetery

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
March 14, 2024
Cirrus Academy Superintendent Gail Fowler tells the State Charter Schools Commission, “we stand to pledge that we’re going to continue this work of what success is as we continue to grow and provide an opportunity – a choice – for students in Macon-Bibb County.”

[Photo] Macon’s Cirrus Academy survives state charter board vote following year of turmoil

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
March 4, 2024
Washington Memorial Library celebrates its 100th year from November 2023 through October 2024.

[Photo] Much more than books offered at Washington Memorial Library in its 100th year

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
January 15, 2024
Standing on a trolley loaded with representatives from land banks across Georgia, River Edge Behavioral Health CEO Cass Hatcher points to the construction site where a tiny homes development for unhoused individuals who have mental health challenges is being built. The tour of housing developments in Macon on Wednesday was part of the annual Georgia Association of Land Bank Authorities summit.

[Photo] Georgia aims to grow workforce housing amid statewide housing shortage

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
December 8, 2023
A former office building at 691 Cherry St., which was the Home Federal Building and, later, the Georgia Federal Building at the corner of First Street. The structure could become an apartment building in coming years.

How a new hotel, apartments, a restaurant and a health club may be coming to downtown Macon

Word of the proposed development, which aims to breathe further new life into downtown Macon, emerged publicly Friday.
Laura Corley, The Macon Newsroom and Joe Kovac Jr., The Telegraph
November 17, 2023
The State Charter Schools Commission at a regular meeting in Atlanta.

[Photo] More charter schools are planned in Georgia. What will it mean for students outside Atlanta?

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
November 8, 2023
Staff and board members of the State Charter Schools Commission visited Cirrus Academy on Aug. 23, 2023, to discuss the school's eligibility for renewal of its charter contract. The current two-year probationary charter expires in June 2024.

[Photo] Cirrus Academy faces new scrutiny from State Charter Schools Commission

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
September 20, 2023
Takeysha Lewis, attendance and transfer coordinator for Bibb County public schools, presents student attendance data to social workers, counselors and principals of elementary and middle schools during a meeting early Sept. 11, 2023, at the Professional Learning Center on Riverside Drive.

[Photo] Bibb schools grapple with spike in chronically absent students

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
September 21, 2023
Robert Lee Cohen, 87, takes the MTA paratransit bus to a dialysis center in east Macon three times weekly. Cohen moved to Macon from Buffalo, New York, in 2021. "Here you got to have a car to get around," Cohen said. The new technology will call Cohen before the MTA bus arrives so he doesn't have to wait in the elements. "It would make things easier," Cohen said of the bus tracking system.

[Photo] Real-time tracking by phone, Wi-Fi coming to Macon Transit Authority buses

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
September 11, 2023
Cirrus Academy governing board members conduct a meeting Aug. 29, 2023, via Zoom as staff and members of the public are present in-person.

[Photo] Violations of state charter contract threaten future of Cirrus Academy

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
September 1, 2023
Cirrus Academy Superintendent Gail Fowler spoke at a news conference in front of the school on Pio Nono Avenue on Aug. 8, 2023. Stakeholders asked the governing board to resign hours before the board met behind closed doors to discuss "personnel" matters.

Cirrus Academy governing board member Shirlynn Kelly, right, refused to answer a reporter's questions. Kelly and board member Latrell Taylor left the building as people began speaking at the podium while the board voted to adjourn.

Cirrus Academy Superintendent Gail Fowler spoke at a news conference in front of the school on Pio Nono Avenue on Aug. 8, 2023. Stakeholders asked the governing board to resign hours before the board met behind closed doors to discuss "personnel" matters.

[Photo] Cirrus Academy board and administrators at odds, future of charter school in jeopardy

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
August 10, 2023
Piedmont Macon hospital

[Photo] Macon hospitals want to stop paying property taxes. County board says no.

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
August 9, 2023
Cirrus Academy employees attend the governing board meeting on July 18, 2023, in person as governing board members conducted business via Zoom.

[Photo] Secret board meetings, noncompliance threaten Cirrus Academy, employees say

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
July 21, 2023
NWX2V-academy-for-classical-education-s-student-demographics(3)

[Photo] Billed as an exclusive, high-achieving public school, ACE struggles with lack of diversity, finances

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
May 31, 2023
The Boys & Girls Club of Central Georgia is among several nonprofits headquartered in the Buck Melton Community Center at Anthony Road and Felton Avenue.

[Photo] Macon Housing wants to sell community center

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism
March 13, 2023
Coroner Leon Jones said Pio Nono Avenue is one of the deadliest roads in Georgia and likely the deadliest road in Macon.

[Photo] Macon-Bibb County Pedestrian Safety Review Board responsibilities outsourced to private company

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
February 23, 2023
Gwendolyn Hurst speaks at the ribbon cutting for Northside Senior Village in February.

[Photo] ‘We can’t build fast enough.’ Macon Housing Authority is funding, upgrading affordable housing

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
February 22, 2023
Imogene Patterson peers through the blinds behind the check-in desk at Economy Hotel on Pio Nono. She said she sometimes holds her breath watching some of the hotel guests trying to cross the five lanes of Pio Nono Avenue to get to the Circle K convenience store.

[Photo] ‘I hate to look.’ Deadly stretch of Pio Nono lacks crosswalk, stoplight as pedestrians keep dying

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
February 13, 2023
Peter Givens unfurls part of a traveling exhibit of Pleasant Hill's history in his living room.

[Photo] GDOT promised better in Pleasant Hill after cutting it in half it with I-75. Has the state kept its word?

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
February 7, 2023
Henry Young III, 64, knows well how deadly Pio Nono Avenue can be for people on foot. He says lowering the speed limit could help because, "they treat this road here just like a racetrack."

[Photo] Macon's deadliest streets: Two roommates die months apart crossing same busy road

January 31, 2023
A Bibb County sheriff deputy's car with blue lights activated near a pedestrian crosswalk on Jeffersonville Road in Macon.

[Photo] Macon’s roads are becoming deadlier for pedestrians, but few hit-and-runs are solved

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
January 17, 2023
Stacy Jones lives in a small blue house at the dead end of Roosevelt Avenue with his 6-year-old daughter and 97-year-old grandmother. He said he feels like Pleasant Hill is being gentrified.

[Photo] A state authority got millions to reduce poverty in Pleasant Hill. Has it helped?

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
December 14, 2022
Holly Huynh, talent management coordinator for Bibb Schools, welcomes new teachers at the first monthly professional learning night of the school year Sept. 8, 2022. About 170 teachers attended and all were recent career changers.

[Photo] Career changers are helping to fill teaching vacancies

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
September 12, 2022
Tawanya Wilson is principal for Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School where she was once a student.

[Photo] State test scores set new baseline for Bibb Schools students

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
August 2, 2022
Bibb Schools Superintendent Dan Sims is sworn in to office by Bibb County Probate Judge Sarah Harris. His wife, Traci, holds a Bible.

[Photo] 7 changes to know about as Bibb Schools students return to class

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
July 28, 2022
Alex Morrison, executive director for the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority, pitches a new schedule for the Heartbeat Incentive Program to the school board at a called meeting May 24, 2022. The tax abatement program is to attract developers to build projects downtown.

[Photo] Bibb Superintendent on school closures: ‘I don’t see a way around it’

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
May 25, 2022
Thomas Bemke, 60, walks a mile through knee-high weeds on the shoulder of Gray Highway in 90-degree heat one day early in May 2022 to buy groceries at Dollar Tree. Bemke said he is extra cautious on his trek because of the number and speed of semis on the highway.

[Photo] Pedestrian safety is their goal but Macon’s deadliest streets are out of their control

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
May 18, 2022
The BOE meeting was well attended in anticipation of a finalist being named for Bibb Schools superintendent.

[Photo] Bibb School Board picks finalist for superintendent in split vote

Laura Corley, Civic Journalism Fellow
April 21, 2022
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