Tyler Perry Has The Golden Touch

It seems that everything Tyler Perry touches turns to gold. The successful director and Atlanta resident just formally opened a 30-acre multi-million dollar facility that will be the new home to his production company Tyler Perry Studios. The studio is located near Greenbriar Mall where the lot of the old Delta building once stood.

The studio located in the Southwest side of Atlanta is reported to be over 200,000 square feet of office and studio space. It contains several sound stages, a 300 seat screening room and will be used to produce episodes of the TBS sitcom, “House of Payne”. Perry named the four of five sound stages after legendary entertainers Ruby Dee, Cicely Tyson, Quincy Jones and Sidney Poitier.



Most people would think a man of Tyler Perry’s success would choose Hollywood to build a studio. But it’s very clear that Mr. Perry is making a major commitment to Atlanta. Tyler Perry received a lot of praise from celebrities such as Hank Aaron, Sidney Poitier and Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Jackson, for opening a facility in Southwest Atlanta. Attending the grand opening of Tyler Perry’s new studio was a guest list that included Hollywood legends and young up and coming stars.

During the grand opening festivities a group of protesters demonstrated near the studio. Four writers for the sitcom “House of Payne”, were fired earlier in the week. The protesters were wearing t-shirts with the WGA (Writer’s Guild of America) on them and held signs saying “Perry Has No Shame”. Its reported that fired writers were pushing for unionization.

Victor Hill Losses Case In Federal Court

Controversial Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill has been order to pay $475,000 in damages stemming from an arrest in 2005. When Victor Hill took office in 2005, one the first things he did as sheriff was fire a couple dozen or more sheriff’s employees. The brother of the man Hill beat during the election, Mark Tuggle called Sheriff Hill’s office and left angry messages about the firings and demanded a meeting. The sheriff then had Tuggle arrested for making harassing calls. Tuggle was held nearly 30 hours.

Mark Tuggle decided to fight back and filed a Federal lawsuit against Victor Hill. In his lawsuit Tuggle alleged that Victor Hill violated his civil rights, the First and fourth amendments and the Sheriff maliciously prosecuted him. The jury found in favor of Tuggle on two of the three charges. The jury did not find Victor Hill guilty of malicious prosecution.

Mark Tuggle sued Victor Hill as Sheriff and as an individual; Clayton County may have to pick up some of the cost for the civil judgment. The judge has yet to determine how much Hill will have to pay in Tuggle’s attorney’s fees.

It’s kind of ironic and somewhat funny that Victor Hill was sued and lost over an incident that started at very beginning of his term as sheriff. Now that we are at the end of his term, his bullying has come back to bite him in the “you know where”. It’s just another in a long line of things that the Clayton County Taxpayers will have to pay for because of the sheriff.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Governor Sonny Purdue started an investigation to determine if Victor Hill has abandoned his post. It’s been speculated that Hill has been MIA since he lost his attempt at re-election in the August run-off. His staff insists that those reports are not true. The Governor has charged Harris County’s Sheriff Mike Jolley, Butts County’s Sheriff Gene Pope, and Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker to investigate the allegations.

Disappointing Test Results For Some Georgia Students

On Monday Georgia state school officials released a statement in an effort to prepare parents and students of poor test scores on the Criterion-Reference Competency Test. The Criterion-Reference Competency Test also known as the CRCT is a test that is suppose to diagnose an individual student’s ability to comprehend the state’s curriculum of reading, mathematics, science, social studies and English/language arts. The preliminary test results show that 40 percent of eight grade students failed in math and could be at risk of repeating the eighth grade. Eight grade students must pass the math and reading sections of the test in order to move on to high school. If they fail one or both parts of the test, they are giving prep classes and may retake the test during summer school.

The statement also said that 20 to 30 percent of sixth and seventh graders passed the social studies exams. Those results are very alarming to say the least. I can only imagine the reaction parents will have when they learn that their child could be held back. So how does something like this happen? The CRCT is supposed to be more difficult this year than in previous years. That’s because there was a gap in test score for the NAEP or National Assessment Of Education Progress and the CRCT.

The tests showed that about 83 percent of Georgia eight grade students who took the CRCT were proficient or above however only 23 percent scored the same level on the NAEP. Officials blame the lack of a national curriculum as the problem. Parents are complaining that some items on the CRCT were never taught to students. Now that the test is more difficult has the curriculum reflected the change in the test? More focus is being put on teaching the curriculum and less time on review, we need to make sure that all areas of tests are covered.

These test scores may illustrate a need for the state to review it’s current curriculum and other issues that have long been areas of concern such as smaller classroom sizes, more teachers, teacher pay, etc. I definitely think that some kind of a review is warranted if straight “A” students are at risk of repeating the eighth grade. It’s obvious that something is broken in the system and something needs to be done to fix it. However I don’t think a solution will come soon enough for some parents and students as the school year draws to a close.