The federal appeals court in Atlanta will hear arguments Dec. 9 on whether death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis can continue to challenge his conviction in the killing of a Savannah police officer, a state official said Wednesday. Russ Willard, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments on whether Davis can file a second federal challenge to his conviction. The 11th Circuit issued a stay of execution three days before Davis, 40, was scheduled to die Oct. 27 for the 1989 murder of Officer Mark MacPhail.

Georgia's largest local governments have all agreed to ask for federal money to create governmental house-flipping programs in hopes of propping up values in neighborhoods beset by foreclosures. In all, Atlanta and Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Clayton and Cobb counties stand to get about $81 million in federal aid through the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. There's a total of $153 million headed to Georgia. The program is part of the federal government's ongoing efforts to resolve the economic and foreclosure crisis. It allows local governments to buy problem foreclosures, fix them up and then sell or rent the properties to some of the same folks who have lost their homes during the crisis. They can also use it to create special financing to make the properties affordable.

Former President Bill Clinton urged Georgia voters on Wednesday to send the man who will sit in his former office one more deputy — Jim Martin. Clinton told a chilly crowd at Clark Atlanta University to return to the polls on Dec. 2 and elect Martin to the U.S. Senate and reject incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss. Martin, Clinton said, is "the kind of guy we ought to have in public life. His opponent was elected on a false premise six years ago and is running on a false premise today."

One of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin's daughters reached a settlement Wednesday with a bail bond company that claimed she owed about $150,000 when her ex-husband left Atlanta while awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges. Kai Franklin-Graham will pay Free At Last Bail Bonds $6,000, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Atlanta. The company tried to recover a $300,000 bail bond when Tremayne Graham left Atlanta in late 2004. Franklin-Graham filed for bankruptcy in March 2005.

With water use continuing to decline due to conservation, Fulton County proposed on Wednesday to increase water rates substantially for the second time in the past six months. [ Post your comments below. ] Water officials warned that falling collections meant that the county could soon not have enough money to pay back millions in bonds already issued for water and sewer projects. They hope to have a 17 percent hike adopted as part of the 2009 budget so it can be in effect before February.

Prosecutors, continuing Wednesday to hammer home to jurors their argument that convicted murderer Brian Nichols is a threat to escape from prison and cause more harm, playing a taped jailhouse telephone conversation in which Nichols appears to threaten the life of Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard. In the June 30, 2006, phone call from the Fulton County jail to a person prosecutors did not identify, Nichols says he is frustrated dealing with prosecutors from the Fulton County district attorney's office. "If I could do something different, I would have stopped on the third floor and shot your ass," Nichols says angrily on the tape of the call.

Investigators were still on the scene Wednesday morning of an overnight fire that did extensive damage to a newly opened Buckhead restaurant. The two-alarm fire broke out about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Chastain's Restaurant on 3717 Roswell Road, near Piedmont Avenue. Patrons and staff had to be evacuated but none were injured, said Atlanta Fire Department spokesman Bill May. He said the fire spread through the attic of the three-story facility, making it difficult to extinguish.

Leaders from 11 transit agencies, including MARTA, pleaded with Congress for help Tuesday as long-term financing deals with investors collapse amid the global credit crisis. The officials warned that 31 of the nation's largest transit systems could face at least $2 billion in payments in the coming months if hundreds of the deals go bad. The fallout could cripple rail and bus systems at a time when ridership is soaring. "Time is not our friend," said MARTA General Manager Beverly Scott. "The innocent victims will be the millions of riders who rely on public transit every day."

Soon, there'll be some more places around Atlanta to give if you don't want to hand it to the homeless. Eleven donation meters will be put near the Fox Theatre, the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, the Westin Peachtree Plaza and in parts of Buckhead, the Luckie-Marietta Street district and Peachtree Center. City leaders announced a program in September encouraging people to put money in the donation meters instead of giving to panhandlers. The money goes to organizations that aid the homeless, such as the United Way.

Frantz Jean-Pierre hadn't been delivering beer for long. He picked up the job a few months ago after his mother got laid off from a poultry plant. On Monday, the 26-year-old Atlantan was fatally shot in the stomach when someone tried to rob him on a beer delivery at a gas station near Oakland Cemetery.

Defense lawyers contend Brian Nichols' escape plans are flights of fantasy, but as recently as last July their client appeared to be trying to prove his lawyers wrong. Peter King, a former inmate at the DeKalb County jail, testified Tuesday at Nichols' death-penalty trial that he heard scraping sounds for three days, coming from the adjoining cell at about 1 a.m. On the third day, King reported the sounds to jailers. "It sounded like metal on metal," King told Fulton County jurors. "It sounded like digging, something like that."

Baltimore — Julian Bond, a state representative in Georgia for 20 years, will not seek another term as chairman of the NAACP's national board, saying the time is right to "let a new generation of leaders" take over the century-old organization. Bond, 68, has served as chairman since 1998. He announced Tuesday that his current one-year chairman's term, which expires in February, will be his last, although he plans to remain on the board. "This is a time for renewal. We have dynamic new leadership. The country has a new president in Barack Obama; the organization has a new CEO in Benjamin Jealous, and we'll soon have a new chairman of the NAACP Board," Bond said in a statement. "The NAACP and the country are in good hands."

Atlanta firefighters Tuesday afternoon were battling a warehouse fire near Fort McPherson. The two-alarm blaze broke out before 2 p.m. in the vacant, two-story brick building on 1100 block of Victory Drive. Atlanta fire Capt. Bill May said crews were in a "defensive mode," fighting the flames from outside the building. He said flames were still coming through the roof of the warehouse at 2:15 p.m.

A Marietta man was killed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Sunday night when he was hit on the head by an awning that had been struck by a vehicle, police said. Atlanta police spokesman Eric Schwartz said a shuttle bus for an off-site parking lot was pulling into the bus loading area at the west end of the terminal about 9 p.m. when the bus "somehow went forward and jumped the curb." The bus then hit a support for an awning, knocking down the awning, Schwartz said.

Fulton County police Tuesday were investigating a deadly home invasion in a neighborhood near Union City. The incident happened about 3:15 a.m. at 5380 Forest Downs Cir., off Stonewall Tell Road, said Fulton police Cpl. Scott McBride. McBride said one or two suspects yelled "police" as they kicked the door in, a tactic he said isn't particularly uncommon in such crimes. "They immediately began firing, and struck one of the occupants of the home in the chest," he said.

The Atlanta City Council voted Monday to override Mayor Shirley Franklin's veto against adding $55,000 to the court operation's salary account. Franklin wrote in a letter dated Thursday that the plan is "ill-advised" because she believes it's intended to add a position to the city payroll. The City Council approved the legislation at its Nov. 3 meeting. Council members felt the position was wrongly removed from the city budget earlier this year when Franklin laid off nearly 400 workers to balance the budget.

Most Atlanta commuters have had experience avoiding road debris, and Patricia Ann DeShazo was no exception. A tractor-trailer driver, she occasionally talked with her older sister about the trash she encountered on trips across the country. Last month, en route in her car to an appointment in Marietta, she died trying to avoid a truck bed liner that had fallen into a lane of I-285. DeShazo, 48, was killed after her car careened across four lanes of highway and collided with a median wall. Four days later, Sandy Springs police traced the object to its owner, and arrested a woman who told the officer she didn't realize it had fallen out of the back of her pickup truck. Virginia G. Orozco, 35, an Atlanta restaurant cook, was charged Oct. 9 with second-degree vehicular homicide and operating unsafe equipment, according to a police report. Both are misdemeanor charges.

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Jim Martin could only watch last week as top national Republicans descended on Georgia to campaign for his opponent in the Dec. 2 U.S. Senate runoff. Martin is getting some big-name assistance of his own this week. Former President Bill Clinton will return to Atlanta on Wednesday to campaign for Martin, who seeks to upset incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss.