Report part of probe into I-85 bridge fire

A report on the I-85 bridge collapse suggests something many Atlantans might think is obvious: It might have been a bad idea to store material that could catch fire under a highway that carries 250,000 vehicles each day.

The fire — allegedly started by a homeless man — was fueled by large spools of plastic and fiberglass conduit the state stored under the highway for years. Questions about the dangers of storing the material there flared even as firefighters extinguished the March 30 blaze.

During the six weeks it took to repair I-85, 75 percent of area businesses saw decreases, according to Atlanta Regional Commission.

The report by the Greater Atlanta Chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers is preliminary — part of a larger state investigation of practices that may have contributed to the bridge fire. It does not say storing the material under the bridge was a bad idea. It draws no conclusions about the cause of the fire, assigns no blame and makes no final recommendations.

Read entire story: on-ajc. com/I-85rules

Drugs. Alcohol. Sabotage. Backstabbing. Inappropriate relationships. It’s exactly the type of drama you’d expect from a daytime television show. Except in this case, the show is on YouTube, the resident Queen Bee is a 14-year-old girl, and her kingdom is a private school.

The show? “In Our Lifetime” — a 30-minute drama produced right here in Atlanta.

“There are all these dramas that are teen-based ... but not any that are soap operas,” said Tari K. Robinson, CEO and president of T&T Management and Production. To fill that void, she created “In Our Lifetime” — a soap opera aimed at teens and tweens. “It’s like a ‘Young & the Restless,’ but for kids.”

Read entire story: on-ajc.com/kid_soap

Property assessments spark residents’ furor

Calling into question the credibility of the board that assesses property values for Fulton County residents, county leaders on Tuesday asked the group to “immediately rescind” the assessments that went out late last month and to review their work to ensure it is accurate.

The request comes as residents countywide are flooding their elected representatives with phone calls and emails, questioning the assessments that in some neighborhoods were up by as much as 79 percent. Of almost 320,000 residential parcels, more than half saw their values rise by more than 20 percent and residents in 99 neighborhoods could see increases of 50 percent or more.

The median increase was 13 percent.

Read entire story: on-ajc. com/Fulton_taxes