Brave? New World

Posted on May 15, 2013 by metrospirit

Reporters and editors are well known for their short fuses and their big egos, and in the old days, disagreements with readers were often resolved by a curt request to step outside. That was before the internet, back when men…

What Goes Around Sometimes Comes Around, Sometimes Doesn’t

Posted on May 15, 2013 by metrospirit

Fire Chief Chris James had already had a tough day before commissioners by the time Commissioner Donnie Smith started out with an almost Perry Mason like questioning of him regarding staffing, overtime and the oxygen take fiasco. — Have you…

Public Defense

Posted on May 15, 2013 by metrospirit

When the Supreme Court issued an opinion regarding conflicts of interest in the public defender’s office, it sent public defenders scrambling to fund outside lawyers, and Augusta was no different. Commissioners Monday evaluated a request for an additional $120,000 to…

Who Now?

Posted on May 9, 2013 by metrospirit

All of a sudden, it seems like a different city, doesn’t it? A Riverwalk robbery turned brutally violent. A Broad Street beating on YouTube for everyone to see. It’s times like this, when all the promise we hear about seems…

Horse Sense

Posted on May 9, 2013 by metrospirit

It’s official. Downtown Augusta now has a real PR problem on its hands. After years of struggling to overcome the stereotype of “not safe”, it now stands out as “not safe”. In the years the Metro Spirit has been covering…

Letter from the Publisher

Posted on May 9, 2013 by metrospirit

Saturday, as word spread about the assault of Wesley Spires and Ashley Solesbee, the young couple sitting on the park bench on the Riverwalk Friday night, fathers across the CSRA straightened up their spines a little. Crime happens, sure, but…

Kettle Meet Pot

Posted on May 2, 2013 by metrospirit

Since the Augusta Chronicle feels so strongly about Dr. Ricardo Azziz’s recent breaches of protocol regarding the use of state-owned resources during his niece’s wedding, we decided to give it even more exposure by reprinting it here. The following is…

Safe Harbor?

Posted on April 17, 2013 by metrospirit

Though it might seem as if all the momentum has gone out of the move to kick Sentinel Offender Services out of the local probation business — and resolve the issues regarding the constitutionality of private probation and answer the…

Retreating Before the Retreat

Posted on April 17, 2013 by metrospirit

With the April 24 commission retreat on the horizon, a motion at Tuesday’s meeting by Commissioner Donnie Smith managed to postpone what might have been a complicating factor — a commission discussion regarding changing the ordinance dealing with conflicts of…

Can You Hear Me Now?

Posted on April 17, 2013 by metrospirit

The best line from Tuesday’s mostly uneventful commission meeting came from Commissioner Marion Williams in response to General Council Andrew MacKenzie’s very lawyerly explanation of the “Call the Question” rules: “I heard a lot of words, but I didn’t hear…