Fresh Loaf

Aaron Gould Sheinin of the AJC has details on the 911 call that alerted Paulding County authorities to House Speaker Glenn Richardson’s Nov. 8 suicide attempt:

House Speaker Glenn Richardson called his parents in Douglas County last Sunday and told them he had taken sleeping pills and that it “was too late to do anything,” according to the 911 recording of the call.

Richardson’s mother, Merty, called 911 on Nov. 8 and aid her son was conscious and breathing but said he purposely took the pills. According to a police report issued late Monday, Richardson was found in his bathroom with a “silver revolver sitting on the counter in front of him.” Richardson was semi-conscious and did not respond to verbal commands.

There was also a suicide note on yellow paper and another note “related to the suicide,” although details were not included in the report released by the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheinin say the police report listed Mary Ann Burdette of Acworth as a witness. Burdette told reporters she was a family friend but declined further comment. Check out Sheinin’s post for more details.

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Mark Staffa, a 33-year-old software engineer who’s now $42 million richer, picked the winning numbers at a Paulding County gas station.

His plans? Help his parents retire and travel to Europe to see the building blocks of mankind:

“I’ve been a LEGO builder my whole life, and LEGO was established in Denmark,” he shared. “So that’s tops on my European tour.”

Awesome.

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WILDFIRES: Cumberland Island fire is 90 percent contained; progress made against California wildfires could be undermined by hot, dry weather this week.

VICK: Files for bankruptcy.

PLANE DEALING: The malfunctioning jet that Obama had to make an unscheduled landing in yesterday wasn’t his usual plane; it was previously used by Hillary Clinton. He still made it to Atlanta, though, appearing at two fundraisers last night and at McEachern High in Powder Springs today.

THE BURLY GATES: Atlantic Station’s Millennium Gate is revealed, and the Christian Science Monitor reports that the 82-foot-tall, $20 million monument is “a serious statement that risks, against the topsy-turvy backdrop of modern mass development, to become a legacy to 21st-century kitsch.”

HOUSE DIVIDED: An Atlanta family is trying to sell its mansion so it can give half its worth, about $800,000, to fight hunger in Ghana.

SEX OFFENDER LAW: Homeless Gainesville sex offender challenges a Georgia law that doesn’t allow him to register with the state’s sex-offender list without including an address.

IRONY: Paulding County restaurateur/racist thinks free speech should allow him to call Obama a monkey on his restaurant’s marquee but shouldn’t allow others to call him a racist:

“I believe in your right and my right or anybody else’s right to say what they want without being criticized as being a racist,” said Lanzo.

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