Like Charlie Sheen, Walton Is Winning

1. We're not the kind to complain about the heat in East Cobb; that's like people in Buffalo complaining about all the snow—it's part of where you live. But we're not above questioning Mother Nature for playing yoyo with the temperature, so we're back to wondering what the deal is with this late-spring chill. The high today will be only about 64, the National Weather Service says, and it will be cloudy and windy with a 40 percent chance of rain. Overnight, the chance of rain will drop to 20 percent, and the temperature will fall to around 47, while the wind gusts could hit 30 mph. We again want to go on the record: By May, we shouldn't have to think about wind-chill factors around here.

2. The Cobb Photographic Society is holding tonight at 7 at the Marietta Enrichment Center in the American Business Center, Building 700, Suite 702, 1395 S. Marietta Pkwy. in East Cobb. The speaker is John Clemmer, a retired Navy musician whose photographic art involves printing on acrylic and metal.

3. Walton wrapped up its spring sports season in triumphant fashion Saturday night, grabbing the Georgia High School Association AAAAA state titles in both and . Those championships follow yet another state title in this month, and Walton is all but certain to finish second in the race for the Georgia Athletic Directors Association's AAAAA Regions Directors Cup for the best overall athletic department in the state this school year. Based on the latest standings, Walton can't catch , but it's a step up from last year's third-place finish after the Raiders won the cup the previous three years.

4. Meanwhile, , along with and , has good academic news as well. All three East Cobb public high schools equaled or improved their passing percentages on all four parts of the Georgia High School Graduation Test this year, according to results the released Friday. All three also beat the state and county averages on all four tests. At Walton, 100 percent of high school juniors passed the science test, 99 percent passed the math test, 98 percent passed the English/language arts test, and 98 percent passed the social studies test. Pope had 100 percent pass math, 99 percent pass English/language arts and science, and 96 percent pass social studies. Wheeler matched its 2010 results in English/language arts (94 percent passing), math (95 percent) and social studies (87 percent) and improved from 92 percent to 95 percent in science.

5. In our continuing effort to improve results on the social studies part of the GHSGT, at least until the school year ends next week, and because we can't resist a chance to poke fun at our friendly rivals in Gwinnett County, we bring you this fact from History.com for May 16: On this date in 1777, Declaration of Independence signer and Gwinnett County namesake Button Gwinnett received a fatal wound. It wasn't in battle, however, but in a duel with Lachlan McIntosh over which of the political rivals would lead a proposed military expedition against the British in Florida. So take that, Brookwood.