Regional Roundup: Ex-Boyfriend Suspected of Assaulting Dacula Teen, Study Shows Pay Gap Has Declined, and Blanketing Afghanistan with Love

-- Dacula Patch

A Dacula teen was reportedly choked and had her head slammed into a car window during a Feb. 12 altercation with a 16-year-old ex-boyfriend.

Police were called to the intersection of Hamilton Mill Parkway and Highland Forge Trail after a Hamilton Mill resident saw a young girl crying in the street. According to the resident, the girl had exited a vehicle and run up to a truck approaching from the opposite direction. The resident said the girl was “obviously terrified” and was cowering, shaking and crying.

According to the victim, the ex-boyfriend became furious when he saw text messages from other boys in her phone and a physical altercation occurred.

The officer noted the victim had a large bump on her forehead and that her left cheek was red. The ex-boyfriend denied choking the victim or slamming her head into the window. He admitted breaking the windshield, but offered to pay for the damage.

A juvenile intake officer instructed the officer to release the ex-boyfriend into his mother’s custody. The matter has been forwarded to juvenile court.

– Athens Patch

A soon-to-be published UGA study says the gender pay gap, the difference between wages paid to women and to men, has declined more than earlier studies had suggested.

The most salient finding of the paper is that the gender wage gap has shrunk to a difference of only six dollars per hour, much less than had been generally believed. Of course, six bucks an hour is still significant, but the findings of the study are, in fact, encouraging, since they suggest more progress has been made toward equality than would otherwise have been supposed.

The research will appear in the March 2012 issue of the journal Social Science Research.

-- Loganville/Grayson Patch

One thing we sometimes forget about our men and women in service overseas: They do much more than just fire guns at the enemy. They look at the people they are trying to protect and, well, they tend to get protective. The land routes out of Pakistan have been shut down, and though our troops are experiencing dwindling supplies themselves, all the blankets in the exchange store have already been bought for distribution among the villages.

This fact touches me in a way that I can't explain. Our men and women are experiencing the same winter temperatures and heavy snowfall, but choose to hand out supplies using their own money to the families in need there.

But one thing we know about our community, it responds to these kinds of needs in a big way. I love that!

It's smoky and smelly in Kabul, according to Lieutenant Commander Kip. The air is heavy with smoke as everything is being burned - even tires. "They just want to keep warm." 

So we're going to blanket Afghanistan with some love. Donations of blankets, hats and gloves will be accepted at the following locations: 

Justin Garner's AMAI in Loganville, in downtown Grayson, in Loganville, in Snellville, and in Grayson.