Incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock narrowly defeated Republican Herschel Walker Tuesday in a closely fought race for Georgia’s U.S. Senate seat, giving Democrats a slim two-seat majority in the upper house in Washington.

Warnock was leading Walker 51.1% to 48.8% as of 11:50 p.m. Tuesday night, with 98% of precincts reporting. The Warnock victory in the final contest of the 2022 election cycle gave Democrats 51 seats in the Senate to 49 for Republicans.

As of midnight, Warnock had won 59% of the vote in Cobb County, according to unofficial results, with Republican challenger Herschel Walker receiving 41%.

Though Warnock won around 38,000 more votes than Walker in the November general election, neither candidate earned more than 50% of the vote required by Georgia law to prevent a runoff, pushing the nationally watched race to a December rematch.

The lengthy campaign that finally concluded Tuesday night was the most expensive race of the 2022 cycle, with outside groups and the candidates’ campaigns spending more than $401 million in the race, according to campaign-finance tracking group OpenSecrets

For a few seconds, the Allatoona flag football team thought it was on its way to the Class 7A state championship game at Center Parc Stadium.

If not for a few extra steps, the Buccaneers would have been.

With Monday’s state semifinal tied 13-all with 5 seconds left to play, Allatoona quarterback Maci Strickland scrambled left, pulled up and threw deep down the middle. Receiver Aoife Flynn came down with the ball between two defenders and sprinted away for what looked to be the game-winning 65-yard touchdown.

However, the celebration was short-lived as Strickland was called for being past the line of scrimmage when she let the pass go.

The penalty sent the game to overtime, where the potential celebration turned to disappointment. In the second overtime, Milton found a way to finally get past Allatoona 19-13 at IBM Performance Field inside the Atlanta Falcons’ training facility.

Milton will face Blessed Trinity, which beat Marietta in the other semifinal, for the state championship Thursday at Center Parc Stadium in Atlanta. For much of the season, Marietta’s flag football team would often start slowly, rely on its defense and then pull away from opponents in the second half.

It was a trend that concerned coach Nick Houstoulakis as the Blue Devils got deeper in the playoffs, and on Monday, his concerns were justified.

Blessed Trinity scored two first-half touchdowns and added a third in the final minutes of the game to post a 19-0 victory over Marietta in the semifinals of the Class 7A state playoffs, also at the Falcons’ IBM Performance Field. Marietta was stopped one game short of reaching back-to-back state championship games. For Blessed Trinity, it was a game of payback for the 26-0 loss the Blue Devils handed them in the same round a year ago.

The City Council voted 4-2 to allocate an additional $500,000 for the building of a downtown park slated to open in spring 2023.

Village Green Park will be located just south of the StillFire Brewing brewery being built in downtown Smyrna. The brewery and adjacent park are sandwiched between Atlanta Road and the Smyrna Community Center.

In January, the council agreed to sell an acre of city-owned land to StillFire, which will build a two-story, 15,000-square-foot brewery there.

The proceeds from that sale — $600,000 — were to fund Village Green Park. In April, the council allocated an additional $400,000 for the park from the city’s federal COVID-19 relief funds, bringing the total cost to $1 million. The latest funding allocation was sourced from the city’s general fund. With Monday night’s vote, the cost for the park is now $1.5 million, an increase Mayor Derek Norton told the MDJ was necessary to overcome issues with grading on the property and to match finishes in other parks the city is upgrading.

Council members Charles “Corkey” Welch and Susan Wilkinson voted against the measure. The two members also voted against the deal that saw the city sell land to StillFire Brewing, as well as the first set of additional funding for the park project.

Welch’s reason for opposing the newest infusion of funds held steady from his previous vote in April against additional funding, which is his belief the current park serves the community more as is than a brewery would.

The Battery Atlanta invites guests to welcome 2023 in style at its annual New Year’s Eve Bash, presented by Xfinity, on December 31.

The free annual festivities will be held in two parts, starting with Early Innings for families, followed by Late Innings for adult revelers.

The Early Inning festivities will begin at 6 p.m. with a traditional late-night show for families celebrating with children. Kids will be able to join in on the countdown before bedtime with an inflatable baseball drop at 8 p.m. and live performance from GRAMMY nominee Justin Roberts. Adults looking to ring in the New Year later in the night can enjoy Late Innings beginning at 9 p.m. with a performance from The 12 South Band at the Georgia Power Pavilion Stage. The evening will close with a midnight countdown that includes pyrotechnics and features a firework and confetti display to light the sky.

For more information, visit batteryatl.com.

A suspect in a deadly August shooting at a Vinings apartment complex has been taken into custody.

Ambakisye Mizell, charged with the murder of Demetrius Dow, was booked into the Cobb County jail Sunday, where he is being held without bond, according to booking records.

At around 4 a.m. on August 28, Cobb police responded to a call at the District at Vinings apartment complex at 2800 Paces Ferry Road reporting that someone had been shot, police said at the time. First responders treated the 40-year-old Dow for gunshot wounds, but he died at the scene.

A warrant for Mizell’s arrest was issued November 9. In the warrant, police allege Mizell shot Dow multiple times in the legs while robbing him. Mizell is from Albany, Georgia, according to booking records, and was transferred to Cobb from the Crisp County jail.

The Cobb County Board of Education is set to review five district rule modifications at its work session Thursday afternoon.

Two changes are to existing rules, concerning staff access to the district’s new emergency system badges and employee transfers within the district. Three new policies deal with animals in schools, counseling programs and the Parents’ Bill of Rights.

The codification of the Parents’ Bill of Rights in the district’s administrative rules comes after Governor. Brian Kemp signed into law the bill known by the same name in April.

Board Member Randy Scamihorn told the MDJ that the district is already in compliance with the state law, and will formalize it with the new policy. The rule allows parents to access their child’s education records and learn more about instructional materials. It also gives parents the right to object to content “which the parent/legal guardian feels is divisive or harmful to minors” based on the district’s Divisive Concepts Complaint Resolution Process, part of rules the district passed in June to fall in line with another law on divisive concepts signed by Kemp. The new rule also allows parents the right to withdraw their children from sex education courses and prohibit the district from taking photographs and making video or voice recordings of their children, so long as parents provide written notices.

Revisions to the rule governing employee transfer could cause the most stir, according to Cobb County Association of Educators President Jeff Hubbard, who said the changes could make it harder for teachers to move around within the district. Hubbard noted that employees will now be required to be at their present location of employment for a two-year minimum at the time of a transfer. Other sections of the rule address “emotional support/comfort animals,” which “are not trained to perform a disability-specific task and are not Service Animals as defined by law or this rule,” and “classroom pets,” which the district says may be fish, parrots, reptiles, amphibians, hamsters and guinea pigs.

The Cobb school board will meet for its work session Thursday at 2:30 p.m. at 514 Glover St. in Marietta, and its voting meeting will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at the same location.

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