
Atlanta again. Sherman infamously burned the city to the ground during the first Civil War in 1864 and the horrors of that scorched earth policy are constantly reenacted upon Georgia Tech Students nowadays.
"The start of our day here at the American Cancer Society was quickly punctuated by the rumor -- and then the confirmation -- that one of our friends, a valued colleague and mentor, lost her life in a horrific crime sometime Tuesday in Atlanta.
Jeanne Calle was a member our society family since 1989. She was vice president of epidemiology here at our national home office in Atlanta
She was an epidemiologist who worked incessantly to unlock the secrets of what population-based information can tell us about the causes and risk factors that lead to cancer. There are few researchers in this country who have labored so hard and been so successful at bridging the gap between what we learn from epidemiology research and how we apply that information to our everyday lives.
We have lost someone very special. Her death was tragic and needless, and defies explanation."
" Their fateful meeting at the high-rise Midtown condo complex--the prominent cancer researcher and the young man described by police as a two-bit criminal--was nothing but chance.
Eugenia "Jeanne" Calle, who had a condo on the Aqua building's 20th floor, was walking her gray poodle.
Shamal Thompson, 22, fresh off a meal at a nearby Checkers fast-food restaurant, wandered in under the pretense of shopping for condos in the luxury building that boasts private elevators, around-the-clock security and skyline-view homes that cost as much as $2.5 million.
Calle undoubtedly thought she was seizing on an opportunity to sell her condo. But it was Thompson, police say, who was looking for opportunity.
Early Thursday morning, authorities arrested Thompson and charged him with beating Calle to death as she showed him around her penthouse condo. After the killing, and after he went on a spending spree with Calle's credit cards, Thompson got bolder, returning to the scene of the crime late Wednesday night and trying to con his way back inside her condo, police said.
"He was extremely brazen," said Atlanta police Lt. Keith Meadows, commander of the department's homicide unit. "It's a little unsettling when people are that bold. I can't even put it into words."
Just two weeks into retirement, Calle wanted to sell her condo so she could move in with her fiance."
"A one-mile stretch of Atlanta's upscale Buckhead neighborhood shows why commercial real estate is emerging as an obstacle to pulling the U.S. economy out of recession.
Separate developers in Buckhead are building four speculative office buildings at the same time with virtually no leasing activity. The 35 recent condominium projects will help give Atlanta a 40-year supply at the current sales pace. A $600 million outdoor shopping mall under way has suspended construction to save money.
....Canadian insurer Manulife Financial Corp. and Crescent Resources, a developer owned by Duke Energy Corp. and a unit of Morgan Stanley, was last. It launched Phipps Tower in March 2008, days before Bear Stearns Cos. collapsed. Regions Financial Corp., a Birmingham, Ala., bank, arranged the $95 million construction loan. A Regions spokesman declined to comment. Mr. Bell, at Cousins, was incredulous that Crescent and Manulife went ahead. "I threw up my hands. The world's gone crazy," he said."
It's safe to assume Mr. Thompson wasn't going to purchase Calle's condo, but the DWL-tendencies that she exercised in the last moments of her life - one that was devoted to understanding science -in not accepting a guards accompaniment (despite his melanin-enriched appearance), for she didn't want to be accused of engaging in the algebraic equations of Hate Facts.Would you like for me to escort him up?" the guard asked Calle, according to Meadows.
"No, it'll be fine," Calle responded. "I don't want him to think that we don't trust him.'
It's not clear whether Thompson seriously intended to buy a home in Aqua or had the money to do so. Meadows said he suspects Thompson wanted to case the condos for valuables and didn't realize beforehand that the first two were vacant.
Surveillance footage captured Thompson on camera, but he had given a fake name to the real estate agent, Meadows said. He had used his own cell phone to set up the condo viewings, however, and police subpoenaed his phone records.

Between 2004 and 2007, about two dozen condos in the seven-figure price range were sold, Palm said. But as more were built, those numbers grew and created a market of its own. Since 2007, nearly 80 condos have sold for more than $1 million. That figure may give builders the impression that sales are picking up, but Palm doesn’t read the data that way.
“The market now has more condos for sale at this price than have ever been sold at this price,” he said. “That just doesn’t make any sense in this housing market.”
Freeman said there have been about a dozen closed sales at the St. Regis, but he wouldn’t give a specific number, citing pending contracts that might be days or weeks from closing. Though the building’s structure is complete, most units’ interiors are still under construction.
Plans for many of these pricey condos were put into motion before the economy soured, making it too late to stop them when the housing market started to go south, developers say.
Atlanta-based Post Properties started The Ritz-Carlton Residences in Buckhead in 2006.
“The world has certainly changed,” said Jeffrey W. Harris, an executive vice president at Post. “Our pricing now is a reflection of the economy.”
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