ATLANTA -- The over-burdened, beleagured Atlanta Public Schools are now saddled with more than $1 million per month in salaries being paid to 130 teachers connected with the CRCT cheating scandal. Those teachers have been placed on leave with pay.

Interim Superintendent Erroll Davis, Jr., says the teachers will remain off work but will receive their full pay while their cases are under official review.

The school system was already over budget to the tune of $20 million in instructional costs for the 2010-2011 school year.

Davis says $14 million of that overage was covered by stimulus funds and budget cuts, but the school system was left with $6 million to make up in the upcoming school year.

ATLANTA -- Weekend roadwork will cause some backups around Metro Atlanta this weekend. We've got your homefield advantage with ways to get around the mess.

DeKalb

I-20 WB at MP 67.0 (I-285 NB/Exit Ramp)
3 am - 8 am Sat
1 right lane

I-20 Westbound Alternate: Exit onto Wesley Chapel Road (Exit 68) and turn right. Follow Wesley Chapel Road to to Covington Hwy and turn left. Follow Covington Hwy to Glenwood Road and turn left. Follow Glenwood Road to I-285 Northbound.

I-285 WB from Chamblee Tucker Rd (Exit 34) to Ashford Dunwoody Rd (Exit 29)
9 pm Fri - 5 am Mon
2 left lanes

The Atlanta Fire Department says the recall of thousands of defective smoke alarms handed out by firefighters is taking much longer than anticipated.

So far, the department has replaced 877 faulty fire alarms. But that's just a small fraction of the 18, 507 smoke detectors the department distributed in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods.

"The fact that all of those counterfeit smoke detectors are still in the community is a big concern to the department," said Capt. Jolyon Bundrige.

At the current pace, the fire department would need five years or more to replace all of the counterfeit smoke detectors. A spokesman for the department say they had hoped to complete the recall in a maximum of three years.