ATLANTA (USA Today) -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recently had lab mishaps involving some of the world's most dangerous pathogens, does "inadequate" training, lacks leadership commitment toward safety and has a significant percentage of staff who are afraid to report accidents, according to the agency's own safety advisers.

"We are very concerned that the CDC is on the way to losing credibility," wrote the group of external biosafety experts, appointed by the agency as advisers in the wake of high-profile accidents with anthrax and bird flu last year. "The CDC must not see itself as 'special'.CQ/Punctuation as written in their report. The internal controls and rules that the rest of the world works under also apply to CDC."

ATLANTA -- Registered voters living in the City of Atlanta are reminded to cast their ballots for the City of Atlanta special election at their designated precinct on Tuesday, Mar. 17 to vote for infrastructure bond referendums to pay for repairs and improvements.

“Registered voters should verify their voting precinct and poll location before election day,” said Richard Barron, Director of Fulton County Registration and Elections. “They should check their registration card to make sure they know where to vote on March 17.”

(WXIA) -- Metro Atlanta's unemployment rate climbed to 6.2 percent in January.

That's up from December's 6.0 percent, but considerably lower than the 7.1 percent in January 2014.

DeKalb County's unemployment rate was 6.6 percent this January.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said the rate increased because of the loss of about 35,100 jobs, mostly seasonal positions.

But the Atlanta area had the largest January-to-January job growth ever recorded, adding 104,400 jobs over the course of the year.

The metropolitan Atlanta area consists of 29 counties, including the recently added Morgan County.

Metro Gainesville had January's lowest jobless rate, at 5.2 percent. The Heart of Georgia-Altamaha region had the highest, at 8.3 percent.