Officials make pleas to legislators  LAWRENCEVILLE -- With
unemployment at an all-time high, civic and business leaders
Thursday tried to convince legislators to invest in water,
education, transportation and economic development initiatives
in the upcoming session of the General Assembly.  Pleas came
from the local K-12 school system, colleges, hospital and more,
during a Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce event to kick off Monday's
session.  Aware of lawmakers' upcoming task of trimming at least
$1 billion more from an already tightened budget, Gwinnett
Public Schools Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks stressed that if
money is cut that the system would like the opportunity to be
flexible in how that is done.  Others made tempered petitions
for more funding, but Sen. Don Balfour said after the event that
those requests aren't likely going to be fulfilled.  "There's a
lot of great programs and a lot of great needs, but we don't
have more money, we have less money," the Republican from
Snellville said. "We're going t