Archive By Section - State, National News

Texting while driving ban to be enforced

ATLANTA - Got a quick message you want to send to a friend or a family member? Starting today, it may cost you if you text that message while you are driving down a Georgia road. That's when the Georgia State Patrol will begin ticketing people caught texting while driving. Even people sending a quick message while stopped at a traffic light or in a turn lane will receive a ticket. A month after the ...

Hinesville man wins $100K

ATLANTA - A Hinesville man who acted on a hunch recently when he bought a lottery ticket is certainly glad he followed his instinct. Bernard Buono, 70, won a $100,000 top prize playing the new Georgia Lottery game Instant KENO!

Missing man's death ruled homocide

SPRINGFIELD - An Effingham County man's death has been ruled a homicide months after his skeletal remains turned up in a field. Effingham sheriff's spokesman David Ehsanipoor says Georgia Bureau of Investigation autopsy results show Robert Mack died from unspecified trauma.

Officer fired after molestation charges

RINCON - A 34-year-old Chatham County corrections officer has been fired after he was charged with child molestation Monday. Rincon police arrested James Jackson Brown at a local home. Rincon police Chief Mike Bohannon says the arrest followed an ongoing investigation.

More state budget cuts being reported

ATLANTA - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says Gov. Sonny Perdue is ordering more budget cuts by state agencies because some federal stimulus money appropriations are stalled in Congress. The governor's office told the newspaper the 4 percent cuts would reduce state spending by about $25 million a month.

Lab backlog slowing Brunswick beating case

BRUNSWICK - A prosecutor says a backlog at the state crime lab is slowing analysis of evidence collected in the beating deaths of eight people last year at a mobile home in Brunswick. Acting District Attorney David Perry told a judge Thursday that blood, DNA and fiber evidence and surveillance video tapes remain to be analyzed before being turned over to attorneys for Guy Heinze Jr., who is charged with killing his father and seven others.

What effect will oil spill have here?

ATLANTA - Sen. Buddy Carter, R-Pooler, has been appointed to the Senate Special Committee on Coastal Preparedness.

More GOP votes cast than Democrats for first time in Georgia

ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia voters cast more Republican than Democratic ballots in Tuesday's primary for the first time in state history, a difference of 285,000 votes. GOP ballots outpaced Democratic ones by a margin of about 3-to-2, according to unofficial returns. (63 percent to 37 percent). Overall, about 1.1 million Georgians - or 22 percent of active registered voters - cast ballots in the gubernatorial contest, which drew the most votes, according to unofficial returns.

Hinesville man killed in Afghanistan

Like many Hinesville families with ties to Fort Stewart, fallen soldier Staff Sgt. Sheldon Tate's parents moved here, moved away and came back again.

Statewide voting results, updated often

Elderly couple die trapped in elevator

ST. SIMONS ISLAND - When the elevator in their home got stuck between floors, Sherwood and Caroline Wadsworth found themselves trapped with no way to call for help as temperatures rose into the 90s. They finally died from heat exhaustion in the closet-sized lift. Autopsies on the elderly couple - he was 90, she was 89 - on Thursday pointed to a tragic end to lives they shared for more than 60 years. Police estimated ...

12-year-old pleads to robbery charge

SAVANNAH - A 12-year-old boy pleaded guilty to armed robbery in the holdup of a Papa John's Pizza delivery man in Savannah. The boy, who entered the guilty plea on Wednesday to the June 30 robbery, will be sentenced by Chatham County Juvenile Court Judge Patricia Stone at a hearing later. For the time being he will be held at the Savannah Regional Youth Detention Center.

Cap on Gulf oil well seems to be holding

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - BP was encouraged early Friday by results from an experimental cap shutting in oil from its busted Gulf of Mexico well, saying everything was holding steady 17 hours into the effort. BP vice president Kent Wells said on a conference call that there was no evidence of a leak in the pipe under the sea floor, one of the main concerns. Wells spoke 17 hours after valves were shut to trap oil inside the cap, a test that could last up to 48 hours.

Poll gives Barnes, Oxendine leads

ATLANTA (AP) - Former governor Roy Barnes holds a big lead in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor of Georgia, while the Republican race is likely headed to a runoff, according to a poll reported Thursday.

Gov. candidate profile Roy Barnes

ATLANTA - Maybe it's a bid for redemption. Or an act of atonement. Or, as former Gov. Roy Barnes says, maybe he is again seeking his old office out of a sense that if he didn't take on Georgia's most pressing problems, no one else would.