Perdue speaks at school here at noon

Gov. Sonny Perdue is scheduled to be in Hinesville Friday around noon at the Savannah Technical College campus on Airport Road for a statewide business and housing expo. Liberty County is one of the six locations participating in the event, which is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Governor reportedly coming to Hinesville

Gov. Sonny Perdue is reportedly scheduled to visit Hinesville Friday at the Savannah Technical College campus on Airport Road.

Session disappoints local lawmaker

State Rep. Al Williams, D-Midway, didn't mince words when discussing the happenings - or lack thereof - at this year's state legislative session.

Roy Barnes enters race for governor

MARIETTA - Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes wants his old job back.

Barnes, who previously served just one term, made the announcement surrounded by family at a news conference Wednesday in Marietta. The Democrat says he wants to improve education and transportation and says he's learned from past mistakes.

Funding crisis looming for courts

ATLANTA - Georgia's top judge is weeks away from retiring, but first she must deal with a funding crisis that could bring the state's courts to a standstill.

Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears last week called Gov. Sonny Perdue's order to cut the funding for state agencies for the month of June "unconstitutional."

NCR bringing 2,000 jobs to state

ATLANTA - An ATM manufacturer is bringing 2,000 jobs to Georgia.

NCR Corporation is expected to announce plans to relocate its headquarters from Dayton, Ohio, at a news conference outside the capitol Tuesday. Gov. Sonny Perdue will be on hand to welcome the company to Georgia.

Justice strikes down Georgia voting rule

ATLANTA - The Justice Department has rejected Georgia's system of checking whether prospective voters are citizens, a process that became the subject of a federal lawsuit in the weeks leading up to November's election.

In a letter released on Monday, the Justice Department said the state's voter verification program is frequently inaccurate and has a "discriminatory effect" on minority voters in Georgia.

Puerto Rican gets 105 years for killing Savannah woman

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A Puerto Rico judge sentenced the son of a convicted killer to 105 years in prison Monday for the kidnapping, rape and murder of a pregnant Georgia tourist who made a desperate phone call to her fiance from the trunk of her assailant's car.

The judge imposed the sentence on Eliezer Marquez Navedo in a courtroom in Fajardo, the eastern coastal city where he ambushed Sara Kuszak in February while she jogged alone along a remote road. She was about five months pregnant.

Cuts to hit Fort Morris hard

The Department of Natural Resources has named Fort Morris Historic Site in Sunbury to a list of state sites that will be forced to reduce hours and services because of a recent 39 percent reduction in state funds and a 24 percent projected loss of revenue.

Murder suspect fights extradition to Georgia

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The lawyer for a 26-year-old man accused of fatally shooting two young men in Georgia said Wednesday he will fight extradition because he believes his client will not receive a fair trial in the southern U.S. state.

Michael Registe is accused of the July 20, 2007 execution-style killings of two college students in Columbus, Georgia's third-largest city. His St. Maarten-based attorney, Remco Stomp, claims he would not be treated fairly in Georgia's courts because he is black.

Budget woes keep museum empty

ATLANTA - Georgia hopes to turn the old World of Coca-Cola building into a fancy new state history museum, but the dire economy has put those plans on hold.

The state bought the building for $1 million after Coca-Cola left for a new museum two years ago. Gov. Sonny Perdue had tapped $15 million in his budget to renovate the site, which sits just a stone's throw from the state Capitol.

Fort Morris facing steep cuts

ATLANTA - Georgia's parks are being hit with steep budget cuts that will hike fees and cause some sites to reduce their hours just as the summmer recreation season gets underway.

The plan includes keeping the colonial-era Fort Morris at Sunbury closed most days of the week. We'll have more on how the cuts will hit the east Liberty County attraction in Friday's Courier and on the Web after that.

State reopens I-16

Monday morning, Georgia DOT crews reopened the I-16 westbound travel lanes beginning at US 441 following damage to the State Route 257 bridge near Dublin.

Truck wreck closes I-16

DUBLIN - The Georgia State Patrol says a tractor-trailer hauling a piece of equipment damaged an overpass on Interstate 16 West at Exit 49, forcing traffic to be diverted.

The Patrol said large chunks of concrete covered all of the westbound lanes Tuesday and officials said it likely will be months before the bridge is repaired.

Charleston cedes 'most mannerly' to Savannah

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - They've been rival Southern cities for 276 years, but Savannah and Charleston, S.C., aren't going to risk their courtly reputations by fighting over which one is "America's Most Mannerly City."

After a 12-year reign, Charleston officials have agreed with a survey's organizer that it has held the "Most Mannerly" title long enough, opting to cede it to its Colonial-era sister city on the Georgia coast.

Dredging of the Savannah River to port will benefit the whole state

The Georgia General Assembly is interested in the success of our port because of the economic impact it has on the state.

Cutting unemployment benefits reduces unemployment, study shows

A study sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research claims that the elimination of the federal unemployment benefit program in 2014 resulted in 1.8 million new jobs that year, suggesting that offering unemployment benefits can slow job growth.

Can tourism end poverty in the most remote place in the world?

Bo White has done a lot of treks. Between a career in international development and a love for climbing and hiking, the 31-year-old has been all over the world. But nowhere quite like the Pamir.

Premium users of LinkedIn to receive $1 each in password-leak settlement

To settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged LinkedIn failed to protect the passwords and private information of its premium subscriber customers, the company has agreed to pay $1.25 — or about $1 each — million to approximately 800,000 people who were premium users of the social media network between March 2006 and June 2012.

Education, not harsh penalties, a more effective solution for teen sexting

At least once a week, Det. Rich Wistocki or one of his officers sits down with a teen caught sexting and lays out a series of consequences.

Budgeting dominates state Senate

This week, the Georgia Senate was busy as we debated several important pieces of legislation.

Court ruling helps balance between Congress, president

Last week in Texas, U.S. Judge Andrew S. Hanen ordered a halt to President Obama's executive actions on immigration, agreeing with Georgia and 25 other states that filed a lawsuit opposing the president's attempt to rewrite our immigration system. This is a welcome announcement.

Is growing income inequity hurting Social Security?

As America recovers from the recession, wealthy households are recovering faster than low-income ones, whose incomes have stagnated or declined since the crash. A new report says that this widening gap is sapping Social Security.

The income gap between blacks and whites is highest since 1989

Even as Americans acknowledge gains in racial equality, new research shows that by at least one measure — financial — the U.S. still has a long way to go.

Helping the long-term unemployed?

Gallup CEO Jim Clifton made headlines last week when he published an op-ed calling attention to a problem that most people don't know: Unemployment numbers are grossly misleading.

This high school student raised $700,000 for clean water

For her senior project, Paige Dellerman knew that she wanted to use her love of fashion to raise money for a cause close to her heart — clean water.

‘Free Killer Tan’ PSA shocks would-be tanners with their own funeral

NEW YORK CITY — “It’s just as safe as the sun.”

Transportation funding bill keeps changing

House Bill 170, which would change the way Georgia funds highway projects, is a moving target.

President welcomes new defense secretary

WASHINGTON -- Ash Carter, a former deputy defense secretary who today received a 93-5 affirmative vote by the U.S. Senate to succeed Chuck Hagel as defense secretary, received a welcome back and praise from President Barack Obama.

Religious organizations disagree on economic priorities

After President Barack Obama issued his 2015 Budget Proposal last month, Bread for the World, a Christian nonprofit seeking to end world hunger, wrote that the spending plan's details were important to the belief systems of people everywhere.