Robbery suspects could return to face charges today
Two suspects arrested in South Carolina in connection with two recent downtown assaults will likely return Tuesday to face charges in Augusta, police said.
Chambliss seeks to declassify Benghazi e-mails
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss said on Monday that he plans to ask the CIA to declassify all e-mails surrounding the Benghazi, Libya, attacks in an attempt to make the investigation into last year’s assault a national security issue and not a “political exercise.”
Chambliss’ announcement comes a week after leaked e-mails showed that State Department leaders suggested changes to the official talking points crafted for the Sept. 11 incident, including the deletion of mentions of specific terrorist groups.
Criminals file phony tax forms and grab returns
Criminals are outwitting the Internal Revenue Service by filing tax returns before the legitimate taxpayers can and reaping thousands of dollars in wrongful refunds.
Using stolen Social Security numbers and their corresponding names and birth dates, the criminals – some of them convicted felons – have electronically filed hundreds of false returns with made-up incomes and withholding information, said Sgt. Randy Hayes, of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office’s Technical Crimes Division.
New owners official for GreenJackets
The Augusta GreenJackets officially announced their new ownership group Monday, marking the beginning of a new era in the team’s history.
Agon Sports & Entertainment officially became the new ownership group, purchasing the team from Ripken Baseball, which owned the club for seven years.
2 charged in Lincolnton gunplay
Two Warrenton, Ga., brothers have been charged after shots were fired Saturday at an American Legion post in Lincolnton.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office was called at 12.14 a.m. to the post at 1070 Thomas Lane Post Road after shots were fired at a party for teenagers. Witnesses told police that the shots came from a red Ford as it left the parking lot.
Police later responded to a fight at a fast-food restaurant parking lot, where an officer saw a man discarding a pistol after removing it from a Ford matching the one seen at the shooting.
Body found, foul play not suspected
Richmond County Coroner Grover Tuten said he doesn’t suspect foul play in a body discovered Friday in a vehicle off Washington Road.
The body of Dayton Counsell, 21, could have been in the Washington Square parking lot for several days before being discovered.
An autopsy is pending.
Prison term imposed for shooting case
A Hephzibah man accused of taking part in the shooting of two people pleaded guilty Monday in Richmond County Superior Court.
Brandon E. Leverett, 23, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, followed by five years on probation, by Judge J. David Roper.
Leverett, Marcus D. Adams, 22, and Derrick Barbour, 23, were indicted together on two counts of aggravated assault and weapon charges in the Jan. 14, 2011, shooting of Thomas Dyson and Jayrin Williams. Charges against the other men are pending.
Attack on ex-girlfriend results in prison term
An Augusta man charged with rape pleaded guilty to reduced charges Monday and received a three-year prison sentence.
Dejonnerio T. Holder, 30, must serve an additional seven years on probation after he completes the prison sentence, Judge J. Wade Padgett ordered Monday in Richmond County Superior Court.
Dolores Robinson, the Augusta Humane Society president, dies at 75
When the phone rang in the middle of the night, Dolores Robinson didn’t think twice about hopping out of bed to rescue a dog or cat stranded on the roadside.
Robinson, 75, the president of the Augusta Humane Society Inc. for the past 20 years, died Friday.
The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Thursday in the chapel of First Baptist Church. Burial will be in Westover Memorial Park.
“She was the ultimate giver,” said Steven Fishman, the CEO of the humane society, who knew Robinson since he was a child.
Open house for River Watch Parkway extension Tuesday
The extension of River Watch Parkway is expected to cause a monthlong detour that could affect the commute for Columbia County residents.
The Georgia Department of Transportation is holding an open house today about the detour for the road project.
GDOT spokeswoman Cissy McNure said it is not known when the detour will begin.
The department will take bids for the project beginning in October.
Augusta man dies from motorcycle injury
An Augusta man died during the weekend after losing control of his motorcycle near Gordon Highway last Thursday.
Richmond County Coroner Grover Tuten said Kevin Ports, 41, was pronounced dead at Georgia Regents Medical Center about 9 p.m. Sunday from a pulmonary embolism because of blunt-force trauma.
Police said Ports was traveling east on Gordon Highway about 2 a.m. Thursday when he accelerated at a high speed onto Milledgeville Road.
2 sought in package store holdup
Police are searching for two people who robbed a Windsor Spring Road package shop on Friday.
According to police, two black men in hooded sweatshirts entered Windsor Package Shop, 4108 Windsor Spring Road, around 3 p.m. and demanded the owner get on the floor while they took an undisclosed amount of cash.
Witnesses saw them leave in a green Ford Explorer or Mercury Mountaineer.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office at (706) 821-1020 or (706) 821-1080.
Fatal Aiken fire set by arsonist, investigators say
A Montmorenci house fire that killed an Aiken County man and his 2-year-old daughter was purposely set by an arsonist who lit the home ablaze in “multiple areas,” investigators said Sunday.
The torching of the two-story house at 331 Old Tory Trail on Saturday had “multiple areas of origin” and “no accidental means of ignition,” according to the initial findings of an arson investigation on the home led by the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office.
Social media increasingly important for military families
She detailed her pregnancy, with her husband a world away. She diagnosed sudden spells of dizziness. She wrote of the challenges of keeping a budget while attending school.
But mostly, Shayla Bowling – a proud Fort Gordon Army wife – has relayed the complexity of life as a military spouse, tending to a home with two young children, with a husband summoned for repeated deployments.
“My husband has been in the military four years,” Bowling said. “When he first deployed in 2009, I started blogging.”
Coroner frustrated with long wait time for autopsy reports
Four months or more is too long to wait for the complete results of an autopsy of a dead body, said Richmond County Coroner Grover Tuten.
Because of a backlog at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab in Atlanta, Tuten said he waits 20 to 26 weeks to get the final report of an autopsy.
“It’s ridiculous. Completely ridiculous,” Tuten said.
Aimee Copeland getting bionic hands
A close call with death didn’t break Aimee Copeland. Her spirit barely bent.
One year after losing her left leg, right foot and both hands to a devastating bacterial infection, the Snellville, Ga., resident said her academic background in psychology and a strong spiritual grounding helped her face the infection that almost took her life.
“Having that confrontation with death was very important to me,” Copeland said last week by phone. “I have very few fears at this point.”
Analysis: Voting trend cheers Democrats
ATLANTA -- Adding to the Democrats’ delight and the Republicans’ woes is new data showing the voter-turnout trends are tipping the partisan balance.
Since President Barack Obama’s November re-election, party operatives have talked about how demographics changes are challenging the Republican Party, nationally and in Georgia. The voters in the Democrats’ corner, such as blacks and other ethnic minorities, are growing faster than the whites the GOP relies on.
Higher birth rates and in-migration rates tell the story.
Mother's Day special for new Paine grad
Jennifer Link never thought she would see the day that she would walk across the stage as a college graduate.
The mother of two started college twice before, but said she bowed out, feeling as if she wasn’t mature enough to continue.
Her mother wasn’t so sure.
“Her first day of kindergarten, I went and picked her up from school and she said, ‘Mom, been there, done that and I don’t ever want to go back,’” recalled Christine Wages, Jennifer Link’s mother. “I wasn’t ever sure that she would graduate from college.”
Atlanta airport drug dog bit her, woman says
ATLANTA — The Transportation Security Administration says it is reviewing claims that a bomb-sniffing dog bit a woman at the Atlanta airport.
Susan Dubitsky of Rome says she and her husband were waiting for her sister at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport when the dog bit her on May 2.
Dubitsky says an Atlanta police officer was with the animal, which bit her on the stomach. She says the dog lunged at her a second time when the officer came back to check on her.
Ga. teen killed playing 'chicken' with train
ROME, Ga. — A teenager died while playing a game of chicken with a freight train early Sunday, police said.
Malik Cortez Johnson, 17, of Rome was playing on train tracks with five or six friends who were lying on the tracks and daring each other to jump off at the last minute as a train approached.
Authorities said all the youth got off the tracks except Johnson, who was killed.
“He waited too late it and it kind of sucked him back in,” said police Lt. John Walters.
