High school football games wouldn’t be the same without dazzling half-time performances by marching bands.

Spectators sing, clap and dance along with the tunes, but few understand how much effort goes into that 8-minute show.

“It is a lot of work,” Lakeside High School Band Director Jim Tau said. “Unless you’ve been in a band, you have no idea what all goes into that.”

Every drum beat, every flash of the brass instruments, every note and every heeled turn is methodically planned and practiced.

Cellphone users can now receive emergency alerts – Wireless Emergency Alert messages – on their mobile phones.

The WEA program is a partnership between wireless carriers, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Through the system, authorized agencies can send emergency messages to cellphone users.

“I’m not sure if there’s a perfect way to reach everyone, but most people have a wireless device,” said Tom Martin, the Public Affairs manager for the CTIA, the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry.

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A judge refused to grant a bond for the oldest adopted daughter of former Columbia County Commissioner Scott Dean, convicted of child molestation last year, at a Tuesday hearing.

Marlin Azucena Dean, 19, of Ansley Court in Augusta, was arrested July 21 in Harlem. She’s accused of stealing jewelry from her adoptive mother, Renee Meyer Dean.

“She poses a significant risk of flight,” Associate Magistrate Judge Jason R. Troiano said at the preliminary hearing.

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The trial of a Martinez woman charged in the 2009 death of a toddler she was baby-sitting ended in a mistrial Saturday.

The trial of Lawanda Concettes Tripp, 41, started Monday. Tripp is charged with murder in the death of 22-month-old Teaira Michele Hall, who was in Tripp’s care when she died on Nov. 15, 2009, from head injuries.

Superior Court Judge Michael N. Annis declared a mistrial Saturday evening after the jurors announced they were deadlocked after more than 11 hours of deliberations.