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.
SC motorcyclist dies fleeing cops
CAMDEN, S.C. — Authorities say a motorcyclist traveling at speeds of more than 100 mph died in a crash near Camden as he fled Kershaw County deputies.
Kershaw County coroner Johnny Fellers told The State newspaper that the man killed is 41-year-old Boyd Outlaw, who lived in the Camden area.
Fellers say the motorcyclist was “doing triple digits” when the accident occurred as Outlaw fled authorities.
Art in the Park draws crowd to Columbia County amphittheater
Nicole Broadway seemed oblivious to the blue and purple chalk dust that covered nearly every inch of her as she intently blended and brushed and blended again the chalk lines in her rendering of James Bond.
From 11:15 a.m. until nearly 5 p.m., she worked on her entry in the Art in the Park sidewalk art contest Saturday.
Father and daugther die in fire Aiken authorities labeling 'suspicious'
A father and daughter died after a fire the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office suspect is an arson.
About 10 a.m. Saturday, a passing motorist reported a house on fire at 331 Old Tory Road in Montmorenci, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
A 2-year-old girl, whose name has not been released, was found dead inside the residence after the fire had been extinguished. Her father, Dunkan Baker, 28, was taken to Doctors Hospital, where he died about 3 p.m., according to Aiken County Coroner Tim Carlton.
Police looking for couple in storage unit break-in
Authorities are looking for a woman and a man they say burglarized a storage unit on Stevens Creek Road.
An arrest warrant for burglary in the second degree has been issued for Cindy Turner Rau, 42, for a break-in at a Riverwatch Self Storage facility at 922 Stevens Creek Road. She, and an unidentified man broke into and removed items from the storage unit, according to a Richmond County Sheriff’s Office release.
Rau and the man were last seen in a dark colored GMC pickup. Investigator Scott Herring can be contacted at (706) 821-1080.
Mason announces plans to run for mayor
Augusta Commissioner Alvin Mason announced his intention to run for mayor in 2014 at his District 4 quarterly breakfast Saturday.
Mason won reelection to his second four-year term for the District 4 seat in 2010 and has been selected mayor pro tem twice. After winning two consecutive terms to the commission, Mason is not eligible to run for re-election.
Most downtown crime occurs after midnight
How safe are visitors to downtown Augusta? It depends on when they visit and where they go.
Those who stay out after midnight are more likely to run into trouble.
Reports of crime increase almost fivefold between midnight and 3 a.m., according to crime reports compiled by The Augusta Chronicle.
“I think downtown is safe, but you have to be cautious,” Richmond County sheriff’s Capt. Scott Gay said. “If it’s normal business hours, I think it’s a safe place to be.”
2 suspects in downtown assaults waive extradition, await return to Augusta
Two suspects arrested in connection with two recent downtown assaults have waived extradition and are awaiting their return to Augusta after being arrested Friday night in Newberry, S.C.
Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree said Robbey Eugene Moses, 21, of Lumpkin Road, was involved in the May 2 robbery of a man as he left a Broad Street bar and a May 3 attack on Riverwalk Augusta that injured two people. He will be charged with aggravated assault and robbery by force in both incidents.
Man arrested in Riverwalk mugging
A second alleged assailant in the Riverwalk Augusta mugging of a couple May 3 has been arrested and is also being identified in connection with the assault and robbery of man leaving a Broad Street pub the night before.
Robey Moses is being charged with two counts of robbery by force and aggravated assault after Richmond County authorities said he and another suspect, identified Thursday as Kevin D. Richardson, attacked and robbed Wesley Spires and Ashley Solesbee at about 11 p.m. on May 3 while they sat on a bench near the former Fort Discovery on Riverwalk.
Friends, family remember Dukes as 'miraculous person'
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misidentified Emma Gresham.
Zadel Dukes was a miraculous person who defied science, served many young people and loved her church.
She lived with a ruptured aorta for two years before passing away at University Hospital May 4 at the age of 83, said her niece, Lola Russell.
Dukes was born in Millen, Ga., on Aug. 13, 1929, the eldest of Paul and Julia Jones’ five daughters.
Augusta-area team hopes robot will win NASA prize
Chris Williamson is hoping an idea conceived in the Augusta area will be worth $1.5 million to NASA.
The Graniteville resident and his SpacePRIDE team are building two autonomous rover robots that have the capability to collect samples in space.
The robots will compete against those built by 13 other teams across the U.S. for a $1.5 million prize in NASA’s second Sample Return Robot Challenge, which will be held at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Texas, in June.
Huckaby to speak at chamber breakfast
The chancellor of the Georgia Board of Regents will be the speaker for the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce breakfast Wednesday, and organizers are hoping recent GRU controversies don’t overshadow his visit.
Henry “Hank” Huckaby, entering his second year as chancellor of the state’s 31 public colleges and universities, is instead expected to discuss issues of higher education relevant to the chamber’s business-minded members, said the chamber’s president and CEO, Tammy Shepherd.
Nearly 900 first to get GRU degree
She has already spent 25 years in health care, including 10 years as a registered nurse, but on Friday Erica Albea was brand new – she became the first person to be handed a diploma from Georgia Regents University.
“I feel honored,” she said, clutching the tube that held her Bachelor of Science in Nursing after crossing the stage at James Brown Arena.
Software issues led to Friday's late papers
Sometimes, things don’t go as planned.
And when they don’t, we really know how much The Augusta Chronicle means to you – by your phone calls, by your e-mails, by the sight of our friends and neighbors standing in their driveways, looking for their papers.
And when things don’t go as planned, you deserve both an explanation and an apology.
