By Carol A. Gasser Moore | COLQUITT COUNTY, Georgia — A heartbreaking death in south Georgia has led to the arrests of two Colquitt County residents in connection with the death of an 8-year-old boy, authorities confirmed this week. According to the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the child…
By Carol A. Gasser Moore | LANIER COUNTY, Georgia – Sheriff Nick Norton of Lanier County is defending his department’s increased patrols amid criticism from the county Board of Commissioners that his deputies are “patrolling too much” and making “too many stops.” Norton points to national security concerns tied to suspicious activity near critical infrastructure…
By Carol A. Gasser Moore | JACKSONVILLE, Leon County, Florida – A three-day coordinated effort across six Florida counties resulted in the recovery of 25 missing children, ranging in age from 7 to 17, authorities announced this week. The large-scale operation—described by organizers as “extraordinary”—was spearheaded by the National Child Protection Task Force and…
By Carol A. Gasser Moore | ATLANTA, Georgia — Proposed Medicaid reductions included in a recently passed federal budget bill could force the closure of up to 37 nursing homes in Georgia, according to a new study by Brown University’s School of Public Health. The bipartisan-funded analysis, requested by Senate Democrats, identified 579 facilities nationally…
By Carol A. Gasser Moore WASHINGTON, D.C. — A sweeping federal investigation into child exploitation on the dark web has ended in a crushing blow to some of the internet’s most vile networks, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday, July 23. Dubbed Operation Grayskull, the years-long investigation has led to the dismantling of four…
By Carol A. Moore | LANIER COUNTY, Georgia – Despite responding swiftly to the devastation of Hurricane Helene, Lanier County officials now find themselves battling a different kind of storm: a bureaucratic one with more than $1 million at stake. After submitting a request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Georgia Emergency Management…
By T.S. Carter | LANIER COUNTY, Georgia – Lanier County just had a more than quarter-century old firetruck delivered after buying it from a small North Carolina volunteer fire department. But just as county commissioners refused to give any information about the ill-fated purchase of a wildfire fighting fire truck for around $200,000 in 2023,…
By Carol A. Gasser Moore | GEORGIA – The Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) officially welcomed 43 new Juvenile Correctional Officers (JCOs) during a graduation ceremony held at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth. The ceremony marked the completion of an intensive training program and the beginning of a new chapter in…
By T.S. Carter | VALDOSTA, Lowndes County, Georgia – A July 13 spill of raw sewage into Valdosta’s Sugar Creek did not discharge the full 10,000 gallons of sewage that typically denotes a major spill. But the approximately 6,750 gallons that flowed into Sugar Creek after a by-pass pump failed left a major amount of…
By Carol A. Gasser Moore | LAKELAND, Lanier County, Georgia – The popular South Georgia restaurant Carter’s Fried Chicken has broken ground at its new location planned for Lakeland, the Lanier County seat, marking the latest chapter in the brand’s nearly 50-year history of serving up fresh, preservative-free Southern fare. Demolition of an old building…