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(AP) -- EXECUTION DELAYED
    Pardon board delays execution
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has
delayed next week's execution of Melbert Ray Ford because a spot on
the five-member clemency panel hasn't been filled.
    Ford was set to die by lethal injection on Feb. 23 for killing
his former girlfriend and another woman in a 1986 robbery at a
Newton County grocery store. On Thursday, the pardon board issued a
90-day stay.
    Gov. Sonny Perdue hasn't replaced Milton "Buddy" Nix, whose
term expired at the end of 2009. Officials at the pardons board say
the courts have previously held that a clemency consideration by a
board of four members in a death case violates the state
constitution. The court ordered the execution stayed until a fifth
member was appointed.
    A spokesman for Perdue said they were in the process of filling
the vacancy.
   
VALENTINE'S DAY BEATING
    Man beaten during Valentine's Day confrontation
   
    POOLER, GA  (AP) - Pooler police have arrested two women and a
33-year-old man is recovering from cuts and scrapes after a former
lover burst into a Waffle House during a Valentine's Day outing and
beat the man with her high-heel.
    Police charged 29-year-old Kenya White and 32-year-old Marrisha
White with battery and criminal damage to private property
following the incident.
    According to a police report, officers reporting to Waffle House
along U.S. 80 found an unidentified victim suffered cuts and
scrapes on his face that appeared to be made by the "spiked heel
from a shoe."
    The victim told officers that he and his girlfriend were at a
booth when a pair of sisters - one of whom is the mother of his
children - came in and sparked an argument.
   
RUNAWAY ZEBRA ATLANTA
    Police capture escaped zebra in downtown Atlanta
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - A circus zebra escaped and led police on a chase
through downtown Atlanta Thursday before being captured along an
interstate.
    Rush hour traffic came to a standstill as Atlanta police
attempted to corral the animal, spotted by witnesses near the Sam
Nun Federal Building, near Centennial Olympic Park, and CNN before
it was captured along the downtown connector.
    Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus is in town. The
circus also had a group of elephants corralled in a parking lot in
downtown Atlanta Thursday.
   
FOOTBALL PLAYER KILLED
    GA prep star killed; was to play at Vanderbilt
   
    POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. (AP) - Police in Georgia say a standout high
school football star who had been signed to play at Vanderbilt has
been shot to death by his mother's ex-boyfriend.
    Powder Springs Lt. Matt Boyd says officers heard gunshots as
they arrived at a home early Thursday. Inside they found the body
of 18-year-old Rajaan Bennett, a running back at McEachern High
School.
    Boyd says 39-year-old Clifton Steger of Milledgeville shot
Bennett and then killed himself. A third person, 32-year-old Taiwan
Hunter, was wounded and was reported in critical condition after
surgery.
    Vanderbilt football coach Bobby Johnson called Bennett "an
extraordinary young man."
   
GEORGIA FRAUD CHARGES
    1 arrested in $25 million credit card scheme
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Federal agents have arrested a Marietta man
believed responsible for a nationwide telemarketing scheme that
defrauded consumers out of $25 million.
    Authorities say Jason James Eyer voluntarily surrendered at
Atlanta's airport Thursday after arriving from the Philippines. He
was indicted Jan. 5 along with two others, Kara Singleton Adams,
and James A. Schoenholz, also of Marietta.
    Authorities say they worked through an array of companies,
including Economic Relief Technologies and SafeRide Warranty.
    Prosecutors say the three would promise through telemarketing to
save customers thousands of dollars by negotiating lower credit
card rates for a fee of at least $749. Authorities say in an
affidavit that the three would rarely follow through.
   
ACCIDENTAL SHOOTING SENTENCE
    Elko man gets probation in accidental shooting
   
    WARNER ROBINS, GA  (AP) - An Elko man has been sentenced to 10
years probation for the accidental shooting death of his best
friend last summer.
    Houston County Chief Assistant District Attorney Jason Ashford
says 48-year-old Garell White was sentenced Wednesday after
pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct in
the June 30, 2009, death of 77-year-old Luke Jackson Jr.
    Judge Katherine K. Lumsden also required White to attend 90
Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 90 days and submit to electronic
monitoring, which can detect alcohol consumption through the skin,
for 90 days.
    Jackson was shot once in the thigh about lunchtime June 30, in
the yard of his home near Warner Robins.
    Ashford says authorities determined White was handling a loaded
gun while drinking.
   
LOBBYISTS-RALSTON
    Ralston: No lobbyists on the House floor
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - House Speaker David Ralston issued a stern
reminder to legislators: no registered lobbyists allowed on the
House floor.
    Ralston said a lobbyist had recently been admitted to the
chamber, which violates House rules while legislators are meeting.
Ralston said he would take a "very dim view" of any lawmaker who
brings a lobbyist onto the House floor or in the chamber's
anteroom.
    The House recently loosened floor access rules to allow the
media back on the House floor. Ralston noted that did not apply to
lobbyists.
    Ethics and lobbying have been hot topics this legislative
session. Ralston became speaker in January after his predecessor,
Glenn Richardson, was forced to step down amid allegations of an
affair with a utility lobbyist.
   
SCHOOL VOUCHERS
    GA school voucher bill moves past committee
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - A bill that would expand the state's limited
school voucher program to include military families and foster care
children has cleared a hurdle in the Georgia Senate.
    The Senate education committee approved the measure Thursday in
a 5-2 vote. The bill, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Chip
Rogers, a Woodstock Republican, will now go the full state Senate
for a vote.
    The bill would use taxpayer money to send the students to the
school of their choice, including private schools. The state
already gives such vouchers to special-needs students under a
program started in 2007.
    Just six states and Washington, D.C., have voucher programs for
low-income or special-needs students.
   
WEED BUST
    Officials seize half ton of marijuana
   
    CONYERS, GA (AP) - Rockdale County authorities have seized more
than 1,000 pounds of marijuana valued at more than half a million
dollars during a traffic stop.
    Rockdale County Sheriffs officials say a sheriff's deputy
stopped a Toyota Tundra pickup truck traveling on Interstate 20
westbound near the DeKalb County line for a traffic violation on
Feb. 13. The unidentified driver was placed under arrest after he
was unable to provide a valid driver's license, according to
investigators.
    A K-9 dog searched the vehicle and alerted the deputy to several
trash bags of marijuana with a street value of up to $700,000.
    ---
    Information from: WSB-TV, http://www.wsbtv.com/index.html
   
EX-DEPUTY-CHILD PORN
    Former deputy sentenced on child porn charges
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - A former Forsyth County sheriff's deputy will
spend more than eight years in federal prison for multiple uses of
child pornography.
    U.S. District Judge William O'Kelley sentenced Milton Scott
Pruitt to eight years and two months for receiving and possessing
child pornography Thursday. The 41-year-old also will have 10 years
of supervised release.
    Authorities arrested Pruitt in 2007 after an employee in Forsyth
County's information technology department discovered 10 images of
young children engaged in sexually explicit conduct on the laptop
computer in Pruitt's patrol car.
    Authorities later found Pruitt's home computer contained more
than 100 images of child pornography as well as Internet searches
for the photos.

(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)