Latest news, weather and high school sports for Albany and Southwest Georgia

(AP) -- ATLANTA MAYOR
    Kasim Reed takes office as Atlanta's 59th mayor
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Former Georgia state Sen. Kasim Reed was sworn in
as Atlanta's 59th mayor on Monday, a month after he overcame early
low poll numbers to win a runoff.
    Reed replaces two-term mayor Shirley Franklin, who had to step
down because of term limits.
    In the runoff, Reed beat city councilwoman Mary Norwood, who
would have been the mostly black city's first white mayor in a
generation.
    Reed says his first priority will be to find money to hire more
police officers. He says his administration also will crack down on
aggressive panhandling.
    The mayor's office is a nonpartisan post, so neither candidate
declared a party in the race.
   
SECRETARY OF STATE
    Perdue taps Kemp as secretary of state
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Gov. Sonny Perdue has tapped former state Sen.
Brian Kemp to be Georgia's next secretary of state.
    Kemp, a Republican from Athens, will serve out the remaining
year of Karen Handel's term. He had already announced that he was
running for a full four-year term as the state's top elections
official.
    Handel announced last month that she was leaving to concentrate
on her bid to become the GOP nominee for governor. That cleared the
way for Perdue to appoint a replacement.
    Perdue had been expected to tap state Rep. Jim Cole, a Forsyth
Republican, for the job. But Cole took his name out of
consideration.
    Kemp ran unsuccessfully for the nomination for agriculture
commissioner in 2006. He served in the Senate from 2002-2006.
   
COLD SNAP
    Brrrr! Cold snap in Georgia to last this week
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Better keep those gloves and scarves handy.
    Forecasters say the cold snap that has hit Georgia is going to
hang around until at least the end of the week. Snow is possible
Thursday and Friday, along with freezing rain.
    Southbound lanes of I-575 around the Cherokee-Pickens County
line were closed Monday morning after water used to put out a
vehicle fire turned to ice.
    The high Monday will be 32, with lows in the teens. The pattern
will continue for most of the week. Some Atlanta suburbs could see
overnight temperatures in the single digits.
    The cold temperatures will be coupled with wind gusts of up to
25 mph, making it feel colder than it is outside.
    The normal high for early January is 50 to 52 degrees.
   
GEORGIA SLAYINGS
    GBI investigating possible links in 3 slayings
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia investigators are looking into whether
three recent slayings might be linked.
    Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said
Monday that the deaths of three people who were found slain in
their vehicles within the last week could be related.
    The body of 44-year-old Alvin Hall, of Atlanta, was found in his
burning vehicle in Newton County on Wednesday. The body of
30-year-old D'Anta Williams was found in the trunk of a car in a
southwest Atlanta park on Saturday.
    And on Sunday the body of 26-year-old Dewayne Louder was found
in a car in Troup County. Bankhead said Louder was shot several
times after being kidnapped from his home in Greenville, Ga. by
multiple gunmen.
    No arrests have been made in the killings and Bankhead urged
those with information to call the GBI tip line at 1-800-597-8477.
   
US--OBAMA EFFIGY-PLAINS
    Feds probe Obama effigy in Jimmy Carter's hometown
   
    PLAINS, Ga. (AP) - The mayor of former President Jimmy Carter's
hometown says the city acted immediately to remove an effigy of
President Barack Obama that was found hanging from a building.
    Mayor L.E. Godwin III said Monday he was shocked when the large
black doll was found Saturday morning on Main Street in the small
Georgia town.
    U.S. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan says the agency is
investigating. He declined to elaborate.
    Footage from WALB-TV showed the doll hanging by a noose in front
of an official sign that says "Plains, Georgia. Home of Jimmy
Carter, our 39th President."
    A witness told the television station that the doll wore a sign
with Obama's name on it.
    Godwin says he couldn't read the sign on the doll because it was
curled up.
   
CENSUS KICKOFF
    Census Bureau begins local awareness road tour
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - The Census Bureau plans to kick off its Atlanta
Regional Road Tour to increase awareness of the 2010 count.
    The civic outreach and awareness campaign starts Monday at the
Five Points MARTA station in downtown Atlanta. With stops planned
in Georgia, Florida and Alabama, it is one of 13 regional road
tours being held across the country to raise the profile of the
census.
    Census workers will be at the station from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. with
their road tour vehicle, which aims to educate the public through
interactive exercises.
   

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

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