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

(AP) -- STRAY BULLET-DEATH
    Atlanta man killed by stray shot
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Atlanta police Friday are investigating the fatal
shooting of a man who was struck by a bullet fired through a window
into his home.
    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that police say the
victim, who was in his 20s, was in his bedroom about 3:30 a.m. on
Friday when at least nine shots were fired outside the house in
northwest Atlanta.
    Atlanta police Major Keith Meadows says there's no indication
that the victim was the intended target.
    He said investigators are looking for witnesses and trying to
identify individuals believed to have been outside the home before
the shooting.
    On Monday night, a 13-year-old Gwinnett County middle school
student was killed when a bullet fired in a parking lot came
through his bedroom window, striking him in the abdomen.
   
HAMSTER-HAMMER DEATH
    Police say Georgia mom forced son to kill hamster
   
    WARM SRPINGS, GA (AP) - Police have arrested a Georgia woman
who they say forced her son to kill his pet hamster with a hammer
as punishment for earning a bad grade.
    Meriwether County sheriff Steve Whitlock told the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution Thursday that the 12-year-old boy told his
teacher about the killing. The teacher reported it to the Division
of Family and Child Services, who contacted police.
    The pet's death allegedly took place at the family's Warm
Springs home.
    Whitlock said 38-year-old Lynn Middlebrooks Geter faces one
charge each of animal cruelty, child cruelty and battery.
    He said she was arrested Friday and remained in the Meriwether
County jail Thursday evening. It was not immediately known if she
had a lawyer.
    Meriwether County is located about 90 minutes southwest of
Atlanta.
   
SCAD-MUSEUM
    Savannah art school begins work on new complex
   
    SAVANNAH, GA (AP) - The Savannah College of Art and Design has
held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new museum complex.
    The complex will include 86-foot-tall steel and glass lantern
that will stand over a central atrium and will house the Walter O.
Evans Center for African American Art.
    Evans, who attended the groundbreaking on Thursday, is one of
the top collectors of African American art in the nation, and has
donated more than 75 pieces of artwork to the museum, some of which
date to the 1840s.
    SCAD officials say construction on the first of two phases
should be finished by the fall of 2011. Its 48,000 square feet will
include classrooms, exhibit space and a 250-seat theater and
lecture hall.
    The complex will encompass more than 90,000 square feet and is
expected to cost more than $30 million.
   
UGA-ENVIRONMENT
    U. of Ga. to add new environment office
   
    ATHENS, GA (AP) - University of Georgia President Michael Adams
says he will establish an office to coordinate energy conservation,
recycling and other sustainability efforts.
    Students approved the new office and a $3-per-semester fee to
run it by a more than 4-1 margin in a spring referendum. Adams said
he'd go along during his State of the University speech on
Thursday.
    The Athens Banner-Herald reports that in his speech, Adams also
said the university will spend $2 million in the next year to hire
new faculty and an additional $2 million for one-time costs such as
setting up labs for newly hired researchers.
    He said that despite budget cuts, UGA faculty and staff have a
responsibility to the people of Georgia to fulfill the university's
missions of education, research and service.
   
SCLC INVESTIGATION
   GA judge reinstates ex-SCLC chairman, treasurer
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - A Fulton County judge has reinstated the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference chairman and treasurer who were
removed due to alleged financial mismanagement.
    Judge Alford Dempsey said Thursday that chairman Raleigh
Trammell of Dayton, Ohio, and treasurer Spiver Gordon of Eutaw,
Ala., would remain in those posts unless the board voted to remove
them in the ways prescribed in the SCLC's constitution and bylaws.
    Trammell and Gordon were removed during a Dec. 21 board meeting,
conducted over the telephone, to discuss allegations the two men
diverted at least $569,000 to bank accounts they controlled.
    Rev. Curtis Harris - chair of the SCLC finance committee - led
supporters in filing a petition last month asking for an injunction
and accusing SCLC officials of violating the group's constitution.
    Dempsey's order restored the leadership that was in place on
Oct. 29.
   
BOOKKEEPER THEFT
    Former GA bookkeeper charged with stealing $1M
   
    DALTON, GA  (AP) - A 63-year-old former bookkeeper has been
arraigned on charges she stole more than $1 million from her
employer.
    Carolyn Lynn Cherry of Chatsworth is accused of taking trips to
Disney World, New York, Washington, D.C., Honolulu, and Myrtle
Beach, S.C. and buying hundreds of items from TV shopping networks.
    She then allegedly used the stolen money to pay off credit card
bills of more than $1 million.
    Cherry worked for a Dalton insurance company. Prosecutors say
she forged her supervisor's signature on company checks from 2003
to 2009.
    Aside from the trips and the TV shopping purchases, Cherry
allegedly wrote three company checks to herself for $11,300 and
cashed them.
   
VETERANS-ARCHAEOLOGY
    Veterans curate Corps' archaeological collection
   
    ST. LOUIS (AP) - Returning U.S. veterans, many of them disabled,
are finding fulfillment and jobs skills in an unlikely task -
processing and archiving the nation's largest archaeological
collection.
    Veterans curation projects in St. Louis and elsewhere are
organizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' collection of
treasures excavated at levee, dam and reservoir sites from the
1940s to the 1960s. The other two sites are Augusta, Ga., and
Washington, D.C.
    Cathy van Arsdale manages all three sites of the $3.5 million
project. Van Arsdale says the project fills two needs: providing
skills and temporary jobs for veterans, and bringing the collection
of pottery, arrowheads and other items up to federal standards.
    The project is funded with federal stimulus money.
   
OBIT-BRAGAN
    Former major league manager Bobby Bragan dies
   
    FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Bobby Bragan, a former major league
manager dubbed "Mr. Baseball" for his decades of dedication to
the game, has died.
    A statement Friday on the Web site for the Bobby Bragan Youth
Foundation announced his death Thursday night at his Fort Worth
home. Bragan was 92.
    Bragan in August 2005 earned the distinction as the oldest
manager of a pro baseball game by leading his former minor league
team, the Fort Worth Cats. At the time he was 87.
    Bragan, a native of Birmingham, Ala., was a shortstop and
catcher during his playing days.
    Bragan spent seven seasons as a major league manager for
Pittsburgh (1956-57), Cleveland (1958) and the Milwaukee (1963-65)
and Atlanta (1966) Braves. He managed Hall of Famers Hank Aaron,
Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn, and compiled a record of 443-478.

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