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

(AP) -- HOMEMADE EXPLOSIVES
    FBI giving cops critical info: How to spot an IED
   
    BLYTHE, GA (AP) - If police officers find grainy white powder
at a makeshift lab and assume they've made a drug bust, they could
be making an explosive mistake.
    The FBI has been training thousands of law enforcement officials
across the nation to identify, disrupt and dismantle improvised
explosive devices, including bombs made out of ordinary household
products.
    The need was underlined this week when federal authorities said
they disrupted a suspected plot by a Christian militia to kill
police officers with homemade bombs. That follows last year's
alleged plot to make bombs out of beauty supplies and an airline
passenger's alleged attempt on Christmas Day to detonate a bomb
hidden in his underwear.
   
STUDENT PRESIDENT KILLED
    Lawyer:  NC cops beat suspect in Eve Carson slaying
   
    RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Defense attorneys for a man charged in the
death of a former University of North Carolina student body
president say police beat the suspect after his arrest.
    The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Tuesday that attorneys
for Demario Atwater made the claim to try to block statements
Atwater made to police from being introduced at his coming federal
trial.
    Photographs and videotape of Atwater's arrest show the Durham
man with a gash and bruise on his cheek.
    Atwater is one of two men accused in the shooting death of
22-year-old Eve Carson of Athens, Ga., in March 2008, but the only
one facing trials in both federal and state courts. Atwater could
face the death penalty in both cases.
   
DEPUTIES SHOT
    Judge: plea bargain prevents appeal of sentence
   
    THIBODAUX, LA (AP) - A state district judge has rejected a
Georgia man's request to appeal his 60-year sentence for shooting
two Lafourche Parish sheriff's deputies at a traffic stop in
December 2006.
    Judge John LeBlanc ruled that since 22-year-old Robert Power of
Martinez, Ga., accepted the sentence in a plea bargain, he cannot
appeal it.
    Power could have gotten up to 140 years for shooting deputies
Roland Guillot and Bridget Rupe.
    Power had asked permission to appeal after the usual one-year
limit.
    Trial attorney Martin Regan testified Friday that he told
Power's family that chances of winning an appeal were poor.
    Power was 18 when the deputies were shot. He pleaded guilty 11
months later to two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one
of aggravated escape.
   
COUNTY-GANGS
    Barrow County, GA gangs investigated
   
    WINDER, GA (AP) - Barrow County officials have decided they've
encountered enough gang activity to warrant setting up a countywide
narcotics and gangs task force.
    Sheriff Jud Smith says the gang problems in his northeast
Georgia county don't resemble the activity in big cities. But he
says that recently there has been an increase in petty crime. There
are also more gang tags on signs.
    Smith believes some of the gang members operating in Barrow
County have connections with larger groups in surrounding counties.
    The sheriff says the task force will give detectives in the
sheriff's office a framework for sharing information and
investigations with detectives in the Winder Police Department.
   
PLANE KILLS BEACHGOER
    Pilot: Bang before plane hit, killed SC beachgoer
   
    WASHINGTON (AP) - The pilot of a plane that struck and killed a
38-year-old jogger from Georgia on a South Carolina beach says he
heard a loud bang before the engine failed and he was forced to
make an emergency landing.
    A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety
Board released Saturday says that while the aircraft was at 13,000
feet, the pilot noticed the instrument panel was vibrating and oil
began to cover the windshield before the bang.
    The engine stopped and the pilot tried to land.
    Pharmaceutical salesman Robert Gary Jones of Woodstock, Ga., was
listening to his iPod while jogging on a Hilton Head beach. He was
killed when the plane hit him from behind on March 15.
    Pilot Edward I. Smith of Chesapeake, Va., and a passenger walked
away from the crash landing.
   
AIRPORT-DRAINAGE
    Brunswick, GA airport gets drainage grant
   
    BRUNSWICK, GA (AP) - The Federal Aviation Administration is
providing an additional $2.9 million for Brunswick Golden Isles
Airport to complete a new underground drainage system.
    Steve Brian, executive director of the Glynn County Airport
Commission, says the initial $2.9 million from a federal aviation
trust fund is going toward installation of underground pipes to
replace 60-year-old pipes that had failed or were failing.
    Brian says the old pipes had collapsed in places, leaving
sinkholes, and in others areas water ran or stood in open ditches.
    Brian says reducing the amount of standing water should mean
there will be fewer birds around the airport because the water
attracts them.
   
DOMESTIC DISPUTE-FATALITY
    1 dead, 1 charged after domestic dispute
   
    WARNER ROBINS, GA (AP) - A man faces murder charges after a
woman died from injuries she sustained in an apparent domestic
disturbance Sunday.
    Warner Robins Police spokeswoman Tabitha Pugh says authorities
charged 45-year-old Thomas Smith with one count each of felony
murder and aggravated battery. He is being held in the Houston
County Jail without bail.
    Authorities responding to a domestic disturbance discovered
61-year-old Rachel Boyd had been struck several times in the head.
Smith had been stabbed several times in the torso.
    Both were taken to the Medical Center of Central Georgia where
Boyd later died.
    Preliminary autopsy findings released Monday afternoon showed a
cause of death for Boyd as a blow to the head.
    It is unknown what the relationship was between Boyd and Smith.
   
CELL PHONE BOXERS
    Floyd Co. inmate found with phone in underwear
   
    ROME, GA (AP) - A Floyd County Prison inmate is facing
additional charges after authorities discovered a cell phone in his
boxer shorts.
    Authorities have charged 33-year-old Craig Dennis Oliver with
obstructing law enforcement officers and having an item prohibited
for possession by inmates.
    Oliver reportedly refused to take off his boxer shorts during
strip search, took a "fighting stance" and resisted efforts to
subdue him. Officers later found a cell phone in his shorts.

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