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

(AP) -- DAYCARE DIRECTOR-INDICTMENT
    Macon church daycare worker indicted
   
    MACON, GA (AP) - Authorities have indicted the former head of a
Macon church children's center on charges she stole money that
parents paid for day care and forged fraudulent paychecks between
2005 and 2008.
    An indictment filed in Bibb County Superior Court Tuesday
charges Paula Cowan with 109 counts of forgery and 297 counts of
theft by taking.
    Authorities believe Cowan, former director of Riverside United
Methodist Church's Children Center, may have stolen as much as a
half-million dollars.
    Authorities accuse Cowan of forging checks issued to former
employees of the day care center and taking $70,000. The rest of
the theft stems from Cowan taking parents' payments for day care.
    The theft was discovered in 2008 when a former employee received
a W2 tax form from the church and came forward to say the form
reflected more money than the employee had received.
   
COLUMBUS JOBS
    Refrigeration manufacturer to add Columbus jobs
   
    COLUMBUS, GA (AP) - A refrigeration unit manufacturer will hire
150 production workers for its Columbus locations.
    Kysor/Warren says an influx of orders is leading to the decision
to expand its work force.
    The company will be looking for those with sheet metal
experience in particular at a mass recruitment 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Saturday at the Georgia Department of Labor's Columbus Career
Center, 700 Veterans Parkway.
    Kysor/Warren now has more than 570 employees on its Columbus
payroll.
    The hiring drive comes as state labor officials report the
Columbus metro area unemployment rate stood at 10.4 percent in
February
    Officials say there are more than 13,000 residents in the area
without jobs.
   
KING CENTER
    Martin Luther King III to head King Center again
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Martin Luther King the Third has been named
president and chief executive officer of The King Center.
    The center made the announcement on Tuesday. He replaces his
cousin, Isaac Newton Farris Junior, who has served in the position
since 2005.
    Dexter Scott King remains as chairman of The King Center, which
was founded by the Reverend Martin Luther King Junior's widow,
Coretta Scott King, shortly after his death in 1968 to preserve and
promote his legacy.
    The surviving King siblings -- Dexter, Martin and Bernice King
-- have been at odds in recent years and had to surrender control
of their father's estate while they attempt a court-ordered
reconciliation.
    All three children are lifetime board members of The King
Center, though Bernice King is not an officer.
   
WELFARE FRAUD
    4 arrested in welfare fraud scam in Georgia
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Four people, including two state employees, have
been arrested for stealing $1.7 million worth of state-issued debit
cards for low income residents.
    Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said
Tuesday that two suspects working at the state Department of Human
Services created fraudulent accounts for electronic benefits
transfer cards, called EBT cards. He says the cards were mailed to
the two other suspects, who then cashed in the cards at small
retailers.
    The suspects are: 27-year-old Hosie Lee Baugh, 34-year-old Gene
Dennis Tell, 27-year-old Kristy Nicole Williams and 39-year-old
Tawanda Yvette Bowe. Charges against them include conspiracy to
defraud the state and financial transaction card fraud.
    Bankhead says the agencies were tipped off by the U.S. Postal
Inspection Service after one of the suspects tried to bribe a
postal worker to deliver the cards to a separate address.
   
LOW PERFORMING SCHOOLS
    Georgia gets $122M to help failing schools
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia is getting $122 million in federal money
to turn around its lowest performing schools.
    The money will go to failing schools willing to take up one of
four dramatic reforms: firing the entire staff, converting into a
charter school, replacing just the principal or closing entirely.
The "school improvement grant" program is designed to help states
raise achievement at their worst schools.
    Every state will receive money from a $3 billion fund set aside
for the bottom five percent of schools. The money is part of the
federal stimulus program.
   
XGR--GEORGIA BUDGET
    State revenues up for first time in 15 months
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - After 15 months of decline, state revenues have
finally inched up.
    State money managers reported Tuesday that net tax collections
for March are up one percent over the same month the year before.
For the fiscal year that ends June 30th, tax collections are off
11.5 percent from the year before.
    The state is struggling to close an expected $785 million
shortfall in the fiscal year that begins July 1st.
    Lawmakers return to the Capitol next week and are expected to
tackle the budget with seven days left in the legislative session.
Governor Sonny Perdue called the increase in tax collections
"encouraging."
   
REPUBLICANS-SPENDING
    NH activist resigns RNC seat
   
    WASHINGTON (AP) - A New Hampshire activist has resigned from the
Republican National Committee, adding to the pressures chairman
Michael Steele faces from a party frustrated with his stewardship
heading into crucial midterm elections.
    Sean Mahoney, a businessman who was elected to the RNC in 2007,
said Tuesday the party had been corrupted by the "out-of-touch,
free-spending culture of Washington."
    Steele has faced critics within his own party over almost $2,000
in reimbursements for a trip to a California club that featured
topless dancers. Republican donors are smarting over high spending
rates.
    On Monday, Steele's top aide and an outside adviser each severed
ties with the RNC.
    An RNC spokeswoman did not immediately return a message seeking
comment.
   
GEORGIA-GOVERNOR
    APNewsBreak: Real estate exec enters GA gov race
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - A commercial real estate executive has jumped
into the race for Georgia governor and thrown $2 million of his own
money into a bid for the Republican nomination.
    Ray Boyd told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he's entering
the Republican primary.
    The 67-year-old political newcomer from Rutledge says he's upset
by the lack of ethics in Washington and at the state Capitol. He
says the candidates already in the race have been "tainted" by
ethics troubles and long careers in politics.
    Boyd describes himself as sympathetic to the tea party movement
and supportive of term limits and states' rights.
    Boyd's $2 million pledge was first detailed in a campaign
disclosure filed with the Ethics Commission. The funds pull him
about equal in cash on hand to Insurance Commissioner John
Oxendine, the current money leader among Republicans.
   
TEA PARTY-BLACKS
    Black conservative tea party backers take heat
   
    ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - They've been called Oreos, traitors and
Uncle Toms, and are used to having to defend their values.
    Now black conservatives are really taking heat for their
involvement in the mostly white tea party movement -- and for
having the audacity to oppose the policies of the nation's first
black president.
    As with many conservative movements, opponents have tried to
brand the tea party as racists hiding behind economic concerns. An
occasional tea partier toting ugly race-based phrases gives them
ammunition.
    But these black conservatives don't consider that representative
of the movement.
    Some say Obama's election rallied them and inspired more black
Republicans to run for office in November. Some are courting tea
partiers with a fiscally conservative message.

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