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

(AP) -- GEORGIA COLLEGE-LOCKDOWN
    GA College arrests men after hall lockdown
   
    MILLEDGEVILLE, GA (AP) - Officials at Georgia College and State
University have arrested two students after a knife-wielding man
led to a residence hall lockdown Tuesday afternoon.
    Spokeswoman Judy Bailey identifies the men as 19-year-old Justin
David McTiernan, of Roswell, and 18-year-old David Preston Jenkins,
of Thomson. Charges are pending.
    Authorities were prompted to Parkhurst Residence Hall around
4:40 p.m. when a female student pressed a panic button in her room.
    Bailey says the school placed the building on lockdown while
authorities search room to room. They eventually found McTiernan a
few blocks from the hall. He led police to a tennis court where
they recovered a knife. It's unclear how Jenkins is believed to be
involved.
    About 300 men and women live in the hall
   
ATHENS-TRIPLE SHOOTING
    1 dead, 2 injured in Athens home shooting
   
    ATHENS, GA (AP) - A 29-year-old woman is dead and her suspected
shooter and two others injured after a triple shooting in a Clarke
County home.
    Athens-Clarke Police officials haven't identified the victims or
suspected shooter, a 28-year-old man they say was discovered in a
bathroom at the crime scene. Police say he had shot himself once in
the chest with a .380-caliber pistol and was rushed away in an
ambulance. Authorities had no update on his condition Tuesday
evening.
    Police say the victim's 63-year-old mother and 31-year-old
sister were wounded and taken to Athens Regional Medical Center. A
four-year-old boy was in the house at the time of the shooting but
was uninjured in the shooting at 138 Beaver Trail.
    The dead woman's newborn baby, believed uninjured, has been
taken into custody. It's unclear if the child was in the house at
the time of the shooting.
    Authorities tell The Associated Press none of those involved are
believed to be linked to the University of Georgia.
   
SCLC WOES
    Legal wrangling continues for control of SCLC
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - An attorney representing several board members of
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is asking for a
superior court judge to intervene after two of the organization's
bank accounts were frozen.
    Attorney Charles Mathis says the bank froze the accounts because
there is confusion over who is authorized to access the funds. An
ongoing struggle for control of the civil rights group has also
delayed the installation of its president-elect, the Reverend
Bernice King. Mathis says he filed a petition with the Fulton
County Superior Court on Tuesday to address the matter.
    Two factions of SCLC gathered this week for separate meetings,
hundreds of miles apart, with each group claiming to be the SCLC's
board of directors. The embattled 53-year-old civil rights
organization is fighting for its survival amid legal woes and
bitter infighting.
   
TAX OVERHAUL
    Senate OK's tax overhaul bill
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - The state Senate adopted a bill aimed at giving
Georgia's tax code a facelift.
    The bill cleared the state Senate on Tuesday.
    It would create two panels that would offer suggestions for
revamping Georgia's tax laws, which GOP leaders say are outdated.
    The bill would establish the 11-member 2010 Special Council on
Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians and the 12-member Special
Joint Committee on Georgia Revenue Structure.
    The panels would completely bypass the regular legislative
process. The outside panel would make a recommendation to a special
committee of legislators who would then draw up a bill and move it
straight to the floor without committee where it could not be
amended.
   
VOTER ID
    GA voter ID law upheld again
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Georgia's oft-challenged law that requires voters
to show photo identification before they cast their ballots has
survived another legal battle.
    Fulton County Superior Court Judge Tom Campbell on Tuesday ruled
that the law does not violate Georgia's constitution.
    Critics have long tried to block the law, claiming it places an
undue burden on poor, disabled people and minorities.
    But supporters say it's needed to combat voter fraud. Secretary
of State Brian Kemp says in a statement Tuesday that the ruling
"is a victory for the integrity of the state's elections
process."
   
THERAPIST ARRESTED
    Georgia therapist arrested in Iowa
   
    CARTER LAKE, Iowa (AP) - Authorities say an Atlanta therapist
who is accused of abusing her clients' trust to swindle them out of
thousands of dollars has been arrested in far western Iowa.
    A fugitive task force took Colleen Higgins into custody Tuesday
morning at a Super 8 motel in Carter Lake.
    Higgins was booked into the Pottawattamie County jail on
multiple counts of theft by deception on a warrant issued in
Georgia.
    According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, which reported on
the accusations last year, a board that oversees Georgia therapists
and social workers asked a judge to revoke Higgins license on the
grounds of unprofessional conduct and ethics violations.
   
PHONE BOOKS
    GA allows AT&T to scale back phonebook deliveries
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Phone books will stop dropping on doorsteps in
Georgia's larger communities.
    Utility regulators at the state's Public Service Commission
voted Tuesday to exempt telephone companies from a requirement that
they distribute white pages in places with more than 50,000
residents. The request came from AT&T Georgia.
    The decision takes effect 20 days after the revised rules are
submitted to the secretary of state.
    Telephone companies must still give customers a phone directory
in markets with fewer than 50,000 residents or if a customer wants
one.
    The change will affect 17 communities, including Atlanta,
Gwinnet County and Savannah.

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