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

PERDUE-CONSTITUTIONAL OFFICERS
    GA governor proposes appointing officers
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Gov. Sonny Perdue is proposing that four state
constitutional officers now elected by the public should instead be
appointed by the governor.
    The four are state school superintendent, agriculture
commissioner, labor commissioner and insurance commissioner.
    The change would require two-thirds approval in each house of
the Legislature, and would have to be ratified by the state's
voters.
    The governor elected in 2014 would be the first to appoint
people to the four positions. Appointments would require
confirmation by the Senate.
   
FRATERNITY SUSPENDED
    Mercer U. suspends fraternity chapter
   
    MACON, GA (AP) - Mercer University officials have suspended the
campus chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity over the treatment of
pledges.
    The fraternity has been banned for three academic years and is
barred from meeting or participating in school events.
    University officials investigated after hearing allegations
involving sleep deprivation and paddling.
    The Telegraph reports that university police chief Gary Collins
also says the chapter also told the pledges what to eat, trying to
restrict them to healthy foods.
    Mercer students reported the hazing concerns a week after
sophomore Ronald Quashie, an APA pledge, was found dead in his dorm
room in mid-November.
    Mercer officials say there's no evidence that the death was
related to hazing.
   
UGA AD RAISE
    UGA president backs athletic director's raise
   
    ATHENS, GA (AP) - University of Georgia President Michael Adams
says granting athletic director Damon Evans a substantial pay raise
was the right thing to do.
    Evans was scheduled to make $460,000 next year. Under a new
five-year contract approved Wednesday by Adams and the board of the
university's athletic association, Evans will get $550,000, plus
automatic raises of $20,000 a year and a $250,000 longevity bonus
after five years.
    Adams says the raise puts Evans' pay in line with other athletic
directors in the Southeastern Conference.
    The increase comes at a time when faculty and other university
workers are getting no raises.
    Adams predicts that coaches and athletics administrators won't
continue to get the big raises they've seen in recent years, but he
said the university will keep up with other schools.
   
SWORD ATTACK
    Ex-GA Tech student held in sword attack
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - A 33-year-old man who received a PhD from Georgia
Tech was being held in the Fulton County Jail on charges he
attacked a research fellow with a samurai sword on campus.
    Fulton County sheriff's office spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan says
Kshitij Shrotri was due in court Friday on aggravated assault
charges. Campus officials said the victim, whom they did not
identify, underwent surgery at Grady Memorial Hospital.
    School officials say a campus police officer who tried to arrest
Shrotri on Thursday was injured, but was expected to return to work
soon.
    Georgia Tech officials say Shrotri received his PhD in aerospace
engineering in 2008 and worked for the University of Delaware's
Center for Composite Materials.
    University of Delaware officials say Shrotri went on paid leave
in November.
   
EARNS-BEAZER HOMES
    Beazer Homes posts a $48 million profit for Q1
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Beazer Homes USA Inc. says it posted a $48
million profit in its fiscal first quarter, as the homebuilder
recorded a $101 million tax gain.
    The company said Friday it earned $1.17 a share in the three
months ended in December. That compares with a loss of $80.3
million, or $2.08 a share, in the prior-year period.
    Revenue was flat at $218.8 million versus $218.2 million.
    Without accounting for the tax gain, analysts polled by Thomson
Reuters were expecting a loss of 90 cents a share on revenue of
about $200.6 million.
   
HABITAT-HAITI
    Habitat volunteers to make packages for Haitians
   
    McDONOUGH, GA (AP) - Habitat for Humanity volunteers are
joining forces to send emergency shelter kits to victims of the
Haitian earthquake.
    Volunteers will join Jonathan Reckford, who is CEO of the
Atlanta-based organization, on Feb. 9 in McDonough to assemble
8,000 kits. The packages include building materials and tools for
families to make repairs to damaged homes - wire, rope, a pry bar,
a mason's chisel, nails, a hammer and a saw.
    The kits will be shipped to Port-au-Prince, which was hit by the
deadly earthquake Jan. 12.
    The volunteers will gather at the Whirlpool Distribution Center
in McDonough, which is south of Atlanta.
   
MORTGAGE FRAUD
    Perdue proposes creating mortgage fraud unit
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - The Georgia Bureau of Investigation could soon
get the power to investigate allegations of mortgage fraud under a
new proposal being pitched by Gov. Sonny Perdue.
    State Sen. Bill Cowsert, one of the governor's floor leaders in
the Senate, has introduced legislation that would create a special
unit from the GBI, the Department of Banking and Finance and local
law enforcement to investigate mortgage fraud crimes.
    Supporters of the measure say Georgia currently ranks fourth
nationwide for mortgage fraud. Mortgage fraud referrals cost the
state an estimated $144 million between 2005 and 2008.
   
ROTTEN COURTHOUSE
    Delays in renovations of historic GA courthouse
   
    JEFFERSON, GA (AP) - Workers renovating the historic Jackson
County courthouse have been delayed by winter weather and
unexpected repairs.
    Charlotte Mealor, chairwoman of the Historic Jackson County
Courthouse Committee, said the project likely won't be completed
until spring, nearly a year after it began in May. The plan is to
renovate the 130-year-old building to look like it did in 1908 and
use the interior for office space and community meetings.
    The county's courts offices moved to a new building near
Jefferson in 2005. The county received $2 million in sales tax
funding for the project.
    County officials say some of the wooden beams in the support
structure of the building are rotten, concrete window sills were
crumbling and pigeon droppings covered much of the interior. All
have had to be replaced, which was not part of the planned
renovations.