DOT-GOVERNOR
    Gov. blasts DOT, accuses agency of breaking law
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Gov. Sonny Perdue is blasting the state's
transportation department for refusing to change its accounting
practices.
    Perdue is calling the move illegal, irresponsible and in
defiance of the state auditor.
    He says the agency's decision has hobbled the state's ability to
refinance $22 million in outstanding bonds for road projects.
    The Department of Transportation met Thursday and voted 8-3 not
to reverse a change in its accounting practices - a decision that
could affect how road project dollars are spent. The board will
delay the change until July 1 and is consulting Attorney General
Thurbert Baker on the matter.
   
LEGISLATIVE FURLOUGHS
    Senators to take furlough days
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - Five Democratic state senators who didn't
participate in legislative furloughs last year will take the unpaid
days this year instead.
    The Legislative Fiscal Affairs office said Thursday that the
senators have signed forms authorizing the state to deduct pay for
the five days from their checks in the next five months. That's
along with the six new days that all legislators have been
instructed to take this year due to the state budget crunch.
    Sens. Ed Harbison, Gloria Butler, Lester Jackson, Valencia Seay
and Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown failed to take part in
furlough days last year. They chalked it up to a paperwork
oversight.
    There was no word on two House members, who also did not take
the furlough days.
    Legislators earn $17,341 a year and bring in $173 in per diems
for days they work on state business.
   
FRATERNITY SUIT
    Fraternity cleared in lawsuit
   
    ATHENS, GA (AP) - A judge has cleared a fraternity in a lawsuit
a Gainesville woman filed claiming the fraternity was to blame for
injuries she suffered after drinking at a party at the chapter
house in Athens.
    Clarke County Superior Court Judge David Sweat will allow the
woman's lawsuit to continue against one of Sigma Chi's members.
    According to the unidentified woman's suit, fraternity members
served her alcoholic beverages at the September 2008 party despite
a wristband that showed she was underage. Later, the suit says a
fraternity member took the woman upstairs to his room, took off her
dress and put her in his loft bed with no railing - only to return
to the room later to find her on the floor with broken teeth and
bones, bleeding from her mouth and an ear.
   
MEDICAID FRAUD
    Athens psychologist sentenced for Medicaid fraud
   
    ATLANTA (AP) - An Athens psychologist will spend two years in
prison for defrauding the state's Medicaid program out of more than
a half million dollars.
    A federal court judge in Atlanta sentenced 62-year-old Paul D.
Mangum on Thursday. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the
Northern District of Georgia, he submitted thousands of fraudulent
Medicaid claims between May 2003 and April 2009, for treatment he
never provided.
    As part of his scheme, officials say Mangum submitted claims for
patients younger than 21 who at one time had received treatment
from him but had stopped.
    In one case, he saw one child once a week for only a few months,
but then submitted over 100 fraudulent claims for the patient over
five years and received thousands of dollars in Medicaid payments
for therapy sessions he never performed.
   
EMPLOYEE THREATENED
    Man arrested for threatening employee
   
    AUGUSTA, GA (AP) - An Augusta man is charged with assault after
police say he threatened to cut the throat of an employee who
accused him of shoplifting at a convenience store.
    Police arrested 46-year-old Derrick Calloway Tuesday.
    Richmond County sheriff's report states that at about 3 p.m.
Tuesday, an employee confronted a man inside the Tip Top Food Mart
after he saw the man take a sandwich from a frozen food case.
    Police say the employee was sitting in a car after his shift
ended when the man walked up to him and jabbed at him with a
small-bladed knife. The man then placed the knife against the
employee's throat and told him that he would cut him.
    Calloway was later arrested when police say he returned to the
station to buy gas.
   
FUGITIVE CAPTURED
    Man suspected in $1.1B tax evasion scheme arrested
   
    COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) - Federal authorities have arrested a man
facing a charge that he plotted to defraud the U.S. government of
more than $1.1 billion in a tax evasion scheme.
    U.S. Marshals spokesman Daniel Winfield says Thursday that
Stephen Hunter was arrested at his son's home in Columbus, Ga.
after he failed to appear in federal court on the tax evasion
charges.
    Prosecutors say Hunter and several co-defendants were being
investigated by the Internal Revenue Service on charges that he
conspired to bilk the government of more than $1.1 billion.
    Winfield says Hunter was arrested Tuesday at his son's home
without incident.
   
MONEY IN CAR
    GA man finds $200K in counterfeit money in car
   
    BALL GROUND, GA (AP) - One north Georgia man got more than he
bargained for when he bought a car from a towing company late last
year.
    Officials with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office said
Thursday that Tye Kuykendall found $200,000 in counterfeit money
inside a hidden compartment behind the back seat of the car.
Authorities say Kuykendall had bought the car for $400 after it sat
for more than three years in an impound yard after being towed by
Fulton County police in 2006.
    Authorities say he was fixing a gas leak when he discovered the
secret compartment.
    Cherokee officials have called the U.S. Secret Service to help
with the case.
   
OFFENDER CAPTURED
    Sex offender captured after assault
   
    SAVANNAH, GA (AP) - A Savannah man described as a dangerous
convicted sex offender has been captured.
    Police arrested 36-year-old Andrew Jerome Hall on Wednesday
night. Assistant District Attorney Greg McConnell says the arrest
was the result of a joint law-enforcement effort.
    Hall had been sought in the Jan. 5 stabbing of a 30-year-old
woman who was punched and kicked before witnesses. Witnesses called
police, but Hall escaped.
    McConnell says police later determined that Hall was a
registered sex offender on active probation and worked with U.S.
Marshalls and other authorities to eventually track down and arrest
Hall.
    Hall faces charges of cruelty to a child, aggravated assault,
aggravated battery and violating a Superior Court probation.