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FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — Soldiers stationed at Combat Outpost Cleary have been working closely with soldiers from Georgia as part of Task Force Petro. Task Force Petro is a combined effort involving the Georgian forces along with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, and the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, to bring peace to Iraq and improve living conditions both on and off of COP Cleary. The 13th Georgian Light Infantry Battalion’s progress as a unit has been phenomenal, said Capt. Christopher Rehnberg, from Norfolk, Conn., a member of the liason team, 2nd BCT,...

Do you think the new law to allow guns in restaurants, parks and on public transportation is a good idea? Yes No Undecided

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia's deployment of extra troops in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia has brought the prospect of war "very close", a minister of ex-Soviet Georgia said on Tuesday. Separately, in comments certain to fan rising tension between Moscow and Tbilisi, the "foreign minister" of the breakaway Black Sea region was quoted as saying it was ready to hand over military control to Russia. "We literally have to avert war," Temur Iakobashvili, a Georgian State Minister, told reporters in Brussels. Asked how close to such a war the situation was, he replied: "Very close, because we know Russians...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia's deployment of extra troops in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia has brought the prospect of war "very close," a minister of ex-Soviet Georgia said on Tuesday. Separately, in comments certain to fan rising tension between Moscow and Tbilisi, the "foreign minister" of the breakaway Black Sea region was quoted as saying it was ready to hand over military control to Russia. "We literally have to avert war," Temur Iakobashvili, a Georgian State Minister, told reporters in Brussels. Asked how close to such a war the situation was, he replied: "Very close, because we know Russians...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA, Iraq, May 5, 2008 – Coalition forces conducted a medical assistance mission in Byda village, near Kut, Iraq, May 2. Capt. (Dr.) Frederico Gomez, a dentist with the Salvadoran Cuscatlan Battalion, extracts a tooth during a medical assistance mission in Byda village near Kut, Iraq, May 2, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Daniel T. West  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The mission is part of an outreach program to provide for outlying villages in Iraq’s Wasit province that have seen little or no coalition presence, said Army Lt. Col. Rob Jones, deputy team...

"The steps that have been taken (by Russia) and the rhetoric that has been used concerning the threat of force have increased tensions and have undermined Georgia's territorial integrity," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said. "The allies are unanimous in supporting, endorsing Georgia's territorial integrity and will not recognise or support steps that undermine that sovereignty," he said. NATO announced at a summit early this month that Georgia would one day become a member of the 26-nation military alliance, in the face of fierce Russian opposition. Russia objects to NATO moving closer to its borders and is deeply concerned that the...

Russia has said that Georgia is preparing to invade the breakaway region of Abkhazia. A statement from the Russian foreign ministry said that "a bridgehead is being prepared for the start of military operations against Abkhazia". Russia accuses Georgia of amassing 1,500 soldiers and police near the rebel areas of the upper Kodori Gorge. But Georgian officials denied intending to attack Abkhazia, which broke away from Georgia in the 1990s.

DALTON, Ga. — As a national debate over immigration raged in early 2006, Mexican immigrant America Gruner founded a grassroots organization to engage this city’s Hispanics amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment. “Locally, we didn’t have anybody to speak about (immigration) without attacking anybody,” she said. “People ... felt their voices weren’t being heard.” She started the Coalition of Latino Leaders, or CLILA, to nurture Hispanic leaders. Now, Ms. Gruner is stepping down as CLILA president to work with a national organization in Atlanta. Under her leadership, CLILA has registered voters, organized community forums and English classes and held citizenship drives. Jerry...

GCO has entered into a settlement agreement with the City of East Point, in a case filed by GCO against East Point and other Fulton County governmental entities over ordinances banning the carrying of firearms in parks. East Point earlier had repealed its ordinance a replaced it with an ordinance banning carrying firearms to public gatherings. After additional discussions with GCO, East Point has agreed to repeal the latter ordinance as well, coming into complete compliance with state law on the subject. East Point also has agreed to reimburse GCO for its attorney’s fees. GCO will drop East Point from...

MOSCOW: Russia is ready to use “military” force to protect its citizens if war breaks out in the Georgian separatist provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a Russian foreign ministry official said on Friday. “If a military conflict develops, then we will have to react, including with military means,” foreign ministry official Valery Kenyaikin told journalists. “We are ready to defend our citizens.” The majority of citizens in Abkhazia and South Ossetia have Russian passports. Georgia accuses Russia of trying to annex the territory by supporting the rebel forces there and by encouraging residents to take up Russian citizenship. Tensions...

ATLANTA — Atlanta police have arrested a high school student and her mother in the beating of the girl's teacher. Forty-four-year-old Georgia Thornton and her daughter, 17-year-old Sequita Thornton, have been charged with attacking Felecia Williams at Southside High School on February 28th. According to a police report, the mother was charged with battery on a school teacher, disrupting public schools, criminal trespass and theft by taking in connection with the attack. Sequita was charged with battery on a teacher and disrupting public schools.

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — The Wasit Provincial Reconstruction Team leader and 214th Fires Brigade commander briefed the Wasit Provincial Council last week on reconstruction efforts in the province. More than $38 million dollars have been spent on those efforts in Wasit province since Jan. 1, 2007 by Coalition forces and the PRT. “We have done a lot as a team, and it has been a team effort,” said Col. Peter Baker, the 214th FB commander, “but there is more to do so that essential services are available to all. “We are working on developing processes and systems to put...

April 21, 2008 Russian jet 'shoots down' Georgian spy plane Georgia today accused Russia of an “unprovoked act of aggression” after a Russian jet allegedly shot down an unmanned Georgian reconnaissance plane, Alexi Mostrous writes. Officials in Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, released video footage which they said showed a MiG-29 fighter launching a missile at the Georgian plane as it flew over the country’s breakaway Abkhazia region. The allegation - dismissed as “nonsense” by Moscow - is likely to aggravate tensions between the countries, which are locked in a standoff over Georgia’s ambitions to join NATO and Moscow's support for Abkhaz...

Vladimir Putin, the outgoing Russian president, on Wednesday accelerated Moscow’s creeping annexation of Georgian territories to sweeping annexation. This is a victory for hardliners who pressed Mr Putin to give the order before he moves from the Kremlin to the Russian White House as prime minister. It comes as Georgian proposals for peaceful settlements in the territories, Abkhazia and South Os­setia, languish. The west must shake off its torpor, condemn Mr Putin’s gambit and support the Georgian proposals. Ignoring Moscow’s Soviet-style land-grab would intensify strife in the south Caucasus. According to Mr Putin’s “instruction”, Russia will open “representations” in the...

An illegal immigrant investigation involving smuggling is underway in Atlanta and it involves at least one business in Cleveland. The federal government has indicted seven people and more could be coming. The government indicted the people who supplied what it calls an illegal labor pool and smuggled these workers through several states. Next, it may target the companies that employed them. And one business is in Cleveland. The government charges four people in the Atlanta area moved illegal workers across the eastern United States for a fee. The indictment says Hong Mei Li, also known as "Jenny Li" arranged last...

I've looked at the State of Georgia website and can't find this info. I know FReepers can help me. :^) I need to know how a person establishes residency in Georgia. Let me tell you my story. I'm trying to verify this for a relative of mine. This relative lives less than a mile from Georgia but has always been a resident of Tennesee (drivers license, mortgage, property taxes, etc). However they have a post office box just on the other side of the state line in Georgia. They've been told that because the post office box is located in...

Westinghouse strikes deal to build US nuclear power plants Apr 8 07:52 PM US/Eastern Westinghouse Electric, a unit of the Japanese Toshiba Corp., said Tuesday it had struck a deal with Georgia Power to build two nuclear power plants in the southern United States, the first such projects in 30 years. The two Westinghouse AP1000 power plants will be located at a site near Augusta, Georgia which already had two existing nuclear reactors.

The Georgia Senate and House tonight passed HB 89. This will allow Firearm Permit holders to carry their weapons into restaurants that serve alcohol, State Parks, Wildlife Management Areas, and on public transportation. The bill now goes to the Governor.

ATLANTA — Fulton County Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington says he intended nothing racist when he ordered white lawyers from his courtroom while he lectured black defendants. Arrington, who is black, ordered the lawyers from the courtoom on March 27th. He says he walked into the courtroom and saw a crowd who appeared to be "99.9 percent" black. He says he decided to talk privately with the suspects.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush vowed on Tuesday to press for Ukraine and Georgia to be allowed to start the process of joining NATO despite resistance from Russia and skepticism from the alliance's European members. Bush, in Kiev on his way to his farewell NATO summit in Romania beginning on Wednesday, said Moscow had no right to veto bids by the two former Soviet republics to join the 26-nation Western defense pact. But French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Paris would oppose giving Kiev and Tbilisi a "Membership Action Plan" -- a roadmap to joining NATO --...

Georgia: Most Important Right-to-Carry Reform Bill in Over 20 Years Needs Your Help! Friday, March 21, 2008 House Bill 89, critical Right-to-Carry Reform legislation, is being held up by the Georgia State Senate! Back in January the Georgia House passed HB 89 by an overwhelming vote of 111 to 58. THE SENATE IS STILL REFUSING TO CONCUR! It is crucial that HB 89 be brought up for a FINAL floor vote. HB 89 would strengthen Georgia’s current laws by: * Allowing licensed carry permit holders to possess a firearm in any private motor vehicle while on any publicly accessible parking...

Carl Arndt, a volunteer with the Coastal Heritage Society, sifts through the dirt excavated from a small section of Emmett Park. (John Carrington/Savannah Morning News) The digging for Revolutionary War artifacts in Madison Square began months before Rita Elliott and several other Coastal Heritage Society archaeologists discovered musket balls in Sgt. William Jasper's shadow last week. The work actually started in late 2007 when Rita and her husband, and fellow archaeologist, Dan Elliott embarked on a three-week research campaign that took them to six repositories rich in Revolutionary War documentation. They visited the William L. Clements Library at the...

BRUSSELS - France, Germany and a handful of other west European nations are sticking to their opposition to a U.S.-backed push to grant Ukraine and Georgia membership plans at next week's NATO summit, diplomats said on Thursday. There must be full consensus among NATO's 26 allies before the two ex-Soviet states can embark on a step intended to prepare them for eventual membership of the Western military alliance, which Russia bitterly opposes. Backed by Canada and most ex-communist central European NATO members, Washington has in recent days stepped up calls for Ukraine and Georgia to be granted a so-called "Membership...

Russia and the West could be headed for a showdown over independence claims of two breakaway regions in Georgia. It was a symbolic gesture that observers hope to carry the potential for a detente between Russia and Georgia: On Tuesday, the first Georgian passenger plane in 18 months touched down at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport, with the plane's pilot smiling and waving into photographers' cameras. The trip ended a travel embargo by Moscow that was put in place in October 2006 to protest Tbilisi's arrest of four suspected Russian spies. While Georgia's foreign minister praised the move as a "positive step,"...

A team leader from the 13th Georgian Army Light Infantry Battalion watches as residents of the village of Gurtan unload a trailer during a food and toy delivery operation, March 18. Soldiers from Task Force Petro, consisting of Soldiers from 13th Georgian Army Light Infantry Battalion and 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, conducted the mission after a March 7 operation identifying the village’s needs. Photo courtesy of Task Force Petro. FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER — U.S. and Georgian Soldiers helped get food and toys to a small village in need near al Lej, March 18. Leaders of...

MARIETTA - Police have confirmed the driver involved in a fatal accident Sunday evening did not have a United States driver's license and police have yet to locate records to indicate he was a legal immigrant, Officer Mark Bishop with the Marietta Police Department said. Bishop said Kennesaw resident Nicasio Rodrigo Vicente-Hernandez, 29, was involved in two prior accidents Sunday evening before his third and fatal collision. Vicente-Hernandez was allegedly fleeing an earlier fender-bender when he sideswiped a second car while heading the wrong way on the Canton Road Connector, Bishop said. Seconds later, Vicente-Hernandez, driving a 1999 Mercury Villager,...

TIFTON — A Tifton agricultural researcher says he has found the solution to the world’s energy crisis through genetic modification and cloning of bacterial organisms that can convert bio-mass into hydrocarbons on a grand scale. The local researcher believes his groundbreaking discovery could result in the production of 500 to 1,000 barrels of hydrocarbon fuel per day from the initial production facility. The hydrocarbon fuel — commonly known as oil or fossil fuel when drilled — will require no modification to automobiles, oil pipelines or refineries as they exist today and could forever end the United States’ dependence on foreign...

Moscow, March 18 (RIA Novosti) Russia has said that the recent violence in Tibet is linked with the recognition by some states of the independence of Serbia's breakaway province, Kosovo. In an interview published Tuesday in the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the recognition of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence by many countries, including the US and the majority of the European Union (EU) states, had 'already reverberated in many regions.' He said that the Kosovo issue was linked to recent riots in Tibet and demands for greater autonomy by ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. 'There are...

Obama hits traffic snarl That screeching sound that you just heard on the expressway to the White House is the brakes on Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign bus. And the foot on the brake pedal is that of the man who Obama credits as being his spiritual leader, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was pastor of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ that Obama and his family attend. Wright has started what may well be a full-blown pileup for Obama’s campaign, which until now had been speeding toward the Democratic nomination despite some political fender scratching when he passed his chief...

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- I met Bonnie Turner seven years ago when I was looking for a puppy. There was just simply no one better to turn to than the eccentric grandmother who loved animals so much that her 86-acre North Georgia farm was home to donkeys, goats, high-priced show dogs and even a few wayward deer. On Saturday, nothing was left of that bucolic sanctuary after a 130-mph tornado ravaged it. Bonnie died, thrown 50 feet from her home as her husband Michael cried out her name, their neighbors Joe and Jamie Wheeler said. Her death has shaken me....

March 14, 2008 Echols County - A bootleg liquor operation in South Georgia has been put out of commission. Echols County Sheriff's Office discovered two moonshine stills Wednesday. Sheriff Randy Courson says they located the stills on the Wolf Bay Hunting Club Property just off of Highway 84. Together the stills produce about 130 gallons of liquor. They estimate they'd get $35.00 a gallon if sold. They say the stills are so dangerous and dirty that the best way to get rid of them is to blow them up. The GBI, DNR, and the Department of Revenue was brought in...

DULUTH, Ga. -- The story of a Gwinnett County woman who became known as the "Runaway Bride" is the subject of a musical that debuts tonight in the town where the drama unfolded. The show called "Runaway Bride" is at the 267-seat Red Clay Theatre in Duluth. The theater opened less than two years ago in a remodeled building that was once a church and is owned by the city of Duluth. It was almost three years ago when then-32-year-old Jennifer Wilbanks disappeared while jogging a few days before her lavish wedding. The Atlanta suburb was turned upside down as...

NASHVILLE — Positions taken by the Tennessee and Georgia legislatures over the years sometimes were at odds with lawmakers’ current-day stances on an old dispute over the states’ boundary, records show. Georgia lawmakers, who are trying to reopen a controversy over an erroneous 1818 survey that set today’s border, say Peach State officials always have rejected and never officially accepted the boundary. But records and news accounts show the Georgia House of Representatives only 36 years ago acknowledged the very same border lawmakers reject today. “(M)embers of this body do hereby go on record as approving the boundary line currently...

The United States and Georgia advised Russia on Tuesday against supplying arms to separatists in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, a move that Russia ruled out for now.

One state representative would lose a mile of his district along the Georgia state line from Red Clay Historical Area to the town of Copperhill if politicians in the Peach State are successful in an efforts to move the state boundaries a mile north. District 22 State Rep. Eric Watson said Friday Georgians are forcing the Tennessee legislators into taking a firm stand against redrawing the border between the two states. “It’s a lawyer’s issue is all it is,” Watson said. “They tried it with North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and now Tennessee.” A joint resolution, HJR 919, by Rep....

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Does the Confederate battle flag represent heritage or hatred? The answer is yes. It represents a heritage that included hatred.

Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia has called upon the international community to recognize its independence. In the opinion of the parliament the self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia, "the Kosovo precedent presents a convincing argument" for recognition of its own independence. Later this week, Abkhazia, another pro-Russian territory attempting to break ties with Tbilisi, is expected to follow suit. RFE/RL's North Caucasus Service spoke with Eduard Kokoity, the de facto president of South Ossetia, to explain the reasoning behind the parliament's measure. "Considering the precedent created by the arguments that served as basis for the declaration of Kosovo's independence --...

State agriculture official accused of horse abuse By Parish Howard| Morris News Service Friday, February 29, 2008 LOUISVILLE, Ga. --- About two dozen horses that disappeared from a state-quarantined Georgia pasture this year are suspected of being illegally transported to South Carolina, where an investigation has led to the arrests of three people, including a state agriculture official. Since October, state inspectors have made at least three trips to the pasture to take the most infirm horses to critical care centers. James W. Trexler, an assistant commissioner in the South Carolina Department of Agriculture; his brother Terry A. Trexler; and...

CANTON, Ga. — A school bus has overturned in Georgia's Cherokee County, and authorities say two students are in critical condition. The bus lost control Monday morning on Highway 140 near Canton, about 40 miles north of Atlanta. Cherokee County 911 Center Supervisor Greg Argo said that 28 other students suffered minor injuries.

A Georgia man was arrested for murder after he allegedly shot and killed a motorcyclist who he said was following his teenage daughters home from a Target store, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Richard Harold Gear's two daughters, ages 17 and 19, called their 45-year-old father from their cell phones to tell him they were being followed, the paper reported. When they got home their father was at the end of their driveway with a pistol, police told the newspaper.

ATLANTA — Chattanooga city officials waded into the border war between Tennessee and Georgia Wednesday when they delivered about 2,000 bottles of water to lawmakers in the drought-parched Peach State. Dressed in a coonskin hat and 19th century frontiersman garb, Matt Lea, special assistant to Mayor Ron Littlefield, described the gesture as “a humorous political joke.” But Georgia Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, said lawmakers accepted the bottled water as “a small down payment on the billions of gallons of Georgia water that flows from our creeks and streams into the Tennessee River every year.” The trip was billed as a...

A man is facing a murder charge after authorities say he shot and killed a motorcyclist who followed his daughters home from a department store. Richard Harold Gear, 45, claimed he was acting in self-defense when he shot Bryan Joseph Mough around 6:45 p.m. Monday as Mough drove his motorcycle past Gear's house, Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry said. The daughters, ages 17 and 19, had called their father on a cell phone to tell him they were being followed, Berry said. As they arrived home, Gear was waiting at the end of his driveway with a pistol, Berry said....

JIA FIGURES DON'T ADD UP ATLANTA – According to Senator Jeff Chapman (R-3rd District), the Jekyll Island Authority (JIA) has withheld important financial information from its public documents prior to its 2007 annual report. In an effort to validate some claims made by the JIA, Senator Chapman researched information in the State Archives which could not be obtained from the JIA. After further review by accounting experts, it was discovered that by cross-referencing State audit reports by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts against public financial reports published by JIA, the figures did not match. “We have long been...

“Give Our Georgia Friends A Drink Day” Proclaimed The city of Chattanooga, facing a possible Georgia land grab as part of an effort to get access to the Tennessee River, is sending a truck load of bottled water to Atlanta. Mayor Ron Littlefield said the water will be delivered on Wednesday by his aide Matt Lea wearing a coonskin cap. The mayor has officially proclaimed Feb. 27, 2008, as “Give our Georgia Friends a Drink Day.” The proclamation comes as a result of the Georgia Legislature passing a joint resolution that seeks to pursue reestablishing the boundary between Georgia and...

Years ago a Georgia planner joked, half seriously, that the Peach State should just “stick a straw” in the Tennessee River to bring water to thirsty Atlanta. The analogy may turn out to be easier than anyone thought. Regional cavers are suggesting on their blogs that Georgia take advantage of Tennessee River water backed up years ago by TVA dams into Nickajack Cave and some connected caverns. They say water captured from the Tennessee River flows underground into Georgia and Alabama. If engineers could drill in, then courts might have to decide if the water is groundwater or impounded Tennessee...

Valdosta - A stalled housing project at Moody Air Force Base may soon be finished. Congressman Jack Kingston confirms the Air Force signed a letter of intent with a new contractor to finish work on the Moody Family Housing project. US Senator Johnny Isakson says he expects a contract to be finalized by the end of the month. That's good news for dozens of area sub-contractors who are still owed millions of dollars for their work. American Eagle, owned by the Carabetta Group, was hired to construct 600 new homes for the airmen stationed at Moody Air Force Base. Work...

February 21, 2008 Dougherty County -- A Dougherty County woman is arrested for running over her cousin with a car-- twice. Investigators say 24-year-old Vondrameke Polk and Lazzora McCoy were fighting at a relative's house on Pinson Road. That's when McCoy chased Polk out of the house with a knife. Police say McCoy jumped on the hood of Polk's car and broke the windshield, and when she fell off, Polk ran over her leg. Then, she then backed up and ran over it again. Polk is charged with aggravated assaulted and aggravated battery. McCoy is in fair condition with a...

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. -- Clayton County public schools are on the verge of losing their accreditation, a move that could put scholarships, colleges acceptances and key education funding at risk for the system's more than 50,000 students. A review team from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools recommended today that the suburban county be stripped of its accreditation in September if the system doesn't undertake a host of changes, including a shakeup of the "dysfunctional" school board. Citing "a conclusion that the effectiveness of the Clayton County Board of Education is fatally flawed" the report recommends suspending the accreditation...

What killed Badri Patarkatsishvili? As the police scour his home for clues and a pathologist conducts a post-mortem examination, conspiracy theorists will point to the company he kept on the day he died. On Tuesday afternoon, hours before his death, Patarkatsishvili was with Boris Berezovsky at the law offices of Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general, in the City. Berezovsky is at the centre of London-based opposition to Russian president Vladimir Putin's government and on Tuesday he, Patarkatsishvili and their friend Yuli Dubov swore witness statements related to various cases in the former Soviet Union involving seizure of assets and...