Richmond County, GA | featured news

 
After making a public plea last week for towel donations, The Salvation Army said it has received more than 600 at the Augusta shelter.
The organization said the towels were needed to help with the more than 100 people who shower at the shelter daily.
“Something as basic as a towel can help restore dignity to an individual and hope for a family in need,” Capt. Philip Canning, Augusta area commander, said in the news release last week.

Shipments of liquid nuclear waste from Canada to Savannah River Site have been suspended until early 2017.
The Department of Justice and lawyers for various public interests groups seeking a full environmental impact statement reached the agreement, according to a news release from one of the organizations, SRS Watch. Shipments of the high-level nuclear waste will be postponed until February while the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia considers a lawsuit filed by the environmental groups.

Two Grovetown High School students are facing charges for having alcohol at school Thursday.
Columbia County sheriff’s deputies were called to the school about 8:30 a.m. after school administration learned that a student had a cup of alcohol on the grounds.
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A Columbia County inmate is facing an additional charge after flooding his cell on Sunday.
Patrick O’Ryan Ball, 24, was booked into the detention center Sept. 8 on charges of battery and theft by taking.
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Lane closures are coming to construction zones on Mike Padgett Highway and Jimmie Dyess Parkway/Belair Road, according to a news release.
Motorists are advised to slow down when approaching work zones and allow extra distance between vehicles; read signs while obeying crew flaggers.

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A young Columbia County woman who was driving under the influence when she crashed, causing a close friend to suffer a traumatic brain injury, pleaded guilty Monday.
Sommer L. Collins, 21, pleaded in Columbia County Superior Court to serious injury by vehicle, a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison. But with the victim’s mother speaking in court Monday against any incarceration, as well as Collins’ remorse and care for the victim during his hospitalization, Collins was sentenced to five years probation with two-six months incarceration.

Lindsay Girosky was about to call it quits.
With less than four hours to submit her Teacher of the Year essay, Girosky’s computer crashed, leaving the Lake Forest Hills Elementary teacher with little chance of meeting the deadline.
“I thought about giving up,” she said. “I considered throwing in the towel and not pushing through. However, after whining for 30 minutes, I thought back to what I always teach my students – how I tell them to never quit.”

 
 
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A jury evenly split between men and women was selected Monday to decide the trial of a Georgia man charged with murder after his toddler son died two years ago while left in the back of a hot SUV.
 
Justin Ross Harris is charged with malice murder and other crimes in the June 2014 death of his 22-month-old son, Cooper. Prosecutors have said Harris, 35, exchanged lewd text messages during the hours the boy sweltered in the parked vehicle outside his father’s metro Atlanta workplace.
 

Augusta Mayor Pro Tem Grady Smith spent the weekend at University Hospital after a fall late Friday.
“I think I bruised my hip pretty bad,” Smith said.
Smith said he is being released Monday to a rehabilitation facility where he’ll spend about a week getting back on his feet.
Smith is in his late 60s and has suffered nerve damage and had to have some toes amputated due to diabetes.
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A 63-year-old Augusta man who admitted he sexually assaulted a mentally disabled relative pleaded guilty Monday.
Ronald Harris pleaded in Richmond County Superior Court to incest and exploitation of a disabled adult. Additional charges of rape, aggravated sodomy and aggravated sexual battery were dismissed as part of the plea negotiation.
Assistant District Attorney Hank Syms asked Judge Sheryl B. Jolly to impose a prison term of 20 years while defense attorney Benjamin Stewart asked Jolly to limit the sentence to 17 years.