Augusta, Chatham County | featured news

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian government forces pushed into the ancient town of Palmyra, where Islamic State militants appeared on the verge of collapse Thursday, while in Iraq, a military spokesman announced the start of a long-awaited operation to recapture the IS-held northern city of Mosul.

WASHINGTON — The U.S.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — A U.N. war crimes court convicted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of genocide and nine other charges on Thursday for orchestrating a campaign of terror that left 100,000 people dead during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, the worst carnage in Europe since World War II.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Expanded health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's signature legislative legacy, will cost the government more, according to an official study released Thursday. Still, on balance, the measure more than pays for itself.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the health care law will cost $1.34 trillion over the coming decade, $136 billion more than the CBO predicted a year ago. That 11 percent hike is mostly caused by higher-than-expected enrollment in the expanded Medicaid program established under the law.

A Georgia sheriff has charged nine people with murder after a fight between two high school girls escalated into a neighborhood street brawl with a mob wielding baseball bats and knives — and one driver charging at people with a car — before a teenager was fatally stabbed in the neck.
“This is one of the most senseless murders that we’ve had,” Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree said in a phone interview Thursday. “Before this escalates and becomes the norm, we want to take a hard stance and say we are not going to tolerate this in our community.”

Senior Citizens, Inc.

The last time Tybee Island Mayor Jason Buelterman delivered a state of the city address, the city was in the midst of trying to build a new police station to replace the old, crumbling station on the island’s north end.

ATLANTA — Recordings from police body cameras or dashboard cameras in patrol cars will only be filed for six months under legislation approved by the General Assembly on Thursday.
However, if the recording is important to a criminal investigation, shows a car wreck or filmed an arrest or alleged officer’s use of force, then the video will be kept for 30 months.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Republican Gov. Mike Pence signed a bill into law Thursday making Indiana the second state to ban abortions because of fetal genetic abnormalities such as Down syndrome.Pence signed the measure just hours ahead of his deadline to take action on the proposal approved by the Republican-dominated Legislature two weeks ago, the governor's office said. It is due to take effect in July, but Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky said it will ask a court to block the measure before that can happen.