The Chattooga County Grand Jury has indicted a Menlo man for alledgedly raping a woman in 2007. According to Court documents Kristopher Ryan King of a Blowing Springs Road address in Menlo will be tried for rape, aggravated assault under the family violence act and battery. The alledged rape took place on May 26, 2007. The indictment said that King "intentionally caused visible bodily harm" to the victim.
ATLANTA — The Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) announced today that 128,625 laid-off workers filed first-time claims for state unemployment insurance benefits in December, an increase of 174 percent from December of 2007. The metropolitan areas with the highest percentage of increase in claims are Rome, up 351 percent; Dalton, up 349 percent; and Gainesville, up 216 percent. The areas with the smallest increase in claims are Hinesville, up 92 percent; Macon, up 116 percent; and Augusta, up 119 percent.
“Stunning and sobering,” is how State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond described the sharp increase in the number of Georgians filing unemployment insurance claims. “The December claims report confirms the severity of this economic downturn and increases the probability that the current recession will be long and difficult.”
Also, in December, the GDOL processed 19,160 first-time claims for federal extended unemployment benefits, bringing the total to 111,384 since the federal program triggered in Georgia in July 2008. Federal extended benefits are available to jobless workers who have exhausted regular state unemployment compensation.
Thurmond urged jobseekers to continue to look for work, explore training and education opportunities and to make full use of the department’s highly regarded reemployment services programs. He noted that the GDOL was recently awarded the 2008 “Full Employment Award,” by the Oregon-based American Institute for Full Employment (AIFE). The department was recognized as the state employment agency that “best exemplifies commitment and dedication to the re-employment of unemployment insurance claimants through proactive policies and innovative programs.”
Most of the state initial claims were filed by laid-off workers in the manufacturing, construction, and trade industries, along with administrative and support services, including temporary employment agencies.
Mrs. Robinson was born July 25, 1937 in Trion, GA, the daughter of the late Oscar and Jannie Adams Hawkins. She was a homemaker and a member of the Ridgeway Baptist Church. She was preceded in death by a son, James Kenneth Robinson.
Mrs. Robinson is survived by her husband, James Leonard Robinson; granddaughter, April Michele Collins; great-grandchildren, Brenna Alexis Collins and Devon Thomas Kain Collins; sisters, Sara Robinson, Irene Cargle, and Brenda Young; brother, Leonard Hawkins; and several Nieces and Nephews.
Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p. m. Friday, January 16, 2009 from the chapel of Mason Funeral Home with Rev. John Mann officiating.
Mrs. Robinson will be in state at Mason Funeral Home and the family will receive friends from 12:00 noon until 2:00 p. m. Friday, January 16, 2009. In lieu of flowers the family request memorials be made to the American Cancer Society.
A Sylvania agriculture teacher accused by the DeKalb County school board of not properly supervising students was given an eight-point corrective action plan Monday but will keep his job.
The board returned from a more than two-hour closed meeting and voted to allow John Nicholas Hall to keep his job after he serves a 45-day administrative leave without pay that started on Tuesday. It’s a suspension that will equal $13,200 in lost pay, superintendent Charles Warren said.
Hall took a leave of absence for the rest of the school year.
Upon returning to the classroom, Hall is required to visit and document 35 hours of observation in an agribusiness program to be determined by Warren. He is also required to meet with board attorney Donald Sweeney to discuss the liability placed on a board of education and an employee concerning the supervision of students.
Hall – who has about 14 years experience teaching in DeKalb County schools – is also required to attend a professional development activity that covers classroom management each year for the next five years. He is to provide detailed lesson plans for all classes under his supervision upon request. This includes a one-month synopsis and two weeks of lesson plans.
Hall is required to have an evaluation completed by the principal or a central office supervisor each month during next year’s school term. The evaluation must be completed after a classroom observation has taken place.
A letter of reprimand was placed in Hall’s personnel file.
The disciplinary action against Hall comes after DeKalb deputies charged six Sylvania School students on Dec. 9 with allegedly holding three girls against their will and touching them inappropriately through their clothing.
DeKalb School Resource Officer Scott Tarrant arrested the students, ranging from 13-16 in age, at the school. The students’ names were not released because they are minors.
Sheriff Jimmy Harris said five of the students each face sexual abuse and harassment charges. One student was charged with harassment.
Harris said the charges came after an investigation that started in mid-November. He said the charges involve incidents that allegedly happened in the school’s agriculture class since school started in August.
On Nov. 20, an apparent game of strip Uno took place in the same ag department classroom but involved a different class, Harris said.
At the time, Sylvania School principal Westley King said the incident involved the popular card game Uno and the removal of clothing. King said the students were apparently left alone in the agriculture classroom when the game started.
King said it appeared a handful of students were playing the game.
Warren said the action came upon the recommendation of the board’s attorney. He said Warren and the board also discussed pending litigation against the board during the closed meeting.
After the meeting, the board approved a settlement agreement with a support employee. Warren said the agreement has to be approved by a circuit judge before he can discuss it further.
Ft. Payne Times-Journal
Heil officials said Tuesday it will lay off about 100 people this week at its Fort Payne plant.
Officials said the layoffs are due to cities’ budget cuts and the postponement of some planned capital equipment purchases both nationally and globally. The decision comes as the refuse collection vehicle manufacturer looks to reduce costs.
“While conditions at Heil have fortunately not diminished to the extent of most companies, we have seen a recent contraction in all of our market segments,” said Heil president Michael Jobe. “To cope with these new market realities, we are taking proactive steps to help weather the storm.”
According to Heil spokesperson Kristen Simpson, the total workforce at Heil’s Fort Payne facility was 575 in January 2008. She said after the layoffs, it’s 675 employees.
“While these actions are required, it is important to note that our total workforce level is still at an increase well above where we began in 2008. It is comforting to know that our business levels remain in a relatively good position, especially considering the global economic state today versus one that was very strong in January 2008.”
Jobe said Heil is in a strong financial position, but to maintain that level it must take “steps now to ensure we endure what could become one of the most serious recessions in decades.”
In addition to Fort Payne, Heil has manufacturing facilities in Greenville, S.C. and Hillend, Scotland.
Ft. Payne Times-Journal
The Chattooga Indians faced off against Sonoraville in last night’s action….here are the scores:
Varsity Boys – Chattooga 78, Sonoraville 28
Varsity Girls – Sonoraville 54, Chattooga 34
JV Boys – Chattooga 55, Sonoraville 38
JV Girls – No Game
Next game will be this Friday at home against Adairsville
Mr. Jesse Earl Emory, age 79 of Simmons Street in Trion passed away Tuesday January 13 at his residence. Mr. Emory was born on September 14, 1929 in Lenoir County, North Carolina. He was retired from Reigle Textile Corporation where he was cheif of security and was a member and deacon of the Trion First Baptist Church. A Veteran of the United States Navy .Mr. Emory was preceded in death by his daughter Teresa Emory, his son Timothy Emory, his father and mother, William A. Emorya nd Cora Tutton Emory and his brothers Douglas Emory, Charlie Emory and Harry Emory.He is survived by his wife, Margaret Emory of Trion, a sister Edith Smith of North Carolina, and two nieces Erica Yearwood of Cartersville and Elizabeth Carlini of Cartersville, several other nieces and nephews survive.Funeral Services will be held Thursday January 15th at the Erwin-Petitt Funeral Home with Rev. Howard Payne officiating. Interment will follow in the West Hill Cemetery.He will lie in state Thursday from 1:30-2:30 PM at the Funeral Home. Pallbearers: Dickie Anderson, J.R. Pope, Leo Lanier, Clifford Pledger, Dr. Gary Smith and William Henderson. Honorary Pallbearers will be all members of Trion Little League teams that he coached and the deacons of Trion First Baptist Church. In Lieu of flowers the family asked that donations be made to the Trion First Baptist Church building Fund.
Erwin Petitt Funeral Home is in charge of Arrangements for Mr. Emory who passed away on Tuesday.
Two Trion residents have been charged with drug trafficking in Walker County. According to official records from the Walker County Sheriffs Department in LaFayette, 38 year old James Dillard Bryan, Jr. of a Highway 151 address in Trion has been charged with trafficking cocaine, illegal drug or marijuana, trafficking meth and possession of meth. Also 37 year old Katherine Anne Bryan of Trion has been charged with traffic in cocaine, illegal drugs or marijuana, possession of meth and manufacturing of meth. Also, in an unrelated incident, 32 year old Amanda Nichole Burleson of Trion has been charged by Walker County Authorities with possession of meth.
The Walker County Sheriff’s Department is investigating the theft of about 50 bronze vases from graves at LaFayette Memory Gardens. The cemetery is on U.S. 27 about 1.5 miles north of LaFayette.
The vases are valued at $500 each, or $25,000 collectively. Investigators believe they were taken between 2:30 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m. Monday.
Anyone who may have information about this theft is asked to call the Sheriff’s Department at 706-638-1909.
