convicted Wisconsin sex offender is in DeKalb County Jail after he was charged with failure to register while visiting Alabama and a number of other states.

45 year old Dwain Allen Williams is charged with Failure to Register as a Sex Offender, Giving a False ID to Prevent Arrest and Obstruction of Justice -DeKalb County Deputy Tony Blackwell arrested Williams in Kilpatrick.

Sheriff Jimmy Harris said Blackwell spotted Williams recklessly riding a bicycle on the wrong side of the road and stopped him, asking for identification . Harris said that it was soon determined that Williams initially gave a false name and had warrants in Wisconsin for a parole violation.

Williams was released from a Wisconsin prison in February, after serving time for a 3rd Degree Sexual Assault of a 13 year old girl. Since his release, Williams has reportedly been hitchhiking across the United States, eventually making his way to Kilpatrick where his sister lives.

Georgia ranks 42nd on this year’s "Kids Count" report on the welfare of the nation’s children, slipping two places from last year.

The state’s low birth-weight rates worsened, as did the percent of children living in poverty and the percent of children living in a families where no parent has a full-time job. But Georgia did improve in the percentage of high school dropouts, the teen birth rate and the child death rate.

Chattooga County saw an increase in the number of students who graduated from high school on time according to the study.  Also according to the study conducted, Chattooga County saw a decrease in the number of child abuse cases reported.  However, their was an increase in the teen birth rate for girls aged 15-19 and an increase in STD’s for the same age group.

The annual study was released Tuesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. It looks at changes in well being indicators from 2000 to 2006.

New Hampshire topped the list, and Mississippi was ranked last.

A 37-year-old Cedartown woman has been arrested in Alabama and charged with padding her bra with methamphetamine.

DeKalb County, Ala., Sheriff Jimmy Harris says Oralia Ramirez of Cedartown was arrested Tuesday and charged with trafficking in controlled substances.

He says authorities pulled Ramirez over for a traffic violation and searched her car. During a pat down, an officer found a pound of meth hidden in Ramirez’s bra, worth about $13,000.

She was released from the DeKalb County jail Wednesday on $30,000 bond

RNT

An accident on Highway 48 outside of Menlo sent two men to the hospital with injuries. 

According to Trooper Sizemore with the Georgia State Patrol Post in Rome,  63 year old Benji Hardy from Mentone, Alabama was travelling west bound on Highway 48 near the foot of Lookout Mountain when he fell asleep at the wheel ran off the road and struck an embankment.  When Hardy’s Landrover re-entered the roadway he struck a Chrysler 300 driven by 71 year old Joe Wayne Edwards of Tunnel Hill.

Trooper Sizemore said that both men were transported to the Floyd Medical Center with injuries by the Chattooga County EMS.

The Georgia State Patrol post in Rome is reporting an accident this afternoon on Highway 48 near the foot of Lookout Mountain.

According to Trooper Sizemore of the Georgia State Patrol the accident occured when a Landrover, driven by a Mentone, Alabama man, ran off the road and struck an embankment then re-entered the roadway and struck a Chrysler 300 driven by a Tunnel Hill man.  Reportedly, the Mentone man fell asleep at the wheel.

The Georgia State Patrol will release the names of the drivers when families are notified.  Trooper Sizemore said both men were transported to the Floyd Medical Center by Chattooga County EMS.

Chattooga County Public Works director Lamar Canada told AM 1180 News that the Transfer Station , all remote dumpster sites and public works will close Friday at 3PM for the funeral of Bob Dooley.

WSB TV in Atlanta is reporting that New York City is buying one-way plane tickets for homeless families to leave the city and head to Georgia or anywhere else they want to go.

It’s part of a Bloomberg administration program to keep the homeless out of the expensive shelter system, which costs $36,000 a year per family. More than 550 families have left the city since 2007. All it takes is for a relative to agree to take them in.

The city employs a travel agency for domestic travel and the Department of Homeless Services handles international travel.

City officials say there are no limits on where a family can be sent and families can reject the offer.

Families have been sent to 24 states and five continents, mostly to Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas and Puerto Rico.

At least one family picked Paris, France, and New York paid $6,332 for their tickets. Another flew to Johannesburg, South Africa, with the city picking up the tab for the $2,550 tickets.

City officials say none of the relocated families have returned to city shelters.

 A two-vehicle wreck in Mentone on Tuesday afternoon left four injured and forced emergency helicopter landings on or near I-59 to take the victims for treatment.

He said paramedics then took another injured party to a spot just off the I-59 Collinsville interchange, at the intersection of Alabama 68 and County Road 51, where a second LifeSaver helicopter also made an emergency landing for transport.

FT. Payne Times – Journal