Spending cuts ordered by Gov. Sonny Perdue last week will close the medical examiner’s office at the Northwest Crime Lab in Summerville at the end of the year, a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Friday. “The medical examiner’s operation will be shut down in Summerville and moved to Atlanta,” John Bankhead said. Three of the five staff positions will be offered transfers to Atlanta, and two positions will be eliminated, he said, including the position of medical examiner that has been vacant for a month. “The forensics part (of the lab’s work) is not affected at this time,” he said. But he noted that state agencies are already considering additional expense reductions for fiscal year 2010.

(Rome News-Tribune)