Court appearance today for man charged in missing hiker case

61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton will make his first court appearance today in north Georgia's Blairsville, to answer to the charge of kidnapping with bodily injury. Hilton is charged in the case of hiker Meredith Emerson, who's been missing since last Tuesday when she went for a hike in Vogel State Park near Blood Mountain.

Only trained search and rescue personnel and law enforcement will be involved in today's search, which is now being expanded to a five-county area from north Georgia to metro Atlanta.

Hilton was found and taken into custody in the metro Atlanta area Friday night-—he was charged in the case Saturday. Emerson's dog was recovered safely on Friday, when it was found wandering in a grocery store parking lot in Cumming. Police found some of Emerson's personal effects on Friday, including blood-stained clothing.

Authorities also said Sunday there may be a connection between the Emerson case and the disappearance and presumed killings of a elderly couple in North Carolina last October.

Union County schools closed a third straight day

The cold weather of the week across the state will keep students in extreme north Georgia's Union County home for a third straight day. Students there were supposed to return to class on Wednesday for the start of the new semester. However, snow that fell in the area combined with single-digit overnight temperatures forced closure of the school system. Warmer temperatures are being forecast for the state over the weekend.

Cott beverages not feeling the drought

(Supplychainer.com)

Soft-drink maker Cott, with bottling plants in Columbus and Blairsville, says cutbacks in water usage aren't leaving them dry-mouthed.

CEO Brent Willis, says their type of manufacturing puts back almost as much water it uses:

“It's reverse osmosis water, so it's very clean by the time we're done with it, so it's runoff. And that water then flows back into the Chattahoochee River and is recycled. So 95-percent of the water we pull into the plant goes back into the ecosystem, and the remainder goes into our product.”

Willis says the Columbus site sells about 3-million-gallons of cola and fruit-flavored concentrates annually to 60 countries.

The Blairsville plant makes close to 24-million-gallons of bottled water for major clients, Walmart among them.

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