The bad economy didn't prevent a banner year for tourism in Columbus. WGPB's John Sepulvado explains.
One point one million visitors came to Columbus in 2008, according to a Columbus State University study. on average, the visitors spent almost 365 dollars ---It is the first time the area has cracked the million visitor threshold.
Peter Bowden, with the Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau says local leaders were able to see the poor economy coming and adjust it's strategy.
"I think one of the key things we did is getting out in front of gas prices," says Bowden. "We were doing staycations before anyone knew what a stay cation was. "
Tourism is the second largest industry in Georgia, key to keep arts and cultural and even recreational enties strong as a way to draw people.
Many other caluclations around the state are not out yet. As for Bowden, he says if the same number of visitors come to Columbus this year, he'll be happy. After all, he adds---in this economy flat is the new up.
Firefighter walking in front of the inferno, which had been JAG headquarters at Fort Benning. (Photo: The Bayonet)
A woman accused of setting a fire that burned down the Judge Advocate General's office at Fort Benning has been denied bond.
U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth issued the ruling on Friday against Shawana Topekia Pierce, a Fort Benning employee.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Flanagan said Pierce knew she was a suspect in a theft of government property case and that files about her were in the office at the time of the Feb. 6 fire.
The structure was totally destroyed in the blaze.
Defense attorney Mike Reynolds argued that while the accusations against Pierce are serious, they don't make her a flight risk.
Faircloth said he's concerned that Pierce had packed her car before she was arrested, making it appear she was ready to flee. He ordered her held until her next court appearance on Thursday.
Information from: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
(AP)
Click here for more GPB News coverage of this story.
Officials in western Georgia say they have a novel way to boost voter turnout on Election Day.
Muscogee County’s Board of Elections and Registrations, together with the local Health Department are taking part in a nationwide “Vote and Vax” campaign. The program was launched in the summer of 2006 and voting officials hope it will draw more voters to the polls by offering flu vaccinations.
Nancy Boren is Muscogee County’s voter registrar:
"The Health Department and the Board of Elections decided to team together to have the elderly and those in need of a flu shot to get their flu shot at the same time that they vote."And, Boren says, four early-voting stations in Columbus will be the first to administer those shots, from October twenty-seventh to the thirtieth.
"You do not have to vote to get a shot, nor do you have to get a shot to vote, so, while they will be in the same area, there will be a separation between the two."Health officials add that only people of voting age will be eligible to receive the immunization, but that age-appropriate shots are available at local health departments.
In western Georgia, Columbus officials say they believe their city won’t be included in an upcoming nationwide air-pollution report.
State and federal Environmental Protection agencies collected data over the past three summers on particulate emissions in Muscogee, Harris, and Chattahoochee counties in Georgia, and Lee and Russell counties in Alabama.
So-called "non-attainment" of federal air-quality standards would limit federal funding for projects, according to Rick Jones, city planning director.
Columbus is trying to cut air pollution, in part, by limiting idling time for diesel-powered city vehicles, which can be a leading source of particulates.
The report is due out in December.
Fort Benning is mobilizing to support evacuation and medical efforts for storm-hit areas.
The Department of Defense has placed the infantry training base, along with five others in the southeas Federal Emergency Management Agency logistics staging areas for supplies and equipment.
Nearby, the Columbus branch of the American Red Cross says they have opened an emergency center for evacuees fleeing areas expecting to be hit by Hurricane Gustav sometime Monday.
The center is located at the Calvary Christian School on 7556 Old Moon Road.
Across the Chattahoochee River in Alabama, Russell County is also preparing, and has designated Chattahoochee Valley Community College in Phenix City as an emergency evacuation center.
Click here for more GPB News coverage on Hurricane Gustav.
The retired chairman and CEO of United Technologies has pledged $2.5 million towards the National Infantry Museum, now under construction at Fort Benning near Columbus.
The pledge by Harry Jack Gray, and his wife, Helen is the project's largest individual donation to date, according to an NIF statement.
Gray received a silver and bronze medal for bravery in two battles in Europe during World War II, including the Battle of the Bulge. The museum's mezzanine area will be named for the 2nd Infantry Regiment, Gray's unit in the war.
Conglomerate United Technologies, among its other industries builds weapons systems for the military, including
Sixty-eight Steinway pianos onstage, as seen from the balcony of the Bill Heard Auditorium of the Columbus RiverCenter For The Performing Arts. (Dave Bender)
A single multi-million dollar donation to Columbus State University in southwest Georgia has allowed Columbus's Schwob School of Music to purchase no less than 68 new Steinway pianos for their students.
(L-R) Fred Cohen, director of the Schwob School of Music, Maxine Schiffman, Rex Whiddon, director of major gifts and university stewardship and former director of the music program at The Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University, onstage with the Steinway pianos. (Dave Bender)
Donor Maxine Schiffman joined CSU officials and Steinway representatives at a ceremony Tuesday, held onstage at Legacy Hall in the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts. 44 upright pianos and 24 grand pianos, valued at more than $2.5 million were on hand, and will be purchased as a result of the gift.
"Steinway pianos are the standard, according to Fred Cohen, director of the Schwob School of Music.
"Offering all our students Steinways – and nothing but Steinways – to practice with and to perform upon throughout their years at Schwob prepares them best for their musical careers.
"Experience with and exploration of the well-maintained Steinways in the RiverCenter will set the level for professional expectations in piano sound throughout the lives of Schwob faculty, students and in the Columbus community," Cohen said in a statement released by CSU.In 2007, CSU named Maxine Schiffman an honorary alumnus, according to the statement.
Georgia Tech teammates wrestle the probe boom and attached robot (seen in the metal cage at the bottom of the image) into place on the underside of the helicopter. (Dave Bender)
Two Georgia universities are among ten college engineering teams from the US and other countries at Fort Benning near Columbus this week. They’re all taking part in an annual aerial robotics competition.
The Georgia Tech helicopter takes flight. In the background is the mock village it will autonomously reconnoiter. (Dave Bender)
The scene: an open field deep in the piney woods of the massive Army infantry training base. The target: hidden in a two-story building, somewhere in a full-sized mock up of a small village.
The teams are here with miniature helicopters and a small fixed-wing plane, chests full of electronic testing and radio gear, and control trucks nearby.
But these aren’t your dad’s old radio-controlled planes: over the next three days they’ll take off and fly their craft, which carry different tries at the same goal: a small, self-guided robot probe.
A team member checks the charge on the internal battery on the robot probe, "Rover," after its sortie. (Dave Bender)
The aircraft drop the robots near the entrance to the targeted building. From there, they’ll send back recon data via cameras and microphones -- all without human intervention, and in 15 minutes.
Georgia Tech team member Nimrod Roos described the scene, as their gold and white helicopter buzzed by just a hundred feet overhead after takeoff:
“There’s a bunch of waypoints around, and it’s basically flying the waypoints, and this would represent if you were flying to your destination… they want to see that they can actually give us points, and we can follow them and traverse.”GT and the other teams have four tries to win the $80,000 grand prize. But Roos says getting the prize will take a very clever robot:
“We want some kind of an autonomous vehicle that can go in, survey the site and make it’s own decisions about where to look for stuff.”
“We successfully released the Rover; it came out, unfortunately, on the outside – but it did what it’s supposed to be doing. Immediately after the drop, it self-righted itself, and then started doing a 360-degree panorama shot for the first glimpse of where we are – but it was on the outside, so [there was] no chance of getting a picture done.”
A woman diagnosed with HIV has been sentenced to three years in prison for spitting in another woman's face and proclaiming "I hope you get AIDS."
The woman, 43-year-old Audrey D. Lewis, pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated assault in a Columbus courtroom.
Police said a 24-year-old went to lock the apartment door of a friend who was being arrested Oct. 3 for simple battery against Lewis. Assistant District Attorney Doug Breault said Lewis approached the woman and the two began to quarrel.
Breault said Tuesday that Lewis will have to serve the full sentence because she has three prior felonies.
Defense attorney Judy Dunlap said the three years was unwarranted. She said she was hoping for about three months.
(The Associated Press)
In western Georgia, an important vote easily passed last night that would significantly beef up police and public services.
Columbus voters at 48 polling stations across the city gave the thumbs up for The Local Option Sales Tax – LOST by a 61 percent majority.
City officials estimate that the one-percent tax will generate some $36 million dollars annually.
Police will receive about 70-percent of the funds. They say they plan to use it to add 100 beat officers, raise pay and add precincts.
The remaining 30 percent is slated for roads and related public works projects.
An insurance industry survey in April said car thefts dropped statewide in 2007 -- except in Columbus -- which topped the state in per-capita auto theft.
Read more about that survey here. Columbus Police Department crime statistics are here.
A similar tax proposal was voted down four years ago.
Columbus City Manager Isaiah Hugley told the Ledger-Enquirer newspaper that Tuesday's victory was largely due to the backing of Mayor Jim Wetherington, who served as chief of police for over a decade.
Click here for more GPB News coverage of events in Columbus and western Georgia.
Phenix City, Ala., resident Michael Knighton fires his Ruger pistol at an indoor firing range at Shooters Columbus gun shop in Columbus, Ga. The gun emits a flash of light as the bullet leaves the barrel. June 18th, 2008. (Dave Bender)
The United States Supreme Court this week ruled that Americans have the right to bear firearms for self-defense. In Georgia, groups for and against a recent ruling allowing guns in more places are stocking up on legal ammo.
Alice Johnson of Georgians For Gun Safety says she foresees challenges across America in the wake of the five-to-four ruling:
"The decision is going to lead to lots and lots and lots of litigation around the country related to local and state statutes that are in place now, and we're a little worried, I think, about what the outcome of some of that litigation will be."And she says some of that litigation will likely be over House Bill 89, which goes into effect this coming Tuesday.
"Perhaps the Supreme Court may be implying that House Bill 89 has some constitutional issues... you know, they said, 'sensitive places where firearms don't belong,' and they left that open, and that may, in fact mean that that guns on public; guns in restaurants that serve alcohol -- may be subject to some judicial scrutiny."One supporter of the federal decision agrees with Johnson that lawsuits may soon be ricocheting through the courts -- but in the opposite direction.
"If anything, it will expand or obviate the need for HB89, because as this Supreme Court ruling grows roots and we start to determine how it affects a variety of laws across the nation, there'll have to be a lot of laws that will have to be repealed, quite frankly, as being unconstitutional."The State Senate will also be soon considering the ramifications of the rulings:
"In any law, there's a lot of gray area. And this law has not been tried in the courts, there has not been an arrest, it has not been appealed and there's not been an oversight of judges that have reviewed it and said whether it is a legal process or not."But that could all change very soon, as state representatives, politicians and pressure groups across the country take sharp legal aim.
The FBI and Columbus Police announced Wednesday that the reward for information leading to the capture of Michael Jason Registe was increased from $5,000 to $20,000. Police said Registe is wanted in the shooting deaths of 21-year-old Randy Newton Jr., and 20-year-old Bryan Kilgore. Both men were gunned down on July 20th, 2007 in the parking lot of Cross Creek Apartments. FBI Senior Agent Donnie Green said he believes someone know Registe's whereabouts, but won't come forward. Information from: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. (With The Associated Press)
Michael Jason Registe. (FBI)
A renewed effort is under way to capture a man wanted in a nearly 1-year-old double homicide case in Columbus.
The FBI website page on Registe warns that he should be considered armed and dangerous.
(Courtesy Clean Air Campaign)
Soaring gas prices are making carpooling an appealing option to more and more Georgians. Columbus in southwestern Georgia has limited mass transit, but is helping people cope with pain at the pump by promoting carpooling.
The Clean Air Campaign and the Air Quality Alliance of the Chattahoochee Valley offer the money-saving measure:
“There are several options available to people who would like alternative means of commuting to their job, and there are options for commuters who are currently driving alone, and would like to begin using a clean-commute alternative," according to Tracy Hall of the Columbus City Planning Department. "There are also rewards available for people who are already carpooling."Hall says carpoolers can get a monthly gas card worth forty to sixty dollars, by logging their travel distance through a website.
Maj. Shane Sims goes through a final checklist with the driver of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle on the testing pad at Fort Benning, a day before trucking the 25-ton tracked vehicles into Columbus on Thursday, June 5, 2008. (Dave Bender)
Two Bradley Fighting Vehicles – tank-like personnel carriers – clanked along in downtown Columbus traffic on Thursday, in order to test out hi-tech camera gear.
A Bradley Fighting Vehicle pulls into traffic in downtown Columbus for a test run. The tank is sandwiched between two of the test team's pickup trucks to minimize the chance of hitting a civilian vehicle , June 5, 2008. (Dave Bender)
Cpl. Jason Wade of Columbus State University police watched as the vehicles rolled by his post near a parking garage on Front Street:
“That's something downtown's never seen before. It's pretty neat! Couldn't imagine being stopped at a red light and seeing this big 50-caliber gun stuck in my rear view mirror (laughs).He's watching an army test to better protect soldiers out on patrol from bombs, bullets and the mayhem on Iraqi streets.
“It's kind of overwhelming at this point, because there's so many noncombatants that are there, and a lot of them have cameras, so it's hard to distinguish an actual video camera or something like that. Also, you're trying to pick people apart in groups, and by the time you do, you're already passed them and moved on to the next group.”Jolley has to pick out eight soldiers who are wearing street clothes, and posing as insurgents. They're brandishing long black tubes as make-believe weapons, and hiding in the deep shadows of windows and doorways, and behind bushes and foliage.
Interviewer:
What about the infrared signatures?
Jolley:
“Infrared's difficult during the day, because the sun heats up the surrounding areas so much, that people don't stand off against the background as well as they do during the nighttime.”
“Our job here is to work as an enemy for this exercise, so that they can see if the new camera systems they're trying to incorporate into the Bradleys' are effective. Other people out here have mock rifles, so that the Bradley crews can differentiate between what weapons we're using.”But despite the snafus the army says it wants all the feedback – positive and especially negative - from the camo-clad troops, so they can fix the bugs before the system is deployed in Baghdad's back alleys.
Interviewer:After the Bradleys are trucked back to Fort Benning, and the field reports are filed, Sims says additional system testing and adding improvements will take place at the Army's armor center at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
“You're running through downtown Baghdad; a kid runs up with spray paint, gets two cameras out; someone throws a grenade on it – you can blow out a camera...”
Sims:
“You're very attuned into what some of the issues are. those are very good questions, and those are issues we're all addressing in this experiment.”
The stars and stripes, and a bouquet of tulips in a vase alongside gravestones at Fort Benning's military cemetery, on Memorial Day, May 26, 2008. (Dave Bender)
“In our hearts we know that we can't fully discharge our solemn obligation to these men and women, with mere words and gestures. for they did not die for words or wreaths alone; they died to preserve the freedoms that we so much enjoy.”A color guard fired off three rounds saluting the fallen, a lone bugler played taps and the visitors walked among the thousands of gravestones, in remembrance.
Perdue and officials at the groundbreaking ceremony. (Dave Bender)
Governor Sonny Perdue turned the first shovelful of earth for a planned medical sciences technical training center in Columbus Tuesday.
Perdue was joined by a host of state and local officials at the festive ceremony, which was held under a large tent in a field near the Columbus Technical College.
Perdue touted the timing of building the Dr. Robert L. Wright, Jr. Health Sciences Center, in conjunction with nearby Fort Benning's expected expansion, and influx of soldiers and families in the next few years:
"It means the spouse of a soldier who relocated to for t benning will have the opportunity to earn a degree and possibly find a nursing job right here."The State of Georgia is paying $16 million of the estimated $21 to $25 million dollars the nursing and health sciences training center will cost.
Sen. Chambliss addresses a sparse crowd of convention delegates at the Columbus Civic Center, on Friday, May 16th, 2008. Many more arrived for Saturday's session. (Dave Bender)
"We've got some work to do. We've got some proving to do,'' said U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland of Sharpsburg. "The base didn't get lost. We got lost.''Governor Sonny Perdue urged Republicans to avoid poll-driven "gimmicks'' and suggested there was a damaging disconnect between party leaders in Washington and conservative states like Georgia.
"I've never seen debate stifled that much,'' said state committee member Brian Laurens, of Ellijay, who said he's been involved in state conventions since 2002.
Turnout by delegates on Friday afternoon's 2 p.m. opening session was light; many arrived later in the evening, and on Saturday. (Dave Bender)
U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss on Friday said he'd warned President Bush that vetoing the farm bill could hurt presumptive GOP nominee John McCain in reliably Republican states this fall.
"If they get turned off by Republicans it's going to make it tough for John to get those votes," Chambliss told reporters following his speech.
Chambliss, a loyal Bush ally who is running for re-election, said he told the president that that with his low approval ratings he should avoid alienating voters in agriculture-rich states in the South and the Midwest that have supported him.
White House officials have suggested Bush will veto the bill.
Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, defended the recently adopted bill from critics who said it is heavy on rich subsidies to wealthy farmers.
"That's ridiculous," Chambliss said. He said the bulk of the farm bill spending went to nutrition programs, like food stamps and school lunches. And he argued that individual farmers earning more than $750,000 a year don't qualify for federal aid, under the bill.
Chambliss was asked about the five-year $300 billion farm bill by reporters but he made no mention of it in his speech to the party faithful at the Columbus Civic Center for the kickoff of the state party's convention. Also missing from the speech: Any reference to President Bush.
Bush's dismal approval ratings have many election-bound Republicans steering clear.
Chambliss did talk up McCain and urged Georgians to unite behind the Arizona senator. Georgia went for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in the Feb. 5 primary. Huckabee drew strong support from independents and religious conservatives.
Chambliss made a case for his own re-election to a second-term by issuing a dire warning about what the nation will be like if Democrats win a handful of additional seats in the U.S. Senate. Under Senate rules, Republicans will lose the ability to block the Democrats' agenda.