Schools Slash Employee Pay

School districts across Georgia are laying off staff and scaling back spending as they cope with millions in budget cuts to state funding. The Fayette County school board has voted to cut employees pay by 4.5 percent this fall. The board voted unanimously Thursday night to slash salaries to fill a $14.5 million budget hole. The 21,000-student district in suburban Atlanta has also cut more than 150 positions.

(Associated Press)

Fayette Co. to teachers: give back raises... please

Fayette County schools are asking teachers to give their pay raises back. School board officials say the 2.5 percent pay increase given last spring amounts to 4 million dollars which could help keep the budget in the black.

Teachers aren't required to comply. The county south of Atlanta has struggled amid declining property taxes and state budget cuts. Another option discussed… slashing costs by furloughing contracted employees such as principals.

Wrestler's death a closed case

The Fayette County Sheriff's Office says it has closed its investigation of the killings at pro wrestler Chris Benoit's suburban Atlanta home. The department says investigators stand by their initial conclusion that Benoit killed his wife and 7-year-old son and then himself last June. A medical examiner was unable to say if steroids played a role in the killings, though suspicions linking Benoir's steroid use have lingered.

Two girls arrested for high school threats

Two girls have been arrested by Peachtree City police on charges of making terroristic threats against students at McIntosh High School. Authorities say the two girls were threatening to take guns to the school, kill students and then themselves. Officials say the girls talked of their plan on the internet and in the community. The 16-year-old is a student at McIntosh, while the 15-year-old was enrolled in Fayette County’s school system, but was being schooled at home.

State lawmaker Dan Lakly dies

Fayette County State Representative Dan Lakly has died at the age of 65. According to House Majority leader Jerry Keen, Lakly had been taken to a local hospital after injuring his arm in a fall over the weekend. Once there, sometime following surgery, he suffered a massive heart attack.

Lakly was a Republican from Peachtree City who served five terms in the Georgia House. Elected to the General Assembly in 1992, Lakly won re-election twice before losing the Republican primary in 1998 to Kathy Cox, who went on to become the current state school superintendent. Lakly re-emerged six years later, taking a House seat when the GOP took control of the chamber.

Lakly was chairman of the House Information and Audits Committee, and vice chairman of the Defense and Veterans Affairs Committee.

Record heat continues across the state

Georgians can expect another day of record high temperatures today, after record-marks were set on Thursday. Augusta was the hottest spot in the state yesterday, posting a mark of 106 degrees. Record-highs in triple digits were posted as well in Athens, Macon, and Atlanta.

For today, parts of central and southeast Georgia are under an extreme heat warning. There is the heat advisory elsewhere, except for the mountains. High temperatures forecast today are expected between 100-105. except for 90's in the mountains and along the coast.

Georgia Power says about five-thousand customers in the metro Atlanta area lost power. Officials say increased demand caused some transformers to burn-out. A bulk of the customers were based south of Atlanta-—near Jonesboro, Fayette County and near Newnan.