Former AJC editor dies

John Walter, a founding editor of USA Today and former executive editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has died. He was 61. Walter died Thursday at a hospital in Springfield, Mass., from complications of surgery, the Atlanta newspaper reported. Walter was managing editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1989 to 2002.

Major economic investment coming to southeast Georgia

Southeast Georgia is primed to benefit from a major economic investment.

Effingham County’s Industrial Development Authority voted unanimously to approve an offer from a European manufacturing company to base its U.S. headquarters in Springfield, north of Savannah. The deal to be announced Monday wraps-up months of negotiations in which several other states were considered.

John Henry is the Authority’s chief executive officer. He says the deal will be the biggest for the Effingham County area in 20 years:

"We’re looking at about a 215-percent rate of return on tax dollars invested…the public benefit from this will probably be in the hundreds of millions of dollars".

It will also mean hundreds of jobs.

The company makes electronic components. Its name will be revealed in the Monday announcement.