Ken Stanford

U.S. Representative Nathan Deal plans a news conference in Gainesville Friday and is expected to announce plans to run for governor... saying he began strongly thinking about running for the office after Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle - an early Republican favorite - withdrew for health reasons.

North Georgia Tech in Clarkesville led technical colleges in the Gainesville area in spring student enrollment increases this year.

Sixty percent of Americans live in areas with unhealthy air pollution levels, despite a growing green movement and more stringent laws aimed at improving air quality, the American Lung Association said in a report released Wednesday.

A 23-month-old Texas toddler became the first confirmed swine flu death outside of Mexico as authorities around the world struggled to contain a growing global health menace that has also swept Germany onto the roster of afflicted nations. Officials say the death was in Houston.

The Georgia Supreme Court has overturned the guilty verdict in the case of the convicted of seriously injuring Hall County drug agent Mark Thomason by striking the officer with his car during an arrest attempt.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says $3 million to complete a study on managing the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, Flint River basin is part of $293 million the Mobile, Ala., district receives in federal stimulus funds.

With concerns rising over the outbreak of swine flu, Gov. Sonny Perdue has signed a bill that gives him the power to declare a ``pandemic influenza'' state of emergency.

Hopeful signs that the worst may be over for the economy boosted Americans' moods in April, sending a closely watched barometer of sentiment to the highest level since November.

The Georgia school board has approved $760 million in federal stimulus funds for special education programs and Title I schools institutions in low-income rural and inner city areas.

It'll be "lights out" at the emergency room at Lanier Park Hospital at midnight tonight when the ER is closed.