Jan 30-- State budget cuts are reaching far and wide. State senator Jack Hill of Reidsville, chairman of the senate appropriations committee, reports some state jobs may be at stake in the coming year as departments use a combination of furloughs and job cuts to meet five percent budget reductions. Senator Hill says funds for one job at the Vidalia Onion Research Project in Toombs and Tattnall counties have been abolished. He also says the Sylvania Welcome Center has been targeted for closure and that local welcome center funding in several communities is being eliminated.

Jan 30-- Brewton Parker College is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year and is getting off to a strong start on its second century with nearly $3 million dollars in gifts from college supporters. School president Dr. David Smith says a million dollar donation will enable the school to pay off the new student activities center. The college is also naming the gymnasium in the activities center in honor of Hugh and Jim L. Gillis in Soperton. A new book by Brewton Parker librarian Ann Turner chronicles the college's first hundred years and tells how the school has overcome adversity to continue its growth. Meanwhile, Dr. Smith says the school's on-campus enrollment is continuing a four-year upward trend.

Jan 29-- Ask any police officer, and they'll tell you the most dangerous mission they engage in daily is calls to family fights, or domestic violence. The volume of calls in this area is so great that government officials in Vidalia, Montgomery County and Truetlen County applied for and received a half-million dollar grant to build a domestic violence shelter in Vidalia for abused women and their children. Groundbreaking for what is being called "The Refuge Domestic Violence Shelter" was held Thursday afternoon. Sara Swida, formerly with Women in Need of Gods Shelter in Dublin, started the shelter movement in Vidalia several years ago and found willing volunteers in Refuge director Vicki McKee and board chairperson Karen Brantley. A temporary local shelter opened in December and McKee says she can see a better life for its clients. As for Brantley, she hopes troubled women will make use of the shelter's services in terms of counseling and other forms of assistance. Captain Kevin Collins of the Vidalia police department is a Refuge board member and he notes a local shelter means residents, who used to be moved to Dublin, can maintain their jobs and their children can remain enrolled in local schools. The new shelter will accommodate 24 residents and should be open this Summer.

Jan 28-- It took local authorities only four hours Wednesday afternoon to locate a baby whom they said had been taken forcibly from his mother's home in eastern Toombs County by the baby's father. Toombs County Sheriff's investigator Jay Page says the man identifid as Noe Guttierrez was arrested in Truetlen County by Sheriff Tommy Corbin as the man arrived at a relative's house. The baby was unharmed and was returned to his mother, according to Page. He says the man is being charged with burglary and is under investigation regarding the abduction of the child.

Jan 28-- Meadows Regional Medical Center made over $400,000 in profit in December and is reporting a profitable first half of its fiscal year. Since July, the hospital has a net income of over $1.6 million according to information provided to the medical center's holding board Tuesday night. The hospital has seen increased use of its maternity ward and emergency room. The board also approved capital expenditures of nearly $400,000 to buy new lab equipment and pre-natal monitoring systems.

Jan 28-- Homestead exemptions on property taxes in Georgia may help homeowners, but state Senator Jack Hill of Reidsville say the cuts may come home to roost on local school board budgets. The state's 2005 budget is redirecting nearly $380 million away from public schools in order to increase Medicare funding. At the same time, a lower local property tax base will hurt financing of schools and could cause local property tax increases or personnel reductions, according to Hill, who is chairman of the senate appropriations committee.

Jan 28-- The Toombs County Sheriff's office has issued an appeal for the public to be on the lookout for an infant which was allegedly abducted Wednesday afternoon from a house in east Toombs County. Chief Deputy Barry Brown says a nine-month-old Hispanic baby named Junior Guttierrez was taken by force from its mother by the baby's father at 291 Apache Lane east of Lyons. The baby has a birthmark on his right forearm. Officers are looking for a tan 1992 car, make unknown, with Georgia license number 9057 ADW. If you see this car or a Hispanic male with an infant, call the Toombs County Sheriff's office at 526-6778.

Jan 27-- Students at Montgomery County High School showed the most improvement in the area last year in the Georgia High School Graduation Test. Eagle students were the only ones in the immediate area to increase their pass rate in all four areas of testing, i.e., English, math, social studies and science. The pass rate at MCHS increased by seven percent in English and math, by six percent in social studies and by nine percent in science.

The largest decrease in area pass rates last year was at Treutlen High School. State education department reports show Viking students' pass rates went down 14 percent in science, nine percent in social studies, six percent in math and held constant in English.

Vidalia High School pass rates went down in three of four subjects last year according to state reports. Vidalia students increased their pass rate by three percent in social studies, but went down by three percent in English and science, and by two percent in math.

Students at Toombs County High School showed improvement in two areas of testing, but lost ground in the other two. Bulldog students' pass rates were down four percent in math and social studies, but were up by two percent in English and up one percent in science.

Overall, students at all four high schools scored better on their English and math tests, and did poorer on social studies and science tests. Science seems to be a problem at all the schools. For example, 46 percent of all Treutlen students failed their science test, as did 38 percent of Montgomery students, 32 percent of Toombs students and 24 percent of Vidalia students.

Jan 26-- One man is slightly wounded following a shooting Monday afternoon in Toombs County. Sheriff Junior Kight says Richard Galbreath was hit in the shoulder when John Smith of Toombs County shot him with a small caliber pistol. Smith is being charged with aggravated assault, according to Sheriff Kight who says the cause of the shooting is under investigation.