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A company hired by the State of Georgia to administer health benefits for low-income patients is sending letters to notify tens of thousands of residents that their private records were exposed on the Internet for nearly seven weeks before the error was caught and corrected, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday. The records of as many as 71,000 adults and children enrolled in the Medicaid or PeachCare for Kids programs were inadvertently posted on Feb. 12, said Amy Knapp, a spokeswoman for the company, WellCare Health Plans Inc., whose headquarters are in Tampa, Fla. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This week the third floor of the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University became a place where lovers were ''secretaries to the wordless moon'' and a ''blue-scooped sky'' was lathered ''with the soap-slip caressing of pot-bellied clouds.'' The occasion was ''A Fine Excess: A Three-Day Celebration of Poetry,'' a conference headlined by three Pulitzer Prize winners: Mark Strand, a former poet laureate of the United States, who won the prize in 1999; W. D. Snodgrass, who won in 1960 for his first book of poetry; and Richard Wilbur, another former poet laureate, who won the Pulitzer twice, in 1957 and 1989. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A narrowly divided Georgia Supreme Court declined Monday to order a new trial for a man sentenced to death in the 1989 murder of an off-duty Savannah police officer, despite recantations by seven of nine witnesses who originally testified against him. The convicted man, Troy A. Davis, 39, had collected affidavits from all seven of the recanting witnesses, some of whom said their trial testimony had been coerced by investigators who were under pressure to convict someone in that fatal shooting of a fellow officer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A powerful tornado struck directly at the commercial center of downtown Atlanta on Friday night, blowing windows out of dozens of high-rise buildings, tossing trees and cars, and severely damaging many of the city's landmarks, including the CNN Center, the Georgia Dome and the convention center. At least 27 people were injured and taken to hospitals, said Capt. Bill May of the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department, most with cuts and bruises from flying debris. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The $1.6 million Templeton Prize, the richest award made to an individual by a philanthropic organization, was given Wednesday to Michael Heller, 72, a Roman Catholic priest, cosmologist and philosopher who has spent his life asking, and perhaps more impressively answering, questions like ''Does the universe need to have a cause?'' The John Templeton Foundation, which awards grants to encourage scientific discovery on the ''big questions'' in science and philosophy, commended Professor Heller, who is from Poland, for his extensive writings that have ''evoked new and important consideration of some of humankind's most profound concepts.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

After residents of the Riverbend Farms subdivision noticed that an oily, fetid substance had begun fouling the Black Warrior River, which runs through their backyards, Mark Storey, a retired petroleum plant worker, hopped into his boat to follow it upstream to its source. It turned out to be an old chemical factory that had been converted into Alabama's first biodiesel plant, a refinery that intended to turn soybean oil into earth-friendly fuel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has extended the prison term of former Mayor Bill Campbell of Atlanta, a spokeswoman confirmed Friday, a week after news reports questioned his participation in an early release drug treatment program. Lawyers for Mr. Campbell, who was convicted of tax evasion, told the judge who sentenced him in 2006 that their client had ''no health or substance abuse problems.'' Nonetheless, prison officials admitted him to a wait-listed drug treatment program, which allowed him to shave more than three months off his 30-month sentence. His sentence was also reduced by four additional months for good behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reports on a man named Timothy Elliot, who was sentenced by judge Richard Connon of Barnstable Superior Court in Massachusetts for violation of the terms of the probation agreement. The agreement required him to avoid gambling, purchase of lottery tickets or visit an establishment where gaming is conducted. The man was convicted of robbing banks so that he could buy scratch-off lottery tickets, the judge allowed him to keep the $1 million he won in the Massachusetts lottery.

The article presents an obituary for Tom B. Murphy, the House speaker for Georgia.

The article presents information related to the arrival of African-American novelist Alice Walker's archive at the Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. According to school officials, Walker, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983, will get her archive placed at the university. According to Rudolph Byrd, a friend of Walker, Walker's papers provide an individual with a sense of the process of creating fiction and poetry.

The article focuses on a controversy concerning the division of Christ Church in Savannah, reportedly the first church established in Georgia. Among the congregation, 87 percent voted to split from the Episcopal diocese and join an Anglican diocese in Uganda. The rift has created two congregations, each claiming the name and assets of the church. The Diocese of Georgia filed a lawsuit in November 2007, to keep control of the church's assets resulting in a legal tangle.

The article reports on the involvement of the Atlanta police in Georgia in a child pornography case. Terrill M. Crane, husband of Sergeant Tanya C. Crane, was arrested in connection with the case on November 29, 2007. According to the federal investigators, some police officers have withheld and destroyed evidence. The arrest was made after the Federal Bureau of Investigation received photographs of Crane engaging in sexual activity with some girls.

The article offers information regarding the marriage of physician Katherine Van Loon and basketball player Jon Steitz. It refers to their professional life, courtship period and what they like about each other. It states that the two tied nuptial knot on the grounds of the Clioster resort on Sea Island, Georgia.

The article reports on a Georgia Supreme Court ruling striking down a state law about sex offenders. On November 21, 2007, the court unanimously overturned the law that had limited the movement and residence of registered sex offenders. The court ruled that the law was running contrary to the property rights enshrined in the Constitution. The law was passed in 2006.

The article offers news briefs related to the U.S. Former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore has announced to seek the Senate seat presently held by John W. Warner. A Michigan judge has ruled that Anthony Green Jr., a high school student charged with shooting two other teenagers, will be tried as adult. Fran Townsend, terrorism advisor at the White House, has decided to step down from her post.

The article offers information on the efforts of U.S. federal biologists at the Fish and Wildlife Service, to make drinking water available to Atlanta, Georgia. They allowed Georgia to maintain more water in a reservoir that supplies water to the city and other northern parts of the state, with the aim of reducing flows to Florida. They want Lake Lanier to fill with new rainfall water, which is shrinking in the recent drought. Experts predict that Lanier could dry without significant rains.

The article focuses on the consumption of water by a homeowner Chris G. Carlos, in Marietta, Georgia. Carlos is reported to have consumed 440,000 gallons in September 2007, about 14,700 gallons a day. The average consumption in the U.S. is about 150 gallons a day per person. Public relations specialist Joseph M.A. Ledlie said that Carlos has become aware of the water crisis and was now taking steps to conserve. Homeowners say it is not possible that he did not know about the drought conditions.

The article reports that Genarlow Wilson, an African American convicted as a teenager for having consensual sex with a fellow teenager, has been released after spending two years in jail. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in favor of Wilson's release calling his ten year prison sentence grossly disproportionate to the crime. Critics have accused Wilson's prosecutors as being racially motivated for using a law meant to keep child molesters behind bars to curb teenage sexual activity.

The article focuses on Howard Finster Vision House in Pennville, Georgia. The house which was made by Howard Finster, a Baptist preacher and bicycle repairman, is known for its Paradise Gardens. But the house is in a dreadful condition with its overgrown gardens. Art dealer David Leonardis, who is restoring the house, found the state of gardens frustrating. Leonardis purchased the house in 2004 and told the house was in the similar condition as the gardens are now.

The article reports that a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia ordered a stay of execution for terminally ill prisoner Daniel L. Siebert. Siebert was scheduled to die by lethal injection. An appeal was filed by lawyers representing Siebert following refusal of Judge Mark E. Fuller of Federal District Court in Alabama to stop execution of Siebert.

The article reports that the Georgia Supreme Court ordered a stay of execution for Curtis Osborne, a condemned prisoner. While passing the stay order, the court cited the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to review constitutionality of execution by lethal injection. Earlier, the court also stayed execution of criminal Jack E. Alderman by lethal injection.

The article presents information about the drought situation in Southern States. Some cities in the Southeast will run out of water in a few months time, climatologists predicted on October 15, 2007. The situation is said to be the worst in the last 100 years. Reacting to the prediction, North Carolina Governor Michael F. Easley asked people to conserve water.

The article reports that federal officials in the U.S. are planning to deport an elderly German man, Paul Henss, living in Georgia who they said was a guard and dog trainer in Nazi death camps at the Dachau and Buchenwald. It is informed that the case is being pursued by the Office of Special Investigations in the U.S. Justice Department.

The article presents the views of several architects on the influence of the traditional architectural designs on the new church buildings. According to them, the close resemblance of the new architecture with the traditional gothic architectural design churches was a way of getting in close communication with god.

The article reports on the scare created by American student Star A. Simpson who wore a lighted circuit board. The scare was created at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 21, 2007. She was arrested at gunpoint. Later it was revealed that the board was an art project meant to entertain career-day visitors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The article reports that prosecutor Robert E. Owens has been criticized by Georgia, Atlanta's attorney general Troy King for arguing that a man on death row should not be executed. Marcus Presley and LaSamuel Gamble were convicted of double murders wherein Gamble pulled the trigger. As Gamble's death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment as he was below 18 at the time of the murders, Owens has argued that Presley's sentence should also be changed to life imprisonment.

The article reports on the decision of Christopher W. Adams to resign from his position as head of the Office of the Capital Defender in Georgia. In a letter to the Public Defender Standards Council, Adams cited that the state government had been providing less than half the financing his office needed for assisting poor people facing death penalty in the state.

The article reports that federal judge Henry T. Wingate has sentenced former Klansman James Seale to three life terms in prison in Mississippi. Seale was given life imprisonment for his role in the 1964 kidnapping and murder of two black teenagers, namely Henry H. Dee and Charles E. Moore. In 1964, a group of Klansmen including Seale, picked the two teenagers up and took them to a wooden area. The teenagers were beaten and their bodies were thrown into the Mississippi River.

The article reports that Arthur Bremer, gunman involved in the shooting of Governor George Corley Wallace of Alabama during the latter's political campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972, will be released from prison in 2007 in Maryland. Bremer was sentenced to serve 53 years in prison for shooting Wallace and wounding three others at the campaign held in Laurel, Maryland. The shooting paralyzed the legs of Wallace and he used a wheelchair until his death in 1998.

The article reports that late singer James Brown might have fathered many. The DNA of LaRhonda Petitt Brown, retired flight attendant of Houston, Texas, has matched with Brown's almost 100%. The DNA of two other persons including a woman from Florida has also matched with his. Meanwhile, a legal fight over the singer's estate is on. In his will, the singer has distributed his estate among his six acknowledged children.

The article reports on the escape of Oliver, a 9-year-old monkey, from his cage at the Tupelo Buffalo Park and Zoo in Mississippi for the second time in two weeks. The monkey was not happy when he was caught after his first escape, said Kirk Nemechek, manager of the zoo. Nemechek spend $300 on new locks for the cage Oliver shares with his baby after he was caught. Nemechek finally said that he would try titanium locks for the cage if Oliver is caught again.

The article reports on the triple homicide in a middle-class suburb in Atlanta, Georgia. The police said on August 1, 2007 that in the attack a mother and her two teenage daughters were killed and two boys injured. The police are yet to determine when and how the people were attacked. The injured ones were taken to Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta.

The article presents news briefs from around the U.S. Physician Paul Broun was certified as the winner of a special election in Georgia to fill the seat in the House of Representatives vacated by Charlie Norwood, Republican Senator. The minimum wage in Washington rises 70 percent. Clayton C. Anderson, a space astronaut, repudiated a camera mounting and an ammonia tank at the International Space Station.

The article reports that seven justices heard two appeals on behalf of Genarlow Wilson, who is serving 10-year sentence, at the Georgia Supreme Court in Atlanta, Georgia. Wilson is serving the sentence for having had consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a New Year's Eve party in 2003. He was convicted of child molestation, which was a felony in the state in 2003.

The article reports that physician Paul Broun led the runoff election held on July 17, 2007 for the U.S. House seat that became vacant due to the death of Republican Representative Charlie Norwood. After counting of 98% votes, Broun was leading with 373 votes, that is just 1%. The winner for Georgia's 10th district, however, will be announced after the counting of absentee ballots on July 20, 2007.

The article reports that convict Troy A. Davis was granted a stay on his execution by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles on July 16, 2007. Davis was convicted of killing police officer Mark A. MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia in 1989. The stay of the execution of Davis by lethal injection give members of the board up to 90 days to evaluate and analyze evidence parented by the lawyers for Davis in a clemency hearing.

The article reports on the clemency hearing of Troy A. Davis who has been sentenced to death in a murder case. Davis shot dead a security officer in August 1989. He was sentenced to death in 1991 for the murder. On July 16, 2007, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles will conduct the clemency hearing. His execution is scheduled for July 17, 2007.

The article presents information about the 2007 Peachtree Road Race, which is held in Atlanta, Georgia. The race is called the largest 10K run in the world by the organizers and most of the runners take part in it. For 55,000 spots, seventy thousand people applied in 2007 and the runner number 1 in the 2007 race was William G. Halicks.

The article reports that wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife and son and then himself in Fayetteville, Georgia, on June 24, 2007. Their bodies were found in the afternoon on June 25, 2007. The local authorities checked on the family at the request of Benoit's employer. The employer World Wrestling Entertainment had got some text messages from Benoit in the morning on the killing day. After killing the two, Benoit hanged himself with a cable.

The article presents news briefs from around the U.S. Execution has been set for convicted murderer Jimmy D. Bland, who is dying of cancer in Oklahoma. 50 high school students signed a letter presented to U.S. President George W. Bush urging to stop the violations of human rights of terror suspects held by the U.S. Eleven businessmen have offered to post a $1 million cash bond in order to secure prison release of sex offender Genarlow Wilson, who has served 10 years in prison, in Georgia.

The article reports on the death of a young whale shark in the Georgia Aquarium in Georgia. The whale shark was euthanized by veterinarians on June 13, 2007, as it had stopped swimming and slipped to the bottom of the aquarium. For months the shark had been swimming and eating poorly. The exact cause of the shark's death is yet to be determined.

The article reports on the court order over the prison sentence of sex crime convict Genarlow Wilson in Atlanta, Georgia. On June 11, 2007, a judge ordered Wilson's release. Wilson is serving 10-year prison sentence without parole for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he himself was 17. But soon after the order, Georgia's attorney general, Thurbert E. Baker, said that he would appeal the order in the state supreme court.

The article reports that five people were killed and six were wounded in a fire at the Budget Inn motel in Riverdale, Georgia on June 7, 2007. According to John W. Oxendine, insurance and fire safety commissioner of the state, investigators have suspected that a bath tub in a room on the second floor was the cause of the fire. Oxendine said that the motel had no sprinkler system.

The article reports that soft drink giants Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. have agreed to stop directly financing animal testing under pressure from animal rights advocate the Pepole for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Inc. (PETA). According to a researcher at PETA, the two companies have ended all animal tests on food.

The article reports on the restructuring of the narcotics unit of the Police Department in Atlanta, Georgia. According to Police Chief Richard J. Pennington, 14 officers and three sergeants would replace the current team of the narcotics department. It discusses two officers being indicted for lying about evidence of drug purchases that led to the killing a 92 year old woman. Information is provided on the newly appointed officers receiving two weeks training before taking up their posts.

The article offers information on the fire that broke out on April 16, 2007 in Georgia, and efforts of firefighters to bring it under control. The wildfire is said to be the largest one in the state's history that has burnt 18 houses and more than 101,000 acres of lands. Around 900 firefighters from around the country are said to be engaged in the fire fighting process.

The article reports that Shirley Franklin, the mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, has defended city's police chief Richard Penington against the charges made by federal prosecutors. Federal prosecutors have claimed that a culture of misconduct in the police department of the city was responsible for the shooting death of an elderly woman in a botched drug raid.

The article reports that public prosecutors in the U.S. have been investigating corruption prevalent in the police department of Atlanta, Georgia. According to the prosecutors, the police officers regularly lied to obtain search warrants and fabricated documents related to drug purchase. Narcotics officers of the department have admitted to planting marijuana in the home of elderly woman Kathryn Johnston after her death. The woman died after police shooting in a drug raid.

The article reports that the wind-whipped blaze Sweat Farm Road Fire has blackened 42,000 acres, destroyed 20 houses and evacuated hundreds of residents in southwestern Georgia in April 20, 2007. In order to control the blaze, five aircraft, two helicopters and one air tanker of the U.S. Forest Service have dumped retardant on the flames.

The article reports that the heirs of theologian Martin Luther are dissatisfied with the auction of the documents of Luther by an auction house in Atlanta, Georgia. The documents were given to Paul Brown, owner of the auction house, by an anonymous woman from Maryland. According to Isaac Newton Farris, nephew of Luther, the documents belonged to his family unless the woman had some sort of written transfer of ownership signed by Luther himself.