Local News

Athens is welcoming more than 2,000 visitors as members of the North Georgia Conference of United Methodists attend the 2018 Annual Conference. This year’s session is being held at the Classic Center today through Thursday, June 14th.  The conference is the largest in the nation, with more than 800 churches and 360,000 members.

Online Athens reports the conference has held its annual gathering in Athens 19 of the past 21 years, and is scheduled to continue at least through 2021.

Jackson County has received a share of a $3.2 million insurance dividend. The Board of Trustees of the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia-Ineterlocal Ricks Management Agency declared the amount of $62,955; which is the largest in the organization’s history. According to a Jackson County media release, the funds will be applied in the form a of credit toward customers’ property and liability premium for the 2018-2019 policy year.

A former high-ranking prison officer who raped at least three female inmates at a Georgia prison and then intimidated them to keep them from reporting the assaults has been sentenced to serve more than four years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge William Moore on Monday sentenced Edgar Daniel Johnson, 51, to serve four years and three months followed by three years of supervised release, according to online court records. Johnson will also have to register as a sex offender.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling has cleared the way for states to take a tougher approach to maintaining their voter rolls, but will they?
Ohio plans to resume its process for removing inactive voters after it was affirmed in Monday's 5-4 ruling. It takes a particularly aggressive approach that appears to be an outlier among states.
Few appear eager to follow.

"Our law has been on the books. It hasn't changed, and it isn't changing," said Oklahoma Election Board spokesman Bryan Dean.