Coweta unemployment 6.5 percent Coweta’s unemployment stood at 6.5 percent for February, according to the latest figures released by the Georgia Department of Labor Thursday.
Unemployment in the Three Rivers region decreased to 7.9 percent in February, down two-tenths of a percentage point from 8.1 percent in January. The rate was 10 percent in February a year ago.
A man indicted on four counts of child molestation and eight counts of sexual exploitation of children took the stand in his defense Thursday in Coweta Superior Court.
The trial of defendant Willie Autrey Gray likely will conclude today.
The funeral for Fred Morgan was held Tuesday, and he leaves behind a half century of memories from his downtown jewelry store.
Amanda Irvin said she and her sister – when they were infants – were given silver cups purchased at Morgan’s Jewelers. Debbie Flournoy described Morgan as “such an honest, friendly, down-to-earth – smart businessman.”
A formal groundbreaking was held Thursday for the HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Newnan, a 55,000-square-foot facility set to open in December.
The site, at 2101 E. Newnan Crossing Blvd., will create about 120 new jobs in the community, along with the influx of patients and their families who seek Coweta County for comprehensive health needs. Construction work was already under way at the property off Poplar Road not far from Piedmont Newnan Hospital.
Kamikie “Chez” Wilkins, 23, has been charged with two counts of felony murder in the Newnan shooting deaths of Gregory Marquel “Quell” Anderson and Darian “Daraboo” Person.
Wilkins was taken into custody Wednesday at Atlanta Medical Center, and he remains in the hospital, according to friend Kahlia Smith.
The Saturday, March 29, Great American Cleanup event that was scheduled by Keep Newnan Beautiful has been canceled.
“In considering participant safety and as a result of current and forecasted inclement weather, the Keep Newnan Beautiful program has decided to cancel this year’s event,” said Carol Duffey, Keep Newnan Beautiful director.
“When I relocated from New York to Newnan, I didn’t think I would hear these stories.”
Darryl Smith, director of the local Boys and Girls Club, shared his testimony at a prayer vigil Wednesday night at St. Smyrna Baptist Church. Tamarkus T. Cook, pastor at St. Smyrna, put together the vigil – inviting area churches and pastors to participate – after two separate shootings earlier this week left one man in critical condition at an Atlanta hospital and two others dead.
After deliberating for more than three hours Friday, a Coweta Superior Court jury found Willie Autrey Gray guilty on all four counts of child molestation and all eight counts of sexual exploitation of children.
Hearing the verdict, Judge Emory Palmer sentenced Gray to 80 years, with 50 to serve in prison. On Friday, both Assistant District Attorney Kevin McMurry and Gray’s defense attorney, William D. Smith, presented their closing arguments to the jury, and around 11:15 a.m., the jury began to deliberate.
The Supreme Court of Georgia has thrown out the conviction and death sentence of a man convicted in Macon County of the murder of a bank vice president.
In today’s unanimous decision, Justice Keith Blackwell writes that the evidence supports a lower court’s conclusion that Artemus Rick Walker was incompetent due to mental illness when he was tried and convicted of the 1999 murder of Lynwood Ray Gresham.
On Sunday night, season four of AMC’s hit show “The Walking Dead” wraps up with its season finale.
Cable’s most popular show – with scenes filmed in Coweta County – continued the momentum last week with 13.5 million viewers, the top show for all of Sunday-night programming, including the NCAA college basketball tournament.
Two men were arrested Wednesday after investigators with the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office received information they would be delivering methamphetamine into the county.
With the help of a confidential informant, investigators with the sheriff’s office’s Crime Suppression Unit learned a man named Shanandor Otis Black, 41, would be delivering meth to the Hardee’s restaurant on 4201 Highway 154 on Wednesday around 12:30 p.m., said Lt. Col. Jimmy Yarbrough with the sheriff’s office. When Black arrived, investigators were waiting for him, and they saw another man, Ramon Alejandro Nunez, 20, was driving the vehicle.
Newnan is celebrating Georgia Cities Week from April 13 to 19 and will be holding a variety of events throughout that time, highlighting this year’s theme, “Georgia’s Cities: People Place Purpose.”
A keystone event for the week will be the People Place Purpose Open House at the Newnan Carnegie Library on April 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Mitchell McTier is back in Georgia and on the mend, according to his family.
He arrived home in Georgia Thursday after a 10-day recovery in a Denver hospital following a skiing accident on March 15.
The team from The Heritage School took first place in the 16th annual CLICK Trivia Bee on Thursday — catapulting a strong showing by naming popular dog breeds for the final question.
During the festivities, it was announced that Lisa Johnston, executive director of CLICK – Certified Literate is Coweta’s Key – for the past five years, is leaving the organization to work in human resources for Newnan Utilities.
“He’s a bad man. I want him to go to jail. I want him to get in trouble.”
That was what one of Willie Autrey Gray’s victims said in 2012 during an interview with Investigator Danny McDonald with the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office.
The 2014 Georgia General Assembly session has come and gone.
The session ended March 20, but it’s been only in the past few days that final versions of all the passed bills have become available to the public.
Coweta County School System leaders will not be making a quick decision regarding the arming of teachers and administrators in schools.
The General Assembly passed an expanded gun carry law this last session, and it is awaiting Governor Nathan Deal’s signature to become law.
An 18-year-old Newnan man was injured in a shooting early Saturday morning, and he was rushed to an Atlanta hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.
Around 2:52 a.m. authorities with the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office responded to a house party on the 400-block of Howard Hughes Road in reference to gunshots in the street, said Lt. Col. Jimmy Yarbrough with the sheriff’s office. When emergency responders arrived, they discovered the victim, Vantorious Krishad Dixon, had been shot multiple times and was lying in the street.
(Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in an occasional series highlighting Coweta School System’s Centre for Performing and Visual Arts and the impact it has had over the last decade.)
In its 10-year history, the Centre for Performing and Visual Arts has provided not only entertainment, but many opportunities for students and community members — very little of which would be possible without the Centre Patrons.
Most people are familiar with foster families for children, but another kind of foster family is needed in Coweta and in surrounding counties.
Foster families take care of animals – some of which would be saved from euthanasia – until they are able to be adopted into a new, forever home.