Monday, January 26th

State School Superintendent Richard Woods is in Athens today: he’ll visit two local schools, spending the 11 o’clock hour at Cedar Shoals High School, then dropping by Gaines Elementary School at 1 o’clock this afternoon.

Today is Founders Day at the University of Georgia: Paul Kurtz, the associate dean emeritus of the University Law School, delivers the annual Founders Day Lecture. Kurtz will speak at 1:30 this afternoon in the Chapel on UGA’s North Campus. In another Founders Day observance, the University displays its original charter, a day-long exhibit at the Richard Russell Special Collections Library.

Today’s campus blood drive: 2:30 til 7 at UGA’s East Campus Village.

Garrison Keillor is in Athens this evening: the host of public radio’s Prairie Home Companion speaks at the Performing Arts Center on River Road in a performance that was originally scheduled for last September. The show is set for 8 o’clock tonight.

There is tax talk this evening in Athens: the SPLOST Citizens Oversight Committee meets, 6 o’clock at City Hall.

The Clarke County School Board’s Policy Committee meets this afternoon, 4 o’clock at school system headquarters off Mitchell Bridge Road.

The Oglethorpe County Zoning Board meets tonight, 7 o’clock at the Oglethorpe County Courthouse in Lexington.

Commerce has a new library director: Angel Tuggle moves over from Nicholson, where she has directed the public library for the past year.

Vicky Chambers has died. Chambers was mayor pro-tem in Lula. She had been hospitalized at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville since a January10 car crash, a head-on collision on Joe Chandler Road in Hall County. Chambers was 57 years old. Joseph Armour was the driver of the second vehicle. The 23 year-old from Gainesville faces charges that include DUI and now vehicular homicide.

A White County man is charged in a stabbing in Helen: police say it happened at a bar on Main Street in Helen. 58 year-old Leon Butler is from Cleveland. He’s in the White County jail, facing felony aggravated assault charges. The stabbing victim is hospitalized, at last report in stable condition, being treated for what are reported as non life-threatening injuries.

The National Weather Service has issued a winter weather advisory for several north Georgia mountain counties: light snow accumulations and black ice are possible in Dawson, Lumpkin, and White counties; also in Union, Towns, Chattooga, Gordon, Pickens, Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Whitfield, Murray, Fannin, and Gilmer counties. The advisory extends through 7 o’clock tonight.

One dead, one injured: a weekend car crash on I-85 in DeKalb County: DeKalb County Police say a wrong-way driver caused the head-on collision. Crash victim Keith Smith was 27 years old, from Suwanee.

Fairington Elementary School in Lithonia reopens today: the school was heavily damaged in an arson fire last week. DeKalb County Police are still searching for the man who set the fire.

New crime stats for Atlanta: rapes and murders are up, but overall Atlanta crime is down.

The FBI continues its search for the person or persons responsible for two weekend bomb threats on flights into Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport: NORAD scrambled fighter jets to escort a Delta flight from Portland and a Southwest Airlines flight from Milwaukee. The planes were searched; no bombs were found. The bomb threats were made on social media.

A suspect has been identified in the case of a Cobb County couple missing since traveling to Telfair County to meet a man about a car they saw on the Craigslist website.

Clayton County police have a homicide on their hands, a deadly weekend shooting.

A man and woman found dead in a home in Rome have been identified: James Reeves was 69 years old; his wife Myra was 71. The Floyd County coroner says their shooting deaths are being treated as homicides.

There is a clemency hearing today in advance of Tuesday’s scheduled execution of death row inmate Warren Lee Hill: Hill is set to die at the state prison in Jackson, his punishment for killing a fellow prison inmate in 1990. Supporters and death penalty opponents argue Hill is mentally ill and should be spared death by injection.

State Rep Allan Peake is filing a bill that would legalize cannabis oil for those suffering from chronic diseases such as cancer and seizure disorders. The Macon Republican says he wants to begin General Assembly committee hearings on his bill as soon as this coming week. House Speaker David Ralston and Governor Deal have already said they support the proposal.

The legislative session resumes today after a week of state budget hearings.