*Tim Echols kicks off his reelection campaign today: the Republican from Bogart is looking for a second term on the Georgia Public Service Commission. His campaign rally takes place at the state capitol in Atlanta.  Echols already has announced opposition for next year’s GOP primary: Michelle Miller says she will be on the ballot in May of 2016.

*The woman who initially accused former Alabama Crimson Tide and Georgia Bulldog defensive lineman Jonathan Taylor has been charged with filing a false police report but the charges against Taylor still currently stand. The 21 year-old Taylor, kicked off the Bulldog football team after a domestic violence arrest in Athens, was dismissed from the team in Tuscaloosa after his arrest on similar charges there.

*The Clarke County School Board meets this evening in Athens: it’s a 6 o’clock Board work session at School District headquarters off Mitchell Bridge Road.

*There’s an evening meeting of the Athens-Clarke County Planning Commission, 7 o’clock at the Government Building on Dougherty Street.

*More residential burglaries in Athens: Athens-Clarke County Police are investigating break-ins at homes on Winterville Road and Holmes Avenue. Police say a TV was stolen from the house on Winterville Road; a gun and computers were reported taken from the home on Holmes.

Athens-Clarke County Police arrest a suspected bicycle thief: 21 year-old Eli Flores was picked up by police on Fourth Street, riding a bike he allegedly swiped from a home on Magnolia Bluff Drive in Athens.

School plans in Jackson County: the Jackson County School Board is looking at a proposal to build a new middle school instead of converting the 60 year-old West Jackson Primary School building. A public forum on the Jackson County middle school plan is set for later this month.

*The first new hospital to open in Georgia in twenty years is now in business: Wednesday was the first official day for the new Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Braselton.

*The Gainesville City Council will meet this morning, 9 o’clock at the Administration Building in Gainesville. City budget work highlights the Council’s business agenda.

*Hall County gets a new traffic signal today: the DOT says the light at the intersection of Ramsey Road and Highway 365 north of Gainesville becomes operational.

Federal environmental officials say they will be protecting the northern long-eared bat as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. It’s a move that could add more delays to the proposed Glades Reservoir project in Hall County.

*The Georgia DOT says it’s still cleaning up from this year's winter storms. Some work crews are replacing thousands of raised pavement markers that were scraped off by snowplows; others are still removing debris, fallen limbs, and damaged trees. The DOT says most of the ongoing clean-up and recovery is taking place in Dawson, Lumpkin, Gwinnett, and Forsyth counties.

*Gwinnett County Police are investigating the Wednesday crash that claimed the life of Buford man: Austin Grant was 21 years old, driving an SUV that wrecked near Buford Dam.

Happened in Dunwoody: a man showed up to bail his girlfriend out of jail. Dunwoody Police noticed the smell of marijuana in his car. They say they found pot and a stolen gun. The girlfriend is out of jail; he is now in.

*11 of 12 defendants were found guilty on at least some counts: the jury in the Atlanta Public School System cheating trial, after eight days of deliberations, handed up convictions Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta. 10 of the 11 convicted were held overnight in the Fulton County jail. Sentencing for all of them is pending.

A Cobb County man is accused of causing a crash that killed one of his passengers and left four others injured. The two-vehicle crash happened Tuesday on Windy Hill Road in Marietta. The DUI charges are for 21 year-old Quantae Adams.

Horrific hit-and-run crash in Douglas County: a baby dead, a child airlifted to a hospital in Atlanta after the wreck near Douglasville.

Clayton County police have charged a Riverdale man with murder in the stabbing death of a woman last weekend. Suspect Harvey Walker is 50 years old; victim Kateria Benton was 56. Clayton County Police say he called 911 to report the stabbing.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference suspends the president of its Georgia chapter after he suggested black families should arm themselves.

Governor Nathan Deal says he will sign the transportation funding bill that passed the Georgia House and Senate earlier this week. Today is the last day of this year’s legislative session.

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