Thursday, April 9th

It is rodeo time in Athens: the University of Georgia’s annual Great Southland Stampede Rodeo begins tonight and continues through Saturday. It takes place at the University’s Livestock Instructional Arena on South Milledge Avenue.

Another campus blood drive is on tap for today at UGA: 11 til 5 at the Tate Student Center.

The Athens-Clarke County Commission’s Environmental Buffer Committee meets this evening, 6:30 at the Government Building on Dougherty Street.

This evening’s Clarke County School Board meeting starts at 6 at School District headquarters off Mitchell Bridge Road.

Hall County Commissioners meet, 6 o’clock this evening at the Hall County Government Center in Gainesville.

University of Georgia Police and their Athens-Clarke County counterparts were, at last report, still searching for suspects in the Wednesday stabbing that wounded a University of Georgia employee: it happened on North Campus. The victim was treated at Athens Regional Medical Center for what was described in a police report as a superficial wound to his hand. He says he was stabbed by a man with a small pocketknife. He tells police all three suspects were college-aged white males, last seen running toward downtown Athens.

From the Athens-Clarke County Police blotter: a reported sexual assault, with a woman telling police she was raped at a residence on Athens' east side; also more burglaries and home break-ins, including a stolen car at a home on Macon Highway and TVs and other electronics taken in residential robberies on Hull Street and Freeman Drive.

They will be free for the first six months, with an as-yet undetermined fee to be charged after that: The Athens-Clarke County Library has two charging stations for electric cars. The Library says electric car batteries can be charged from empty to 100 percent full in four hours.

We will keep a close eye on the weather today: the National Weather Service says Athens and northeast Georgia could be under the gun for severe thunderstorms by this afternoon.

The Barrow County School Board assigns a new principal for Apalachee High School: Jennifer Martin works now as an assistant principal at Winder-Barrow High School.

The Georgia DOT says northeast Georgia is getting a new traffic signal today: the light at the intersection of Braselton Parkway and Chardonnay Trace on Highway 53 in Jackson County becomes operational this morning.

A 10 year-old Hall County girl is being treated at a hospital in Atlanta: she was run over, apparently accidentally, by a tractor.

He was a founding member of the Longstreet Clinic in Gainesville: Dr. Larry Morris has died at the age of 80.

Hall County firefighters are investigating what they say is a suspicious fire, a blaze that burned an abandoned house on Wallace Road in Hall County.

The Georgia State Patrol is investigating deadly car crashes in Hall and Dawson counties: a woman was killed in a wreck on Poplar Springs Road in south Hall, an accident involving her SUV and a dump truck. A dump truck and a motorcycle collided on Highway 53 in Dawson County. State Troopers say the motorcycle rider was killed.

Atlanta Hawks players Pero Antic and Thabo Sefolosha say they will contest their arrests in New York: they face misdemeanor charges, accused of failing to comply with New York City Police who told them to clear the path of a stabbing investigation outside a New York nightclub. Another NBA player and two women were stabbed and wounded early Wednesday. The Hawks were in New York for last night's game against the Nets, a game the Hawks won in Brooklyn.

There has been an officer-involved shooting in Atlanta: it happened in southwest Atlanta. The suspect—a man believed to be in his 20s—was taken to Grady for treatment of what are believed to be non life-threatening injuries.

Homicide in northwest Georgia: authorities are investigating the death of a man whose body was found outside a business in Bartow County.

It is tee time in Augusta: another Masters Golf tournament is underway today at Augusta National. Former Georgia Bulldog golfer Bubba Watson is the defending champion.

Arrested in Rome: a woman who worked at a Floyd County nursing home, accused of stealing medication from elderly nursing home residents.

It has happened twice in the span of a month in southwest Georgia: pharmacies robbed by a man who had what looked like a bomb strapped to his body. Wednesday's case in Lee County comes on the heels of almost identical early March robbery at a drug store in Americus