Gwinnett Co woman arrested in Athens

A Gwinnett County woman is arrested on theft charges in Athens: Athens-Clarke County Police say 38 year-old Nardine Gird of Duluth (pictured above) faces felony shoplifting charges after illegally discounting more than $1,000 worth of merchandise while working at a store on Jefferson Road. 

Justin Bruce has been released on bond: the 31 year-old Royston man was booked into the Madison County jail after allegedly assaulting a group of six kayakers—four of them University of Georgia students—who were on the Broad River in Madison County. The students say the attacks happened back on May 9. 

The Hall County Sheriff's Office reports the arrest of a man from Buford: 26 year-old Joshua Johnsa is charged in a string of automobile break-ins dating back to last week. He's also accused of stealing at least one bicycle, and he allegedly tried to run away from the Hall County Sheriff's deputies who pulled him over in a traffic stop.

Investigators now say the fire that burned a portion of the Appalachian Trail in White County was intentionally set. Upwards of a half-dozen acres were burned in the fire that blazed last weekend. Officials in White County say there is, so far, no word on who set the fire or why. The US Forest Service is investigating. 

There is reward money from the state Insurance Commissioner's Office in the search for an arson suspect in Dawson County: investigators say the blaze that burned a mobile home in Dawson County was intentionally set.