A wintry blast moved across north Georgia on Saturday, bringing blustery conditions, reports of downed trees and falling temperatures that will be in the teens Sunday morning. The wind was so strong, with gusts up to around 45 mph, that the National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for much of the day.

A man wanted in the drive-by slaying of his former girlfriend turned himself in to Covington police Saturday, authorities said. Hannibal Wayne McMullen, 47, was charged with murder in the death early Friday of Ketitra Techelle Jones, who had filed for a temporary order of protection against the man.

Newt Gingrich holds a commanding lead in his old home state, but his rivals are gaining just 25 days before Georgia’s Republican presidential primary, a new poll for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows. The poll by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research shows Gingrich getting the support of 43 percent of voters likely to participate in the March 6 primary.

The 7-year-old girl who kicked and screamed when a man picked her up in a west Georgia Wal-Mart was honored for her bravery Friday at her school. Brittney Baxter, a second-grader, shared her story with classmates and teachers at Tallapoosa Primary School, just two days after she was nearly kidnapped while her mom shopped nearby.

Trying to ride transit to work at Emory University or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention? If a transportation referendum passes this summer, you'll be a big winner, according to new figures released Friday by the Atlanta Regional Commission.

The jackpot for Saturday's Powerball multi-state lottery climbed to $325 million, the Georgia Lottery said Friday. Officials said this is the largest Powerball jackpot in Georgia since the state began selling tickets in 2010. The largest-ever Powerball jackpot was $365 million in Nebraska in February 2006.

Authorities say this winter's unseasonably warm temperatures could cause mosquitoes and other insects to come out earlier than normal this year in parts of Georgia. University of Georgia entomology professor Paul Guillebeau tells The Times of Gainesville that if the general pattern of warmer weather continues, it's likely that mosquitoes will have an earlier start than normal.

Authorities say a woman was shot and killed by her husband who mistook her for a prowler breaking into their Baldwin County home. Sheriff Bill Massee called the incident a "tragedy instead of a crime." He said the woman was shot just after 6 a.m. Friday in the Middle Georgia county near Milledgeville.

A nursing student from Columbus is getting a little help with her tuition from the Georgia Lottery. Mattie Billingsley, 49, won $7 million playing the lottery's new $7 Million Jackpot scratch-off game. “I can’t stop crying,” Billingsley said in a press release from the Georgia Lottery.

Covington police Friday were investigating a late-morning drive-by shooting. Just before noon, crime scene tape surrounded the Pure station on Ga. 81, where a silver pickup truck appeared to have slammed into one of the gas pump islands. Covington police Capt.

The state House of Representatives will let a proposed charter school constitutional amendment rest until at least next week. It voted 114-49 Thursday to reconsider the amendment, which did not gain a necessary two-thirds majority vote Wednesday. That means it will be up to the House Rules Committee to send it back to the floor, where Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, can call for another debate.

An Athens man remained in jail Thursday, charged with raping an 11-year-old girl at his home. Athens-Clarke County police arrested Elbert Roman Tate, 33,  Tuesday on charges of rape, child molestation, aggravated sexual battery and sexual battery, the Athens Banner-Herald reported.

Congress was urged Thursday to expand the nation's federal guest-worker program under a resolution passed unanimously by the state Senate. Senate Resolution 715 follows passage last year of Georgia’s immigration law -- House Bill 87. The law seeks to deter illegal immigrants from coming here and encourages those already here to leave by preventing them from getting jobs and public benefits in Georgia.

Georgia is expected today to be released from requirements of a landmark federal education law that some say put too much pressure on students and teachers and contributed to test cheating in Atlanta and other places. The White House is set to announce today that Georgia and nine other states -- Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee -- will be granted waivers from the Bush era No Child Left Behind Act.

Georgia is expected today to be released from requirements of a landmark federal education law that some say put too much pressure on students and teachers and contributed to test cheating in Atlanta and other places. The first 10 states to receive the waivers are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

State bureaucrats would not be permitted to divert bond funds from one project to another without first getting approval from the General Assembly under legislation filed Wednesday. Rep. Ben Harbin, R-Evans, former chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, is championing the bill after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sunday that more than $4 million in bond money originally approved for a reservoir was “redirected” to two of Gov.

Fort McPherson, a 488-acre site between Atlanta and East Point, was founded by the U.S. Army in 1885. The Army closed the base last fall and the McPherson Implementing Local Redevelopment Authority is transitioning the property for civilian use. The site will take about 20 to 25 years to develop but work is under way: • MILA is working with the Army to transfer ownership.

Gov. Nathan Deal wants to spend about $28 million to help bring new life to Fort McPherson, but there are few details on how the money will be used and what future investments the state will make. The recently vacated, 488-acre Army post is about four miles south of downtown Atlanta and has been hailed as a strong candidate for redevelopment, although few concrete plans have been advanced so far.

Authorities are investigating after a woman said she was assaulted Sunday during a traffic stop by a man she believed to be a law enforcement officer, the GBI said. The incident happened off U.S. 129 in Jackson County around 10 p.m. The woman said she was pulled over and assaulted near B.

After intense lobbying and lively floor debate, state House members on Wednesday narrowly rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would restore the state's power to approve charter schools. The amendment's sponsors immediately announced plans to ask the House on Thursday to reconsider the 110-62 vote, which was 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority required.

A tax officer says the Chatham County Assessor's Office placed an IKEA furniture distribution center in the unincorporated county at the same time it put the center's contents in Port Wentworth. The Savannah Morning News reports that interim Chief Appraiser Maryellen Burner discussed the discrepancy Tuesday as she was questioned about what led to the error.

The chairman of Cobb County’s legislative delegation, Rep. Ed Setzler, filed a bill Tuesday that would cancel the regional transportation referendum set for July, make changes to the process and call for another referendum in 2014. Setzler, R-Acworth, has long criticized the referendum that, if approved by voters in July, would allow a 1-cent sales tax to fund transportation projects in regions across the state for 10 years.

A truck driver from Indiana was killed Wednesday in a predawn wreck that shut down the southbound lanes of I-75 in northwest Georgia for several hours. The 2005 Freightliner truck driven by Curtis L. Keown was southbound near Exit 320 in Gordon County about 4:35 a.

The U.S. teen pregnancy rate has reached a 40-year low, a new study finds. The study, by the Guttmacher Institute, found that the pregnancy rate declined 42 percent from its peak in 1990, according to the study released Wednesday.  The teen pregnancy rate in 2008 was 68 per 1,000 girls age 15-19, down from 117 per 1,000 in 1990.

Georgia Southern University is building a new venue dedicated to archery and gun sports. Campus officials said Tuesday the Statesboro complex will be constructed with a $3.3 million federal grant obtained by the state Department of Natural Resources as well as with a mix of private and corporate donations.