Two civil rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit that alleges Georgia has violated the National Voter Registration Act by failing to provide registration services at state public assistance offices.
The suit was filed by the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP and the Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda against Secretary of State Brian Kemp and Department of Human Services Commissioner Clyde Reese. It contends thousands of low-income citizens are being denied the opportunity to register to vote when they apply for benefits or change their addresses. BILL RANKIN
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The state Department of Corrections has set a June 23 execution date for Roy Willard Blankenship, who is on death row for the sexual assault and killing of a Savannah woman in 1978.
The execution is to be the state's first using the barbiturate pentobarbital as one of three drugs in the lethal-injection process. Blankenship's execution was stayed in February by the state Board of Pardons and Paroles for DNA testing, which proved inconclusive but could not exclude Blankenship as the man who attacked and killed 78-year-old Sarah Mims Bowen in her apartment. BILL RANKIN
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Four Atlanta area schools have been awarded Lowe’s Toolbox-for-Education grants from Lowe’s Charitable and Education Foundation. The grants help fund parent-initiated school improvements. They include: $2,000 to Atlanta’s Kennedy Middle School for a vegetable garden; $2,775 to Canton’s Creekland Middle School for band instrument storage; and $5,000 and $3,000 respectively to Gainesville’s McEver Elementary School and Tadmore Elementary School. McEver’s project is an arts academy greenhouse, and Tadmore’s is an outdoor garden classroom. NANCY BADERTSCHER
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