Author: Russ Bynum
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Woman stolen at birth learns true identity; ‘Momma’ charged
WALTERBORO, S.C. — Stolen from a hospital just hours after she was born, an 18-year-old woman finally learned her true identity and was reunited Friday with her birth family, by video chat. The woman she thought was her mother was charged with her kidnapping. Thanks to DNA analysis, the 18-year-old now knows her birth name:…
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Guilty verdict in peanut trial should send warning
ALBANY, Ga. (AP) — Food safety advocates say a guilty verdict in a rare federal food-poisoning trial should send a stern warning to anyone who may be tempted to place profits over people’s welfare. More than five years after hundreds of Americans got sick from eating salmonella-tainted peanut butter, the top executive in the company…
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FBI looks into gay attack as possible hate crime
SAVANNAH, Ga. — An attack on a gay man who witnesses say was knocked unconscious by two U.S. Marines who thought he winked at them has prompted a preliminary investigation into whether the case warrants federal charges as a hate crime. FBI spokesman Steve Emmett in Atlanta said Monday the agency and federal prosecutors were…
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Navy to allow women to serve on submarines
KINGS BAY NAVAL SUBMARINE BASE, Ga. — The first U.S. women allowed to serve aboard submarines will be reporting for duty by 2012, the Navy said Thursday as the military ordered an end to one of its few remaining gender barriers. The cramped quarters and scant privacy aboard submarines, combined with long tours of up…
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Court-martial of soldier in Iraq deaths postponed
FORT STEWART, Ga. — The court-martial of an Army soldier charged with the 2008 killings of a superior and a fellow soldier in Iraq has been postponed until next year. Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich had been scheduled to stand trial in June. But a military judge on Tuesday granted a request by defense lawyers to postpone…
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Defense resumes education grants to military spouses
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Facing a phalanx of angry military spouses, the Defense Department said Thursday it will resume payments for college courses and job training for spouses who had already applied for grants when the popular program was abruptly halted last month. The official in charge of the year-old program that pays up…
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Military spouses stunned after DoD halts job grants
SAVANNAH, Ga. • Military spouses were enthusiastic when the government started offering them grants last year of up to $6,000 for college or career training. Word spread quickly and they signed up by the tens of thousands. But the response was so heavy that it nearly busted the fledgling program’s budget, prompting the Defense Department…
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Army discharging single mom who refused deployment
SAVANNAH, Ga. — A single-mom soldier who says she refused to deploy to Afghanistan because she had no family able to care for her young son will be discharged from the military instead of facing a court-martial, the Army said Thursday. Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, an Army cook stationed at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, was…
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U.S. Navy sued over training near endangered whales
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Environmental groups sued the U.S. Navy on Thursday to halt plans for an offshore training range that they fear would threaten endangered right whales, which migrate to nearby waters off Georgia and Florida each winter. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia, says the Navy approved construction of the…
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Army charges single mom who refused deployment
SAVANNAH, Georgia — The Army said Wednesday it has filed criminal charges against a single-mother soldier who refused to deploy to Afghanistan last year, arguing she had no family able to care for her infant son. Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, a 21-year-old Army cook from California, could face a prison sentence if she is convicted in…