LONG POND, Pa. — Toyota Racing Development has had the kind of success most manufacturers would love to boast about in the Sprint Cup garage.

Five wins and eight poles in the first 13 races should have TRD riding high. Instead, a few high-profile engine failures has drivers frustrated and TRD looking for answers in time for Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway.

So it was time for a team meeting.

David Wilson, named this week acting president and general manager of TRD, called drivers, crew chiefs and competition directors from Joe Gibbs Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing together on Friday morning to discuss the changes ahead and plans to boost the engine’s durability.

That started with fine-tuning engines already in the cars headed to Pocono.

“It means it’s going to be a little bit of a step back in performance,” Wilson said. “Just getting them on board and being transparent with them has been helpful. The last thing we want is for them not to feel like a part of this.”

TRD is struggling with durability, beginning with the Daytona 500 when Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch suffered engine failures within minutes of each other. Most recently, Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr. both suffered engine failures in Sunday’s race at Dover. Wilson said the valve train has been the main culprit for the engine woes.

Wilson said the key was to keep the season in perspective. Even if six failures have been unacceptable, there are enough checkered flags piling up to prove TRD has an overall grasp on handling its engines.

“Our drivers love the performance they’re getting with the cars,” Wilson said. “Crew chiefs are just killing it this year and the engines are strong. We’re certainly happy about that.”

But in order to win a championship, TRD has to have durability, and drivers can’t be racing wondering if their engine is the next to blow.

“I’d much rather be in this position of saying, ‘We’ve got the performance, now we need to focus on the durability,’” he said. “We’ve got a little bit of security with a couple of our drivers having notched a couple of wins.”

Toyota drivers Clint Bowyer, Kenseth, and Busch are all in the top 10 in the points standings. Denny Hamlin, in 26th and in danger of missing the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, was encouraged by the meeting.

“They identified issues and talked about our short- and long-term plan to fix it,” Hamlin said. “They’re going to do everything they can to fix it.”

Wilson was promoted this week after Lee White stepped down to tend to family health care needs. White joined Toyota in 1997 and took over the top job following Jim Aust’s retirement in July 2008. He was responsible for all TRD North American motorsports activities in NASCAR, USAC, NHRA, Grand-Am and off-road competitions.

White was with teams that won approximately 1,000 races and 250 championships.

“The role that he played in helping bring our company into NASCAR was one of his biggest achievements,” Wilson said. “He built a very robust organization around him.”

It’s the kind of organization Wilson would like to keep leading well into the future.

“I certainly hope I’m afforded that opportunity long term,” he said. “If I do my job, I’m confident I will be.”

Rain washes out Pocono qualifying

LONG POND, Pa. — Rain has washed out Friday’s Sprint Cup qualifying at Pocono Raceway.

Points leader Jimmie Johnson will automatically sit on the pole for the start of Sunday’s 400-mile race.

It rained all day and cars never got on the track. There are only 43 entries for the race so no driver will miss the field.

Sprint Cup Lineup

After Friday qualifying; race Sunday

At Pocono Raceway

Long Pond, Pa.

Lap length: 2.5 miles

(Car number in parentheses)

1. (48) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, owner points.

2. (99) Carl Edwards, Ford, owner points.

3. (15) Clint Bowyer, Toyota, owner points.

4. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, owner points.

5. (29) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, owner points.

6. (88) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, owner points.

7. (5) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, owner points.

8. (18) Kyle Busch, Toyota, owner points.

9. (27) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, owner points.

10. (2) Brad Keselowski, Ford, owner points.

11. (24) Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet, owner points.

12. (43) Aric Almirola, Ford, owner points.

13. (16) Greg Biffle, Ford, owner points.

14. (55) Mark Martin, Toyota, owner points.

15. (56) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, owner points.

16. (17) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, owner points.

17. (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, owner points.

18. (51) A J Allmendinger, Chevrolet, owner points.

19. (14) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, owner points.

20. (78) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, owner points.

21. (22) Joey Logano, Ford, owner points.

22. (1) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, owner points.

23. (39) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, owner points.

24. (31) Jeff Burton, Chevrolet, owner points.

25. (42) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, owner points.

26. (9) Marcos Ambrose, Ford, owner points.

27. (13) Casey Mears, Ford, owner points.

28. (34) David Ragan, Ford, owner points.

29. (47) Bobby Labonte, Toyota, owner points.

30. (10) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, owner points.

31. (38) David Gilliland, Ford, owner points.

32. (7) Dave Blaney, Chevrolet, owner points.

33. (30) David Stremme, Toyota, owner points.

34. (83) David Reutimann, Toyota, owner points.

35. (36) J.J. Yeley, Chevrolet, owner points.

36. (35) Josh Wise, Ford, owner points.

37. (33) Landon Cassill, Chevrolet, attempts.

38. (32) Timmy Hill, Ford, attempts.

39. (93) Travis Kvapil, Toyota, attempts.

40. (87) Joe Nemechek, Toyota, attempts.

41. (98) Michael McDowell, Ford, attempts.

42. (19) Jason Leffler, Toyota, attempts.

43. (44) Scott Riggs, Ford, attempts.

MIAMI — If LeBron James played for the San Antonio Spurs, Gregg Popovich might have a message for him.

It’s the same one he’s occasionally delivered to Tim Duncan.

Selfless play is great. Moving the ball to open teammates is usually the right idea. That belief has carried the Spurs to four NBA titles.

Sometimes, though, it’s best if the superstar takes on more himself.

“I’ve talked to players before about being more aggressive,” Popovich said Friday, after the Spurs practiced following their 92-88 victory over the Miami Heat in Game 1.

“Opportunities might be there that they didn’t take advantage of. That happens with Timmy now and then. He’s so unselfish, if he shoots three jumpers in a row, he feels like he shouldn’t shoot more sometimes, because he wants the ball to move and he wants to involve everybody. I think unselfish players think like that. Once in a while I’ve got to tell him, no, I don’t care if you get 20 of those shots, you have to take them.”

Maybe James will in Game 2.

“We’ll see what type of game plan I come out with on Sunday,” he said. “It will be dumb of me to reveal it today.”

James had 18 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists in Game 1, but, as can be the case with the game’s greatest talent, there was a feeling he could have done more. And the Heat needed it.

About the time the game was slipping away from the Heat midway through the fourth quarter, the league MVP had attempted fewer shots than Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, and only three more than Mario Chalmers. Bosh took more shots in the final period (5) than James (4).

The more they missed — as Wade and Bosh did six times in seven attempts over the final 12 minutes — the louder the cries for James to stop giving them the ball and keep it for himself.

Yet that just doesn’t seem natural for him.

Not selfish

“I’ve got this far with them. I’m not going to just abandon what I’ve been doing all year to help us get to this point,” James said. “So I know those guys will be ready to shoot again once they’re open.”

The Spurs appeared to retain at least part of the schemes they used against James in 2007, when they swept his Cleveland Cavaliers for their most recent title. A help defender was ready to slide over and make James give up the ball or shoot a jumper if he had beaten his man, rather than have a lane to the basket.

“We obviously understand that he’s extended his range and he’s a much different player than he was then. We’re trying to make it as difficult as possible,” Duncan said.

“We’re not going to hold him to 18 every game. Every game we know he’s going to come out real aggressive, especially this coming game, and be aggressive to score, but we’re going to try to make it as difficult as possible, show as many bodies as possible and make his plays so he doesn’t rack up on the ones going right to the basket and try to get the easy stuff.”

Some of the few easy looks the Heat got in their seven-game series against Indiana in the Eastern Conference finals came when James went into the post. But even if he does that now, the strategy only pays off if his shooters make open looks when he’s double-teamed.

So it will be up to James to determine what he thinks will work.

“He’ll do whatever it takes,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He’s as cerebral a player as there is in this league. He’ll read the game as necessary. I wouldn’t bet against our open shooters. So we just need to make sure we’re getting the shots that we want to.”

Miami’s big man

It’s hard to imagine that includes four 3-point attempts from the 6-foot-11 Bosh — the same amount taken by Ray Allen, the NBA’s career leader in 3-pointers made. Bosh missed all of them, but the Heat wouldn’t second-guess the shot selection or criticize their slumping All-Star forward.

“We just want Chris to mix it up,” Wade said. “Chris is one of the best shooters, especially big-man shooters in this game. He hasn’t found the fine line of mixing it up, and that’s not always easy because of the dynamic of how many players we have on the court that’s live at all times.”

The Heat aren’t in bad shape, having won both the 2006 and ’12 championships after losing Game 1. But the difficult series against the Pacers took a toll, with both James and Wade saying the team looked fatigued in the fourth quarter Thursday and James even having to ask for a break at the beginning of the period.

A lengthy rest seemed to pay off for the Spurs, fresher at the finish after having nine days off following the West finals sweep of Memphis. They committed only four turnovers in the game — fewer than the Heat had in the fourth quarter.

Plus, San Antonio seems to have an understanding of how to play James, though the Spurs don’t make it sound like a complex one.

“It’s basketball. There’s nothing tricky really about basketball. There are only so many things you can do,” Popovich said. “So we try to do a little bit of everything. Sometimes it means getting up into him. Sometimes it means backing off. Sometimes it means fronting him. Sometimes it means playing behind. It’s just important to show a little bit of variety so somebody doesn’t get used to one thing.”

Now it’s up to James to figure out how to deal with all that.

“I don’t really predetermine what I’m going to do,” he said. “I kind of let the game flow for itself. We’ll see what happens.”

The Savannah Morning News, savannahnow.com and Savannah magazine picked up 23 awards Friday when the results of the Georgia Press Association’s 2013 Better Newspaper Contest were revealed.

Chief among those was the Freedom of Information award bestowed for coverage of the tenure of former Savannah City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney and the Chatham County Commission.

The News also won second place in the General Excellence category.

Reporters Jenel Few and Adam Van Brimmer won first-place awards for their coverage of education and business. Van Brimmer also won first place in the Serious Column category for his column on the HOPE scholarship, and Few won first place in Hard News Writing for her story on a police standoff on Goebel Avenue.

Savannah resident and freelancer Jane Kahn received the first-place award for Religious Coverage.

The entire staff won a first-place award in the Best Online News Project category for its coverage of St. Patrick’s Day.

“We are pleased to be honored for the reporting that is essential to our free and democratic society,” said Savannah Morning News Publisher Michael C. Traynor. “The Freedom of Information award is an acknowledgement that our journalists are holding our public officials accountable and fighting for the transparency we all deserve and expect.”

The News competed in the category comprised of the largest news organizations in the state of Georgia.

Work entered in the competition was published in 2012. The awards ceremony took place at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel.

SAVANNAH MORNING NEWS RECEIVES AWARDS

Here are the awards given Friday by the Georgia Press Association:

FIRST PLACE

Business Coverage: Adam Van Brimmer

Education Coverage: Jenel Few

Hard News Writing: Jenel Few

Religion Coverage: Jane Kahn

Serious Column: Adam Van Brimmer

Best Online News Project: Staff for St. Patrick’s Day coverage

Editorial Writing

Lifestyle Coverage

Magazine Product: Savannah magazine’s July/August issue

SECOND PLACE

Feature Writing: Mary Landers

Investigative Reporting: Lesley Conn

Photo Essay: Richard Burkhart

Editorial Page

Layout and Design

Sports Section or Pages

Magazine Product: Savannah magazine’s Savannah Weddings

THIRD PLACE

Editorial Cartoonist: Mark Streeter

Business Coverage: Mary Carr Mayle

Sports Column: Adam Van Brimmer

Headline Writing

Community Service: Savannah city manager coverage

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in May— a steady pace that shows strength in the face of tax increases and government spending cuts if not enough to reduce still-high unemployment.

The unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent in April, the Labor Department said Friday. The rate rose because more people began looking for work, a healthy sign, but only about three-quarters found jobs.

Analysts said the less-than-robust job growth would likely lead the Federal Reserve to maintain the pace of its monthly bond purchases for a few more months. The bond purchases have been intended to ease long-term borrowing costs and lift stock prices.

Investors appeared pleased by the evidence that job growth remains steady. The Dow Jones industrial average was up about 172 points in late-afternoon trading.

Friday’s job figures provided further evidence of the U.S. economy’s resilience. The housing market is strengthening, auto sales are up and consumer confidence has reached a five-year peak. Stock prices are near record highs, and the budget deficit has shrunk.

The U.S. economy’s relative strength contrasts with Europe, which is gripped by recession, and Asia, where once-explosive economies are now struggling.

Many analysts expect the U.S. economy to strengthen later this year.

“Today’s report has to be encouraging for growth in the second half of the year,” said Dan Greenhaus, an analyst at BTIG LLC.

Employers have added an average of 155,000 jobs the past three months. But the May gain almost exactly matched the average increase of the previous 12 months: 172,000.

Reflecting a trend in recent months, many of the jobs added in May were lower-paying ones. That means they aren’t likely to fuel as much consumer spending and economic growth as higher-paying jobs that have disappeared.

Yet Americans appear to be more optimistic about their job prospects: 420,000 people started looking for work in May. As a result, the percentage of Americans 16 and older either working or looking for work rose to 63.4 percent from a 34-year low of 63.3 percent in April.

This is called the labor force participation rate. Higher participation can boost the unemployment rate. That’s because once people without a job start looking for one, they’re counted as unemployed.

Labor force participation has been falling since peaking at 67.3 percent in 2000. That’s partly the result of baby boomers retiring and dropping out of the work force.

Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities, thinks an improving job market will encourage more Americans to look for jobs. He predicts that the participation rate will level off at around 63.5 percent.

The unemployment rate is derived from a survey of households. This survey found that more people started looking for work in May. Since some didn’t find jobs right away, the number of unemployed rose 101,000 to 11.7 million.

The job gain for the month is calculated from a separate survey of employers.

Some signs in the report suggested that the government spending cuts, which began taking effect in March, and weak growth in much of the rest of the world are weighing on the U.S. job market. Weakness overseas has slowed demand for U.S. exports.

Manufacturers cut 8,000 jobs. The federal government, which is carrying out deep spending cuts in domestic and defense programs, shed 14,000. Both were the third straight month of cuts for those industries. Over the past three months, the federal government has cut 45,000 jobs.

The number of temporary jobs rose about 26,000. The economy has now added temporary jobs for eight straight months. That suggests that employers are responding to more demand but aren’t confident enough to hire permanent workers.

Industries that rely directly on consumer spending hired at a healthy pace — a sign of confidence that consumers will keep spending. Retailers added 28,000 jobs. Restaurants and hotels added 33,000.

These categories include many lower-paying occupations. By contrast, the recession sharply cut jobs in higher-paying industries such as manufacturing, construction and finance, which have yet to recover.

Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo, calculated that about 60 percent of the jobs created in May were in lower-paying fields. Even in a professional field such as health care, Vitner noted that one of the biggest job creators was home health care services, where care providers earn about $10 an hour, according to government data.

“It’s hard to get meaningful income growth with these types of jobs,” Vitner said.

Rob McGahen, 29, has felt the trend personally. After receiving his master’s in business administration in 2007, McGahen worked for Boeing in St. Louis, buying parts for military planes.

Last year, after moving with his wife to Pensacola, Fla., McGahen sought work for about nine months. He settled for a part-time job in the produce section of Publix, a supermarket chain.

“It’s certainly not a long-term plan,” McGahen said. “But it keeps me busy. It keeps my skills from atrophying.”

Stock markets have gyrated in the past two weeks on speculation that the Fed would soon start to taper its $85 billion-a-month in bond buying — a step that could raise rates and cause stock prices to fall.

“I think the Fed will stay on hold,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight. “They want to see numbers above 200,000 on payroll jobs on a consistent basis before they start to taper off.”

Behravesh said he thinks the Fed will maintain its pace of bond buying through this year before scaling it back in 2014.

“Today’s report is perhaps the perfect number for nervous investors,” said James Marple, Senior Economist at TD Economics. “It is strong enough to point to continued economic recovery but not so strong as to bring forward expectations of Fed tapering.”

Other analysts who have predicted that the Fed would start trimming its bond purchases later this year said they didn’t think Friday’s jobs report would change that timetable.

John Canally, an economist at LPL Financial, blames the Federal Reserve for not specifying how much monthly job growth it wants to see before it scales back its bond buying.

“They have not been transparent enough,” Canally said. “That is what has unhinged markets.”

The Fed has been buying bonds to keep loan rates near record lows to encourage consumers and companies to buy and spend.

Low rates make investments that pay interest unattractive. As result, many investors have bought stocks instead. Money pouring into stocks drove the Dow to a record high last month. Stocks have since slipped from their peaks but are still up more than 20 percent since November.

On Friday, the government also revised the job figures for April and March. The revisions were slight compared with recent months, when the government had significantly revised up its initial job estimates. April’s gain was lowered to 149,000 from 165,000. March’s was increased slightly to 142,000 from 138,000. The net loss was 12,000 jobs.

From June through August, employers added an average of 135,000 jobs a month. From September through November, they averaged 182,000. The average was 233,000 from December through February. In the past three months, job gains have averaged 155,000.

The economy grew at a solid annual rate of 2.4 percent in the first three months of the year. Consumer spending rose at the fastest pace in more than two years. But economists worry that the steep government spending cuts and higher Social Security taxes that started Jan. 1 might be slowing growth in the April-June quarter to an annual rate of 2 percent or less.

The Social Security tax increase is costing a typical household that earns $50,000 about $1,000 this year, or about $20 a week. For a household with two high-earners, it’s costing up to $4,500.

___

AP Economics Writer Martin Crutsinger contributed to this report.

__

Follow Chris Rugaber on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber

24-hour jail bookings for Savannah-Chatham County are now posted. Visit booked.savannahnow.com to view photos and information.

All information has been obtained from the Chatham County Sheriff’s Department.

All individuals posted have not been convicted of a crime and are innocent until proven guilty.

ATLANTA  — As the last few minutes of Georgia's busy legislative session ticked off the clock, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed was hanging out with Gov. Nathan Deal and his staff to watch the action unfold.

It may not sound unusual until you think about the fact, in this era of hyper-partisan rhetoric, that Deal is a conservative Republican and Reed a key Democratic ally of President Barack Obama. The friendship between Deal, 70, and Reed, 43, has its roots in a shared interest in economic development and has blossomed into a powerful political alliance that is already paying dividends with a number of major corporations heading to Atlanta and neither man yet to face a significant re-election challenge.

"It's pretty incredible when you think how close they are," said Chip Lake, a longtime GOP strategist in Georgia. "With all the partisanship going on in Washington, D.C., I think people in the state expect their leaders to govern. And while this alliance may make some on the far right or on the far left skeptical, it certainly shows the two of them have a commitment to governing and are willing to put partisan differences aside."

The mayor and governor frequently appear together at events, introduce each other as "my friend" and praise each other's accomplishments. The two recently joined U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to talk about the benefits of early childhood education. A few days earlier, they shared the stage at a conference and spoke about their friendship. Reed noted his office was just 300 steps or so from the governor's office at the Capitol, "but you would have thought in Georgia over the last 30 or 40 years, regardless of party, that walk was a 10K."

In fact, when Deal walked to City Hall for a news conference earlier this year to announce a deal on funding a new NFL stadium, his staff was told a governor hadn't been across the street in 30 years. Reed, who runs the state's largest city, with 423,000 residents, said there are a number of issues on which they find common ground. The two traveled to Washington to lobby the Obama administration on behalf of a project to deepen the Savannah River port, which Reed argues is essential to Atlanta's success as a global business hub with companies including Home Depot and UPS.

"Folks that are playing the conflict game, where I bash you and you bash me, I think are losing across the United States of America," said Reed, a Howard University-trained attorney who became mayor in 2010. "The old tired politics would be me trying to one-up the governor or play gotcha, but how does that help the people of the state of Georgia?"

The governor, also an attorney before being elected to Congress in 1992, said that shared motivation forms the basis of a friendship that began after a series of introductory meetings arranged by mutual friends in the General Assembly. Both are former state lawmakers, although Deal was already in Congress when Reed was first elected as a state representative.

"We don't have time to play games, and we don't play games with each other," Deal said.

There are mutual benefits as well. Reed offers the Republican governor access to a Democratic president's administration, and Deal offers the Democratic mayor an important relationship with state leaders making decisions that affect the city.

A critical moment came in 2011 when the state was looking to persuade Porsche to stay in Georgia and build its new North American headquarters in Atlanta. Deal had recently taken office, and the project quickly became a top priority for him and the mayor, who had a site in mind near Atlanta's airport, the world's busiest. It became clear to Porsche's leadership that not only were the governor and mayor communicating, they were speaking in one voice.

"You could tell from their interaction that these were not two people who had to be nice to each other," said Joseph Folz, general counsel for Porsche Cars North America, Inc. "This was a far smoother negotiation process than any prior site search for which I have been involved. I do think that is because every organization gets its character from the top."

Folz credited Deal and Reed's partnership with the confidence to move forward and said company officials have shared their positive experience with others in the business community.

The governor's chief of staff, Chris Riley, said Deal and Reed are successful in focusing on shared interests and avoiding political differences.

"We don't talk about Medicaid expansion," Riley said. "There's not a pro-life, pro-choice discussion going on in the Suburban as they go to an economic development meeting. Usually, it's the mayor telling a joke, the governor laughing and I'm on the floor hysterical."

The mayor has also won over the governor's wife, Sandra, who took it upon herself to offer the unmarried Reed some motherly advice after they appeared together at an educational event, according to Riley.

"She told the mayor, 'You need to stop dating around. It's time for you to settle down. You're old enough,'" Riley said, laughing as he quoted the governor's wife. "It was hardcore, but (Reed) loved it."

Riley is such a fan that he donated $250 to the mayor's re-election campaign.

"I'd vote for him if I could," said Riley, who lives outside the city. "I truly believe that this relationship, this time in which Georgia and the city can work together to position the state to be a global hub, is truly a special time that I think is our responsibility."

State Rep. Calvin Smyre, a longtime Democratic lawmaker who has known Reed for years, said Reed is pragmatic and focused on being a "responsive and progressive leader." As mayor, Reed oversees a strongly Democratic city with a majority black population in a state where all the statewide elected officials are Republicans.

"He believes in working across political aisles, across race relations and across cultural relations," Smyre said. "Mayors have to get things done."

That's not to say the political alliance is without risk.

The mayor is the most high-profile elected Democrat in the state, but he has gotten pushback for a deal that would use public money to help build the new Falcons stadium. He also has made comments suggesting state Democrats should focus on the 2014 U.S. Senate and 2016 presidential races. Left off the list was mention of the 2014 governor's race, which raised eyebrows among Democrats.

When asked whether it was a sign of weakness that Democrats had yet to offer a candidate to challenge the governor, Reed said no and reiterated Deal "has done a good job as governor."

For Deal, he found himself on the wrong side of a statewide transportation referendum last year that was opposed by tea party groups. The governor and mayor joined forces to push the local penny-sales-tax plan to raise funds for transportation projects. It was defeated across much of the state, including the metro Atlanta area, although the governor didn't appear to lose much political capital.

Debbie Dooley with Tea Party Patriots said she wouldn't criticize the governor for doing the same thing her group did. They partnered with the NAACP against the transportation measure.

"It's good to reach across party lines, as long as you don't compromise your principles," Dooley said.

ATLANTA — Georgia's Labor Department failed to have adequate systems in place to detect and recover millions of dollars in unemployment benefits improperly paid over a three-year period despite a widely available system to cross-check new hires, according to a federal audit.

The Office of Inspector General with the U.S. Department of Labor found the state agency "missed opportunities" and did not implement a system to detect overpayments of unemployment benefits until December 2011, even though that system had been available since 2008. During that time, Georgia overpaid $58.7 million in unemployment benefits and recovered just $14.9 million, or 25 percent, the audit said.

State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, who took office in January 2011, has taken steps to prevent overpayments and catch them when they do occur, according to agency spokesman Sam Hall.

"We feel that in the last couple of years we have made significant inroads with some of the issues that resulted in the overpayments," Hall said Friday. "When Commissioner Butler came into office, he was aware of the fact that some of our technology was outdated, and he made a commitment very early on to start upgrading that technology, both hardware and software, and updating the systems to bring the department more into a situation where our technology would allow us to do the job that we need to do."

Last month, Butler announced Georgia was among a group of states launching an electronic system designed to improve communication between the state and employers while preventing overpayments. The system allows for state officials to contact employers by email, rather than the U.S. Postal Service, when an employee has filed an unemployment claim. The employer can then respond quickly as to whether the person has a legitimate claim.

Unemployment benefits cover those who are let go through no fault of their own; those that are fired for cause are ineligible. To qualify, workers must meet minimum length of employment and wage requirements and must show they are looking for a job. The program is administered by the state using a mix of federal and state funds.

The federal audit dated March 15 said the Georgia Department of Labor had indicated an increased workload and computer programming requirements had delayed its implementation of the cross-matching system known as the National Director of New Hires, or NDNH.

"GDOL stated that ensuring claimants received benefits took precedence over NDNH programming for detecting overpayments and it allocated resources accordingly," the audit said.

The National Directory of New Hires includes reports from federal civilian and military employers across the country as well as private employers who participate in a state's database. The audit included a handful of recommendations, and an assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor noted Georgia had made improvements and was now using the national cross-matching system.

From April to December 2012, Georgia detected more than $300,000 in overpayments using the national system, according to a response submitted by Jane Oates, assistant secretary for employment and training.

Problems with overpayments have posed a challenge for a number of states. According to the Government Accountability Office, the unemployment benefits program had the fourth-highest estimated improper payment amount of all federal programs for fiscal year 2011. Federal officials estimated the unemployment benefits program had $13.7 billion in improper payments with an error rate of 12 percent. Federal officials say the primary causes are those who continue to claim benefits after they return to work and ineligibility issues.

Georgia has also joined the Treasury Offset Program, which allows the state to recover overpayments from federal income tax refunds, and implemented a debit card to replace paper checks, which eliminates the risk of lost or stolen checks that can generate overpayments, Hall said. In addition, the department is working with a private company that specializes in overpayment detection and recovery to allow officials to better identify and investigate those who have returned to work but failed to report their earnings, Hall said.

"Unemployment benefits are tied to a social security number and so are paychecks," Hall said.

State officials acknowledged its unemployment benefits system is more than 30 years old, requiring that any programming be thoroughly tested to avoid a system failure. In terms of collecting overpayments, the state has seen a notable increase. In the first quarter of 2013, overpayment collections totaled $5.4 million, which is up from the $2.9 million collected during the same period in 2011.

"We have made progress, and we will continue to make progress," Hall said.

Savannah surgeon Bob Johnson formally announced his candidacy Saturday morning for the 1st Congressional District seat, making him the fourth Republican candidate to enter the race that will determine the successor to outgoing incumbent Jack Kingston.

Johnson, 63, made his initial announcement in front of about 25 people at the Chatham County Republican Party’s monthly Second Saturday breakfast meeting at the CCRP’s headquarters on East 73 Street and then embarked on a trio of campaign stops throughout the 1st Congressional District.

Johnson, a head and neck surgeon who has never held elected office, joins state Sen. Buddy Carter (R-Pooler), Isle of Hope native David Schwarz and Alma resident Darwin Carter in the race to succeed Kingston, who is leaving the House after 22 years to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Saxby Chambliss.

PARIS — Two hours before her French Open final, Serena Williams practiced on center court, the stands deserted as she whacked one winner after another to the distant sounds of a brass band playing on the plaza.

When the music stopped, the seats filled and the match began, Williams went on defense, relentlessly chasing down one shot after another to defeat familiar foil Maria Sharapova. With a 6-4, 6-4 victory, the No. 1-ranked Williams won her first French Open championship since 2002.

"Eleven years," Williams said in French during the trophy ceremony. "I think it's unbelievable. Now I have 16 Grand Slam titles. It's difficult for me to speak because I'm so excited."

Then the national anthem played for the first American singles champion at Roland Garros since Williams' previous title.

Williams whacked 10 aces, including three in the final game, and the last came on match point at 123 mph — her hardest serve of the day. She then sank to her knees, screamed at the sky and buried her face in the clay.

The victory completed her rebound from a shocking loss to 111th-ranked Virginie Razzano in the first round at the French Open a year ago. Since that defeat she's 74-3, including titles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the London Olympics and the season-ending WTA Championships.

Both finalists swung with their typical aggressiveness from the baseline, but Williams' superior serve and defense proved the difference. She silently ran side to side whipping groundstrokes with little apparent strain, while Sharapova often found herself lunging after the ball to stay in the point, with each shot accompanied by her familiar shriek.

When Williams once summoned a grunt herself to match Sharapova's volume and pound a winner, the crowd responded with a laugh.

Sharapova completed a career Grand Slam by winning Roland Garros last year, but she's still looking for a breakthrough against Williams, who has won their past 13 meetings since 2004.

"I played a great tournament and I ran into a really tough champion today," Sharapova said.

Lately Williams beats everyone. She extended her career-best winning streak to 31 matches.

At 31, she became the oldest woman to win a major title since Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon in 1990 at age 33. Her 11-year gap between Roland Garros titles is the longest for any woman.

Williams, who has a home in Paris, is already thinking about winning again next year.

"I love Paris," she said. "I spend a lot of time here. I live here. I practice here. I think I am a Parisian."

Williams also congratulated Sharapova during the ceremony.

"She played a beautiful final," Williams said in French. "She's a great champion. I hope to be with her again next year."

"Merci beaucoup," Sharapova responded with a laugh.

In an all-Spanish final Sunday, Rafael Nadal will try to become the first man to win eight titles at the same Grand Slam event when he plays first-time major finalist David Ferrer.

The women's final, the first between No. 1 and No. 2 at a Grand Slam tournament since 2004, wasn't as close as their rankings. It has been 12 years since the most recent three-set women's title match at Roland Garros.

Playing in hazy, warm weather, the finalists took ferocious swings from the start. With fans perhaps fearful that Williams would win quickly, they began shouting encouragement toward Sharapova after she lost the first two points.

She overcame four break points to hold in the opening game and led 2-0 before Williams began to assert herself. It took Williams 17 minutes to win a game, but then she swept four in a row.

After Sharapova took the next two for 4-all, Williams surged at the end of the set, taking the lead for good by winning eight of the final 10 points.

Sharapova had to dig in again to hold at the start of the second set, fending off five break points, and it was all downhill for her from there. Williams easily held serve all the way to the finish.

She improved to 16-4 in Grand Slam finals. She leads all active women with her 16 major titles and is sixth on the all-time list. Margaret Court holds the record with 24.

Williams improved to 43-2 this year, including 23-0 on clay. Now comes the switch to grass, and she'll be a heavy favorite to win Wimbledon for the sixth time.

Lots of excitement is anticipated Friday as America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia is scheduled to unveil one of two vans obtained through a grant from Arby’s Foundation to assist in feeding children in the region during the summer months and beyond.

Mary Jane Crouch, executive director of the food bank, said the 11:00 a.m. unveiling at 2501 E. President St. will highlight the $157,000 grant, one of five in Georgia.

The grant will help the food bank obtain two tall, refrigerated vans, and an assortment of kitchen equipment to assist the nonprofit.

On hand for the unveiling are expected to be 50 kids from the Salvation Army who will dine at the site.

Crime and arrest reports for Savannah-Chatham County have been updated through June 1, 2013.

Click here to access crime reports.

Click here to access arrest records.

ATLANTA — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is eliminating its Handwriting Analysis Unit, which had been operating for 20 years.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that experts say that the long-established crime-solving tool of handwriting comparison, which came into use more than a century ago, is going the way of snail mail and cursive penmanship.

The unit was temporarily suspended last June to allow GBI analysts time to get up to speed on their accreditation. But on May 31, the GBI permanently closed the unit. It provided services for local law enforcement agencies that are investigating forgeries, fraudulent documents, suicide notes, threatening letters, bank robbery demand notes and other questioned documents. Those agencies will now have to use private vendors.

Kirk Gibson and Mark McGwire gripped each other's tops and faced off nose to nose as the nasty brawl escalated.

No, this wasn't 1989.

It was Tuesday night.

When Ian Kennedy hit fellow starter Zack Greinke with a pitch and a full-on melee broke out between Arizona and Los Angeles, several stars from another generation were right in the thick of it.

Take out the baseball cards, kids, it wasn't just Miguel Montero and Yasiel Puig mixing it up. Several coaches who dominated the game as players in the 1980s and '90s produced some of the fight's most memorable moments.

There was McGwire, Los Angeles' hitting coach, clutched in a tense standoff with equally solid Diamondbacks third base coach Matt Williams. Big Don Baylor, Arizona's hitting coach, held his ground among a surge of Dodgers. Don Mattingly wrestled someone to the ground as he tried to get at fellow manager Gibson. Williams had Mattingly in a bear hug at one point.

Gibson, McGwire and Diamondbacks assistant hitting coach Turner Ward — who was nearly thrown over a railing near the Arizona dugout — were among the six ejected from the game.

"Everything happened so fast," Mattingly said. "It just gets a little crazy out there."

Things got out of hand in the seventh inning of the Dodgers' 5-3 victory, when Kennedy hit Greinke in the shoulder — the ball caromed off his helmet.

That was payback for Greinke hitting catcher Miguel Montero in the top of the inning after Kennedy hit Dodgers rookie Yasiel Puig with a ball that caught Puig's nose in the sixth.

Generally, coaches try to remain peacemakers when benches clear after a player is hit with a pitch. Not this time, with two sides full of gritty former players.

Perhaps best known for his limping trot around the bases after homering to give the Dodgers a win in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, Gibson refused give in when McGwire, the former single-season home run record holder, screamed at the D-backs manager.

"We're certainly not going to try and jeopardize anybody's career. We respect those guys too much," Gibson said. "They responded and it was certainly obvious. And beyond that, things just got out of control."

___

AP Sports Writer Beth Harris in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

An attorney for a Texas man charged in the June 4 traffic death of jazz icon Ben Tucker today asked a judge to reconsider bond in the case.

Robert William Martin, 52, remains in the Chatham County jail without bond pending a June 20 preliminary hearing on vehicular homicide and related charges in the death of Tucker, 82, was killed while riding a golf cart on Hutchinson Island by a speeding car driven by Martin.

Defense attorney Alex Zipperer today asked Chatham County Recorder’s Court Chief Judge Tammy Stokes to set a bond for Martin.

The motion said Martin, who owns a home in Spicewood, Texas, is sole support for his wife and four children and has never been charged with anything “other than possibly a single speeding citation in the distant past.”

“There is no evidence of alcohol being involved in this case,” Zipperer said in the petition, adding that he has been advised that the district attorney has no objection to bond being set in the case.

The city of Savannah expects it to take between two to three weeks to repair a major water line on President Street that serves industrial businesses in the area, said city spokesperson Bret Bell.

Inside lanes along President Street east of the Truman Parkway have had to be closed off for the repairs and commuters can expect traffic delays until the repairs are completed, Bell said.

The Effingham County Sheriff’s Office and Springfield Police Department are asking for the public’s help in locating a missing Springfield juvenile.

“According to Springfield Police, John Gonsalves, 13, was last seen Tuesday night at his residence on North Railroad Avenue,” Effingham County Sheriff’s Office spokesman David Ehsanipoor said.

Gonsalves is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs 175 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to contact the Springfield Police Department or the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office at 912-754-3449.

View photos from today's graduations so far:

• New Hampstead High School
• Johnson High School

Click here to watch live streaming of Grove High School's graduation ceremony starting at 6:30 p.m. today.

SCCPSS Graduation Schedule

Wednesday, June 12:

• 6:30 p.m.: Groves High School 

Thursday, June 13: 

• 9 a.m.: Savannah Arts Academy
• 1:30 p.m.: Savannah High S

One north bound lane of Ga. 21 from the Chatham County line to Fort Howard Road in Rincon is closed due to a spill.

Effingham County Sheriff’s Office spokesman David Ehsanipoor said the spill appears to be some type of oil that may have leaked from a truck. The spill is in several areas of the roadway.

Ehsanipoor said deputies and the fire department are on the scene.

Deputies are asking motorists to avoid the area if possible.

“Drivers should slow down if they can’t avoid the area and follow the directions of deputies,” Ehsanipoor said.

The lane is expected to be closed until at least 5 p.m.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — U.S. prosecutors announced fraud and other charges Wednesday against eight alleged members of an international cybercrime ring that the government said hacked into the computers of more than a dozen leading financial institutions and the U.S. military's payroll service.

Prosecutors said the scheme to steal millions from customer accounts was led by Oleksiy Sharapka, 33, of Kiev, Ukraine, who remained at large along with a second Ukrainian national. The conspiracy is alleged to have begun about the same time Sharapka was deported from the U.S. in 2012 after serving time in federal prison in Massachusetts.

Four of the defendants had been arrested by Wednesday morning, including key associates in New York, Massachusetts and Georgia accused of using stolen identities to try to cash out the hacked accounts, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said.

The government said financial institutions whose computer networks were hacked included Aon Hewitt, Automated Data Processing Inc., Citibank, E-Trade, Electronic Payments Inc., Fundtech Holdings LLC, iPayment Inc., JPMorgan Chase Bank, Nordstrom Bank, PayPal, TD Ameritrade, TIAA-CREF, USAA, Veracity Payment Solutions Inc. and the payroll arm of the U.S. Department of Defense.

"Cybercriminals penetrated some of our most trusted financial institutions as part of a global scheme that stole money and identities from people in the United States," Fishman said.

The ring targeted electronic payment systems of the various institutions in a bid to steal at least $15 million from U.S. customers, prosecutors said.

The criminal complaint notes that some of the efforts to steal funds from customer accounts were blocked.

It does not make clear the number of hacked firms from which the defendants were able to successfully transfer money, or how the defendants were able to hack into the computer networks of so many major financial institutions.

Once inside the computer networks, the defendants and their conspirators sought to divert money from customer accounts to prepaid debit cards that they controlled, prosecutors said. As part of the scheme, cards were obtained in the names of people whose identities had been stolen.

Stolen identities were also used to file fraudulent tax returns with the IRS seeking refunds.

Crews of individuals known as "cashers" were employed in New York, Massachusetts, Georgia, Illinois and elsewhere to withdraw the stolen funds. The government said the majority of the proceeds were distributed to managers, including to leaders of the conspiracy overseas.

The defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit identity theft.

Those under arrest by Wednesday morning were Oleg Pidtergerya, 49, of New York City's Brooklyn borough; Robert Dubuc, 40, of Malden, Mass.; and Andrey Yarmolitskiy, 41, of Atlanta. They were identified as crew managers. Also arrested was Ilya Ostapyuk, 31, of Brooklyn, who is accused of helping move the proceeds of the fraud.

Three were scheduled for court appearances Wednesday in Newark and Boston.

Lamar Taylor, 37, of Salem, Mass., and Richard Gunderson, 46, of Brooklyn, were being sought.

The second Ukrainian national being sought was identified as Leonid Yanovitsky, 38, also of Kiev, who prosecutors said helped Sharapka direct the scheme.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

When Mitch Davis stood amid the sprawling crowds at last year’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, the recent Savannah Country Day School graduate probably thought he’d attend the event again.

He didn’t fathom, however, that he’d be back at the hugely popular Manchester, Tenn., festival just one year later on stage as lead singer of his band, Staying For The Weekend.

“It’s that thing you dream about, and then you’re like, ‘Ah, that probably won’t happen,’” he said. “And then it just happened.”

Adding more surprise to the turn of events: Staying For The Weekend was only recently formed, and it’s Davis’ first band. He joined the indie-pop-rock outfit after moving to Nashville last year to attend Belmont University.

He played music in his middle school jazz band, but he later switched paths to musical theater, learning to sing.

“I took voice lessons in (Savannah) and that’s how I got into it,” he said. “And then when I got here, it just kind of worked out.”

In a way, the band as it is now was birthed from the festival that’s introducing it to the world.

At college orientation the day after last year’s Bonnaroo, Davis ran into guitarist and backup vocalist Carson Mays. The two noticed one another wearing the same Bonnaroo wristbands and hit it off.

“It’s kind of funny how we started with Bonnaroo and now it’s happening a year later,” Davis said.

Staying For The Weekend released its first EP, “Camp Empathy,” in November. The band, along with hundreds of others, entered the third annual Road To Roo campaign via Sonicbids. Online voting got Staying For The Weekend into the top 10, and then Bonnaroo officials selected the band as one of two to play the June 13-16 festival.

That puts Davis and his bandmates in a massive lineup that includes indie and alternative favorites along with musical giants ranging from Paul McCartney to the Wu-Tang Clan.

So far, the biggest crowd Staying For The Weekend has played for was about 150-strong at a Nashville-area festival. Being on the stage at Bonnaroo, Davis said, won't bother him in the slightest.

“I’m honestly more nervous about playing in front of 15 people than upwards of 100 or 200,” he said. “The more people, the more fun we have and the more supportive everyone is.”

Since the band hasn’t made it to Savannah for a show yet, Davis said he’s excited that family members and friends from back home are making the trip to Tennessee to see Staying For The Weekend play the festival.

His family, he said, might even be more excited than he is that he’s performing at Bonnaroo. That’s not to say he wasn’t blown away when he found out his band had been selected.

“It was crazy,” he said. “If you had told me a year ago right after I went that I’d be playing the next year, I’d be like, ‘No way.’”

ON THE WEB

Listen to “The Giving Tree,” a song from Staying For The Weekend’s debut EP, “Camp Empathy” by clicking here

To hear more from the band, go to stayingfortheweekend.bandcamp.com.

For more information about the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, go to bonnaroo.com.