Traffic has been slowed on the drawbridge on Diamond Causeway after a two-car crash with non serious injuries, said Julian Miller, Savannah-Chatham police spokesman.
Police and fire units are on scene at 4:20 p.m. One lane of traffic is open and traffic is backed up. Motorists are asked to use patience when travelling through the area.
A persistent Crime Suppression Unit sergeant and a suspect prone to running from police combined for a double arrest and the seizure of dangerous weapons and illegal substances Thursday.
Daniel Marcus Hunter, 32, and Isadore Johnson III, 26, were taken into custody after the detective pursued Hunter into a house in the 200 block of West Street, said Julian Miller, Savannah-Chatham police spokesman.
The sergeant from the Downtown Precinct had recognized Hunter, walking in west Savannah, as the subject of a contempt of court warrant just after noon. When he attempted to talk to him, Hunter ran and the detective saw him enter the house on West Street.
After securing backup and permission from the homeowner to search the house, he found both Hunter and Johnson and the guns and drugs. Johnson told officers the guns and drugs -- more than a pound of marijuana -- belonged to him. The guns included two AK47 assault rifles. One weapon had been reported stolen in Garden City in 2011.
Johnson was charged with possession of marijuana, possession of a drug related object, theft by receiving stolen property, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of firearms in the commission of a crime.
Hunter, who has been charged with obstruction of a law enforcement officer seven times in the past, was charged with obstruction again, along with the contempt of court charge.
A K-9 officer at the Effingham County Sheriff's Office has died.
Boss, was 15 years old and was one of the first to serve the department. Boss was handled by former Effingham County Sheriff Office Sgt James Dixon.
"Boss is credited with helping recover thousands of dollars worth of drugs and assisting in the apprehension of several fugitives," Sheriff's Office spokesman David Ehsanipoor said.
Boss spent his retirement with the Dixon family. Boss died Tuesday of age related illness.
"He will be missed but not forgotten," Ehsanipoor said.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 346,000 last week, evidence that the job market is still improving modestly.
Here are the states with the biggest increases or decreases in applications, and some reasons for the changes. The state figures are for the week ended June 15, one week behind the national data:
States with the biggest decreases:
Illinois: Down 3,401, due to fewer layoffs in construction, manufacturing, and administrative support
New York: Down 2,090, due to fewer layoffs in construction, hotels and food service, and finance
Georgia: Down 1,893, due to fewer layoffs in manufacturing, administrative support, health care, and hotels and restaurants
Missouri: Down 1,591, due to fewer layoffs in transportation and warehousing, construction, hotels and restaurants, and health care
Tennessee: Down 1,542, no reason given
Oregon: Down 1,488, no reason given
States with the biggest increases:
California: Up 15,341, due to layoffs in services
Pennsylvania: Up 4,882, due to layoffs in transportation, hotels and restaurants, construction, and education
Florida: Up 4,850, due to layoffs in agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and retail
Michigan: Up 1,114, no reason given
Maryland: Up 1,065, no reason given
NEW YORK (AP) — Paula Deen's multimillion-dollar merchandise and media empire continues to unravel following revelations that she used racial slurs in the past.
Target Corp., Home Depot Inc. and diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk on Thursday became the latest companies to distance themselves from the Southern celebrity chef.
Home Depot, which sold Paula Deen-branded cookware and kitchen products only online, said it pulled the merchandise off its website on Wednesday. And Target said that it will phase out its Paula Deen-branded cookware and other items in stores and on its website.
"Once the merchandise is sold out, we will not be replenishing inventory," said Molly Snyder, a Target spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk said it and Deen have "mutually agreed to suspend our patient education activities for now." Deen, who specializes in Southern comfort food, had been promoting the company's drug Victoza since last year when she announced she had Type 1 diabetes.
SLIDESHOW: Paula Deen and family through the years
These are the latest blows dealt to Deen since comments she made in a court deposition became public. Last week, the Food Network said that it would not renew her contract. On Monday, pork producer Smithfield Foods dropped her as a spokeswoman. Then, on Wednesday, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, said it too was cutting ties with Deen following a tearful "Today" show interview in which she said she's not a racist.
On the same day, Caesars Entertainment announced that Paula Deen's name is being stripped from four buffet restaurants owned by the company. Caesars said that its decision to rebrand its restaurants in Joliet, Ill.; Tunica, Miss.; Cherokee, N.C.; and Elizabeth, Ind., was a mutual one with Deen.
The stakes are high for Deen, who Forbes magazine ranked as the fourth highest-earning celebrity chef last year, bringing in $17 million. She's behind Gordon Ramsay, Rachel Ray and Wolfgang Puck, according to Forbes.
Deen's empire, which spans from TV shows to furniture and cookware, generates total annual revenue of nearly $100 million, estimates Burt Flickinger III, president of retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group.
But Flickinger says that the controversy has cost her as much as half of that business. He also estimates that she could lose up to 80 percent by next year as suppliers extricate themselves from their agreements.
"The accelerating domino effect is commercially disastrous for Paula Deen's empire," he said.
It's a dramatic fall from a woman who overcame her humble Southern roots and personal hardships to build a merchandising and media empire.
Deen, who grew up in Albany, Georgia, was grappling with a failed marriage, the death of her parents and a prolonged battle with agoraphobia when she started her home-based catering business called The Bag Lady in June 1989, according to her company website.
Then a mother of two teenage boys, Jamie and Bobby, and on the verge of homelessness, she used her last $200 to start the catering business. She describes the business as delivering "lunch-and-love-in-a-bag." Five years later, she opened her first restaurant called The Lady and Sons in Savannah, Georgia. Her first cookbook, "The Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook," came out in 1998.
Soon after, she had her first TV appearance on QVC. But it was when "Paula's Home Cooking," began airing on the Food Network in 2002 that she started to hit stardom, according to her site. Deen now has two shows airing on the Food Network: In addition to "Paula's Home Cooking," there's "Paula's Best Dishes," which made its debut in 2008.
Deen's empire has continued to grow over the years as her brand has blossomed.
In addition to her The Lady and Sons restaurant, Deen owns with her brother, Bubba, a seafood restaurant in Savannah called Uncle Bubba's Oyster House. Deen is the author of 14 cookbooks that have sold more than 8 million copies and her bimonthly magazine "Cooking with Paula Deen" has a circulation of nearly 1 million, according to her website. And Deen's product lines span from a full line of cookware to assorted food items to furniture.
Not every company Deen does business with has severed ties with the celebrity chef. Among other stores that sell her products, Kohl's Corp. declined to comment, while Macy's Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp. said they're evaluating the situation. QVC, meanwhile, said it's reviewing its deal with Deen.
And book-buyers are so far standing by Deen. As of Thursday morning, "Paula Deen's New Testament: 250 Recipes, All Lightened Up," ranked No. 1 on Amazon.com. The book is scheduled for October. Another Deen book, "Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible," was at No. 13. Several other Deen books were out of stock.
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AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report from New York.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — One of the most important prosecution witnesses in George Zimmerman's murder trial has left the witness stand.
Rachel Jeantel testified Thursday for a second consecutive day about the last phone call she had with 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in the moments before his deadly encounter with Zimmerman.
She is one of the prosecution's most important witnesses since she bolsters prosecutors' contention that Zimmerman was the aggressor in his confrontation with Martin.
Zimmerman is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder, claiming self-defense.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
George Zimmerman's defense attorney on Thursday challenged the credibility of a key prosecution witness' account of what she heard over the phone in the moments before the deadly exchange between the neighborhood watch volunteer and 17-year-old Trayvon Martin that left the Miami teen with a bullet in his chest.
The defense attorney challenged 19-year-old Rachel Jeantel about her claim that the encounter was racially charged and about her differing accounts of what she heard over the phone when Zimmerman and Martin first exchanged words. The often-testy exchanges between Jeantel and defense attorney Don West came a day after Jeantel admitted to lying about her age and lying about why she skipped Martin's funeral.
Jeantel was on the phone with Martin as he walked from a convenience store through the neighborhood where he was visiting, and she was the last person to speak with him before his encounter with Zimmerman on Feb. 26, 2012 at the Retreat at Twin Lakes townhome complex. Jeantel is one of the prosecution's most important witnesses because she bolsters the contention that Zimmerman was the aggressor.
Jeantel has given slightly differing versions about what she has heard in a deposition, in a letter to Martin's mother and in a recorded interview with an attorney for the Martin family. Among the differences cited by West:
— In some accounts, she said race was an issue but not in others.
— Jeantel testified Wednesday that her friend's last words were "Get off! Get off!" before Martin's phone went silent. But on Thursday, under cross-examination, she conceded that she hadn't mentioned that in her account of what happened to Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton. She had left out some details to spare Fulton's feelings, and also because neither Fulton nor the Martin family attorney asked her directly about them, Jeantel said.
— After Martin asks why he is being followed, Zimmermanresponds, "What are you doing around here?" in one account by Jeantel. In another account, according to West, she says Zimmerman said, "What are you talking about?"
Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. Zimmerman followed Martin in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.
Zimmerman has said he opened fire only after the teenager jumped him and began slamming his head against the concrete sidewalk. Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic and has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and their supporters have claimed.
Jeantel testified Thursday that she thought race was an issue because Martin told her he was being followed by a white man. She told jurors on Wednesday that Martin had described being followed by a "creepy-ass cracker."
"He was being followed," Jeantel said.
But West responded, "It was racial because Trayvon put race in this?"
The exchanges got testier as the day progressed.
When asked by West if she had previously told investigators that she heard what sounded like somebody being hit at the end of her call with Martin, Jeantel said, "Trayvon got hit."
"You don't know that? Do you? You don't know that Trayvon got hit," West answered angrily. "You don't know that Trayvon didn't at that moment take his fists and drive them into George Zimmerman's face."
Later in the morning, West accused Jeantel of not calling police after Martin's phone went dead because she thought it was a fight he had provoked.
"That's why you weren't worried. That's why you didn't do anything because Trayvon Martin started the fight and you knew that," West said.
"No sir!" Jeantel said. "I don't know what you're talking about."
At one point, West handed her a letter she had written with the help of a friend to Martin's mother explaining what happened. She looked at it but then said she couldn't read cursive handwriting.
Jeantel recounted to jurors on Wednesday how Martin told her he was being followed by a man as he walked through the Retreat at Twin Lakes townhome complex on his way back from a convenience store to the home of his father's fiancee.
She testified that Martin described the man following him as "a creepy-ass cracker" and that he thought he had evaded him. But she said Martin told her a short time later the man was still behind him, and she told him to run.
Martin said Zimmerman was behind him and she heard Martin ask: "What are you following me for?"
She then heard what sounded like Martin's phone earpiece dropping into wet grass, and she heard him say, "Get off! Get off!" The phone then went dead, she said.
During Wednesday's testimony, she bristled at West's questions, and at one point she urged West to move on to his next question: "You can go. You can go."
Jeantel's testimony was more subdued on Thursday, at least in the beginning, and West took note of her calmer demeanor. She answered many of West's questions by repeating "yes, sir," almost in a whisper.
"You feeling OK today? You seem different than yesterday," West said.
"I got some sleep," she answered.
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Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KHightower
Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Take a glance at the anniversary calendar this year and it's clear that in America, racial progress comes in fits and starts.
The Emancipation Proclamation declared slaves to be free 150 years ago. Within a decade, a trio of amendments to the Constitution made them citizens. Over the next century, the Supreme Court and Jim Crow segregation in the South snatched their rights away, Medgar Evers was murdered trying to get them back, and Martin Luther King Jr.'s populist protests yielded laws that restored them before King, too, was killed.
Less than a year ago, the nation re-elected its first black president — a step widely considered the culmination of all this labor. President Barack Obama, the product of integration with an Ivy League education, was sent to the White House by a diverse American electorate, and presides over a country where people are free to live, work, play, go to school and marry regardless of race, things that by no means were guaranteed 50 years ago.
Yet in this week alone, a series of events illustrated just how fragile that progress really is.
The Supreme Court chipped away at that King-inspired voting rights law and others on job discrimination and affirmative action, then punted them to Congress to fix — a very divided Congress that has accomplished little since President Barack Obama first took office and which includes GOP conservatives who want to avoid voting on whether those who came to the U.S. illegally should become citizens.
This and other events percolating in American culture — GeorgeZimmerman's trial in Florida for shooting to death black teenager Trayvon Martin, and celebrity chef Paula Deen's career meltdown because of her past use of the N-word — amounted to a gut punch for many, prompting questions about what exactly is going on.
"It's so troubling for me, who has sort of bridged many, many years of social change, and to not see an end to this, I find it really nauseating," said Suzy Post, 80, of Louisville, Ky., a white woman who has worked for civil rights causes since the 1950s and is now a member of the state's Human Relations Commission.
Those sentiments were echoed Tuesday by a visibly shaken collection of black and Hispanic members of Congress who bemoaned the fresh blows to the laws that helped to put many of them in office.
"The issue of race, slavery — it's our original sin as a nation," said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who as a student activist was severely, and repeatedly, beaten in the voting rights struggle of the 1960s. "It's going to take years and maybe a generation before we end it. It's a long, ongoing struggle. It's the struggle of more than a lifetime."
Where strides toward equality once were met by fire hoses or head-cracking blows from billy club-wielding police, now they can elicit racist commentary on Twitter, such as the hateful barrage over the national anthem being sung by Sebastien De La Cruz, a young Mexican-American, during the National Basketball Association finals. Or they generate oddly placed outrage, such as criticisms of a Cheerios commercial that depicted a white mother, a black father and their biracial child.
"What I believe is happening is that while the country's demographic and age is changing rapidly, we as a nation have hit racial fatigue," said Maria Teresa Kumar, co-founder of Voto Latino. "We no longer want to discuss race, and we like to believe that we're above it. We are not."
Briana Bacon, 20, of Philadelphia, put it more bluntly.
"I think they're shutting down opportunities for minorities, and I think minorities are in a (expletive) place to begin with," said Bacon, who is black and recently enlisted in the National Guard.
Civil rights leaders are unwilling to say that things today are as bad as they were in King's heyday. But they acknowledge that there are some uncanny parallels at play. Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said that in the first four months of this year, restrictive voting bills were introduced in more than half the states.
"I don't question whether Dr. King's dream remains viable. What one questions is whether the nation has the commitment to freedom, justice and equality of opportunity for all on a broad basis. What we currently see in the country is a tension," Morial said.
Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, recalled that King's widow, the late Coretta Scott King, once observed that freedom is never really won in full; every generation must win it anew.
"The times we are living in remind us that Mrs. King was right," Jealous said.
The United States has seen backlash against black Americans before. After the passage of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution, which banned slavery, extended blacks equal protection as citizens and granted them the right to vote, respectively, blacks experienced fairly rapid gains in political and economic power. Southern states responded by passing laws that allowed them to circumvent the 15th Amendment.
Enter the Supreme Court in 1896 with its Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling, which declared segregation legal if accommodations for blacks are "separate but equal" to those of whites. Fifty-eight years went by before the high court would change its mind with Brown vs. Board of Education, which declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
While the Supreme Court didn't ban the use of race in university admissions on Monday, it returned the case to a lower court and set a higher standard for the University of Texas to meet before using race in deciding who may enroll. In two other decisions that same day, the court made it harder for employees to sue businesses for retaliation and discrimination.
A day later the high court stopped enforcement of a provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that has kept states and local governments from implementing racially discriminatory election and voting laws and rules.
Between those rulings, civil rights activists stood together across town and announced plans to use the 50th anniversary of the August 1963 March on Washington to renew the push for racial equality.
The times, they said, require it.
"We have a black president and a black attorney general, but that is not achieving Dr. King's dream," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist. "That may be a means to achieving it. Achievement is when we have one nation with equal protection under the law and equal opportunity."
In some parts of the country, 1960s-style civil disobedience is already underway.
"Moral Monday" protests at North Carolina's General Assembly have resulted in nearly 600 arrests since late April. The protests began over health care access but have grown to include demonstrations over unemployment benefit reductions and proposals to toughen voter identification requirements and other rules for voting.
"It seems as though every time that we start making strides the forces that seek to dismantle any equality or any justice efforts, they rise up and they do all that they can to undermine any progress that's made," said the Rev. Anthony T. Spearman, 62, a small-town pastor and vice president of the NAACP's North Carolina state conference.
Gail Christopher, who has been leading a five-year racial healing project sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, attributed the cyclical setbacks to the view that the country has yet to deal with its fundamental belief in a racial hierarchy.
"We are being called on as a country to do serious work on this," Christopher said.
While the court's rulings came down, Kellogg announced $3.8 million in grants to community groups in Mississippi that work to improve life outcomes for young men of color. Those monies come on the heels of the state's commemoration of Evers, the state's first NAACP field secretary, who was shot to death on June 12, 1963.
In an interview before that grim anniversary, Evers' widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, told The Associated Press how she thought her husband would perceive the times he did not live to see.
"I believe he would look at the landscape of this country and realize what so many of us have said: We have made progress but there's still so much to be done, and if we don't guard the progress we've made, that too will slip away," she said.
One thing Evers did envision, his widow said, was the election of a black president. That president, Obama, said Tuesday he was "deeply disappointed" by the Supreme Court's voting rights decision, but it would not stop his efforts to end discrimination.
A day later, he boarded Air Force One and took off. For Africa.
He surfaced in Senegal on Thursday and visited Goree Island, a transit point for the ships that brought African slaves to America. He said the Supreme Court "made a mistake" in gutting the Voting Rights Act, and he looks forward to seeking "potential remedies" that preserve everyone's ability to vote.
"It was the cornerstone and the culmination of years of struggle — blood, sweat, tears — and in some cases, deaths," Obama said. "I might not be here as president had it not been for those who courageously helped to pass the Voting Rights Act."
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Associated Press writers Brett Barouquere in Louisville, Ky., Keith Collins in Philadelphia, Henry C. Jackson in Washington, Christopher Kardish in Raleigh, N.C, and Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Miss., contributed to this report.
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Follow Suzanne Gamboa on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APsgamboa
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
NEW YORK (AP) — Judging by the television ratings, one place where chef Paula Deen is welcome is on the "Today" show.
The NBC morning show beat its rivals at ABC's "Good Morning America" with a Thursday episode that featured Matt Lauer's interview with the celebrity chef. Deen is trying to keep her career cooking following admissions that she had used a racial slur.
The Nielsen company says that "Today" had just under 4.8 million viewers on Thursday, while "GMA" had 4.63 million. It was the first time "Today" had a bigger audience since November during the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
On average, the ABC show beat "Today" by 900,000 viewers a day last week.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
BOSTON (AP) — A federal grand jury has returned a 30-count indictment against the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathonbombings.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (joh-HAHR' tsahr-NEYE'-ehv) was indicted Thursday on charges including using a weapon of mass destruction and bombing a place of public use, resulting in death.
Three people were killed and more than 260 injured in twin explosions near the finish line of the marathon.
Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed following a shootout with police on April 19.
Authorities say the brothers used shrapnel-packed pressure cookerbombs in the bombing. They are also accused of killing an MIT police officer.
The U.S. attorney's office says 17 of the charges against 19-year-old Tsarnaev could bring life in prison or the death penalty.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
SAVANNAH -- State law requires Jekyll Island officials to count marsh that stands above water at high tide as land when calculating how much of the state park is open to development, Georgia's attorney general said Thursday.
Olens' opinion rejects the conclusion of a task force appointed by the Jekyll Island Authority that said in April that the island long ago overstepped its maximum footprint for development. The group said Jekyll officials for decades wrongly included hundreds of acres of marsh in the island's total acreage as if they were dry land.
At issue is a 1971 law that mandates that only 35 percent of Jekyll Island's total land area can be used for hotels, golf courses and other development. While the law doesn't say how large the island is or define "land," Sam Olens ruled, nowhere does it say marsh can or should be excluded from the island's total acreage. And there's plenty of marsh that stands above mean high tide, the marker specified by law for measuring the island's boundaries.
"Excluding 'marsh' from Jekyll's measurement would constitute an inappropriate alteration of the statutory language," Olens said in his opinion.
The question over Jekyll Island's size arose as the authority works on a new master plan to guide future conservation, maintenance and development. The last such plan was done 17 years ago. It put the island's size at 4,226 acres and also found that 32 percent of the land had been developed.
The Savannah City Council today unanimously denied funding to the next stage of a cruise ship study, effectively ending the possibility of a publicly funded terminal being built here.
Read more in Friday's Savannah Morning News and here at savannahnow.com.
The Budweiser Clydesdales are visiting Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield this week as part of the Red, White and Blue Military Appreciation Tour.
Georgia Southern University held their 66th annual watermelon cutting Thursday. Click play to watch video from the event and learn more.
Accident closes U.S. 17 south in Richmond Hill
Bryan County Now
A fiery four-vehicle accident has closed U.S. 17 south in Richmond Hill.
The chain reaction accident occurred just before 4 p.m. when a vehicle traveling in the left southbound lane of the highway just past the intersection of Mulberry Drive was rear ended. Two more vehicles, trailing the first two were unable to stop and became part of the crash as well. The fourth vehicle in line caught fire and burned after the collision.
According to Assistant Richmond Hill Fire Chief Andy Burriss no one was injured in the accident. Burriss said he expects traffic to continue to be detoured around the accident scene for some time.
The National Weather Service in Charleston, S.C., has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Chatham, Bryan and Effingham counties until 6:30 p.m.
At 5:30 p.m., radar detected severe thunderstorms along a line extending from Springfield to 11 miles south of Ellabell moving east at 25 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
Residents are urged to prepare for winds in excess of 60 mph and hail up to quarter size.
COLUMBUS — Police in western Georgia say a former Columbus radio personality has been found dead behind a church.
Authorities say 57-year-old David Rutherford was found behind Greater Ward Chapel AME Church Wednesday andWTVM-TV (http://bit.ly/18jeJw1) reported the man's death has been ruled a homicide. Rutherford, originally from New Jersey, became a taxi driver after retiring from Magic 101.3 FM.
Police have yet to disclose details on the man's death, but neighbors told the television station they heard Rutherford being robbed outside of his house and his body was later moved out of sight.
Rutherford, known as Dave Ford while he was on the air, has also worked for radio stations in Manchester, Ga., Miami and Washington D.C.
Because of his work as a defense contractor in the Middle East, John Conway had never been able to see his daughter, Jill, a standout gymnast with the Islands YMCA, perform live in a competition.
But John Conway was there Thursday to see Jill in one of her biggest meets yet — as she competed in the 2013 YMCA Gymnastics National Championship at the Savannah International Trade & Convention Center.
Jill Conway, 17, a rising senior at Effingham County High School, was on the floor in the middle of the Level 8 competition and had no idea her dad was in the building.
“I was just about to do the floor exercise when I saw him,” said Jill, who had her highest mark of the day, a 9.30, in the floor event. “I didn’t expect him to be here and I was overwhelmed. It’s the first time he’s been able to see me.”
After she finished her final event of the day — the vault — Jill jumped the chain barricade and ran over to give her dad a hug.
“It was wonderful,” John Conway said. “It’s great to be back in the States again. I’ve watched her a lot on video, but it was nothing like this.”
Jill is hoping for a top 25 finish in her events to earn a spot in Saturday’s finals. The results won’t be known until this morning as one group competes today.
Jill scored an 8.95 in the vault, a 7.5 on the uneven bars and an 8.45 on the beam. Her teammate, Lane Vacala, had an impressive showing with a 9.55 on the bars, an 8.925 on the beam, 9.375 in the floor exercise and a 9.150 in the vault.
This is the fourth national championship for Vacala, who has won all-around titles twice. The 11-year-old is headed into the seventh grade at St. Andrew’s School — and she is excited about Savannah serving as the host city for the event.
“It’s real fun having it here,” said Vacala, also competing at Level 8. “It’s almost like we have our own fan club with all the support we have. I feel really comfortable, and I’m not worried. My goal is to do the best I can, have fun with it and stay positive.”
Afterward, Vacala was all smiles as she calmly nailed a TV interview before assessing her day.
“I felt like I did pretty good,” Vacala said. “I really went for it on the floor exercise and had a lot of fun.”
Melissa Villarreal, a Savannah Country Day student, had a solid floor routine — scoring a 9.025. She said hosting the championships was a thrill for members of the Islands YMCA located on Whitemarsh Island.
“I was a little more nervous than usual because you have more family and friends that are able to come out and see you compete,” Villarreal said. “But this is great getting to meet so many new people and showing them Savannah.”
This is the first YMCA Nationals that includes competition for boys, and the Islands YMCA team fared well.
Dustyn Scoggin finished third on the vault at Level 5. His teammate Justin Walker finished third in the All Around competition and was second in the parallel bars, third on the rings and third in the floor exercise. Jake Knight took third in the pommel horse, rings and parallel bars and was fourth all-around at Level 4.
Jake Mieners, 12, had a great day — taking the Level 6 All Around title, while winning the floor exercise, rings, pommel horse and high bar.
Russ Bonham has been coaching the crew for 15 months, and his father, Steve Bonham, a former All-American gymnast at LSU, also had a hand in training the team.
“The boys did real well today,” Russ Bonham said. “They have improved tenfold since we’ve been working with them. They were pretty pumped up today, especially since we have such a huge fan base with the event in Savannah.”
ATHENS — The NBA draft put Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the Motor City and in more rare company for a Georgia player.
When Detroit selected the shooting guard with the No. 8 overall pick on Thursday night, Caldwell-Pope became the second-highest drafted Bulldog in program history behind only Dominique Wilkins, the No. 3 selection of Utah in 1982.
Caldwell-Pope and Wilkins are already the only Georgia players ever to sweep the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year awards.
The 6-foot-6, 204-pound Caldwell-Pope did it as a sophomore and then declared for the draft. That decision paid off when Detroit tabbed him a spot earlier than most expected.
“They’re getting a hard working kid,” Caldwell-Pope said on ESPN after he was selected at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. “I’m humble. I play both sides of the ball. I’m a great scorer and a defender. I’m just looking to come in and help any way I can.”
Caldwell-Pope became the seventh Georgia player ever drafted in the first round and first since Jarvis Hayes in 2003.
“That young man deserves every bit of this,” Georgia coach Mark Fox tweeted after Caldwell-Pope was taken. “Congrats KCP!”
Caldwell-Pope was seen as a player with the potential to one day reach the NBA before he got to Georgia.
He was the first McDonald’s All-American to go to Georgia directly out of high school since Carlos Strong in 1992.
During his freshman season, Kentucky’s John Calipari called him a “game-changer as a player for their program.” That didn’t translate into reaching the postseason.
Hard worker
Georgia finished 15-17 in both of his seasons, but Fox said “I felt like from day one that he was going to be an NBA guy. To give Kentavious the credit he deserves, he was the hardest worker on our team. When you go in the gym, he has been a tremendous worker. He’s really developed. To further give him credit, we started the year slow last year largely due to the fact that he wasn’t playing as well. He was very willing to look himself in the mirror, become a much more efficient player the second half of the season and continue to improve and grow.”
Caldwell-Pope was back in Athens last weekend to visit some college friends and back in his hometown of Greenville to see family.
Kenarious Gates, a high school teammate and cousin who plays offensive line for Georgia, attended a family dinner Sunday.
“To see him come from a small-town like Greenville and to become a great player and a great role model for the young kids … I’m pretty sure it will inspire other kids to work hard,” said Gates, who has known Caldwell-Pope since they were little kids.
Caldwell-Pope averaged 18.5 points and accounted for 30.4 percent of Georgia’s points last season and led the team in rebounding and steals.
“Here’s a guy with deep range, he’s a knockdown shooter and a shooting guard, something that the Pistons need,” said ESPN analyst Jalen Rose. “They haven’t really been able to replace that since Richard Hamilton left. A player that can shoot from multiple spots on the floor and can even come off screens and play off the basketball. This pick makes sense, and plus they like his size at 6-6.”
He’ll join a team that finished 29-53 last season, 11th in the Eastern Conference. Detroit already has point guard Brandon Knight, who made 120 3-pointers last season.
The Pistons passed on a local product, Michigan point guard Trey Burke, to take Caldwell-Pope.
“Detroit is getting a terrific basketball player,” Fox said. “He has perfect shooting guard size and the natural instinct to put the ball in the basket. He is a great shooter and scorer but is a far more complete player than most shooters. His ability to rebound is a strength, as is his effectiveness as a defender. Kentavious has great mobility and his speed should be a real asset in the open nature of the NBA game. As most young guys require, he will need some time to learn the NBA game. … He plays the game with great passion and I am certain Pistons fans will love watching him play.”
Caldwell-Pope told reporters in New York the day before the draft that he didn’t see himself falling out of the top 10 and certainly not below the top 15.
He was right. He became the fourth lottery pick from Georgia.
“I knew,” Gates said, “one day he would make it.”
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.
Savannah-Chatham Metro police will be operating radar hot spots along Windsor Road.
Police remind drivers there is zero tolerance for speeding in school zones.
