On February 1, 2026, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office received a 9-1-1 call in reference to a structure fire with a possible victim inside in the 200 block of Lee Road 712 in Opelika. Lee County Sheriff’s Office Deputies along with Beauregard Volunteer Fire Department, Southwest Volunteer Fire Department and Salem Volunteer Fire Department were dispatched to the scene.
Upon arrival, Deputies observed a storage shed that was being utilized as a home with smoke coming from the inside. With the assistance of fire personnel, entry was made into the shed and deputies attempted to search for a victim but were not able to make a full entry due to the fire and smoke. Once fire personnel were able to extinguish the fire, the body of WC Hawkins (49) from Opelika was found deceased. Lee County Investigators and an Alabama State Fire Marshall’s Investigator arrived on the scene.
Preliminary investigative results do not indicate that foul play was involved. It appears that the fire started from two to three space heaters that were connected to the same electric circuit. The Lee County Coroner’s Office was notified and took possession of Hawkins, and he will be taken to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for a postmortem examination.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Lee County Sheriff’s Office at 334-749-5651 or Central Alabama Crime Stoppers at 334-215-STOP 7867.
Cornelia's Victor Anderson served as the Vice Chair of the House Blue Ribbon committee on election procedures. The committee released its findings Monday. (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
ATLANTA — A Georgia House blue-ribbon study committee examining the state’s election procedures released its recommendations Monday as lawmakers face a fast-approaching July 1 deadline that could leave Georgia’s current voting system out of compliance with state law.
The House Blue-Ribbon Study Committee on Election Procedures spent much of 2025 holding hearings across the state, gathering testimony from voters, local officials and election professionals. The committee will remain active through the end of 2026 unless dissolved earlier by the Speaker of the House.
The elections study committee held public hearings across the state, including in Clarkesville. During the August 28, 2025, hearing at North Georgia Technical College, deep divides on the state election board were evident. (Carly McCurry/NowHabersham.com)
Committee Vice Chairman Victor Anderson, R-Cornelia, who represents District 10, including Rabun County and most of Habersham County, said the committee’s work is driven by the need to resolve outstanding election law issues before the November general election.
“We’ve got some issues we have to get worked out this year before the general election in November,” Anderson told Now Georgia on Jan. 14 during an interview at the Georgia Capitol. “All election bills come through the committee that I chair. And over the interim, we had a study committee. It was actually what we call a blue-ribbon study.”
Unlike many legislative study committees that dissolve at the end of the year they are created, Anderson said this panel was extended to allow lawmakers time to address compliance issues and draft legislation.
“A lot of study committees go away in December of the year that they’re put in place,” Anderson said. “Of course, ours did not. We’re staying intact through the end of this year so we can address some of those other issues, handling compliance with the law, so we can vote next year.”
Deadline approaches
Georgia’s Dominion Voting Systems machines produce paper ballots with QR codes that are meant to reflect voters’ selections. According to state law, these QR codes may no longer be used as of July 1, 2026. (NowHabersham.com)
The urgency stems from a voting bill passed by the General Assembly two years ago that takes effect July 1. The law prohibits the use of QR codes, barcodes or other computer-readable coding for official vote tabulation.
“We will have to do something before the general election,” Anderson said. “The bill that passed two years ago, that goes into effect July 1 of this year, says you can no longer use the QR code or any barcode or computer-readable coding for your official vote tabulation.”
Without legislative action or changes to voting systems, Anderson said the state faces a significant challenge.
“Basically, as it sits right now, short of hand counting the results of all six-plus million voters and all the ballots associated with that in the state of Georgia, effective July 1, the system we use to vote with now, whether it’s in person or absentee, is not legal,” he said.
That reality leaves lawmakers little time to act, Anderson said.
“Whatever we do to be compliant, we have to pass this session, and we have to do it quickly,” he said.
Striking a balance
Rep. Tim Fleming of Covington, who chairs the Blue Ribbon Study Committee on Election Procedures, is running to become Georgia’s next secretary of state. If he wins in November 2026, he will oversee state elections. (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
Committee Chairman Tim Fleming, R-Covington, said the recommendations reflect a balanced approach to election security, voter access and compliance with state law.
Reaching that balance was not easy. Over months of hearings held around Georgia, sharp disagreements repeatedly surfaced over how elections should be run and who should oversee them. Those divisions were especially evident last August when the committee met at North Georgia Technical College in Clarkesville.
During that hearing, lawmakers heard conflicting views on the future of the State Election Board. Some called for expanding the board’s authority, while others argued for limiting its power or restructuring it altogether. Testimony also detailed internal conflicts within the board, court rulings that overturned several of its recent rules, and the legal costs that followed.
Local election directors from Northeast Georgia focused on the practical side of running elections. They warned that full hand counts would slow results, increase the risk of human error, and require staffing levels that many counties simply cannot support. Those officials stressed that Georgia’s current system already produces a paper ballot that can be audited without eliminating machine tabulation.
At the same time, tensions between lawmakers and election officials highlighted broader concerns about trust and transparency. Several speakers cautioned that public confidence can be damaged as much by partisan infighting and unclear rules as by any flaw in voting equipment itself.
What’s next?
House Speaker Jon Burns called the committee’s work “a practical reform to ensure our election system complies with state code.” (Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, praised the committee’s efforts to put forward what he called, “common-sense, practical reform.”
“Georgia’s voters deserve a sustainable, long-term election process that enables trust, transparency and accountability, which is why I look forward to the committee’s continued work throughout the remainder of the year,” Burns said.
The committee’s report now serves as a guide as lawmakers draft and debate election legislation during the current session. With the July 1 compliance deadline approaching and the November general election ahead, Anderson and other members have emphasized that doing nothing is not an option.
A sample of tap water Griffin resident Jayme Aldridge kept overnight, which he said had a thin, sheen layer of separation on top. (Photo courtesy of Jayme Aldridge)
(Georgia Recorder) — State officials and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport are facing criticism for a lack of information following a Friday jet fuel spill that contaminated the Flint River, which provides drinking water to 400,000 people south of Atlanta and in central Georgia.
Cleanup continues, authorities said, but neither the Georgia Environmental Protection Division nor the airport has released information on the volume or duration of the leak that led Gov. Brian Kemp to declare a state of emergency Friday. The silence has drawn criticism from environmentalists and residents in nearby Griffin who report that tap water still smells of fuel despite local officials reporting the water is safe to drink.
“Information is not very forthcoming from the airport. That’s disappointing,” said Flint Riverkeeper Gordon Rogers. “We don’t know the duration of the spill. We don’t know the volume of the spill. We’re just left to speculate.”
The spill occurred Friday when a “sight valve that had failed” led to “jet fuel releasing into the storm water system that got into the Flint River,” EPD Director Jeff Cown said to a House legislative committee Monday. Cown, responding to Musella Republican Rep. Robert Dickey’s question about whether the airport had any compliance issues, downplayed the concern, saying the state would simply discuss “better secondary containment in the future” with airport officials.
A sample of tap water Griffin resident Jayme Aldridge kept overnight, which he said had a thin, sheen layer of separation on top. (Photo courtesy of Jayme Aldridge)
But days after the spill, Griffin residents’ complaints about odor from the water continue. Jayme Aldridge, a Griffin resident and father of two, including a newborn, described a Sunday shower in which the water felt oily and caused itching afterward.
“You could smell it as soon as you walked in the bathroom. It’s like a kerosene type smell, some type of fuel,” Aldridge said.
To keep his 2-year-old daughter and newborn safe, he has since turned off the city water to his house.
“I shut off all the water to the house, because my daughter likes to brush her teeth all the time, so she kept trying to go to the sink. So I told her to stop that and shut the water off,” he said, adding that they started using bottled water instead, and that is costly.
Aldridge said he had the instinct to conduct a home test by letting tap water sit in a jar overnight, and in the morning, he described a thin layer of separation on top with “a rainbow slick on it.”
Fuel odors have been reported up to 40 miles downstream, Rogers said, and if true, “that would mean that a lot of fuel was spilled to be smelling it that far downstream.”
EPD spokesperson Sarah Lips said Monday that an investigation on the cause of the spill is ongoing, but provided no timeline. Alnissa Ruiz-Craig, the airport’s interim director of communications, said in an email Monday that “we do not have an update at this time.”
Rogers called the spill part of a decades-long pattern.
“This kind of thing has been going on for a very long time,” Rogers said. “We’re sort of done with the friendly approach.”
Audrey Duncan Dixon, age 97, of Clarkesville, Georgia, passed away on Friday, January 30, 2026.
Born in Habersham County on August 26, 1928, to the late Marlor Lee Benfield and Sallie Ivester Benfield. She was raised in the Hollywood, Georgia area with her five brothers and two sisters.
She was a member of Clarkesville Baptist Church and adored her ladies’ Sunday School Class, which included many of her lifelong friends. After marriage, she moved and lived in Columbus, Georgia, until around 1955 and returned home to Habersham County, where she raised her family and had careers in banking and retail businesses. Her favorite thing was owning and running her own children’s store where she was able to meet customers and assist with clothing their children or grandchildren, especially her own grandchildren. Some of her favorite hobbies included reading, gardening, cooking and putting puzzles together, some of which her caregivers at New Horizons Habersham had framed for her room. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother to not only her immediate family members, but her step-family members as well.
In addition to being preceded in death by her parents, she was preceded in death by her brothers, Wilmer Benfield, Cosby Benfield and Curtis Benfield; her sister, Selma Watkins; her first husband, Comer Dewey Duncan, Jr., grandson, Jonathan Duncan; her second husband, Dan Dixon and her stepson, Tim Dixon.
She is survived by her son, Joseph Duncan and wife Miriam; granddaughter, Melissa Duncan Carroll and husband, Mickey; great grandchildren, Breelyn Carroll, Maddox Carroll, Nolan Carroll & Weston Carroll; brothers, Lewis Benfield, Larry Benfield; and sister, Doris Sims; stepchildren, Michael Dixon, Abbie Jane Bennett and husband Dan, Mary Anne Fournier and husband Steve, Matthew Dixon and wife Lisa, Rheanna Whitley and husband Lee, and Desi Barrett; and many nieces, nephews, step grandchildren and cousins whom she loved unconditionally.
The family would like to thank the staff and caregivers at New Horizons Habersham for their care and love shown to Audrey during her time there.
A Celebration of Life will be held at 3:00 p.m., Sunday, February 8, 2026, at the Whitfield Funeral Home, North Chapel, with Rev. Grady Walden officiating. Inurnment will follow at the Clarkesville City Memorial Cemetery with Rev. Mickey Carroll officiating.
The family will receive friends from 1:00 p.m. to 2:45 p.m., Sunday, February 8, 2026, at the funeral home prior to the service.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that any memorial be made to Clarkesville Baptist Church of Clarkesville, Georgia, at PO Box 667, Clarkesville, GA 30523.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the Whitfield Funeral Homes & Crematory, North Chapel at 245 Central Avenue, Demorest, Georgia 30535. Telephone: 706-778-1700.
Larry Lyon will assume the role as Truett McConnell University president on April 1, 2026. He succeeds Emir Caner, who was let go in the aftermath of an alleged sex scandal that rocked the small Baptist University in Cleveland, Georgia.
CLEVELAND, Ga. — Truett McConnell University has named Dr. Larry Lyon as its ninth president following a nationwide search, university officials announced Monday, Feb. 2.
The TMU Board of Trustees unanimously elected Lyon during a specially called meeting. He will officially assume the role on April 1. Lyon currently serves as senior vice president for business administration at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
University leaders said the search focused on identifying a Christian leader who understands TMU’s mission and culture and can guide the institution with integrity and vision.
“Dr. Lyon brings the experience, faith, and leadership needed to lead Truett McConnell University into its next chapter,” the board said in a statement.
Colleague calls Lyon a ‘steady hand’
Lyon has served at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary since 2019, first as vice president for enrollment and later as senior vice president for business administration beginning in 2021. In that role, he served as the seminary’s chief financial and operating officer, overseeing business operations, enrollment, facilities, human resources, and institutional administration.
During his tenure, student-generated revenue increased by more than $2.5 million, endowment investments grew by more than $17 million, and the seminary completed more than $30 million in campus renovations.
Before joining NOBTS, Lyon served as director of enrollment at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has also taught as a professor of ethics, leading courses in Christian ethics, theology of sexuality and gender, and contemporary ethical issues at both the graduate and doctoral levels.
NOBTS President Jamie Dew said that although he is sad to lose Lyon, he is also excited for the excellent leadership he will provide to Truett McConnell.
“I’m thrilled that Dr. Lyon is going to be the new president of Truett McConnell University,” Dew said. “He is a steady hand, a calm voice, a kind leader and a man of deep theological and moral conviction. In addition to that, I’ve watched him lead large groups of people in two separate institutions now. Everybody that works for Dr. Lyon absolutely loves him.
Returning to his roots
A Georgia native, Lyon earned a Bachelor of Science in Christian Ministry from Shorter University. He later completed a Master of Divinity in Christian Apologetics and a Ph.D. in Theological Studies, specializing in Christian Ethics, from Southeastern Seminary. His doctoral research examined the public theology of Francis Schaeffer.
Lyon and his wife, Stephanie, have been married for 24 years and have three daughters: Anna Kate, Abby, and Maggie.
Lyon said he and his family are eager to return to Georgia and begin serving the TMU community.
“TMU has an incredibly bright future,” Lyon said. “Building on the legacy of faith and the Word of God, TMU is poised to continue to make an impact for God’s kingdom in Georgia and to the ends of the earth. I am excited to join the TMU family and begin building relationships with the people who have made TMU such an amazing place to study and serve.”
“My wife and I are excited to come back home to Georgia where we were baptized, discipled, and educated by Georgia Baptists,” he added. “I look forward to serving Georgia Baptists and helping raise up the next generation of leaders in our communities and churches. Go Bears!”
Athens, February 2, 2026: Defense Attorney Ahmad R. Crews delivering opening arguments in the Tara Baker murder trial while Superior Court Judge Lisa Lott presides. (WUGA News)
ATHENS, Ga. — Lawyers presented opening arguments in the trial of the alleged murderer of Tara Baker, a University of Georgia law student who was killed in 2001.
State attorneys said during opening arguments in Athens that Edrick Faust, a 51-year-old Athens man, committed Baker’s murder. The killing led to the passage of the Coleman-Baker Act, which funded a cold case unit in the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. Faust was arrested in 2024 when he was matched to DNA found on Baker’s body.
Faust’s attorneys maintained his innocence, arguing that officials botched the original investigation 25 years ago.
Faust is being held without bond at the Athens-Clarke County Jail. The trial may take up to six weeks to conclude.
This article appears on Now Georgia in partnership with WUGA News
Hundreds of Aflac sales leaders recently gathered to lay the foundation for what’s ahead in the new year. The most notable part of the event was a charitable auction that raised more than $870,000 for the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare in Atlanta, breaking the previous record of $770,000.
The items donated and auctioned during a festive “auction for a cause” event included tickets to the Aflac Kickoff Game in September 2026, tickets to the World Cup in Atlanta, Atlanta Braves tickets and more. All proceeds will be used to support treatments and research for kids with pediatric cancer and blood disorders.
Aflac employees were excited about raising money for the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare. (Photo courtesy Aflac)
Aflac’s partnership with Children’s Healthcare in Atlanta began in 1995 with an initial company donation of $3 million. Now, thanks to the generosity and compassion of Aflac’s leaders and sales team, more than 25 percent of that amount was raised in a single night, helping turn that first contribution of $3 million to nearly $200 million given to support pediatric cancer and blood disorder research, treatment and family support services.
The Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center has grown into one of the largest pediatric hematology and oncology programs in the southeast — a place where more than 500 children with cancer and over 2,100 children with sickle cell disease begin their care each year.
For Aflac’s employees and independent agents, success isn’t measured in numbers or milestones, but in the lived moments: a child’s smile breaking through a difficult day, a parent’s sigh of relief, and the steady progress made toward better outcomes for kids facing cancer and blood disorders. From fueling groundbreaking research to helping families with everyday needs like transportation, lodging and emotional care, the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center embraces a holistic model that supports every dimension of a family’s journey.
To learn more about the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and make your own contribution, click here.
Federal agents conduct immigration enforcement operations in a neighborhood on Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Monday that body cameras would be given to federal immigration agents across the country, starting in Minneapolis, where two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by agents in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
“As funding is available, the body camera program will be expanded nationwide,” she wrote on social media. “We will rapidly acquire and deploy body cameras to DHS law enforcement across the country.”
Noem did not specifically say agents would be required to wear the cameras.
President Donald Trump said he was supportive of the move, according to White House pool reports.
“It wasn’t my decision,” he said. “I leave it to her. It tends to be good for law enforcement, because people can’t lie about what happened.”
The announcement comes amid a partial government shutdown by congressional Democrats who are pushing to change immigration enforcement operations across the country. One of those proposed policy changes is a requirement for federal immigration officers to wear body cameras.
Democrats have also called for Noem to resign or be impeached after a second Minneapolis resident was shot and killed on Jan. 24 by federal immigration agents, 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti. On Jan. 7, Renee Good, a poet and mother of three, was killed by federal immigration agent Jonathan Ross.
Even without approved funding in the Homeland Security appropriations bill, the agency still has roughly $175 billion in funding for immigration enforcement from the massive tax cuts and spending package passed last year.
In the fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill for Homeland Security, $20 million was set aside for body cameras for immigration agents. That measure would be the subject of two weeks of negotiations under the spending package under consideration in the House.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, left, and FBI Deputy Director Andrew Bailey, enter a command vehicle as the FBI takes Fulton County 2020 Election ballots, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Union City, Ga., near Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told lawmakers in a letter Monday that she attended an FBI search of the elections hub in Fulton County, Georgia, last week because President Donald Trump asked for her to be there.
She also acknowledged that she “facilitated” what she described as a brief phone call between Trump and FBI agents who carried out the search but insisted that neither she nor the president had issued any directives.
The letter to top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees marked Gabbard’s first detailed explanation for her unusual presence at an FBI search during which agents armed with a warrant seized hundreds of boxes containing ballots and other documents related to the 2020 election in Georgia’s most populous county.
Fulton County, which votes overwhelmingly Democratic, has been a frequent target of the president’s ire. He has long insisted without evidence that widespread voter fraud in the county cost him victory in Georgia in his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Gabbard’s arrival in Georgia raised immediate questions among Democratic officials because the FBI search of the election center was a law enforcement, not intelligence, activity and because the position of national intelligence director is typically focused on foreign threats rather than domestic concerns.
In her letter, Gabbard said her presence was specifically requested by Trump and she accompanied senior FBI officials “under my broad statutory authority to coordinate, integrate, and analyze intelligence related to election security.”
Gabbard has been central to Trump administration efforts to cast doubt on intelligence community conclusions of Russian interference on Trump’s behalf during his successful 2016 campaign, and her presence in Georgia has been feared by Democrats as laying the groundwork for the federal government to assert that the 2020 race he lost was somehow tainted by foreign meddling or to cast doubt on the integrity of future elections.
Gabbard in her letter suggested that election systems are at risk of foreign interference, citing what she said was intelligence showing that electronic voting systems “have been vulnerable to exploitation” that could result in the manipulation of votes.
She said that in order to “preserve the integrity of our elections, we must understand whether there has been foreign or other malign interference in our elections, and whether vulnerabilities exist in our election infrastructure that could be exploited in future elections.” She did not explain why Fulton County was singled out for scrutiny, saying she had not seen the warrant that investigators submitted to a judge for approval.
Audits, state officials, courts and Trump’s own former attorney general have rejected the idea that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election that could have altered the outcome. The 2024 election that Trump won was also seen as relatively trouble-free at the polls.
Gabbard also appeared to confirm a report earlier Monday from The New York Times that she had helped arrange a call between Trump and FBI agents. It is rare for a president to communicate directly with rank-and-file FBI personnel about specific investigations.
“While visiting the FBI Field Office in Atlanta, I thanked the FBI agents for their professionalism and great work, and facilitated a brief phone call for the President to thank the agents personally for their work. He did not ask any questions, nor did he or I issue any directives,” she wrote.
This is a list of school closings due to Winter Storm Fern. Check back here for updates. To report a school closing or delay, email [email protected].
CLOSED
Tuesday, Feb. 3
Banks County
Dawson County – online learning day
Habersham County – 12-month employees report at 8:30 a.m.
North Georgia Technical College (all campuses) – online instruction only
Rabun County – at-home learning day, 12-month employees report at 10 a.m.
Rabun Gap
Stephens County – staff report at 10 a.m.
Tallulah Falls School
Towns County – online learning day, 12-month employees report at 11 a.m.
Union County – at-home learning day
White County – learning from home day
A 67-year-old Elberton man was killed Monday morning after his pickup truck hit an icy stretch of roadway, left the highway, and overturned on Georgia 72 in Elbert County, authorities said.
Troopers with Georgia State Patrol Post 52 responded to the single-vehicle crash around 9:05 a.m. on Highway 72 near Cut-Through Road in Elbert County.
According to a preliminary investigation, a red 2006 Chevrolet Silverado was traveling east and negotiating a curve when it encountered ice. The truck began rotating counterclockwise, crossed the centerline, and ran off the north shoulder. It struck a ditch and came to rest after overturning onto the driver’s side, facing south.
The driver, Donald B. Hawck, was partially ejected and pronounced dead at the scene. Troopers said slick tires also contributed to the crash.
The crash comes on the heels of two winter storms that left ice and snow
A Clarkesville man is accused of stealing packages from a local church in broad daylight, a crime investigators say was caught on security cameras.
Steven Douglas Addis, 63, faces a felony charge of porch piracy after allegedly taking packages from Hollywood Baptist Church on Hollywood Church Road on Jan. 27, according to an incident report from the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators say U.S. Postal Service carriers delivered the packages to the church’s fellowship hallway door just after noon. Surveillance footage reportedly shows a blue 1999 Toyota Camry pulling into the church parking lot around 1 p.m.
A deputy wrote that a male suspect exited the vehicle, walked to the packages, and began picking them up and examining them. The suspect then took both packages, got back into the car, and drove away.
The stolen items included shaving razor heads, laundry detergent sheets, probiotics, gluten-free cream of mushroom soup, and fluorescent orange flags. The total value was estimated at $93.
Arrest warrants state that Addis “knowingly took three (3) Amazon packages that did not belong to him” from the church’s administration entrance.
Addis was booked into the Habersham County Jail on Friday on one count of porch piracy.
