Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us.
I'm Frank Malloy.
This is Eyewitness News at Six.
Leah Johnson has the night off..
Our top story tonight..
The longtime owner of Progressive Christian Academy is suing the current owners. She claims they defrauded her. Tom George has the details.
Betty Tolbert..long time owner of Progressive Christian Academy...filed a lawsuit against that a Florida company.
She says she hired them to solve her school's financial problems...,but instead they defrauded her out of the school...and turned it into a for profit company.
Tax records show that Sunrise Enterprises purchased the school in 2009 at foreclosure...for $200,000.
But Tolbert's suit claims they drove her out of the school....and brought in two employees from Florida with criminal backgrounds to run it.
County records show one of the owners as Christine Hawkins...also known as Christine Perera....who went to prison in Florida for check fraud...in connection with a day care chain there.
We went to the school to see Hawkins....but they said she was not available...and wouldn't even tell us who was the headmaster.
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We also tried their home in East Macon, but no one answered.
Last week...investigators from a Georgia state agency came to Progressive Christian Academy to question staff. All the agency will say...is that it involves an employee issue.
According to the Florida Department of Corrections....Perera's probation allowed her to travel to Georgia.
But learning about the Georgia investigation...they say...the probation department revoked her travel priveleges...and told her to return to Florida.
Louis Yambor.....a retired inspector for a Florida state agency...says he's dealt with Perera in the past....when her string of day care centers ran into legal trouble.
<everything she presented was false and fraudulent, and I believe that's the she operates her life, and whether kids are getting good care, I don't know , but anything involving paperwork and truth doesn't seem to be in her repertoire. >
We tried multiple times to reach the company that currently own the property, but they have not called us back ... Frank?
The lawsuit claims that the fraud cost Betty Talbot's charity...B. Johnson Ministries, Inc....more than a million dollars.
Last week....Judge Tillman Self issued a restraining order...telling the school's current owners not to dispose of its property.
He also set a November 12th hearing on the case.
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One 14-year-old student at the Bloomfield Middle School is charged with aggravated assault for allegedly striking another... with a clarinet case.
According to a district news release, it happened around 3:30 p.m. Friday as the two girls were on a bus...waiting to leave school.
Spokeswoman Stephanie Hartley says the victim was struck in the head and was bleeding over her ear.
The victim was treated and released at the Medical Center of Central Georgia.
And the district says the attacker was suspended from school.
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Here's an update to a story we first brought you last week.
Peach County's board of elections says Otis Lee Daniel cannot run for coroner...because of a past felony conviction.
Last week...daniel told us that he was convicted of a burglary charge in 1972...when he was 17.
He told us he was pardoned...more than 20 years ago.
But the board's attorney told them that pardons don't matter...for candidates for coroner...sheriff...and some other positions.
the board pulled Daniel from the ballot by a 3-1 vote..
Daniel is a former Fort Valley fire chief...and he says he'll challenge the vote in Superior Court.
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Hundreds of people lined up at the Bibb County Board of Elections office today... For the first day of early voting.
Although we won't have official numbers until later tonight... Elections Supervisor Elaine Carr says this kind of high turnout is typical for an presidential election year.
Brittiny Barber shows us why some people say they braved the long lines... To cast their ballot.
The line of voters extended outside the Bibb County Board Elections office.. And inside... the sight was similar.
<"It was a hurry up and wait. They wait outside a long time and hen you fin ally get in you thought you were going to be able to vote. It kind of like being at Six Flags or Disney world."
Signs hung nearby promoting local candidates.. But most voter were focused on one race in particular.
I'd have to say the presidential race is what got me out today.
Of course the president.
"Absolutely the presidential election"
They say they waited for an hour ... Up to an hour an a half.
Some for their first chance to vote.
" It means a lot because now I know that as far as the country, and what goes on with it, that I'm a part of it now, a part of how it's going to turn out."
Others came out to have their voices and opinions heard.
"After 4 years or troubling economy, division in the country I'm hoping this year we can start new."
"It's very important more than in 2008 because this is an election not about Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. This is the election about people's rights."
Elections supervisor Elaine Carr says the turnout is typical for a presidential race... and it shows people take the presidential race seriously.
"You can't complain about it when you don't vote so when you vote you have the right to say something."
Regardless of the party or the candidate they support... They came in for the same purpose.. To exercise their right to vote.
Brittiny Barber 13WMAZ Eyewitness News.
Early voting runs though November 2.
The Bibb County Board of elections is open from Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. To 5:30 p.m.
There will also be one Saturday to vote early.. That's October 27th.
For polling places and hours in your county...you can contact your local board of elections.
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Tonight's web poll asks..
Do you vote in advance?
So far..42 percent of you say never..
40 percent of you say sometimes..
And 18 percent say always..
To vote now... Visit 13WMAZ.com.
Look for the question on the right side of the homepage.
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It was 28 years ago today that President Ronald Reagan paid a visit to Macon while campaigning for his second term as president.
Hundreds gathered to hear the President as he praised Warner Robins as a sign of a then-strong economy..and successful educational system.
<where for decades citizens have worked shoulder to shoulder with the fine personnel of Robins Air Force Base, where growth is strong and employment is up by 6500 where graduation requirements in schools have been raised and students test scores are climbing..a town that accomplishes all this.>
Former Macon mayor George Israel remembers how the city got the attention of the Reagan Campaign..and also the President's kind demeanor.
George Israel, Former Macon Mayor:
"People were always so hard on him..the national media..but he was one of the most endearing..honest..down-to-earth, at ease people you could ever be around
We want to come to a city in Georgia and we don't want the Atlanta media..I said hey Macon..I know that I at least can control everything on the ground as far as color..you know we had it done right..My brother, David did the color. We got every scout troup in Central Georgia and they held the state flag so we had 50 scouts that were Eagle scouts holding a state flag."
At the time... Georgia was a Presidential campaign battleground and the midstate was a key player.
First, contenders for the Democratic nomination came to Central Georgia to woo voters. Former astronaut John Glenn stumped in Milledgeville and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson came to Macon, but both men would ultimately lose the bid to Walter Mondale.
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Bibb County's new animal shelter will be on Eisenhower Parkway....if county commissioners agree.
A citizens screening committee today picked a 10-acre spot at Fulton Mill Road and Eisenhower...just past Macon State College in west Bibb.
That's according to county spokesman Kevin Barrere.
They'll present their choice to the commissioners tomorrow...for a formal vote.
The current animal shelter is next to the city of Macon's landfill...and plagued with health and safety problems.
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Today a new SPLOST project has started around the Medical Center of Central Georgia....
If you are heading downtown you will find Pine street closed between Spring and New streets.
It's a million dollar project .... Paid through the special purpose local option sales tax ... The medical center and the D-O-Ts transportation enhancement program.
When it's all said and done .... There will be new sidewalks throughout the project area with handicapped-accessible ramps .... There will be a median designed with trees and designated loading zones against the curb.
There will also be crosswalks and concrete improvements in the intersections of New and Pine Streets and trees on the street instead of on-street parking.
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You've heard about the Baseball Hall of Fame... The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.. And many others.
But how about the Warner Robins Hall of Fame?
The inaugural induction ceremony takes place Saturday night... To honor those who helped lay the city's foundation.
Lorra Lynch Jones talked with Henrietta McIntyre... one of the hall's first inductees.
88-year-old Henrietta McIntyre thumbs through a history of Warner Robins.
Hers started here in 1944.
"It was horrible to tell you the truth, but it didn't take you long to fall in love with it, because everybody was from somewhere else."
She came to Warner Robins...
"Dog Patch, better known as Dog Patch. That's what all the little airmen over there called it, Dog Patch."
Ok... "Dog Patch" taking a job at the Wellston Depot... which became Robins Air Force Base.
"Everybody you talked to on the base, as soon as this war is over, I'm getting out of here."
McIntyre stayed.
"I thought you know, this town has got to get better if I'm going to stay here and I started getting involved."
Plaques decorating her walls commemorate 21 years on city council... And a stint as Warner Robins only female mayor.
Council appointed her when a jail sentence forced the acting mayor out of office.
It's that service Hall of Fame Chairwoman... Yvonne Elliott... Says prompted her board to select McIntyre and 6 others for the inaugural class.
"We just had some great, great leaders who went about forming our city."
That includes Pearl Stephens... a teacher committed to educating black children before integration.
Judge Nick Lazaros... Who set-up the state's magistrate courts...
Superintendent David Perdue... Credited with developing the county's school system...
Frank Ryals... Who founded the Happy Hour Service Center...
Businessman Charles Williams...
And the city's first fire chief Ernest Wood.
"I feel very humbled they chose me."
And proud her commitment to a once fledgling, military town... Paid off.
in Warner Robins, Lorra Lynch Jones, 13wmaz, Eyewitness News.
The first Hall of Fame Banquet is Saturday night at the Marriott Courtyard in Warner Robins.
Former governor Sonny Perdue is the key note speaker... And the event is sold out.
Elliott says the committee plans to add five people to the Warner Robins Hall of Fame each year.
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Organizers for the Georgia National Fair say great weather brought hundreds of thousands of people to Perry this year.
In Perry today, fair workers began disassembling all the rides, exhibits, and stages.
445,395 people attended this year's fair. According to organizers, that a 1.2 percent increase over last year.
Reithoffer, the company that provides the rides at the fair, reported this year's fair will be the highest-grossing fair in their company's history.
The Georgia National Fair will return to Perry October 3-13, 2013.