Our top story tonight, the attorney for a high-ranking bibb county school official says the district is retaliating against his client for refusing to misuse school funds.

Ron Collier filed a lawsuit this afternoon.

Ron Collier, now the former chief financial officer, is suing the bibb county school district under Georgia's whistleblower act.

The suit was filed this afternoon, and this evening, the school board voted to remove him from his position and place him in a different department.

Collier's attorney, Jerry Lumley, says it's the latest move by the district to punish collier for an incident last June.

According to the lawsuit, Superintendent Romain Dallemand...

asked collier to pay this invoice from the central georgia partnership for the individual and community development. It asks for a million-dollar contribution to the Macon Children's promise neighborhood project. But the invoice isn't made out to the school district. Lumley says that's one of the reasons collier refused to pay it. .

<and 2, that it was not an invoice for school related purposes. The only thing that the school system can spend money on is educational items or school items. This had nothing to do, according to the invoice, had nothing to do with the school >

According to the lawsuit, Dallemand demanded over the phone and in writing that collier pay the invoice. Dallemand allegedly threatened to fire collier if he didn't. In October, the school board entered a memorandum of understanding with the organization that sent the invoice and the district's attorneys then advised collier to pay the million dollars.

Lumley says the retaliation started a couple days after the Dallemand accepted a renewed contract. Collier received a letter making him-- quote-- an administrator on special assignment pending an investigation into the finance department.

<mr collier now for 2 weeks has been isolated in a room in the rear of a warehouse not been allowed to have contact with anyone, not had access to his files not had a computer, and really not doing any work. He's been punished tremendously for the past two weeks and has done nothing wrond except do the right thing and follow his concience.>

Lumley says the the fact that collier was reassigned to a different department won't affect the lawsuit.

The suit asks for collier to be reinstated as CFO, damages for quote mental anguash humiliation and embarassment, and also attorney's fees and court costs, Leah.

Thank you, Candace. We'll be following this developing story on 13WMAZ-dot-com as well.

Tonight we have some cold weather blowing through parts of the area.

According to a Georgia Power spokesperson...at about 10'o'clock, 580 households were without power... about 500 of them in Milledgeville.

Meteorologist John Boyer's been keeping an eye on things... with much of the coverage area under wind advisory...

Good evening, John.

<Tonight... Mostly clear with lows in the lower-to-mid 30s. *Wind Advisory* - west winds 10-20 mph gusting to 30 mph.

Friday... Sunny with highs in the lower 50s. *Wind Advisory* - northwest winds 20-25 mph gusting to 35-40 mph.

Friday Night... Clear and breezy with lows in the mid 20s.>

Now earlier today in mobile Alabama, heavy winds knocked down trees and power lines, cutting power to at least 74-hundred homes and businesses.

They also flipped this Red Cross truck in Mobile... upside down.

The same gusts blew the roof off a business, the windows out of several businesses and peeled a layer of bricks off the side of a building.

Police say they rescued a woman trapped in her house by a collapsed tree.

At least two people were hurt in the storms.

Now as far as what we can expect to deal with here...

I'll be working on some more information for you... and we'll have a look at that in the next ten minutes or so .

Leah?

Today marked the first meeting of a gun violence task force, led by Vice President Joe Biden in Washington.

Law enforcement leaders from around the country and several members of the President's cabinet joined Biden at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

At a news conference before asking the press to leave what he called a frank discussion with the panel, the Vice President said there's a lot of work to be done.

<The President is absolutely committed to keeping his promise that we will act in a way that's designed -- even if as he says, we can only save one life -- we have to take action. And there a number of things and you know, because I've spoken with you all over so many years, and continued that relationship over the past four years, that there are some things we can immediately do, and we're going to need your help. >

The meeting came... as more of the victims of last Friday's shooting were laid to rest, including the shooter's mother, Nancy Lanza.

Also remembered at services today, more children, including six year old Allison Wyatt and Catherine Hubbard... Plus Principal Dawn Hochsprung, whom witnesses say, died trying to stop the shooting.

As tomorrow marks one week since Newtown's school shooting... Some major web sites will go dark for one minute at 9:30 a-m.

It's part of a national moment of silence that started with pledges on causes-dot-com.

More than 100-thousand people and sites have pledged to participate.

People and companies are also spreading the word by tweeting with the hashtag - pound- momentforSandyHook.

Any site that wants to participate today can do so on its own, or embed an official badge with a green ribbon on its site.

Meanwhile... Parents and schools remain sensitive to any perceived threats seven days later... And aren't willing to take any risks.

In Peach County, the rumor of a planned shooting today Started a week long investigation as a precaution.

Sheriff Terry Deese says he sent several officers to Peach County High school After several calls from parents over the weekend.

He said it all came out of a discussion on that so-called Mayan Apocalypse ... Allegedly happening on 12-21-12 according to the Mayan calendar.

<apparently there was a group of kids and they were talking about the end of the world and somebody made the comment 'well, we're not going to have to worry about that because somebody's going to come in the high school on Thursday and shoot up everybody. So we've been following rumors since Sunday night. Every time we'd hear a name, we'd go talk to the student.>

Deese says his deputies finished investigating today and did not find any weapons... or signs of anything else wrong at the high school.

Welcome back.

*this* is what you think of as a mouse... Plain...usually black or white, and tethered to a computer by a wire.

But what if the thing you clicked on...the next time you log on...

Looked more like this?

Scott Light with our Phoenix sister station...KPNX checks out a sporty new gadget

in tonight's Geek 13.

This looks like a tennis ball sitting on a racquet but from another angle .. That flat bottom and button in the middle tells you .. This ball wouldn't hold up (NATS - TENNIS) to

an overhead slam .. But it could improve your game .. On the computer.

08:26:25 "with Sports Mouse."

the thought first came to Nick Pajic's dad for a more ergonomically designed computer mouse.

They consulted a hand surgeon who agreed.

Nick Pajic (pay-gick)

08:26:08 "we need soemthing good for us. We need something round .. Something natural extension. So that natural extension of the hand led to having a ball shaped mouse."

Next .. They added the outer shell .. 'skins' they call 'em .. of baseballs .. Tennis .. Soccer .. Basketball and golf.

the Sports Mouse was born.

08:32:54 "it's fun b/c I don't have to stick to one sport."

It's wireless and compatible with PC and MAC computers.

they sell them on their website and do a lot of corporate business for companies that want their name on the side.

NATS - FOOTBALL

But wait a minute Nick .. There's a missing skin.

You know Americans love football right?

08:33:35 "because football is the number one sport in America and I know this." (laughs)

08:33:45 "we're talking about making a new skin to emulate a helmet."

Canadians have called him too.

08:34:35 "i've been approached by Canada .. Can you make a hockey puck? Well .. A hockey puck is not round .. It's circular."

and the design of the mouse itself isn't changing.

08:34:31 "according to the doctor .. We need to keep this round."

Round it'll stay .. as Nick and his design team keep going round and round on how to some day get every sport on the Sports Mouse.

The Medical Center of Central Georgia added paint brushes and canvases to their supply list for treating patients with cancer.

{***JOHN***}

The artist-in-residence program... Is funded by a 10-thousand dollar grant from the Livestrong Foundation.

Twice a week... an artist visits with patients during their chemotherapy treatments.

They paint everything from landscapes... To ornaments... and other holiday crafts.

The program started at the Medical Center's Cancer Well-Fit Class for patients who finished their battle with cancer.

Director Sandra Stone says the Medical Center hopes to expand the artist-in-residence program over the next year and bring it to the Children's Hospital.