Macon-Bibb, statewide early Senate runoff voting sees strong start

ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger urged the General Assembly Monday to pass legislation aimed at preventing the financial exploitation of Georgia seniors. Senate Bill 84, sponsored by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, would authorize financial advisors to delay transactions involving their elderly or disabled...

ATLANTA – A new poll out Friday shows Georgians support using some of the state’s record surplus to improve social services by expanding Medicaid and increasing funding for education. The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI), a left-leaning think tank in Atlanta, commissioned the poll of 1,099 Georgians...

EDITOR'S NOTE: Original headline was edited for space. The original headline for this story was: GDOT promised better in Pleasant Hill after cutting it in half it with I-75. Has the state kept its word?. Peter Givens was a teenager in the ‘60s when he watched one of Macon’s oldest...

MACON, Ga. (WGXA) -- Macon-Bibb Mayor Lester Miller and County Commissioners completed the second and final phase of raising the minimum wage for consolidated government employees to $15 per hour. “Our team is made up of great people, and we need to make sure we find ways to take care...

MACON, Ga. (WGXA)-- Section eight is causing housing headaches for thousands in Middle Georgia. Last week WGXA's Ereina Plunkett reported the two-year-long wait times for housing-- turns out the wait is even longer than that, and the calls confirming have been flooding into the station. One of them from struggling...

If a Macon Water Authority member runs afoul of governing bylaws, the authority wants the power to discipline and remove that person for malfeasance in office. The current charter only allows censure of a member and barring them from serving on committees – a punishment meted out last year against District 2’s Desmond Brown when an internal investigation determined he had a “blatant conflict of interest” in billing the authority for work on behalf of a client of his disaster mitigation company.

BIBB COUNTY, Ga. (WGXA) - Macon-Bibb County officials are expected to settle a lawsuit Tuesday following a 2018 wreck blamed on a county employee. According to documents obtained by WGXA News, the suit was filed in 2020 by Tarsha Smith, nearly two years after the wreck. She alleges injuries following a vehicle wreck in which a county employee, later identified as Kevin Kent, hit Smith's car.

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. (WGXA) -- Special Olympics Georgia is the first and only non- profit organization that offers training and competition to people with intellectual disabilities. More than seventeen thousand athletes participate in twenty-seven different sports. Warner Robins Police Officer Greg Martin was selected to escort the flame of hope...

UPDATE (4:56 P.M.) -- According to the Monroe County Fire Department, traffic lanes are expected to return to normal shortly. No one was injured in the fire and the left lane is open. -- MACON, Ga. (WGXA) -- WGXA crews have spotted a vehicle fire on I-75 S near Pate...

PERRY, Ga. (WGXA) -- The Perry Convention and Visitors Bureau has named Nastasha "Anya" Edgley-Turpin as its finalist for the President and CEO after the Perry CVB and The Chason Group, a search firm specializing in senior-level executive searches, conducted a three-phase process of stakeholder input, identifying candidates, and interviews.

MACON, Ga. (WGXA) -- Eyewitness testimonies and video evidence have led to the conviction of a man charged with murder after he shot a man during a robbery in 2020. According to District Attorney Anita Howard, four eyewitnesses testified against 23-year-old Ja'Qwaray Hollingshed and video evidence corroborated their accounts. The...

MOUNT PLEASANT, Sc. (WGXA) - A Macon teen is seriously hurt following a vehicle fire on the Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, South Carolina. According to a police report obtained by WGXA News, the incident happened Friday night just after 11:30 p.m. According to statements from responding officers, and 911 calls,...

UPDATE (6:00 p.m.) -- Fire crews responded to a duplex fire on Shamrock Avenue. According to the Macon-Bibb Fire Department, crews arrived to a large blaze and rushed to extinguish the fire. No injuries have been reported. -- MACON, Ga. (WGXA) -- Fire crews are responding to a scene on...

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. (WGXA) -- The sounds of Saturday's gunfire are long gone-- but not the fear they left behind for people who shop and work here. "I don't feel safe," one resident says. "I have the doors locked during the daytime, all day. People want to come in and do lottery, I have to unlock the door. I shouldn't have to work like this but I don't trust anyone."

PERRY, Ga. (WGXA) -- Perry Police are asking for the public's assistance to find a woman suspected of shoplifting. In a Facebook post, police shared photos of the woman and a car, stating that she is wanted "in reference to a theft by shoplifting case". Anyone with information about the...

WILKINSON COUNTY, Ga. (WGXA) - An overturned log truck is causing travel delays in Wilkinson County. In a post on Facebook, the Wilkinson County Emergency Management Agency says the truck flipped over on Liberty Church Road Monday morning. They advise the road will be blocked for several hours as they clean up the mess.

BIBB COUNTY, Ga. (WGXA) - A pedestrian is dead after being hit Tuesday night in Macon. According to a media release, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office says deputies were called to Pio Nono Avenue near Dewy Street just after 8 p.m. Tuesday. Investigators say a 57-year-old woman, who has not yet been identified, was walking in the southbound lanes of Pio Nono Avenue. She was hit by a Toyota 4Runner in the right lane. The woman hit later died at the hospital.

BIBB COUNTY, Ga. (WGXA) - A simple traffic stop in Macon turned into more, including involving stolen government property. In a post on Facebook, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office says one of their deputies stopped a government vehicle on Millerfield Road. The deputy said the driver was not using headlights when it was dark.

HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. (WGXA) - A teenager was shot in Warner Robins Monday afternoon. In a media release, the Warner Robins Police Department says a 16-year-old walked into the emergency room of the hospital saying he had been shot. Medical staff quickly learned he had been shot in the hip. The teen told investigators he had been walking down Greenbriar Road. He heard a gunshot and that's when he fell to the ground.

TAYLOR COUNTY, Ga. (WGXA) -- A truck overturned, causing all lanes of Highway 96 to be blocked in Taylor County. Georgia State Patrol says that the truck had just left the rock quarry and was headed down Highway 90, toward the intersection of 96, and the driver told troopers that his brakes weren't working.