Andanh.com

Longtime House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill once declared that all politics is local.

The glory days for Chatham Area Transit are long gone.

When the bus system was created 21 years ago, it had plenty of momentum spurring it along.

More than 30 new buses rolled in, fares were lowered, and routes were expanded.

It was supposed to be the birth of a countywide transportation system.

And for four years, CAT had increases in ridership and money to spare.

But that was then. This is now.

County leaders aren't even sure what type of management structure they want for the bus system.

CAT is without a permanent leader after county commissioners voted in August to terminate a contract with the company that managed the system during its first 20 years.

Costs are rising because of higher gas prices, an aging fleet and rising employee salaries and benefits.

(Scroll down to watch a video tribute to Bryan County grads or click here.)

(Scroll down to watch a video tribute to Bryan County grads or click here.)

More than a decade ago, they toted lunch boxes and backpacks.

Now the Coastal Empire's graduating private and public high school seniors hold only one thing in their hands.

A diploma.

Whether they continue on to college or enter the work force, the Savannah Morning News honors their success and looks forward to their futures.

Today and on coming Sundays, we will publish the names of all local graduates to recognize their accomplishment.

Today: Memorial Day School, Benedictine Military School, Savannah Christian Preparatory School, Providence Christian School, Bible Baptist School, Butler Academy, St. Andrew's School and Bethesda Day School.

James Bostic's feet don't move as fast as a Chatham Area Transit bus, but they are more effective for him.

Seniors at three area high schools graduated Friday. Students accepted their diplomas at Providence Christian School, Bible Baptist and Effingham High School.

Soldiers snapped to attention, bands played and Coast Guard rescue swimmers demonstrated their prowess during the Georgia Air National Guard's annual Memorial Day observations at Rousakis Plaza on River Street on Friday.

Scroll to bottom to see video or click here to watch.

A fire in a large garbage bin outside the Hilton Savannah DeSoto on Friday raced up a construction chute, engulfing 11 balconies in flames and sending a plume of black smoke into the air.

"I went around the corner, and the whole side of the building was on fire," said Corey Davis, a valet at the downtown Savannah hotel.

While the flames and the smoke were dramatic, little damage was inflicted to the inside of the Liberty Street hotel. Guests and employees were evacuated without incident.

Chatham Area Transit plans to use about $4 million in approved grants to cut short the remaining five years of lease payments for 31 buses.

Three Miami residents have pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to commit Medicare fraud in Savannah by billing for services they never provided.

A water-safety program launched Friday at two local boat ramps hopes to keep children from drowning in Chatham County by lending them life jackets when they get on boats or simply near the water.

The Chatham County Aquatic Center is getting another $66,526 in repairs and improvements, just five months after a $4.5 million project to replace the center's roof.

A Savannah man has been sentenced to almost 7 ½ years in federal prison for his conviction on Social Security fraud and aggravated identity theft.

A retired Savannah police officer who last month admitted to repeated sexual assaults on four children has been sued by one of the victims.

I'll confess that my eyes rolled a little when Andreas Mayer began to tell me about his thesis project.

COMING MONDAY: A retired school bus driver bought the bus and sells barbecue out of it.

Q: My co-worker "Kristy," shifts from being friendly and cheerful to hateful and sulky if anyone corrects her work. She will cry at her desk until someone asks what's wrong. Kristy tells people that I don't help her, even though I give her detailed instructions. She sends e-mails asking why no one likes her and says things like "I'm so stupid" or "this is the worst day of my life."

Five months ago, Dan Hesse took a job many people didn't want.

He was charged with rebuilding Sprint Nextel, the nation's third-largest wireless carrier, which lost 1.2 million subscribers last year. Its stock lost more than half its value in that time, and Sprint was saddled with more than $30 billion in losses because of its merger with Nextel Communications - a deal studied by MBA students as one of the worst mergers ever.

Hesse, a former chief executive of AT&T's wireless unit, took the top job at Sprint knowing the wind was in front of him. A gale-force wind.

To prepare his employees for the fight ahead, he passed out 800 copies of a documentary about Sir Ernest Shackleton's journey to the South Pole and compared it with Sprint's road to recovery. Hesse particularly liked Shackleton's advertisement for recruits: "Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness ... Honour and recognition in case of success."

NEW YORK - For years, anyone who has wanted could "sponsor" underprivileged children. Charities have set up extensive programs that make this possible.

NEW YORK - Picture it as a tilted signpost with each sign a softly glowing panel or as a metal tree with phosphorescent leaves lighting up your desk.

WASHINGTON - As air travelers begin soaring into another summer travel season starting with this Memorial Day weekend, the nation's airports will be waiting with a growing bounty of services that go well beyond mere takeoffs and landings.

Scroll to the bottom to watch a video to find out if Savannah residents are happy with their cell phone service.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A study has found that wireless consumers tend to be as happy as they have ever been - unless they have service with Sprint Nextel.

The latest American Customer Satisfaction Index report indicates that consumers view Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile USA and others more favorably.

"At the opposite end of the spectrum is Sprint Nextel," said David Van Amburg, managing director of the index produced by the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in partnership with the American Society for Quality and CFI Group.

Sprint's score dropped by 8 percent, making it the lone wireless company to lose favor with consumers in the annual study.

NEW YORK - Hamburgers and hot dogs? Check. Lighter fluid? Check. Beer? Check. More money?

"Right of the Dial: The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio" by Alec Foege; Faber and Faber, 320 pages ($25).

In an economy where most deep water ports are experiencing slow growth - if any growth at all - Georgia's ports continue to thrive, posting double-digit growth across almost every sector.

CFO/Controllers Council

Economists, especially when jobs become scarce and prices are rising, find themselves quite often the subject of derision. As numerous jokes attest, they seem to always find a way to say "on the one hand" and "on the other hand" in the same paragraph.

That pinch you might feel in your pocket from rising gas prices has become more of a punch for owners of recreational vehicles.

Owners of some RVs are seeing triple-digit increases over last year to fill the gas tank, but they're still taking to the roads this summer.

"They are definitely upset with the cost of diesel," said Teresa Hrones, owner and operator of KOA in Richmond Hill. "There's a lot of grumbling but it hasn't stopped them."

Only one couple she talked to planned to sell their trailer because of gas prices.

Sales of RVs have slowed as consumers take the cost of fuel and loans into consideration.

RV sales dropped by 10 percent in 2007 and are down 14 percent so far in 2008, according to the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association.

"It's hard for me to consider this a crisis," said Bill Crown, general manager of Dick Gore's RV World in Richmond Hill. "Numbers are down a little, but not catastrophically down.

NEW YORK - Online social networking today is more about hanging out with friends behind gated communities than exploring the World Wide Web: Go to another site and you'll have to rebuild your profile from scratch.

And so, the 2008 French Open will be forced to go on with only one of the greatest clay court players of all time - Rafael Nadal, the swashbuckling Spaniard who could become the first man since Bjorn Borg to win four consecutive titles at Roland Garros . . . that is, unless he gets a blister on his foot.

Bart Bellairs' departure from Virginia Military Institute is VMI's loss and Savannah State's gain, said VMI athletics director Donny White. SSU boosters appear to agree.

Bellairs, 51, was introduced as SSU's AD during a press conference Tuesday at Tiger Arena. He spent the past three years as VMI's senior associate AD, and was instrumental in tripling revenue during his first two years at the Lexington, Va., school.

Bellairs, the winningest basketball coach in VMI history, was fired in 2005 after his Keydets finished their seventh consecutive losing season. He held the job for 11 seasons, compiling a 116-191 record, and had five years remaining on his contract.

VMI offered to reassign Bellairs, whose salary was $142,500, to a marketing and promotions job within the athletic department. He accepted the reassignment and working with the VMI Keydet Club, raised over $3 million in a year to support both scholarships and the operating budget.

Mark Silvers learned to play golf at Bacon Park Golf Course and volunteered as a cart boy at the Savannah City Amateur Championship before he was old enough to play in the tournament.

To say Silvers wants to win the City Amateur this weekend on his home course is an understatement on par with saying summer in Savannah can be a little warm. To Silvers and the Coastal Empire's other elite amateur golfers, the storied course the City Am is played on and the quality of its past champions make a victory the most coveted in this area.

The brass plaques hanging on a post in the clubhouse at Bacon Park may not look like much at first glance, but the names on the nameplates are the fathers of modern Savannah golf.

Names like six-time champion John Skeadas, a member of the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame whose name adorns the trophy for the Georgia Senior Amateur Championship, Hobart Manley, Tom Brennan and Bob "Boo" White, who has a tournament named after him that is played each year at the LaVida Country Club in Windsor Forest.

INDIANAPOLIS - Danica Patrick answered the critics and gave fans another reason to root for her when she became the first woman to win an IndyCar race last month.

The Savannah Mile

May 24, 2008 Savannah, GA

Benefitting the 200 Club of the Coastal Empire

FEMALE ELITE

1 560 Michelle LaFleur, 36, Savannah 5:08.40

2 533 Lauren Grant, 25, Savannah 5:21.00

3 741 Ragan Lee, 29, Savannah 5:24.85

4 537 Anna Harris,27, Savannah 5:27.70

5 694 Tracy Koch,19, Savannah 5:33.15

6 571 Kelly Levie, 20, Charlotte, N.C. 5:40.30

7 693 Meg Keiffer, 20, Savannah 5:53.65

8 570 Alayna Levie, 20, Charlotte, N.C. 6:00.25

9 692 Jordan Kaltwasser, 21, Savannah 6:15.60

MALE ELITE

1 745 Mulenga Silwimba, 22, Savannah 4:09.60

2 578 Brendon Mahoney, 28, Marietta 4:11.30

3 756 Adam Davis, 26, Houston, Texas 4:12.00

ATLANTA - Doug Davis received more than the usual pats on the back after he was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning.

CONCORD, N.C. - Greg Biffle offered a glimmer of hope for Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600, saying the race won't be as bad as expected. The reason: the new Car of Tomorrow is so temperamental nobody should be able to drive away in traffic.

LAKE SAN MARCOS, Calif. - The Savannah College of Art and Design women's golf team finished in 10th place at the NAIA national championship on Friday.

ATLANTA - Catcher Brayan Pena can't remember all the details of his conversation with Frank Wren Friday when the general manager explained the details of the team's decision to designate Pena for assignment.

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Tim Carrier's seventh-inning solo home run ignited a seven-run North Carolina Greensboro rally as the fifth-seeded Spartans earned an 12-9 victory over fourth-seeded Georgia Southern in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference baseball tournament.

ATLANTA - Bobby Cox, saying he's still having fun with the game, has agreed to a one-year contract extension to manage the Atlanta Braves through 2009.

Three teams of local and area high school baseball players will participate in an exhibition baseball series at Grayson Stadium this weekend.

LOCAL

LOS ANGELES - There would be no blown lead in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals. Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers saw to that.

AUGUSTA - One night following one of their best games this season, the Savannah Sand Gnats had one of their worst on Friday.

When Bill Ballard first photographed the South Dakota prairie in intimate detail several years ago, a friend and mentor suggested that he try working with the human figure. As a result, Ballard discovered a subject matter that has provided him with endless inspiration.

Contribute to Vox Populi by calling 652-0370 or e-mailing us at vox@savannahnow.com. Be sure to write Vox Populi in the subject field. Not all responses are used.

FORT WORTH, Texas - Graduations and Memorial Day shift outdoor dining into high gear.

1. "Audition" by Barbara Walters

Book Clubs, Books a Million

"I want to thank the callers to Vox for teaching me two things in the last week. First, I hadn't known that driving a bus was considered 'labor intensive' and second, I didn't know that following the first family's affairs was considered patriotic."