Andanh.com

Chatham County taxpayers have declined to come out in force against this year's revaluations of their properties, despite expectations the slowed housing market could cause such a scenario.

ATLANTA - A legislative session that drew criticism for being dysfunctional and seeing few accomplishments actually did produce some useful measures, according to advocates of some new laws going into effect this summer.

British-based BG LNG Services settled its $2 million property-tax tab with Chatham County last week before Saturday's deadline, according to the tax assessors office.

If a recent undercover drug sweep serves its purpose, hundreds of Savannah-bound sailors will encounter a few less temptations during a visit this week.

Click here to see mug shots of the people arrested in the weekend drug busts and the crimes for which they were charged.

At least that's the goal.

Dubbed "Operation Haint Blue," the weekend investigation targeted spots - such as hotels, restaurants and bars - that may be frequented by the 338 sailors due to dock the USS Barry at the port of Savannah on Thursday and stay until early next week.

The result: a dozen suspects arrested on illegal-drug charges.

"The first thing sailors like to do is safely tie the ship up, and then they always look for liberty - to go out and have a good time," said Jeff Jenkins, supervisory special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. "Some sailors might either have a little bit too much to drink, or they might be approached by the wrong people offering to sell them drugs."

Authorities continued pursuing leads on Monday in the weekend shooting of two band members in midtown Savannah.

JEKYLL ISLAND - Terry Norton stood waist-deep in the ocean 100 yards from the beach watching the sea turtle poke its head above the water for breaths, a little farther out each time, before raising his arm and pointing out to sea in triumph.

Click here or scroll down to watch Dylan get set free.

View more photos of Dylan here.

Dylan, a 150-pound loggerhead sea turtle, was free in the ocean Monday after spending her almost 10 years entirely in captivity on Jekyll Island and at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.

"Every time I saw her breathe, she was going in the right direction," Norton, head veterinarian at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island, said after wading back to shore. "I just wanted to make sure."

Next time you slap a mosquito, remember that July marks the typical start of West Nile season in the Savannah area.

SPRINGFIELD - A 34-year-old man remained hospitalized in Augusta on Monday after authorities believe he tried to burn down a residence in Rincon early Saturday morning.

A lecture presented by the Savannah Business League will take place at 6:30 p.m. July 24 at the Con-Ed Resource Center, 714 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. An incorrect date was listed on page 1B Monday.

ATLANTA - The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that a man who pleaded guilty to murder in Jackson County cannot appeal his conviction on grounds that he did not adequately know the nature of the charges against him because he signed documents in 1995 that indicated the opposite.

The oldest existing building on Savannah State University's campus soon will become the most useful.

LUDOWICI - One man is dead and another is in jail in a Sunday night slaying in rural Long County.

ATHENS - Authorities cannot release files in the unsolved 1992 rape and murder of University of Georgia student Jennifer Lynn Stone until after someone is arrested and prosecuted for the crime, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The family of a man whose body was discovered in April in a closet at a Thunderbolt nursing home has retained an attorney in the matter.

On Saturday night, I finally made it to Saya Lounge, the classy bar underneath the new location of DC2 Design at 109 W. Broughton St.

That's the former location of Pinch of the Past, by the way.

Click here to view Spotted photos from a night out at Saya Lounge.

Saya Lounge opened last month, and I'm sure many of you have already absorbed the warm and exotic ambiance. I don't know if the interior is best described as Asian or Middle Eastern or West Coast, but it definitely feels like someplace other than Savannah.

The room is spacious and comfortable, with plush benches along the walls. The layout makes it easy to move about, even as the bar gets crowded.

And Saya certainly got crowded shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday, primarily with well-dressed younger professionals. The bar at aVida next door has a similar clientele, but the proximity probably produces more synergy than competition.

With the price of gas reaching record highs almost every day, travel over the July 4 weekend is expected to drop 1.3 percent this year, according to a AAA survey.

Click here to search and map the gas stations with the lowest prices.

Approximately 40.4 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home, and more than 1 million Georgians are expected to travel by car.

Just more than 100,000 Georgia residents are expected to fly this year over the weekend. Airline rates are up 13 percent over last year, according to the survey.

"Some people may want to stretch out the holiday and take the full week," said Gregg Laskoski, a spokesman for AAA Auto Club South. "But with the rising price of gasoline, people are trying to find ways to reduce their expenses, including traveling closer to home."

COMING WEDNESDAY: With an economic cloud hanging above us, Dollars and Sense offers tips to find the silver lining.

PHOENIX - Admit it. That chunky carry-on bag of yours would never fit into the sample box displayed outside the airport gate.

DES MOINES, Iowa - Farmers will harvest nearly 9 percent fewer acres of corn this year than last year, in part because of Midwest flooding that has damaged a portion of the crop, the government reported Monday.

NEW YORK - The price of crude oil hit yet another record on the last day of a tumultuous first half, spurting past $143 a barrel before ending lower on demand fears and a resilient dollar.

NEW YORK - Cell phones are becoming more useful devices for listening to music.

WASHINGTON - Four-dollar gasoline has stolen a beach vacation from Julie Jacobs' family, "little small luxuries" like exotic bath washes from Angela Crawford and dinners out from folks all over the nation. Phil English has had to sell his beloved but fuel-guzzling red pickup.

NEW YORK - Wall Street ended an arduous first half quietly Monday, closing mixed as investors again based their trades on what has become the dominant force in the market: the price of oil. The major indexes closed out the first six months of 2008 with double-digit declines and are perilously close to the levels of a bear market.

ATHENS - Uga VI was laid to rest with full Bulldog honors Monday in a private ceremony in Sanford Stadium.

STATESBORO - It didn't take long before commissioner John Iamarino learned the main issue on everyone's mind in the Southern Conference.

Savannah Swim Team's Peter Benner finished 68th in the 200-meter freestyle Monday at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, Neb.

BETHESDA, Md. - Tiger Woods does not know when he can play golf again, but he said Monday his rebuilt left knee has been sore his entire PGA Tour career and he looks forward to playing on two good legs.

Savannah's Kelsey Winters fared slightly better than her seeding in placing 44th in the 100-meter butterfly Sunday at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, Neb.

LOUDON, N.H. - Kurt Busch almost apologized for Sunday's victory in the LENOX Industrial Tools 301, but didn't feel bad enough to give back the trophy.

MONDAY'S SCORE: Charleston RiverDogs 5, Savannah Sand Gnats 3.

EUGENE, Ore. - Tyson Gay was a blur in blue, sprinting 100 meters faster than anyone ever has.

National

SUNDAY'S SCORE: Charleston RiverDogs 3, Savannah Sand Gnats 2.

Uga VI, who had represented the University of Georgia as the football team's mascot since 1999, will be buried today at the stadium where he was often the center of attention.

ATLANTA - Josh Smith and Josh Childress were considered franchise cornerstones for the Atlanta Hawks four years ago.

TORONTO - With his curveball diving and his fastball topping out at 96 miles per hour, A.J. Burnett made life easy on catcher Rod Barajas, and rough on the undermanned Atlanta Braves.

WIMBLEDON, England - Wimbledon already has lost its top-four seeded women's players, while the Williams sisters keep rolling toward another sibling final. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are also closing in on another title matchup.

Commentary

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.

Classes are out for children across the nation, but the fight to boost fitness and curb fat among America's youth doesn't end with the school year, researchers and health advocates say. That's why they're encouraging parents to turn off the television and video games and find ways to get children moving.

Q. I'm 17. I was in pretty good shape in the fall, when I was on the cross-country team. But I didn't do a winter or spring sport and haven't run in six months. How should I start up again? Should I run two minutes and walk two minutes, for 30 minutes, for example? Or try to run as long as I can (probably about 10 minutes) before walking? Or should I work out on an elliptical machine for a couple of weeks in order to get my stamina up before trying to run?

Taking a dip in a backyard pool has never looked so refreshing.

Today's pools aren't all the energy guzzlers or chemical soups of the past - like cars, new technologies have created efficient systems to treat and clean the pool, as well as light and heat it.

And the desire for a personalized outdoor living space has some people taking home more than snapshots from their vacations. T.J. Moreland of Merlin Industries, a pool product supplier in Hamilton, N.J., notes that homeowners often want to incorporate elements they've seen from hotels or water parks - submerged bar stools, liners patterned like aquariums, or even depictions of favorite activities.

"We made a liner look like a baseball field, complete with infield, bases and home run distances on the pool walls."

I Can Cope Online

Fourth of July Ceremony

TODAY

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.

Q. I've been divorced for five years and have a 10-year-old son. My ex-husband sleeps with my son, and I feel this is unhealthy. My son is afraid to sleep in his bedroom in the basement, but I believe that could be solved. The real problem is that his father wants to sleep with him, although no sexual abuse is involved. My ex feels he doesn't see his son enough. When he brings our son back from their weekend together, he always mentions that his weekends are too short and says he wants more time with him. He's talked to our son about taking him to school on Monday mornings rather than returning him on Sunday evenings.

Exercise does not have to be boring and a chore for children. With computers and interactive games, it is easy for children to become a couch potato. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, "the number of overweight children in our nation has more than tripled over the past three decades, and with 12.5 million young people facing weight problems."

CHICAGO - Oliver Pangborn hates Dave Matthews Band.

If you looooove Dave Matthews Band, Pangborn probably doesn't want to date you. If you share his loathing, drop him a line.

Gone are the days when it took a date, maybe two, to find out a person's resume of likes and dislikes - favorite movie, favorite quotes, special causes. Online matchmaking sites rendered that notion quaint years ago, and now social networking sites are doing their part to obliterate it.

"Facebook and MySpace are kind of robbing the mysteries out of dating," said Pangborn, 30, who lives on Chicago's Gold Coast. "You find out all these little things about people that you might otherwise let go. If I see someone's favorite quote is a Dave Matthews lyric or favorite band is Jimmy Buffett, I automatically have an image of them. And it kind of lingers."

NEW YORK - Talya Appelbaum recently had a "High School Musical" birthday party. She got special balloons and a slice of cake decorated with the spoiled Sharpay, her favorite character because "she's with Ryan."

Jemma Fox has an HSM karaoke microphone and trading cards of the East High gang.

Talya and Jemma are 3 years old. They have tot-sized insights but large obsessions with the wildly popular Disney franchise that has jumped from TV show to hit song factory to merchandising mania since 2006, when the Wildcats first took kid culture by storm.

But it's high school, and now senior year at that. Do Talya and Jemma need to "bop to the top" or demand "all things fabulous?" And what about the kissing, the backbiting and the big-kid fashions?

With the October release of the third HSM movie - this one in theaters rather than on the Disney Channel - parents of extra young aficionados are debating whether the phenom is innocent dance-till-you-drop fun or not quite appropriate.