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Public school officials acknowledged that the Coastal Empire Montessori Charter School project has come too far to be turned back now.

Chatham County officials are on high alert after Gov. Sonny Perdue announced last week he was suspending more than $8.6 million in state revenue disbursements.

SPRINGFIELD - Wednesday marked the first day of school for public school students in Effingham County, and although the number of students enrolled has climbed, the district's rate of growth seems to have leveled off.

An aspiring Savannah rapper who was shot and later died was committing a crime when it happened, police said Wednesday.

The body of a Savannah woman missing for a week was discovered late Wednesday in the trunk of the Honda Accord she was last seen driving.

Georgia Republicans face a real fight in the Nov. 4 presidential election, but there was a sign Wednesday that they're rising to the challenge.

Even as two enormous storage tanks are being built to double the capacity of the El Paso Corp.'s liquefied natural gas terminal on Elba Island, a local environmental group continues to call for the facility to move offshore.

Sheriff's office raises money for Olympians

RICHMOND HILL - Ground was broken Aug. 1 for a new conference/city center to be located behind J.F. Gregory Park.

A judge set bond at $35,000 on Tuesday for a Bloomingdale woman accused of abandoning her daughter in a locked room last month.

Outdoor thermometers notched a record high of 102 degrees Wednesday in Savannah, breaking a 54-year-old mark by one degree, according to the National Weather Service in Charleston, S.C.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - She was a 15-year-old Jacksonville girl with behavior problems whose parents trusted their pastor to give her private counseling.

ATLANTA - The day after a runoff determined the names that will appear on the Nov. 4 general election ballot in the U.S. Senate race, the two major-party candidates took swings at each other and predicted more would follow.

ATLANTA - A full-fledged statewide trauma system could be up and running within five years if the General Assembly would approve a permanent funding stream, the director of the state's trauma commission said Wednesday.

Leah Gross, president of the Southbridge Homeowners Association, introduced Southside Fire Chief Wesley Meadows on Tuesday night by asking those gathered at their quarterly neighborhood meeting "to be kind" when talking to the firefighters.

"Let's leave the anger outside the door and talk about this in a calm, sensible way," Gross said.

She was referring to an afternoon house fire on July 28 at 5 Baysprings Point in the Southbridge neighborhood just off Dean Forest Road. While Southside Fire crews said they did all they could to attack the blaze, some in the community have questioned the department's response.

This is the first major fire the Southbridge community has experienced. The service, which homeowners subscribe to yearly, costs each household about $400. Nonsubscribers pay $4,000 if the Southside Fire department is called.

NEW YORK - Retailers preparing for a difficult back-to-school season are getting creative in their attempts to entice shoppers into the stores - aggressively introducing new products, slashing prices and amping up marketing in the battle for parents' bucks.

NEW YORK - Oil prices briefly dropped below $118 a barrel Wednesday - $30 below their record high - after a jump in U.S. crude and other fuel supplies fed beliefs that high energy prices are eating into demand.

For Hank Groover, trawling for shrimp off the Georgia coast has normally been a sunup-to-sundown job during the summer. But with diesel fuel now costing him $4.50 a gallon, he usually calls it quits by lunch.

Oracal USA, the U.S.-based partner of vinyl films manufacturer Orafol International, has announced plans to significantly expand its U.S. operations with the addition of a new warehouse facility and an additional adhesive coating line.

Child Care Administrators Workshop

ATLANTA - A band of Republican state lawmakers, pledging to do their part in Georgia, on Wednesday called on Congress to wean the nation off foreign energy resources in the next 30 years.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration dealt a blow to the already reeling financial services sector Wednesday, ruling that companies can't transfer their pension plans to large banks to be managed for a profit.

ATLANTA - Georgia's early child care and education industry pumps about $2.4 billion into the economy and supports 61,203 jobs, according to an economic impact report prepared for the Department of Early Care and Learning.

Savannah-area conventions and meetings

Given that I have been a longtime couponer, the news came as no surprise to me. With soaring gasoline prices, a housing slump and credit harder to come by, Americans have returned to couponing.

WASHINGTON - Confronted by problems at every turn - rising unemployment, shaky growth, credit troubles and creeping inflation - the Federal Reserve left an important interest rate unchanged, taking a gamble that for now the best move was no move at all.

The next direction for rates probably is up, but that's not likely until next year.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and all but one of his central bank colleagues agreed Tuesday to leave its key rate alone at 2 percent for the second straight meeting.

In turn, the prime lending rate for millions of consumers and businesses remained at 5 percent. The prime rate applies to certain credit cards, home equity lines of credit and other lines.

"Although downside risks to growth remain, the upside risks to inflation are also of significant concern," the Fed said. Policy makers are faced with dueling problems: weak economic growth and advancing inflation. To treat one risks aggravating the other. The Fed indicated Tuesday that each problem poses about equal risks to the economy.

ATLANTA - Georgians can now more easily leave identity thieves out in the cold.

A new law allows consumers to freeze access to their credit reports with three credit reporting agencies, icing out thieves' attempts to open new credit card accounts of lines of credit using pilfered personal information.

The law likely has a receptive audience, given Georgia's seventh-place ranking nationwide in the number of identity-theft victims per capita.

Consumer advocates hailed the credit-freeze legislation as a more effective weapon in the fight against identity theft.

"Compared to credit monitoring and similar services, a credit freeze provides superior protection because it is the only proactive tool that stops new account fraud before it starts," said Allison Wall, executive director of Atlanta-based consumer group Georgia Watch.

SEA ISLAND - The largest private employer in Glynn County says it will immediately begin laying off 300 to 400 employees.

NEW YORK - The U.S. service sector contracted in July - though less than expected - as new orders decreased and prices rose, stifling growth for truckers, retailers and insurers.

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - Weyerhaeuser Co. on Tuesday said it would cut about 1,500 employees, or 6.3 percent of its global work force, as part of an ongoing plan to scale back operations to focus on timberlands and wood products.

The NFL released a new fan code of conduct Tuesday.

Youth fishing competition continues to be alive and well, with freshwater events both completed and coming up. Recently completed was the Savannah River Bass Anglers Kids Tournament on July 26 at a private pond on Bush Road in Chatham County.

Even for the most hardened, old-school football coaches, Wednesday afternoon in Savannah was hot.

CATFISH 8, SAND GNATS 6 (11)

LOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Rich Beem stood over his tee shot on the 18th hole during his final practice session for the PGA Championship, trained his eye down the narrow fairway squeezed between bunkers, waggled his driver and then backed off.

High daytime temperatures have taken their toll on the coastal fishing scene, keeping a lot of anglers indoors until the weather begins to cool.

TOLEDO, Ohio - A former University of Toledo basketball player has been charged with point shaving, according to a federal bill of information filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit.

ATHENS - Richard Samuel and Dontavius Jackson got a jump start on fellow freshman tailback Carlton Thomas at Georgia.

BEST TIMES FOR ANGLERS

Ellabell's Brandon Curl will compete next weekend in The Bass Federation's 2008 National Guard Junior World Championship on Lake Monticello near Columbia, S.C.

BRUNSWICK- Loggerhead sea turtles are in the midst of a record-breaking nesting season on Georgia beaches, state wildlife biologists said.

ATHENS - They are Georgia's marquee players on the national scene. Their images are splashed this summer across magazine covers.

Hunting in Georgia

SAN FRANCISCO - Aaron Rowand says any talk about the National League Cy Young Award should begin and end with San Francisco teammate Tim Lincecum.

LOCAL

While Italian winemakers grapple with wine scandals ranging from adulteration of wine by adding methyl alcohol to cutting Brunello with other grapes, the French are aggressively producing wines that are capturing Americans' palates - and wine dollars.

Blueberry pies are among the easiest of fruit pies. There's no chopping or cutting. Simply toss the berries with some sugar and seasonings, then pour into a pie shell and bake.

THURSDAY

Mark Streeter

WHEN GEORGIA lawmakers reconvene next year and address the state's $1.6 billion deficit, budget cutting should be done with a scalpel, not a meat cleaver.