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Jesus Christ managed to feed 4,000 people with seven loaves of bread and a few small fish, according to the Bible.

Selina Johnson is no miracle-worker, but friends say she does pretty well with a few smoked sausages and a can of green beans.

"Selina is a wiz at finding food," said the Rev. Richard Nelson, senior pastor at St. Thomas Episcopal Church.

Johnson and roughly 25 volunteers make up a project called "the Unseen Guest," that prepares healthy, frozen meals for people living with HIV or AIDS. The group works to prepare 400 meals a month.

On Friday, volunteers prepared their 50,000th home-cooked meal since the church launched the project in 1994.

"AIDS is a wicked thing to have," said Johnson, a retired nurse and great-grandmother. "These nutritious meals allow these AIDS patients to live longer."

AUGUSTA - One is cheered by the poster-sized photo of his 2-year-old boy by his bed.

Another rallied after a sneak visit from his 9-year-old daughter.

And all of the recovering burn victims injured in the Feb. 7 blast at the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth are making their way to rehabilitation and back to normal life, doctors and staff at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center reported Tuesday.

Twenty burn victims have been treated at the center. Three remain critical, and one is in good condition. Two are on the rehabilitation unit. Nine have been able to go home.

Boo Weekley stood beside the country road in the Illinois backwoods.

Dressed head to toe in camo clothing, complete with black face paint, he looked like any other hunter during deer season.

Except the rifle he fired along the roadside that November day shot acorns, rocks and pine cones, not bullets.

"I had slipped a weighted golf club in my case along with my gun," Weekley said. "So after spending the morning huntin' in the woods I could work on my golf, too."

ATLANTA - The price of college will go up 8 percent for freshmen entering most of the state's four-year universities under a plan approved Tuesday by the Board of Regents.

A convicted child molester was on the run Tuesday after Chatham County investigators got word he'd cut off an ankle bracelet that tracked his whereabouts.

Stephen Alexander Bell, 40, removed the device - required under probation terms - sometime during the weekend at T.S. Chu's department store on Tybee Island, said investigator Warren Blanton with the Chatham County Sheriff's Department.

Bell spent nearly three years in prison for child molestation and was released in May of last year, Georgia Department of Corrections records show.

The big party, it seems, was a success.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Eric Johnson told reporters last week that he'd formally announce his state Senate re-election plans in a few days.

ATLANTA - A plan to make Coastal Georgia Community College a four-year institution and boost opportunities for two-year degrees in the Savannah area is expected to be approved today by the Board of Regents.

The city of Savannah's innovative Operation: Clean Sweep returned Tuesday to where it started in West Savannah three years ago.

What started in Savannah 90 years ago turned a page in its history this month when the Girl Scout Council of Savannah Georgia Inc. retired its flag.

Local and federal authorities spent Tuesday afternoon searching for a man who robbed a southside Savannah bank.

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When Heather Aeger's fifth-grade class came to school Tuesday, they didn't know they were in for a surprise special guest.

But at noon, when their teacher told them the Savannah Morning News and WTOC were there to talk to them about the media, they got a little suspicious.

When the teacher said, "I have something to show you first," they got really antsy.

Still, the students had no idea their favorite soldier - Chief Warrant Officer II Doug Hill - was coming to visit during his 18-day leave from Iraq.

The room erupted in laughter and happy screaming when Hill walked into the Marshpoint Elementary classroom.

Like most of her classmates, 10-year-old Kara Heater swarmed around Hill to offer hugs and handshakes.

As you watch the total for your groceries rise past what you've budgeted for the week, you sigh and swipe your debit card. There go the new shoes at the mall you've been eyeing. More overages may force you to downgrade your summer vacation to something closer to home.

The merger of Delta and Northwest will create the world's largest airline, but is bigger always better? And what will the merger mean for Savannah, which currently is served by both airlines?

Both a container ship that broke from its moorings late Sunday at Georgia Ports Authority's Garden City Terminal and the ship that it bumped down river were cleared by the Coast Guard and left port Tuesday.

MPC approves shopping center upgrade

CHICAGO - United Airlines and Continental Airlines each signaled interest in industry consolidation Tuesday, with the two increasingly seen as a potential pair that would leapfrog the newly proposed Delta-Northwest team as the world's largest carrier.

WASHINGTON - Inflation at the wholesale level soared in March at nearly triple the rate that had been forecast as energy prices kept rising and food costs posted a much bigger jump than anticipated.

PHOENIX - Getting hitched may be the right move for Delta and Northwest. But for beleaguered air travelers, it could usher in an era of higher fares, fewer flights, more confusion at the airport and even more-crowded planes.

Last July, in a column questioning the widely accepted but wildly optimistic estimates for regional population growth, I concluded that our area could be affected by "a stalled national housing market in which potential transplants from the Midwest and Northeast are suddenly unable to sell their current homes."

It's the Super Bowl for procrastinators.

ATLANTA - Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp., squeezed by record-high fuel prices and a slowing economy, are combining in a stock-swap deal that would create the world's biggest carrier.

NEW YORK - The shocking first-quarter loss at Wachovia Corp., a company long viewed as a relatively conservative player during the mortgage boom, suggests that 2008 will be at best a rebuilding year even for the nation's better-positioned banks.

WASHINGTON - Consumers, beset by a credit crunch, rising energy and food costs and a prolonged housing slump, boosted spending only slightly in March with the gain reflecting soaring gasoline costs rather than any real strength in demand.

WASHINGTON - One in seven mortgage holders worry they may soon fail to make their monthly payments, and even more fret that their home's value is shrinking, according to a poll showing widespread stress from the nation's housing crisis.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Wachovia Corp. is getting a lesson in "timing is everything."

Philanthropy and wine go together like, well peanut butter and chocolate.

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.

Baseball season, or should I say sports bar season, is here. Which means it's also beer and buffalo wings season.

Get a jump on planning for Mother's Day. This simple, recipe uses toasted bread to create an edible cup for serving eggs. The best part is that it takes just minutes to make and makes almost no mess.

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.

School: St. Michaels School, Tybee Island

I Can Cope Online

TODAY

SPRINGFIELD - If environmental and health affects are not enough to stop a proposed 1,043 industrial park, perhaps residents and officials should take a look at how it will affect the county financially, according to an opponent of the project.

A former Effingham County sheriff's deputy remained in critical condition at Memorial University Medical Center Monday after he crashed his ultralight aircraft more than two weeks ago, hospital spokesman Michael Notrica said

SPRINGFIELD - Effingham sheriff's officials have arrested a man who cashed stolen lottery tickets taken from a convenience store on Long Bridge Road.

RINCON - Residents soon will be able to see and pay their utility bills online.

While pondering the fact that both of my kids are married now, I found myself concerned with what our future grandchildren will call us.

BLUFFTON - The Bluffton Bobcats defeated the South Effingham Lady Mustangs, 1-0, in a non-region girls soccer game Friday. The Mustangs ended their season with a game against Savannah Christian on Monday.

Great American Opportunities Inc., a national school fundraising company, recognized an Effingham County resident at its 2007 awards banquets at their headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., in February.

SPRINGFIELD - Forty seventh-graders enrolled in Effingham County schools recently took the SAT as part of Duke University's Talent Identification Program.

SUBMIT YOUR EVENTS

SPRINGFIELD - Armstrong Atlantic State University student Anna Bannister is one of many students broadening their horizons through education in the Healthcare Internship Program at Effingham Hospital.

SPRINGFIELD - Members of the Effingham County High School Air Force JROTC recently picked up about 125 pounds of trash and garbage in an after-school campus cleanup.

SAVANNAH - Felipe Carbonell scored the game's only goal Friday as Benedictine improved to .500 with a soccer win over South Effingham in the Region 3-AAA tournament.

South Effingham 20, Richmond Hill 15

SUBMIT YOUR EVENTS