AC repair inRichmond, GA

AIKEN, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - There’s a new bill that could allow some colleges in South Carolina to expand in-state tuition to students from Georgia and North Carolina.

USC Aiken is one of them. While this particular college allows students from Richmond and Columbia County to pay in-state tuition, here’s how it could help attract students from Atlanta or North Carolina.

House Bill 3325 means more options and less money.

“We have the capacity for 1,000. We have 1,000 beds on campus, currently less than 700 are occupied. So by being able to strategically recruit in a place like Georgia, or perhaps North Carolina, higher population zones, distant from our campus, we figure we will be able to offset some of the losses that we’re facing,” said USC Aiken Chancellor Daniel Heimmermann.

The bill would allow students in Georgia and North Carolina access to in-state tuition at seven South Carolina schools.

Daren Timmons is the provost vice chancellor for academic affairs. He said, “The number is pretty small from North Carolina, the bit of a stretch about 30 or so students from North Carolina currently on campus, we have nearly 250 from Georgia, that are a part of USC Aiken programs. Half of those come from Columbia in Richmond County.”

It costs around $5,200 to attend USC Aiken in-state. Over the border, it’s double.

“We’re 90%, almost 90% in-state residents, college students at USC Aiken. Other universities across the state don’t have that high of a population. We see it more as an opportunity to engage with more students. So we don’t look at it as a financial loss,” he said.

There was a catch, but not anymore. The subcommittee struck down a $250 award limit.

S.C. District 56 Representative Tim McGinnis said: “It was kind of an arbitrary number. And frankly, I don’t think we need the cap because if you come to us looking for money because of these discounts offered, you’re not going to get i,t so we kind of like leave the cap to you.”

If passed, It can go into effect this fall. Now that it has been approved by the subcommittee, the bill will go to the full House Education and Public Works Committee next.

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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — The National Football League has announced which college players have been invited to the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine, and two of them are from the Richmond area.

The two players are Kei’Trel Clark, a cornerback at Louisville University and Isaiah Moore, a linebacker at North Carolina State. Both attended high school in Chesterfield County.

Kei’Trel Clark graduated from Manchester High School, where he earned first-team all region and second team all-state honors as a defensive back and was ranked the No. 2 punt returner in the country by MaxPreps.

Clark played at Liberty University as a freshman, where he had 38 tackles and six pass break-ups across seven starts. Clark transferred to Louisville ahead of his sophomore season and finished the year tied for second in the Atlantic Coast Conference and 12th nationally with 11 pass break-ups. Clark’s play during his sophomore year earned him second-team All-ACC honors.

Clark made second-team All-ACC again his junior year, during which he made a total of 40 tackles and led the Cardinals with nine pass break-ups before tearing his ACL eight games into the season. Returning to Louisville for his senior season, Clark totaled 51 tackles and returned an interception for 46 yards.

Isaiah Moore graduated from L.C. Bird, where he played linebacker and tight end. As a senior, Moore had 106 tackles, 15 sacks and three interceptions. Rivals.com ranked him the 30th-ranked player in Virginia and scout.com ranked him the No. 69 outside linebacker in the national and No. 3 in Virginia.

Moore redshirted a year and earned the Phillip Rivers Freshman of the Year Award during his first season on the field at NC State, ranking third on the team in tackles and tackles for loss. His sophomore year, Moore ranked third on the team in tackles again, recording eight against Georgia Tech and ten against Syracuse.

In his junior season, Moore was the second-leading tackler on the team with 94, ranked tenth in the ACC for tackles per game with 7.8 and was an All-ACC honorable mention. After a game against Liberty, Moore earned the ACC Linebacker of the Week award for recording 13 tackles and scoring a safety — the Wolfpack’s first in ten years.

In his senior season, Moore led returning Power 5 linebackers in tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage with 27 and earned another All-ACC honorable mention.

The 2023 NFL Scouting Combine will take place from Feb. 27 to March 6 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

WINDSOR LOCKS — Breeze Airways announced Tuesday that it would launch in May nonstop routes from Bradley International Airport to Fort Myers and Tampa in Florida and New Orleans, as well as a one-stop route to Los Angeles.

The new routes highlight Breeze's ongoing expansion at Connecticut’s flagship airport, with the startup airline announcing in February 2022 that Windsor Locks-based Bradley would become one of its hubs. It plans to create more than 200 jobs in the state and could receive a state grant of up to $1.26 million if it meets its hiring goals.

“Here we grow again,” David Neeleman, Breeze’s founder and chief executive officer, said in a written statement. “We always look for routes that people are traveling today but can’t get there nonstop. Hartford residents can now get to Florida and Louisiana twice as fast, for about half the price!”

The Fort Myers route will start on May 17, with service on Wednesday and Saturday. Flights to Tampa will begin on May 18 and operate on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Flights to New Orleans will commence on May 19 and operate on Monday and Friday. The one-stop, same-plane service to Los Angeles will start on May 17 and run daily. The new nonstop routes are on sale at introductory fares starting at $39 one way.

From Bradley, Breeze also operates nonstop flights to Charleston, S.C.; Columbus, Ohio; Jacksonville, Fla.; Las Vegas; Norfolk, Va.; Phoenix; Pittsburgh; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla.; Savannah, Ga., and Vero Beach, Fla. This month marks the launch of the flights to Phoenix, Raleigh-Durham and Vero Beach.

In total, the Salt Lake City-headquartered Breeze offers 143 nonstop routes between 35 cities, across 21 states.

The expansion of Breeze, alongside other airlines’ new routes, has underpinned Bradley’s recovery from the fall-off in air travel in 2020, during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of about 5.8 million passengers passed through Bradley in 2022 — up about 25 percent from 2021, but still down 14 percent from 2019.

Bradley will be further boosted with the resumption next month of Aer Lingus flights to Dublin.

“As Breeze continues to expand their national network, we welcome their growth at Bradley International Airport,” Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority, which owns and operates Bradley, said in a written statement. “As the airline’s base, we appreciate their investment in our region and are grateful for their support of our vision to make travel out of Bradley International Airport even more convenient.”

pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Even as Gold Cross Emergency Medical Service’s future as an ambulance provider is in question in Richmond County, the company is planning to pull out of Aiken County.

Augusta leaders failed Tuesday to reach an agreement with the company to keep some type of ambulance service in Augusta.

Gold Cross is asking for a $2 million annual subsidy from the city, saying it can’t afford to stick around for less.

Meanwhile, that’s already happening with the company across the Savannah River in Aiken County.

That won’t help when the county already is in a crunch.

An emergency services representative says things are worse than in 2020 when it comes to periods when no ambulances are available to respond to an emergency.

The representative went on to say firefighters sometimes are waiting as long as an hour for an ambulance to show up, which keeps them from fighting fires.

Aiken County officials say they’ll have a third party come in to evaluate everything from culture to pay scale.

After the failure of a proposed contract in Richmond County, discussion on the matter was moved to a Jan. 24 special meeting of the Augusta Commission.

It’s not clear what will happen with the ambulance service. Tuesday was considered a make-or-break day on a long-simmering problem that’s reached a boiling point.

Ahead of the meeting, Augusta Commission member Sean Frantom posted on Facebook, saying Tuesday would be a defining day in Augusta.

“We have a tremendous responsibility to take care of the citizens of Richmond County,” he said.

Frantom said that with a contract, the city could hold Gold Cross more accountable and put new measures in place for better service.

“We can’t put the citizens’ lives at risk anymore,” said Commissioner for District 10 Wayne Guilfoyle.

Another commission with no Gold Cross contract. Both sides started working on this contract in April of 2022. There’s never been a formal contract between Gold Cross and the city, only a written agreement.

Commissioner for District 3 Catherine Smith-McKnight added, “I don’t blame Gold Cross for being frustrated because we keep doing this. We need to make a decision today.”

They estimate about 11,000 people didn’t pay in 2022.

Commissioner for District 4 Alvin Mason said: “We have a high indigent population, and we have a high Medicare and social security population, and those bills that come in only a fraction of that is actually paid to Gold Cross, and we understand that.”

Along with unpaid bills, Gold Cross also points to the rising cost of doing business and hiring employees. Some commissioners want to bring all of that in-house and cut Gold Cross out altogether. But that plan isn’t in place.

Guilfoyle said: “If Gold Cross walks, we are going to be sitting without an ambulance, and we are going to have a lot of our citizens pass away and die.”

“People should be concerned that we lose ambulance service because there’s no backup plan. Gold Cross is the sole provider here,” Augusta Commission member Brandon Garrett said earlier.

Since part of the problem for Gold Cross is the number of people who use the service but don’t pay, here’s a look at the statistics:

Richmond County

Columbia County

Medicaid

When we asked if Gold Cross is going to stick around and wait for that meeting, their response was that they were going to have to discuss it.

Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A four-car pile-up claimed the life of a fifth-grade math teacher at North Aiken Elementary.

She leaves behind four children and a family fighting for justice. Freddie Smith is behind bars and charged in connection to her death.

Her family wants to know why it took a month to make the arrest. Even though the driver of the car at fault, Smith, was at the scene the night of the crash, deputies did not arrest him.

Thirty-one days later, Smith is charged with felony homicide by vehicle, reckless driving, and serious injury by vehicle.

Her family says the arrest will never bring closure.

It won’t bring back the veteran, daughter, mother, and teacher they loved instead, they hold on to memories to keep her alive.

“When I heard Mr. Smith had been arrested and booked I had a lot of mixed feelings. But I have a lot of questions,” said Armand Carlos, Molina’s father.

Questions as to why he was never charged at the scene of the accident.

“When I heard Mr. Smith had been arrested and booked, I had a lot of mixed feelings. But I have a lot of questions,” he said.

Questions as to why he was never charged at the scene of the accident.

“Why was he not arrested that evening? I have no idea,” said Carlos.

The incident report issued immediately after the wreck shows Smith at fault for following too close. It says the operator was not drinking, but it says an alcohol test was not issued.

“I’m still in shock. And the family is still coping. That’s not something that goes away overnight. It will never exactly be that we’re gonna have to live with this for the rest of our lives,” he said.

Until they receive answers from the sheriff’s office they keep her close to their hearts.

“This cross has an engraved image of my daughter’s fingerprint. And I can feel it. I can feel the engravement on this cross. And that’s a daily reminder that she’s in my heart and in my soul. I keep it close to my heart. I’m still in shock. And the family is still coping. That’s not something that goes away overnight,” said Carlos.

Copyright 2023 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

ALEXANDRIA — It was almost 15 years ago when five young men from northern Virginia left the U.S. to pursue dreams of jihad in Afghanistan, only to find themselves under arrest in Pakistan when their farewell video prompted family members to contact the FBI.

Now, after the five served a decade in a Pakistani prison, U.S. prosecutors are moving forward with plans to put them on trial again for terrorism charges.

At a status hearing Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, however, a judge gave strong indications that she plans to toss out charges against one of the men on grounds that alleged torture and solitary confinement he endured in Pakistan have rendered him mentally incompetent.

In fact, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema has questioned the utility of bringing charges against any of the five, given the fact that they were convicted and punished already in Pakistan.

“If these men have been prosecuted in Pakistan and served significant periods of incarceration in a Pakistani prison, and now the United States government is trying to charge them for essentially the same conduct in this country, you’ve got to think about whether that makes sense,” Brinkema said during a December status hearing on the case.

The five men — Waqar Khan, Ahmed Minni, Ramy Zamzam, Aman Yemer, and Umar Farooq — originally came to the FBI’s attention only after family reported them missing.

In late 2009, the five left the U.S. for Pakistan, leaving behind an 11-minute video in which they espoused the need to engage in holy war to defend Muslim lands under attack. Family members sought to stop them from making the trip once they learned of the plans, reaching out to a Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and eventually to lawyer Nina Ginsberg and the FBI.

But the five had already made it to Pakistan and begun looking for people who could help them get to Afghanistan. They were frequently turned away by those they sought out, according to a recently unsealed FBI affidavit, although one man suggested he could help if one of the five’s extended family in Pakistan could vouch for them.

They were arrested in Sargodha, a city in the eastern province of Punjab, on Dec. 9, 2009, about nine days after the FBI learned they left the U.S., according to the affidavit.

Several members of the group admitted to FBI agents that their goal was to fight against American troops if they got to Afghanistan.

The five were charged in Pakistan, where they say they were tortured during their detention — allegations denied by Pakistani authorities. All five were convicted and received 10-year terms.

After serving their sentences, the U.S. government has sought to bring them to the U.S. to face charges here. So far, though, only three of the defendants — Zamzam, Yemer and Minni — have been deported back to the U.S. A fourth remains in Pakistani custody, and a fifth is at large there.

Yemer, who was just 18 when he was arrested and is the youngest of the five, faces serious mental health problems. Ginsberg, his lawyer, said in court that Yemer’s faculties eroded after mistreatment and solitary confinement in Pakistan. As she described it, Yemer sits in a chair all day, nonresponsive. He only eats if he is fed, and he only goes to the bathroom if someone takes him to a toilet.

Months in a hospital for treatment, including electroshock treatment, were largely unsuccessful, she said.

“They just totally incapacitated him,” Ginsberg said after Tuesday’s hearing, in which her client appeared dressed in a gray tracksuit, his face blank.

Ginsberg said during the hearing that she was hopeful the U.S. would drop the charges against her client. Brinkema gave clear indication she will dismiss the charges against Yemer as soon as Ginsberg files a motion seeking dismissal regardless of whether the Justice Department agrees.

As for the other defendants, prosecutor John Gibbs expressed optimism that a plea deal will be reached and circumvent the need for a trial. Lawyers for Zamzam and Minni have said that if a deal cannot be reached, they plan to seek dismissal on grounds that their clients were denied the right to a speedy trial, among other potential issues.

At a hearing in December, Brinkema raised the question of whether a U.S. trial would amount to double jeopardy, although it was not immediately clear whether the trial in Pakistan would allow the defendants to claim double jeopardy protection in the U.S.

Ginsberg, for her part, said she does not believe the men deserve any further incarceration in the U.S.

“Ten years in a Pakistani prison is like 30 years in the U.S.,” she said. “They’ve had enough.”

As expected, Sunday brought soaking rain to Virginia, with 1-2 inches across metro Richmond, and a few locations picking up more than 2 inches in Hanover County.

After a mid-winter rain of that scale, meteorologists are often asked how much snow would have fallen had the storm been all snow.

In general, 10 inches of snow melts down to about one inch of liquid. But when temperatures are especially low, into the teens, snowflakes have a lower moisture content, and that snow-to-liquid ratio can approach 20-to-1. Sometimes called dry snow, it is the type that blows around easily in the wind and does not readily stick to surfaces.

Conversely, when temperatures are closer to freezing, the snow can be heavy and wet, with a ratio of about 5-to-1.

But there is more to it than that. To begin with, more moisture can evaporate into warmer air, even when it is below freezing. So warmer storms tend to have more precipitation.

The reverse is also true. When the air is especially cold, there will be less water vapor in the air once the atmosphere becomes saturated in a storm. As a result, less water (or in this case, snow) is available to come down as precipitation.

This is also why it feels humid during the summer, but not in the winter. Even when the relative humidity is 100% in the winter, it is not perceptibly humid because there are physically fewer water molecules in the air.

There are other matters complicating the calculation, like the temperature higher up in the atmosphere, where the snowflakes actually form, as not all snowflakes are the classic dendrites that we have imagined since childhood.

But even with all of those caveats, Richmond would have had a big, plowable snow storm had the temperature been several degrees colder on Sunday.

Officially, one inch of rain fell in Richmond, but data from other rain gauges around central Virginia showed 1.50 inches at Short Pump, 1.34 inches at Swift Creek Reservoir and 1.07 inches in The Fan.

All of this together suggests a storm like this would have produced 8-14 inches of snow had the temperature been about 6-8 degrees colder.

The weather the rest of this week is eerily to that of last week.

Tuesday brings sunshine with temperatures near 60 degrees, then it turns warmer with more clouds and spotty sprinkles or light showers on Wednesday and Thursday. Neither of those days looks especially wet, and there will be enough of a southwest breeze to nudge temperatures to near 70 degrees each afternoon.

A larger system moves through late Thursday night and the first half of Friday, and that will bring several hours of rain. But it appears to be long gone by Friday evening, making this coming weekend dry and cooler.

Both Saturday and Sunday will be dry, and Saturday will be the cooler of the two days this coming weekend, with afternoon temperatures near 50. But Sunday afternoon will begin another warming period, when we edge into the 60s once again.

If you build it, they will come — and it will be good for the environment.

Henrico County officials on Monday announced an agreement between GreenCity Partners and ASM Global to operate a 17,000-seat arena at the GreenCity mixed-use development. ASM Global is a live experience company that operates more than 350 venues worldwide, including State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, which hosted Sunday’s Super Bowl.

The company will serve as a development partner in addition to being an arena operator. The new arena will accommodate touring concerts, family shows and athletic events.

“Our new partner shares our commitment to make GreenCity a model development in every respect,” Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas said. “It will lift us economically, providing thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars in investment.”

The $2.3 billion GreenCity “ecodistrict” is set to break ground later this year on 200 acres northeast of the interchange of Interstate 95 and East Parham Road. GreenCity plans on ensuring environmental sustainability throughout the property, including the arena.

“We plan to integrate state of the art sustainability into both the design and the operations of the new arena,” Liam Thornton, Executive Vice President of Development for ASM Global, said. “This is an opportunity to create an integrated and cohesive sports entertainment and hospitality district that operates as one.”

Sustainability objectives for the arena include using 100% renewable power, processing organic waste on site and avoiding nonrenewable products like plastic bottles. According to GreenCity Partners principal Michael Hallmark, the arena is being planned as the greenest one in America.

“I know that sounds like a boast or hyperbole, but it’s really just a matter of design and programming and commitment,” Hallmark said. “And speaking with our new partners, that’s also their goal.”

Arena construction costs will largely come from bonds issued through the GreenCity Community Development Authority, a group that was established in January by the Henrico Board of Supervisors. The CDA bond closing is set for late 2023 or early 2024, with the goal of completing the arena in 2026.

An expanded Magellan Parkway is in the planning stages, which will provide access to all of GreenCity. Approved county projects will address improving traffic signals, turn lanes, pedestrian amenities, mass transit connections and existing interchanges surrounding GreenCity. The new arena will also have traffic management plans for shows and sporting events.

Henrico was identified as an ideal location because of its proximity to I-95. Because touring shows are eager for convenient access to the I-95 corridor from Boston to Miami, the Greater Richmond Region can now have greater involvement in the touring schedules.

“This is a game-changer,” said Board of Supervisors Chair Frank Thornton, who manages the Fairfield district where GreenCity is located. “We talked about how to serve our citizens even better in the 21st century, and we do that by bringing more amenities, more things that people expect to have.”

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge on Monday ordered the partial release later this week of a special grand jury report into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss.

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge on Monday ordered the partial release later this week of a special grand jury report into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss.

The report’s introduction and conclusion, as well as a section in which the grand jurors expressed concerns that some witnesses may have lied under oath, will be released on Thursday, said Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney.

Any recommendations on who should or should not be prosecuted will remain secret for now to protect their due process rights, McBurney wrote.

McBurney's order came three weeks after hearing arguments from prosecutors, who urged the report be kept secret until they decide on charges, and a coalition of media organizations, which pressed for its release.

The release is a significant development in a case that threatens legal jeopardy for the former president as he ramps up a 2024 White House campaign. The special grand jury spent about seven months hearing testimony from witnesses including high-profile Trump allies, such as attorney Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and high-ranking Georgia officials, such as Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp.

McBurney wrote that the report includes recommendations for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, including “a roster of who should (or should not) be indicted, and for what, in relation to the conduct (and aftermath) of the 2020 general election in Georgia.” The special grand jury did not have the power to issue indictments, and it will ultimately be up to Willis to decide whether to seek indictments from a regular grand jury.

The special grand jury's final report was requested by Willis and is meant to inform her investigative decision-making process, McBurney wrote, adding that the panel's investigation was largely controlled by the district attorney and her team and was “a one-sided exploration."

There was “very limited due process” for people for whom the grand jurors recommended charges, McBurney wrote. Some may not have had the opportunity to appear before the panel, and those who did appear did not have the right to have their lawyers present or to offer any rebuttal.

For that reason, the judge concluded, it is not appropriate to release the full report at this time.

It is not clear if or when Willis will present the case to a regular grand jury with the purpose of getting one or more indictments. At a Jan. 24 hearing, she said decisions are "imminent” but did not elaborate.

At that hearing, Willis had argued against the immediate release of the report, saying it could violate the rights of potential defendants and negatively affect the ability to prosecute those who may be charged with crimes.

“We want to make sure that everyone is treated fairly and we think for future defendants to be treated fairly, it is not appropriate at this time to have this report released,” Willis said during the hearing.

A group of news organizations, including The Associated Press, argued in favor of releasing the report immediately in full, saying that public interest in the report is “extraordinary.”

“The discomfort of the prosecuting authority in disclosing court records isn’t enough to make them sealed,” said attorney Tom Clyde, representing the media. “It has to be significant, identifiable evidence that’s going to cause a problem.”

Kate Brumback, The Associated Press

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