Mitchell was airlifted to a burn center in Augusta on Saturday night, and had surgery on Sunday morning.

On Saturday, Mitchell was cooking food in his kitchen and left the room briefly. When he came back, he saw smoke coming from a pan on the stove. He took the pan off the stove and tried to move it.

But while he was removing the pan, grease fell on him and burned him.

He wound up with burns on his left hand, left knee and right foot and ankle.

“He had surgery this morning,” said Lowndes Middle athletic director and head football coach Steve Holley on Sunday. “(He) was in pretty good spirits this afternoon about 3 (or) 4 o’clock. … I spoke with him this afternoon at the hospital in Augusta. He seemed to think everything went OK. It’s kind of touch and go with how his toes respond to the surgery, I guess. He said that was going to be the key was how his feet responded to the surgery today.”

“He sounded good, was feeling good and upbeat,” Holley added.

Mitchell is a parapro at Lowndes Middle School. He also coaches three sports. He is the head coach of the seventh grade boys basketball team and the boys track team and the secondary coach for the football team. He is in his fourth season coaching at LMS.

“He does a great job (and) does a great job with the kids. Very good motivator,” Holley said.

Mitchell also coaches at the Valdosta Boys and Girls Club.

“He’s a big asset to our program at Lowndes Middle and a big asset to the community, in regards to his work with the Boys and Girls Club,” Holley said. “If you ask Ed, he’ll say he does it all for the kids. He’s kid-oriented, and all his actions are kid-based. He spends a lot of time with our kids in the offseason, conditioning and working on agility and things of that nature.”

“He’s a special coach — and a good person,” Holley added.

A Pierce County jury on Friday convicted 37-year-old Clinton Deloach Jr. of Patterson of being under the influence of prescription drugs in the wreck that killed 37-year-old Doreen Karen Meyers of Kingsland.

The Florida Times-Union reports (http://bit.ly/JpMUqt) that Meyers was a child abuse investigator with the Golden Isles Child Advocacy Center in Brunswick. Authorities say Meyers was driving to Baxley to teach law enforcement officers techniques for interviewing children.

Authorities say Deloach passed a logging truck in a rainstorm and crashed into the Ford Crown Victoria that Meyers was driving west between Patterson and Bristol.

Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney Rick Currie said Deloach was under the influence of Fentanyl.

Information from: The Florida Times-Union, http://www.jacksonville.com

A search warrant was served around 2:30 a.m. at the home of William Jack Starling and Barbara Rene Starling on Cedar Hill Drive in Brooks County, Sheriff Mike Dewey said Sunday.

Cedar Hill Drive carries Valdosta addresses but is located in Brooks, he said.

The Starlings are charged with possession of a controlled substance (prescription pills), sale of a controlled substance, manufacturing marijuana, and cultivation and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, Dewey said.

“They had a little home-grown business going there,” with 32 marijuana plants found growing on the property, the sheriff said. Guns, cars, boats and jewelry were seized at the Starlings’ home, he said.

More charges are pending against the couple, Dewey said. William Jack Starling has been arrested before on drug charges, he said.

Two men with Valdosta addresses were also arrested, he said. James Scott Stephenson and James Willard Bonner were both charged with possession of a controlled substance (hydrocodone pills), the sheriff said. All four suspects are in the Brooks County Jail, and more arrests are pending, Dewey said.

The operation was carried out by the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office’s narcotics units and uniformed patrol deputies, he said.

“We put in a lot of man-hours on this,” he said. “We’ve been working this case for a while, and had some tips in the past. The danger risk is always high when you go in on something like this.”

The four suspects make their first appearance in court this morning, Dewey said.

“The Brooks County Sheriff’s Office is carrying through its war against drugs,” he said.

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The two requests for summary judgment, one by the city and a second by its mayor, seek to squash the case that was presented by former chiefs Robbie Grantham and Kevin Trolinger to the Lanier County Superior Court.

If the mayor and city can prove there isn’t enough evidence to present the case before a jury, a summary judgment would stop Grantham and Trolinger’s suit from going to trial.

Grantham and Trolinger believe they have a sound case considering the conditions surrounding their departures from the Lakeland Police Department, both within less than a 12-month period, according to court documents.

Grantham and Trolinger believe they were removed from their posts as subsequent police chiefs because they refused to adhere to what they believed were unethical directives from the Lakeland mayor, according to court documents.

Grantham said that he had been urged by the mayor to arrest a Lakeland business owner, but Grantham felt there was no probable cause for the arrest, according to the plaintiffs’ court brief.

Grantham believes the business owner’s financial support for Louis Chester, Darsey’s 2009 mayoral opponent, to have been the mayor’s motivation for wanting the arrest. Grantham’s noncompliance with the mayor’s request is one of several reasons listed in the plaintiff’s brief as motivation for Grantham’s termination.

Lakeland City Council voted Trolinger as Grantham’s replacement. Trolinger cites his own issues with Mayor Darsey in court records. Trolinger refused to arrest several

juveniles, whom Darsey suspected of burglary. Trolinger claimed there was no probable cause for the arrests.

Trolinger also claims the mayor instructed him to drop citations for some individuals, while ramping up the overall ticket revenue across the board, according to court documents.

Kevin Sparrow, Trolinger’s replacement as chief of police, testified that he had received directives from the mayor to instruct the demoted Trolinger to manipulate traffic fines.

Sparrow stepped down from his position as Lakeland’s chief of police, though he isn’t a plaintiff in the pending court case.

Lakeland City Council has split on the dispute between the mayor and former police chiefs. Some members have attested to the credibility of the ex-police chiefs, while others have denied that Darsey influenced their decisions to terminate Grantham and Trolinger.

Read FULL STORY at Valdosta Daily Times

The Cook County School System is facing a $472,352 deficit. Superintendent Lance Heard tells Eyewitness News reporter Greg Gullberg that the only way out may be to initiate system-wide furlough days and cutting jobs.

“We’ve done everything we can to maintain the level of education for the students that we’ve always had and we think we’ve been able to do that,” said Superintendent Heard.

Nothing is set in stone yet, but 488 teachers, staff and administrators, may be facing furlough days next school year. Superintendent Heard hopes to limit them to three to five per employee.

“I would like to say also that when we do take furlough days, they are always none instructional days. The students do not miss any school,” said Superintendent Heard.

Additionally, five part-time teachers could be let go. And an opening for a full-time special education teacher just won’t be filled.

Add it all up and it saves the school system between $250,000 and $420,000.

“But if they’re going to cut it again it would be quite a bit of education that’s lost,” said concerned parent Mandi Sellars.

“But the future of our whole country, our towns, our counties, everything depends on how we educate our children,” said concerned parent Georgia Powell.

The Cook County School Board is going to be voting on what needs to be done in the next few weeks. Either late this month or early next month.

Cook County Schools has had furlough days the past four years in a row.

Doctor Julian White has been a part of the FAMU community for more than half a century. First as a student, then as band director. But now that chapter has come to a close and not without controversy.

Since 1998, White has served as band director and chairman of the music department. He has overseen the band during some of its brightest and darkest moments. White’s bands have performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Rose Bowl. White is a two-time recipient of the FAMU teacher of the year award.

But he’s also faced scrutiny. White was temporarily suspended by the University after allegations of hazing surfaced with the death of Robert Champion. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office says Champion was killed during a hazing incident at last year’s Florida Classic.

White released a statement through his attorney Chuck Hobbs.
It says he will remain a ‘loyal Rattler’ and wishes the University ‘continued success’ .

White’s replacement has not been named. The FAMU Board of Trustees has called for a meeting Monday 5-14-12 to get an update on the band and their situation from President Doctor James Ammons.

- Federal officials are considering whether the eastern diamondback rattlesnake should be declared an endangered species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday announced it will review the snake’s status. The review is in response to a petition by three environmental groups and snake expert Bruce Means.
They say the snake is being endangered by loss of habitat and human predation for their meat and skins in the Southeast.

There are no bag limits on the snakes in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. The reptiles also are targeted by “rattlesnake roundups” in Alabama and Georgia that offer prizes for their capture.

Means said the loss of longleaf pine habitats is threatening rattlesnakes and other species including the gopher tortoise, red-cockaded woodpecker and indigo snake.

Mayors from all five cities showed up to negotiate Wednesday morning, then left after only 15 minutes. Nothing could be accomplished without the County Commission present.

Valdosta Mayor John Gayle told Eyewitness News reporter Greg Gullberg that he sees this as counter-productive.

“So all we’re asking the county to do is sit down and let’s try to work this thing out,” Mayor Gayle told Gullberg.

LOST dollars could reach more than $200,000 over the next decade. That’s a lot of money for public services like streets and police.

“Our needs have become greater over the last ten years than what we feel like the county’s has,” said Mayor Gayle.

If they can’t work it out by next month’s deadline, lawyers and a judge will have to mediate for them. That’s what happened last time, ten years ago.

The next scheduled negotiations meeting will be Wednesday the 16th.

Read more at WCTV.COM

Lawmakers say they had to do something to crack down on that growing crime.

The law that goes into effect in July will force recyclers to follow tough new rules aimed at catching crooks trying to sell stolen metal.

Legislators worked with members of the Metal Recycling Industry in Georgia to draw up House Bill 872, to make a bill that will stop crooks without putting the 37 billion dollar a year industry out of business.

The new bill in July will make it illegal for recyclers to buy copper coils or tubing from air conditioners except from licensed contractors or homeowners who can show ownership.  It will also be illegal to sell wire that has been burned.  Sellers can not be paid with cash.  Recyclers will have to take video of property being sold and the people selling it, and establish a GBI data base to file all the information.

The legislation toughens the penalties for metal theft, making a third offense a felony, requiring at least one year imprisonment.  Recyclers say those tough penalties have to be enforced by Judges and prosecutors.

“If a criminal sees that there is not going to be any consequence for it, it’s not going to stop it.  So the one thing critical to this law working is enforcement,” said Koplin.

Representative Shaw says the G-B-I metal recycling record data base will not be ready in July when the law takes effect.

They’ll put it together as soon as the state finds money for it.

Read the complete story at WALB.COM

Andy Copeland tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (http://bit.ly/JYSgH4) that his daughter Aimee Copeland went to the emergency room at a Carrollton hospital after cutting her leg on the homemade zip line about a week ago.

Her father says doctors closed her leg with 22 staples. On Friday, a physician diagnosed her with “necrotizing fasciitis” in her damaged leg. They found that the condition — a flesh-eating bacteria that can destroy skin, fat and muscle — had spread beyond her wound to her hip and thigh.

Andy Copeland says his daughter was then flown to an Augusta burn center.

Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com