Across Georgia

Ga. groundhogs call for early spring

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LILBURN, Ga. - If Georgia groundhogs can be believed, winter is about to give way to an early spring.

Early Tuesday morning, Gen. Beauregard Lee braved wet, chilly weather to deliver his annual Groundhog Day prognostication Tuesday morning from his home at Lilburn's Yellow River Game Ranch.

The prediction was delayed when the groundhog got away from his handlers and hid, then climbed a fence behind his mock-mansion home, while the crowd that gathered for the long-standing annual ceremony stood by.

Legend has it that if a groundhog sees his shadow early on Feb. 2, six more weeks of winter can be expected. Otherwise, spring is at hand.

Ga. police chase ends in shooting

DECATUR, Ga. - The Georgia State Patrol says a man who led officers on a two-county chase wound up being shot in the arm after he rammed a patrol car.

State Patrol spokesman Gordy Wright says the chase began in Rockdale County late Monday night and ended in DeKalb County, south of I-20.

Wright says troopers chased the car along several streets in the area with its lights out before it entered a cul-de-sac. Wright says the vehicle turned around and rammed a police car, and that the officer fired at the man, who fled into the woods.

Wright says a suspect was captured a short time later and was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for treatment of a gunshot wound.

Haitian patients headed for Ga.

ATLANTA - A group of six trauma patients arriving from earthquake-ravaged Haiti for treatment at Atlanta hospitals includes an 18-month-old.

The patients are scheduled to fly into Dobbins Air Reserve Base Tuesday night.

Details are still sketchy on the last-minute fly in, being coordinated in part by the Atlanta VA Medical Center.

So far, Medical Center public affairs officer Greg Kendall says officials are expecting five patients and one soldier.

Medical Center staff internist Cedrella Jones-Taylor says the patients range in age from 18 months to 49 years.

She says the base expects to get one transport of Haitian patients a day for the next few days.

Burglars drive van into store, steal jeans

DUNWOODY, Ga. - Dunwoody police are looking for burglars who used a stolen van to crash their way into a suburban Atlanta department store and steal jeans Monday.

Police say it happened at the Nordstrom store inside Perimeter Mall around 6 a.m.

Authorities say the burglars picked a glass door that was hidden from the road by a parking deck and used a stolen Chevrolet van to smash their way into the store. There, police say they stole thousands of dollars worth of expensive blue jeans.

Police say the burglars left the van behind at the scene and fled in a getaway car. Atlanta police arrested several men in January and charged them with using a van to smash their way into a downtown store to steal expensive blue jeans.