GEORGIA

Execution date is set for convicted killer

ATLANTA --- Georgia authorities have set Sept. 16 as an execution date for convicted killer Jack Alderman.

Mr. Alderman was sentenced to die in the 1974 slaying of his 20-year-old wife, Barbara, in Chatham County. Authorities say Mr. Alderman and an accomplice wanted to collect $20,000 in life insurance money.

Mr. Alderman was just a day away from being put to death last October. The Georgia Supreme Court issued a stay halting the execution while the U.S. Supreme Court considered the issue of lethal injection.

The nation's high court ruled earlier this year that lethal injection does not violate the Constitution.

ATLANTA --- A former guard at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta has been sentenced to a year in prison for taking hundreds of dollars in bribes to smuggle cigarettes to an inmate and allowing him to use a cell phone.

Prosecutors say 30-year-old Andru Wallace of Lithonia, who worked at the penitentiary from 2001 until 2007, also must serve two years of supervised release after his prison term. He was convicted in March.

The inmate reported in December 2006 that he paid Mr. Wallace $600 to bring him the contraband. The U.S. Attorney's Office says that during an undercover investigation, Mr. Wallace accepted two $500 bribes.

ATLANTA --- Zoo Atlanta officials say their 3-day-old giant panda cub is in "guarded" condition after it had to be removed from its mother.

Zoo senior vice president Dwight Lawson said at a news conference Tuesday that mom Lun Lun likely stopped producing milk, which caused the cub's body temperature to drop rapidly.

The cub has been in an incubator since keepers removed it from Lun Lun on Monday evening.

Mr. Lawson said the cub's body temperature is back to normal and it is eating regularly again. But he cautioned that the cub is "not out of the woods yet."

GAINESVILLE, GA. --- Two northeast Georgia men were arraigned Tuesday on charges that they sold more than 50 gallons of moonshine, with one accused of selling guns to a convicted felon.

Douglas Arthur Moore, 66, of Nicholson, and Alvin Ronald Gary, 61, of Commerce, sold the illegal liquor to an undercover agent from October to February, according to a federal indictment reached last week.

Mr. Gary also is accused of illegally transferring five pistols and a shotgun with no visible serial number to a convicted felon and of lying on federal firearms purchase forms at least twice.

Mr. Moore and Mr. Gary were arrested Tuesday morning and released on their own recognizance after a hearing in federal court in Gainesville.

SOUTH CAROLINA

SOCASTEE, S.C. --- A man who police say smashed into a boat on the Intracoastal Waterway while fleeing from a burglary, killing a 13-year-old Aiken boy, has been arrested, and two women have been charged as accessories.

Horry County police and the Department of Natural Resources arrested 22-year-old Brandon Scott McDevitt on Monday and charged him with first-degree burglary.

Amber Nicole Walker and Elizabeth L. Parness have been arrested and charged with accessory after the fact of a felony.

Police are still looking for 28-year-old Nicholas Macklen.

Authorities say the men broke into a house and stole a television before taking off in a boat and crashing into another vessel near Socastee.

The wreck killed Shayne Odermatt and seriously injured three others.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. --- A crackdown has identified 170 illegal immigrants in Beaufort County's jail, and the sheriff said he has heard the extra scrutiny is causing a number of people in the U.S. illegally to leave.

The county is two months into a three-month crackdown on illegal immigrants. Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement are in the jail, helping to weed out any inmates who should not be in the U.S.

Sheriff P.J. Tanner tells The Island Packet of Hilton Head that the next step will be investigating companies suspected of hiring illegal immigrants.

Officials auditing county business licenses are expected to hand over the names of several companies suspected of hiring undocumented workers this week, and deputies will look into both supervisors and workers.

-- Edited from wire reports