Across the region

2 Georgia colleges get new presidents

ATLANTA - Two new presidents were chosen Wednesday for Georgia colleges, one of them a retired general.

Daniel J. Kaufman, who recently retired as chief academic officer and dean of the academic board at the U.S. Military Academy, will become president of the state's newest college in Gwinnett County.

Dr. Everette J. Freeman was named president of Albany State University. He currently is senior vice president and provost of the University of Indianapolis.

The appointments were made by the Board of Regents, the governing body of the state's public higher education system.

Convicted murderer dies of liver cancer

ATLANTA - Convicted murderer Jack H. Potts, first sentenced to death in 1976, has died of liver cancer at Augusta State Medical Prison, the state Department of Corrections announced.

Mr. Potts was convicted of kidnapping auto mechanic Michael Douglas Priest in Cobb County in 1975 and killing him in a remote Forsyth County field. He died Friday.

Mr. Potts' latest appeals were pending. He was sentenced to die four times, twice on the kidnapping charge and twice in the slaying. The initial kidnapping and murder convictions were overturned by federal courts.

Third man is charged in drive-by shooting

ATHENS - A third man has been charged in a retaliatory drive-by shooting last year that caused Athens-Clarke County police to publicly acknowledge for the first time that the county had a growing gang problem.

Freddie Ramon "La Fresa" Rodriguez was charged by a Clarke County grand jury last week with six counts of aggravated assault and three counts of aggravated battery for a January 2004 shooting at an apartment complex that wounded two 18th Street gang members and two unintended victims.

Purported Los Primos members Miguel Hildago-Lopez, 25, and Alvaro Rodriguez Ramon, 19, were charged soon after the shooting. Both men face multiple counts of aggravated assault. Mr. Hidalgo-Lopez is accused of driving one of the three vehicles used in the drive-by.