Across Georgia

College to stop taking Visa cards for tuition

ATLANTA - Georgia State University has announced it will quit accepting Visa credit cards for tuition and fee payments because of rising annual fees.

GSU is the latest in a string of colleges and universities to do so.

Ron Henry, GSU provost and vice president of academic affairs, acknowledged in a letter to students that Visa has been the preferred method of credit card payment for students.

But using Visa as a payment method is costing the university about $750,000 annually in fees, he said.

Students still will be able to pay online through a third-pary vendor that accepts MasterCard, American Express and Discover cards and charges a service fee of 2.75 percent per transaction.

In 2004, Georgia Tech decided to no longer accept any kind of credit cards as payment for tuition, fees, housing or meal plans. The move saved the school about $1 million a year in credit card charges.

The University of Georgia went to a system in 2005 that does not accept Visa.

Emory University does not accept credit cards.

Man, sons are injured when deck collapses

MARIETTA - A man and his adult sons were hospitalized after a deck collapsed during a Memorial Day cookout.

Frank Hickman was treated for burns at Grady Memorial Hospital after the grill he was cooking on Monday evening fell on him when the 30-year-old deck pulled away from the back of a house.

Eric and David Hickman were treated for broken ankles at Kennestone Hospital in Marietta.

Authorities did not know what caused the deck to collapse.

At least eight drown during long weekend

ATLANTA - The number of people who died in Georgia waters over the Memorial Day weekend has grown to at least eight.

A 49-year-old Brantley County man drowned while boating Monday at a lake in Waycross.

William Joseph Smith was on a long boat when it turned over on top of him and his 12-year-old grandson, officials said. Mr. Smith drowned. The boy was taken to a hospital in serious condition, officials said.

Also on Monday, Calvin Jiles, 55, drowned in a pool in Douglas County and a police dive team recovered the body of a 34-year-old man from a pond in Cobb County.

Charles Eugene Arnold was last seen Friday evening when he and a cousin went fishing, police said.

His body was recovered from a pond near the Chattahoochee River, Cpl. Dana Pierce said.

At least five other drownings were reported across the state Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

- Edited from wire reports