Across Georgia

ATLANTA - A bus and a tractor-trailer collided on Interstate 20 on Monday afternoon, trapping the bus driver.

Officer Joe Cobb, a spokesman for the Atlanta Police Department, said the driver was the only occupant of the bus, which had Mississippi tags. The accident occurred in the eastbound lanes of the interstate, Officer Cobb said.

The driver was freed by rescue workers and sent to Grady Memorial Hospital with critical injuries, Officer Cobb said. He did not know the driver's identity and had no details on how the accident happened.

ATLANTA - District attorneys are celebrating a recent Georgia Supreme Court ruling that bans judges from sitting as a jury in criminal trials without the consent of prosecutors.

Before Thursday's ruling, defendants requested judges to sit as juries in death penalty cases with the hope of getting a life sentence - and those requests were sometimes granted over the objection of prosecutors.

But in a 6-1 decision, the state's highest court said the judges can now sit as juries in so-called bench trials only when prosecutors also agree. Prosecutors say they were concerned the legal procedure was abused by defense attorneys who sought a lighter sentence.

The court's decision centered on a voluntary manslaughter prosecution against two Baker County police officers. Prosecutors objected when the officers' attorneys asked for a bench trial. The trial judge turned down the request but allowed a pretrial appeal to the Supreme Court.

ATLANTA - State Sen. Curt Thompson has been a strong advocate of immigration rights. Now his Colombia-born wife is in hiding as federal immigration officials try to deport her.

Sascha Herrera, 28, has been in hiding since Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrived at her home Nov. 28 with an order to remove her from the U.S. She was not home at the time.

Her attorney, Charles Kuck, claims she was duped by a man handling her immigration requests and that she never received the immigration notices that triggered her deportation order. While Mr. Kuck says neither he nor her husband know where Ms. Herrera is, he said that she will turn herself in today.

Mr. Kuck filed a petition Monday to stay her deportation order and reopen her case, arguing that a man filed an asylum petition on her behalf without her knowledge and before her husband sponsored her green card application based on their April marriage.

The deportation order stems from Mr. Herrera's repeated failure to appear before a judge on the asylum application.

- Edited from wire reports