Insurance company must explain actions

SAVANNAH - In what the Georgia insurance commissioner sees as an attempt to avoid writing policies in coastal Georgia, St. Paul Travelers Co. is planning to pay agents one-third less in commissions on coastal homeowners' policies beginning next month.

"It's a backdoor way to get agents to dump coastal business," Georgia Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine said. The shift applies to Chatham, Bryan, Camden, Glynn, Liberty and McIntosh counties.

Mr. Oxendine has issued an order against Travelers and is requiring the company to appear at a show-cause hearing Feb. 9 "to explain publicly their actions."

UGA students set up trip to visit Buffett

ATHENS - Two graduate students in the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business knew that Warren Buffett wouldn't visit their school, so the students masterminded a 60-student pilgrimage to Omaha, Neb., to meet the "second richest person in the world."

Sham Gad and Jeff Cole connected through Peter Shedd, the director of the Terry College master's program, and convinced Mr. Buffett to play host to about 60 of their peers at his office in Nebraska. The Terry College group will be joined by a group of 40 students from University of Southern California, he said.

Two men wanted on charges of theft

SAVANNAH - Two men are being sought for selling more than $40,000 in stolen merchandise.

David Hurt, 41, and Larry Tyndall, 61, are wanted on charges of theft by receiving stolen property, Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Anthony Fulton said. Additional charges are pending.

Police said they have linked the men to more than $40,000 in items stolen from construction sites and businesses throughout Chatham and Wayne counties. The items include trailers, construction equipment, golf carts and tractor hitches.

Attorneys request delay in murder trial

INVERNESS, FLA. - Attorneys for a man captured in Augusta and accused of burying alive a 9-year-old girl after kidnapping and raping her have asked a judge to delay the murder trial while they interview new prosecutors' witnesses.

John Couey's attorneys say the Feb. 12 trial date should be pushed back so they can question the seven witnesses added to prosecutors' list earlier this month.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the March 2005 slaying of Jessica Lunsford, whose body was found when Mr. Couey told authorities where to look near her Homosassa home in central Florida.