Across Georgia

Bike-riding robbery suspect is arrested

ROSWELL --- Authorities have charged a man in two Atlanta-area bank heists where the robber escaped on a bicycle, and they are investigating possible links to other recent robberies.

Roswell police say 47-year-old Carlos H. Arango-Mejia was arrested in Doraville shortly before midnight Wednesday. He was charged with twice robbing a Bank of America on Alpharetta Highway and was being held Thursday without bond in the Roswell Detention Center.

Authorities in five counties have said banks were robbed by a bicycle-riding bandit in recent months.

Fitness trainer beaten at club is still in coma

ATLANTA --- Police say the celebrity fitness trainer who was beaten in an attack remains hospitalized in a coma.

Atlanta police spokesman James Polite says 41-year-old Darius Miller is in critical condition at Emory Crawford Long Hospital.

Mr. Miller was severely beaten Dec. 26 outside an Atlanta nightclub after trying to stop several men videotaping a group that included Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin's daughters, Kai Franklin Graham and Kali Jamilla Franklin. Police say the men turned on Mr. Miller when he attempted to stop them. Apollo Holmes, 24, turned himself in at the Fulton County Jail on Monday. A warrant charges Mr. Holmes with aggravated assault in the attack on Mr. Miller.

Official urges tough immigration program

LAWRENCEVILLE --- The Gwinnett County Commission chairman wants the sheriff's department to begin enforcing federal immigration laws.

Chairman Charles Bannister is calling for Sheriff Butch Conway to sign up for a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement program that trains deputies to start deportation proceedings for illegal immigrants booked into the jail.

In 2007, Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren became the first sheriff in Georgia to initiate the ICE program. A spokeswoman for ICE, Pat Reilly, says Whitfield County in north Georgia will begin training deputies this month.

Adult charges sought in teens' arson case

LAFAYETTE --- Two 15-year-old boys charged with burglary, arson and criminal interference with government property were bound over Thursday for trial in juvenile court Jan. 14.

Tommy Freeman, LaFayette's director of public safety, said the district attorney will file a motion to have the trial moved to Superior Court, where the boys can be charged as adults.

Authorities said the teens broke into a building housing the water-sewer department in the northwest Georgia city and set it on fire.

-- Edited from wire reports