Across the area

Plutonium has arrived at SRS

Another shipment of weapons-grade plutonium arrived at Savannah River Site from California this month. The National Nuclear Security Administration announced the move Monday.

The plutonium shipments are part of an initiative to consolidate nuclear materials at five sites by 2012, with significantly reduced square footage at those sites by 2017.

Excess plutonium will be turned into fuel at the SRS Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility in the next decade. Construction on the MOX plant began in August and is 25 percent complete.

Woman discovers her cat's head near home

A woman told police that someone twisted the head off of her cat and threw it in a drainage ditch near her home.

The incident happened in the 900 block of Hephzibah McBean Road on Sunday, according to a Richmond County sheriff's report. Police did not think the cat's death was caused by another animal because there were no other injuries on it, the report said.

Police searching for robber of Circle K

Police are searching for a man who carjacked a convenience store employee Saturday morning.

The employee was leaving the Circle K store at 2702 Wrightsboro Road when a man wearing a dark skull cap approached him at the intersection of Highland Avenue and Damascus Road, Richmond County sheriff's Investigator Paul Godden said in an e-mail. Police are now looking for the vehicle, a green 1997 BMW 318 I with the tag ABY 2366, Investigator Godden said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff's office at (706) 821-1080.

Man sues city for not turning over document

The city of Augusta has been sued again for allegedly ignoring requests for public documents.

William L. Docher filed a Richmond County Superior Court lawsuit against the city Monday. He alleges his Dec. 19 verbal and written requests to view a procurement department file has been ignored and denied.

A lawsuit represents only one side of a dispute. Another lawsuit alleging the procurement department violates the Open Records law was filed last year by the Association for Fair Government. The Augusta Chronicle joined that petition.

Man pleads guilty to federal drug charges

A second man facing federal illegal drugs and weapon charges pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Augusta.

U.S. Attorney Edmund A. Booth Jr. said Monday that the prosecution of Charles Marvin Sikes Jr. and co-defendant Nicholas Currie was part of the Southern District's Project Ceasefire initiative, a program devoted to reducing gun violence. It is a federal crime for a convicted felon to possess a weapon, and it is a federal crime for anyone to possess a weapon while in possession of drugs.

Mr. Sikes and Mr. Currie face five years to 40 years in prison for possession with intent to distribute five or more grams of methamphetamine. Mr. Sikes faces an additional five years for a weapon charge.

Child molester jailed for not registering

A convicted child molester who moved to Georgia without registering as a sex offender was sentenced to 33 months in prison Monday in U.S. District Court in Savannah.

Charles K. Kertell, 48, was the first person prosecuted in the Southern District of Georgia under a law enacted as a part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act in July 2006, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Edmund A. Booth Jr.

Mr. Kertell was convicted in Florida in 1995 of attempted sexual battery for abusing a 3-year-old girl. He violated the law by never updating his sex offender registration as he traveled across the country with a carnival and after moving to Savannah as early as 2005, according the news release.

-- From staff reports