PTA family night will be held at Tubman

Taking Back the Streets will hold its second PTA family night from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Tubman Middle School.

The Tubman Parent and Family Resource Fest will offer information on voter registration, summer programs, tutoring,Âhealth, PTA and job placement.

Richmond County's adaptive sports all-star basketball team will compete against school system administrators for charity.

The game will tip off at 6 p.m. March 24 at Westside High School and will feature principals and central office staff, including Superintendent Dana Bedden. The cost is $3. Proceeds benefit Richmond County Special Olympics.

Authorities are searching for a man accused of robbing a Hephzibah movie store at gunpoint.

Just before 11 p.m. Thursday, a man entered the Movie Gallery on Windsor Spring Road, pointed a black handgun at the store clerk and demanded money, according to the sheriff's report.

A witness told police that the man fled toward the rear of the store with an undisclosed amount of money.

Witnesses reported that the man was wearing a black mask, black shirt and blue jeans, according to the sheriff's report.

State Appellate Judge John H. Ruffin Jr., of Augusta, has told the Fulton Daily Report newspaper that he will not run this fall to keep his seat on the Georgia Court of Appeals.

Judge Ruffin's decision ends a 22-year career on the bench -- and starts what could be a wide-open race among lawyers who have wanted a judgeship without having to challenge an incumbent or win the favor of a governor, the Atlanta legal newspaper reported Friday.

Board of Regents has new representative

W.H. "Dink" NeSmith Jr., 59, will become the 10th Congressional District's representative on the Board of Regents, the 18-member board that oversees the state's 35 public colleges and universities.

Mr. NeSmith co-owns Athens-based Community Newspapers and serves on the board of directors of Athens First Bank and Trust Co., Southern Mutual Insurance Co. and Pattillo Construction Co. He also serves on the Commission for a New Georgia and is the chairman of the Richard B. Russell Foundation.

Using dogs and even a helicopter, several police agencies searched a wooded area of Richmond County on Thursday night and Friday morning for Bobby Lee Roberson, a suspect in last month's break-ins and shoot-out in the West Lake community of Columbia County.

Richmond County sheriff's Lt. Scott Gay said Mr. Roberson is considered armed and dangerous. He was believed to have been spotted Thursday night in a vehicle on Bath-Edie Road. He fled police, eventually abandoning the vehicle near Keysville Road about 1 a.m. and running into a wooded area.

A state highway patrol helicopter was brought in, along with tracking dogs, Lt. Gay said. Mr. Roberson avoided capture, however, despite involvement of police agencies from Jefferson and Richmond counties, in addition to Blythe and Hephzibah.

According to Columbia County warrants, Mr. Roberson is suspected in a Feb. 18 incident in which an off-duty Medical College of Georgia officer fired his weapon at a man he found in his vehicle in the gated community in Martinez.

Mr. Roberson is described as black, 5 foot 8 inches tall and weighing between 180 and 195 pounds. Anyone with knowledge of his whereabouts is asked to contact Sgt. Mike Cullinan or Investigator Wynn Howard at (706) 541-2800.

A 56-year-old man was killed Friday morning when he was run over by a northbound CSX train near the 200 block of 15th Street.

The man was identified as Charles Matthew Walker, 56, of Beech Island, Coroner Grover Tuten said. Authorities are investigating the possibility that the man -- who was described as homeless -- committed suicide, Mr. Tuten said.

Police said the train's conductor was not aware someone had been hit.

Another victim of the Imperial Sugar Co. explosion died at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Augusta's Doctors Hospital on Friday.

The name of the patient is not being released at the request of family.

At this time, six patients are listed in critical condition and four are in serious condition, the hospital announced.