Across Georgia

DOT spends $600,000 to lease new hangar

ATLANTA --- The Georgia Department of Transportation is spending $600,000 to lease a new hangar at Charlie Brown field amid statewide budget cuts.

Gov. Sonny Perdue has ordered every state agency to trim 6 percent from their budgets, but a transportation official says the hangar is necessary to lure new business to the state.

David Spears, of the Department of Transportation, says bringing a prospective business partner to the facility makes a good impression for the state. The new facility will allow officials to house all aircraft under one roof.

The Charlie Brown field houses more than $7 million worth of aircraft, including a $1.3 million citation jet operated by the DOT.

In other news

Details of the early lives of presidents, from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush, are offered in an exhibit of photos, films, documents and artifacts at the Carter Center in Atlanta. The exhibition called "School House to White House: The Education of the Presidents" opened Friday and is scheduled to run through Jan. 4.

THE 2-WEEK-OLD GIANT panda cub at Zoo Atlanta has been upgraded to good condition after a scare last week that drove zookeepers to put the tiny cub in an incubator.

-- Edited from wire reports