Lawmaker considers strip club 'pole tax'

ATLANTA --- Georgia strip club patrons soon could be slapped with a new "pole tax" to help offset steep state budget cuts hitting programs for sex abuse victims.

State Sen. Jack Murphy, a Republican from Cumming, said Monday he's considering legislation to charge between $3 and $5 for every visitor to Georgia's adult entertainment clubs. Georgia is facing a budget deficit that's expected to top $2 billion for the current fiscal year. It's not clear how much revenue the proposed fee would create.

Industry employees say it would be a devastating blow to their business, already suffering in the difficult economy.

Cagle says he opposes looser weapons laws

ATLANTA --- Georgia's lieutenant governor said Monday he opposes loosening the state's concealed weapons laws this year to allow guns in more public places.

"Let me be very, very clear. I have no appetite for that," Mr. Cagle told reporters at the state Capitol.

A state Senate study committee had been looking at expanding the places where Georgians may carry concealed weapons to possibly include churches and university campuses. Last year, lawmakers approved a bill allowing those with permits to carry concealed weapons in state parks, restaurants that serve alcohol and on public transportation.

Ex-trooper pleads guilty in rights case

COLUMBIA --- A former South Carolina trooper caught on video kicking a suspect in the head after a highway chase pleaded guilty Monday to violating the man's civil rights, according to federal court documents.

John B. Sawyer faces up to 10 years in prison. A few months earlier, a jury acquitted another trooper of the same charge, depriving a man of his right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a police officer, in a different incident also captured on video.

Environmental group lists endangered sites

Sites in Georgia and South Carolina are among 10 in the South that the Southern Environmental Law Center regards as most endangered.

The list released Monday is the first by the SELC, but deputy director Jeff Gleason said the center plans to take an annual accounting of places it deems at risk in its six-state region.

The most pressing threats in the region, Mr. Gleason said, come from proposals for development in the Georgia Salt Marshes, timber cutting in the old-growth Globe Forest in North Carolina and construction of a coal-fired power plant on the Great Pee Dee River in South Carolina.

Also endangered, according to the SELC, is Johns Island in South Carolina.