Fire chief arrested on '07 assault warrant

Clearwater Fire Department Chief Mike Toole was arrested Thursday on simple assault charges stemming from an incident in 2007.

Capt. Troy Elwell, spokesman for the Aiken County Sheriff's Department, said a woman accused the chief of inappropriately touching her and a warrant was on file with the sheriff's office. Although it was filed some time ago, Capt. Elwell said a clerk came across the warrant Thursday.

"We called the chief and made him aware of it," Capt. . Elwell said. "He turned himself in within 30 minutes or so."

The incident took place while Mr. Toole was working at his business, Capt. Elwell said.

A mother caught smoking crack cocaine with her 7-month-old baby by her side pleaded guilty Thursday.

Amanda L. Johnson, 27, will join the drug court as a condition of her guilty plea in Richmond County Superior Court to cruelty to children in the second degree and reckless conduct. Ms. Johnson was arrested Sept. 2.

An Augusta man who impregnated a teenage girl pleaded guilty Thursday to child molestation. Antonio Haynes, 28, admitted he had sex with a 13-year-old girl in February 2007.

In Richmond County Superior Court, Judge Michael N. Annis accepted the plea negotiation to sentence Mr. Haynes to six years in prison followed by 10 on probation.

Area letter carriers will participate in the nationwide Stamp Out Hunger food drive Saturday.

People are asked to leave non-perishable food in a bag next to their mailbox.

Food collected will go to the Golden Harvest Food Bank.

The parrot captured behind an Evans home Wednesday and taken to Columbia County Animal Care and Control was identified Thursday as a Quaker parrot by a bird expert, said Columbia County Emergency and Operations Director Pam Tucker.

Quaker parrots are illegal in Georgia. The birds are considered agricultural pests, she said.

Animal control is holding the parrot at its Appling facility.

Richmond County's school bus drivers' union has awarded its first scholarship. Transport Workers Union Local 239 presented the Betty Lucky Scholarship to Nicholus Rouse, a senior graduating with honors from A.R. Johnson Health Science and Engineering Magnet High School.

Union President Sallie Thomas said the scholarship was in honor of a retired Richmond County school bus driver who died of cancer recently.

Courtney Cisson, the reigning Miss South Carolina Teen, will be the keynote speaker at the Aiken Teen Pregnancy Prevention's annual Mother-Daughter Lunch on May 16.

The event will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Aiken Center for the Arts at 122 Laurens Street in downtown Aiken. There's no charge for the event, but reservations are required by calling (803) 441-0016.

Because of decreased usage, a temporary storm debris drop-off site that was set up in Aiken County after an April 10 tornado is again reducing its operation hours.

The temporary staging area at the Carrol H. Warner Memorial Research Park, which is accessed off Gateway Drive, will stay open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Saturday.

The site will then reopen from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. the following two Saturdays, May 16 and 23, closing after that, according to a county news release.

A project widely known for making electricity took a series of steps Thursday to conserve more of it.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects to save almost $50,000 over the extended life of 664 new compact fluorescent light bulbs that will be installed at the Thurmond Lake power plant and related buildings.

State offices in South Carolina will close Monday in observance of Confederate Memorial Day.

Federal, Georgia state, Edgefield County, Aiken County, Edgefield, Aiken, and North Augusta offices will still be following regularly scheduled hours.