Across Georgia

Police say grandfather kills 6-year-old grandson

COMMERCE, Ga. - Police say a Jackson County man has shot and killed his 6-year-old grandson and wounded his wife before being shot by police.

Police said Sunday they shot 55-year-old Robert L. Clark after he opened fire on police.

The boy was identified as Michael Levigne. His 5-year-old brother was in the home at the time but was unhurt.

Police said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has charged Robert Clark with murder, aggravated assault and aggravated assault of a police officer. Commerce Police Chief John Gaissert said there have been a seven 911 calls to the house in the past year. He said the latest argument apparently involved a watermelon.

Clark and his wife, Linda Dale Clark, were listed in stable condition at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

Top court won't hear Ga. voter ID issue

ATLANTA - The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to hear an appeal to the oft-challenged Georgia law that requires voters to show photo identification before they cast their ballots.

The move on Monday means a January 2009 ruling by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the state's photo ID law is final.

Critics have long tried to block the law, claiming it places an undue burden on poor, disabled people and minorities.

But Gov. Sonny Perdue called the decision a "victory for ensuring fair elections."

Secretary of State Karen Handel says it's a "common sense" issue that helps prevent voter fraud. She and other elections officials note that some 5 million residents cast ballots last year with the new restrictions in place.

Airman charged with child enticement in Mass.

CONCORD, Mass. - Bail has been set at $10,000 for an Air Force member accused of traveling from Georgia to meet with a 14-year-old Massachusetts girl.

Nineteen-year-old Airman Christopher Stevens was arraigned Monday on a child enticement charge in Concord District Court.

Prosecutors said Stevens picked up the girl outside her home Thursday night and was with the alleged victim when he was arrested the following morning at a Concord hotel.

The girl's parents contacted police after she went missing.

Prosecutors said Stevens - who's stationed at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia - first met the girl on Facebook and that the two exchanged sexual messages through the Internet and by text message.

Stevens' attorney said his client believed the girl was 17 when he first met her online.

Miley Cyrus movie starts filming in Ga. next week

TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. - Tybee Island has landed a starring role in the new Miley Cyrus movie, and audiences seeing the film next year won't have to wait for the credits to find out the name of the beach town filling the screen.

Location managers for the movie "The Last Song," which starts filming on Tybee next week, told residents at a town meeting Monday that the island proved too unique to masquerade as Wrightsville Beach, N.C.

Novelist Nicholas Sparks, who wrote the movie's script, initially set the story in Wrightsville and Wilmington, N.C. But filmmakers persuaded him to change the location to Tybee Island and neighboring Savannah so they could include local landmarks such as the island's towering lighthouse and the oak-shaded squares in Savannah's historic district.

"We had a hard time trying to hide the fact that this was Tybee and Savannah was Savannah," Bass Hampton, the film's location director, told about 80 residents at Tybee city hall.

Filming starts Monday on Tybee Island, 12 miles east of Savannah, and is expected to stretch into mid-August.

Small plane lands on US 41 in Cobb County

KENNESAW, Ga. - A small plane with two people on board made an emergency landing on a highway in the northern Atlanta suburbs Monday morning.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the Italian-made Sky Arrow 600 Sport was headed for the Cobb County Airport-McCollum Field at 11:20 a.m. when the pilot reported smoke in the cockpit and engine failure. Authorities identified the pilot as 44-year-old Glenn Michael Davidson of Canton and the passenger as 29-year-old Mallory D. Zackery of Jonesboro.

Sgt. Dana Pierce with the Cobb County police says the pilot landed on U.S. Highway 41, then taxied the plane into a nearby subdivision. No injuries were reported.

The aircraft is registered to Kennesaw-based Hansen Air Group, according to an FAA database. Company officials did not immediately return a call for comment.