About The Eatonton messenger. (Eatonton, Ga.) 18??-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 2025)
» Your hometown newspaper since 1861 The Eatonton Alessenger THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2025 | A3 Authorities seek downtown juvenile joyriders Lynn Hobbs lynn@msgrnews.com Several teens joyriding through downtown Eatonton late Saturday night ended up fleeing from law enforcement, with one being trans ported to the hospital. According to Sgt. First Class Michael Screws, post commander of Georgia State Patrol Post 8 in Madison, a 2002 Chevrolet pickup was traveling north on North Jefferson Avenue in Eatonton at 11:05 p.m. Nov. 1, without its headlights turned on. GSP Trooper Derrick Snead saw the pickup and tried to make a traffic stop, but the driver did not stop and instead, “fled recklessly through town,” Screws said. The unidentified driver of the pickup continued east on State Route 16 and turned onto Wards Chapel Road, where Trooper Snead conducted a successful PIT maneuver, Screws said. The impact caused the pickup to run off the roadway and flip over. At least three teens got out and ran away, leaving behind a 15-year-old male lying on the ground. That teen had not been wearing a seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle when it over turned. He was taken by ambulance to Atrium Health Navicent hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, according to Screws. A 13-year-old male who initially ran away from the pickup later returned and surrendered to Trooper First Class W. Stephens. Authorities are still searching for the others who were in the pickup, Screws said. Authorities believe the driver was most likely under aged and thus unlicensed. When asked if the juveniles were resi dents of Eatonton or Putnam County, Screws said the investigation so far leads them to believe the teens are from a neighboring county. The 15-year-old was later released from the hospital with minor injuries. “And guns were located at the scene, so we will likely have charges poten tially on all the occupants,” Screws added. Uncertainty still hangs over federal program that feeds the hungry Ty Tagami Capitol Beat News Service Georgia politicians continued to blame each other Monday for the lapse in funding for federal food assistance, amid confusion about the government’s reaction to two federal lawsuits. On Friday, judges ordered the admin istration of President Donald Trump to resume depositing funds into the accounts of recipients of a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that feeds low-income households. News reports indicate that the admin istration will make only partial payments. But by the end of the workday Monday, neither the USDA nor the Georgia agency that administers the Supplemental Nutri tion Assistance Program, or SNAP, had updated old public messaging on their websites to clarify the status of the funding. “Bottom line, the well has run dry,” said a banner that has been atop the USDA website since last month. It was posted in response to the govern ment shutdown that started Oct. 1. The website of Georgia’s Department of Human Services had not updated two messages from Oct. 24 about SNAP. The first said the electronic bene fits cards that recipients use to spend their subsidy would stop working Nov. 1. Another clarified that recipients could still HICKEY CONTINUED FROM » A1 National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,” according to a GBI press release. GBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Renea Green told The Eatonton Messenger when the CEACC supervisors reviewed the tip and the evidence, they “deter mined to escalate the investigation and imme diately take action.” She said Hickey was arrested Oct. 21, shortly after the tip was received earlier in October. “Putnam County Sher iff’s Office and Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office assisted us in locating him in Milledgeville and making the arrest,” she noted. “We rely on and spend unused benefits in their accounts after that deadline. On Monday, a spokes woman for the state agency had no new information. “We will continue to follow official guidance from USDA as it becomes available,” Ellen Brown said in an email. “We understand how important SNAP benefits are to Georgia families and are closely monitoring the situation.” The lack of clarity about whether people will be able to put food on the table this month has caused significant anxiety, said Eliza McCall, the chief programming officer for Second Harvest of South Georgia. The food bank serves more than a dozen coun ties in South Georgia and typically gets maybe five calls a week from people seeking food, she said. That number rose to 25 during the first three days of last week, she said, doubling to 28 on Thursday. “People are scared,” McCall said. “People are extremely nervous and that’s completely understandable because the uncertainty and the instability do not breed confidence.” Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans were trading blows, blaming the other side for a looming food shortage. The Trump administra tion announced late last month that it would freeze SNAP funding because of value our working rela tionship with the local authorities.” The young victim was identified and is receiving appropriate treatments, Green said. The investigation is part of ongoing efforts by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which works with the GBI’s CEACC Unit, to identify those involved in the trade of child sexual abuse material. “The ICAC program was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the internet, the prolifera tion of child sexual abuse material, and the height ened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims,” the press release explains. the refusal by Democrats in Congress to approve a continuing resolution to fund the federal budget. Democrats then blamed Republicans for refusing to negotiate terms for approval, mainly the restoration of tax credits for Affordable Care Act health msurance coverage. Premiums are expected to skyrocket in January without those credits. SNAP recipients were “dragged into this fight” by Scan for the complete list of Hop Shops & more information SHOP LOCAL , NOV 14 & 15 your passport, & enter to win _2025_ • Christmas it 1 Lake Country SHOP * HOP! Visit every business, complete Thank you for shopping wih local businesses tus Christmas! Trump and Republicans in Congress, Sen. Raphael Warnock, one of Geor gia’s two Democratic U.S. Senators, told reporters at a neighborhood grocery store in Atlanta Monday. “They are literally pitting sick people against hungry people. I can’t think of anything more craven than that,” Warnock said. “This is a manufactured crisis by the Trump admin istration aided and abetted by Washington Republicans.” On the other side, U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, a Republican representing part of South Georgia, blamed U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and minority leader of the Senate, who has orchestrated numerous votes against a continuing resolution. Scott, sounding like Warnock, called the shutdown and its effect on SNAP benefits and other programs a “manu factured” disaster, but he blamed it on Democrats. In a statement emailed Monday, he suggested that the shutdown and its effects would not end soon because of them. “Because of their refusal to fund the government, women and children who need assistance will struggle to purchase food for Thanksgiving,” Scott said. REAL JCOUNTRY Q92.3FM Home of Today's 1.
