Newspaper Page Text
FRIDAY
July 18, 2003
Volume 134, Number 126
Award-Winning
Newspaper
2003
Better Newspaper
Contest
INSIDE TODAY
Perry Jr. League
team wins state title
The battle for Houston
County took place at
Ochlahatchee Wednesday
night when Perry Junior
League defeated Warner
Robins National League 21-
10 for the Georgia Belles
State Championship.
Story and photos, page 1B
IN BRIEF
Charges headed for
TVviggs grand jury
TWIGGS COUNTY - A
woman accused of stabbing a
Warner Robins cab driver to
death will have her charges
brought before a Twiggs
County grand jury Monday.
Latarsha Fuller, 27, of 316
Keith Drive, Warner Robins,
was arrested last month in
connection with the death of
53-year-old Mary Singletary.
Police said Singletary’s
body was found in Twiggs
County after she and her cab
went missing in Warner
Robins.
Singletary, a driver with
the White Top Cab company,
reportedly picked up a fare
in the Randall Heights
Apartments area, traveled to
Macon, and later ended up in
Twiggs County.
Her body and burned cab
were found in a rural area in
Twiggs County.
- Emily Johnstone
INDEX
CELEBRATIONS . . ,7A
CLASSIFIED 5B
COMICS 4B
CROSSWORD 4B
LIFESTYLE 8A
NASCAR 3B
OBITUARIES . . .NONE
OPINION 4A
TV LISTINGS 4B
WEATHER 2A
PERIODICAL
1..11.1!... .11, .11 1.11.1..1
Georgia Newspaper Project
MAIN LIBRARY UNIVERSCY OF GEORGIA
ATHENS GA 30602
3-DiGF 306
Serving Houston County Since 1870
Perry man faces child popn changes
By Jon Suggs
HHJ Staff Writer
PERRY - A local man has been indict
ed for numerous serious crimes stem
ming from his alleged distribution of
online child pornography.
Steven Walthall, 38, of 105 Oak Lake
Drive, was charged with 38 counts of
sexual exploitation of children and five
counts of aggravated child molestation.
He was indicted by the Houston
Local clubs for
radio fans? Roger
By Jon Suggs
HHJ Staff Writer
“AE4VA, over.”
There is a pause, filled with
static and what might have
been an attempted contact.
“Negative copy, over.”
<pop><scritchy >< fizz
fizz >
“It’s busy out there,” says
AE4VA.
No surprise, really; it’s the
American Radio Relay League’s
annual field day, and hams -
amateur radio operators -
across the nation are on the air
waves, making contacts coast
to-coast during the 24-hour
event.
AE4VA - that’s Charles
Armstrong in the day-to-day
world - tunes his dial a .hit.-and
tries again.
Armstrong is camped out with
a handful of ham buddies - the
Central Georgia Amateur Radio
Club - behind the Warner
Robins Police Department,
their antennas high, their spir
its equally so.
The field day is an annual
Real estate records now online
Ten years of deed
info now accessible
via die Internet
By Emily Johnstone
HHJ Associate Editor
PERRY - Are you one of the multitudes
taking advantage of current low interest
rates to refinance your home? Or maybe
you are just curious to see what is on file
pertaining to your property deeds - or
someone else’s.
That information is as close as your home
computer, according to Clerk of Superior
Court Carolyn Sullivan.
Since the move into the new courthouse,
her office has been able to begin offering
real estate records online.
“We now have access to deeds recorded in
the last 10 years,” she said.
That is attracting large numbers of peo
ple, especially those who are refinancing.
Instead of having to visit the courthouse
on the Perry Parkway for a copy of their
information, citizens can just go online and
access the information via the Internet.
This makes the process easier for every
one, including attorneys who are gathering
information for real estate transactions,
Sullivan said.
And the county tax assessors’ office is
able to go online and gather information
they need to do their job, she added, instead
of having to go to the clerk’s office to make
copies.
Those big, bulky books that contain deed
information will become a thing of the past
Jan. 1, 2004, when information will cease to
be entered into them.
The books take up a lot of space, Sullivan
said.
“Last month we filed 4,000 real estate
documents,” she said. Each document,
depending on the type, consists of from one
to 20 pages of information.
Each deed book consists of 350 pages.
“We’re definitely paper pushers!”
Sullivan said with a laugh.
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Houston County ; city of Perry ; city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
WWW. HOUSTONHOMEJOURNAL. COM
County Grand Jury Tuesday.
The investigation of Walthall began in
New Hampshire, according to Sgt. Darin
Meadows, of the Houston County
Sheriffs Department Juvenile Division.
“We got a referral from an outside law
enforcement agency,” Meadows said.
“Based on this, we investigated and were
able to confirm the source.”
As part of an ongoing investigation, a
team of New Hampshire officers working
undercover online discovered a suspect
f ■ Spo. lighting
E ISI & Houston County Club*
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treat for them, says club secre
tary Elaine Privette (KB4KNE),
a chance to spend the weekend
in camaraderie, refining their
skills and making contacts with
like-minded individuals
t hroughout the country.
Although the weekend has a
touch of sadness for the club - it
is dedicated to the memory of
members Don Brown and Bob
Seabolt - the hams will remem
ber them by reaching out to
their fellows in all parts of the
country.
From 2 p.m. Saturday to 2
p.m. Sunday, in this last week
end of June, the group might
even come across some fellow
hams within driving distance.
Just down the road, the
Middle Georgia Radio
Association has its own set-up
See RADIO, page 3A
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HHJ Emily Johnstone
Houston County Superior Court Clerk Carolyn Sullivan said she is proud to offer citi
zens real estate information via the Internet.
NEWS YOU CADI USE
Since the Superior Court Clerk’s office is
much more than just real estate records,
but also is the receptacle for criminal and
civil paperwork, some of that information
may become available online in the future,
Sullivan said.
Having all this information on computers
will one day lead to having more space
available in the clerk’s office because a lot
of paperwork may be able to be stored in
the warehouse facility recently renovated
by the county. The building was formerly
home to the state correctional institution.
“This is exciting to me!” she said. “This
has put us in a posture where we can put
some of this stuff into storage.”
LEGAL ORGAN FOR
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HHJ Jon Suggs
Central Georgia Amateur Radio Club member Charles
Armstrong tunes his dial for a new contact as he participates in
the 24-hour field day event.
who was sending images of child pornog
raphy via e-mail.
After tracing the source to Perry, they
notified Houstdn County officials, who
began their own investigation.
Upon obtaining a search warrant for
Walthall’s home, local authorities uncov
ered the evidence they needed to make
an arrest.
“In examining his hard drives and CDs
and stuff, from the seizure, we discov
ered images of child pornography,”
Sullivan, who has 38 years of experience
in the office, said technology is changing
the way the office stores valuable informa
tion.
If a person does not have access to a com
puter at home, there are computers at the
courthouse office for their use, Sullivan
said.
She invites people to visit the county’s
Web site at www.HoustonCountyGA.org.
Once on the home page, look to the left
and click on the site for the Superior Court
Clerk.
“There is a wealth of information at that
site,” she said.
A statewide site is also available at
www.gsccca.org.
TWO SECTIONS • 16 PAGES
Meadows said.
In the course of the investigation,
additional information led to the charges
of child molestation, details of which will
not be published, per the department’s
request.
Shortly after the search warrant was
executed, Walthall was hospitalized for
an undisclosed reason. He was arrested
upon his release last week.
HHJ Associate Editor Emily
Johnstone contributed to thi,s report.
Changes
ahead
for SAT
By Luci Joullian
HHJ Staff Writer
High school students have
been dreading and fearing that
bastion of college admissions
called the SAT since the stan
dardized test was introduced in
1926.
The test, which includes ver
bal and quantitative sections,
has always been challenging,
but with new standards being
set in place, it may become even
more so. And with nearly 80
percent of the nation’s four
year colleges and universities
using standardized test scores
in their admissions decisions,
for those students wishing to go
on to post-secondary institu
tions, it may be an unavoidable
necessity.
The College Board and the
Educational Testing Service
(ETS), the non-profit organiza
tions that administer the test
seven times per year, have
plans to include a writing por
tion in the test, which is cur
rently mostly made up of multi
ple choice questions.
“I would think the students’
scores might end up being
lower by adding harder require
ments,” said Shane Ashley, a
rising junior at Perry High
School.
The mean SAT score for all
Houston County students in
2002 was 979, with Georgia’s
state average being 980.
Ashley noted that he would
n’t mind the addition of a writ
ing sample, though.
“Essays never have been a
problem for me,” he said, “but
those who do find essays to be a
challenge might have to put in
more time to complete it and be
affected either on that portion
of the test or elsewhere.”
Laura Laßoche, a rising jun
ior at Houston County High
School, also favors a writing
sample.
“It would give you a chance to
express your thoughts on
paper,” she said, although she
thinks some of her fellow stu
dents might not be so amenable
to the change. “A lot of kids
won’t like it because they don’t
like to put forth the effort.”
The new verbal section will
include a short essay, written by
the student in response to a
short question or “prompt” pro
vided by SAT, along with multi
ple choice questions designed to
test students’ ability to identify
sentence errors and grammati
cal and structural errors. The
analogy questions that account
for a large part of the current
SAT will be stricken from the
exam.
“Those do not really relate to
anything other than if you have
a strong background in Latin or
root words,” said James
Kinchen, Houston County’s
assistant superintendent for
instruction.
See SAT, page 2A
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