MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Nearly 150 air traffic control towers across the country are set to close down on June 15, including the one at Middle Georgia Regional Airport. In an effort to prevent that from happening, the City of Macon is planning to join a lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration. Tuesday, the Public Properties Committee unanimously approved the…
MACON, Georgia (41 NBC/WMGT) – The Macon Arts Alliance has received a big grant to support an arts journalism partnership with Mercer’s Center for Collaborative Journalism.The program is called “Art Matters,” and the grant is $40,000. Students involved will create news articles, blogs, video reports and more. 41 NBC spoke with Director of Communications for the Macon Arts Alliance, Jonathan Dye,who stressed the importance…
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – On the corner of Bloomfield Road and Virginia Drive, a small scooter rests in the driveway and bears line the fence just feet away from the Watson home. The fence that was once used to keep 5-year-old Ta’Miya Watson away from harm now serves as her memorial. Classmates and the community are using the bears and…
MACON, Georgia (41 NBC/WMGT) – If you look outside of your window, you might see a celebrity or two walking down the street. It’s because Macon is becoming a new hub to film blockbusters for the big screen. 41 NBC got down to the bottom of what it is that’s making Tinsel Town fall in love with Macon. Some of Hollywood’s biggest…
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A Macon woman has pleaded guilty to charges of stealing hundreds of blood plasma donors’ personal information and filing false tax claims, then pocketing the money. 30-year-old Bridgette Williams of Nisbet Drive worked at the BioMat USA Plasma Center on First Street in Macon. U.S. Attorney Michael Moore is charging her with one count of conspiracy…
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Today, two men who are no stranger to competing for one position qualified within minutes of each other to run for mayor of Macon-Bibb County. Former Bibb County Chairmen Charles Bishop, and current Chairman Sam Hart served on commission together before Hart beat out Bishop for the chairman’s seat in 2008. Bishop says the new government…
IRWINTON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A phone call hoax is making its way around Middle Georgia and tricking victims into thinking they are facing serious punishments for missing jury duty. If you dial the number, you will hear this. “Hello, the following is an urgent message from the National Justice Center.” The message says the caller failed to show up for…
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Charges have been upgraded to murder against two men who were arrested in connection with the shooting of 18 year-old John Johnson, III. The Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested 24 year-old Bernard Bullard and 18 year-old Markel D. Parks, and Macon police spokeswoman Melanie Hoffman tells us the charges would be upgraded as soon as…
GRAY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Candidate for the Macon-Bibb Commission, Danny Glover, pleaded not guilty to marijuana possession in Jones County Probate Court Tuesday morning. Glover was arrested in January after a Jones County Deputy found him and a friend sleeping in Glover’s car. The incident report says inside the car the deputy found a marijuana grinder, a smoked blunt, and…
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — This week’s most adoptable pet is from Have a Heart, Save a Life in Milledgeville. Valerie Buckley stopped by Daybreak with “Brin,” a pit-boxer mix to share how easy it is to adopt. Brin is 6 months old and is named because of her coat. She is a ‘people dog’ and enjoys playing with other animals….
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A week after two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, people from all over the United States and middle Georgia are finding ways to support the people affected. “That was really hard to even get the messages that anything like that could happen,” says Sherry Castles. “Even at the Boston Marathon–not just to any of us…
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Abandoned buildings covered in graffiti serve as a daily reminder of the gangs that run the streets in East Macon. Members of the Crips, Bloods and Macon Mafia have all marked territory along Forsyth Avenue and on Sunday, residents say the brewing turf wars between the gangs came to a violent end. Shortly after midnight, John…
MACON, Georgia (41 NBC/WMGT) – Community activists had no problem voicing their issues with Macon’s major officials on Monday. Activists Irving Martinez and Anthony Harris stood in front of city hall calling for Macon Mayor Robert Reichert, Macon Police Chief Mike Burns, Macon Police Officer Clayton Sutton, and Deputy Chief Mike Carswell to be fired. Harris began the news conference…
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A 5-year-old girl is dead after she was hit by a Bibb County School bus while crossing the street. Shonetta Jackson was on her way to pick up her sons when she saw Tamiya Watson lying in the street. Jackson leaped out of her car and ran over to Watson and held the little girl’s hand…
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Monday marks the first day for candidates to qualify for the July special nonpartisan election for the new Macon-Bibb County government. “We are enthusiastic about this, we’re fired up, we’re ready to go, so why wait?” mayoral candidate C. Jack Ellis said. That’s why dozens of hopeful candidates running for office under the new consolidated government…
COCHRAN, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — The Bleckley County Sheriff’s Office is looking for two suspects who burglarized a church, and then set it on fire early Sunday morning. As she walked the grounds near Saint James AME Church on Monday, life-long member, Sarah Dennard said she felt a sense of peace and hurt. “Just looking back and the history that this…
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — The city of Macon, Bibb County, and several other community partners are celebrating Earth Day all week long! The celebrations begin on Monday April 22nd. An Earth Day Kickoff Luncheon is starting at noon at the Ocmulgee National Monument. Elected officials and other invited guests will be in attendance. To RSVP email midgacleanair@gmail.com. Monday evening, middle…
WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The City of Warner Robins wants the man behind bringing a minor league baseball team to town to know they fully support his effort. At the council meeting Monday, local businessman John Hughes asked the mayor and council to back his efforts, explaining that the city wouldn’t have to pay for it. After getting more…
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – According to 2011 census data, more than one in five people in Bibb County are below the poverty level, but a group of local and state leaders want to do something about that. State representative James Beverly, who’s working to bring down Bibb County’s poverty rate, says the first step is identifying where to start. “We…
MILLEDGEVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – In light of the recent emergency in the Boston area that has forced college campuses to shut down, Georgia College implemented a new safety program that can save lives during any kind of emergency. One push of a button and you are instantly connected to the Georgia College Police Department. “We had a disruption in the…
MACON, Georgia (41 NBC/WMGT) – Friday caps National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week across the country. And it couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. When answering and responding to emergency calls, timing is everything. The quicker…the better.The Macon Police Department celebrated this week by inviting media into it’s newly renovated E 911 center to show how new technology is…
BONAIRE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – It’s state of the art technology originally developed by NASA, and now the only one like it is in middle Georgia. It looks and acts like a treadmill, but the Alter-G is really much more than that. Originally designed to help astronauts in space keep active and running, the Alter-G was designed to create gravity and…
DUDLEY, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — With Lifefest 2013 right around the corner, the Taylor family in Dudley wanted to share their personal experience with adoption. The event is a Christian music festival that supports adoption, while featuring adoptive families and seminars. If you ask Ron and Marcy Taylor about their two daughters Hadley and Lindy, they’d say “They’re both ours.” “God…
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Tatnall Square park is set to get some serious sprucing up and Thursday night, community members learned a little more about the plans. Friends of Tatnall Square Park held a public meeting tonight at Centenary Church Fellowship Hall, right next to Mercer University. The group outlined plans for the area, including pillars at the Lawton Gateway…