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Dive Brief: The Florida Turnpike broke ground earlier this month on a new test track where it will experiment with high-speed toll technology as well as systems for vehicle-to-infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle communications, according to FleetOwner. The 400-acre SunTrax site, in Auburndale, FL, will test toll equipment and interoperable tolling systems, as well as smartphone-based payment methods. Other technologies to be tested include high-speed connected platooning trucks, moveable barrier systems and machine vision and materials testing for new pavement types, lane markings and signage. Construction on the site's oval track is expected to be complete in spring 2019 with the first...

(Reuters) - A decades-old investigation in the U.S. state of Georgia into the murder of a black man in 1983 culminated in the arrest of five white people on Friday, including two law enforcement officers charged with hindering the probe, officials said. The body of Timothy Coggins, 23, was found on Oct. 9, 1983, in a grassy area near power lines in the community of Sunnyside, about 30 miles (48 km) south of downtown Atlanta. He had been “brutally murdered” and his body had signs of trauma, the Spalding County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

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The DeKalb County School District in Georgia is facing backlash after a “sexual identity” assignment was given to the sixth graders of Lithonia Middle School. The middle school’s health teacher assigned a quiz that defined 10 “sexual identity” terms, such as gay, lesbian, and transgender. The quiz required the sixth graders to identify and differentiate between various sexual orientations and identities, FOX 5 Atlanta reported. One mother, Octavia Parks, was particularly shocked when her 12-year-old daughter came home with the assignment. "Why are they teaching that in school?” Parks said. “What does that have to do with life?" Parks felt...

An Army officer stationed at Fort Gordon was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court to 97 months in prison. Jonathan Hurwitz, 49, had pleaded guilty in January to possession of child pornography, which in his case carried a possible sentence of 97 to 121 months in a federal prison. Hurwitz’s attorney asked U.S. District Court Chief Judge J. Randal Hall to depart the sentencing guideline range to 60 months, which would have shaved about three years off the prison term. Hall declined, but did sentence Hurwitz to the shortest term possible. “I own it, and I accept responsibility,” Hurwitz said...

PALDING COUNTY, GA (CBS46) - Two students at a metro Atlanta elementary school say they were singled out for what they did during the Pledge of Allegiance. Tuesday morning at Orrs Elementary School, 10-year-old Jason Newberry said he and one classmate put their hand over their heart while reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. He said when they did, others in the class called them names. "Me and him got called KKK, Nazi, and we just kept getting bullied the whole day," said Newberry. Newberry said it wasn't until his second period teacher showed them a news clip of NFL players...

A female Georgia police officer was shot and killed Friday and a second officer was injured, prompting an intense manhunt that led to the arrest of two suspects. Polk County Police Chief Kenny Dodd indentified the murdered officer as Det. Kristen Hearne, 29. The injured officer was identified as David Goodrich. Investigators said Ofc. Goodrich was called out to investigate a report of a suspicious vehicle Friday morning. He called Hearne for backup after a plate check revealed the vehicle, a Ford Escape, had been stolen out of Tennessee. As the officers approached the car, a man and a woman...

CEDARTOWN, Ga. (AP) - The Latest on the shooting of two police officers in Georgia (all times local): 2:45 p.m. A county official in Georgia says one police officer is dead and another wounded after they were shot while approaching a stolen car.

FLOWERY BRANCH — Falcons coach Dan Quinn said the team will lock arms during the national anthem and will encourage the fans to do the same before they play the Bills on Sunday. “For us, we will lock arms together during that time, and we would encourage our fans to do the same,” Quinn said Wednesday. “I think that would be kind of a nice tribute as we’re getting started. It’s an important time in our world. There are a lot of issues that are really important to talk about, and we’ll spend some time and we have as a...

GLENWOOD,GA ― If you want to watch a rural community die, kill its hospital. After the Lower Oconee Community Hospital shut down in June 2014, other mainstays of the community followed. The bank and the pharmacy in the small town of Glenwood shuttered. Then the only grocery store in all of Wheeler County closed in the middle of August this year. On Glenwood’s main street, building after building is now for sale, closing, falling apart or infested with weeds growing through the foundation’s cracks. Opportunity has been dying in Wheeler County for the last 20 years. Agriculture was once the...

Democratic Rep. John Lewis said Thursday he sometimes feels like "taking a bullwhip" to people in order to make them care about civil rights. "It doesn’t matter whether they're black, or white, Latino, Asian-American or Native American. When you see something that’s not right, not fair, not just, you have an obligation to do something, to say something. They’re just too darn quiet. I really wanna use some other words sometimes," Lewis told the audience of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Town Hall on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C. [Snip] Activists "just need to be radical" and "extreme" in order...

Dive Brief: The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has awarded Jacobs Engineering Group a 10-year, multimillion dollar contract to design an active traffic management (ATM) system for Interstate 76 through Philadelphia, according to Traffic Technology Today. Jacobs' services for the Schuylkill Expressway will include preliminary and system engineering, design, analysis of alternatives, right-of-way acquisition and construction consultancy.The final ATM system could include occasional use of the shoulder, connected vehicle technology, variable speed limit signage and traffic jam detection and alerts. PennDOT could also implement features like ramp metering, junction control, dynamic lane assignments, and multimodal strategies in tandem with shoulder use....

The three people arrested during a protest on the Georgia Tech campus were all granted bond Wednesday. *** But attorney Don Samuel said Wilson, a 2013 graduate of The Paideia School, is a lifelong Atlanta resident and Georgia State University student and was exercising his right to protest and isn’t guilty. Wilson did not know Schultz, Samuel said. Wilson, charged with two felony counts of aggravated assault against a police officer, and three misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass, allegedly hit an officer and knocked him to the ground, causing a concussion, according to his arrest warrants. He also allegedly spray-painted...

An engineering student who was an LGBTQ activist was shot and killed by Georgia Tech campus police on Saturday night, officials said Sunday. The school identified the victim as Scout Schultz, 21, a fourth-year engineering student from Lilburn, Georgia, who police said was armed with a knife. Schultz, president of Georgia Tech's Pride Alliance, identified as non-binary and intersex and preferred to be referred to with they/them gender pronouns, according to the alliance's website. At a news conference Monday, Schultz's family's attorney said the student was experiencing a "mental breakdown" on the night of the shooting.

UPDATE: Georgia Tech student Scout Schultz called 911 before being shot by campus police, the GBI reports. Schultz called 911 alerting them “of a suspicious person on campus. In the call, Shultz describes the person as a white male, with long blonde hair, white T-shirt and blue jeans who is possibly intoxicated, holding a knife and possibly armed with a gun on his hip,” the GBI said in a statement. *** Three suicide notes were located in Schultz’s dorm room. Two years ago, Schultz attempted suicide using a belt, the 21-year-old engineering student’s mother told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Schultz was...

Police in the US state of Georgia have shot and killed an LGBT student activist, leading to an independent investigation. Police encountered Scout Schultz at a campus in Atlanta after a call about "a person with a knife and a gun" late on Saturday, officials say. Footage has emerged apparently showing Schultz, 21, refusing to obey multiple police commands to drop a knife. Schultz's mother said police should not have used lethal force. In a video filmed by fellow students at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Schultz is heard saying "Shoot me!" while continuing to advance on the officers. One...

An engineering student from Gwinnett County was fatally shot by a police officer on Georgia Tech’s campus Saturday night. The GBI is investigating the incident in which the student, who has been identified by Georgia Tech spokesman Lance Wallace as 21-year-old Scout Schultz of Lilburn, was allegedly barefoot and carrying a knife. The student’s legal name was Scott Shultz, GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said. At least two students shared cellphone video showing the tense interaction between Schultz and Georgia Tech police officers, Channel 2 Action News reported. Schultz yells at police to shoot and officers respond, “Drop the knife! Drop...

A Georgia high school teacher who was yanked from the classroom after comparing President Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” to a swastika is speaking out for the first time since video of the exchange went viral. Lyn Orletsky, a teacher of five years at River Ridge High School in Woodstock, was seen on video kicking two students out of her class after they refused to turn their shirts bearing the pro-Trump slogan inside out. She was also heard saying it had nothing to do with Mr. Trump, but the slogan itself, which she compared to a swastika. Ms....

A Georgia teacher who told students in her math class that are not allowed to wear “Make America Great Again” T-shirts because the campaign slogan was akin to a swastika, will no longer be teaching in the classroom. Lyn Orletsky was seen on a viral video telling at least two River Ridge High School students in Cherokee County that wearing the slogan made popular during President Donald Trump’s 2016 was like wearing the symbol of Nazism, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The Cherokee County School District, quickly released an apology and said that the students were not in any...

As many as 800 tractor trailers loaded with relief supplies are at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery waiting to be deployed to Florida and Georgia as the areas brace for Hurricane Irma. Col. Eric K. Shafa, Commander of the 42nd Air Base Wing at Maxwell, said the installation is serving as staging area for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Tractor trailers began rolling into Maxwell yesterday and will be deployed, if needed, after the storm. The trucks contain supplies such as water, food, generators and cots. "This is a significant hurricane and our hearts and prayers go out to...