Firefighters and sheriff's deputies will be holding out empty boots at intersections across the county today and Saturday to collect donations for the Georgia Firefighters Burn Foundation.
This is the 19th year the Barrow County Fire Department has held its "Give Burns the Boot" drive to raise money for Camp Oo-U-La, Georgia's only camp for children who have been burned.
This is the first year Barrow County Sheriff's deputies have joined in the fundraising efforts.
The annual summer ban on outdoor fires takes effect Thursday throughout the region.
The ban is imposed by the state Environmental Protection Division to help improve air quality during the smog season and to comply with the Federal Clean Air Act.
The ban, which runs through Sept. 30, prohibits burning in 54 Georgia counties, including Barrow, Clarke, Jackson, Madison and Oconee.
It's been more than 30 years since Barrow County Sheriff Joel Robinson rode his first patrol shift as a deputy.
Back then, the Barrow County Sheriff's Office had fewer than 10 deputies to run patrols, respond to calls and operate the county jail. Lacking in manpower one day in 1974, Sheriff John Robert Austin turned to a young radio operator, Robinson, pointed to a patrol car and said, "You get in the car. You're a deputy."
"I told him that I didn't know how to arrest anybody," Robinson said. "I didn't have a gun. I didn't know what to do. And he told me, 'Well, you got to turn right around if you see somebody breaking the law. You arrest them and bring them to jail and we'll show you what to do.'
Local law enforcement officers will handcuff themselves to running treadmills Saturday in hopes of collaring donations for the annual Law Enforcement Torch Run, which raises money for Special Olympics Georgia.
Officers from the Arcade Police Department and the Barrow County Sheriff's Office will participate in the "Special Olympics Cuffed for a Cause" fundraiser by chaining themselves to moving treadmills. Each officer will have to stay on the treadmill for eight hours or until they raise $5,000 in donations.
Arcade officers will have their treadmills set up at the Wal-Mart on Epps Bridge Parkway in Athens. Barrow County sheriff's deputies will be on treadmills at Wal-Mart on Atlanta Highway in Winder.
I was driving up 400 and a cop stopped me for speeding. There was traffic to my right so I pulled over to the left against the median wall. The officer was agitated with me and I didn't like his attitude. I couldn't pull over to the right because of the traffic. What should I have done? Was I dumb to do that?
Dear Dummy:
Having been there myself, I'm guessing the officer was a bit on the agitated side knowing that he was about to be run over. The only thing that would fit in that lane is a clown car so I'm sure half of yours and the cop's car, which of course is behind yours and will be the first one hit, was sticking out there to be hit by one of our fine drivers who just may be on his or her cell phone, texting something insignificant that could have waited.
WINDER - As Internet-savvy as most teenagers think they are, they're always shocked when Barrow County sheriff's Detective Lisa Carr shows them how a stranger can use their MySpace page to find out where they live, where they go to school and what they do for fun.
"At this point their mouths are hanging wide open," Carr said, standing in front of a satellite photo of her own home that she found using her stepson's old MySpace.com screen name, home town and school information.
Then, she tells students that the average sex offender commits 62 offenses before getting caught and that one in seven children and teenagers who've been online have been sexually solicited.
Three people were killed Sunday night on Georgia Highway 211 when a sports car - traveling at 100 mph just moments before - slammed head-on into another car on the two-lane road.
Braselton Police Officer Ray Rutledge first spotted the speeding Chevrolet Camaro just before 10 p.m. Sunday at the intersection of Georgia Highways 211 and 124. The officer clocked the car traveling at 100 mph in a 55-mph zone.
Rutledge attempted to stop the speeder but never could catch up.
Two killed in Barrow pileup identified by state patrol
The Georgia State Patrol has released the names of two people killed Sunday afternoon in a four-vehicle collision in Barrow County.
Nancy Hamrick, 69, and Katherine Collier, 7, both of Winder, were passengers of a vehicle that was struck by another vehicle about 3 p.m. on Georgia Highway 211 near Old Thompson Mill Road.
The relationship of the two victims is not yet known, though Barrow County authorities said they are related.
A child and her female relative were killed and two others, including a second child, were injured Sunday afternoon in a four-vehicle collision in Barrow County.
The crash occurred between 2:30 and 3 p.m. on Georgia Highway 211, just south of Thompson Mill Road, according to Barrow County Sheriff's Office Maj. Murray Kogod.
Authorities did not release the names or exact ages of the drivers or passengers on Sunday.
Winder police detectives still are sorting through hundreds of pornographic photos and videos from a local man's travel trailer to find out how many of the images contain minors and if any of those children are from Winder.
Samuel Laird, 54, of 23 Windsor Drive, was arrested Saturday and charged with sexual exploitation of a child after a routine traffic stop uncovered eight pornographic pictures containing minors in the center console of his white Chevrolet Astro work van.
Detectives searched a travel trailer behind his home that night and found hundreds of similar photos.
