A local program to help elementary children get “caught up” in reading and math will be presented this month to a group of national educators at a seminar in Atlanta.

Mercedes-Benz USA (MBUSA) with support from Mercedes-Benz of South Atlanta and Mercedes-Benz dealers nationwide announced that it will make $1.5 million in scholarship funding available to students who are the first generation in their families to attend college.

The following arrests were reported by law enforcement agencies for the past two weeks. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law:

Peachtree City police are looking for a Marietta man whose fingerprints link him to the scene of a daytime burglary in the Planterra Ridge subdivision in early December.

Palmetto council members Jan. 16 gave their approval to an intergovernmental agreement supporting a March vote in Coweta County on a proposed 2007 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).

Fairburn cites 2005 crime stats

For Fairburn cops and the community it was a pretty good year.

Though experiencing continued record growth at nearly 10 percent during 2005, incidents of crime rose only slightly. Calculated at a 3.88 percent increase, serious crimes are actually on the decline from recent years.

The votes have long been counted and re-elected and newly elected city officials in Palmetto, Union City and Fairburn have been sworn in and are busy conducting the business of their respective cities.

The extraordinary setting called Serenbe yielded a special mixture of community and music Jan. 15 with an Afternoon of Bluegrass, the first of a series of musical and storytelling performances sponsored by the Serenbe Arts and Cultural Council.

Alejandro Jimenez is a man with a dream.

Along with his wife Mercedes, he has opened South Fulton's first Hispanic supermarket, in Hudson Plaza in Fairburn. No small corner store, Cuatro Caminos Supermarket is a 13,000-square-foot full-service market.

Thursday’s Tyrone Town Council meeting got off to a fiery start as a resident accused the council of selective enforcement of the town’s ordinances.

The residents in the Ashland Trail subdivision hope speedy commuters will soon be slowing down.

Students at LaFayette Kids World in Tyrone collected items to send to U.S. soldiers that were fighting in the Middle East. The biggest box was sent to Randy Hansen, a Peachtree City resident fighting with the Georgia Army National Guard unit as a member of the Echo Troop 108 Cavalry.

The Fayette County School System will vote Monday night to surplus nearly 100 acres of property it recently purchased.

A Sharpsburg couple was arrested Thursday by Peachtree City police for financial identity fraud.

Charles Williams, 28, and Brenna Williams, 26, of Oxford Court in Sharpsburg were taken into custody after the Peachtree City Police Department received reports from others who said their identities had been used to apply for and receive credit cards, according to a written statement from the police. Each of the victims had applied for credit at the Best Buy in Peachtree City, which opened in November.

Peachtree City will not be adopting the franchise model for trash collection, the City Council decided Thursday night.

Peachtree City police arrested a Canton man at his dry-cleaning business Thursday morning for having explicit conversations online with an undercover police officer whom he thought was 13 years old, police said.

With Peachtree City’s 50th birthday coming up in 2009, there is a big push at the Recreation Department to get all its parks in tip-top shape.

Two Peachtree City teens escaped serious injury Friday afternoon when their golf cart pulled in front of an oncoming car on Peachtree Parkway, police said.

System in limbo after county contract halted by FRRLS board

The Peachtree City Library might continue receiving services from the Flint River Regional Library System, even though the FRRLS board has voted to halt a contract to deliver services to Fayette County.

The Kiwanis Club of Peachtree City will host its 14th Annual Pancake Saturday, scheduled for Jan. 28. This “All-You-Can-Eat” Pancake Saturday meal will be served in the McIntosh High School cafeteria on Walt Banks Road from 7 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Coweta County’s coffers could be nearly $127 million richer over the next six years if voters in March decide to approve the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax extension.

“It’s been a long process, but hopefully we won’t have to do this again for a while.”

The words of Coweta County Schools spokesperson Dean Jackson sum up the attitude of many Coweta parents as the massive redistricting effort of the schools ended this week.

How many police officers should the city of Senoia employ?

That’s one of the questions the city hopes to learn from a comprehensive assessment of its police department. At a called meeting last Friday, the City Council agreed its time to get an overview of one of the busiest departments in the fast-growing city.

Peachtree City police arrested a Canton man at his dry-cleaning business Thursday morning for having explicit conversations online with an undercover police officer whom he thought was 13 years old, police said.

Trash pickup in Peachtree City will go from a free-market version of multiple vendors to a city-chosen single-company monopoly, if a staff proposal gets City Council approval this Thursday night. Pickup fees also are expected to rise.

Peachtree City homeowners are about to get billed for the water that runs along street curbs into storm drains.

The Peachtree City Council will likely vote next month to create a new utility to address significant stormwater issues around town.

It will cost $12 every five years for Peachtree City residents to register their golf carts, if a staff proposal is approved by the City Council Thursday night.

Participants in Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. parade

The Fayette County High School Marching Band is headed to the granddaddy of them all: the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif., for New Year’s Day 2007.

They’ve confiscated cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana with a street value of $811,193,200, seized more than $14 million in cash and made nearly 1,000 arrests just in the past five years.