Thirty kilos of cocaine — estimated at $4.5 million ― were intercepted during a joint operation between deputies in Columbia County and Lowndes County, Georiga.

A News4JAX Insider can win four day passes to Wild Adventures theme park and four passes to the Newsboys concert on July 1.

A News4JAX Insider can win four day passes to Wild Adventures theme park and four passes to the Newsboys concert on July 1.

A News4JAX Insider can win four day passes to Wild Adventures theme park and four passes to the Newsboys concert on July 1.

A News4JAX Insider can win four day passes to Wild Adventures theme park and four passes to the Newsboys concert on July 1.

A News4JAX Insider can win four day passes to Wild Adventures theme park and four passes to the Newsboys concert on July 1.

A News4JAX Insider can win four day passes to Wild Adventures theme park and four passes to the Newsboys concert on July 1.

Federal officials announced a pilot program on Tuesday to help 11 communities improve their sewage infrastructure.

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an environmental justice investigation in Lowndes County, Alabama, where longstanding wastewater problems have been sending raw sewage into yards and houses.

A Georgia sheriff has reopened an investigation into the 2013 death of a teenager whose body was found inside a rolled-up gym mat at his high school, saying he’s reviewing 17 boxes of evidence collected by federal agents that his office recently obtained from the U.S. Justice Department. Fellow students found the body of 17-year-old Kendrick Johnson in the gymnasium at Lowndes High School in Valdosta on Jan. 11, 2013. Johnson’s parents have insisted from the beginning that he was slain, and have long accused law enforcement and school officials of covering up the crime. One of the students accused by Johnson’s parents was away from school traveling to a sports tournament at the time Johnson died, according to the case file from the sheriff’s initial investigation. Paulk said he’s personally leading the new investigation, which will compare the federal agents’ findings with evidence the sheriff’s office gathered in 2013.

The Mass Poor Peoples Assembly & Moral March on Washington aims to build upon the nations principles to pursue solutions to poverty something advocates say is getting especially severe in rural areas. The Mass Poor Peoples Assembly & Moral March on Washington aims to build upon the nations principles to pursue solutions to poverty something advocates say is getting especially severe in rural areas. But instead of assembling in camps near the National Mall as protesters did in the wake of King's death in 1968, as part of the Poor People's Campaign this week's gathering will offer poor people a chance to describe their lives, live-streamed to a national audience. Organizers say poor coal miners from Kentucky and Apache tribal members from Arizona will speak about their own experiences in extreme poverty. He said organizers want both President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden to hold at least one debate that focuses on poverty.

After rejecting a proposal to move the monument, Sanders said this week that African Americans became dependent during slavery and have had a harder time assimilating into American life as other groups who have been mistreated have. After rejecting a proposal to move a Confederate monument, a white elected official in Mississippi said this week that African Americans became dependent during slavery and as a result, have had a harder time assimilating into American life than other mistreated groups. In northeastern Mississippi's Lowndes County, supervisors voted along racial lines Monday against moving a Confederate monument that has stood outside the county courthouse in Columbus since 1912. The monument depicts a Confederate soldier and says the South fought for a noble cause. Three white supervisors voted against the proposal and two black supervisors voted for it. One of the two black supervisors, Democrat Leroy Brooks, said people were not trying to change history, but wanted to rechannel some things that are offensive."

In this May 27, 2020, photo, health care worker Tonya Wilkes adjusts her mask while working at a Lowndes County coronavirus testing site in Hayneville, Ala. (AP Photo/Jay Reeves)HAYNEVILLE, Ala. Sparsely populated Lowndes County, deep in Alabama's old plantation country, has the sad distinction of having both the states highest rate of COVID-19 cases and its worst unemployment rate. Lowndes and nearby poor, mostly black counties in rural Alabama are facing an increase in confirmed infections. I worry about Lowndes County, said Thomas. Dr. Scott Harris, the state health officer, said the state saw its highest number of new cases since the pandemic began in recent days.

VALDOSTA, Ga. - A south Georgia city and county have spent more than $800,000 on legal fees as they fight each other over who has rights to provide services in unincorporated areas. The Valdosta Daily Times totaled the legal spending in the three-year-long dispute between the city of Valdosta and Lowndes County using open records requests. Lowndes County wants the city to seek county approval before providing water and sewer to new businesses outside the city limits. "Annexation and delivery of services are two totally separate things," said Valdosta City Manager Mark Barber. Talks between the two sides have stalled, and Lowndes County unsuccessfully tried to sue the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for saying a 2008 agreement was out of date.