State parks feel the pain as money dries up Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:54:51 -0400 Amicalola Falls State Park and Lodge in the North Georgia mountains is one of the state's most popular parks. More than 600,000 people visit every year. They can climb a 604-step staircase to the top of the tallest cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi River. They can hike to the start of the Appalachian Trail. They can picnic, camp and stay at a comfortable lodge with soaring views. But they can't use the toilets at the Visitors Center. Those have been closed since late spring. Birth parents seek charges after baby dies in hot van Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:59:29 -0400 The birth parents of a 9-month-old girl who died of heat stroke want the baby's foster mother charged for leaving the infant in a hot minivan for more than two hours. Jackson County Chief Deputy David Cochran says authorities are waiting on the results of a toxicology test to make a decision on whether to charge 29-year-old Wendy Osborne. Cochran said Osborne was on medication that may have made her disoriented and drowsy. Osborne's attorney appealed for sympathy and leniency in statements released late Friday. Executions: Parole board grants Davis a hearing, denies Alderman Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:15:11 -0400 The state Board of Pardons and Paroles agreed Friday to hear from advocates for convicted cop killer Troy Anthony Davis, who is set to die by lethal injection on Sept. 23. Davis sits on death row for the 1989 murder of Savannah police officer Mark Allen MacPhail in a Burger King parking lot. The board will hear from both sides in the Davis case on Sept. 12. On the same day the board accepted Davis' request, it said it would not hear from advocates for condemned killer Jack Alderman. Alderman is scheduled for execution on Sept. 16 for the 1974 killing of his wife, Barbara Jean Alderman, in Chatham County.