As Americans celebrate the first anniversary of Barack Obama’s Presidency, Augusta can also celebrate a first…as a local State Senator takes his place on the national stage. WJBF News Channel 6’s Kimberely Scott explains.

Fort Jackson paused at 2:34 Friday afternoon, along with every other Department of Defense installation, for a moment of silence in honor of those killed and wounded at Fort Hood on Thursday. After the silence, an honor guard lowered the flag to half staff. Then Chaplain Michael Kelly prayed on behalf of the recruits at the 120th Adjutant General (Reception) Battalion. WJBF News Channel 6’s SC Capitol reporter, Robert Kittle, has more.

The news of the senseless shooting in Texas is impacting many military families across the nation. WJBF News Channel 6’s Fraendy Clervaud spoke with a woman from Burke County whose husband was training at Fort Hood this summer.

It’s something the state court solicitor says he’s looking into. We’re talking about Woody Merry’s appearence at Thursday’s Augusta Commission budget hearing. Merry was talking budget, but when his 4-minute time limit was up, he did not want to give it up. Merry is under a court order to not disrupt a public meeting in Augusta and Richmond County for one year, but Thursday’s outburst was two weeks shy of one year.

Augusta Commissioners see it as a solution to balance the budget, and to bring down property taxes: a one percent increase in the city sales tax. But, this easy way out of budget troubles could be hard to come by. WJBF News Channel 6’s George Eskola has the story.

We have a couple of upcoming temporary road closures to tell you about in Columbia County.

It’s another blow for Avondale Mills water customers. The South Carolina Supreme Court has lifted an injunction put into place by the Circuit Court. The injunction said customers couldn’t be charged the new water rates until they were given notice.

According to Aiken County Coroner Tim Carlton, the body of a 54-year-old white male was discovered near Warrenville, SC on Friday morning. UPDATE: Autopsy has revealed that Phillip Pennington died of natural causes. An enlarged heart and atherosclerosis were cited as the primary causes. Toxicology results will be available in about two weeks.

Thursday was the last day of the fifth annual Marine Tribute to the Fallen, at Fort Gordon.

Woody’s back, but has he gone too far this time? Political activist Woody Merry addressed city leaders at a public hearing on next year’s budget, Thursday, but when his 4-minute time limit was up, Merry refused to stop.

South Carolina Supreme Court rules Governor Mark Sanford cannot keep ethics probe into his travel secret. WJBF News Channel 6’s Fraendy Clervaud spoke to Governor Sanford after he made an appearance on the “Austin Rhodes Show”, on Thursday. We have that raw video of the interview.

Aiken County’s unemployment numbers are beginning to go down. But, in the past week, the office has been swamped with people filing unemployment extensions. WJBF News Channel 6’s Joy Howe has the story.

A candidate throwing his hat in the ring for the South Carolina Attorney General’s position stopped in Aiken Thursday.

Veterans Day is fast approaching, and some folks in Aiken are getting ready to show their thanks.

The TEE Center has been a Commission dividing, energy sapping, time wasting battle since May, but could a settlement be in the air? Commissioner Corey Johnson says he’ll support the downtown location if the size of the center is scaled back. But, TEE Center tensions still run high. WJBF News Channel 6’s George Eskola has the story.

The winners of the 2009 Governor’s Professor of the Year award were honored Thursday at the State House, in Columbia, SC. Joseph Kasko has more.

Some major progress is being made in Augusta, when it comes to revitalizing run down neighborhoods. Thursday, a big celebration was going on in the Laney Walker community. Officials revealed the first model home, of what they say the rest of the Laney Walker community will look like, in the near future. WJBF News Channel 6’s Barclay Bishop has more.

A federal appeals court has upheld an aggressive federal program aimed at tracking and monitoring sex offenders.

Athens-Clarke police are investigating a murder-suicide that started with a woman’s body found in a parked car about a mile from the University of Georgia campus.

South Carolina is now requiring some Medicaid recipients who are suspected of abusing prescription drugs to get all of their prescriptions from just one pharmacy. It’s a pilot program called “Pharmacy Lock-In”. WJBF News Channel 6’s SC Capitol reporter, Robert Kittle, has more.

Hotel developer warns Augusta city leaders that a planned 130-room Hyatt Place Hotel is dependent on Commissioners going ahead and building the proposed Trade Exhibit and Events Center at the approved site off Reynolds Street. Without the TEE Center it could be check out time for the hotel. Channel 6’s George Eskola has the story.

The District One Augusta Commission race is headed into a runoff between a white and black candidate, and it has people talking. WJBF News Channel 6’s Paige Tucker reports.

Kroc says, let’s rock Augusta…Salvation Army officials say they have reached and even exceeded their fundraising goal of $20 million, in order to build the Kroc Center in Augusta’s Harrisburg neighborhood. WJBF News Channel 6’s Fraendy Clervaud has more.

Authorities say the mother of a 10-month-old South Carolina boy likely killed by a fogging bug spray has been placed in intensive care after visiting her other son in the hospital.

Anderson County deputy coroner Don McCown says at this point they believe the death of an infant was caused by inhaling pesticides. McCown says the mom set off several of the foggers you can pick up at the store, one after another, over the period of a few weeks.

He was called “The Golden Voice.“  Now the late Bob Wylds Sr. will forever be immortalized in an annual honor celebrating the area’s dispatchers.

Memory cards in seven voting machines were unintentionally left in Atlanta precincts Tuesday night, in a poll worker error that election officials say is not expected to affect the outcome of any race.

The race for the next mayor of Atlanta is headed for a runoff after no candidate in a crowded field received a majority of the vote.

A new pilot program designed to curb prescription drug abuse in the Medicaid program has saved the state more than $320,000 since it began in January 2009, according to an analysis by the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (SCDHHS).

Circuit Court Judge Larry Hyman sentenced Rodell Vereen, 50, to 5 years in prison, suspended to 3 years in prison and 2 years probation.