B.J. Williams

President Barack Obama announced Thursday night he had authorized the Pentagon to launch targeted airstrikes if needed to protect Americans from Islamic militants in northern Iraq and help Iraqi security forces protect civilians under siege, threatening to revive U.S. military involvement in the country's long sectarian war.

Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black said his staff was working Thursday to determine just how significant the impact on Georgia farmers might be from a Russian ban on all U.S. food products. Of concern to Georgia, said Black, are poultry products and peanuts and pecans.

President Barack Obama says the government must ensure that the Veterans Affairs Department has the resources to keep up with the demands of troops returning from war.

A Jefferson man is dead and his uncle is in jail facing a murder charge after an domestic incident Monday.

The body of a 19-year-old who had been missing since early Tuesday surfaced Friday morning on a cove in Lake Lanier.

A 9-year-old Commerce boy was killed when he rode through a stop sign and was struck by a van Wednesday, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

Iselle was supposed to weaken as it slowly trudged west across the Pacific. It didn't - and now Hawaii is poised to take its first direct hurricane hit in 22 years.

The nation's largest public utility, which serves parts of north Georgia, is eliminating more than 2,000 jobs as part of a $500 million cost-cutting campaign.

Authorities in west Georgia are searching for a suspect they say stole copper wire from a haunted house.

Forsyth County officials said two objects detected by sonar Wednesday afternoon under the surface of Lake Lanier near Two Mile Creek Park are not the body of a missing 19-year-old man.