This week’s top stories from the Ledger-Enquirer | Dec. 11-17
1. Public may never know what happened in infamous executive session: The city of Columbus has finally released the minutes of a Sept. 27 Columbus Council executive session meeting more than 11 weeks after the event took place. Unlike in the minutes of an earlier related executive session on a series of ill-fated raises for top city executives, there is no detail of what was said. The minutes are not subject to Open Records laws until Council has officially approved them, which took place Tuesday.
2. Fraudulent return at Columbus Wal-Mart leads to high-speed chase: Authorities were tracking down two men accused of making a fraudulent return at the Wal-Mart on Whittlesey Boulevard Dec. 9 when they got involved in a high-speed chase that ended with a crash, according to testimony Thursday morning in Columbus Recorder’s Court. Officer David Phillips, who was given a description the vehicle, was headed to the scene of the Wal-Mart incident when the Chevrolet Raymond allegedly was driving passed him on Moon Road. He said he tried to initiate a traffic stop on the vehicle, but the suspect wouldn’t stop.
3. Legal fight over new liquor store spills over into Columbus Council meeting: An ongoing legal feud about how the city awards liquor licenses to package stores spilled over into Columbus Council last week when the attorney for one store owner asked councilors to revoke the license of a north-end store. Attorney Steve Hodges, whose wife, Pat Daniel, owns liquor stores downtown and on Forrest Road, spoke to council on Dec. 6 asking that the city revoke the license for The Bottle Shop, which opened just before Thanksgiving in Bradley Park.
4. ‘This has been a long fight.’ Terry Beasley’s wife reacts to NFL concussion settlement: Monday afternoon, Marlene Beasley went into her husband’s room in their Moody, Ala., home and told him that years of litigation and frustration were close to being over. Terry Beasley, one of the greatest football players in Auburn University history, was among the former NFL players who filed a lawsuit against the league over head injuries suffered while playing.
5. Deputy rescues man after SUV slides down embankment on Whitesville Road: A Fortson, Ga., man whose vehicle slid down an embankment and crashed about 10 feet below into a creek along Whitesville Road Tuesday night was rescued by a Muscogee County Sheriff’s deputy and a group of witnesses. A woman told police she was at her home in the 1400 block of Maplebrook Drive when she heard screeching sounds coming from Whitesville Road around 6:03 p.m. She saw the 1999 Ford Expedition slide sideways north on Whitesville Road.
This story was originally published December 17, 2016 at 6:03 PM with the headline "This week’s top stories from the Ledger-Enquirer | Dec. 11-17."