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An Evans church was evacuated this morning after a natural gas leak was reported.
According to a statement from Pam Tucker, Columbia County emergency services director, the leak was reported at 11:18 a.m. inside the Church of the Latter Day Saints, 835 North Belair Road.
Between 700 and 1,000 were evacuated and fire, emergency management, and law enforcement personnel were on the scene while the leak was repaired.
There were no injuries, Tucker said in an e-mail.

Dr. Brooks Keel, president of Augusta University, will be the speaker at Tuesday’s Pride and Progress meeting.
Pride and Progress of Augusta-Richmond County is a nonprofit and nonpartisan grassroots group dedicated to improving the community.
Keel will speak at 7 p.m. at University Medical Center South, 3121 Peach Orchard Road, Room 201. Refreshments will be provided.
 

The South Carolina Highway Patrol continues to investigate Saturday’s McCormick County accident that killed a passenger and injured two others, including the driver.
According to Lance Cpl. David Jones, a man driving a 2000 Chevrolet Tahoe on Pierce Road about 2:45 a.m. lost control, ran off the highway and struck a tree.
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Augusta’s temperature officially hit 100 degrees at Bush Field Saturday afternoon and might get hotter before sundown, according to the National Weather Service in West Columbia, S.C.
It was the second day Augusta’s high reached triple digits. The official high on Friday was 101 degrees.

Syncronex: 

Metered

ATLANTA -- The Georgia Associated Press honored The Augusta Chronicle Saturday with seven awards for news reporting efforts in 2015, including four first-place entries for deadline reporting, sports writing, best Web site and best picture story.
The Chronicle competed with the Georgia’s largest newspapers in the annual contest, judged by out-of-state journalists.
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U.S. District Court Judge Ashley Royal, of Macon, will take senior judge status in the coming months, The Telegraph newspaper reports.
Royal, 66, a 1967 Richmond Academy graduate and member of the school's Hall of Fame, will take senior status on Sept. 1, entering a semiretirement that allows federal judges to continue working part time with a smaller caseload.

Activists say Augusta as a whole has come far since the first Augusta Pride festival in 2010, despite recent events and low institutional support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.
Augusta Pride has “a very good relationship with the city,” event president Takya Browning said.
The pre-festival dinner Thursday went from zero to a record six top government officials this year, Browning said, and she’s met with Mayor Hardie Davis, who recently proclaimed “Augusta Pride Day” in Augusta.

One of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office’s top officers will be leaving to join the marshal’s office.
Richmond County Mar­shal-elect Ramone Lam­kin confirmed that sheriff’s Maj. Scott Peebles will be joining him in January when he assumes the job.
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Nighttime motorists on River Watch Parkway should notice a big difference on the road.
New lights on the parkway were officially turned on Wednesday evening.
“The lights are working as designed to limit trespass outside the shoulders,” Georgia Department of Transportation Spokesman Kyle Collins said in an e-mail. “... Illumination is where it needs to be for driver safety and visibility.”

 
An Augusta man is facing charges after he allegedly impersonated a police officer in front of a Richmond County Sheriff’s Office employee.
A woman who works at the sheriff’s office but is not a sworn officer told deputies she was in her vehicle on Deans Bridge Road about 7:40 a.m. May 19 when a silver Chrysler 200 pulled out in front of her. She blew the horn, she stated. When they came to a red light, the man who was later identified as Martez Demond Hayes got out of his car and approached her vehicle.