Savannah Morning News
ENERGY STANDOFF
The fight against Georgia Power’s planned 9.9-gigawatt expansion has not let up. On Jan. 9, the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), on behalf of petitioners Georgia Interfaith Power and Light and Southface Institute, filed a petition to the...
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Freight rail industry dirtier than coal power plants
BNSF Railway, one of the crown jewels of Warren Buffett’s sprawling Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, calls itself an environmental leader in the U.S. rail industry with the cleanest locomotive fleet in North America. “When you see our orange...
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Dirt road paved 34 years after initial request
As the rain came pouring down on Mill Creek Church Road in North Bryan, James Moore watched as the soil became muddy and impassable. The year was 1992 and residents who lived on the dirt road were not fond of rain showers as it created hazardous road...
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7 hour stand-off shows role of Behavioral Health Unit
For seven hours recently, Savannah Police Department (SPD) officers stood beneath a tree, calling up to a man 40feet in the air who refused to come down. Roads were closed, onlookers gathered and negotiators spoke through a megaphone. What the public...
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Furor continues over recent ICE shootings
Tensions remained high Jan. 9 as shootings involving immigration agents in Minneapolis and in Portland, Oregon, drew protesters to the streets and deepened fractures between federal and state officials. In Portland, a U.S. Border Patrol officer shot...
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Monks stop in Georgia on 2,300-mile Walk for Peace
A handful of people dotted the roadside of a two-lane rural blacktop stretching between an open field and a tree line. Down the road, a line of 24 Buddhist monks tackling Day 71 of their “Walk for Peace” came into view as they rounded a corner. Aloka...
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‘He touched a lot of lives’
Around 7 p.m. on Dec. 28, 2025, Leilani McLemore was in her home, a white house that sits in the middle of Glade Street, when she heard an awful noise from her open back door. “My roommate comes running in the house,” McLemore said. “He said, ‘Call...
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Maduro’s tight grip on power ends
Nicolas Maduro ruled Venezuela with a heavy hand for more than 12 years, presiding over deep economic and social crises and resisting pressure from domestic opponents and foreign governments for political change. His rule abruptly ended on Jan. 3,...
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Savannah mayor reflects on 2025
Sitting around a meeting table inside his office for an interview, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson says he wants to ask the first question. He momentarily shifts from mayor to faux journalist, acting out an exchange with this Savannah Morning News reporter...
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Mamdani promises new era for NYC
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Jan. 1 inauguration and block party reflected a diverse city looking to make good on the 34-year-old democratic socialist’s promises to address affordability. On a freezing New Year’s Day, the Democratic mayor took...
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Arizona traffic stops lead to deportations
On a heavily patrolled stretch of Interstate 10 south of Phoenix, people pulled over for having a cracked windshield or an object dangling from their rear view mirror have ended up in deportation proceedings. The stated goal of the traffic stops is to...
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Rates are down, and the market’s heating up
Whether you’re buying or selling a home, this is the time to act. Don’t miss out.
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Experts expect economy to grow in the next year
A seesaw year for the U.S. economy in 2025 looks set to give way to a stronger 2026 thanks to tailwinds from President Donald Trump’s tax cuts, less uncertainty around tariffs, the ongoing artificial intelligence boom and a late-year run of...
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‘The freedom to be unkind’
Alley Mills Bean approached the podium at a Los Angeles City Council meeting alongside council member Traci Park on a June day in 2024, Emmy in hand. She’d won it the previous year for her role as the hookwielding serial killer Heather Webber on...
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A pipeline through pines
For 30 years, Perry Wells has overseen 200 acres of forested land in the rural community of Bolingbroke, Monroe County, Ga. About two-thirds of the property is filled with softwood pines planted for timber. The rest is covered with 100-year-old...
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‘DEEP CONNECTION’
The places Indigenous peoples call home have intertwined with their ways of life for millennia. Their stories, foodways and cultures relate directly to their homelands. Lands, waters, plants and animals, the creatures that inhabit the waters below and...
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PROVIDING SOLUTIONS
The summer that rate hikes swept across Georgia, Nicole Lee’s phone started ringing. “We were getting 10 to 20 calls a day,” she said—compared with about the usual five to six calls throughout the week. Founded in 2022, Lee’s company Be Smart Home...
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Rates are down, and the market’s heating up
Whether you’re buying or selling a home, this is the time to act.
Read Full Story (Page 1)
Forsyth Park fountain back at full operations
A boisterous countdown from 10 began. After six, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson playfully chimed, “This better work.” On one, the mayor pointed at the Forsyth Park fountain in a grand voila. Then a pause, a beat of quiet. Johnson threw his arms out...
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Rincon man raising $70K for preserve upgrades
Watching as industrial, commercial and residential properties continue to consume wetlands and agricultural land in Effingham County, Isaiah Scott felt he had to do something. At just 22 years old, Scott founded Rookery and Roots Conservancy in Spring...
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Savannah Cotton Exchange hits the market for $10M
Attendees of a recent open house at one of Savannah’s most recognizable but mysterious buildings looked upwards toward the stained-glass windows fixed atop the back wall. Ornately blended into the design is one word: cotton. Many local elected...
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Baffled by slimy, moldy build up
Here are the Georgia Department of Health’s restaurant inspection scores for Chatham County, conducted Dec. 10-Dec. 16, 2025. Scores in each category are listed by most recent inspection date. The Georgia Department of Public Health, Environmental...
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Board approves hotel in Thomas Square
A proposed 21-room hotel in the Thomas Square Neighborhood cleared a key planning hurdle Wednesday amid resident concerns about the hotel’s size. The Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission Board recommended approval of a special use...
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Delivery drivers face different conditions
American households have become dependent on Amazon. h The numbers say it all: In 2024, 83% of U.S. households received deliveries from Amazon, representing over 1 million packages delivered each day and 9 billion individual items delivered same-day or...
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Fort Pulaski takes visitors back in time
Interpreters give insight into how soldiers would have spent the holidays during the Candle Lantern Holiday tour at Fort Pulaski National Monument on Dec. 12. A cannon guards the entrance to Historic Fort Pulaski during the Candle Lantern Holiday tour...
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‘SEEING PEOPLE AS PEOPLE’
When Elizabeth Dalzell’s daughter Liesl complained of severe pain in her left shoulder in June by using sign language, it began a nearly monthlong odyssey through New Jersey’s health care system before the young woman with multiple disabilities...
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BROTHERLY LOVE
When Rev. Ben Martin heard part of the ceiling collapsed in Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church’s sanctuary on July 21, he imagined a piece here or a piece there missing. But when he walked in and saw the scale, he was shocked. Video posted to...
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Private firms snap up mobile home parks
One of America’s most affordable paths to homeownership is slipping away. At manufactured home parks – sometimes called trailer parks or mobile home parks – rents are rapidly rising due to large-scale buyouts by private equity firms. Although private...
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AI tech aims to reduce boat strikes on whales
In the first days of December, when critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whales return to Georgia’s warm coastal waters to birth their calves, a fishing boat from New Jersey motored into Thunderbolt’s Bahia Bleu Marina. At first glance, the boat...
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Senator steps in to smooth CAT fight
The Chatham Area Transit Board may be headed toward its second restructuring—if state Sen. Derek Mallow’s proposal gains traction. Mallow spent about 15 hours making phone calls and taking meetings— with a brief pit stop for sleep—before he presented...
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Are you ready for a ‘screenager’ in the house?
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Motion hearing scheduled for Tybee STVR lawsuits
Tybee Alliance, a group of property management companies and STVR owners, filed a motion of summary judgement in August 2025, seeking a decision on the claim that Tybee’s STVR ordinance is unenforceable because it violates state codes limiting...
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AI could worsen school inequalities
Today’s teachers find themselves thrust into a difficult position with generative AI. New tools are coming online at a blistering pace and being adopted just as quickly, whether they’re personalized tutors and study buddies for students or lesson plan...
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Police: Hospital’s actions halted autopsy
The body of the 18-year-old who died after a he was stabbed at a Savannah-area Walmart was not autopsied because of a “miscommunication” within Memorial Health University Medical Center, according to court testimony from the lead detective on the...
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Great Dane celebrates 125 years with mobile museum
An original 1953 Great Dane trailer has been restored and converted into a mobile museum in celebration of the company’s 125th anniversary. TOP: The Mobile Museum was on hand during a public commemoration on Dec. 1 at Johnson Square. ABOVE: The...
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HOLIDAY HIGHLIGHTS
At top: Visitors get an up close look following the unveiling of the gingerbread house display at Plant Riverside District on Nov. 28. Above left: Santa and Mrs. Claus pose for a photo with a pooch during the annual City of Savannah Christmas Tree...
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2026 results key for Vance’s future
WASHINGTON – Vice President JD Vance has a lot riding on the November 2026 midterm elections. He is seen as the front-runner to be the next Republican nominee for the White House, yet he faces the more immediate challenge of being one of his party’s...
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SKILL BUILDERS
In a classroom at Juliette Low Elementary school on Thursday, 65 fourthand fifth-grade students were recognized for completing an eight-week Savannah Police Department (SPD) program designed to help students navigate social relationships, emotions and...
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Trump vows further migrant crackdown
President Donald Trump said Nov. 27 that U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, of the West Virginia National Guard, died after being shot the previous day in an ambush near the White House, a shooting that drew claims from his administration of Biden-era...
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HAPPY THANKSGIVING
There is no print edition of the paper today, but you can find today’s puzzles, comics, national news and sports here in the eNewspaper.
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THE GRATITUDE PROJECT
We began thinking about the Thanksgiving edition of the Savannah Morning News in August, because in publishing, whether it be newspapers or magazines, you must set up photo shoots and interviews for themed issues well ahead of when a story will reach...
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Three friends serve Thanksgiving meals
Henry Scheer, Harry Center and Steven Kaplan of Savannah have been friends since childhood and are accustomed to giving back, especially during the holiday season. On Thanksgiving Day, the three longtime pals will continue a tradition that began many...
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Meet Freedom II
For the first time in more than two decades the Georgia Southern football team began the season without beloved Bald Eagle mascot Freedom. Freedom, who died suddenly in March, was known for his pre-game flights from the top of the press box at Allen E....
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New life for park’s beloved fallen trees
For decades a pair of Live Oaks stood watch over McCauley Park in the Chatham Crescent neighborhood. Families gathered under the massive branches and children played high up in the limbs after getting out of school at Charles Ellis Montessori...
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Silicon Valley ‘warlord’ gets Pentagon’s attention
NEW YORK – “I’m a warlord now, (expletive)!” Steven Simoni, wearing a $4,000 Celine track suit unzipped to reveal a bare chest and a silver chain, was holding court at a recent film premiere in the East Village of Manhattan, joking with a reporter...
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Hyundai raid hurts Korean businesses
Daniel Lee prepares fried chicken the Korean way, mostly. He batters chicken thighs and drumsticks in a blend of wheat, corn starch and soy flour. The result is a lighter crust than American fried chicken. After the thighs and drumsticks are crisped,...
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Officials: U.S. aid cuts curtail malaria fight
BOGO, Cameroon – Nine-month-old baby Mohamat burned with fever for three days before his family took him to the closest health center in northern Cameroon, but it was too late. He died of malaria that day. Mohamat’s death was part of a spike this year...
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Just saying ‘no’
Jaylen Collins, headphones wrapped around his neck, wore a black jacket over an artic blue polo. The Savannah High School student sat down with a group of middle schoolers during lunchtime at John W. Hubert Middle School and started asking them...
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New catch limit set for vital marine fish
From Maine to Florida, the U.S. Atlantic Coast will have to hold back on its most caught fish, the Atlantic menhaden—or as they’re known in Georgia, “pogies.” Dubbed “the most important fish in the sea” by writer Bruce Franklin, bonefilled menhaden,...
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Georgia Quick Start
Georgia Quick Start held a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday for its new 89,000-square-foot training facility located at the Hyundai megasite in Ellabell. The Hyundai Mobility Training Center of Georgia will serve as training grounds for Hyundai Motor...
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SPD horses learn new lifesaving skill
Living in low-lying, coastal Georgia means knowing there is always the possibility of flash floods that could sweep anything away in an instant. Helicopters can search from the sky, people can trek by foot, scanning the disaster zones and K-9 units can...
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‘A chance to save someone’s life’
A first-floor hallway at Memorial Health University Medical Center fell under a hush late Friday morning, even as three dozen staff lined the corridor. Within minutes a gurney carrying the body of J.T. Schroeder rolled down the hallway. About 20...
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‘I would just have been lost without a nurse navigator’
Jodi Nishijima was 25 years old, a graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, and just beginning her career as a comic book artist for Marvel and other companies when she stepped into the shower, started washing, and noticed a knot in her...
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Effingham County parts ways with consultant
One week after an Oct. 7 county meeting where Effingham commissioners voted to withdraw from Live Oak Public Libraries, County Chair Damon Rahn says the county has parted ways with library consultant Nate Ball. Ball began working for the county Dec....
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HOPE SHIFT
The morning after a fall chill crept onto the coastal city’s streets, Savannah Police Department (SPD) officer Corporal Janessa Stalter grabbed a few jackets, loaded them into her patrol vehicle and set out to find Kenneth. Stalter arrived at a local...
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NEXT-LEVEL DEDICATION
The proof of Max Ellinger’s Costco fandom is his only tattoo, inked on his right arm. It’s the Kirkland Signature logo – the Costco house brand for everything from rotisserie chicken to laundry detergent. Ellinger got it in 2019 after a friend...
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USA TODAY CROSSWORD
EDITED Amanda Rafkin BY K.J. Sarr & Olivia Mitra Framke TERRORS OF THE DEEP ACROSS 1 4 8 13 15 16 17 18 19 20 23 24 25 29 31 33 34 36 39 41 44 46 47 49 51 54 56 58 61 64 65 66 67 “Winged” tree Lose traction Put on ice Robert Frost took...
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SNAP uncertainty worries farmers, shoppers
For 16 years, farmer Joe King has sold his produce and eggs at a stand in the Forsyth Farmers’ Market every Saturday morning. King is up by 4 a.m. most days to tend to his fields. On Friday, he begins harvesting around 3 p.m., gathering a colorful...
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An inside look at the Savannah Civic Center
Savannah Civic Center redevelopment is a major city project with multiple components and a deep history. With the City of Savannah slated to host community engagement meetings this week on what residents hope to see on the site, some may be wondering...
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Port of Savannah sees 8% growth in September
The Georgia Ports Authority’s September volumes are in, and the results show signs of continuing trends for trade. This installment of On Our Radar will provide details on the data and how it compares to recent months. Additionally, Chatham County is...
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Savannah Paints the City Hall Pink
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson joined St. Joseph’s/Candler President and CEO Paul Hinchey, WSAV anchor Tina Tyus-Shaw, and Alderman Nick Palumbo to ceremonially press the switch and illuminate Savannah City Hall with a pink glow. The new LED lighting...
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‘IT’S GOING TO BE VERY DIFFICULT’
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development provides multiple options for demolishing and redeveloping public housing. While those multiple options exist, the Housing Authority of Savannah (HAS) is moving forward with a type of application...
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Persistent inflation up again last month
Inflation rose again in September, revealing the persistence of rising prices as the job market showed signs of cooling and consumers begin to think about the holiday season. Consumer prices increased 3% from a year earlier, slightly up from 2.9% in...
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U.S. ‘Bibisitters’ aim to save Gaza truce
JERUSALEM − His vice president said the trip was not about being a babysitter. His top diplomat said the visit was simply intended to make sure everything was “coming together” in the right way. His son-in-law said it was about working toward...
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Student gets scholarship from fried pickles sales
Fried pickles helped a Richmond Hill teen pursue his passion for hospitality and restaurant tourism at Savannah Technical College. h The 5 Spot restaurants, part of the GLGSAV family, announced the launch of Serving Success this year, an employee...
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‘Not going to hire just anybody’
In April, Guyton Police Chief Kelphie Lundy had just two officers in his department. Over the last several months, that number has grown to six and his unit is now almost fully staffed. The interview process was trying at times for Lundy, who admitted...
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About 5,000 attend rally
About 5,000 people nearly filled downtown Savannah’s Emmet Park underneath a bluebird sky this afternoon, the Savannah Police Department estimated. The gathering hosted by Coastal Georgia for Democracy was among roughly 2,600 “No Kings” rallies...
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Cottage homes to help homeless community
Once vacant land off Savannah’s Dundee Street is now a potential steppingstone for individuals transitioning from homelessness. The City of Savannah and the Chatham-Savannah Authority for the Homeless cut the ribbon Thursday on the Dundee Cottages, 39...
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Savannah advances west side growth plan
Savannah’s downtown is expanding westward, and the landmark Enmarket Arena stands like a magnet ready to pull new investment. What is known as Savannah’s Canal District, home to the arena, is the land of opportunity between downtown and westside...
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Six teams, 45 states
The 2025 Banana Ball season just ended with a dominant performance by the Party Animals throughout the inaugural Banana Ball Championship series. All four Banana Ball teams lead headlining tours before 2.2 million fans across the country. According to...
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Civil servants caught up in ‘loyalty trap’
For many Americans, work is not just about earning a paycheck. It is a centerpiece of their lives, and they want their job to be meaningful. h Decades of research suggest this is true for most federal civil servants, who aim to serve not only their...
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Effingham County park getting major upgrades
One of Effingham County’s most popular parks is getting a major facelift. Baker Park is being reimagined as the entire park is being renovated. Soon, residents will be able to enjoy a walking trail, pickleball courts, dog park, gazebo, kayak launch,...
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THE TIDE RISES
Tinley Marin’s voice cracked, shuddered, then stopped as she tried to control her tears while speaking to the Tybee Island City Council Thursday night. h Martin, an eighth grader at Tybee Island Maritime Academy, was speaking about her beloved TIMA,...
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London doles out hugs, compassion at luncheon
Style maven and women’s health advocate Stacy London had a small bone to pick with Savannah when she took the stage in the Governor’s Ballroom at the Savannah Convention Center on Friday. Dressed in a sparkly halter top and a nubby pink plaid pencil...
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