Augusta, GA
Downtown bars gear up for early New Year’s Eve celebrations
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Sunday alcohol sales are off the table for Augusta bars thanks to a Georgia law limiting sales to just one Sunday a year.
However, our local businesses are getting creative.
Commissioners say it was a quick decision to pick the Super Bowl but hope to change that for businesses on Broad Street and across Richmond County next year.
For now, it’s about staying positive going into the weekend.
While the effort for collective bar owners’ downtown is to change the city’s current ordinance on Sunday sales next year, they’re still trying to turn things around this weekend.
General Manager Chris McCarthy is gearing up Joe’s Underground for New Year’s Eve’s Eve.
He’s planning on live music, champagne, and even a countdown if customers want it, hoping people will still come out a day early to bring in 2024.
“I don’t particularly give a crap if we’re open for Super Bowl Sunday or not for the Super Bowl. But St. Patty’s Day is one of the biggest days for us in the year and would put us in the black for three months. Cinco de Mayo is huge for us,” said McCarthy.
Local liquor stores like Stevens Creek Wine and Spirits are starting to see their customers hit the shelves early ahead of the big weekend.
The manager says some are stocking up on their home supply with nowhere to go on the night of December 31.
“Some customers come in with sad faces, and when they go, they have smile faces,” said manager Noor Singh.
The commission plans to try and reverse their decision on the 2024 Sunday sales being on Super Bowl Sunday their first meeting of the year.
In the meantime, bars are raising a toast to New Years Eves Eve.
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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Democratic candidate for Georgia governor Olu Brown visited Augusta on Friday evening, stopping near the Sand Hills Community Center as early voting continues.
Brown is one of six candidates in the Democratic primary.
Campaign priorities
Brown said his vision as governor would focus on three main areas.
“One, it’s affordability around health care and making sure we expand Medicaid and expand Peach Care and make sure we continue to make our rural health care systems healthy and vital,” Brown said. “Number two, we’ve got to address education in all of Georgia, making sure every kid in Georgia gets an excellent education, and we’re paying our teachers more. And number 3, we’re protecting the rights of all women. Folks in the Gold Dome shouldn’t be making decisions about their bodies or the choices that they make.”
Brown is running against Amanda Duffy, Derrick Jackson, Geoff Duncan, Jason Esteves, Keisha Lance Bottoms and Mike Thurmond.
Copyright 2026 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – An Augusta Prep student was arrested on a charge of terroristic threats over a picture of a LEGO gun he posted on social media.
It happened Wednesday, according to an incident report from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office.
Eric Hedinger, the principal of Augusta Preparatory Day School, told deputies a student had uploaded a picture to Snapchat of a “pistol” with the caption “shooting up the school so I don`t have to take the stats exam tomorrow. Don`t come yall!”
The principal said he spoke to the student and his father about the photo.
The principal also provided deputies with the student’s address in Grovetown.
A deputy went there and was told by the student that the “pistol” was a LEGO set that he had built.
He also said the comment he made was supposed to be a joke because he was not looking forward to taking his Advanced Placement statistics test this week.
The student showed the deputy the box that the LEGO set came in, and how the set was already disassembled.
The deputy also looked in the boy’s room to make sure he was not in possession of any weapons.
The mother advised that there was one firearm in the residence but it was locked up.
The deputy contacted Judge Leslie Morgan and she issued a warrant for terroristic threats.
The student, age 18, was taken into custody and transported to the Columbia County Detention Center.
News 12 is not reporting his name or publishing his photo since the LEGO gun could not have actually harmed anyone.
Copyright 2026 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
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