STATE HEADLINES

BAPTIST MINISTER ARRESTED FOR SEXUAL ABUSE: The minister of a Baptist Church in Wetumpka, Alabama, has been charged with sexually abusing and making obscene videotapes of two girls. Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin says Garett Dykes admitted to abusing the girls. The Church`s Administrator says a thorough background check before hiring the pastor revealed no criminal history. The sheriff said Dykes, a married father of three, has been charged with three counts of sexual abuse, three counts of production of obscene matter of someone under 17, and one count of sodomy. HEALTHSOUTH TRIAL: The fraud trial of Birmingham based Healthsouth`s founder and former C.E.O. may now exceed the expected five to six weeks. A Judge has stated that the trial of Richard Scrushy could possibly take as long as three to four months, due to new information regarding the case. The start date has also been pushed back from January 18th to January 25th. Scrushy is accused of falsely inflating company profits by nearly 2.7 billion dollars. TEACHER PAY RAISE: Pay raise roulette could be the order of the day for Alabama`s Education Budget this year. The head of the Alabama Teacher`s Union has said his members will push for a seven percent pay hike this year because they`ve gone without one since 2003. On top of that, officials from Alabama`s 15 four year colleges say now, they want the same. This week some testified saying their faculty and staff deserve raises no less than public school teachers. It would cost an estimated 50 million dollars for all four-year college employees to get that seven percent raise.