The Chatter Box
By Deborah Bennett

For all of those folks who think The Millen News is just a local, small town newspaper and Jenkins County a small rural community that goes unnoticed by the outside world, consider these facts.

The Millen News' website averages 10,767 hits per day with the average visit lasting seven minutes. The number of hits for the past three months were: April - 419,000; May - 420,000; and June - 323,000. And this includes some international visitors.

This confirms what many of our community leaders have been saying for a long time - industries, companies and individuals looking to locate or relocate almost always check a community out on the Internet before contacting anyone. If they don't like what they see, we never know they even looked.

I was surprised to learn of the traffic that our website gets and am pleased that The Millen News is not only a source of information for local citizens but also an ambassador for the community in the outside world. Check us out at http:// www.themillennews.com.

If you have a paid print subscription (mail), an Internet subscription is free. Just call Susie or Tres at 706-554-2111 to sign up.

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Last week's poll question on our website was, "How has the price of gas affected your travel?" Responses as of Monday morning were: Travel less, 16; Car pool, 1; Cut back on other expenses, 8; and Not Affected, 1.

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Happy birthday this week to: Frank Wilson, Angelique Jones, Aaron Tanner, Thomas Thompson, Lynn Saxon, Paula Herrington, Darlene Gay, Amanda Elizabeth Bragg, Ashley Burch, Craig Rowland, C.J. Jones, Melvin Seibert and George Robert Dudley Jr.

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Celebrating wedding anniversaries this week are: Dr. and Mrs. Joe Griffin, Mr. and Mrs. Benny Mims, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Black and Mr. and Mrs. Rew Herrmann.

Military Active Duty List: Lance Cpl. Patrick Barnette, U.S. Marines, Twenty Nine Palms, CA; Sgt. Adam Demshar, 44th Signal Battalion, Baghdad, Iraq; Lance Cpl. Lee Ogden, U.S. Marines, Radio and Communications, Bahria, Iraq; Petty Officer 3rd Class Eric B. Kelsey, U.S. Navy, NSA Bahrain; Airman First Class Charles F. Woods, Moody Air Force Base, Valdosta, GA; Capt. Andrew P. Thomas, U.S. Marines, F.A.S.T. Company, Yorktown, VA; Stuart Burrus, U.S. Air Force, Bossier AFB, Bossier, LA; SPC 4 Travis D. Motes, 1st Calvary Division, T. Hood, Texas; Capt. Donald Slade Burke, Travis Air Force Base, Fairfield, Calif.; Staff Sgt. Gilbert C. Sheppard III, 48th Brigade, 118th Field Artillery, Iraq; Petty Officer 3rd Class Jamie A. Yager, U.S. Navy, Marine Corps Base Hawaii; Petty Chief Officer Andy D. Crosby, U.S. Navy, Elroy Destroyer, Norfolk, Va.; Stephanie Crosby, R.N., U.S. Navy, Lafayette Destroyer; Jimmy Cooper, U.S. Army National Guard, 878th Engineering Battalion-Augusta, Persian Gulf ; 1st Lt. J.R. Taylor, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, Iraq; SPC. Daniel Stuart, 18th MEDCOM, 121 General Hospital, Seoul, Korea; Jeffrey Sweat, U.S. Navy, USS Kauffman, MM3 59/EDivision, A-Gang, Norfolk, Va.; Cpl. Larry Lamont Clark, U.S. Marine Corp, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C. Bagdad, Iraq; Khan Young, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Kitty Hawk, Persian Gulf; Robert Milton Jr., E-3, U.S. Army, Ft. Stewart, Hinesville, Ga., Mission Kuwait; Arnold R. Mosley, 2nd Lt., U.S. Air Force, Randolph AFB, Texas; and Debra A. Mosley, Tech. Sgt., U.S. Air Force, Randolph AFB, Texas.