Hometown Headlines Radio Edition: Local news without the static.

Today's headlines:

Today's Sound Bite:

City commissioners Wendy Davis and Craig McDaniel on attracting, keeping young people in our community and what to watch for at East Bend.

Today's headlines:

Sound Bites: City Commissioners Wendy Davis and Craig McDaniel on Rome's growth and the River Walk.

Rome City Commissioner Mark Cochran joined us at Brand Red Studios in downtown Rome to talk about changing the community's development plan to reflect a pro-growth stance. Since 2001, we've been under a plan that basically stunts growth, he says. 

Cochran also is a huge proponent of a downtown River Walk, akin to those in Greenville, Chattanooga and Columbus. He outlined what needs to be done to make that happen and how it would help make Rome a destination. 

Cochran likewise shares some insights for continuing to redevelop Rome's River District. 

About this podcast:  We thank the Brand Red team for the production support of our long-form podcasts and Todd La Berge for another superior job producing this conversation.

The Druck Report is part of the Hometown Podcast Network.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a narrative basically telling us to be prepared as corona virus is coming.

"It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but more really a question of when it will happen — and how many people in this country will have severe illness," says Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the CDC.

She lists possible scenarios we could see: school closings, work place shutdowns, cancellation of large event gatherings.

The CDC report is almost impossible to follow which is why we've linked two other stories with it on our websites today. 

America is listening when it comes to coronavirus but the CDC needs to communicate in easy-to-understand languages if it wants people to be informed and on alert. 

Top five headlines:

New this week: "Sound Bites" or excerpts from recent Druck Report long-form podcasts. Today, we focus on the River District as it was addressed in the recent City Commission retreat. Our guests: City commissioners Wendy Davis and Craig McDaniel. Fro more, please see our recent podcast.

For years, the big tree in front of the Rome City Auditorium served as a key player in the community’s Christmas celebration. 

But that tree was declared to be on the way out. Down it came and the space was later used for the plaza and statue honoring Admiral John Towers.

The tree just down the block, in front of the Rome Floyd Chamber, was used in a following year and then the $5,000 plastic pyramid was purchased as the new tree for Santa to click on at the end of the Christmas parade.

Sadly, the chamber option no longer exists. That majestic Cypress Leyland at Broad Street on the Carnegie Building side of the chamber is gone. 

We checked on the tree’s fate and discovered it, too, was diseased.  We do not doubt the story about the chamber tree’s fate.

 But it just seems odd how trees kind of lose out in this town, from the city auditorium Christmas tree to the chamber tree to those old oaks that accidentally got leveled to make way for the Riverside Parkway expansion years ago.

Today's headlines:

New this week: "Sound Bites" or excerpts from previous Druck Report podcasts. Today, a quick summary with Elections Chief Robert Brady on how to use the new voting machines as advance voting starts Monday, March 2, at the downtown elections office. 

A closer look at the highs and lows of Northwest Georgia:

New this week:

"Sound Bites" or excerpts from our Druck Report long-form podcasts. Today: Elections Chief Robert Brady on today's voter registration deadline and advance voting locations starting a week from today, March 2.

Today's headlines:

Fifty-one days into 2020 and we’re not sure if we want to hit the reset button or perhaps fast forward. There are multiple reasons:

The weather: Rain, show, wind storms, black ice. And more rain on the way?

The politics: We thought it couldn’t get any worse that what we witnessed on a national level in 2016. Instead, the rot has spread to the state level and even some locally..

The tears: There’s no easy or even clever way to put this. 2020 is off to a grim start. It began on the eve of the New Year when the text came in about the death of a dear friend. And it hasn't stopped since.

There’s always some balance: some great news for family members, some pretty good headlines overall for things happening around town and a couple of things suddenly falling into place that will improve our community.

But so far, at least, 2020 isn't -- to paraphrase that old song -- "a very good year."