Hometown Headlines Radio Edition: Local news without the static.

Today's top headlines:

RANT OF THE DAY: Doubling down on downtown.

As temperature checks are part of today's pandemic lifestyle, let's do one on downtown Rome:

So what's the temperature? Not exactly 98.6 degrees -- but neither is it at serious fever level yet.

With the resignation of the downtown director in hand, the city has a crucial hire to make if it wants Broad Street to evolve. We can't afford to fumble this one -- and the City Commission needs to be involved right from the start.

Today's top headlines:

Rant of the Day: 

Nearly 21,000 of our neighbors were unemployed in April, the latest and continuing fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. A county-by-county look on our Hometown Headlines' website today shows just how severe the numbers are.

In Floyd County, nearly 6,000 were without jobs with an unemployment rate of 13.5 percent. A year ago April, the jobless rate was 3.2 percent. In Bartow County, more than 7,000 were out of work with a 14.8 percent unemployment rate. A year earlier, a record low or near-record low of 2.9 percent was posted.

Sadly, these reports will only empower the "Open Georgia" crowd even as our state's death count approaches 2,000 victims since March 5. Those Clorox drinkers got vocal on Wednesday when a local business owner announced he's closing for the season, in part because of safety concerns. Some of the reaction was not just nasty but bitter.

As some of these commenting were from the business community, we hope their employers and customers react accordingly and send them to the unemployment lines. Let's see what they say then. 

Today's top headlines:

Rant of the Day: Virus deaths, business closings increasing.

Tuesday was particularly brutal. Four more area residents died, two in Bartow, one in Floyd and the first in Polk County since all this began. At least two of them appear to have been residents at long-term healthcare facilities. They are  among the 800 Georgians to die this month -- and we'll likely top 1,000 as we still have a few days to go before June 1.

Again, Tuesday was particularly brutal. We received news that a downtown Rome favorite, Elysium, and a Cartersville mainstay, Discount City furniture, were closing. They join Pier 1, Jandy's and Whistle Britches, which is in its final week. Even the Rome News-Tribune is down from publishing seven to five days a week, citing the virus and a resulting loss of advertising.

Thursday could be brutal as well. We'll get the April unemployment reports that morning and they will be ugly.

Already the High Court of Facebook is blaming the shelter-in-place restrictions as to why at least a few of the businesses aren't coming back. So, if that's the case, do we likewise blame the dropping of our quarantines earlier this month for a surprising spike in positive test results in Northwest Georgia, up more than 50 percent in under a month?

So who has the right answer? We don't and we're not sure who does.

We're encouraged by some positive steps and signs from the past 24 hours but one thing is clear. The virus is still very much with us in Northwest Georgia. 

Today's top headlines:

RANT OF THE DAY: 'Citizen's arrest, citizen's arrest!'

Most of us grew up watching The Andy Griffith Show and distinctly recall when Gomer Pyle made his "citizen's arrest, citizen's arrest," charging Deputy Barney Fife with making an illegal u-turn.

It seems Gomer has some relatives on the High Court of Facebook as we're seeing groups called out for not practicing social distancing. The latest venue was on Broad Street  during the Memorial Day observance. Dozens of people were watching nearby at 11:30 a.m. and, yes, most were together (although we note that some were "families" which get a pass from the guidelines). We were witnesses but were not called to testify.

We're not aware of any actual arrests or what penalties were handed down by the High Court of Facebook aside from public shaming.

That said, social distancing is a concern here -- and elsewhere. In that other Rome, as in Italy, the country's government "will ask some 60,000 citizens to work as volunteers to enforce social distancing rules as it gradually removes coronavirus restrictions," after scenes of street gatherings renewed concerns about coronavirus making a second sweep (this according to Reuters news agency).

With cases still rising here, up 50 percent in less than a month, who will enforce the needed safeguards if we don't do it ourselves?

Hometown's top headlines: please click here

Rant of the Day: A rough 24 hours for the governor.

There's no page 1A story about it or lead item on the evening news. But Thursday was a day Brian Kemp was almost nonstop in the news, whether he wanted to be there or not.

It started with reports about Kemp and the state school superintendent appointing 72 people to "working groups" to get public schools ready to reopen by August.  Then came final confirmation that Vice President Mike Pence would visit the governor and metro Atlanta later today.

By midafternoon, the governor was being praised by the executive director of the Georgia High School Association who was pitching that his board of trustees restart conditioning for student athletes next month.

At 4:30 p.m., Kemp held his latest briefing on the state of the state's fight against the virus. You again heard about fewer patients hospitalized, more scheduled although belated arrivals of needed assets in the battle as well as a few other bullet points. 

Two hours later, an email from the governor's re-election team (for 2022, thank you) arrived, seeking assistance to "fight back against those playing pandemic politics."

And finally, confirmation that another 78 Georgians had died from coronavirus, tying it for the second deadliest day in the pandemic.

That fact somehow never got mentioned amid the day's other "headlines."

Hometown's top headlines: please click here

Rant of the Day:

This afternoon, the Georgia High School Association's board of trustees meet at 3 and they are expected to make a decision that will rock fall football across the state.

On the agenda is GHSA Executive Director Dr. Robin Hines who will "address the committee on several issues including a discussion of plans to return to GHSA activities." Better put,  high school sports which have been on hold since basketball season was ending and baseball season was into region play.

It all came to a halt as schools closed amid the initial coronavirus pandemic. The schools moved online but high school sports couldn't follow. Seasons -- even careers for some seniors -- ended right there. It was a tough call but it saved lives and that's the real winner in all this.

So what comes down today will be crtiical. A common assumption is the start of conditioning for football on July 6 -- normally the start of the GHSA's dead week from summer drills.

The real decision needs to be pegged to one thing: the health of our student athletes, coaches and staff. 

The  latest: Two Rome men arrested as the investigation continues into murders of Richardson, Campbell. Devin Watts faces theft, gun possession charges; Desmond Brown charged with obstruction of a law officer.

Hometown's earlier headlines: please click here

Rant of the Day:

This has been removed following Wednesday's developments in the double homicide in Rome.

Hometown's top headlines: please click here

Rant of the day:

May 19 was on the books as the state and local primary. By tonight, we should have known the finalists for the Nov. 3 general election or at least narrowed large fields of hopefuls to what is called a primary runoff.

But that was before the pandemic. It hit smack in the middle of the presidential preference primary, a pretty much  useless exercise as the once-massive field of Democratic hopefuls had been greatly trimmed by Super Tuesday and other primaries around the country. Georgia's vote was mostly after the fact. Republicans never had a choice -- the state GOP decided it was all Trump or nothing. So much for the freedom of choice.

But then people started dying in Georgia and the presidential primary was merged with the state and local primary on May 19. And then more people started dying as "community spread" of the pandemic continued. The primary again was delayed, this time by three weeks to June 9.

The primary is three weeks from today -- but a lot of people are still very confused and some expected to vote today.

Welcome to the pandemic primaries.

Hometown's top headlines: please click here

Rant of the Day: Time to recycle recycling.

In Cartersville this morning, things are a little bit greener. After a pandemic-imposed hiatus, recycling begins again in this city of 21,000-plus.

We were halfway to Cartersville on Saturday morning in our hunt to repurpose used plastic and aluminum cans. That midpoint was at Marglen Industries just off Calhoun Road and Ward Mountain Road amid one of the more beautiful landscape settings in our area.

The company has offered to accept plastics and aluminum cans while Rome and Floyd County continue to place recycling on hold for reasons we'll get to in a minute. 

But also under consider by County Manager Jamie McCord and City Manager Sammy Rich is perhaps the potential to outsource some recyling duties to Marglen or Ira Levy's Paper Recovery operation. Apparently a money loser at best, city and county leaders are using the pandemic downtime to search for ways to at least offset some of those expenses.

It was part of a lengthy discussion with the joint services committee recently and on the agenda for a few others as well. It may have taken us some 50 years since the first Earth Day but we finally get it -- that recycling is a trend that helps the evironment and trims landfill costs. It is good to know no community leaders have expressed an interest in moving away from recycling despite those costs.

But with more things opening and a strong consumer push to be green, it is high time to recycle recycling in all of Northwest Georgia. 

Hometown's top headlines: please click here

Rant of the Day:

More restaurants are open. Two live performances are set on Broad Street tonight and Saturday. Even a few bars around town are back in business.

With temperatures in the upper 80s, sunny skies and folks anxious to get out of their homes, this weekend will serve as a test to some of the newly relaxed guidelines announced by Gov. Brian Kemp?

Is it too soon? Perhaps. We've seen major changes in Bartow County in the past 24 hours in terms of prom and graduation. Football hungry Alabama has canceled summer practices for high schoolers.  The number of positive test results in Georgia continue to climb, in part because of more testing but isn't that the point?

So ask yourself as you decide whether to go out or go curbside again this weekend. When it comes to your health and that of the community, are you feeling lucky this weekend?