A Roper employee died Tuesday afternoon while mowing grass at the factory on a tractor. He was found passed out on the machine and pronounced dead at Hutcheson.

Per official reports, the man – later identified as David Cabe – wasn’t obviously injured; emergency responders believe he suffered a heart attack.   

If you’re gonna be a thief, go big. Three credit cards, a luxury car… Beats having to tell the other prisoners you’re in jail for shoplifting from Dollar Tree.

WQCH Radio, 03/25/15: “A FRAUDULENT CREDIT CARD PURCHASE WAS HALTED AND A STOLEN CAR RECOVERED AT THE LAFAYETTE WALMART LAST FRIDAY; POLICE WERE NOTIFIED THAT THE VEHICLE WAS LOCATED THERE THROUGH A ‘PINGED’ CELL PHONE INSIDE.

“35 YEAR OLD KEVIN PAUL VENIER, WHO LIVES ON ‘HOOTIE HOO HOLLER’ OFF 136 WEST OF LAFAYETTE, WAS ARRESTED ON MULTIPLE CHARGES.

“INSIDE THE STORE, VENIER TRIED TO MAKE PURCHASES WITH TWO STOLEN DEBIT CARDS, WHICH WERE DENIED. WITH A THIRD CARD, HE PURCHASED TWO CELL PHONES AND AN AIRSOFT PISTOL, ACCORDING TO THE POLICE REPORT. HE AND HIS FEMALE COMPANION WERE STOPPED UPON LEAVING THE STORE. A STOLEN LEXAS [sic] HE HAD BEEN DRIVING, REPORTED MISSING FROM CHATTANOOGA, WAS RECOVERED IN THE PARKING LOT.

“VENIER WAS CHARGED WITH THEFT BY BRINGING STOLEN PROPERTY INTO THE STATE, FINANCIAL CARD FRAUD, CRIMINAL ATTEMPT TO COMMIT A FELONY AND GIVING A FALSE NAME.”

This isn’t Mr. Venier’s first – or second – arrest. The pic came from one of his prior bookings in Chattanooga.   

Catoosa County has hired former Hutcheson CEO Roger Forgey as a consultant. Forgey will help Catoosa leaders understand the hospital’s ongoing financial situation, and help them decide if they should push for chapter 7 bankruptcy – a liquidation of the hospital’s assets.

Forgey is the good CEO Erlanger provided to Hutcheson who was starting to turn the place around when the hospital board ended their management deal and kicked him to the curb – not to be confused with his corrupt predecessor Charles Stewart, or idiot replacement Farrell Hayes.

Walker County doesn’t need any educated or experienced consultants. We’re still shakin’ that Magic-8-Ball Bebe got at Bill’s in downtown Chickamauga twenty years ago.   

Tuesday the GA Senate passed a medical marijuana bill, similar to one already approved by the state House.

Minor differences between the two measures have been worked out, and a final bill is heading to the governor’s desk – likely today or early next week. Deal has already ordered state agencies to prepare for the bill to pass. Looks like Georgia is on track to finally legalize cannabis oil for very limited medical use.

[Cue recreational pot smokers rushing to be diagnosed with one of the medical conditions allowed for treatment.]     

Please people, please, LOCK YOUR @$%^& DOORS.

WQCH Radio, 03/23/15: “EVEN WITH A COUPLE OF ARRESTS FOR THE CRIMES, LAFAYETTE POLICE SAY REPORTS OF ‘ENTERING AUTOS’ CONTINUED LAST WEEK IN THE QUEEN CITY.

“THE HOME OWNER AT 95 WEST MORGAN STREET REPORTED THAT HIS ACURA WAS ENTERED THURSDAY, AND A 40-CALIBER GLOCK HANDGUN WAS MISSING. THE GUN WAS HIDDEN UNDER SOME CLOTHING – BUT THE CAR HAD BEEN LEFT UNLOCKED. POLICE SAY THE HANDGUN WAS VALUED AT $450.”

Also, Latest local arrests and jail bookings: March 16-22 and March 19-25.       

Dalton State’s recently revived Roadrunners basketball team made it to the NAIA Championship in Kansas City, MO.

Tuesday night Dalton beat Westmont of California, 71-53, live on ESPN 3 – claiming the school’s first national title ever.

Not bad for a team that didn’t exist three years ago.       

Annual City Easter Egg Hunt will be this Saturday morning at 11 in Joe Stock Park.

Like WWE, only with kids and eggs.

Also this Saturday: a second Gaming for Kitties will be held at the Civic Center. 12-hour video game marathon is a fundraiser for the local animal shelter. 7AM-7PM.     

Walker County is home to about 50 of Georgia’s 600 caves. That’s why the county is also home to one of the best cave rescue groups in the Southeastern US.   

LaFayette City Council had a special meeting this afternoon to.. paint city hall?   

Atlanta media is spending a lot of time covering a flier mailed to city water customers, advocating they vote for an upcoming bond issue. Ethical experts say the mailing was wrong, but probably not illegal since state law is full of ethical loopholes.

Walker County had a much worse version of this before the 2013 SPLOST vote: water customers were sent campaign material, and volunteers handed out pro-SPLOST fliers to kids in elementary schools.

But up here, nobody touched on it except LU.   

Time and time again, we hear of people sneaking phones into prison for inmates to use. Several local families have been called out for it on LU, and the response is always about poor kids in jail who need to call their mamas.

There’s a reason why this is against the law. Criminals are using phones behind bars, smuggled in by families, friends, and even prison employees, to run scams, steal money from the elderly, and even occasionally arrange revenge on enemies.

Georgia has the highest number of smuggled phones of any state, about twice as many as the next closest – even though we have the nation’s third highest prison population – because people don’t take the crime seriously.

If you’re smuggling a phone into jail for somebody, you need to be in there with them.

And if you ever become aware of an inmate with a phone or Internet access, report it here.   

Two decades ago, federal transportation officials recognized one type of highway guardrail as dangerous, and instructed states to remove them.

Georgia still has about 1,900 of the unsafe safety devices remaining, mostly on highways here in the northwest corner. GDOT says they’re replacing the barriers as roads are repaired, but pulling the remaining guards out all at once would cost the state $10 million.   

Gov. Deal’s plan to give the state more control over specific schools that fail will be put before voters next November.

This isn’t a state takeover of all schools, it’s a state takeover of bad schools that consistently fail kids.   

Northwest Georgia Regional Commission has set “boosting the digital economy” as one of its goals, but how those goals will be accomplished is a bit fuzzy.

You want smart, techie people to live and do business here? Make the community a better place to live. The infrastructure will come if the people do, but why would someone who could live anywhere else in the world intentionally choose to live here?

There are some reasons to call NWGA home, but the list is short.   

Meanwhile in Rossville…

(Looks like they need to do a fundraiser for a locking glass cover for the library sign.)   

Old Capital Museum in Milledgeville, GA has a display commemorating the 190th anniversary of Marquis de Lafayette visiting Georgia.

The Marquis was a French nobleman who assisted colonists against the British during the Revolutionary War. He also became the namesake of LaFayette when the city was formally founded five years after his visit.   

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