Snow, or the threat thereof, does another number on local school schedules.

After announcing a 2-hour delay, class in Walker County was canceled entirely today. Chattooga County also had a two hour delay today, then had class but sent students home at 11:30 – less than two hours after they arrived.

GNTC is closed today, LaFayette library closed early, and Walker Transit did not run due to weather.

Tomorrow Walker County Schools will be on another two hour delay, and may decide to cancel class again. (Not much point having school tomorrow; winter break starts Thursday.)

Chickamauga, Whitfield, Catoosa, and Hamilton will also be on a two hour delay Wednesday; Chattooga classes will start THREE hours late – if they start at all.           

Summerville police have arrested two 18-year-old suspects from one recent convenience store robbery there.

Detectives say Dylon Dave Allen and Zaykives Banard McCray, both of Rome, are behind the January 15th holdup and shooting of a store clerk on Hawkins Dr. in Summerville. (That clerk is still in ICU at Floyd Medical.)

  

Mr. McCray [left] held up a Rome convenience store with a shotgun a year and a half ago when he was 17. He faced a laundry list of charges from THAT crime but apparently spent little or no time in jail for it. Suspect Dylon Allen [right] has no record, at least not as an adult.

Two suspects other holdups (including the one in LaFayette at Steve’s Kwik Stop) went to jail days ago; no word yet if the two pair are linked at all. Authorities say only one recent robbery, at the Wildlife Market south of Summerville, remains unsolved.   

Loyal Hutcheson employees continue paying the price for their commitment.

This family owes hundreds of dollars to a doctor’s office because insurance money Hutcheson took out of their paycheck never made it to an insurance company.

LU got permission to share this if the family name AND the name of the doctor’s office, which isn’t responsible for HMC’s crookedness, were both redacted.

To their credit, this medical facility cut the amount owed by about 2/3 when they verified there was no insurance. Also credit to Memorial for sending the letter below to other medical offices in the area explaining what Hutcheson did and why Hutcheson’s insured employees should be treated like lower-cost uninsured patients.

  

Even with the bill cut, $570 is still a good bit of money. Unfortunately others face not hundreds but tens of thousands in unpaid medical bills; at least one former Hutcheson staffer is filing bankruptcy to deal with a situation insurance would have covered IF they had actually been insured.   

Clara Louise Edwards of Ringgold will soon face a jury over charges that she murdered a 2-year-old foster child in her care during December 2013.

She had been an approved foster parent for all of two days when a private foster agency contracted by the state (not local DFCS) placed the child in her home.   

Dozens arrested in joint GBI/TBI sex crimes bust focusing on Dalton and Chattanooga.

25-year-old Patrick Dodd of Chickamauga and 52-year-old Russell Beesley of Ringgold both face charges related to prostitution near a public school. Others are being charged with more serious crimes related to exploiting children.

Plus: Walker County arrests for February 1-7.     

Companies that own Chattanooga’s TV stations may soon make millions by selling their broadcast signal slots back to the government. In return, they’d be paid more to set the same signals up on low-power frequencies or bundle them together with another station’s feed.

Which is all good and well unless you’re still getting your TV over the air. Those lower power signals won’t get far over the state line, much less to antennas in south Walker, Gordon, Chattooga, etc.

Channel 3 has already rejected the idea, while Channel 9/53/61 won’t say one way or the other what they plan to do. Chattanooga’s PBS station, WTCI, says they’re all for it.

If the FCC does this they need to also force the cable companies to expand their service into areas where you have no option BUT antenna or satellite. This plan is really screwing rural people who already have a hard time picking up digital signals.

Also, the FCC can go explain to Grandad why he’s got to finally give in and get cable.   

Chattooga 911 is hiring dispatchers.

Walker dispatchers concerned about the lack of leadership in their department, or about probably-next-commissioner Whitfield’s promises to cut 911, might want to check into that option.

(As a bonus, no Chattooga 911 dispatcher has (to date) been murdered by a LaFayette police officer. Walker county 911 can’t make that claim.)   

Arrested last week for running a prescription drug ring: The CEO of a hospital in Blairsville, along with members of his family and two doctors.

One physician charged (a hospital board member) allegedly wrote fifteen THOUSAND fake prescriptions over a three year period for Union County General Hospital’s now-ex-CEO, retired dentist Mike Gowder.   

Chickamauga Battlefield will soon spend $70,000 on new signage for its access roads – including a photo-friendly main entrance gateway.

2/3 of the money comes from a fund left to the battlefield by the estate of a former volunteer.

Maybe they can get more gates and shut down more access points so people can’t drive in, since that seems to be their goal of late.   

Georgia DFCS offices are changing how they respond to abuse reports.

Now the state’s child-protection agencies will actually meet with children involved in abuse complaints BEFORE deeming the reports as false or low priority.   

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