CALHOUN — Police have arrested a Resaca man and charged him with the murder of a Calhoun man whose body was discovered Wednesday afternoon.

A shooting and apparent robbery at a popular Rome restaurant left an employee with a gunshot wound to the leg.  According to reports, an armed gunman entered Buffalo’s Southwest Café on Shorter Avenue last night around 11:20 PM and demanded money.  It is not clear if the robber got away with any cash.  Rome Police brought in K9 Units to try to track the man.  The employee was able to walk away from the scene to seek medical treatment. 

64 year old Jerald Wayne Anderson, of Adairsville, Georgia, was sentenced Thursday to serve more than 8 years in prison on a charge of receiving child pornography; Anderson was sentenced by Judge Robert Vining in Rome to 8 years, 1 month in prison to be followed by 20 years of supervised release. Anderson pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography through the use of a computer back in August of last year.   In October 2007, Anderson was posing as a 13-year-old girl on the Internet and was chatting with an undercover police officer from Broward County, Florida, who also claimed to be 13-year-old girl. Within minutes of beginning the chat, Anderson sent the police officer images of a young girl in various stages of nudity.  In January 2008, the undercover officers passed the information on to Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and within days of receiving this information the agents obtained and executed a search warrant at Anderson’s home and found 140 CD’s and DVD’s containing thousands of images of child pornography.  The images on the discs showed children as young as 5 years old being sexually abused and engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Anderson admitted that he had collected the child pornography.  He admitted that he had sent images of child pornography to at least 100 other persons.

Cari Campbell of Lindale, GA, Charged with Superior Court Probation Violation

Katrina Lindsey of Summerville, Charged with Failure to Appear

Christopher Wooden, Charged with Possession of Schedule III Drug

Gwenetta Jene Stephens of Trion, Charged with DUI / Drugs and Driving Violations

There are currently 62 inmates in the Chattooga County Jail with 28 housed in Floyd County, 1 Housed in Dade County and 1 Housed at the RYDC for a total of 92 inmates in the custody of the Chattooga County Sheriffs Department.

Plant Hammond, the Georgia Power coal fired power plant in western Floyd County has made four out of six lists of top producers of toxic materials stored in coal ash debris in it’s surface impoundments.   Plant Hammond ranks among the worst polluters when considering arsenic, chromium, lead and nickel in it’s coal ash.  It did not make the worst polluters list for thallium or selenium. The report was issued after a massive coal ash leak from a plant in Tennessee.  Jeff Wilson at Georgia Power says the company is constantly monitoring it’s ash disposal. Unrelated to the coal ash report, it is being reported that Brandon Dillard is the new general Manager at Plant Hammond, replacing Susie Mayfield.

WRGA

The school administration at Trion is concerned about the budget shortfalls that are on the horizon for education.  Reportedly the administrators at Trion City Schools met with teachers on Monday to discuss the situation.

With 92% of Trion City Schools budget going towards salaries, it appears almost certain that some teaching jobs will be cut.  School administrators have reportedly been meeting with some teachers to tell them that they may not have their contracts renewed for next year. 

Also, teachers were reportedly told that they might find themselves teaching classes that would not be their first choice.

Earlier this week AM 1180 Chattooga County Radio spoke with Representative Barbara Reece who expressed her concerns about the education budget in the upcoming legislative session.  Education spending is almost certain to be cut back as the state reels from budget shortfalls.  Larger class sizes are one of the remedies being proposed for the decrease in educational dollars to pay teachers.

AM 1180 Chattooga County Radio has learned that Chattooga High School Principal Morgan Nugent has announced that he is resigning his position.

Reportedly the announcement was made in a staff meeting today.  Nugent told those in attendance that he would be resigning his position at the end of the semester.  The principal cited personal reasons for quitting at the end of the school year.

Nugent is reported to have told the staff that he "would not be a lame duck principal", and that he would fulfill his obligations as administrator at Chattooga High School through the end of the school year.

Chattooga County Public Works Director Lamar Canada announced today the closing of Price Bridge Road in the Holland Community, Closed due to high waters.

The fate of Mount Berry Square Mall in Rome remains up in the air.

Stores remain open this week after it was announced that its properties are now moving into the hands of Jones Lang LaSalle, a court-appointed receiver.

The company will work with a local team to decide what is next for the mall. A receiver is appointed by a bankruptcy court or secured creditor to run a company for a short period of time in a manner that will ensure as much debt is paid back to creditors as possible.

 Mount Berry Square Mall is one of four malls owned by the Lightstone Group, which has fallen into the hands of the receivership. Lightstone purchased Mount Berry from Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust back in December of 2004 for a reported $120 million.