Photo Credit:  Sitting Bear: Mike Bender, USFWS. / Bear Accessed Trash: Gerald D. Hodge, Jr., Founder & CEO, AGFOB.

The Appalachia Georgia Friends of the Bears would like to remind the public that March marks the time for the Black Bears to being emerging from den. We already have received reports of adult males and subadults that are out and about. Second to emerge will be the solitary females and Sows with Yearlings in late March-mid-April. Finally, are the Sows with Cubs of the Year in mid-April-early May. Warmer temperatures tend to make them more active too.

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A bill that would grant tenants additional rights has passed the Georgia House and is headed to the Senate.  The “renters rights” bill seeks to address the living conditions of rental houses in the Peach State.  The bill had broad bipartisan support.

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A fifty-seven-year-old Chattooga County man was arrested in Walker County late last week. According to docket records from the Walker County Sheriff’s Office, Jeffery Lynn George of a Martin Dairy Road, Summerville address was arrested on Friday morning and booked into the Walker County Jail on an outstanding warrant.

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Floyd County Police say that a forty-two-year-old Silver Creek man was jailed after he posted a nude picture of another person on social media, without the victim’s consent.  Police say that James Kenneth Owens, Jr. shared the picture on Snap Chat and that the picture was viewed by his friends on social media.  Owens has been charged with a felony count of violating the prohibition on nude or sexually explicit communications.  Police say that Owens is also accused of calling and sending text messages to the victim whose picture was shared.  Owens was charged with additional counts of harassing communications.

WRGA

Georgia gas prices experienced a slight decrease at the pump compared to a week ago. Georgia drivers are now paying an average price of $3.14 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline. Monday’s state average was 1 cent less than a week ago, 20 cents less than a month ago, and 63 cents less than this time last year.  In our area, the cheapest gas can be found across the state line in Alabama where gas is well below $3 per gallon.

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Summerville Police arrested a forty-five-year-old woman on Sunday evening after she was causing a disturbance in a neighborhood near Jerry’s Drive-In.  Police had reports of a woman “yelling at houses” on Given Street.  When they arrived on the scene, a passing motorist flagged police down and told them the woman was “disturbing people”.  Officers located Sandy Waynette Wilson and determined that she was under the influence of drugs.  Wilson was arrested and charged with public intoxication and was booked into the Chattooga County Jail.

Lookout Mountain District Attorney issued a statement on Monday regarding his appointment to the bench of the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit:

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A 21-year-old line operator at a LaFayette, Georgia, insulation manufacturer suffered severe head trauma after being caught in a machine’s roller. A U.S. Department of Labor investigation determined that the employer willfully ignored federal workplace safety standards.

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Here is the latest arrest report from the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office for Monday, March 6, 2023:

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