The American Red Cross is asking people across Chattooga County and Northwest Georgia to schedule a blood donation appointment in the final days of 2025 to help keep the blood supply strong heading into 2026. The need is especially high right now for Type O, A negative, and B negative donors.
Georgia State Patrol (GSP) Troopers and Commercial Vehicle Enforcement (CVE) Officers are urging drivers across Northwest Georgia to slow down and drive smart during the heavy-traffic Christmas and New Year’s travel windows, with high-visibility patrols planned statewide on interstates and state routes to help reduce crashes and fatalities. Georgia DPS has used these holiday periods for focused enforcement on unsafe behaviors like impaired driving, speeding, seatbelt violations, and distracted driving.
Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson says this year’s Stocking Full of Love toy store was a major success, providing holiday help for families across the county.
While extreme cold settles across Georgia, drivers are seeing a bit of relief where it matters, at the pump as the state’s average gas price moved lower this week. As of Monday, the statewide average sits at $2.76 per gallon, though daily price changes remain possible.
Families across Chattooga County, Northwest Georgia, and nearby Alabama communities are planning now as school systems across the region have set their Christmas break schedules for the 2025–2026 school year.
The Center Post Community Center is inviting the public to its annual Christmas Market coming up tomorrow. The event will run from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. and promises a festive day of shopping, food, and holiday cheer.
The Walker County Board of Commissioners will meet on Thursday, December 4th at 6 p.m. at the Walker County Courthouse Annex in LaFayette. The agenda includes several routine items, such as approval of the agenda and minutes from the November 6th meeting.
Nearly nine years after a death first ruled a suicide, a Walker County jury has convicted Marshall Payne of malice and felony murder in the 2016 shooting of Donald Edward Fickey Jr. Investigators originally accepted Payne’s account that the shotgun discharged accidentally, but the case was reopened in 2023 after a medical examiner reversed the ruling. New witness statements, evidence of violence, and testimony about tensions between Payne and the victim led prosecutors to pursue charges. After a week-long trial, jurors deliberated less than an hour before returning guilty verdicts. Payne has now been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
