2026 Legislative Newsletter – Week 11

By Alan Powell, State Rep.  My House colleagues and I returned to the Gold Dome on Monday, March 23, and it was another action-packed work week. We continued working diligently to advance bills and resolutions before the legislative session comes to an end.

Mountain Mint

By Lorin Sinn-Clark, local columnist “I don’t know whether nice people tend to grow roses or growing roses makes people nice.”                                                                                                                             -  Roland A. Bowne    I don’t grow roses and...

So begins the beginning of the end

A few days from now, my little sister will be able to say she's one month away from being a college graduate. Even better, she'll join my dad and me as a graduate of the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.   As her big sister, I still can't believe it.

Surely, there’s a ‘pony’ in the pile of smelly rhetoric

My 18-year trek through school started as a 3-year-old in Jack & Jill Kindergarten. And all the way through, including college, none of my teachers ever hinted that I was the smartest kid in the class.  Not much has changed since.

Project suggestions for a T-SPLOST

By Tray Hicks, Local columnist During the last election, there was a great deal of discussion about traffic in Hartwell.

Twenty-five years later, we remember her warm smile

By Phil Hudgins, CNI She was beautiful. She had a round face, big blue eyes and a warm, easy smile.Her name was Bonelle Stevens. She had moved into a little house on the other side of the railroad tracks, across from the Baptist church. He was tall, raw-boned and clean-cut.

Lessons to be learned from a gone-wrong prank

Have you paid attention to the recent news in Gainesville? If you haven’t, you should. When I saw the Hughes family photo, I thought about the dozens of times that I have posed for similar photos.  You have, too.  And you probably agree that nothing, absolutely nothing, is more precious than family.

2026 Legislative Newsletter – Week 10

By Alan Powell, State Rep. The House returned to the Gold Dome on Monday, March 9, following a very busy Crossover Day. My colleagues and I have worked diligently during this week to pass several measures, most importantly the Fiscal Year 2027 (FY 2027) budget.

Preschool, Head Start registration now open

Submitted by Patty Tillman Hart County Head Start Early Head Start and Head Start registration is now available through Ninth District Opportunity's Hart County Head Start and Early Head Start  program.

Artificial intelligence is no substitute for human abilities

By Madison Linton, lead news reporter A 2014 article from the Scientific American about what defines dreaming and how it affects memory states, “Some dreams are so highly realistic that it is difficult to convince ourselves they aren’t real, while others are fuzzy and indistinct.