When the town’s mayor and city manager attend educational conferences, they are usually in a sea of gray heads.

Dalton's leaders say great strides have been made in curbside recycling and there is more progress to come.

The leather strap, a 1⁄8-inch piece of steel embedded in it, lashed across Don Smith’s buttocks. Over and over and over, the strap slammed into him until he couldn’t take any more.

The colors blue and green are primary hues in a new Styrofoam insulation to be produced at Dow Chemical’s plant here — the only place in North America to create the product.

There’s a domino effect slamming day-care facilities here: No job for a parent means no money for day care means less demand and layoffs at day-care centers.

Volkswagen suppliers. Restaurants. Tax revenues. Grant eligibility.

Volkswagen suppliers. Restaurants. Tax revenues. Grant eligibility. These are a few of the benefits Tunnel Hill, Ga., leaders used in their lobby Monday night to get Whitfield commissioners to contribute $1 million to a sewer line.

Murray County school officials say bonds are the best way to fix a school in disrepair.

Still nearly two years away, the field already is crowded in the race for governor of Georgia.

An Interstate 75 traffic stop by a police officer here on Thursday turned into a felony drug bust netting more than 200 pounds of marijuana.

Heritage tourism will never replace the economic engine of the now sagging carpet industry, but local leaders say it could bring a significant injection of revenue.

Teaching how to protect children who ride in a car is better than fining drivers who don’t, according to Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John Oxendine.

ROCKY FACE, Ga. — Peppered along Rocky Face Ridge and in Crow Valley are fortifications that echo the history of cannon fire, assault and bloodshed.

Posters of his face are plastered around Northwest Georgia businesses asking “Have You Seen Brett?”

DALTON, Ga. — The new managers of the trade center here are optimistic about securing bigger events and generating more revenue.

Whitfield County’s public works director has left the department after almost 19 years as a county employee.

An advocate for victims of domestic violence says she is seeing more spouse abuse cases — she believes triggered by layoffs and job cuts in the struggling economy.

Whitfield County Commissioner Mike Cowan says he’d like to see Dalton and Whitfield County combine their governments, but the merger of one department each is a start.

Murray County’s leaders are developing a unified front to bolster economic development in the mostly rural county.

Whitfield commissioners are weighing a $1 million contribution for a sewer line to the Interstate 75 interchange in Tunnel Hill.

North Murray High School has a mascot, school colors and plenty of students attending come fall, but the new school technically won’t be ready until 2010.

DALTON, Ga. — Whitfield County’s Parks and Recreation director said it’s time for adults to have some fun, too, while getting more healthy.

A Civil War museum with no walls is central to the master plan for heritage tourism recently completed for Whitfield and Murray counties.

Whitfield County government wants its main public voice to live closer to the community.

The Whitfield County Sheriff’s Department has essentially ended the ground search for missing boater Brett Thomason, but volunteers continue to trek the woods Thursday.

Mrs. Massey said she is convinced that her son, Brett Andrew Thomason, did not run away to avoid reporting to Marine boot camp in April, though she wishes that was the case.

Authorities will continue the search for a teen missing since a Thursday paddling trip on the Conasauga River, but they “are dumbfounded” as to where he might be.

Dragging the murky green water of the Conasauga River on Tuesday failed to yield evidence of a missing Whitfield County boater.

Searchers working near the Conasauga River still have not found Brett Andrew Thomason, last seen Thursday night paddling on the river by himself.

TILTON, Ga. — The disappearance of a Whitfield County teen still is a mystery as the search reaches day three today.

Seven dogs will hit the trail at 8 a.m. today in the search for a Whitfield County teenager missing since Thursday night. Ground searcher are to start at daybreak, said Jeff Putnam, Whitfield Emergency Services director.

Eight search dogs and their handlers are combing the woods in a search of a 19-year-old Whitfield County man missing for two nights, authorities said.

TILTON, Ga. — Searchers ended their efforts to find a missing Marine Corps enlistee at dark tonight, but will pick up the hunt with new weapons on Saturday.

Dana Massey was calm as she stood in the command post where a search for her son, missing boater Brett Thomason, is being organized.

Ricky Rutledge and his family take showers in an unheated downstairs bathroom and then sprint back up the stairs to the semi-warm bedrooms.

Take a left on Bamboo Street might be an actual direction here later this year.

Two teens faced long prison sentences last week if convicted of shoving a woman into a hot oven.

DALTON, Ga. — Late last year, a “Going Out of Business” sign hung in the window of Puppies & More downtown.

DALTON, Ga. — Tax revenues and government services often decline right along with business profits during an economic free-fall.

Solids pulled from industrial and human wastewater treated by Dalton Utilities are being converted to fertilizer and used to grow grass, tomatoes, vegetables and more. Officials involved in the effort say folks shouldn’t be squeamish.

About 170 students who live in the Spring Place community will have the option to attend Murray County’s new high school next year.

It’s been a long journey from Pakistan for Dalton Depot owner and charity leader T.J. Kaikobad.

At 6 a.m. on a chilly Saturday, more than 40 feet tracked along a wooded path on Dug Gap Mountain in search of weight loss.

CHATSWORTH, Ga. — For more than 14 years, a road project government leaders say would boost Murray County’s economy has been moving like a salted slug.

It’s hard to get just your feet wet in the midst of an economic tidal wave.

DALTON, Ga. — For Dalton Amateur Radio Club members, ham radio is a passion — one that could prove valuable in a catastrophe.

High school students sip coffee while dissecting frogs.

DALTON, Ga. — As a journalist, Mark Pace once embroiled himself in an investigation of communism. Nowadays he’s writing about topics just as shocking.

Authorities have released the name of a police officer who committed suicide early Saturday morning at the Dalton Police Department.

DALTON, Ga. —The potential demise of Whitfield-Murray Historical Society was just rumor, and the organization is as strong as ever, according to its president.