Our reporters are spread hither and yonder, listeners, as we do our best to keep up with the outbreak of COVID-19 in the state while working remotely. In this recorded-outdoors edition of the podcast, Shannon and Nick talk about what’s been going on in Georgia as of Friday, March 27. The Times has kept a running list of its coverage of the novel co…

De către Gainesville Times

De către Gainesville Times

This is Celebrating Perseverance, a podcast series about the ins and outs, the highs and lows of cancer and what it looks like for the people battling it in Hall County. On this episode, how Elizabeth Love continues to fight metastatic cancer, while living life as normal as it can be.De către Gainesville Times

This is Celebrating Perseverance, a podcast series about the ins and outs, the highs and lows of cancer and what it looks like for the people battling it in Hall County. I’m Layne Saliba, a reporter here at The Times and on this episode, what it’s like to be a doctor, surrounded by cancer every day but treating each and every case in its own, uniqu…

From the Times in Gainesville, this is Celebrating Perseverance, a podcast series about the ins and outs, the highs and lows of cancer and what it looks like for the people battling it in Hall County. I’m Layne Saliba, a reporter here at The Times and on this episode, how the Allgood family dealt with and is still dealing with their young daughter’…

A man was reportedly waving a gun around near Gainesville’s Northeast Georgia Medical Center. Police arrived and shot him to death. We have a 911 call that makes it unclear whether the man was holding a gun when he was shot, as investigators initially reported. In this episode, Nate McCullough and Nick Watson talk with Shannon Casas about reporting…

Another manager has bitten the dust over at Hall County following an HR investigation and a raft of complaints from subordinates. This time, it’s Andre Niles, the former head of the Hall County Marshal’s Office, resigned in August after a series of complaints about a hostile work environment in his office. In this episode, Shannon, Megan and Nick t…

A complicated, frustrating system of red tape is making life hard for foster children, foster families and the workers and volunteers who keep the system running. In this episode, Shannon and Nick talk about recent meetings between the head of Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services and stakeholders in Hall County. Shannon’s also a foste…

The Gainesville gang is back after a brief vacation to talk about a few things that didn’t happen. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t raid poultry plants in Gainesville this month. Meanwhile, a man didn’t walk into a local Walmart brandishing a gun this week. But, if you were hanging out around Gainesville social media this weekend, you’d b…

It’s curtains for Luke P. on “The Bachelorette,” as the Gainesville guy closes out his contentious time on the reality TV show. But the saga continues with Luke P. as his family cries foul over what they say is bias against Luke because of his evangelical Christian beliefs. In this episode, Shannon, Layne and Nick talk about what it’s been like to …

Covering the shooting death of Deputy Blane Dixon was an all-hands-on-deck situation for the newsroom. In this episode, we talk listeners through how we used social media to get the word out about the crime, the funeral and how locals could help the Dixon family. If you want to help sustain community journalism like this in North Georgia, you can s…

Talking to a local news reporter is an act of kindness under the best of circumstances. People give up their time and take a risk, putting themselves in the spotlight, when they agree to take part in a story. In this episode, Times reporter Jeff Gill talks about the humbling experience of talking to the widow of Hall County Deputy Nicolas Blane Dix…

Hall County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Nicolas Blane Dixon was shot and killed after 11 p.m. Sunday, July 7, throwing local law enforcement into a scramble to find the suspects and sending the community reeling. Dixon was the first Hall County deputy to be shot and killed on the job in almost 100 years. He was pursuing suspects who fled from a stolen …

We’ve been following an unlikely story this month: A gay couple from Europe welcomed their surrogate-borne sons on Father’s Day in Gainesville. The couple, one of the men from Israel and the other from France, live in Belgium but found a surrogate from Toccoa. They chose to have the babies, two boys, at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center. In this…

Downtown Gainesville got an unwelcome surprise this month, when business owners discovered that one of their own had a dark past. Endrick Torres-Ordonez, owner of Love is All You Knead, a sweet shop selling crepes, ice cream and doughnuts in Main Street Market, was convicted in 2013 of groping multiple underage girls while working as a camp counsel…

Gainesville has had a rough couple of weeks. Downtown Gainesville’s Parkside project is dead and the Northeast Georgia Health System’s Heart Center lost a dozen critical cardiologists. It was a busy start to June here at The Times, and the gang sits down to talk about how two big stories came together (and are still coming together). Downtown Gaine…

On Wednesday, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston and an entourage that included former Gov. Nathan Deal sat down with the editorial board of The Times, intent on defending Ralston’s record as an attorney and lawmaker. Ralston has been hit by controversy this year as an AJC investigation surfaced hundreds of instances in which Ralston has delayed c…

On Thursday, Times reporter Nick Watson witnessed his second execution while on the job for the paper. Watson, The Times’ criminal justice reporter, was present for the execution of Scotty Morrow in Jackson, Georgia. Morrow was sentenced to death for a double homicide committed in 1994 in Hall County. In this episode, Nate McCullough, Nick Watson a…

What started as a discussion about reporter Kelsey Richardson’s attempt at the Hall County Sheriff’s Office fitness test ended up with some unusual reminiscing this week. Kelsey talked with Shannon and Nick about her day walking, running, punching and cuffing her way through the fitness test, which is used as a tool to not only ensure recruits are …

Luke Parker, Hall County’s resident ‘Bachelorette’ contestant, is crushing it on the reality show. SPOILERS: He and bachelorette Hannah Brown visited Gainesville and Oakwood for a hometown date over the weekend, hitting the Gainesville square and Curt’s Cafeteria in Oakwood. If you’re wondering why that’s a big deal, that means Luke is one of the l…

The press, how does it work? Turns out, the gang didn’t really know. So Shannon and Nick invited Mark Hall, head of production at The Times, up to the studio to talk about how the paper gets printed. It’s a big job keeping the 50-year-old Goss press running, but Mark and his crew manage it in the guts of our Green Street headquarters. If you’ve eve…

Sometimes reporters walk into a story knowing it’s going to catch some heat. Most of the time, anything dealing with abortion is one of those stories. Shannon, Kelsey and Nick talk this week about what it’s been like to write about the vote at the Capitol and to dig into what services — including clinics that provide abortions, pregnancy care cente…

Should residents of South Hall be concerned about a proposed development by a Mexico-based sect of Christianity called La Luz del Mundo? This week, the gang talks about a 250-plus acre project from the church, based in Guadalajara, that includes commercial space, apartments or townhomes, single-family homes and other uses in South Hall. Shannon, Jo…

What is fake news? This week, the gang takes a break from the news of the day to talk about two of the most contentious words in news these days: fake news. What makes a story fake, instead of just biased? What does fake news look like at the local level? How do newspapers, editors and reporters guard against it? Shannon, Nate and Nick talk through…

The new Exit 14 bridge over I-985 failed a strength test, meaning more work for contractors and a long list of questions from the public. In this episode, the gang talks about how The Times, following up on a tip, got hold of the story about the long-awaited interchange. Officials with Georgia Department of Transportation say the failure comes down…

In this episode, the gang talks about the United Methodist Church and its vote on Tuesday, Feb. 26, to maintain a traditional plan for the church, which prohibits gay marriages and gay clergy. Shannon, Jeff and Nick talk about how local reporters find and talk to sources and how to balance the need to get news out quickly with the goal that article…

Is the Gainesville square about to get more fun? A few business owners hope so as they launch the Gainesville Business Coalition. The group, most of them business owners on the Gainesville square, are banding together to bring more events downtown after the relocation of the Spring Chicken Festival and Beach Bash. But it hasn’t been all fun and gam…

We’ve got a special episode of Inside The Times this week: Listen to Gainesville Police Chief Jay Parrish address the recent shootings in Gainesville and hear how Gainesville officers respond to serious crimes. Officers pulling 24-hour shifts, handling hundreds of leads, working with multiple law enforcement agencies: A huge amount of effort, time …

This year isn’t off to the greatest of starts in Gainesville and Hall County. Beginning Jan. 12, there have been 10 separate incidents of shootings, assaults and gunfire that left three people dead and four injured in the area. The Times staff digs into the details of each incident, including two high-profile murder cases, one in Gainesville and an…

People have strong opinions about Trump. Some of those opinions appear in our paper. The Times and other local newspapers aren’t just sources of fact and features, but of opinion. We print columns, letters to the editor and editorials on the Opinion page in the newspaper — a space that allows members of the community to sound off on issues that are…

Why is the city moving events out of downtown Gainesville? First, the Spring Chicken Festival moved to Longwood Park. Next, the Beach Bash moved to the Lake Lanier Olympic Park. The moves connect to the Parkside on the Square project planned for downtown Gainesville. Both the festival and the Beach Bash use the wide parking lot on the fourth side o…

The Westboro Baptist Church is coming to Gainesville. The Kansas-based group now infamous for its picketing of funerals for soldiers, slain college students and others — arguing that the United States’ embrace of homosexuality has damned its citizens — is planning to picket outside six churches in Gainesville. Counter-protest groups are making plan…

There’s been a shooting in Gainesville. Starting with that ominous phrase over the police radio — “shots fired” — reporters and photographers at the paper started work on the biggest story of the day: A possible “hostage-style” situation at a business on South Enota Drive that ended with one man, the suspected gunman, dead after police responded to…

This week, we’re starting the new year with a new reporter. Listen to Shannon and Nick talk with Kelsey Richardson, The Times’ new writer focusing on business, features and just about anything else that rolls into the newsroom.Kelsey is from Athens and joined The Times after a stint working for a weekly newspaper in North Carolina. She’s a bit of a…

This week, the gang looks back at some of The Times’ most popular stories of 2018. Turns out bad news often gets the most attention, but there are a few stories in the mix that might surprise listeners. Shannon, Nick and Layne also talk about some highlights of their own years, and give a look at what they’re looking forward to in 2019 — including …

How did Hall County take its current shape? Why did people move into the area, and how did the earliest settlers survive? In this episode of Hall Tales, go back to the earliest days of the county with host Johnny Vardeman and guest Glen Kyle, director of the Northeast Georgia History Center. Johnny and Glen talk about life in the county’s beginning…

How do those Atlanta United players look so fresh when they’re winning championships? Thank Felix Zuñiga, a barber in Gainesville. This week, the gang talks about Layne Saliba’s popular story about the barber at Ivan Dominican Barbershop on John Morrow Parkway. Following a tip from a friend of a friend, Layne discovered that — thanks to a chance en…

In this episode, the gang talks about reporting how the $10 million deal came together between Gainesville and the Northeast Georgia Health System for a 6.8 acre piece of property in midtown. Did Northside Hospital’s inroads into Hall County spur the deal? What sort of development will go into that lot? And what strings are now attached to the prop…

What is economic growth going to do to the identities of communities in South Hall County like Flowery Branch, Braselton and Buford? As those communities figure themselves out in the years to come — how their country roots will mesh with apartment living, high-skill jobs and classy downtowns — we’re figuring out the best way to serve them here at T…

What role did Hall County play in the Civil War? Did people in North Georgia even support secession? And how did the famed Confederate Gen. James Longstreet come to settle in Gainesville? Host Johnny Vardeman and guest Richard Pilcher answer these questions and more in a wide-ranging talk recorded at the historic Piedmont Hotel, where Pilcher is th…

Should you give a homeless person cash? Is a fabulous Christmas present the best way to help a child in foster care and the families who help them? What’s Giving Tuesday all about? We answer, or at least debate, those questions and more in a podcast that we hope doesn’t come across as too judgmental. Hear about the first-hand experiences of Shannon…

Reporters often catch a lot of flak for doing their jobs — being cursed at on the sidewalk, having people try to snatch cameras from their hands, trying to intimidate them out of public spaces. It’s a weird job, and we got the gang together this week to talk about one instance of verbal abuse hurled at one of our staffers. We often catch people at …

How did Gainesville get its newspaper? What was reporting like back when newspapers were published with a mix of typewriters and molten lead? Host Johnny Vardeman answers these questions and more with guests Phil Hudgins and Shannon Casas, editor in chief at The Times. Learn how the current newspaper grew from The Eagle, how Gainesville was dropped…

What’s next for Hall County Fire Services and its new chief, Chris Armstrong? What did reporter Nick Watson learn in a half-hour sit down with chief this week? What are the gang’s plans for Thanksgiving? These questions and more will be answered in this episode of Inside The Times. Look for Nick’s story on the new fire chief in the Sunday, Nov. 18,…

New Editor in Chief Shannon Casas gets grilled by Features Editor Nick Bowman about who she is, how she got the job and her plans for the future of the paper. Also discussed: reporting is a hard job. If you want honestly local news in your community and want to help sustain community journalism in North Georgia, you can subscribe here. You can sign…

Gainesville plans to buy a plot of land in midtown for $10 million — what was going on behind the scenes, what do we know and what are we trying to find out? The gang talks about a developing story that will help determine the future of midtown Gainesville. And is Halloween a good holiday? Are trunk-or-treats terrible events? Stick around to the en…

Who is the ghost haunting Pearce Auditorium at Brenau University? Why does a spirit stalk the stacks of the Hall County library in downtown Gainesville? Are there any dangerous ghosts in the county? And why do we cling to stories of dead relatives come back to visit us? Listen to local ghost researchers Kathy Amos and Gail Hogan talk about these qu…

Johnny Vardeman, Kay Scoville and Dale Jaeger take us back to the heydey of Chicopee Village, the mill town built to support the Johnson & Johnson mill that’s now home to Left Nut Brewing Co. on Atlanta Highway. The tight streets, lofty oaks and close-knit community was home to some well-known Gainesville residents in its day — and the village was …

It is time for a frank and rough discussion, listeners of this podcast and readers of The Times: The paper will be cutting production of its Monday and Tuesday print editions. The crew talks with Charles Hill Morris Jr., owner of Metro Market Media — the Gainesville-based parent organization of The Times, Forsyth County News and Dawson County News …