Snow showers, rain, strong winds in today's forecast
>Rain, strong gusts, snow showers and freezing temperatures are in the forecast for the next 24 hours. We'll have updates throughout the evening.
-Hazardous Weather Outlook: Cold, windy day.
-Special Weather Statement: Snow showers possible in North Georgia
-Wind Advisory : In effect until 2 a.m. Tuesday, gusts above 30 mph.
-Today: 40% chance of rain after 2 p.m. High of 50. Winds to 30 mph.
-Tonight: 40% chance of rain, snow showers. Low of 32. Winds to 30 mph.
-Tuesday: 20% chance of snow showers before 2 p.m. High of 49. Gusts to 25 mph.
-Tuesday night: Partly cloudy, low of 27.
-Latest radar: Click Georgia view or Southeastern USA.
-For more, click WeatherCenter
The Buzz of Northwest Georgia:
-Together again: Don Rusaw returns to the restaurant he started 35 years ago, Deano's Pizza on Dean Avenue.
-Meet the new voice of the Rome Braves, JB Smith, as he returns to the press box after a career in law enforcement.
-RNT's new Web site is up
-A pensive Rome City Commission meeting expected as Etowah Terrace comes up for a public hearing night.
-Georgia's wine boom leads to new program at UGA
-Peaks & Valleys: The highs and lows of Northwest Georgia
Norman Arey's Sports Roundtable / brought to you by Riverside Toyota
-'Mark Who' is the best Georgia should have hoped for in its basketball search> Click Arey
Rome Braves preseason updates (click Sports)
-Meet the 2009 Rome Braves
-K-Man's countdown-to-the-home-opener photo of the day> Clock
-Top of the seventh: Rome Braves ready for 2009 season
-Former Braves catcher Javy Lopez to throw first pitch Opening Night.
-Single ticket sales under way at State Mutual Stadium
Downtown Headlines
-What's ahead in downtown Rome. Click Downtown
Three-Dot Buzz . . . :
New design for RNT Web site close: A sure sign the Rome News is finally dumping its claustrophobic Web site. Advertisers are being asked about the new shapes of their online ads. The basic design of the RNT site has been the same for more than seven years with a few enhancements here and there. The rollout of the video packages triggered some change as well. There was early talk that the new site would resemble the look of the paper's sister publications, Rockmart and Cedartown's www.thepolkfishwrap.com.
Etowah Terrace public hearing is Monday night: The proposal to build the riverfront, mostly subsidized senior housing on the South Rome side of the river goes before Rome city commissioners tonight. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. and a crowd is expected. Several community meetings have been held on the project since the planning commission voted 9-0 against the rezoning proposal> Agenda
Georgia's wine boom prompts UGA to add viticulture prof: How big is Georgia's blooming wine industry? In 2007, the grape crop was worth $10 million; the state's 26 wineries generated $41 million and 430 people had jobs within the industry, reports the University of Georgia. That has prompted UGA to add programs in the science of grape growing and wine making. The expansion includes an endowed professorship--and a benefit to fund the program> Wine
The return of the Pizza Man: Don Rusaw reunites with Deano's
Photo by Jack Druckenmiller
Don Rusaw's return to the pizza business is a blast from the past--and he's planning to keep Deano's just about as he built it in the 1970s. Opening day: April 20.
By Natalie Simms
A familiar face is returning to the local restaurant scene this month as Don Rusaw prepares to reopen Deano's Pizza, the same restaurant he built and opened in 1974.
"I built Deano's Pizza with partner Max Toles in 1974 so I was the original operator," Rusaw said. "Then, we sold it over a year later."
Rusaw continued in the pizza business with his other restaurant, Don's Pizza, on the corner of Broad Street and Fifth Avenue (now home of El Zarape). In addition, he also owned a mobile pizza van that would travel around the area for events, especially the Coosa Valley Fair.
"I had a lot of fun with it. It was something unique at the fair," he says.
All along, Rusaw also owned a construction business that began to take off so he decided to focus on construction.
"I have missed the restaurant business and getting to meet and greet people," he says. "That is one of the things I enjoy… seeing people enjoy my food. People kept telling me to get back into the business but they don't know how much work it takes."
But with the decline in his construction business because of the economy, "I decided to get a night job," Rusaw says.
His former restaurant had been closed and was available for lease so he decided to reopen Deano's.
"It's going to be a family affair," he say. "My daughter will be the assistant manager, so she will be doing a lot of the food prep work during the day."
Named Deano's because it is on Dean Avenue, it reopens April 20.
"We will have a lot of the same original recipes plus a few new things. I've also expanded the salad bar and we will serve beer," he says. "We've also done some major clean-up and painting inside. We've changed the design some but I like the original '70s design; that's how I built it."
The restaurant will be open from 4:30 until 10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays; 4:30 until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; and from noon until 8 p.m. Sundays.
Rusaw says the menu will be affordable for the family and will feature specials during the week.
"If half of the people come to eat that have said they will come, I will be happy," Rusaw says. "Rome is an eat-out town so I think we will do well."
Meet JB Smith: The new voice of the Rome Braves
Arrested development: After 25 years on duty, Smith is ready to return to the press box to call 140 minor-league games starting Thursday night.
>Hear a sound bite from JB Smith> Click
By Mickey Seward
http://mickeyseward.webs.com
On Christmas Day, JB Smith was watching a television show on the NHL Network about great hockey announcers when he was inspired to look into the Rome Braves' broadcasting situation.
Smith had experience calling games but found out that he might be lacking one thing necessary to get a shot at the job that became available when former play-by-play voice Josh Caray left Rome to join the television broadcast team of the Class AAA Gwinnett Braves.
Unable to find out 
if Rome needed a radio announcer through his own research – "I would never want to undermine someone who already had the job," Smith says – he finally telephoned the office of WLAQ 1410 AM/The Ridge 95.7 FM, the Rome Braves' flagship stations.
He reached general manager Jim Bojo, who confirmed they indeed were looking for a new announcer and asked Smith to send in a resume and demo tape.
There was one problem.
"When he told me to send a demo, I told Jim he might hang up on me after he heard what I was about to say," Smith says. "I told him I could get him a resume, no problem. But I stepped out of the station and into a patrol car 25 years ago."
Intrigued, Bojo and the station's owner and operator, Randy Davis, the original Rome Braves' play-by-play voice, invited Smith to Rome to simulate a pre-game show and an inning of baseball in a production studio.
"After that and four stressful interviews later, they hired me," Smith says.
Davis: Smith has 'a hometown feel'
It may not have been the textbook way of finding a play-by-play job but Davis says Smith's introduction to the station was the beginning of what he feels will be a perfect match.
"We'd been taking some applications (for the broadcasting position) and had talked to several people," Davis says. "Then JB's call came out of the blue. When we listened to him, we were impressed.
"We felt like he would be a really good fit. We've been broadcasting local sports for a long time, several decades, and we wanted someone who does things the way we do things. We're a hometown station. JB's not just a stats guy. He's a story teller, someone who can really tell our audience about who the players really are. He's got a real hometown feel, and he has a very pleasing voice. It's not too aggressive and it's not monotone.
"But he definitely knows the game. When you have a conversation with him, JB's knowledge of the game is obvious."
Davis doesn't believe there will be much rust for Smith to shake off, even though he hasn't been on the air full-time since well before most of the Rome Braves' players were born. During that time, he's been around the game as a fan but most of his days and nights were spent apprehending crooks doing much more than stealing bases.
From police beat to Braves' beat
After graduating from Boston University with a broadcast journalism degree, Smith was drafted into the military and sent to North Carolina. While there, he broadcast high school and college baseball, football and basketball.
Later, he moved to Atlanta and worked in the music radio business. And while his career was in radio, Smith always had an interest in law enforcement.
While interviewing Roswell's chief of police, and working without benefits at one of the radio stations, Smith was told by the chief that he should consider becoming a police officer.
"I told him, 'Get me an application and we might have a deal.' I went to the police academy and I spent the next 22 years working with the Roswell Police Department," Smith says.
For awhile, Smith continued to broadcast high school sports while working full-time as a police officer but he soon decided to concentrate on his public service career and left the press box. He retired in 2004.
Now, he returns to the microphone as the voice of the Rome Braves, calling all 140 home and away games. Smith says he doesn't really pattern his style after any particular announcers but said he loved listening to Curt Gowdy broadcast Red Sox games when he was growing up in his native New Hampshire.
"Of course, down here, we all loved listening to Pete (Van Wieren), Skip (Caray) and Ernie (Johnson)," Smith says. "That was one of the best broadcast teams of all time, maybe the best."
Smith gets to join that legacy as a broadcaster in the Braves organization. The question is, will Smith use his unique background in law enforcement to enhance his profile with his new team?
"I can definitely help keep the players in line on the road," he says with a laugh. "No, not really. I'll leave that up to (manager) Randy Ingle and his staff. But, if anybody tries to steal our bus, I'll take charge."
You can hear all 140 games on WLAQ, The Ridge and on the stations' Web sites as well. To hear the Web casts, click Exterra Networks.
PEAKS & VALLEYS: The highs and lows of Northwest Georgia
Peak to the Rome Braves: You'll see some enhancements around State Mutual Stadium when the Braves open the home schedule on April 14. A big one is the new scoreboard area near what used to be Budweiser Beach Club, now Miller Lite Marina. You'll have three visual options now, including the updated scoreboard, the new one (using the former scoreboard parts) at the marina and the display board to the right of the main one. As for the marina: To paraphrase the late Harry Caray: " I'm a Bud man and a ... Braves fan" but we're curious to see how the Yacht Club, et al, will look like.
Valley to the state Department of Revenue: What the devil is so hard about telling a 7 from a 6? We understand, almost, one error in listing the Floyd County tax rate. But to do it again the next month? We thought these people work with numbers every day.
Peak to the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce: The chamber's outreach efforts to members and would-be members has been soaring in recent months. A new Friday e-mail alert, a redesign to the Pinnacle and Directions are just a few examples. The latest is the addition of Chamber Connect, the Facebook- or Linked In-like social network for members. Give it a spin by clicking Connect.
Valley to the General Assembly: The reviews of the 2009 session are in--and they're stinkers. Newspaper editorials, the rants on www.peachpundit.com and others bemoan it as a colossal failure. The best summary we've seen was published by our old friends, The Times in Gainesville (click). And we agree with just about all of them. At a time when Georgia needs precise leadership as we struggle with not just the economy but growth, transportation, education, medical needs and the like, we get a battle of egos and idealism. Gainesville called it a 40-day feud; we'll call it a 40-day failure.
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