In NBA news, the Atlanta Hawks will host the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight at 7:30 pm at the Philips Arena.  The Hawks won the last outing between the teams 103-87 in Cleveland on Sunday afternoon.

In Major League Baseball, the Atlanta Braves fell to the Detroit Tigers 7-2 yesterday in Spring Training action in Lakeland, Florida.  The Braves will head to Viera to take on the Washington Nationals this afternoon at 1:05 pm.

Berry College’s baseball team picked up a 6-2 victory from Tennessee Temple at AT&T Park in Chattanooga yesterday afternoon.  The Vikings will return to action on Saturday at Birmingham-Southern.

Today is the first day of Spring.  It is the vernal equinox, one of two times per year that the amount of daytime and nighttime are equal.  The other occurs in fall, or the autumnal equinox.  High temperatures in the 80′s have made it feel more like summer for the last several days in Rome and Northwest Georgia, and they’re expected to continue.  Forecasters call for sunny skies for this first day of spring with a high in the mid 80s.

Recent warm temperatures and what basically amounted to not much of a winter are anticipated to bring an onslaught of bugs this spring and summer.  John Graham with Three Rivers Nursery and Garden Center says he’s already seen the ants and mosquitoes begin to emerge.

Rabies was a major concern for local public health officials last year and remains a concern this year.  This week started with the news that Northwest Georgia Public Health officials are mailing out letters to the parents of students at schools in the Rome and Floyd County area to make them aware of the need to take precautionary and preventative measures against rabies.  Floyd County had the most reported cases of rabies in 2011 with 15; there have already been two confirmed cases this year.

A Rome man died in a drowning incident at Little River Canyon in Alabama over the weekend.  Ramirez Austin, age 24, was swimming with friends when he went under water and did not resurface.  Funeral arrangements have not been announced at this time.

Armuchee High School will play host to the first of four systemwide listening sessions held by the Floyd County Board of Education and the Local School Governance Teams tonight at 6:30 pm.  The sessions are intended to give school leaders a better perspective of the wishes of parents and the community regarding the future of Floyd County Schools.  A second listening session will be held for the Model area this Thursday, March 22^nd at 6:30 pm at Model High School.  Additional sessions will be held on Tuesday, March 27^th at Pepperell High School and on Tuesday, April 10^th at Coosa High School, at 6:30 pm both nights.