News update

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Soldier killed
Anytime WLOSers tease with talk about someone “with ties to the mountains,” you know that that person doesn’t live in Ashvegas or anywhere close, but you need to pay attention to find the exact connection.

Such was the case with Sheraldo’s report that a Henderson County family was mourning the death of soldier in Iraq. Spc. David Babineau was killed on Friday in an attack in which two other soldiers went missing. This morning, reports were that the other two soldiers had been found dead. Those soldiers were Pfc. Kristian Menchaca of Houston and Pfc. Thomas Tucker of Oregon. All three were assigned to the 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. These guys were paratroopers.

It turns out that Babineau’s sister in law lives in Mills River, and that she is caring for his two young children while his wife, in Kentucky, deals with the news that her husband was killed in the war.

Sheraldo quoted the sister-in-law saying that Babineau was a loving father who volunteered for three tours in Iraq. Sheraldo also showed us sad video of the children holdiing little teddy bears dressed in fatigues and talking about what they liked to do with their daddy.

When bugs attacked
Carolyn “Little Red” Ryan, who has a picture up on the WLOS web site but still no bio, told us Monday how to protect ourselves from bug bites. That’s because there are a couple of suspected cases of encephalitis in Buncombe County. Ryan reported that there have been confirmed cases, but that is incorrect. The cases won’t be confirmed until test results come back in, according to local health officials.

But that didn’t stop Ryan from standing in the woods to tell us how to protect ourselves from mosquitoes: use bug repellent, wear long sleeves and dump any standing water where mosquitoes might breed.

Newsflash
Vegetables are good for you. That was the essence of a Diva Darcel health report.

In the hole
A construction worker fell into a 20-foot deep hole on a construction site along Merrimon Avenue. Workers were fixing a sinkhole in the parking lot of the shopping strip just down from the Fresh Market. The worker apparently fell while climbing down into the hole. He wasn’t seriously injured.

In other news…
A shortage of state troopers means they aren’t really enforcing littering laws. Really? We would never have known….

Bizzaro returns
At 11 Monday night, Jon “Punnyman” Le revisited one weird story that he was involved in back in January. Back then, police were looking for Christopher Lunz, who was wanted for the murder of his father in Florida.

Well, Lunz called WLOS and negotiated his surrender with Le. Of course, Le captured all this on videotape, including him getting suited up with a bullet proof vest. Lunz apparently thought the police were going to kill him, and he wanted a witness to his arrest. Police met him somewhere along the parkway and, during the arrest, Lunz famously shouted at Le and the camera, “Are you not entertained?!”

So Lunz was convicted of killing his father and during the sentencing phase, he made some remarks about being involved in 19 other killings. Police want to investigate those statements, Le said, even though there are no specifics right now.

For fresh video, Le went back out to Franklin, where Lunz had a meat at Fat Buddies Barbecue before his arrest. Le talked to a teenager who said he waited on Lunz. He ordered a steak and sweet tea and a big glass of milk, the teen said. And as he left, he told the teen and his manager, “Remember the day you waited on Jack the Ripper.”

Ooooo. Now we’re scared.

DWI laws getting tougher
*Cherub Charu had a story about proposed changes to North Carolina’s driving while impaired laws. Charu said House Bill 1048 would mean stiffer sentences; would allow testimony from expert troopers on how other drugs can impair driving; would require all kegs of beer to be registered so there could be a trail of responsibility; and include stronger penalties for underage drunk drivers. They also want to make it easier to charge someone as a habitual felon. Charu told this story through a mom who lost a son to a wreck in July 2004. There was an interesting sentence in that case, although the drunk driver ended up only serving about a month in jail. The judge required him to show up at the jail on the date of the deadly wreck for the next four years, Charu said.

In still other news…
Transylvania County officials are ready to build a new public safety building in Pisgah Forest that will house a 114-bed jail, magistrate’s office, sheriff’s department and EMS. They want to move in in June 2009. They also set aside nearly $1 million to build a new animal shelter… Russ Bowen told us that we’re still in a mild drought. People are bringing their plants in to nurseries to get help diagnosing what killed their greenery, only to find that they didn’t water enough… The violent crime rate in North Carolina is up. Five counties in WNC saw increases, too, with Swain County seeing the biggest increase… Mission Hospitals’ new construction project, the Dogwood Project, met approval with a city board yesterday. The 219,000-square-foot building will house new operating rooms and some other stuff… At the same board, the planners for the new urban development at Biltmore Park detailed their plans, which include everything from office space and housing units to a big theater.