Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Here come winter
“Brrrrrr,” says *Larry “Gloryhole” Blunt on the 6. “There’s no hiding from those figid temperatures.”
WLOSers were all over the weather Wednesday, even though it wasn’t do anything. It was all about what it might do. Over in the accu-hunch weather center, Julie Blunder said winter was “kicking into high gear” with a mixed bag of snow, sleet and freezing rain all possible Wednesday night and early Thursday. Some parts of the mountains could see a couple of inches of snow, she said, but it is all going to be hard to measure because it’s going to be a little bit of everything.
That, and the high temp on Thursday is going to be 41, so it’s all gonna melt anyway.
Carolyn “Little Red” Ryan was standing along I-26 saying that DOT workers were pre-treating roads with a salt solution. Carolyn kept looking off camera to her left at something. It was very distracting.
Former officer chaged
WLOSer Kassandra “Special K” Pride went down to Transylvania County to tell us that a former school resource officer at Brevard High School, Charles McCrary, had been arrested and charged with six counts of statutory rape involving a 14-year-old boy.
Special K talked to high school students, who said the officer was cool and they even had a nickname for him – something like “Poker” or something. According to Special K, the victim told police that the sex started in the summer of 2005 at McCrary’s home in Penrose. Special K said police said they seized drugs, photos and a computer at McCrary’s home. The victim told police he never said anything becuase McCrary threatened to harm his family if he told.
Mumpower v. the police
WLOSers picked up on a story Ashvegas first reported here – that Ashvegas police were complaining about Ashvegas City Councilman Carl Mumpower butting into official police business.
Cherub Charu told us that Mumpower says that on Friday, he was driving somewhere between the Deaverview and Pisgahview public housing complexes to observe drug dealing. That’s been his crusade lately. But Friday night, Mumpower spotted officers on an actual vehicle stop and proceeded to walk up to them and talk to them about the dealing he had seen.
Mumpower told Charu that the cops never told him he was in the way. “This is a distraction from the real issue, which is police failure to confront Asheville’s open air drug markets,” Mumpower said.
City Manager Gary Jackson and Police Chief Bill Hogan declined to comment.
In other news…
Henderson County commissioners say they’ll work out a payment plan with Blue Ridge Community College to pay back $61,000 they say is owed after questions surfaced about how the college funded its baseball team… The city is giving Target more time to build another left turn lane off Swannanoa River Road…
Haz-mat situation
WLOSer John “Punnyman” Le was down in Biltmore Village to tell us that the fire department called in the guys with space suits on the hazardous materials team to check out some suspicious barrels. After using super high-tech metering and testing devices, somebody actually looked at the labels on the barrels and figured out the stuff was used oil and anti-freeze.
Property manager Bob York said he didn’t know who left the barrels there. He was pissed about having to pay to clean it up. And there’s a reward of $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Several witness said they saw a black-and-silver Chevy Silverado in the area recently.
Mediacom v. Sinclair
How long can WLOSers ride this story? Guess as long as there’s no news.
On Wednesday, Terrie Foster went over to Sylva to tell us that some Mediacom customers think their cable bills should be lowered now that WLOS is off the line-up.
Edward McDonald, stretch….
Edward McDonald was down in Clemson for the big Clemson-Tar Heel basketball game Wednesday night. After a little promo, the camera stayed on Edward for a long time. A really long. A really, really, really loooonnnnnnng time.
In still other news…
Buncombe County commissioners have agreed to lease land in Woodfin to Progress Energy for $1 a year so Progress can build a new power plant there. It will provide energy during peak usage times and will be finished in 2009… Jeremy Butterfield says somebody in Mcdowell County is angry that the old Catawba Dam cemetery graves are going to be dug up and the bodies moved to a cemetery in Nebo… And an Edneyville man is on trial for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and shooting into an occupied vehicle after he shot up a truck that pulled into his driveway. The couple in the truck say they just made a wrong turn. But a neighbor says the couple was drunk… McDowell County officials have lunch with inmates from the Marion minimum security prison to thank them for all the work they’ve done that’s saved county taxpayers thousands of dollars… And the kayak-maker Liquid Logic mergers with a Greensboro company to bring the manufacturing of the kayak’s closer to home.
Breaking news: Larry says he wants to get in shape to try clogging
The Powerball jackpot is $180 million
Didja win?
If Mumpower keeps this crap up he’s either going to get shot by a dealer in one of the projects or get somebody else hurt. Interfering with cops who were on a traffic stop was stupid. Stops are unknown situations since it’s never known who the person in the vehicle is or what he/she might do. If you or I had done this we’d likely have been arrested.