Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
WLOSers had this for your info-tainment viewing pleasure on Tuesday night:
Animal shelter deal
Sheraldo updated us on the convoluted tale of All Creatures Great and Small, the no-kill animal shelter in Henderson County that’s been order closed by the state after years of controversy and allegations of animal abuse.
As far as I could tell from Sheraldo’s story, the shelter has until March 14 to get animals adopted out, then the state will take over. Animals that aren’t adoptable will be killed.
In top-of-the-show crime news…
Officers charged a man with robbing several convenience stores, including one on Johnston School Road… And a Canton Middle School teacher charged with using a computer to solicit under-age sex has been fired and banned from all school campuses in Haywood County… There was a hit-and-run in Sylva.
CTS update
WLOSers said results from recent tests show that at least one well near the former CTS plant site on Mills Gap Road is contaminated with higher-than-acceptable levels of bad shit you don’t want to drink.
Widening U.S. 19
Terrie Foster said the state DOT will begin a 14-mile road-widening project in Madison County this summer.
U.S. 19 from the new Interstate 26 (19/23) to just outside of Burnsville will be widened to make the road safer and ease congestion. Foster said more than 20 homes were demolished to make way. Even some church parking lots had to be taken, she said. She talked to Mike Ledford of Ledford’s Auto who had to move his business because of the work – he said he had mixed feelings on it. The project will take four years to complete.
Candidates for commish
WLOSers said former A-B Tech President K. Ray Bailey announced Tuesday that he would be a Democratic candidate for Buncombe County commissioner. Local businessman Keith Thomson also said he’d be running for a commissioner seat as a Dem.
In other news…
Mills River leaders want to build a new building to house town hall and a library. The town currently rents space in a strip mall for the town hall, and the library is too small… Local officials are working on a marketing plan for downtown Hendersonville… And the owner of Brio Burrito says he’s holding a contest to rename the restaurant. The dude took over from the former owner of Rio Burrito and has taken some heat for naming the new biz Brio Burrito, so the winner gets $300 in burritos. Larry Blunt immediately tossed out his nomination – “Neato Burrito.” Over in the weather-guesser-center, always dour Mike Cuevas didn’t think much of that and offered up “Beano Burrito.” Yikes.
Catching up on Kwame Kilpatrick
WLOSers have been so badly beaten on the whole dust-up over Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that they sent out Charu to do a story today, and then buried it at 5:30.
Kilpatrick is embroiled in scandal after one of his local newspapers revealed that text messages between he and his former chief of staff indicated they were having an affair, something they denied in court testimony last year in a lawsuit between the city of Detroit and two former police officers.
Kilpatrick was the keynote speaker at Asheville’s MLK Breakfast a couple of weekends ago, and it now looks like Kilpatrick was chilling at the Grove Park Inn with a woman other than his wife. (Scroll down to review.)
So Charu talked to local MLK Association spokeswoman Oralene Simmons, who wouldn’t go on camera but said the MLK Association had no way of knowing about any of that personal stuff about Kilpatrick. Charu talked to Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy, who said the whole deal is one big learning experience, and the MLK Association will do a better job of vetting speakers next time. Charu called the Grove Park Inn, but they refused to confirm or deny anything. Then Charu talked to Joe Jackson and Alvin Kimble and another black guy, who all said it’s hard to know a person’s personal life. Indeed, although if you checked out Kimble, you’d see he was charged with a felony last summer, by WLOS’ own account.
Haywood Community College needs repairs
WLOSer Heather Graf told us that Haywood Community College is in desperate need of repairs, so local officials are planning to ask voters to approve a quarter-cent sales tax increase to fund the work. The school needs $70 million worth of improvements. Why not just build new?
Mysterious change in state law
WLOSers blew off a rather intriguing story that got brief mention – state law has been changed to make private information about pensions given to retiring state workers and state lawmakers. WLOSers said it’s unclear who made the change and why the change was made. Well do some reporting and tell us!
National News does not a local news make. If you go back and watch the comments they got from people here in Asheville for that story, those people really didn’t seem to care. So he had a trist in Asheville. If someone can prove that Avl money was spent on the trist, yeah it’s a big deal. If not, he had a little extra fun during his stay. I’ve really not heard anyone speak about this incident while I’ve been out and about. There are a lot more important things going on here in Avl that LOS could spend their time on then what some Dumba** non-local/non-regional/non-state mayor did on his trip here.
Beater, the Kwame Kilpatrick story has made the New York Times, USA Today and Newsweek, just to name three NATIONAL media outlets.
It’s a national story, part of which took place right here. And WLOS blew it off, period.
I don’t know about "so badly beaten" when it comes to the Kilpatrick Story. The only reason this is local is that he was here for the wknd. It’s a Detroit Story.
(Indeed, although if you checked out Kimble, you’d see he was charged with a felony last summer, by WLOS’ own account.)
You’d think they would investigate just a tad right? LOL
I like your style!