Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Read on, dear sheeple:
Body found
WLOSer Terrie Foster went out to Macon County to tell us that a woman’s body was found in a parking area at the entrance to Whiteside Mountain trail. Somebody found the body about 10 a.m. Friday. Foster said the woman was not a local resident.
Foster kept giving us details about location – six miles outside of Highlands; close to homes on Whiteside Mountain Drive; near the Macon/Jackson county line. Guess she didn’t have anything else to report, although she did quote a couple of woman in the area who kept saying over and over that finding a dead body is “scary.” They said it was “kinda scary.” Then they said, “it’s scary.”
Got it.
APD makes arrest
At 6, WLOSer Carolyn Ryan told us that Asheville police on Friday arrested a dude and charged him with shooting up the Stephens-Lee Recreation Center last summer.
Carolyn said she “presumed he knew the cops were after him” because the 21-year-old turned himself in. Ya think, Carolyn? She also said that three people were injured in the shooting in the gymnasium that had about 70 people in it, or as Carolyn said, “so an entire gym full of people.” WAAAA? Seventy people can fill up a gym? Damn, that’s one small-ass gym, Carolyn.
Carolyn quoted quote-machine-cop Kevin West, who said that “we take violent crime very seriously.” Carolyn said she’d find out for us if the shooting was gang-related, a question to which we already know the answer – yes.
In other news…
A dude arguing with a woman in a car barreling down I-26 jumped out of said car and was promptly run over by the back tires of same said car near the New Stock Road exit in Woodfin. Police said “alcohol was a factor… “Winter’s icy grip” knocked out power to about 20,000 WNC residents mostly in Henderson and Transylvania counties. Rain froze on trees and power lines. It was all gone by the end of the day… The former Henderson County Parks and Rec director fired last year is suing for more than $20,000, saying he was fired for no reason. Local officials released an audit report that claimed there was misuse of taxpayer money, but the former director says he’s never been charged.
Animal farm
WLOSer Russ Bowen, sharp as a tack, went down to Henderson County to update us on the All Creatures Great and Small saga. Friday, the remaining animals were turned over to state control, Russ said. He said there were 155 dogs and 52 cats left – that’s 207 animals. The Asheville paper said there were “177 dogs and cats left.” Which is it?
The shelter has been plagued with allegations of animal abuse. State workers said they spent the day cleaning cages, feeding animals and basically deciding which live and which die.
In still other news…
It was George Beverly Shea Day in Asheville Friday. The gospel singer has been at the Rev. Billy Graham’s side for more than 60 years. He’s in his 90s and still going strong… And John Le the punnyman had a smarmy report about groundhogs. Le went out to the nature center and had them pull out a boy groundhog and a girl groundhog so Le could see if he could get them to have sex. Yes, that was the set-up. Le fed them a nice dinner. He put them on a green screen and super-imposed romantic shots of Kwame Kilpatrick’s Grove Park Inn getaway. In the end nothing happened.
But Le must have spent a solid minute-45 on the stupid story, when other important news of the day was lucky to get a 30-second voice-over. Give. Me. A. Break.
Restaurant report card
In our favorite Friday report, WLOSer Frank Fraboni delivered his juicy “restaurant report card.” Notice how he doesn’t barge into restaurants anymore with his camera rolling. Yeah, that noise got his ass in some hot water. But we still love ya, Frankie!
Las Cazuelas in Black Mountain got a health inspection grade of A “barely,” according to Frank. The place had eggs and meat at room temperature. The place got a 90 and a warning.
In Hendersonville, the Fresh Market deli “didn’t impress health inspectors,” Fraboni said. The sanitizer water didn’t have any sanitizer in it and the buffalo wings weren’t at least 140 degrees. The place scored a B with 82 points, but was re-inspected and got an A.
And the Giant Deli Express on Monticello Road had lots and lots of cold food and no hair restraints on food workers. The place scored a 90, still an A.
Super Bowl, super spending
With his big shoes on, Pat Simon trekked out to talk to businesses selling Super Bowl merch. He did the predictable – talked to a woman buying chips and salsa; talked to a woman looking at flat screen televisions; talked to a guy selling jerseys. For dramatic effect, he told us that Americans would consume 8 million pounds of guaucamole this year, or enough to fill this entire stadium (he was in a high school football stadium) with guac up to my waist. Yuck!
In the end, Simon said, “merchants could be the biggest winners of all.” Please, kill me now.
Le Fan – of course i understand that he doesn’t do hard news, even though he DOES do hard news now and then.
my criticism is of his fluff – it’s crap.
Ash, Don’t you understand that John doesn’t do "hard news?"