Graham rapes
Holly Headache went all the way out to Graham County to give us the basics on a shocking story – nine men ages 19 to 41 have been charged with raping a 14-year-old girl from May of 2006 to June of this year. All but one of the men is from Robbinsville.
Holly talked to a couple of townsfolks who said something like this, if true, is shocking and the police certainly wouldn’t charge someone with rape if they didn’t think they had a good case.
That was all from Holly.
Pimping the Fugitive Files
WLOSers were breaking their arm patting themselves on the back while running a story about Buncombe County deputies capturing a fugitive accused of murdering his wife in Mexico City. WLOSers had featued the suspect in their Fugitive Files segment a week or so ago. The cops said someone who had seen the guy on TV contacted them and told them where he was.
In other news…
An Asheville man may have drowned in Lake Hartwell more than a week ago. They’re still searching for his body… Fire destroyed The Oaks restaurant at the Smoky Mountain Country Club in Swain County. The SBI has been called in to investigate… That small explosion at a Henderson County plant last week was caused by the hot weather, which triggered excessive hexane fumes that combusted.
GE layoffs
GE Lighting Systems in Henderson County said that it may cut as many as 285 jobs, so Sheraldo went down and checked it out.
Sheraldo had a complete story – reaction from the convenience store clerk down the road who said her business would be hurt; a statement from the plant, saying it was shutting down three departments and part of a fourth because production of its outdoor lighting fixtures could be done more cheaply if outsourced; reaction from a local chamber official, who said 285 lost jobs would translate into a loss of $6 million in payrool, but hopefully the pain now would result in the gain of the company surviving. Layoffs are to begin in February. The only thing Sheraldo didn’t get was reaction from a plant worker.
Overall, great story with context and detail. Now that’s reporting.
In other news…
It’s hot outside. It was 89 on Tuesday, far off the 1999 record of 95 degrees. It will cool off toward week’s end… People want the city of Asheville to enforce its stormwater runoff ordinances. The city is holding meetings to address concerns about mud and silt runoff and will have a new ordinance in place at some point, but Pat Simon gave us zero specifics…. The Mountain State Fair will have even more animals for visitors to look at this year… And Tiger Woods held a press conference down in South Carolina to say he’s going to design a walking golf course in Swannanoa at The Cliffs at High Carolina. It’s a no-brainer, he said.