In the news on Wednesday: A rabid kitty, a flag flap, a desecrated cemetery and Bele Chere

Here’s what the WLOSers had on Wednesday:

Don’t pet the rabid kitty
WLOSers said there’s a rabies scare in four states after the coach of a Buncombe County softball team pulled a rabid kitty out of a Dumpster during a softball tournament in South Carolina, then brought the sick cat home.

Some 60 teams participated in the tournament around July 14. So far, 10 people in Buncombe County alone are being treated to exposure to rabies. Public health officials want people who were contact with the kitty’s saliva, or who were bitten by the kitty, to contact them. Animal people say you should never pick a stray animal out of a Dumpster, no matter how cute or pitiful they look.

Flag flap
The Kuhn couple was arrested and charged with flag desecration, assault and resisting arrest after a deputy said he was investigating a flag desecration complaint on Brevard Road. Film at 11.

Cemetery vases stolen
Jeremy Butterfield told us that a bunch of bronze vases were stolen from McDowell Memorial Park Cemetery outside of Marion. The “thieves” and “bandits” “plundered” the cemetery, WLOSers said. People with loved ones buried there didn’t like it.

In other news…
State sales of lottery tickets fell short of predictions for the fiscal year… Bob Caldwell night at McCormick Field got rained out – how’s that for irony? They’ll try again Friday… The Biltmore Estate is building a human sun dial… *Haywood Regional Medical Center is planning to build a 78,000-square-foot addition to its hopsital that will serve as a new surgical outpatient facility. It will be finished by 2009. It’s a $16 million project… A few firefighters with the Enka-Candler Fire Department helped build a Habitat for Humanity house on Wednesday… The DMV tag office in Waynesville closed on Wednesday because the contractor is getting out of that line of work. The state is working on finding a new contractor, but until that time, people who need to do license plate work will have to go to Canton or Sylva… And Sheraldo says the city is getting things set up for this weekend’s big Bele Chere street party.