Parties, puppies and power plants in the news

Mom charged
WLOSers said 40-something mom Selene Thoms was charged with serving alcohol to under-age drinkers during a party at her big house one Elk Mountain Scenic Highway. The party was Friday, but this was the lead story on Tuesday at 6.

Cherub Charu brought us the story and showed us a mug shot of Thoms looking pretty awful. There were 150 to 200 young people at the party, according to the police. The cops showed when somebody complained about noise from the party. Charu talked to a mother of a girl who was apparently a friend of Thoms. This mom said Selene knew how to party.

Shooting follow
WLOSers Holly Headache talked to the widow of Lacy Pickens on Tuesday. Police shot and killed Pickens in the parking lot of an Ashvegas Cracker Barrell last summer, and an SBI investigation cleared Ashvegas police in the shooting. The officer who hit Pickens with four shots was justified in feeling like his, and his partner’s, lives were in danger, the SBI and the local district attorney said.

The widow said she’ll pursue legal action against the cops because she thinks police over-stepped their bounds.

Holly tossed in a bunch of other facts that made Pickens out to be a pretty hard-core criminal, noting that Pickens was part of a federal investigation where he may have been dealing cocaine. Holly didn’t offer a source on that tidbit.

Doctors file lawsuit
The eight emergency room doctors at Haywood Regional Medical Center who were fired last year have filed a lawsuit saying the hospital improperly ended their contract.

Billboard protest
Diva Darcel said protesters “hijacked a billboard” for a “sky-high” protest on Tuesday. The two protesters, with a group called Rising Tide, climbed a billboad on Riverside Drive to hang their own sign protesting Progress Energy’s planned power plant for Woodfin. The utility wants to build the power plant to help meet demand at peak times.

Pat “Simple” Simon said the protest was a “sign of the times,” especially in light of reports last week that scientists agree that global warming is a man-made problem. Simple Simon went out and talked to people on the street about whether or not we should start doing something to stop the death of our planet. Most said yes, but one guy said hey, he still needs to drive to get around. Simon also talked to Ulla Reeves, some enviro, who said we need energy solutions.

Simon also talked to a Progress Energy dude, who said solar and wind power options aren’t reliable enough. Coincidently, Progress Energy reported that the utility hit a new all-time high for electricity demand on Tuesday morning.

Cute dogs adopted
Thirty of 34 dogs seized from a home recently were adopted out on Tuesday. WLOS pet reporter Julie Blunder said the Australian terriers found happy homes after about 100 people lined up to try to adopt. The dogs were seized after police said they weren’t being cared for properly.

Blunder said Hugh Cole, one of the two original owners of the dogs, showed up to try to adopt two dogs that he said were working dogs. Police escorted him off the animal shelter premises.

A flood of water line breaks
WLOSer Susan Mundy was up early Tuesday to tell us that there were five water main breaks, including one on Hendersonville Road that spilled water that turned to ice, causing a chain-reaction wreck. There were four wrecks involving eight cars, Mundy said, on Hendersonville Road near the Sagebrush.

A water department official said the recent cold snap is causing old cast iron pipes to burst. The city won’t be paying for any damage because they tried to fix the broken pipes as soon as possible.

Insulin injections suck
That was the gist of Jay Seltzerwater’s health report Tuesday.

Diploma debate
Terry Foster offered a report that said the N.C. Board of Education wants to toughen diploma requirements for graduating public school seniors. The new requirements under consideration include having four math credits instead of three and two foreign language credits. There will be a March 22 public hearing coming up. The new rules would apply to 9th-graders in fall 2008.

Foster talked to several people who said the new requirements would encourage more drop-outs. These people made the proposal out to be so onerous that nobody could possibly graduate. We really doubt that.

In other news…
Asheville Middle School Principal Pam Cocke was named WNC’s Wachovia principal of the year for our region. She’ll go on to compete at the state level… And Sheraldo says there’s a new prescription drug card being offered in Henderson County to help people pay for their prescriptions.