Some Friday news

Mother speaks out
The mother of the 2-year-old found dead in her Brevard home talked to Sherald on Friday in an “exclusive” trailer porch interview where you could never see her face.

Sheraldo said Joelle Norris didn’t want WLOSers to show her face. This is the case, as you recall, where Norris’ 20-something husband of two months, Larry Norris, is charged with second-degree murder and child abuse in the death of his stepson. Police say he pushed the little boy, who hit his head in the bathroom.

In Sheraldo’s interview, Mrs. Norris defended her husband, saying there was no pattern of abuse. She said he would “pop” the little boy “when he was in the wrong.” She said her husband “had every right” to do that, adding that she didn’t know how hard he would hit the little boy, but he never left a handprint on his bottom.

Joelle Norris told Sheraldo that her heart is in “60 billion little pieces” because now she’s lost her husband and her baby.

Swannanoa shooting
WLOSers said the Hispanic guy found shot dead in his trailer in Swannanoa was probably the victim of a drug-related shooting. Cops are investigating.

Tennessee sheriff pissed off
WLOSer Holly Headache told us that Unicoi County Sheriff Kent Harris over in Tennessee is pissed off at an Ashvegas methadone clinic. That’s because he’s written two letters to the Western Carolina Treatment Clinic noting that his officers have arrested a couple of people for driving while impaired and they both said they had just come from the methadone clinic.

The clinic’s director said he’s concerned about the situation and looking into it, but people aren’t getting high at his clinic.

Sweeps report – the weather is hard to predict
WLOSer Julie Blunder brought us pretty decent sweeps report about what we all know – it’s really hard to predict the weather in Western North Carolina. NO! Really!

Blunder interviewed two WLOSer weather spotters who live about 25 miles apart on either side of a mountain. In nice graphic work, she showed how the mountains impact the air flow and affect the weather, resulting in very different conditions for these two guys.

In another excellent example, Blunder quoted a National Weather Service meteorologist who noted that one of the driest spots east of the Mississippi is near Asheville, while one of the wettest spots in the U.S. is just down in Macon County. Amazing.

The upshot of all this is that weather-guessers are now doing two things differently – first, they’re talking about the weather by elevation. And the second thing we forgot. But a good job explaining to us what we already know, Julie.

Anna Nicole Smith is still dead
‘Nuff said.

In other news…
The UNC Board of Governors approved yet another tuition increase for state colleges. Western Caolina University saw one of the biggest increases – 9 percent… A design has been approved for the new Pack Square Park Pavilion to be built in the new park. It’s going to cost nearly $2 million and looks cool and should be finished in 2008… Mayor Terry Bellamy held a useless press conference on Friday to say that she wants a referendum on referendum topics, or something like that. We had no clue what the hell she was talking about…