The news at mid-week

Dems vote Duncan
Van Duncan beat Walt Robertson to win the primary run-off election Tuesday that hardly anyone voted in. As WLOSers correctly told us the other day, it all came down to voter turnout. Doesn’t it always?

So Cherub Charu was on the scene at Duncan’s campaign headquarters. He didn’t have much to say, according to Charu’s video. Just a lot of back-slapping and hugging. You know how Democrats are. Then Charu interview sheriff Bobby Medford, who fired deputy Duncan awhile back, and Medford mumbled something about he’s got good people and good programs. Then Charu interviewed Robertson, who thanked his supporters.

So now the field is set. We’re ready for the big November elections. Yawn. Maybe after a trip to the beach… O, there was a runoff for Rutherford County commissioner, if anybody cares.

By the way, that puts Ashvegas at about 98 percent correct for our primary election predictions. We correctly called the Duncan victory. And we’ll bring you more correct predictions for November. Stay tuned.

Clemson student strangled
Ok, so here’s the deal – WLOSers send Michelle Boudin all the way down to Greenville, South Kackalacki to lead the 6 o’clock with about 30 seconds on a Clemson student, Tiffany Souers, found dead on her bedroom floor in her off-campus apartment in Pickens County. “She was strangled with a bikini top,” said Diva Darcel, bugging her eyes out like she does.

Then Michelle said police are going through the Clemson student’s computer and phone records.

Here’s the deal: the student was killed on Friday. Yesterday was Tuesday. How is this in any way news now? How is this in any way local news in Ashvegas? Yeah, the cable news had it. So what.

Ingles truck driver death
WLOSers told us that a coroner says that Ingles truck driver who was found dead over the weekend died of head and chest injuries.

Battle House to be torn down
WLOSers gave us a little preview of a story they’ll be milking all day on Wednesday – the demolition of the Battle House.

Jon “Punnyman” Le went over to the dilapidated old house to talk to one old lady who is pissed off that house is being taken down, as well as film construction crews salvaging whatever they could before demolition.

Le and the old lady went on and on about history being lost and such. Whatever. Here’s the deal. WLOSers worked out of that building for 46 years, so that’s why they care. But WLOSers are also the ones who sold the building to the Grove Park Inn next door. The Grove Park Inn is tearing down the old house so it can build some new stuff.

The only great history we could discern from the Punnyman’s report was that a doctor built the house in 1927, then WLOSers moved in in 1954. We’re certain to hear lots more about the outrage over the tremendous history being lost.

Powerball glitches
Jay Seltzer was all over a story about some early morning glitches with machines that sell Powerball tickets. North Carolinians can now play the numbers game along with the scratch-off games.

Some 800 of more than 5,000 ticket sellers had problems, Seltzer said. Some people turned the machines off over night when the shouldn’t have, while others had some weird computer problems. It all seemed to be fixed by Tuesday night. Today’s jackpot – $38 million.

More MySpace hoopla
For WLOSers, it seems that any story about MySpace.com is just about as good as a sex offender story. So here’s Tuesay’s version: Carolyn “Little Red” Ryan told us that some parents kept their kids out of Pisgah High School because they heard rumors of murder and violence.

It was all traced to a conversation that a student had on her MySpace page with a 24-year-old Hendersonville man, Ryan said. Ryan said that the online threat boiled down to an alleged “Christian slaughter” by an Ashvegas Satanic cult on June 6 – that would be 6-6-06, the mark of the devil for all you uninitiated.

Here’s a quote Little Red got from a student: “We heard some of the gothic people we’re gonna come during second lunch and redo Columbine.”

Whatever. What Little Red never explained was this: if the threat was for all this to happen on June 6, why were people pulling their kids out of school on Tuesday, May 30? Carolyn? Anyone?

In other news…
It sure was hot and hazy Tuesday, and that led Mike Cuevas to try an explain what ozone was. Then Julie Wunder tried to help him out. They both said it could be dangerous outside for people with respiratory illnesses and that we’ll probably have more high ozone days later this summer… Ashvegas leaders met witha group of citizens to hear what was on their mind. Mayor Terry Bellamy said there needs to be a “neighborhood communicator” for the city who talks to neighborhoods about growth and development happening in the city… Sheraldo was down in Hendersonville, saying there’s a condo boom in the town. Copycats… There won’t be any air conditioning in the Buncombe County DSS offices today or tomorrow. WLOS never said why not… A car hit three teens in Hendersonville… A murder trial started up in Haywood County. A guy is on trial for shooting his wife… That Gail Gash murder trial date has been set for July 24, according to WLOSers.