The news is now

Basketball player injured
Kyle Greathouse, a Western Carolina University basketball player that WLOSers described as a “star” (does 6 points a game make him a “star?”), was seriously injured in a car wreck early Wednesday.

Greathouse was a passenger in a car driven by Jamie Whitfield of Clyde, WLOSer Terrie Foster said. They were driving on Old Cullowhee Road when the car lost control and dove over an embankment into the Tuckaseegee River.

Foster said Whitfield was charged with DUI. Foster said her blood alcohol was twice the legal limit. Foster talked to a couple of WCU students who said the road in dangerous and windy and has a speed limit that may bee too high. Foster also talked to a WCU athletic department spokesman who said the Catamount family is praying for the senior.

Snow coming
Mike “Cuervo” Cuevas says we’ll see snow showers on Thursday. Above 3,500 feet, people could see 1 to 3 inches. Below that, a dusting to one inch. WLOSers kept saying, over and over, that people need to “bundle up” on Thursday.

The Blue Ridge Community College story
WLOSers said that the community college’s board of trustees agreed Wednesday to pay back $65,000 to the county in money that the state said was improperly spent on building its new baseball team.

WLOSers did not report that four of the community college’s trustees also quit on Wednesday. Did WLOSers even go to the meeting?

Newspaper layoffs
The Hendersonville Times News announced that is will lay off 35 employees by end of April when it moves to have it’s newspaper printed at its sister paper in Spartanburg, S.C. The newspaper cited aging equipment and increasing demand, WLOSers said.

Powerball lottery drawing
WLOSers said Buncombe County has received about $450,000 from the North Carolina Education Lottery and will received another $500,000 or so this year. School officials will decide how to spend the money later this year.

That was the angle on the real story – the drawing for the Powerball lottery is Wednesday night and the jackpot is a whopping $240 million.

Rutherford murder trial
In their continuing coverage of the Stevie Palmer murder trial in Rutherford County, WLOSers said Palmer took the stand in his own defense.

Palmer said repeatedly that he didn’t mean to stab his wife to death in a parking lot last year when they met to swap children. Palmer said he was angry with his wife because he said she was cheating on him and he wanted to scare her. That’s why he brought a knife with him. But he said he never meant to kill her. And he said he couldn’t remember the actual stabbing. WLOSer Jeremy Butterfield brought us this story.

Road rage incident
A 19-year-old and 20-year-old boyfriend/girlfriend had an argument and were driving out in Candler when they somehow wrecked head-on. Police called it a “domestic road rage” incident. It happened about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday morning. One of the drivers – we didn’t catch which one – was charged with DUI and reckless driving.

Troopers learn the PIT move
*Sheraldo told us that North Carolina state troopes are learning the “precision immobilization technique,” or PIT move for short. It’s basically ramming a car in the rear end to spin it and crash it. It’s a move police can use to stop a chase.

Sheraldo said troopers will only use the PIT move when there’s no oncoming traffic, when there are no passengers in the vehicle being chased and when the chase speeds are below 40 mph. Sheraldo talked to two people who said the move sounded too dangerous.

In other police news…
Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan says somebody is calling people and asking for money for the department to buy bullet proof vests. Duncan says nobody from his department calls people to ask for money. It’s a scam, WLOSers said, and the same thing happened in Polk County recently… Local cops are moving to a 12-hour shift system. The Asheville Police Department switched to 12-hour shifts last year, Black Mountain police just did it and Buncombe deputies will do it next month. The move puts more officers on the street at the same time and means cops don’t have to work more than 36 hours without a day off.

Conserve your fuel
WLOSer Cherub Charu followed up on President Bush saying Tuesday night that Americans should cut their gasoline consumption 20 percent over the next decade. Charu talked to UNCA’s Dee Eggers, an enviro, who said we need micro-algae to produce oil and we need more electric cars and stuff like that. A driver Charu talked to said Americans won’t cut back their usage.

In other news…
John Kerry says he’s not running for president in 2009, according to Tallahasee Tammy. Think she meant 2008… Bearfootin’ is back in Hendersonville. You pay $750 and you get to paint a bear that will be on display in downtown… Local teacher Jackie Byerly is vying for principal of the year… And the state DOT has saved hundreds of white irises, an endangered plant only found in a few places around the world…. O, and John “Punnyman” Le talked to a World War II vet.