What’s in the news: The ‘choking game’ again, a three-year-old unsolved murder revisited, more on Haywood Regional Medical Center’s woes, clean-up of the Beacon plant and more

It was an action-packed day, according to WLOSers. Here’s some of what I saw on their infotainmentcast:

Student mourned
WLOSers on Sunday night re-ran their long tear-jerker on the so-called “choking game,” profiling parents of a Jackson County teen named Connor Galloway who died doing it. Then on Wednesday, the Macon County sheriff announced that a 13-year-old girl was found dead, hanging in her closet after doing the same thing – going for a blood-rush high by tying something around her neck to cut off circulation. Only instead of untying herself at the last minute, Sarah Beck apparently passed out and hung herself.

Larry Blunt said the choking game is also called “suffocation roulette,” “space monkey” and “seven minutes until heaven.

WLOSer Carolyn Ryan, who spoke in slow, sad tones to be sure we knew just how sad this story was, talked to Beck’s fellow students, who said the girl had cystic fibrosis and missed school a lot. They also said Beck had talked about playing the game before. Carolyn talked to school officials and a parent, who said the “choking game” is not a game at all.

Then Diva Darcel gave us the warning signs to watch out for in young people – marks on the neck, bloodshot eyes and disorientation.

In other crime news…
A 16-year-old was beaten with a baseball bat Friday night in the Arby’s parking lot on Patton Avenue. Police think the kid was trying to break up another fight when he was beaten. He is in the hospital with skull and face fractures and was in a coma until Tuesday, WLOSers said.

Cold case file re-opened
WLOSER Holly Headache used spooky music and blurred pictures of a dead body to tell us the story of Amanda Pike, a 28-year-old prostitute whose body was found in the French Broad River April 9, 2005 by kayaker Michael Moncref.

Holly talked to Moncref, as well as cops and Pike’s aunt. Moncref said he’s still haunted by what he saw that day three years ago. The cops say they don’t have any leads. And Pike’s aunt said the family wants answers.

HRMC woes
WLOSers said Haywood Regional Medical Centers woes continue. The director of the hospital’s emergency department, and the nursing director, have also now resigned. The hospital’s CEO resigned over the weekend. The county-owned hospital has an interim director, and a consulting company will fill the other positions.

The upheaval started when the federal government announced it was yanking Medicare and Medicaid funding to the hospital because of problems with errors and other undisclosed issues. WLOSers talked to local state lawmaker Joe Sam Queen, who said the federal government over-reacted to the problems at the hospital.

How many times…
Can Diva Darcel tell us not to reply to, or open up, scam e-mails? Wednesday night, she said there’s one going around from a soldier in Iraq who wants your bank information so he can put the $8 million he has in a safe account until he gets back from the war. Puh-lease.

Snowy blast
It snowed a little Tuesday, but it was enough to bring Asheville to its knees. Schools shut down. People were cold. Some driver’s had a rough time. Russ Bowen followed a guy walking down to get his morning paper.

And all over what? Well, the Asheville airport officially had a “trace” of snow. A trace. Granted, counties further north got 4 or 5 inches, but here in Asheville, it was a non-event. Get over it.

The story that makes you go ‘huh?’
Terrie Foster did a horrible job on a story about a Henderson County woman who got a new puppy and had to have its leg amputated. Why this was a story is beyond me – Foster didn’t explain it.

Here’s what Foster had: A woman got a free dog named Boomer from a store with a great name, “Fish n Pets.” That’s a store where I want to get an animal. Foster said the woman got Boomer free because the dog had an injured paw after getting it stuck in a cage.

So then the woman takes the dog to Animals R Us, another great name for a vet, to have its bandage removed. But the dog’s foot got worse instead of better, so the woman went to Kanuga Animal Hospital, where she had to pay $1,000 to have the Boomer’s leg cut off because it was infected.

Foster said the upshot was that the woman wanted someone “to take responsibility” and help her pay the big vet bill. What-ever.

In still other news…
Some carpenter guy in Swannanoa who lives near the old Beacon plant that burned down a few years ago wants the site cleaned up. The site is No. 3 on a state list for properties that have hazardous chemicals and need to be cleaned up. But the state says there are more dangerous sites that will get attention first… A slaughter plant for poultry and rabbits will be built in McDowell County along Hwy. 226. It will be a small, mom-and-pop operation, said some guy, and people will hardly notice it. It will allow local farmers to sell state-certified meat… There’s a new lottery commercial that touts the lottery’s funding for schools and shows kids going to school, but some people don’t think kids should be in lottery ads, period… Asheville has issued maps that show areas for future annexation, but the maps don’t mean the city is starting the annexation process. The city is just meeting a state law that requires the maps… And there’s a country store in the Egypt township in Yancey County that’s a real throwback to the old days.