Lots of news for a Monday

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Weaverville homicide
Buncombe County sheriff’s deputies investigated a brutal homicide in Weaverville, according to Cherub Charu, who brought us the news at 11.

Police found the body of a woman in her late 60s in the home off North Buncombe School Road about 6 p.m. Monday. Emergency workers rushed the woman’s husband, who had been badly beaten, to the hospital.

Sheriff Bobby Medford said the couple’s son was out of the country, so it may take a while to notify family before releasing their names.

WLOSers went on to tell us about aman in Waynesville charged in the shooting death of another man Sunday. And some guy in Rutherford County tried to shoot someone but the gun didn’t fire and he was arrested.

Meningitis scare
Diva Darcel told us about a bacterial meningitis scare sweeping Claxton Elementary, but kept the report fairly straightforward.

A second-grader at Claxton has been diagnosed with the “potentially deadly disease,” Darcel said. School officials got out letters quickly to parents and notified anyone they thought might have come into contact with the child, including school bus riders – because Claxton shares a bus with Jones Elementary.

School officials urged parents not to go overboard in thinking a kid’s every little ache and pain is bacterial meningitis. Spring fever is not bacterial meningitis. They repeated the symptoms of meningitis over and over: rash, stiff neck, headache, lack of appetite, nausea, stomach pain, sudden fever.

If it hasn’t happened yet, is it a story?

Carolyn “Little Red” Ryan was all over a local immigration demonstration – even before it happened. Ryan’s producers put her down on Pack Square for a live shot at noon, even though the “prayer vigil” wasn’t scheduled to begin until 4 p.m. Then she was back in the afternoon, covering the 50 or so people walking around the Vance Monument.

Gas prices suck
Yes, we know this is the same headline we used last time. Because it’s the same story over and over. Gas prices are high. Gas prices suck.

Michelle Boudin led off the 6 with this “news.” Here was the spin – gas prices in Buncombe County are higher than gas prices in gasp Hawaii. Ouch. Michelle found a station owner in Barnardsville charging $2.95 a gallon. They interviewed Hoyt Dillingham, who said he didn’t know why the price was so high – he just had to jack the price because his supplier was jacking prices. Back at the anchor desk, Darcel said the AAA blames the current cost of crude, the upcoming Easter holiday and the forecast of another busy hurricane season.

Haywood County gets a bad rap
Once again it appears that WLOSers are reading the Ashvegas blog, then going out and doing stories that we generate. A few days ago, Bulldog wrote a nice post about how Haywood County now stands as the laughing stock of the mountains, taking the mantle from Madison County.

Well, Russ “Beefcake” Bowen took that idea and ran with it on the news. He went out and talked to people about all the bad things happening in Haywood “Jablowme” County – just go to Bulldog’s post to get the full rundown.

So Russ goes down to Beaver’s Drive-In (yes, that’s for real) to get people’s reaction to the story about Master Rick and his numbnuts, and everyone says yeah, the news is bad but Haywood County is still a great place to live. All the bad news isn’t hurting tourism, by the way. At least that’s what Russ says.

More condos
More condos are being proposed for downtown. We didn’t really catch the location – someplace near Martin Luther King Boulevard in downtown. A condo on the small side will cost $225,000. Damn. Ashvegas is getting expensive.

Duke lacrosse cleared?
Attorneys for the Duke lacrosse team jumped all over DNA test results they say clear their clients of allegations that they raped a woman a month ago. You know the story – a black woman hired as an exotic dancer to perform at a team party says three members of the team beat her and raped her. The story has inflamed racial tensions and cast a pall over the Durham campus. Guess we’ll have to wait for an official response from the local district attorney to see what he’ll do.

In other news…
Rev. Billy Graham received an award Monday night – the 2006 George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service… Downtown Hendersonville may go wireless if city council approves… and Julie Blunder says April showers bring May flowers, but it hasn’t rained much, so what will happen to the flowers?