Post-election, it’s back to the news

Jason Sandford

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

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Bus wreck
A school activity bus carrying 54 children, six adults and the bus driver ran off Hwy. 226 in McDowell County on Wednesday and turned over in a ditch, WLOSer Jeremy Butterfield told us. It’s the biggest story the youngster has been on since he’s been in WNC.

Butterfield quoted somebody who said it looked like the bus ran off the side of the road and the driver over-corrected, which caused the bus to fall on its side and crash. The wreck happened about 2 p.m. near Nebo, Butterfield said.

Two children were airlifted and treated for injuries that didn’t sound serious. Twenty-two were sent to a hospital, while 36 others went to a hospital as a precaution, Butterfield said. Simply amazing that nobody died in this crash.

Not so breaking news
Rumsfeld quits.

Expected news
Democrats are still celebrating big Election Day victories.

Whooping cough
There have been three cases of whooping cough found at Cartoogechaye Elementary School in Macon County, Terrie Foster told us. Some 60 kids are being treated for pertusssis, Foster said. Symptoms are like a cold, only with a bad cough.

Flu
A flu scare has shut down Yancey County schools for a week, and now schools in Mitchell County are shutting down. A few cases of flu have been found in Mitchell, which borders Yancey, so officials are just trying to be extra cautious.

Breaking news
Santa Pal is gearing up

The Shuler and Simon show
Congressman-elect Heath Shuler spent some quality time with Pat “Simple” Simon in the WLOS studios Wednesday for a live interview. The combined IQ of the two wasn’t much higher than a combined Tennessee-Florida football game, but hey.

Pat asked Heath what he’ll do first in Washington. Heath said bi-partisan support hasn’t been good and he’d work with Republicans. Heath went on talk about getting control of the debt and deficit and fixing Social Security. Pat asked if there were programs where he would cut spending, and Heath said no, he’d look at stopping bad spending like spending on bridges and roads to nowhere.

Pat asked Heath if he would vote for Nancy Pelosi for House speaker. Heath gave a politician’s answer, saying he needed to see who was on the ballot. Pat asked about health care, and Heath said he’d work to negotiate better prices for prescription drugs and look into preventative medicines and disease management and people need to exercise more.

Ashvegas Film Festival
John “Punnyman” Le said the Ashvegas Film Festival will feature a 37-minute documentary about Joe Glazer, a famous writer of protest songs and defender of labor unions and political activist. Glazer was also the first to record “We Shall Overcome,” according to Le. Joe Glazer died two months ago, but his daughter, Patti Glazer, now lives in Ahsvegas and is excited about the film.

Sweeps story of the day
Jay Seltzer says that we should go to gethuman.com to get tips on how to stop that “phone frustration” of never getting a real person on the line.

In other news…
The parents of the baby bitten by a rat more than 100 times pleaded guilty and were sentenced to probation. The child remains in DSS custody… A development for the Brookwood Golf Course was approved by a county board on Wednesday… Cherub Charu interviewed Heath Shuler… And the Biltmore Square has a new group of owners who will bring in a store called Steve & Berry’s, which is like an Old Navy.