Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Pets perish
Russ “Beefcake” Bowen and Holly Headache brought us news of a tragic pet store fire in Brevard. The fire sometime last night struck at Don and Ed’s Grooming and Pets store. The business suffered major smoke damage. The broadcast at 6 was light on details, but it looked like all the pets in the store died. Dogs. Cats. Birds. Holly interviewed either Don or Ed, we don’t know which, and he was crying. It was very sad. More at 11.
Car runs off the road
That was the news. The video showed a nice panoramic shot of downtown Ashvegas, though.
Lottery rises
Russ told us that the $198 million Powerball jackpot went unwon last night. So the drawing Wednesday night will bring the winner a $220 million prize. Can’t wait until May, when us North Carolinians can play the numbers games! We guess that’s why WLOSers even brought us this news. That, and the chance for Julie Blunder to give us this little segue to the weather report:
“Dare I say we hit the jackpot Russ?” Haha, Julie. How clever of you.
Gas prices suck
Yes, they do. And Russ reminded us that the average price of a gallon of gas is about $2.80 in the mountains. And he said that the price will likely top $3 a gallon by summer.
Great. Just great. I thought that with the U.S. in Iraq, we were supposed to be seeing lower gas prices? I mean, we’ve got control of huge oil fields over there right now. Good grief.
Russ said WLOSers talked to local hoteliers, who say they’re seeing a decline in room bookings. The Haywood Park Hotel in downtown is 20 percent below normal. The hotels in Biltmore Village are doing a “fair” business, Russ said – whatever that means.
Meantime, the Ashvegas Chamber of Commerce remains optimistic. They have a new visitors center, after all. Isn’t it their job to be optimistic, Russ?
Weather wins
We saw this in the local newspaper today:
WLOS/Channel 13 was honored Saturday at the N.C. Associated Press annual broadcast meeting in Charlotte. The station was recognized for having the best weather coverage in Division One Television.
The WLOS weather team includes Bob Caldwell, Mike Cuevas, Julie Wunder and Jay Siltzer.
How in the hell can this be? What is the criteria for this competition? It certainly isn’t accuracy, because WLOSers are just weather-guessers like everyone else. And they get it wrong _a lot._ Just look at this past winter season. The WLOSers got it right about 30 percent of the time.
What about Bob!!!!
Joanne, I am glad you are not my mother!
Not sure who Cuevas is but here in Charlotte there were entries in this category as there always are…
Looks like Cuervo is writing his own responses on here again. He sucks, everyone hates him, Who’s on the weather channel and who’s not? And I don’t let my children watch because you scare them. Nasal man. I don’t know anyone who can stand to watch you. You put the pomp in pomidour. My friend at WRAL says Cuervo was the only one who entered in the weather category.
Gotta agree that Cuevas is a big improvement over the last guy they had (pretty boy Bettes). I’ll never forget about 4 years ago Bettes crowing that "winter was over", and then 5 days later we had 10" of snow…and then WLOS praising him that he had "nailed the forecast" (yeah, for Hawaii).
Fortunate for him that at The Weather Channel he just has to look pretty while someone else does the "real" forecasting.
Ashevegas, I thought you investigate a little before you write in your web. The team didn’t win, only Cavanas won "Best Wethercast in NC".
Please, get the facts.
And yes for me and my friends he is the BEST.
I think Cuevas won "Best Weathercast" himself as I understand it.
That a boy Cuevas…Ashevegas, I know ol’ Cabana Boy winning an award just ticks you off. Trust me, go to another market similar in size and you’ll see.