The news so far

Jason Sandford

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

1

THE LOTTERY STARTS TOMORROW!
We think tickets go on sale at 6 a.m.

Fallen, and can’t get up
WLOSers led the 11 o’clock news with a story about a woman living in a broke down trailer who fell through her floor. Yes, the lead story.

We think this was a story about renter-landlord rights or something. But we couldn’t really tell. There were lots of close-ups of damp plywood and the woman sitting in her recliner with her legs up.

Care Bears are here
Victoria Dunkelheald, already a master at interviewing puppets and muppets, scored another biggie at noon on Tuesday – she interviewed a Care Bear.

Tenderheart the orange Care Bear and a Care Bear sidekick sat in the WLOS studios with Victoria for one long, excruciating interview with a subject that can’t talk. We’ll, the Care Bear didn’t talk. It just waved its arms and stuff. The sidekick did talk, at length, telling Victoria in 10 different ways what people will see at the Care Bear show at the Ashvegas Civic Center. (There’s a show today.)

On and on they went, talking about how the kids clap and how Tenderheart teaches young ones to share and blah blah blah.

Haywood County Council on Aging disbands
That’s all you really need to know.

Motel mess
The Mountain View motel on Tunnel Road is a mess and the city of Ashvegas wants somebody to do something about it. That’s the gist of Jon “Punnyman” Le’s report yesterday.

A city building inspector says the motel is a wreck. Video showed a nasty pool area, old mattresses strewn around, broken windows, rooms with broken doors flapping in the wind. Homeless people have apparently been living there, and the inspector says that’s dangerous. Police have stepped up patrols in the area because they’ve notice an increase in crime right around the motel.

Le said the city and the property owner have reached an agreement to get the dump cleaned up in two weeks. We’ll check up on it.

I-40 wall almost finished
That’s all you really need to know from Russ “Beefcake” Bowen’s report. Remember how part of 40 was washed away in the floods of a couple years ago? Well, the state Department of Transportation has been working since on a giant retaining wall that will keep the Pigeon River at bay if it ever rages again.

“It will look like a big concrete wall,* a DOT dude told Russ.

Staying after the sex offenders
One legislative body in the South Carolina government – maybe the state House – has passed a measure that would authorize the death penalty for two-time sex offenders. Watch this one. Do other states already have such a law? This could could national.

Big fight at City Council
The radio news said Ashvegas City Council members really got into it last night over some board appointments. Things got so heated that Mayor Terry Bellamy had to call a timeout on her children. Everybody came back a few minutes later and played nice.