Tuesday’s slightly boring news

Jason Sandford

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

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Lead story – ‘My kid got beat up at school’
Seriously, this was the lead story. A woman said she was pissed that her 16-year-old son got his ass kicked at Tuscola High School. School officials should have done more to protect him, mom said.

The kid on the wrong end of the ass-kickin’ had a black eye, needed two staples in his scalp and had a chipped tooth. The kid was knocked unconscious, mom said. It went down in the lunchroom, of course.

WLOSer Terrie Foster brought us the story. She talked to the school principal, who said a school resource officer was 20 feet away and broke up the fight within seconds. The bully will be charged with misdemeanor assault and has been suspended from school, Foster said school officials said.

Death penalty for shooter
A Graham County man who shot and killed is estranged wife, her mother and her brother in Robbinsville last year will face the death penalty. No duh.

Hair products go ka-boom!
Ok folks, this is a great story. Just so damn perfect:

A woman was in her Clyde apartment, apparently minding her own business and smoking a cigarette. She lays the cig down to go do something, and the cancer stick rolls into a big wicker basket packed with bottles of hair spray and other hair products and the whole thing goes BLAMO!

Four windows were blown out. Nobody was injured. No word on the condition of the woman’s hair.

Wal-Mart wants to expand
Wal-Mart wants to make its old store on Hendersonville Road into a supercenter. WLOSer Cherub Charu stood outside the store in the rain to tell us the story. Some customers want a bigger store. Others say keep it as it is. Businesses next to Wal-Mart say the bigger the Wal-Mart, the better for them because that means more traffic coming into the shopping center.

Charu said something about the possibility of widening Hendersonville Road in front of the turn to the store, but she didn’t explain it.

In other shopping center news…
The owner of the Westgate Shopping Center in West Ashvegas says he’s going to move forward quickly with plans to build an office and condo complex on the grounds of the center.

Tony Fraga wants to revitalize the center and says it has a lot of potential. The problem is that the state may build a giant highway through the area as part of the new I-26 connector project that will bring us a new Smoky Park Bridge. The state DOT is holding more meetings this year on the project and will pick a path for the new road after that.

Fraga says he’s not waiting around for the state’s decision.

Sheraldo on the sculpture beat
WLOSer Sheraldo went down to Brevard to tell us that sculptures in the Brevard Sculpture Project have been vandalized and damaged. There are 13 sculptures on display around town worth $140,000, and dumb-ass tourists and street punks have been harming the art.

Sheraldo talked to a town official who said to quit it.

In other news…
Ashvegas Mayor Terry “Believe-me-when-I-tell-you” Bellamy and Police Chief Bill Hogan got up early and went to Raleigh on Tuesday to tell state lawmakers to make public safety a top priority… And Blue Ridge Biofuels is now selling biofuel at the BP in Biltmore Village.