Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Maggie Valley gold rush
WLOSers were all over some news that the old Ghost Town in the Sky amusement park has new owners who inend to re-open the mountain-top pleasure park.
Sheraldo said Maggie Valley businesses owners were ecstatic at news that the park, closed for some four or five years now, would reopen next year after millions of dollars of planned renonvations. There’s a lot of work to be done on the iconic amusement park, which featured gun fights and an old West theme back in the day. The place needs a refurbished chair lift to get people up to the top of the 4,000-foot-tall peak, to say the least. The new park will employ nearly 300 full- and part-time employees once it reopens, the new owners tell Sheraldo.
We’ll see…
New high-tech neighbor
Cherub Charu reported the news from her backyard when she told us that a new high-tech company was coming to Biltmore Park because Ashvegas is safe from a terrorist attack.
Netriplex, a company that does Web hosting and builds “data centers,” is coming to Ashvegas because the company president says Ashvegas is safe and has a great quality of life. “Nebraska was on the list, but who wants to live in Nebraska?” the geeky business guy said. Amen, brother. Yer moving to a kick-ass part of the country.
Dead guy in an SUV
Remember that dead guy that somebody found in a parked SUV outside of Waynesville yesterday? Turns out he died of natural causes, according to WLOSers.
Place that gives is stolen from
Over and over again on Tuesday, WLOSers told us in shocked tones that a place that gives to people was taken from – the Salvation Army was robbed. Shock!
WLOSers said that somebody – probably with insider knowledge – took $5,000 worth of laptop computers, digital computers and backpacks stuffed with back-to-school items. Police are investigating.
Tax evasion conviction
WLOSers said Sandra Waldop was convicted of tax evasion. She was sentenced to probation and community service for stealing $131,000, they said.
On the campaign trail
Holly Headache filed a weak-ass report about how it’s an election year and U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor is running against Heath Shuler. Holly said the candidates are out and about more as we get closer to the November election. Then she did a “he said, she said” type of story with no critical thinking or fact-checking involved.
Holly said Taylor was at the Ashvegas airport getting a tour, while Shuler would soon be in Hendersonville stumping with former vp candidate John Edwards. She said Taylor protesters were in downtown Ashvegas Tuesday morning, and she quoted one woman as saying that a couple of people who worked in Taylor’s bank were convicted of bank fraud. So what, responded Taylor. That was 13 years ago, somebody investigated it and got convictions. Time to move on.
Then Shuler said the real issue is the budget and how much “irresponsible spending” is happening in Washington. “We’re in the largest debt ever,” Shuler said.
Then Holly went back to Taylor and said that he said years of hard work made him the powerful member of the Appropriations Committee that he is today. He said things are getting done, like millions of dollars worth of improvements to the VA Hospital. That money doesn’t come from the tooth fairy, he said. “You either have the power to do it or you don’t.”
Amen, brother.
Illegal immigration at 11, Holly said.
In other news…
Firefighters put out a fire at the recruiting center in Regent Park in West Asheville on Tuesday morning. The fire shut down the recruiting center for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. The regional office for the N.C. Lottery also had to shut down for the day. Nobody was hurt. No cause given for the fire… The Asheville-Buncombe Drug Commission had a meeting and Ashvegas City Councilman Carl Mumpower showed a nice T-shirt they made with a slogan that read something like: “If you can sell rock, you can sell stock.”
Oh, and about that Taylor/Schuler report: it may not have been well put together, but there’s about as much chance of WLOS intentionally being a mouthpiece for Taylor as there is for the Citizen-Times or Mountain Xpress. The local media (no matter their particular corporate owner) and Chainsaw Charlie aren’t exactly the best of friends.
Of course, Darcel doesn’t have a secretary, and I wouldn’t think it would be a surprise that an associate producer or desk assistant wouldn’t know the details of a coworker’s vacation schedule.
As for the 3:30 start time, that’s a pretty common time for a second shift schedule to start. Figure she works until past midnight, that’s an 8 hour day. Then add in the morning and weekend personal appearances, speaking engagements, etc. that come with being what passes for a "celebrity" in Asheville (and as a "face" of WLOS, having to listen politely to every yahoo who comes up to you in the grocery store and rant about Sinclair or what they didn’t like about some particular story he doesn’t like), you might want to rethink your desire for her job.
thanks for the update, JB.
i hear ya, syntax.
Darcel Update: My S/O has had a few days off and found himself obsessing over the disappearance of Darcel. So today he called WLOS, and this is what he reported: "I spoke to [Darcel’s] secretary today, she is in fact on vacation (she assured me she is not missing) but GET THIS – she said she ‘DIDN’T KNOW’ when her first day back would be. She told me she usually comes to work at 3:30 in the afternoon (now I’m after her job) and check back then. I think I’ll go to the station today, camp out in front with a sign demanding some news on when Darcel will be back — then Charu could report about me live from in front of the station."
that "on the campaign trail" report had to be some of the most slanted coverage i’ve ever seen – even for a sinclair mouthpiece like wlos. i loved how they gave taylor twice as much camera and soundbite time as shuler, and how they completely glossed over the CREW press conference (during which a friend of ours gave a speech).
believe it or not, that was the first time i’d ever seen a report by holly headache. one word: vacuous.