Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
It’s a Monday, and it’s a little slow. Read on, loyal ones…
School redistricting in Henderson County
WLOSer Terrie Foster said Henderson County is planning on a school redistricting when the new Sugarloaf Elementary School opens next year. Foster talked to a couple of moms who said they wanted to keep their kids in their current elementary schools. She also talked to Stephen Page, the school superintendent, who said he’d work with parents who wanted waivers. That was about it.
In other news…
WLOSers say it’s not too late to get a flu shot. Yancey County wants people to get flu shots. The county got hit hard last year, and this year, neighboring Mitchell County shut down schools because of the flu.
Sofa express signs a violation?
WLOSers say Asheville City Councilman Carl Mumpower says Sofa Express is breaking the law by hiring people to hold signs while standing along city streets. Sofa Express, if you didn’t know, is having a big going-out-of-business sale. The Sofa Express people say they’ve talked to their lawyers and are perfectly within the law. WLOSers called city attorney Bob Oast gave ’em a no comment.
So WLOSers raise the issue, but then leave it unresolved. Can somebody please get to the bottom of this, since WLOS isn’t?
In still other news…
Tallahassee Tammy didn’t like the video WLOS had at 6 p.m. that went with the big beef recall story, so they changed it for 6:30. No doubt WLOSers got some calls showing sick and diseased animals getting shoved around with forklifts.
Kassandra goes shopping.
So here was Kassandra Pride’s tease for her story: “When it comes to saving money, it pays to shop wisely.” Oy.
So Kassandra said it’s President’s Day, and that means it’s time to shop. I have no idea what the connection is, but that was her homework assignment. So there it is. Kassandra hit up an Ingles, a super Wal-Mart and a Bi-Lo and shopped for the same size and brand of the following: bread, milk, eggs, apples, bagged lettuce, Lucky Charms cereal, chicken, toothpaste and a Tombstone frozen pizza.
Kassandra said Ingles came in the most expensive at $35.81, while Bi-Lo was second at $34.79 and Wal-Mart was cheapest at $28.46. Back at the anchor desk, Tammy said WLOSers asked people who gave the best customer service, and everyone said Ingles was best.
In final other news…
Local AARP volunteers are giving free tax service to people… Police searching for the killer of Michelle Young, a woman found dead in Raleigh 15 months ago, executed search warrants in Brevard and Etowah… And John Le, who we haven’t seen in ages, says your television can kill you. He did a story about people throwing away lots of TVs and computers, what he termed “e-waste.” Le said the Buncombe County landfill accepts such electronic garbage only on Fridays and ships it to a recycler in Winston-Salem.
Hey Ash, I know you haven’t posted anything on this yet, but during WLOS’s rundown on the trial regarding the girl who fell off the back of the motorcycle in Candler a few years ago and was killed, they used a recycled montage & interview of the bike gang she was supposedly running with. They showed one member, Aaron Lewis, doing stunts on a bike. Had they paid attention, they would’ve noticed Aaron Lewis was killed in a motorcycle accident several months ago and probably should’ve been removed from the montage. Ya think some simple editing would’ve prevented this boo-boo. I only saw this on today’s 6 a.m. news though, so maybe they fixed it??? Me thinks not though.
I’m glad Le did a story on e-waste. We send our old monitors, through recyclers, mostly to 3rd world areas, like in rural China, where poor people melt the plastic in open pits and scrape lead off of TV monitors. Our garbage, is recycled on the backs of the most poor people in the world. Nobody talks about it much. Asheville has a recycler near Britt and Tilson, across the river, and they at least are trying to keep the stuff out of the landfill. But they have no cboice other than to ship it to companies who ‘take care of it,’ and that includes the practice I described.