Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Sweeps shootings
As soon as Ashvegas put the call out for some sweeps action, news happened and WLOSers were all over it. Deadly shootings in Buncombe and Jackson counties had them hopping.
The lead off report of the day was the Buncombe County shooting in the Oakley community. Some redneck that looked like a 75-year-old ZZ Top guitarist, but in reality was in his 40s, gut-shot his girlfriend with a .38.
WLOSers hit us, rather insensitively, with the dying woman’s words via her 911 call to police, begging for someone to help her. The tape was chilling. Did the television folks really need to play it the day after the woman was murdered? Hmmm. Wonder what the family thinks about that.
Police caught the old boy hiding in a shed.
Meantime, Jackson County sheriff deputies, apparently a bit more trigger happy than their Buncombe County counterparts, caught up with a suspect in a Cullowhee restaurant shooting and blasted him to death. They found him hiding in a closet in an apartment. Sheriff Jimmy Ashe said he “brandished” a weapon and refused to obey police orders.
The suspect had popped three workers (they were in serious condition Tuesday night) inside the China Dragon restaurant and tried to sexually molest a woman, the Jackson sheriff said.
Here’s my Tom Joyner “hidden racism” theory: The Oakley suspect was a white man. Police didn’t shoot him. The WLOSers didn’t disclose the race of the Jackson County shooter, but my guess he was brown-skinned. Police did shoot to kill in his case. I hope I’m wrong on this…
What did you say?
After all that big news, Larry Blunt came right back with a noggin-scratcher. He delivered some bit about a Cherokee police officer found not guilty of stealing a motorcycle. Ooooooo kay.
Why do I care? Why is that the third most important story of the day? Here’s my theory on this one: WLOSers got bullied into putting that up high in the newscast by the Cherokee officer’s lawyer, arguing that the teevee folks made a big deal of it back when he was charged. WLOSers, what say you?
Speaking of Cherokee
It seems that the Cherokee language is dying. Uh, no shit, Sherlock. Yet that’s the big Wednesday report that WLOS was teasing on local radio.
Charu’s needless soldier story
At 11, Cherub Charu came back on her useless story about a spat between a St. Louis newspaper reporter and a local ex-Marine who now speaks out against the war in Iraq.
Charu did the story because she half-assed the first report that ran several days ago – she went with a piece laying out the controversy by talking to the newspaper reporter but not interviewing the ex-Marine, who she said was traveling. So she was forced to come back and tell his side of the story.
The ex-Marine says he saw U.S. soldiers shooting and killing civilians. The reporter, who was embedded for while in the ex-Marine’s unit, says the local guy is full of crap.
But again, why is this even a story? We could care less, Charu. Seriously. Go back to yer Ganja reports.
Flip a coin
A WLOS camera captured a coin toss that decided a mayoral race in the Jackson County town of Forest Hills. Seems both candidates got 41 votes. The story was so poorly put together that I couldn’t tell who the winner was – there was no video interview with the new mayor or the loser.
Getting hosed
Looks like Ashvegas City Council could hose city water customers yet again. Michelle Boudin, once again reporting news that might actually affect me (thank you, Michelle), said council on Tuesday was considering jacking up water rates for the average user by $3.50 a month.
Dammit, this is pissing me off. We pay more than anyone else in the state for water service as it is. Now they’re going to hit us again? I know the Ashvegas water system leaks like a sieve. I know it’s supposed to take, like, a billion dollars to repair. But damn!
Lederhosen Le
Jon “Punnyman” Le donned the lederhosen (actually, we think he wears the hosen under his work clothes on a regular basis) and felt feather cap to do a story about the health benefits of sauerkraut.
Le was picking up on a recent report in which some scientists said sauerkraut could help fight the bird flu, another big non-story. So Le went out to a German restaurant in Black Mountain, the Berliner Kindel, and talked to the chef.
Le slurped some rancid juice from the fermented cabbage. And he made many bad puns relating to weinerschnitzel and such.
All I know is that after eating all that smelly sauerkraut, Le cured himself from getting laid any time soon.
