You know, normally I avoid crime stories like [insert Hollywood starlet/snotty heiress here] does a sammich, but this one from Live 5 was kind of funny in a dumb crook news kind of way:
It happened little after 1 am; the first guy came from the back of the ATM and walked over to the driver’s side.
With gun in hand, one of the suspected demanded cash. At the same time, a second suspect came to the passenger side and stood in front of the car.
“I just floored it and I hit one of the guys,” Snype said. “It was kind of like do I get my card back or do I leave and as soon as you see a gun, you say, it doesn’t matter just go, get away.”
And now for two reports out of the Upstate, specifically my old stomping grounds in Greenville, the 36th most walking friendly city in the nation. (Is that something to proud of? I always go by college football/basketball rankings; if you’re not in the Top 25, well, don’t even bother.)
No. 1: The Greenville News reports on the news that one of the alleged killers of the UNC student body president may be responsible for an earlier murder at Duke. However, just because one guy killed two people at two different schools doesn’t mean we have a murder epidemic on our hands; homicide isn’t contagious you know. (OK, maybe it is in North Charleston and only if you’re involved in a gang, but that’s another story entirely.)
After rising from 1999 to 2002, campus homicides dropped substantially between 2002 and 2006. But that was before the April 2007 murders of 32 people at Virginia Tech. The final numbers from 2007 will likely show a substantial uptick, according to Daniel Carter of the group Security on Campus.
It’s unknown whether the latest killings mean violence affecting college students is worsening. The latest Department of Justice figures showed campus violent crime declining 9 percent over the latest 10-year period, but those numbers go up only to 2004.
No. 2. The Greenville News’ political columnist Dan Hoover has a rather lengthy piece on Sen. Lindsey Graham’s challengers, including Buddy Witherspoon. As expected, no mention is made of Witherspoon’s former association with the Council of Conservative Citizens, a group with a markedly white agenda.
Ken Burger has a good write up on Ray Ray McElrathbey, the former Clemson football player who became something of a national celebrity when it was learned that he has been raising his younger brother. Recently, Clemson revoked McElrathbey’s scholarship, and the school received a fair amount of bad press for it. Since then, CU found McElrathbey a spot on the Tiger coaching staff.
The McElrathbey boys will be fine. Ray Ray will earn his degree and Fahmarr has a healthy trust fund to help him along in life.
The real loser is Clemson.
How could they not see this coming? Why didn’t somebody step up and say, “you know, this might not look so good?”
That’s because it looks like what it is — college football programs use players until they are of no use to them anymore. Then, when nobody’s looking, they kick them to the curb.
Only difference, this time everybody’s looking.
It’s not easy being a blogger. Just ask the anonymous folks behind A Sunny Place for Shady People, who were called out this week by fellow blogger Will Folks for posting a comment on Folks’ site, FITSNews.com, alleging that Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer skies the slopes of Columbia, S.A. Since then Shady has apologized. (Folks has reported that Corey Hutchins and Wes Wolfe, authors of much discussed piece on Mark Sanford’s alleged “hit list,” are behind the website. Hutchins says he does not operate Shady website.)
Hey, we’ve been wrong about a lot of things before, but nothing to the degree about what we posted on FITSnews about Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer. From the intense defense of Bauer by friends of his, and threats of a lawsuit, we’re pretty certain that what we were told over drinks a couple times is complete bullshit.
After all, we’re not going to have our ramen noodles taken away because a couple jackasses said things to us that were totally untrue.
We’re totally, and completely sorry to the lieutenant governor, his friends and family.
And, trust us on this, we have some pretty nasty phone calls to make to the people who lied to us.
And, actually, consider this our swan song. It’s been fun, but, seriously, we don’t need the headaches that come from speaking our minds, or passing along everything we hear over a couple bourbons. Maybe someone else will take up the banner, but it ain’t going to be us.
Look, I love wildlife. I love it in the fields, the woods, the skies, the streams, in my attic and on my plate. The woodland creatures and I are buddies. Just keep your rabies to yourselves, and we’ll be superfriends. But despite all that love, I just can’t figure out the importance of the following P&C story. I’ll let it speak for itself:
The deer hit by a car writhed in pain and needed to be put out of its misery. But were a dozen or so shots really necessary?
That’s what Audra Luke found herself wondering Tuesday after witnessing a scene on Dorchester Road near Michaux Parkway. The 36-year-old administrative assistant had been on her way to buy supplies from a veterinarian around 1:30 p.m. and was one of the first people to arrive after the accident.
“It was a bit excessive,” Luke said. “It was no less than 12, I can guarantee you that. She emptied her clip and reloaded.”
Two things here: One, 3 paragraphs in and we still don’t know who shot the deer. (We learn that in paragraph five and even then it’s vague). And two, the motorist’s statement that the officer shot the deer at least 12 times is taken as fact. No allegedly. Just taking the claims of an admin at a vet’s office on face value.
Look, I know how we are shocked by stories of animal cruelty; there’s a reason that the video of Motari the alleged puppy tosser has gone viral. But this sounds less like a case of animal cruelty and more like the case of an officer who was simply a bad shot or, hell, too freaked out by the whole dying deer thing to put it out of its misery more expeditiously. (Speaking of the Motari puppy tossing video, Snopes has reason to believe it’s a hoax.
Thanks to the P&C two suspects in a shooting in a Bojangles parking lot have been apprehended. According to the daily, police had failed to adequately investigate the crime, but soon after the P&C ran its report, the cops apparently jumped back on the case. Read it here.
By now you’ve probably heard the reports that one in four girls have an STD, with 20% of all girls having some form of HPV. Scary stuff, yeah. WCBD-TV 2 thought so too.
This scrapbook store is in the business of memories. For owner Elise Wisner, her memories included a painful one. A family member contracted HPV. When this mother of five hears the latest statistics… it is personal.
Actually, it’s personal for a lot of people, more than you think? Or should I rephrase that, more than you’re willing to admit. According to the CDC:
Most people never even know they have HPV or that they are passing it to their partner. For this reason, it may not be possible to know who gave you HPV or when you got it. HPV is so common that most people get it soon after they start having sex.
At least 50% of sexually active people will have genital HPV at some time in their lives.
I don’t know about you, but with half of all sexually active people (that means folks that have sex, either like rabbits or an old married couple) shouldn’t we be a little relieved that only 20% of teenage girls have HPV, which in case noboby’s told you, can be passed on without sexual intercourse.
And kudos to the staff of the Charleston Mercury who found a clever way to get back at us with a little jab we took at them in the Best of Charleston 2008. See, we made fun of their crossword puzzle, The Mercury Wizard, not to mention their roster of very special correspondents, so it’s fitting that the Salmon Sheets devotes this week’s crossword to us. The theme for this week’s Wizard: Lovin’ the Clintons (the Way CCP Does). The clue for Across No. 3: Likely voted by CCP “Best Moral Leaders for Nation.” Classic. Seriously. Hats off.
That said, Clinton? We’re Obama people (and Paul people and Nader people and hell probably even McCain.)
Now we know that there’s estrogen in the water thanks to a recent AP report. And I must say that while I’m troubled by the report, at least we now know why Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan suddenly went from being A-Cup tykes to Double-D tarts. Apparently it had nothing to do with implants and everything to do with good ole estrogen-heavy tap water. And I say, drink up, everybody. Well, except for you Meatloaf.
Of course, it should come as no surprise that the local media has attempted to spin a story or two out of the AP report. WCBD-TV 2 gives it a shot with a report from on “Tap Water Alternatives.”
Should you buy bottled water or is a filter your best bet?
Millions of Americans spend billions of dollars on bottled water because they believe it’s better for you.
But research into the bottled water buzz found the branding wasn’t so cut and dry.
Infact, in some cases researchers found increased amounts of salt, toxins from the plastic bottles and traces of arsenic.
The solution: Use a filter.
Using a filter means you’re filtering the more regulated water which serves as a reinforcement.
If you opt for the bottled water, pay attention to the plastic. Polyethelene is known to have the fewest chemicals.
Filters are a smart buy and can be pretty inexpensive.
But be careful, Federal regulations don’t require them to prove what they promise so you need to do your homework.
Here’s the thing: Home filters likely won’t filter out many of the chemicals the AP report claims are in our drinking water. That means, that even if you have a filter in place, you still might be getting more than your daily requirement of flame retardant. See, the Channel 2 and the AP reports are talking about two different things. They aren’t related.
The LIVE 5 team also ran a report on the AP water study. It’s a good report. What’s kind of goofy though is the question posed by newscasters at the end of the segment, the question they’ll be addressing in a later Talkback segment: Do you think your tap water is OK to drink?
Here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter what you think. You may believe your tap water is safe. You may believe it’s as dirty as Client No. 9’s deeds. But that doesn’t affect the water. It’s either funked up or it isn’t. Silly question.
How much do South Carolinians care about illegal immigrants. According to this photo, not very much. The P&C reports on the action at the anti-immigrant rally at the Statehouse.
During the rally, Freedom Fighter Radio’s Jim Stachowiak from Martinez, Ga., stood on a Mexican flag while waving a sign that read “Americans First.”
Stachowiak shouted “Traitor!” and “Try them for treason!” as the speakers criticized the state’s elected officials. He advocates stockpiling ammunition because he fears martial law.
A stockpile of ammo? You mean like the one I amassed for Y2K?
The video of the lady who sprayed down her kid with a high-pressure hose is old news by now, and you know, so is this report from WCBD-TV 2, but I vowed to myself that just as soon as Haire of the Dog got back from its Best of Charleston hiatus, I’d say something. And then I realized, I don’t need to say much of anything at all. The video speaks for itself. And no, I’m not talking about the YouTube at the carwash hit; I’m talking about Channel 2’s lead off story for Thursday, March 6, the one where reporter Tim Gehret plays the viral video smash to Charlestonians. Watch it and weep for the innocent days of Obama Girl and the squirrel on the waterskies.
So the World Famous Redneck Shop and Klan Museum is back in the news, thanks to the AP. Evidently one preacher is trying to shut the place down. There’s a problem:
A black civil rights activist is fighting to close a store that sells KKK robes and T-shirts emblazoned with racial slurs. David Kennedy is confident he can make it happen. After all, he says he owns the building.
Since 1996, the Redneck Shop has operated in an old movie theater that, according to court records, was transferred in 1997 to Kennedy and the Baptist church he leads.
“Our ownership puts an end to that history as far as violence and hatred, racism being practiced in that place and also the recruiting of the Klan,” Kennedy said. “This is the same place that we had to go up into the balcony to go to the movies before the Klan took it. So there’s a lot of history there.”
But legal documents also indicate that the man who runs the store, 62-year-old John Howard, is entitled to operate his business in the building until he dies. Now the dispute may go to court.
Kennedy, 54, has led protests outside the store since it opened but said he’s never been able to close it because of the agreement that Howard can run the shop for life.
But what about those reports last year that Howard sold the place to the National Socialist Movement? Here’s a post from the NSM:
We are pleased to bring you the announcement that a member of the National Socialist Movement now owns the World Famous Redneck Shop located in the former Echo Theater Building in Laurens, South Carolina…
The Klan/NSM Museum is operated by NSM personnel.
The question is did ownership change hands, and if it did, did it render Howard’s and Kennedy’s agreement null and void? Now I’m not a lawyer, so all I can do is speculate needlessly on such matters, so I won’t comment any further. (One more thing, though: Hitler only had one ball.)
Not surprisingly, most workers in Mount Pleasant don’t actually live in Mt. P, according to a P&C report on the need for affordable housing East of the Cooper, or the river of estrogen as we’re prone to call it in the office. (OK, that’s just in my office.) And while it makes sense that a town’s workforce lives nearby, it doesn’t make all that much sense to resort to hyperbole to stress why that needs to be the case:
The worker survey, completed in September, was done on behalf of the 2-year-old town Workforce Housing Advisory Committee. Pat Goss, committee chairwoman, said a significant number of town employees, including emergency responders, live in North Charleston, which could be a problem during a disaster.
“So, if we had an earthquake and the bridge fell down, guess what?” Goss said.
Afraid of swimming in what you believe is shark-infested waters? The Farkitrol helps.
I’ll be laying off posting to Haire of the Dog until March 6. No, I won’t be on vacation. We’ve got our annual Best of Charleston coming up on March 5 and I’m busier than Hillary Clinton’s spin doctor.
The Post and Courier reports on the latest development in the case of two Florida students, Ahmed Mohamed and Youssef Megahed, who were charged with illegally transporting explosives. Evidently the cops in question liked to crack wise and make off-color jokes on the job.
Taylor testified in federal court in Tampa, Fla., that the jokes are one way deputies deal with the stress and danger of their job.
“We can be crass and rude,” he said. “I believe that’s part of the job.”
Damn, I missed my true calling. I should have been a cop. ABC News 4 uses the incident to discuss the pros and cons of racial profiling during the war on terror.
Danny Gibson is no stranger to suspicion. He works for Threat Management, a private security firm in North Charleston, but spent years in Iraq and Afghanistan as an investigator and U.S. Marine Scout Sniper.
“Profiling in general is a very effective tool. I don’t think it should be based solely on race but there’s all sorts of other factors,” said Gibson.
The factors two Berkeley County deputies faced back in August, when they pulled over Megahed and Mohamed, Gibson says were fair game for further investigation.
“I’d rather look back and question whether or not I was justified in pulling someone over, rather than be worried about racial profiling and not continue to investigate and then have something catastrophic happen,” said Gibson.
You know, I kind of liked it better back during the Cold War days when we had to worry about real bombs — you know the city leveling ones — not overblown firecrackers set off by members of Project Mayhem. Just saying.
In the days leading up to SEWE, the local media ran reports indicating that the expo would a good indicator of whether or not the tourist season would be a strong one. Well, was SEWE a succcess? ABC News 4 reports:
“With all the talk of an economic slowdown, we were holding our collective breath, waiting to see if attendees would show up in big numbers, and they certainly did,” said Jimmy Huggins, president and CEO of SEWE, LLC. “Sales of day tickets are up by a whopping 34 percent over last year, and we estimate our total attendance was back up over the 40,000 mark.”
SEWE’s VIP program completely sold out for the third year in a row, with many packages purchased by visitors from out of town who came in as early as Tuesday to enjoy all that the Expo had to offer. Attendees filled area hotels, browsed and bought in retail stores, and packed restaurants and bars across the peninsula and beyond.
Organizers of the Southeastern Wildlife Expo were extremely pleased with the outcome of the show, and hope that this positive showing may serve as indicator for tourism in the Lowcountry for the rest of the year.
The architectural purists of Charleston are none to happy about a proposed hotel at 404 King, according to this P&C report.
But the changes didn’t satisfy everyone. Winslow Hastie with the Historic Charleston Foundation particularly questioned a series of obelisks that would perch on a second floor terrace overlooking the square. “It’s sort of a mortuary architectural motif,” he said.
The P&C has an update on Hanahan Councilman and alleged basketbrawler Kevin Cox:
Hanahan City Councilman Kevin Cox’s actions during a street-side basketball game last year might not have been appropriate, but no charges will be filed in the case, authorities said…
The teens complained to police that Cox appeared to be intoxicated, that he used racial slurs and that he put a 14-year-old boy in a choke hold and pushed him to the ground, a police report said. Hanahan Police Chief Don Wilcox asked the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate.
Lofton has said that Cox did not make racial comments and that he had part of a drink but was not intoxicated. Cox said at the time that the game was rough but that he did not choke the boy or push him. Cox could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
“Part of a drink”? Interesting. Last night, I fix myself a gin and tonic, and I only had part of it. And I won’t tell you which part. Maybe it was the gin. Maybe it was the tonic. It is a mystery. Even to me. The hours of 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. are blank.
You know if there’s one thing that gets my boxers all in a bunch, it’s when some particularly horrendous crime takes place in a tranquil little town and some news report quotes a resident who’s just dumbfounded that, you know, bad stuff can happen even in their little piece of heaven. Which brings us this Live 5 report on a crime wave that has hit the town of Holly Hill. The horror. The horror.
At the Country Corner Store, the owners say they’ve been struck twice too. They say the thieves stole money from the register, a gumball machine, and even a soda.
Police Chief Bob Wunderlich says the burglaries are related.
“The little gumball machines have been taken. They all have very similar things going one that we feel just the way they’ve been broken into has been very similar,” said Chief Wunderlich.
However, business owners like Small say they are ready for a break in these cases.
Business owners who had gumball machines stolen say the machines cost up to $1,200 a year to rent and maintain. The also say the burglaries have cost them thousands of dollars.
Look, it’s not good karma to rip off an old lady. And it’s probably not a good karma to make fun ofa little old lady who got scammed either, so I won’t. But dammit, it I’m not awfully tempted. WCBD-TV 2 reports:
After growing up working in the fields, Caroline Stevens knows nothing comes easy or without work. She said, “I always tell people I don’t know how people scam people. I’ll never let ‘em scam me. I always said that.”
Now, the 67 Year-Old changed her tune. She said, “They sure scammed me.”
A woman walked up to her in the Reid’s parking lot in St. George. Stevens said of the woman, “She says, ‘Can you tell me somewhere I can live? Rent is so high and I can hardly afford it.’” Shortly afterwards, another woman approached as if she didn’t know the first woman.
The second woman had a bag with what she said was $30,000. The woman said she found the money, but nobody claimed it. The two women talked with Stevens about the money and more. Stevens said of the women, “They said I’ve been to your church. I’m saved too.” News 2’s Jenny Fisher asked, “Did that make you feel better about them?” Stevens said, “Yeah, you trust people who say they go.”
That trust cost stevens $2,700. One of the women said she worked at CVS, in the same shopping center. She said her manager would split the cash if Stevens put up some money. Stevens said, “I really don’t know what happened. They had me so cluttered, I didn’t know nothing about what I was doing.”
The race for the office of Ninth Circuit solicitor between Scarlett Wilson and former Berkeley County prosecutor Blair Jennings is getting as testy as a half-starved Pomeranian eying an open can of gourmet dog food and a jewel studded doggie purse, the kind favored by celebutards and debuteases. You might say it’s getting as ugly as an alleged message board post from former Wilson underling Frank O. Hunt. And the whole thing is centered on the recent acquittal of Reginald Ricardo Hamilton, according to The Post and Courier.
On Monday, Wilson said the previous deputy solicitor in Berkeley County — Jennings — was partially responsible for the evidence prosecutors had to deal with. He had managed the case before Wilson asked him to leave his post in September.
Wilson said that a key witness’ testimony wasn’t properly secured “and we were left with no leverage when he recanted and refused to testify” as well as that Jennings “cut a deal” with the wrong defendant. She pointed to Hicks, “against whom we had the most evidence.”
Hicks was the highlight witness called by Wilson’s new lead Berkeley prosecutor, Bryan Alfaro. Hicks testified the two men plotted to lure a cabbie to the Carnes Crossing Mobile Home Park but blamed Hamilton for the shooting.
However, Jennings had something to say about all that:
Jennings on Monday said Wilson’s comments are off-base, saying she is the one in charge of all management of the office, including how and when to prosecute murder trials in Charleston and Berkeley counties. Holding him responsible five months after he was forced out of his job was grasping at straws, he said.
“She’s the solicitor, she’s responsible for all the prosecutions,” he said. “I don’t agree that it’s laid at my doorstep.
“At the time I left, no deal was in place with Oliver Hicks,” he added.
The P&C has a good follow up to their report a week or so back about abstinence education, pardon me, character education company Heritage Community Services and one of their, um, educational texts.
Heritage provided the manual to The Post and Courier. On the page before the table of contents, it has a “youth-adult contract” that asks students to “abstain from sex outside of marriage, drugs, alcohol, smoking, and violence.”
The first half of the book discusses attitudes, values and character traits. The second half focuses more on abstinence and includes stories about professional athletes who remained virgins into their 20s and 30s. Another passage said alcohol is “the number one cause of girls losing their virginity. Is that a decision you want to make under the influence of a mind- altering substance?”
Ah, virginity. The one thing I lost I never want back.
Although this story about the Charleston Place hotel worker who allegedly had a noose placed around his neck by a fellow employee made the news nearly two week’s back, it’s back in the news, now in press conference form.
WCBD-TV 2 and ABC News 4 report. (For those on mind-altering substances, click on the ABC News 4 link once and then again like a split second later. And close you eyes. He he he.)
Worried about backing over your kid? So is WCBD-TV 2.
We asked Kerr to hop in the drivers seat to test out her rearview blind zone. Christina stood in the back.
“No I can’t see her at all right now,” Kerr said from the driver’s seat. “It’s pretty scary. Small children move pretty quickly.”
Even if Christina walks several feet away from the back of the car, her mom still can’t see her from the driver’s seat.
“No I can’t see her at all. Not from the read view mirror, not from the side view mirror not at all. I don’t think even if had turned around and looked over my shoulder I could have seen her.”
You know, I’m not sure it was such a good idea to put a four-year-old in the blind spot of car. That’s why these things happen in the first place.
Amy Hutto of 98x. Say it ain’t so. Oh, different Amy Hutto.
The pickings are slim today. No shocker really since it’s Monday. So I’m having to venture outside of the area.
First up, the Sumter Item has a report on Buddy Witherspoon, who is running against U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, and as has become commonplace, no mention of ‘Spoon’s ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens is made. It’s like running a report on Thomas Ravenel and not mentioning his snow shoveling woes.
For folks who have never seen Animal House, PCU, and countless college recruitment videos, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal reports that frat boys and sorority girls drink and use drugs at a higher rate than other students.
In 2007, the study found that 45 percent of Greeks used marijuana in the past year, compared with 25 percent of all other students, about 24 percent of freshmen, and 15 percent of athletes. Roughly twenty percent of Greeks used some drug other than marijuana in the past year, compared with about eight percent of all other students.
Numbers were high for Greeks who drink and drive. Fifty-four percent of Greeks admitted to drinking and driving, compared with 34 percent of all other students. And more Greeks have been arrested for driving under the influence - 13 percent - compared with just 4 percent of student athletes and 2 percent of freshmen, the study found.
What’s a cop to do when an investigation ain’t working out? While WIS News in Columbia reports that police in Cola Town are turning to hypnotists to help out. (I guess the pyshics should have seen this one coming.)
We wanted to see for ourselves how it all works. Marshall told WIS News 10’s Dan Tordjman his attitude wasn’t ideal for hypnosis. He said Dan looked apprehensive and nervous. WIS photojournalist Rico Meyer was more willing, and hence a better candidate.
So Marshall tried a relaxation excercise he uses with area high-school students. Rico was asked to lift his left index finger for every number Marshall called out, while also visualizing the numbers.
As Rico slipped into hypnosis, his movements became sluggish. Marshall then carried Rico into the depths of his own imagination and consciousness.
Say it with me: Imagin-naaaaaa-tion, Imagin-naaaaaa-tion, Imagin-naaaaaa-tion, Imagin-naaaaaa-tion…..
Are you Girl Scout Cookies soggy? Fox Carolina in the 864 knows why:
It’s officially Girl Scout cookie season, but this year, complaints have surfaced about one variety being damaged, reported WXII-TV in Greensboro, N.C.
Girl Scout representatives said last week’s storms in Tennessee caused water damage at one of the bakeries’ storage facilities, affecting the peanut butter sandwich cookies, known as Do-Si-Dos.
“People have opened up the cookie and expected a nice crunch from the oatmeal cookie part of it, but instead, it’s soft and they think it’s stale,” Tarheel Triad Girl Scout representative Lynn Burnette said.
Now, if they could only solve the mystery of why Samoans are called Samoans in some places and Carmel Delights in others.
Although we’ve yet to receive any answer on this— hell, we didn’t even bother to ask — but just how many folks at the Statehouse quickly shut their laptops today when they visited FITSNews, the must read political blog by former Sanford spokesman Will Folks? NSFW.
The Post and Courier reports on a proposed bill that would determine exactly where convicted sex offenders could live.
The bill would stop sex offenders who have committed sex crimes against children from living within 1,000 feet of a school, day care center, park or recreation area. The first two offenses would be misdemeanors and the third a felony.
It would not require sex offenders who already live close to those places to move, nor would they have to move if a school, for example, is built sometime in the future near their home.
Two Lowcountry mothers who took their children on a weekly play date to the Northwoods Mall earlier this week said they support the measure but weren’t sure the 1,000-foot restriction goes far enough.
“It’s still too close for my comfort,” said Mary Lee, a mother of two from Goose Creek.
Now, considering that most children who are sexually abused are done so by family members or close family friends, I’m sure the dangers are a lot closer than most would like to think. I’m not trying to scare here. Not at all. The point is to show how misguided legislation like this is. It will do very little to stop child sexual abuse. And even less to drive abusers out of your neighborhoods.
Finalists in the competition included The Washington Post for its reporting on the Virginia Tech shootings that left 33 dead in April and The Omaha World-Herald for its coverage of a December mass shooting at a Nebraska mall. The competition was open to all daily newspapers and wire services, and some 50 entries were received for the deadline writing contest.
WCBD-TV 2’s Tim Gehret has a pretty clever opener in his report on the Peer Assistance Leadership student patrol program, the one where college kids patrol the streets of downtown Charleston looking for wobbly legs and hand out tickets for free taxi cab rides:
“Their uniforms are not bulletproof. Their weapons simply tickets for a free taxi.”
The program is designed to curb alcohol abuse. How? I’m not sure. Yeah, it may keep kids from getting behind the wheel and provide a safe ride home for those may be stumbling blind drunk back home. And that’s a good thing. Not going to knock it. But as a tool to encourage responsible drinking? Unless the PAL squad is going to stop drinkers mid Irish Car Bomb, it won’t do much. In fact you could say it gives students more incentive to get blotto. At best, they’ll be less urine in the streets.
The P&C reports that the Charleston County Sheriff’s Department is interested in buying robotic patrol drones. Now the two drones would cost $75,000. I couldn’t tell you if that’s steep or not when it comes to these matters, but I can say that the cost of the robo copters won’t end there. One, somebody’s got to fly these things. Two, these things break down and new parts have to be bought. Three, somebody’s do to perform maintenance on these suckers.
Little Rock, Ark., already has a robo-copter in use.
We, like most cities, have areas of town that are prone to street crime, drug dealing and the associated violence that goes along with it,” North Little Rock Police Chief Danny Bradley said. “You have some success with patrols and undercover surveillance, but those people quickly learn to identify the officers.”
Bradley said the helicopters could help with surveillance.
“Also, just the effect that you are using it could have a psychological effect on the wrongdoers in the community, because they would not only have to look up and down the street, but overhead,” he said.
Obviously, Bradley never saw Goodfellas.
There were two short little gems on the letters page of the P&C on Sunday.
No luck
Since primates evolved into mankind, I check every day to see how far along my French poodle is toward evolving into a beautiful French woman. No luck so far, but I will keep checking.
Richard Koon
Phyllis Street
North Charleston
Road conspiracy?
The study about the dangerous rural roads certainly raises some fear. What if there was a conspiracy of these killer roads and their pals, the live oaks, to harm humans? But worst of all, what if our cell phones and vehicles have joined in. Poor us.
Julia Cart
Warren Street
That next door neighbor of yours, the fidgety guy with the gnarly teeth and a strange habit of cutting the grass in the middle of the night with a pair of nose hair trimmers, you’re wondering if he might be a meth head, right? What if he’s not just smoking the stuff, but cooking it up in his kitchen? Live 5 is there to help.
Although it can be a little tricky, there are some things you can look out for to spot a meth lab near you.
“Sometimes you can detect an odor that, depending on the method they’re using to make it, smells similar to cat urine,” Jennings said.
Jennings says you can also look out for suspicious activity or for increased traffic in and out of someone’s home.
The smell of cat piss? Ladies and gentlemen, start your sniffing. I’m particularly suspicious of the widow down the street, what with the parade of tabbys and gentlemen callers coming to her front door at all hours.
If it’s not a meth head living next door, it’s an agent of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Charleston is just covered in them. ABC News 4 reports on the all the cloak and dagger stuff going down in the Lowcountry.
“You come into Charleston, fly or drive or get off a ship, you’re a tourist, you act like a tourist, but you have another mission in mind and it’s not in the best interest of the US,” said Rogers.
Roger says the key to keeping the city safe is communication. The very same value US law enforcement is trying to protect. Classified defense work at SPAWAR, the Naval Weapons Station in Goose Creek, also the Naval brig which sometimes stores alleged terrorists, all put the Holy City in the spotlight and make spying a little less surprising.
“I think it’s everywhere. It’s just another chapter in the history of espionage against the United States,” said Rogers.
As if meth heads and spies weren’t enough to worry about, now there’s “petal pushers.” Live 5 News reports:
Like many men, Michael Gibson wanted to send his girlfriend flowers on Valentine’s Day.
After calling 411 to find a local florist, Gibson says he got the number of what he thought was a local shop.
“Everything seemed legit. They asked all the right questions,” said Gibson, who added that on the other end, a woman described the flowers down to the last petal…
But on Valentine’s Day, Gibson’s girlfriend says she never got the flowers. So Gibson tried to call the florist.
Gibson says he first called the toll-free number he initially called to order the flowers, but got no answer. He said it was like the florist never even existed.
Tune in next week to hear the horrible true life tale of the CofC student who gave a $1.50 to a man for bus fare only to see him 10 minutes later cracking open a 40 of King Cobra.
The Post and Courier has a funny little “field guide” to SEWE-goers in today’s Friday 5 section. It’s not a comic masterpiece, but there’s some good stuff there.
Each day City Paper managing editor Chris Haire takes a hard look at the source of all ill in modern society — the media — in all of its diabolical forms. (Cue the menacing music. Fire up the lightning strikes. Where's a werewolf when you need a good howl? Hungover from a bender, perhaps.) This site is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended, especially those well-coiffed guys and gals on the tellie. (Truth be told, the site is actually a love letter to local media, but we've only adopted a down-with-the-MSM approach to appeal to talk radio tin-foil-hatters out there. Ruff ruff.)
