I hope you enjoy the show.

HalifaxTalk: Jennifer Knapp coming to SOBO!!! (Innocently named threads make for horribly fun ThreadSpottings!)

Look at that… South Boston’s getting an accomplished recording artist to appear at a local restaurant for a small concert at a reasonable price! What could be possibly wrong with that? Not so fast, Sparky! Our good friend Grasshopper throws some bigotry (It’s ok, folks… It’s Christian bigotry) and says that Jennifer Knapp is one of Them There People! Not one of them there Australian people, but one of them there people that’s done “come out”. The Horrors!

After taking a small amount of Righteously Deserved heat for her Revelation, Ms. Hopper drops this instant classic line…

…Yall don’t have to freaking slaughter me on HT though….geez…seems like HT is out of control lately. We all make choices, just mine not to support gays.

We’re glad to report that the aforementioned “freaking slaughter” did continue in a mild format. Various participants shoot holes into the Holy Ground under Ms. Hopper’s feet and she begins tap-dancing as the Hate-filled Hilarity Ensues. Ms. ras expresses my feelings (albeit a lot more mildly than I would have put it) when she says “Why does this turn of this thread leave me feeling sad?” Unfortunately, Ms. ras, there are narrow-minded people in the world.

I’d like to end this ThreadSpotting with the following hypocritical quote from Ms. Hopper…

…I am not God and can’t judge…

…while she sits on Her Throne and judges anyway.

Springer’s Bruce’s Final Thought: I have zero tolerance for any form of discrimination and this world would be a lot better if everybody else had the same thought process. I’m ashamed to see somebody like Grasshopper show disdain against other people because of their sexual preference. She says that people would totally understand why she thinks like she does, but the only reason I can think of is that she’s taking her religion way too far when she’s filled with prejudicial hatred. I’m betting that she works alongside people who are gay, so I have to wonder how far her bigotry extends past the recording industry. LeAnn Creasy, your discrimination and prejudices embarrass me. Shrouding your hatred by the cover of religion just pisses me off.

Oh yeah… Freddie Mercury was gay.

My advice to Grasshopper and others whose identity is known to those who might thread spot an opinion here and there: You might want to contact Darrin and ask that you be given a completely new user name that is not connected with any of your current or past posts… and this time try to keep your user name/identity a little closer to the vest. I cannot speak for DT, but I don’t think he would mind considering that option.

Bruce, you know that I like you (you’re a smart guy, talented and personable), but I think you are doing a disservice to yourself, your current employer and others by thread spotting here.

Since I can’t reply to Mr. handyman over there, here’s my reply here.

• First of all, LeAnn Creasy revealed her own name long before I did. As for you, being the staunch defender of conservative principles, I find it disingenuous that you would encourage someone to assume a new identity to “hide” from public scrutiny of their comments. Her right to free speech does not come with the right to avoid the controversy that comes with that free speech.
• Next, I’m disappointed that you feel that calling out the religion-cloaked disdain of a societal group is a “disservice”. Discrimination in any form (even as mild as this, being done by only one narrow-minded person) should be condemned strongly and publicly. Perhaps you failed to notice the disapproval of other people who posted in that thread. I have (and had) no fear of being banned from that website therefore I always spoke my mind and continue to do that today.
• Finally, you’re completely wrong about me doing a disservice to my employer. My employer strongly urges me to have my own opinions and to continue to express them. SouthsideCentral has absolutely no relation to Star News and both parties have made that clear. Unsurprisingly, discrimination in the form that LeAnn has shown makes an excellent topic for our discussion shows. I’d love to hear more from our viewers on this issue whether they agree or disagree with me, and I’m 100% confident that our viewers will want to see that discussion as well.

Update #2: Darrin comes up with some reply about SouthsideCentral’s TipLine Policy and how it is similar to something that Mr. handyman wrote. I have no idea what the hell he’s talking about. Every media source has to be willing to listen to anonymous tips but unlike Halifax Talk (which offers instant publication), I don’t run them unless they’re checked out first and verified.

Update #3: LeAnn posts this um… interesting remark…

I never told Bruce who I was PB. I don’t hang out with him and don’t appreciate idiots using my name on some crappy blog without my permission. If I have to take Bruce to court if something happens to my or my property, believe me I WILL.

Let’s go to the Big Board, shall we?

• I don’t need anybody’s permission to use their name here.
• “Crappy”? Bwahahahaha!
• Now let’s get to the really fun part, the threat of her taking me to court. My reply is “Bring it on because you’ve got nothing.” This is coming from the woman who has threatened asinine legal action before. I’m not scared one bit of her blustering.

Update #4: Now she’s blustering about the fact that her Secret Identity was Maliciously Revealed…

…i never revealed myself here, only my close friends knew who i was. get your facts right.

…only to have her “facts” immediately blown out of the water by other people. LeAnn immediately races to do a WWJD (What Would Jesus Delete?) on her self-identification on Facebook, but Mr. Bateman remains multiple steps ahead and takes a screen capture to prove his point. LeAnn then gets all Revelations on their asses and starts making her Enemies List (which worked so well for Richard Nixon, didn’t it?). After that, she restates her Lionel Hutz Legal Theory that says that I had no right to post her name without her permission and calls the people idiots for not buying her irrationality.

When the comedy has written itself as it has here, Jesus wept pulled up a lawnchair, pointed and laughed.

Update #5: (in a Larry King voice) Let’s go to our next caller. Darrin from Halifax County, Hello!

…Now a message for Bruce:

If you do not have to follow the rules here of respecting anybody who wants to remain anonymous, why should anyone believe that you will respect your own policy on your blog of keeping a source anonymous? Lord knows you’ve shown if there is a chance for controversy, you will drop names.

Thanks for the call, Darrin. Since you posted your question at your board, I appreciate it if you would post my answer to it at your board as well. It would be the right thing to do. You’re always welcome to comment here and my offer of partnership between WMDV-TV & HalifaxTalk still stands even though you’ve never acknowledged it nor given an answer publicly.

Here’s my answer to your question: I’ve never revealed an anonymous source’s name on SouthsideCentral or at work and I never will. You may try to insinuate that I have, but I dare you to show any proof that I have. Also, I feel that your “Never Guess Nor Reveal” rule is asinine. One reason that Halifax Talk has never gained traction with governmental and business leaders of the community is because of the incessant sniping by “anonymous” people. When’s the last time that the IDA or John Cannon have posted?

Update #6 (a new record for # of updates… yay!): (done in the same Larry King voice) Let’s take another call. Riverdale, VA! HELLO!

You should read what I posted and not just assume what you want. Again, the question:

“If you do not have to follow the rules here of respecting anybody who wants to remain anonymous, why should anyone believe that you will respect your own policy on your blog of keeping a source anonymous? Lord knows you’ve shown if there is a chance for controversy, you will drop names.”

On the Internet, it’s hard to repeat my answer slowly so that you can understand it. But hey, I’ll give it a try. (reading slowly) I’ve. never. revealed. an. anonymous. source’s. name. on. SouthsideCentral. or. at. work. and. I. never. will. You. may. try. to. insinuate. that. I. have. but. I. dare. you. to. show. any. proof. that. I. have.

Whew. Caller? Got anything else?

Now you want a public answer to your ridiculous proposal? I am not interested in a partnership with you, at all.

Lots of other people didn’t think my offer was “ridiculous”. Anyway, here’s a piece of unsolicited business advice for you. If you keep summarily rejecting potential business partnerships that could be beneficial even in a small amount to you like this one, it’s going to be a lot harder for you to own “Darrin’s Honda”.

Seriously, thanks for putting my first answer on your board in a unedited format. I hope that you’ll do the same with this one. The offer still stands if you ever decide to think rationally and consider it objectively. And you’re always welcome to be a guest on a show. You’d make Real Good TV. (Oh yeah, you’re welcome to visit anytime as well.)

Update #7: Let’s just make this one quick. Darrin thinks I need him more than he needs me & that the offer is from an unproven company and public access television. That thought of is as logical as the rest of his thought processes, nuff’ said. Anyway, back to the main topic.

Darrin continues to insinuate that I can’t be trusted by potential anonymous sources because I had the nerve to mention LeAnn’s real name. He fails to provide any kind of proof for that then when he’s questioned about it, he says he’s not going to find proof. Listen up, buddy. Your claim, your search. Anyway, after that he says it’s been so long enough ago that he doesn’t remember the details. If you can’t remember the details, Darrin, it wasn’t that important to you. Keep blustering anyway… it makes you sound important.

Here’s one quote from another person that I want to address so that I can make my point clear…

Not taking sides, but isn’t it a bit indiscreet to reveal some one the way Bruce did? We all know who GH is. We all know who most of the posters here are, but do we reveal that info to “strangers” or “lurkers”? Should we? It’s certainly a question of ethics.

It’s NOT a “question of ethics”. There’s no ethical issues involved. “Strangers” & “lurkers” are everywhere and if you’re going to hide from them, get off the Internet now and lock yourself in the house. Here’s another point for you to consider around the “ethics” question. If someone is stupid enough to make an offensive statement as LeAnn’s, that becomes newsworthy in itself.

Bottom Line: You might not like the fact that I broke your Sacred Rule, but your Sacred Rule was a Stupid Rule to begin with. When people can snipe away anonymously with no fear of being named because of a Stupid Rule, you get people like that quote’s author’s mother being called the Grand Wizard of the KKK. Remember that? If Ogy was held accountable by his real name, perhaps things would be different.

Bottomer Line: I don’t live in fear of Darrin Talbott or being banned from HalifaxTalk like a lot of the people seem to do. If he’s The Emperor, I’m the one who’s proud to say that he has on No Clothes. The “Thou Shalt Name Nobody” rule was stupid from Day #1 and the Unintended Consequences of that rule has severely limited the amount of participation there.

• Photos are available at http://southsidecentral2.wordpress.com and http://www.wgsr47.com.
• Over 80 people in attendance today.
• Virginia’s Secretary of Technology Jim Duffey has spoken to the conference as well as Danville’s mayor, Sherman Saunders

At 11:15 AM, William Decarlo Wade (54) was driving on Rock Hill Community Rd. (SR 843) near the intersection of John Henry Rd. (SR 780) when his vehicle ran off the right side of the road. Wade overcorrected his steering, causing his 1998 Oldsmobile Achieva to go across and off the left side of the road. The vehicle then struck a tree and Wade was ejected from the vehicle. Wade was pronounced dead at the scene. According to the Virginia State Police, Wade was not wearing a seatbelt. The accident is still under investigation at this time.

The Southside tour started with Chatham on Monday, Danville on Tuesday, Martinsville on Wednesday, and South Boston on Thursday. Let’s go to the “random thoughts” board…

• Attendance seems to be way down compared to last year, and that’s a big surprise to me with this being an election year. What’s the reason? Health care reform was the dominating issue last year, but there doesn’t seem to be one dominating issue out there.
• The attendance may be down, but the cordiality is significantly up. The ones I’ve seen have been nowhere like the one last year in Danville… except for one glaring example.
• Gary Bender (at the Danville meeting) was an embarrassment to himself. I’ll say what I said last year… “I don’t give a damn if you hate the man and think he’s Satan. He deserves a degree of respect no matter what.” Bender (in a two+ minute crazy-ass rant) called Perriello a “liar and a hypocrite” before getting booed (rightfully) by the audience.
• Has anyone ever seen Tom Perriello in anything except a light blue dress shirt and a red tie?
• Some people are complaining about the times that these town hall meetings have been scheduled for, with some starting at 7:30 AM. With the number of meetings that Perriello has scheduled, those complaints are horsecrap. There’s no way that everybody can be pleased and to have the meetings at various times throughout the day is a good idea. If you didn’t like the Chatham 7:30 AM start time on Monday, you could easily drive the short distance to Danville for the 6:00 PM meeting on Tuesday.

More random thoughts to come…

First, thanks for the birthday wishes. It means a lot.

Next, let’s talk about what’s getting ready to happen for Halifax County. If you’re a Comcast cable subscriber in the South Boston/Halifax system, you’re about to get a brand new TV station. WMDV-TV is currently broadcasting over-the-air on channel 47.2 to southern Pittsylvania County, all of Henry County, Danville, and Caswell & Rockingham Counties in North Carolina. Because the station’s transmitter is on White Oak Mountain, our broadcast signal doesn’t reach Halifax County at this time so WMDV has reached a retransmission agreement with Comcast. WMDV-TV will be seen in South Boston/Halifax, Danville, Martinsville, Chatham, Gretna & Altavista. We have made all of the arrangements necessary for Comcast to start delivering our station to the area and WMDV could be on the cable systems as soon as this week.

WMDV-TV is part of the Star News Corporation and also has TV stations in Martinsville & Reidsville, NC. We specialize in local programming and feature news/talk call-in shows. We also feature guests from all walks of life including local government and elected officials. We invite our viewers to call in to our shows and talk to our hosts & guests about what’s really going on and we promise that you’ll have a voice with your elected officials on WMDV (as well as have a chance to express your own opinions). The network affiliate TV station cover our area as well, but they don’t have the time to devote themselves to in-depth coverage of things that happen here. At WMDV, we plan on producing a minimum of two to four hours of local programming each weeknight and will supplement that programming with coverage of local & regional events. In other words, it’s a type of TV station that the Halifax County area has never seen before. It’s worked well in the Martinsville & Reidsville areas and it’s going to work well in Halifax County.

You may notice that I used the word “we” up above and that’s because I am heading up the WMDV-TV efforts. I will be the host of the majority of our on-air programming. I have been working for Star News Corporation for the past four months and am currently hosting shows on our existing stations. I have a good knowledge of the region and have a good working relationship with the region’s government leaders and elected officials. I have already started the progress of booking guests from Halifax County (and the region) for our talk shows and look forward to filling our programming schedule with content that you will want to watch. As you know, I always maintain an open line of communication with my friends and I am keeping that philosophy open with the new viewers that watch our stations. I want to hear what’s on your mind, what’s going on, and what you want to see on the station. Star News Corporation is known for covering and televising local events and we look forward to continuing that in the WMDV coverage area. We’re community-based, and we’re going to give Halifax County a new way to talk & something to talk about.

We will also offer television advertising packages that will include commercials, short & long-form infomercials and TV show type programming at the lowest media rates ever seen in the area. If you’ve got a business or service that you want people to know about, you will be able to reach well over 35,000 households in the Southside Virginia area at prices that will be affordable for you, no matter what size your business is. WMDV does all of our advertising production in house and doesn’t charge production fees for advertising contracts that meet our minimum time-frames. We have plenty of references available that will be glad to tell you how much Star News advertising has done for their business.

As you can tell, I’m excited about this new career and also excited to bring this endeavor to Halifax County.

Now, let’s get to the HalifaxTalk part of this essay. As you know, Darrin Talbott banned me from the HT message boards after my comments in this thread. I made an attempt to talk to Darrin and documented it in this SouthsideCentral article. Darrin replied in a thread called “Free BruceH”, and I made my response here. After that, I’ve had no communication with Darrin and only passing conversation with Bunny. I thank all of my friends for the support. Through credible sources and friends, I’ve found out that it’s just not Darrin that recommended my banning and continue to not want me back. I have no need to be allowed back on HalifaxTalk but with the imminent arrival of WMDV, I feel that it’s time to move forward.

I feel that WMDV & HalifaxTalk could both benefit from working together. The majority of elected officials and government leaders have no desire to participate at HalifaxTalk due to the anonymous sniping and hostile attitudes that have been demonstrated quite often in the past. That hasn’t been the case at any of the other Star News stations and it will not be the case at WMDV. When you’ve got a potential audience of over 35,000 subscribers, leaders and people will participate. Let me make this perfectly clear… I will not (nor never) apologize for any of my statements on HalifaxTalk. I stand behind what I say and always will. I am opinionated at times and I have no problem offering up those opinions. If you don’t like me, I don’t care & I can sleep well with that knowledge. I’ll do just fine without your support. If you do like me, I’ll be there for you.

Here’s what I’m proposing… If Darrin & Bunny are willing to work with me & WMDV, I would be willing to set up a section on HalifaxTalk where I could tell people about what’s coming up on our programming. I would open threads up for people to submit questions for our guests and to suggest potential show topics. I would also respond to viewer’s comments just as I currently do via phone, email and our Star News Facebook page. I want to make sure that people know that Halifax County will not be the sole focus of our WMDV programming, but we feel it’s an underserved market area and needs a local TV station that covers this area.

So there you have it, folks. I’ve told you about WMDV and our plans. It’s going to happen and I want you to be a part of it. I cordially invite everybody who reads this letter to come visit the new WMDV studios in Danville. We’re located at 3334 US 29 N, and that’s 2/10′s of a mile past the Market Square shopping center and the Danville city limits. Make contact with me, and I’ll let you know when I’ll be in the studio and we’ll work out a good time for you to come visit. If you’re on Facebook,I invite you to add me on as a friend if you haven’t already & I also invite you to find our Star News fan page and join it. You can email me at any time at bhedrick@southsidecentral.com or bruce.hedrick@wgsr47.com. You can also call me as well. I’ll be glad to give you my direct phone number on request or you can call 336-446-WMDV (9638) at any time. I will continue to operate SouthsideCentral, and here’s a SC article that tells you all of the ways to contact SC & see additional SC content. I’m also actively looking for guests that have a story to tell, so feel free to let me know any ideas that you have on that. As for the HalifaxTalk issues, the ball is now in Darrin Talbott & Bunny Propst’s court. I would like to work together with HalifaxTalk… but if that doesn’t happen, WMDV is coming to the area anyway.

I thank you for taking the time to read this open letter. If you have any questions or comments, I’m always available to talk.

Sincerely,
Bruce Hedrick

Bad news: You’re not going to hear what they have to say unless you’re a Lynchburg Tea Party member because they’ve banned the media from attending.

Media not invited to Tea Party meeting with Hurt, Goodlatte

I purposely stayed away from all news this weekend but found out about this today. Needless to say, I was outraged. I sent a message to Mark Lloyd who immediately called me back and was very nice about explaining the Tea Party’s rationale. I understood his viewpoint but I told him that I strongly disagreed with it because anytime a politician makes a speech, the media should be allowed to cover it. Now that we’re in the election season, it’s even more important for people to hear from the candidates as much as they can.

I called Robert Hurt’s campaign manager tonight and left a message telling him that in my opinion, it looks poorly upon his candidate when he chooses to speak at an event where the media has been banned by the organizers. I plan on doing the same thing in a phone call to Bob Goodlatte’s campaign tomorrow.

(Disclaimer: I am the owner/operator of SouthsideCentral.com and work for Star News Corporation. I make my paycheck covering news like this.)

Now let’s go to the “fun yet disturbing” part of this…

Lynchburg Tea Party site: August 5th Meeting – Speakers: Hurt & Goodlatte

Let’s look at the comments left by “Lynchburg Tea Party”.

In what way has the media been a friend to the tea party? In NO WAY is the answer to that. We are called Racists. Terrorists. Etc. There will be cameras there. OURS!

Dear “Lynchburg Tea Party”: I don’t care one bit about your views. As a member of the media, I would be there to cover what the candidates had to say. The media is there to cover the story.

The announcment does not say “Lynchburg Tea Party ‘members’ ” so if you consider yourself a participant in the TP then come and bring a friend.

Dear “Lynchburg Tea Party”: Now it appears that anybody can come as long as they “consider themselves a participant in the TP”? I’m getting confused here. Now there’s a membership requirement?

I’ve asked mark to craft a clarification for you and others. Bring your spouse by all means.

Dear “Lynchburg Tea Party”: I get it now. You’re making this up as you go.

I strongly suspect that “Lynchburg Tea Party” is Kurt Feigel, who has a frequent habit of dogma-driven outbursts. Anyway, I hope that both Robert Hurt & Bob Goodlatte rethink their commitments to speak in front of this group and any other group that would ban the media. Mark Lloyd is better than this decision and I hope he changes his mind.

Eight-foot boa slithers into Bedford County yard

This is why Mouthy stays inside.

The 2nd Annual Reidsville Criterium takes place on Saturday, July 31st.

The races start at 1 PM and go all the way to 8 PM. There’s no charge for admission and there’s plenty of free parking on the side streets of downtown. There will be LIVE! coverage of the races on WGSR-Star News.

The first Criterium was a lot of fun, and I’m sure this one will be even better. Hope to see you there!

Fink’s Jewelers is doing a promotion called the Roanoke Diamond Dash. According to the official rules, they will select at least 250 people to play their game. If selected, you’ll get text messages on your cellphone with clues and riddles that you’ll have to solve. You’ll score points for each correct answer and the person with the most points wins the diamond ring. In an “Amazing Race” type of rule, you won’t be allowed to use a car or taxi, but public transportation, bicycles and traveling on foot is allowed.

This sounds like fun… anybody up for it?

A 42-year old Eden man drowned while helping to save his sons from an undercurrent in the Mayo River on Saturday evening.

Glenn Elmer Hampton (42) drowned in the Anglin Mill Loop area of the Mayo River at 6:45 PM on Saturday night. According to the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office, Hampton was at the river with his wife, his 3 sons and a family friend. Hampton’s 9 and 10 year old sons were threatened by an undercurrent. Hampton and the family friend went into the river to rescue the children. The family friend was able to remove the children from the dangerous situation, but Hampton went under the surface of the water due to the current.

Hampton’s wife called for assistance while the family friend searched the river. Another man at the river was able to assist and together. they were able to retrieve Hampton’s body. The two men attempted CPR until emergency personnel arrived on the scene.

Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page was asked about the drowning and said “Rockingham County is blessed with rivers suitable for recreation, but on occasion, tragedy becomes reality. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Mr. Hampton”.

Want to get in contact with SouthsideCentral? Here’s a list of messaging services that we are using.

• Twitter: Follow @sosidecentral to get the latest updates at SC and what’s going on in our life.
• Facebook: Our Facebook fan page is at http://www.facebook.com/southsidecentral. Click the “Like” button to get our updates (which we’re going to put out more often).
• Yahoo! Messenger: sosidecentral
• GoogleTalk: sosidecentral
• AOL Instant Messenger (AIM): sosidecentral
• WindowsLive Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger): sosidecentral
• Skype: sosidecentral (Slype instant messages and voice calls are accepted)
• Call us: Go to our TipLine page and enter your phone number into our Google Voice button. You’ll get a callback where you can leave a voice message. (We love this one!)

There you go… plenty of ways to stay in contact with SouthsideCentral. We love to talk with our readers, so feel free to add SouthsideCentral on any of your messaging programs.

Here’s some more sites where you’ll find more SouthsideCentral content…

• SouthsideCentral’s PicasaWeb page: http://picasaweb.google.com/sosidecentral (We’ve got a lot of photo albums here)
• SouthsideCentral’s Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/southsidecentral (We haven’t used Flickr much, but it’s worth a look)
• SouthsideCentral’s Photobucket page: http://s817.photobucket.com/home/sosidecentral (We just started using Photobucket)
• SouthsideCentral’s PhotoBlog: http://southsidecentral2.wordpress.com (This is where we occasionally put photos from our BlackBerry system)
• SouthsideCentral’s 12Seconds page: http://12seconds.tv/channel/SouthsideCentral (Nothing here yet, but we’re going to try it out.)

As you can see, we love to provide some of the best content on the Internet for our visitors. Of course, there’s no possible way to keep all of these sites updated 24/7, but feel free to bookmark them and visit often. We’ll update this list whenever we add more sites, so stay tuned! Thanks for making SouthsideCentral one of the best sites in the region.

This new feature called “…I KNOW are True!” pays homage to Max Kellerman’s opening to ESPN’s “Around The Horn” (I’m wondering if anybody remembers that). Anyway, let’s make it happen!

These four things I KNOW are True!

• Because they’ve added $3000 to the horrible dog abuse case in Danville’s reward fund, PETA is actually good for something.
• Jack Dunavant continues to make crap up and tries to scare people.
• “Hot For Teacher” just isn’t a Van Halen song, and…
• “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.“

Humane Society offers reward after pit bull found dead

Words fail me at this atrocity. No animal ever deserves this kind of treatment and I strongly hope that the person(s) responsible for this is cnvicted and sentenced to the maximum penalty that the law allows. Somebody knows something, and I hope they call the Danville Area Humane Society and supply the information to get an arrest.

Based on the injuries that this dog suffered, it’s logical to assume that there is dogfighting going on in the region. It’s time for all of the law enforcement agencies in the area to work together to find and stop it now.

From our friends at the Rockingham County (NC) Sheriff’s Office…

Christopher Smith was travelling on Highway 29 near Reidsville. He observed a truck parked by the highway and pulled his car over and in front of the truck. He asked to borrow the truck driver’s cell phone. At that time, Smith called 911 communications to say he had killed his family.
When the deputy arrived at the location, he asked for identification and inquired if Smith had any weapons with him. Smith said he had a shotgun and a sword in the trunk of his car and had killed his family.
After other members of the Sheriff’s Office arrived, Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office was contacted. An execution of a search warrant for the Kernersville address revealed there were no such deaths at the location as Smith claimed.
Smith was taken to the hospital for evaluation, and later charged with FILING A FALSE POLICE REPORT. His bond is $1500 secured and a court date of August 17th was given.

I can’t add anything to this story, folks.

I’m working some very long hours at my new job and as a result, it’s hard to get articles written on a daily basis. That being said, I’m a firm believer in quality over quantity so I hope that all of my readers understand.

SouthsideCentral is not going away… that’s one thing I can promise. Thanks for stopping by on a regular basis!

Mountain Road Resident Requests Lower Speed Limit

Lovely. If this passes, Halifax will now have even more areas for revenue enhancement operations and it won’t change one thing about the safety level.

City’s Bluffwalk tab nears $1 million mark

My mind truly boggles. Guaranteeing a $3.2 million dollar loan to a private investor wanks right up there with Buena Vista building their own golf course. I just checked the Craddock-Terry Hotel’s prices out and I just don’t understand why they aren’t at full capacity. Gee, you would think they’d be turning people away because their “Best Available” rate is only $159.

OddsMakers on this business venture going bankrupt and sticking the Lynchburg taxpayers with the entire bill: 97%

The Register & Bee’s John Crane wrote an excellent article about the meeting, so I’ll refer you to that for the play-by-play. I just want to touch on two experiences I had during the meeting.

First, let’s look at the suggestion of a name for the industrial park. Given, they didn’t hire a big-name advertising firm to arrive at the first suggestion, but I firmly believe that a second-grade class could have came up with something more catchy than this…

Even Danville Economic Development director Jeremy Stratton doesn’t look very pleased with the largest industrial park in Virginia being named “MA”. Drawing board. Get back to it.

Second, I met some of the strongest anti-uranium mining supporters at the meeting and I was very surprised at their friendliness towards me despite my strong opinions against their cause. Although I completely disagree with their group’s tactics at times, I have a great deal of respect for Nancy Smith and George Stanhope for their resolve and belief of their cause. As Stanhope said to me after the meeting (paraphrased), “There’s nothing about this issue that stops us from being friendly to each other.” Truer words have never been spoken. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Anne Cockrell. While the RIFA board went into closed session, the majority of people went into one of the other conference rooms to relax during the downtime. After a few minutes of conversation, Cockrell turned to me and said “We’re going to have a meeting now, would you mind leaving?” My reply was “Not gonna happen.” Cockrell stared at me incredulously as if she didn’t believe that somebody in the media was going to defy her wishes. I stood my ground as she puffed up and said “Then we’re not going to speak.” Shortly after that, she glared at me, pulled a member of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors out of the room and went to the lobby to continue her conversation.

Members of the anti-uranium group: Anne Cockrell’s type of bullying tactics make your group look bad. Cockrell’s behavior is similar to SCC leader Jack Dunavant, who is known for trying to exert his influence to make people do things his way. Based on my first impressions of Nancy Smith & George Stanhope, I feel that if the anti-uranium group adopted their demeanor, they’d get more people to listen to them.

Danville’s first public hospital falls victim to old age

It didn’t fall victim to “old age”. It fell victim to owners that didn’t give a damn about about the property, a neighborhood that’s a war zone and a fire that happened 14 years ago. Now that the wrecking ball has finally entered the building, we’ve got an outcry of “Save The Historic Hospital!”

The owners, the historic societies and people with enough money to actually do something with this building have had plenty of time to do something about this dilapidated eyesore and they have done absolutely nothing. The current owner, Cora Tucker, is a landlord in Durham NC and has had seven years to try and make the building livable. How’d that work out?

Of course, Danville’s history is important and certain things should be preserved… but this building has gone past its lifespan. Unless a Millionaire with Magical Money steps up in the next week, it’s time for the City of Danville to show that it’s fighting blighted properties no matter what building it is.

Danville Utilities awards $12,000 grant to Habitat

During the past winter, customers of Danville Utilities frequently complained about high electric bills. Despite assurances from the mayor and city council who said “We’re listening to you”, nothing has came out of this listening yet and we’re five months past the issue. Danville has a Utility Commission that meets monthly but again, we’ve heard nothing about any billing policy changes. Now comes this donation of $12,000. It’s a good program and it’s a good cause, but there’s no explanation where the $12,000 came from. That amount of money wouldn’t affect anybody’s utility bill, but it’s the image of giving money away when customers are complaining about utility rates that cast this donation into a bad light.

Good donation. Bad timing. Danville Utilities should have seen this public reaction coming.