Archive - Jul 2011
July 18th
On Walmart’s website, an e-shopper can scroll their “shopping cart” through an endless array of electronic aisles with a simple click of the mouse. The website is not partial, offering the super store’s entire stock. They even sell specialty products that can’t be bought in stores.
Customers shop. Pick. Buy. And after a few days, a product arrives on their doorstep.
Walmart and most other department stores didn’t have a retail website 12 years ago.  Â
The last collection barrel for the Stuff the Bus school supply drive was put in place Monday to kick off the annual donation program.
About 14 collection sites are scattered throughout Catawba County for donors to give paper, pens and other school necessities to children in need of materials.
The Stuff the Bus drive and its donors has given school supplies for about 10 years.
Harold Odell Punch, 93, of Hickory, died Sunday, July 17, 2011, at Palliative CareCenter and Hospice of Catawba County. The Punch family has entrusted funeral arrangements to Drum Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Hickory.
Marsha Bumgarner Spake, 47, of Catawba, went to her heavenly home to meet her beloved husband Sunday, July 17, 2011, at her residence. The Spake family has entrusted funeral arrangements to Willis-Reynolds Funeral Home & Crematory in Newton.
By
Associated Press writer Emery P. Dalesio
RALEIGH — North Carolina cannot limit enrollment in a pre-kindergarten program for at-risk children that saw its budget reduced by the General Assembly, the judge overseeing a long-running education-opportunity lawsuit ordered Monday.
It's not clear whether the order by Superior Court Judge Howard Manning Jr. could force the Legislature to redo part of the $19.7 billion state budget that took effect this month. Manning said only that he's confident the state will live up to its constitutional duties to afford every child a good, basic education.
By
O-N-E Publisher Michael Willard
Growing up, I never really had a chance to “know” my grandparents. Three of the four were alive for my early childhood, so I have some recollections of a couple of grandmothers and a granddaddy. That said, my relationships with all of them, unfortunately, was little more than that of a child with their doting grandparents.
July 15th
Most college students spend their summer free from books. Some take on summer jobs. One local product, though, is using this free time to get better on the baseball diamond.
Former Maiden and current Liberty University baseball player Justin Sizemore is playing for the Martinsville Mustangs from Martinsville, Va.
The Mustangs are a member of the Coastal Plain League (CPL), one of the best summer collegiate wood bat baseball leagues in the country.
Most filing for the 2011 Catawba County Municipal Elections is complete, and several council races have a host of competitors.
The Conover City Council race has three seats open for election, but eight candidates declared for the race. In addition to all three incumbents up for re-election, the filers include a past Conover mayor and current school board member.
Former Conover Mayor Bruce Eckard declared Friday that he would run for city council. Eckard lost to current Conover Mayor Lee Moritz Jr. in the mayoral election of 2009.
He has been out of city government since.
North Carolina State Trooper K.E. Travis investigates a car wreck scene at the intersection of Startown Road and Kings Grant Drive in Newton.
Travis said an unidentified driver was traveling south on Startown Road when he probably fell asleep at the wheel and ran his car off the road.
The car flipped upside down and landed on the right shoulder.
The driver was trapped momentarily before emergency personnel arrived on the scene. The driver was taken to Catawba Valley Medical Center in stable condition.
The Maiden man accused of killing and depriving numerous beagle dogs pleaded guilty Friday to five counts of misdemeanor cruelty to animals.
Billy Roy Hewitt, 63, of Maiden, will pay a $100 fine and $1,000 restitution fee to Catawba County after pleading guilty to “willfully and intentionally” killing three dogs and depriving two others.
In March, animal control officers served a search warrant at Hewitt’s home after neighbors reported foul smells and dead dogs in the Maiden man’s yard. Officers reported finding about 100 dog carcasses on Hewitt’s property during the search.
Voters for the Newton-Conover City Schools Board will soon see a change in which board members they will be allowed to vote for.
As a federal law and state-mandated statute, each voting district with more than one area has to revisit its maps after each 10-year census.
