Archive - Nov 2010 - News Article
November 18th
The Christmas season traditionally starts after Thanksgiving, but for the Catawba County Christmas Bureau, the holiday season is here.
The bureau kicked off its annual project to ensure as many families as possible have holidays filled with joy, gifts and laughter.
"It is this time at Christmas that we know means a lot to children, especially low-income children," said Jennie Connor, Christmas Bureau chairwoman. "Children want to know that they're just like every other child."
November 17th
Since 2002, Newton has crafted and adopted three land development plans for various portions of the city, and a plan for the city's core area was introduced Tuesday.
Now, Newton planners are turning their attention to the Startown area, where a public drop-in workshop will kick-off efforts to create a plan that will shape development in that area during the next 10 to 15 years.
A drop-in workshop for the "Southwest Area Plan" will be Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m. in the Ganntt Community Room in the basement of Newton City Hall.
As Newton leaders plan for the future of the city's "core area," there is not a lot of open space that has not yet been developed.
That makes the task of crafting and implementing a land development area plan for the "heart" of Newton all the more challenging — and important.
"This area has been under development since 1850, so there is not a lot of pristine area left," Newton Robert Mullinax said quoting from Newton Planning Commission's Core Area Plan. "So our job is to improve upon what is already there and maintain it."
No one has been charged in Zahra Baker's murder.
And because there are no murder charges, Zahra's caregivers shouldn't be appointed provisional counsel for a capital offense, according to the District Attorney's Office.
District Attorney Jay Gaither said the Capital Defender's Office filed a provisional counsel assignment Nov. 12 with the Catawba County Clerk of Court for representation of Elisa and Adam Baker, Zahra's stepmother and father. According to Gaither, this assignment incorrectly states that both Adam Baker and Elisa Baker are charged with murder.
Many Concordia Christian Day School students have been camping, but most of them never went camping in a tepee.
Charlotte Story, whose two children attend Concordia Christian school, brought her father's tepee Wednesday to share with students at the school in Conover.
"My dad has a special place in his heart for Native Americans, and he's always had a special place in his heart," Story said. "He wants to share everything he knows about them."
A woman is dead Wednesday after her car crashed into a guardrail on Interstate 40.
The woman was traveling eastbound at the 138 mile marker at 4:51 p.m. when she lost control of the vehicle, struck a guardrail and flipped, said Sgt. T.M. Daniel, with the North Carolina Highway Patrol.
The woman, whose name wasn't released at the scene, wasn't wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision. She was ejected from the Mitsubishi Montero Sport, which landed on the westbound side of I-40 several yards from where it struck the guardrail.
HICKORY (AP) — The father of a disabled girl who North Carolina police say was killed said he had nothing to do with her death and did not dismember the child.
"There's no way I would do that to my baby," Adam Baker told WBTV in a Tuesday interview. "There's no way in the world I would hurt my daughter."
Adam Baker said he avoided a public vigil Tuesday night on what would have been Zahra Baker's 11th birthday because he didn't want to take the focus off his child. He watched over the Internet along with his mother and lawyer.
November 17th
Hickory Police Chief Tom Adkins learned a lot about Zahra Baker since the investigation into her disappeance started more than a month ago.
He spoke with several people who knew Zahra during her life, and each one told him the same thing: Zahra didn't want to be pitied.
"Nothing would slow her down," Adkins said. "She wanted no pity. She wanted to be like every other child."
Catawba County is one of two counties in the country chosen for a $30,000 grant from the National Association of Counties (NACo) and Motorola.
The funding will be used at the county's EcoComplex and Resource Recovery Facility to provide broadband capacity for real-monitoring between the site and its partnered universities and businesses.
"There's a lot of research that's going on, and there's a lot of data being developed," said Lee Worsely, assistant county manager, on Monday at the Catawba County Board of Commissioners meeting.
Elisa Baker's bond will not be reduced, if the District Attorney's Office has its way.
District Attorney Jay Gaither said Tuesday his office will fight Elisa Baker's request for a lower bond.
"As this point, we plan on arguing that the bond will not be reduced," Gaither said.
Elisa Baker filed a motion Monday to reduce her bond on a felony obstruction of justice charge.
