Carolina Politics Online

A “high priestess of voodoo” from Blythewood is being linked to an Atlanta area political scandal, Georgia media outlets are reporting.

Media accounts say that police reports indicate a George Ann Mills of Blythewood was solicited by Cobb Commissioner Annette Kesting to cause her political rival, Woody Thompson, to “catch cancer” or “have a car accident.”

The State

I’m just jealous that I never thought about this when I ran for office.

TABOR CITY — State Sen. R.C. Soles Jr. was accused of spraying one of his legal clients in the face with pepper spray on Sunday, one month after fending off an attack by the same man with a shoe, according to police reports.

No charges were filed in Sunday’s incident.

The confrontation was the most recent between Soles and some of his current and former legal clients, according to police reports.

Soles, a Democrat, has a law practice in Tabor City.

The Fayetteville Observer

I guess this guy got some really bad legal advice. 

Opal Savage, a Charlotte grandmother and retired nurse, says she was shocked when her Verizon Wireless bill looked more like the down payment for a small house.

The $10,539.72 bill was mostly for about six weeks of calls to Secret Encounters, an adult chat line based in St. Georges, Granada.

She said she’s not responsible for the calls and that the number must have been stolen. She’s been fighting with Verizon for more than a year.

Charlotte Observer

Damn!  Someone out there has a lifetime supply of lotion and a severe hand cramp.

Two men were charged Tuesday with stealing railroad tracks.

Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies arrested 23-year-old Kenneth Ray Watts Jr. of the 1400 block Middlesbrough Drive, and 38-year-old Terry Walton Green of the 100 block of Williams Lane in Roseboro.

The pair were arrested around 7 p.m. at the CSX railroad tracks along Camden and Crystal Springs roads. They were walking along the tracks after driving a black SUV about 100 yards from the Camden Road overpass, according to a news release.

Detectives found 40 steel plates, 25 railroad spokes and five 3-foot sections of railroad tracks in the vehicle, all belonging to CSX, the release said.

The Fayetteville Observer

I wonder what the street value is of a railroad track these days.

A naked man caused quite a stir at a Hilton Head Island hotel.

The Hispanic man — described as being about 35 years old — entered the pool deck of the Holiday Inn Oceanfront, 1 South Forest Beach Drive, at about 8 p.m. Sunday.

He stripped off his clothes and ran around the pool, “tormenting” guests, according to the description of a 60-year-old tourist who was at the pool with his family.

The Island Packet

Hopefully for his sake, he did this before he stepped into the cold water of the swimming pool.  Otherwise, I’m not so sure it would have been the guests who were embarrassed.

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. — A man bit off another man’s nose in a fight in a Burger King drive-through, and then bragged about it, deputies said.

Deputies said that when they arrived, they found 32-year-old Easterling with an extremely bloody face, and Eastwood with blood around his mouth, but no injuries. Deputies called for emergency medical assistance when they realized Easterling’s nose was missing

 

Witnesses said that they saw Eastwood bite Easterling’s face and then raise up and spit out flesh.

 

Emergency medical workers located the missing piece of Easterling’s nose and transported it with him to the hospital. There was no immediate word if it could be reattached.

 

Deputies said that as they were transporting Eastwood, he told them he intentionally bit off Easterling’s nose because he was “at war.”

 

Deputies said that while on his way to jail, Eastwood described the taste of blood and appeared to be bragging about what he had done.

WYFF Channel Four News

This guy’s got nothing on Hannibal Lechter.  Maybe he and Mike Tyson should do lunch.

South Carolina state government has rescinded plans to spend almost $5,000 to market the state to gay tourists overseas, and some Charleston-area figures outspoken in support of gay rights didn’t have a big problem with the change in plans.

The Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department had joined an international advertising effort tied to gay pride week celebrations in London, and one ad — placed in a London tube station — showed a historic rural home under the headline, “South Carolina is so gay.”

The poster was done by a tour operator, and as soon as it drew wider attention within state government, officials pulled the plug.

The Post and Courier

LOL!.  How comical.  Ok, this was just a stupid idea.  South Carolina is a great place for anyone to visit from any background.  We shouldn’t be using funds to push any kind of agenda or target any specific group based on their lifestyle or other factors.

WTF??

LUMBERTON - Authorities say nine North Carolina jail inmates have been charged with making wine behind bars.

The Fayetteville Observer reported Wednesday the inmates were discovered making wine last month in the Robeson County Jail.

Assistant jailer Capt. Jeffrey Martin says the inmates used food from their meal trays, especially sweet items, to make the wine in a plastic bag.

The Times News

What genius these men must possess.  To be able to think that much outside the box and make their own wine from inside a jail cell and instead of having successful lives somewhere they are rotting behind bars.  Talk about taking the wrong path in life.  Tragic.

And if you’re curious as to how this is done, Bradwrage has all the details for you if you’re sure you really want to know.  You’ve been warned.  I have a feeling this stuff has a kick that keeps on kicking for a long time.  Now you know what to get those pesky in-laws at Christmas time.

Okaaaaay…

DURHAM — Allegations that a local Democratic official and her husband were involved in Satanic rituals that included shackling people to beds, caging them and depriving them of food and water have horrified county party leaders.

Joy Johnson, 30, a third vice-chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party and vice chairwoman of the Young Democrats, was charged Friday with two counts of aiding and abetting.

Her husband, Joseph Scott Craig, 25, was charged with second-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon for an incident in January and another in May.

During her time as a party official, Johnson was interested in trying to attract more young Democrats and get them involved in the political process, acquaintances say.

Floyd McKissick, a state senator and a Democrat from Durham, said Monday he had been told Johnson had resigned her posts with the party. He, too, reserved judgment.

“I was absolutely shocked and flabbergasted,” McKissick said. “You never would have suspected allegations that she would have had any participation in these rituals.”

The N&O

RALEIGH — County manager David Cooke said today he has turned over documentation about a travel and spending spree by a former employee to Wake district attorney Colon Willoughby, raising the possibility of criminal prosecution.

The actions come two days after The News & Observer detailed 50 trips and questionable purchases made by Craig P. Wittig, the former recycling program manager for the county’s solid waste management division. He was fired June 3.

Over a 26-month period, Wittig averaged two out-of-town trips a month. He and five subordinates racked up $161,233 in travel costs and other expenses to credit cards issued by Wake County and paid for with public money.

The trips included a whale-watching cruise off the Maine coast, nights at a Las Vegas casino, geyser sightseeing in Yellowstone and four visits to Walt Disney World.

Wittig, 37, also used his county charge card to buy top-of-the line backpacking gear, a John Denver CD and a novel about elves. Wittig has said the trips and purchases were legitimate expenses, many of them incurred in the line of one of his primary duties — developing an environmental education program for Wake County.

The N&O

Absolutely. Every recycling manager needs to know about elves. You know when they’re not at Santa’s workshop, they’re helping out at the recycling facility, right?

His boss, Solid Waste Management Director James S. Reynolds, signed off on the charges, which were often justified as research on museums and parks for building an environmental education program that was to include a planned center to be built at the recently closed North Wake Landfill.

Reynolds was demoted last month, but he has remained on the county payroll earning a reduced annual salary of $85,000. No personnel action has been taken against those working for Wittig, who also went on some of the trips.

These two numbskulls ought to be put to work for minimum wage, working two damn jobs, until they repay the county taxpayers for every penny they spent.

Last year, state officials notified nearly 10,000 holders of license plates with the letter combination “WTF” that they could get a replacement at no charge after officials learned that the combination is a common acronym in text messaging for a vulgar phrase, “What the …”

But while tracking down the errant plates, no one at the Division of Motor Vehicles checked their own Web site. “WTF-5505″ is shown as a sample of a personalized plate.

Charlotte Observer

I would love to have a license plate with WTF on it.

Artives Freeman stunned the courtroom on the first day of his murder trial. He walked in dressed in a suit and tie – and covered in his own feces.

Charlotte Observer

Alrighty then…..

This gives a whole new meaning to the term “shit head.”

BISHOPVILLE — There’s evidence indicating the 2008 version of the Lee County Lizard Man is a dog.

DNA testing on a swab with blood taken from the 2001 Dodge Grand Caravan reportedly damaged by a creature in the early morning hours of Feb. 28 indicates the likely culprit is a domestic dog, according to a report made by Elizabeth Wictum, Forensic Laboratory director at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

While there has been no official sighting of the Lizard Man since July 1988, the evidence found by the Rawsons has created quite a stir not only locally, but also nationwide.

The Item

One of the strangest stories from last Tuesday’s primary happened in Raleigh during the Democrat primary for State House District 40.

Stan Morse (D) decided to run against incumbent Marilyn Avila (R) only because he thought no one else had entered the race. But it turned out that another Democrat did enter. It being too late to remove his name from the ballot, Morse essentially conceded the race and supported the other guy.

So what do you think happened?

After trying his best to lose, Stan Morse now says he’s in it to win.

Morse won last week’s Democratic primary for the N.C. House seat from District 40, despite endorsing his opponent, campaigning against himself and issuing his concession speech the day before the election. Even his wife voted for the other guy.

Still, Morse carried 55 percent of the Democratic vote in his Republican-leaning district, which includes Raleigh’s northernmost neighborhoods, Wake Forest and Rolesville.

The News and Observer

Either the other candidate was so God-awful that primary voters decided to go with Morse, or we need to consider stripping some of these people of their voting privileges, because they obviously haven’t a clue what they’re doing.

As his party’s candidate, Morse said Wednesday he will accept no campaign contributions or endorsements from PACs or special interest groups. He said he will take contributions of $100 or less from individuals, but that he intends to run a low cost, bare bones campaign.

The N&O

Well yeah, he probably has to now. I doubt contributors will be lining up to fund someone who didn’t even want the nomination. Still, to be on the safe side, maybe Rep. Avila will concede the week before the election- she’ll probably win land in a landslide if she does.

Another one from the bizarro files:

In February 2005, Lang worked at Alegis Group in Greenville and was pursuing a career in modeling, according to the lawsuit. On Jan. 30, 2005, Lang bought a bra from the Victoria’s Secret located at Haywood Mall, and 13 days later, at about 5 a.m., she was in her apartment and began to feel “discomfort in her breast caused by the brassiere” and tried to remove the bra, according to the complaint.

“When attempting to remove the brassiere in order to alleviate the discomfort, the brassiere malfunctioned, lacerating the plaintiff’s chest and left breast, nearly six inches wide and six inches deep,” the complaint alleges. The lawsuit does not specify how the injury occurred. Hughey told GreenvilleOnline.com today that the bra “broke and the wire came through and lacerated her breast.”

Lang immediately went to the Doctor’s Care on Congaree Road and received treatment, according to the complaint. After missing work for several days, Lang was terminated, the complaint alleges.

The complaint alleges that Victoria’s Secret “so negligently and carelessly designed, manufactured, constructed, assembled, inspected, and sold the brassiere that it was dangerous and unsafe for its intended uses” and caused Lang “lost wages, pain and suffering, future disability, loss of prospective business relations and medical expenses.” The complaint asks for unspecified actual and punitive damages.

The lingerie company’s answer to the suit alleges that any of Lang’s injuries would have been caused by her own negligence and asks for a determination of Lang’s “percentage of” negligence related to her complaint.

The answer alleges that Victoria’s Secret “had no duty to warn about possible dangers or hazards … which were not known or which were not capable of being known or discoverable by reasonable inspection.”

The Greenville News

I’m really glad I’m a man.

How did a scratch on her boob cause her to miss several days of work?

HIGH POINT — A man was refused service at a local bar, so he made his own drive-thru window, police said.

Roy Allen Marrs Jr. went to Stumble Inn at 1100 Prospect St. but was not allowed to stay because he was severely intoxicated, according to High Point police.

Morris became angry, cursed the staff and left, police said.

He got into his Mitsubishi Montero, backed it up, then drove forward, ramming the SUV into the exterior wall of business, according to police.

The News-Record

LEXINGTON, S.C. — Police say two Lexington men have been arrested and charged with stealing 28 manhole covers to sell to metal recycling companies.Lexington County Sheriff James R. Metts said Thursday that Matthew Alan Shirley and Dylan Jeffery White have been charged with grand larceny and criminal conspiracy.Shirley is 19 years old and White is 18. Both men were in jail Thursday and sheriff’s spokesman John Allard said they did not yet have an attorney.

Police say a metal recycling company worker called the sheriff’s department to report that the men were there with a pickup truck full of manhole covers.

The manhole covers are valued at about $100 each.

The Sun News

I just have to give these guys credit for thinking outside the box.

That’s according to television show host Judge Greg Mathis, who ruled a South Carolina man whose amputated left leg ended up inside a smoker that was then auctioned off should be able to keep his appendage.

“You’re not getting that leg. I’m not giving you the man’s leg,” Mathis told Shannon Whisnant in issuing his decision on an episode of the “Judge Mathis” show that aired Thursday.

The judge did order John Wood, whose left leg was amputated after a plane crash, to reimburse Whisnant $5,000. Whisnant, of Maiden, N.C., told Mathis he wanted to build a museum and charge people $10 to look at the limb.

Whisnant said he had received calls from around the world from people wanting to see the leg and thought the museum could be profitable.

“Bunch of weirdoes out here,” the judge said. “What’s special about him and his leg?”

The Beaufort Gazette

I have to say that this was the most bizarre incident I have ever seen in a long time. What a couple of screwballs.