Broadcast Icon Paul Harvey Passes Away Saturday

58-year broadcast veteran, Paul Harvey, has passed away.

Reports are the-90-year old broadcast legend died surrounded by family at a hospital in Phoenix.


One of the most recognized voices and a fixture in American broadcasting for more than 50 years, passed away Saturday in Phoenix.

ABC Radio Networks announced that Paul Harvey was surrounded by his family at a hospital near where he had a winter home. No cause of death was announced according to the Associated Press.

Harvey had not only been aired locally on 1450 WATA over the years, but had been heard nationally since 1951.

"Stand by for news!" reached 24 million listeners at the peak of Harvey's career according to AP, as the broadcast was carried by more than 1,200 radio stations.

"The Rest Of The Story" began hitting the airwaves in 1976.

Harvey's wife Angel, also a Radio Hall of Fame member, passed away in May 2008.

ABC Radio Network's President, James Robinson, released the following statement Saturday:

"Paul Harvey was one of the most gifted and beloved broadcasters in our nation’s history. As he delivered the news each day with his own unique style and commentary, his voice became a trusted friend in American households. His career in radio spanned more than seven decades, during which time countless millions of listeners were both informed and entertained by his “News & Comment” and “Rest of the Story” features. Even after the passing of his loving wife Angel in May 2008, Paul would not slip quietly into retirement as he continued to take the microphone and reach out to his audience. We will miss our dear friend tremendously and are grateful for the many years we were so fortunate to have known him. Our thoughts and prayers are now with his son Paul Jr. and the rest of the Harvey family."

Paul Harvey's son, Paul Harvey Jr., also released a statement Saturday. Harvey Jr. said:

"My father and mother created from thin air what one day became radio and television news. So in the past year, an industry has lost its godparents and today millions have lost a friend."

To Get In The Snow Mood

With our forecast in the High Country calling for snow this weekend I thought this would be the perfect time to share pictures that I took on Monday Feb 23 during our last snow event. You can click on the pics for a larger view.

NC Ski Resorts Want To Limit Lawsuits

From Asheville Citizen-Times reporter Jordan Schrader

Legislation filed at the behest of North Carolina's mountain ski resorts would limit their liability to lawsuits filed by injured skiers.

Under a bill filed Thursday, skiers would assume responsibility for collisions with trees or snowmaking equipment or accidents due to bare spots or terrain variations.

I wrote about this idea last year when Sen. Steve Goss was pushing for it. (Here's a link to the site of a group that posted that story. It's expired on our site.)

This year, Reps. Cullie Tarleton, Bruce Goforth, Phil Frye and Ray Rapp are on board.

Wilkes County's NASCAR track gets new life..for now.

*Winston-Salem Journal*

Published: February 26, 2009

NORTH WILKESBORO

A developer has signed a short-term lease with the owner of North Wilkesboro Speedway and has plans to start a new racing series and reality show there.

Charles Collins, who says that he is a 43-year-old Georgia native and developer, has set up an office at the speedway and has keys for the locks.

During a tour yesterday, Collins said he has a short-term lease with Bruton Smith, the billionaire owner of the speedway.

"Yes, sir, I believe he does," Smith said in a telephone interview. Smith said he didn't know details of Collins' plans, but that the lease is for about three months.

The speedway is still for sale for $12 million to "whoever comes with the money first," Smith said.

Collins says he plans to produce a reality racing show there called Women So U Think U Can Race? He also said he plans to start a racing series for women called the AWESOME Racing Series. AWESOME stands for for All Women Stockcar Oval Motorsports Event.

"We're seeking women that want to go bumper to bumper," he said.

Collins said he hopes to start production of the show at the speedway in March or April and to have ticketed events for the public. He also plans to promote concerts there, he said.

Burned in the past by people who have announced pie-in-the-sky plans to buy and revitalize the North Wilkesboro Speedway but never did, officials in Wilkes County don't know quite what to make of the latest prospect.

Linda Cheek, the president of the Wilkes County Chamber of Commerce and the point person for the county's Blue Ridge National Heritage Area's priority initiative to revamp the speedway, said she doesn't know what to think. She has heard a lot of people talking about Collins but has never spoken to him.

"I don't know if he's for real or not," she said.

Don Alexander, the director of the Wilkes Economic Development Corp., wouldn't answer any questions about Collins but issued a two-sentence statement that was approved by the county attorney.

"Mr. Collins has informed the Wilkes Economic Development Corporation of his plans for the North Wilkesboro Speedway, and has continually updated our office with regard to his efforts and progress," the statement said. "His vision for the North Wilkesboro Speedway, if realized, would be a very major development for Wilkes County, one which would have a significant and positive impact on the economy here."

Collins, who said he has been working on the project for the past year and has been in town for about four months, wouldn't say exactly where he had come from. He wouldn't answer specific questions about his past experience but said that he is a property developer who has built houses and had done some shopping-center renovations.

He talked about needing sponsors for the new efforts.

He said he can understand why people are skeptical about plans for the speedway.

"They had so many people come in and say, ‘We're going to do this,' and ‘I got a dream,'" he said. "I'm a reality man. I work to make it happen. I push to make it happen and don't give up. I'm a seeker for success. I can make it work."

He said he hopes to eventually buy the speedway.

In a 2002 interview, Smith said that the track is worn out and needs to be repaved, and that there are sewer problems there. Yesterday, Smith said that for what Collins is going to do right now, those improvements won't be necessary.

Collins said that the track is still in good shape. He said that the sewer is fine, and they can use portable toilets until eventually bringing in a main sewer line.

"I got big plans for this place, and that's about as far as I'm going to go," Collins said. "We're getting ready to crank this place up."

What does Duke's Nolan Smith and the movie Friday have in common?

To quote the most famous line from the movie Friday "You just got knocked the **** out!". It however was a legal screen.

Colleges Warning Spring Breakers About Mexica

*from Asheville Citzen Times*

The U.S. State Department and universities around the country are warning college students headed for Mexico for some spring-break partying of a surge in drug-related murder and mayhem south of the border.

“We're not necessarily telling students not to go, but we're going to certainly alert them,” said Tom Dougan, vice president for student affairs at the University of Rhode Island. “There have been Americans kidnapped, and if you go, you need to be very aware and very alert to this fact.”

More than 100,000 high school- and college-age Americans travel to Mexican resort areas during spring break each year. Much of the drug violence is happening in border towns, and tourists have generally not been targeted, though there have been killings in the big spring-break resorts of Acapulco and Cancun, well away from the border.

At Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, it's standard operating procedure to advise students to use caution wherever they go during spring break, whether it's home, to the beach, out of the country or on an alternative spring break service-learning activity, Jane Adams-Dunford, WCU's assistant vice chancellor for student affairs, wrote in an e-mail.

WCU's spring break is next week.

High Country Pic

I admit full well that I am no where near the league of Blue Ridge Blog when it comes to pictures, but then again if you put her in a radio station then well I win LOL.

But I have become interested in taking better pictures. So with a new camera and a lot of learning to do I present some of my first pictures of the area with a "real" camera.

At least someone on TV has a clue

Kudos to CNBC's Rick Santelli for setting it straight on a cable news show

Ante Up! S.C. Judge Rules Texas Hold 'Em Is A Skill

Ante Up! S.C. Judge Rules Texas Hold 'Em Is A Skill - Charlotte News Story

Ante Up! S.C. Judge Rules Texas Hold 'Em Is A Skill

Thursday, February 19, 2009
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. -- A South Carolina judge has ruled that Texas Hold 'em poker is a game of skill, a ruling that could prevent police from arresting people taking part in a friendly game of poker.

Mount Pleasant Municipal Judge Larry Duffy on Thursday wrote that there is "overwhelming" evidence that the card game is one of skill, not chance. State law outlaws gambling on games of chance with cards or dice.

In the past several years, police in South Carolina have raided homes to break up poker games.

Still, Duffy's order doesn't help the case of five men he found guilty of operating a gambling house, who must now pay fines.

About 20 people were arrested in that raid almost three years ago. The others settled their cases by payi

Top 10 Sites Parents Don't Want Kids To See

*From Business Insider.com*

Top 10 Sites Parents Don't Want Kids To See

What Web sites do parents, schools, and small businesses censor the most on their networks? Porn? Time wasters? Shopping? Social networks? All of the above!

These are currently the ten most-blocked Web sites on home, school, and small business networks, via OpenDNS's domain filtering tool.

1. MySpace.com
2. Facebook.com
3. YouTube.com
4. Playboy.com
5. Ebay.com
6. Meebo.com
7. Friendster.com
8. Orkut.com
9. AdultFriendFinder.com
10. Espn.com

What's OpenDNS? A San Francisco-based startup offering free DNS -- domain name system -- tools for homes, schools, and small businesses. We've been using them for years at home just because they speed up our Internet. But they're increasingly catching on for their anti-phishing and parental filtering tools.

The company has 10 million users, 20 employees, and is profitable -- making money from Yahoo search ads that show up when people mistype domain names.

At CES, OpenDNS announced that Netgear will be bundling their filtering and anti-phishing software with its routers. The company recently appointed former VMware exec Nand Mulchandani as chief executive.

Dolly Parton to receive honorary doctorate from UT

Dolly Parton to receive honorary doctorate from UT | CITIZEN-TIMES.com | Asheville Citizen-Times

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Entertainer and philanthropist Dolly Parton will receive an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Tennessee.

Pending Board of Trustees approval, Parton will receive a doctorate of humane and musical letters during spring commencement May 8, honoring her not only for her role as a musician and entertainer but also for her work as an advocate for education.
Advertisement

In 1996, she founded the Imagination Library program in her native Sevier County, providing children with a new book every month from birth to 5 years of age. That program now has grown to serve 1,000 communities in all of Tennessee and parts of 46 other states, the United Kingdom and Canada.

The only other honorary doctorate UT has bestowed went to former U.S. Sen. Howard Baker Jr. — also a Tennessee native — in May 2005.