Friday, October 29, 2010

Friday's Check This Out!

CMS Waddell High School Closing Sudden Change of Plans

The initial plan called for Waddell's students to move to Harding and South Mecklenburg high schools. But Charlotte Mecklenburg School System announced just two hours before a public forum that Harding High School would close instead.

At the forum, Superintendent Peter Gorman faced the crowd and apologized for the abrupt change. He said that given the school board's goal of protecting neighborhood schools like Waddell, closing Harding made more sense.

Waddell High School is named for CMS Board Member Joyce Waddell's late husband Dr. E E Waddell. Waddell was on the chopping block for a week, then two hours before Tuesday's public forum Waddell was spared. Of course CMS says the quick 180 had nothing to do with Board Member Joyce Waddell.

Say Hello to One of Charlotte's Helpful 311 Operators



Steven Rivers found himself under arrest last last weekend for DWI and in the process gave the arresting officer a hard time. So add resisting arrest.

Just to make things a little twisted Rivers has been the subject of several drug charges.

But wait it gets better. Seems Rivers also accessed the CMPD computer system to review confidential information in the police department’s computer system.

Can you say busted? Steven Rivers, 39, resigned from his position as an operator at the city's 311 information system on Wednesday, the day before a scheduled hearing to discuss his possible termination, said city spokeswoman Kim McMillan.

According to CMPD: After his arrest, Rivers accessed information about his DWI charge, as well as other cases in which he was a suspect, through an internal police database that includes confidential information, said Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Maj. Eddie Levins.

The system has a feature that allows police to examine which information has been viewed and by whom.

Police haven't charged Rivers but are investigating the incident as an unauthorized access to a government computer, a felony, Levins said.

Why Rivers wasn't fired after his 2007 arrests is beyond me.

Crazy Fall Weather

Tuesday and Wednesday saw more than a dozen tornados moving across North Carolina.

This cloud forming East of Forest City was part of the system that would later destroy buildings and homes less than 30 miles to the northeast.


Photo by the author

WCNC's Brad Panovich offers some very detailed analysis of the storms with the posting of "Vortex Hole during Vale, NC Tornado".

On the night of Tuesday October 26th, 2010 a strong Tornado touched down near the Cleveland/Lincoln county line and the damage was rated EF-2 by the national weather service in Greer, SC. It moved Northeast to an area just 2 miles west of Vale, NC in Lincoln Co. Below is the damage path that was about 3 miles long and 200 yards wide. Max winds were estimated at 135mph. Here’s a link to the PNS from NWFO GSP and here are the aerial pictures of the destruction from our website wcnc.com

Read the rest of Brad's post at his blog which is here.

Halloween is SUNDAY!

Some parents are confused about Halloween and think that maybe they should take thier kids out for trick or treat on Saturday so that the kiddies will not be sooooo tired at school on Monday morning. The other concern is that might be on some insane "sugar high" and act all ADD.

I really should nominate today's parents as a group for the "Idiot of the Decade" Award.

When I was a kid we went door to door by ourselves. Older brothers took little sisters, and out parents were nowhere is sight. You think I'm kidding, well as case in point do you see any parents tagging along in the Great Pumpkin? Now days its a parade of parents who hover over their children. And many of the kids are "driven" house to house.

Last year Mrs. Cedar who loves holidays, greeted the neighborhood kids in full costume. Scary enough, but more spooky than Friday and 13th.

After nearly 100 kids that came to the door, one little 5 year old started to cry when my "spooky" wife approached. Keep in mind Cedar Posts doesn't dress up, Ever! (OK there was that time I went to a party as a boy scout. Let's just say is was an adult party and I'm good with knots.) So I intervene dressed in my very non threatening jeans and polo shirt and the little princess goes into complete hystirics flowing tears, gasping, threbling and all. The mother runs up gives me a GTH look, calling us horrid people, as she storms down our driveway.

Problem solved this year Mrs. Cedar will be dressing up as "Little Bo Peep" emphasis on the peep part. Can you say Baa Ram Ewe?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool pic is that a tornado starting? Looks like one scary stuff. Thanks for the link to Brad's weather blog seriously detailed.

JAT said...

According to state records, Mr. Rivers has two DWI convictions and a carrying a concealed weapon conviction from 1999.

And he has had access to a CMPD db for five years.

Classic. The 311 system -- another Curt Walton brainstorm.

Anonymous said...

Shucks, and here I was gonna see if he could "clear" my record..... roflmao!

Anonymous said...

great pic

Anonymous said...

great pic

Anonymous said...

I have yet to understand why they are so confused...Halloween is always on Oct 31...LOL.....when we were kids we wont out on the 31st, no matter what day of the week it was????

Of course these days I don't know if I would take my kid or not!