Another Asheville Police Captain suspended
First it was Capt. Stoney Gonce (head of Criminal Investigations). Now it's Capt. Mark Byrd (head of Patrol).
WWNC confirmed yesterday that Capt. Byrd has been put on Investigative Suspension.
The rumor around APD is that Byrd was the person who leaked the body cam footage to the Citizen-Times - showing Officer Chris Hickman punching Johnnie Rush during an arrest last summer.
This is the same rumor that was flying around APD when Capt. Gonce was suspended, as well. Gonce was later fired for unrelated reasons.
New "Big Cat" in Carolina
Billionaire hedge fund manager David Tepper wants to buy the Carolina Panthers, and it looks like the process is well underway.
From the Charlotte Observer:
Although Tepper is a part-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, he still has to be vetted by the NFL as part of this process, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said in an email to the Observer. Next week during the NFL meetings in Atlanta, Tepper is expected to appear in person before the league's finance committee, a group of eight that will review details of the proposed deal.
The committee will provide a recommendation to the rest of the NFL owners, who will then vote on the deal. Tepper is expected to be approved. The Panthers said in a statement that the deal is expected to close in July.
The reported sale price is $2.275 billion... which, ironically, was the same amount of producer Tank Spencer's bonus last year!
Moogfest in Durham
It's been a few years since Asheville lost Moogfest to the Bull City. The News & Observer reports that former R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe will be headliner.
Influential synthesizer innovator and inventor Bob Moog lived in Asheville, not far from the university, until his 2005 death. Five years later, the festival bearing his name relocated from New York to Moog's mountain city. Then, in 2016, Moogfest moved again — this time, to Durham.
This weekend sees the fest's third time in the Bull City.
Though based in music, Moogfest's programming draws from myriad disciplines — dance, visual art, film — and includes workshops and TED Talk-style conversations and speeches as well as concerts enabled by state-of-the-art sound systems.
Many events bear a progressive or socio-political theme, such as the keynote speech by soldier-turned-activist-turned-U.S. Senate candidate Chelsea Manning.
And another thing...
And in the worst comparison of the day, the Citizen-Times lists the average pay for professionals who hold a 4-year degree, and compares it to teachers. There are so many other benefits, perks, and requirements for all of these jobs it makes the list meaningless. Aside from use as political agitprop.