Charlotte and two other sites in North Carolina have lost out in their bids to win a new Boeing plant. The giant aircraft builder told state officials Friday that sites in Charlotte, Greensboro and Kinston were out of the running as sites for a plant to build the new 777X airliner.
At least 22 states made pitches to Boeing hoping to win the plant. Boeing is letting the sites know as they fall out of the process. The company hopes to decide on a site in early 2014. N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory says North Carolina won't land every project it seeks. He said the state's made a bid that fit its needs and provided a good return on its possible investment in the form of tax breaks and other incentives.
FATAL SHOOTING UPTOWN
A 30-year-old Charlotte man is dead after a fistfight that ended in a shooting last night in an uptown Charlotte parking lot. Police were called to the 400 block of East Trade Street just before 11 o’clock, where they found a man dead of a gunshot wound. He was identified late Sunday morning as Richard Marquis Bonds.
Police said the man had been in a fight in the parking lot, when an unknown suspect shot him. Security cameras in the area captured the fight, as well as a vehicle leaving the scene. A short time later, the vehicle was involved in a wreck in the 3100 block of Rozzelles Ferry Road. One man was arrested on unrelated charges, and police began a search for the man who fled. On Sunday morning, police announced they had tracked down and arrested 26-year-0ld David Simpson on a murder charge. Two other suspects face unrelated charges. Anyone with information is asked to call 704-432-TIPS.
POSSUM DROP IS ON FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE
Another New Year’s eve is approaching and that means another round of debate over an unusual tradition in the North Carolina mountains. The state Wildlife Resources Commission has given permission for the annual Possum Drop at the Brasstown Store. The agency says owner Clay Logan can capture a live possum for his New Year's Eve celebrations at the store. Logan plans to gently lower in animal in the box at the stroke of midnight to ring in the new year. He started his tradition two decades ago. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says it will fight the permit. Last year, a judge refused to let the state issue a permit, and Logan dropped a box covered with pictures of possums, refusing to say what was inside.
UNION DSS TROUBLES ARE NOTHING NEW
State officials knew that the Union County social services agency was having problems nearly three years ago, long before the recent incident in which a supervisor was charged with handcuffing her foster son to a porch with a dead chicken tied to his neck. Wanda Sue Larson and Dorian Harper were arrested in November after a Union County sheriff's deputy found the 11-year-old boy on the porch. Union County officials have asked the state to investigate the agency. But a state review in 2011 found problems with Union County's DSS, including taking too long to investigate child abuse case. The county was supposed to take action, but the agency never completed the achievement plan. Commissioner Jonathan Thomas says if he had known about the state review he would have pushed DSS to take immediate action.
