Adams Seafood Donates Based on Customer Voting

About a month ago, we told you about a Wilkes restaurant owner that had pledged to give away his profits in his re-opening month to charities based on votes of his patrons. Yesterday, Adams Seafood Restaurant announced the results of the voting and the amounts they donated to the four charities included: Ebenezer Christian Children's Home was the top vote-getter and received $1,012. The Child Abuse Prevention Team was second and received $715. Blue Ridge Opportunity Center had the third-highest total, and received $543. The Rainbow Center for Children has received about $197.

Two Break-Ins Reported Wednesday

Wilkes sheriff deputies are working two burglaries where the thieves got a total of about 16-hundred dollars worth of property. The first was reported by Gladys Whitley, who called deputies to her home on Cricket Drive yesterday around noon. She told them the break-in had happened while she and her husband were gone to the doctor's office for a Tuesday appointment. Someone broke in the back door, causing about 100 dollars damage, and ransacked the house. The thief took about 300-dollars in cash and a complete set of 30-year old collectible McDonald's glasses with an estimated value of 500-dollars. A number of prescription pills were stolen, as well. The money and glasses were in a dresser drawer, she says. Deputies list no suspects at this point.

The second burglary was reported yesterday evening a bit after 5. John Ritchie says someone broke into an outbuilding at his Hamptonville home. He doesn't know when the break-in occurred, but he discovered a large, wheeled power washer, a chainsaw, a step ladder and a TV antenna, valued together at 660-dollars, had been stolen when he went in the building about noon Tuesday. The report does not indicate why he waited an additional day to make the crime report. In that case as well, deputies say they have no suspects.

Three Face Charges in Burglary of Foreclosed Home

Deputies have made arrests in connection with the burglary of an apparently empty mobile home late last month. They report arresting Owen Coffey, Senior of Boomer this week and charging him with helping two other people break into the house. From the story given at the time by the other two, Coffey had intended to steal a boat from outside the house, but was foiled by a flat tire on the boat trailer.

The crime was originally reported April 27th. Neighbors spotted the trio outside the home on Highway 18 South, which is apparently in the process of being foreclosed on by Greentree Mortgage. The neighbor told dispatchers that the trip climbed into a pickup and sped off, and deputies arriving at the scene stopped a pickup matching the description given by the neighbor. Coffey was driving. His passengers, Marcia Coffey and Douglas Roten, were interviewed separately from each other, but their stories matched. They said they'd come with Coffey to steal the boat, but while he was trying to empty it of trash and belongings, they tried the door on the house and found it unlocked. They went in and gathered up a large trash bag of clothes and took it outside -- just as the sirens sounded. They dropped the bag and scrambled into the pickup, speeding of with Coffey. On the day of the original crime, Coffey was arrested for driving without a license, but because the interviews were not complete he was not charged in relation to the burglary. He was stopped this week near the courthouse, when deputies saw him driving once again. This time, they charged him with driving without a license, and a series of aiding and abetting charges, along with the attempted theft of the boat. Marcia Coffey and Douglas Roten face charges of breaking into the house and stealing the clothes.

Man Arrested for DWI

A recent sobriety checkpoint served its purpose, as Wilkesboro police arrested an alleged drunken driver. Michael Motsinger of Boomer was arrested early yesterday, after he pulled up to the checkpoint smelling of alcohol. Officers report he refused twice to take a field sobriety test, then agreed to a breath test, which came back with a .04, half the legal limit. However, officers believed that reading to be in error based on the smell, so they took Motsinger to the jail for a breath test. Problems with the machine prevented an accurate reading there, so they took him to the North Wilkesboro Police Department, and there Motsinger blew a .14. He was charged with driving while intoxicated and for having an expired drivers license and jailed in lieu of a 15-hundred dollar secured bond.

Vroom-Vroom...Mower Stolen

Deputies in Wilkes and Surry counties are working together to locate a mower that almost sounds like it's decked out for racing, after it was stolen recently. Ronda resident Gery Holbrook reported the mower gone from his mother's house Monday. It's a faded red Murray rider mower, with a Power of Pride sticker on the back, #8 painted on the hood, and a #48 sticker elsewhere on the mower -- Holbrook didn't remember exactly where. Neighbor don't report seeing anything out of place, but there has been a person that asked about the mower not too long ago. Holbrook gave deputies that person's name, and says he drove by the house and saw the mower there. The house is in Surry county, so deputies here are working with deputies there to get hold of the man and find out how he came to have the mower. Holbrook says all he wants, really, is to have the mower back.

Dole, Others Pressure EPA to Drop Ethanol Requirments

Senator Elizabeth Dole is signing on to an effort to get the EPA to reverse its mandate for certain levels of ethanol fuel production. She and 23 other senators say they are concerned the mandates contribute to higher domestic and international food prices.
There has been a worldwide shortage in cereal crops, such as rice, wheat and corn, due in part to the renewable fuel standard included in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which mandated highly subsidized corn-based ethanol production.

“To meet this requirement, a substantial volume of our corn crop and our vegetable oils will have to be diverted into our fuel supplies, severely impacting food and feed prices,” wrote Dole and her colleagues. “We believe the EPA should begin the process of examining alternatives to ease the severe economic and emerging environmental consequences that are developing in America as a result of the mandate.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, food costs are rising by 4.9 percent and studies suggest that the cost of food will continue to escalate over the next few years. Since February 2006, the price of corn has increased by more than 200 percent, thereby resulting in feed price increases that impact the cost of items such as milk, eggs and meat.

Wilkes Election Results

With nearly four of every 10 Wilkes voters going to the polls yesterday, elections were on the mind of a lot of us. The election board says 15-thousand-226 people cast ballots, for a 37% turnout of the county's 40-thousand-865 voters. The precinct with the best turnout -- over half -- was Brushy Mountain, with a 51-and-three-quarters percent turnout. Reddies River, which changed location this year, had the lowest turnout, with just over 25-percent of registered voters showing up.

The banner race locally, of course was the sales tax issue, where county leaders had proposed a quarter-penny tax to be used to fund a technology program for Wilkes County Schools and improvements to both the county schools and Wilkes Community College. The measure failed on a 65-percent to 35-percent margin.

The Republican County commission race came down to the wire, and may not be over yet. Less than 100 votes separated the top two vote-getter, Keith Elmore and Gary Blevins. and just fewer than 200 votes separate #3 and #4, Charlie Sink and Fay Byrd.

In the non-partisan Board of Education election, the top three vote-getters are Coleen Bush, Peggy Martin and Rickey Langford.

In the Democrat presidential primary, Wilkes county ran counter to the rest of the state, handily giving Hillary Clinton the win. On the Republican side, John McCain was the winner, but Mike Huckabee received 15-percent of the local vote, while Ron Paul garnered about 4-percent.

Democrats gave the edge to Bev Perdue in the Governor's race and to Walter Dalton for Lieutenant Governor. Republicans in the county preferred Pat McCrory narrowly over Fred Smith -- only 32 votes separated the two. In the Republican race for Lieutenant Governor, Robert Pittenger garnered one of every two votes cast in Wilkes.

Complete Results

Foxx: Fair Tax Has Some Problems

Fifth District Representative Virginia Foxx says she heard during her most recent telephone town hall from a number of people who are asking her to support the so-called fair tax. She explains how it would work:

Foxx says she hasn't signed on to support the fair tax because she has serious concerns about the possibility of black-market sales to avoid tax, and she has fears someone would develop a loophole that would keep income taxes in place.

Man Hospitalized Following Getting Beaten with a Stick

"Y'all go in there and get him out of here, or I'm gonna go back in and finish the job." That's what a Wilkes woman allegedly told deputies Sunday night, when they were called to her Roaring River home because she had been beating her boyfriend with a stick. Vivian Smoot was arrested after admitting repeatedly she had wailed away on Kenneth Royal with the stick. Deputies found him inside the house, covered in blood, and he was taken by ambulance to Hugh Chatham Hospital in Elkin where he's reportedly in ICU suffering from a broken left shoulder, arm, and hand, and has several staples in his head.

As you might guess, the couple has something of a history. According to Smoot, Royal has beat on her for a long time, and in the argument that led up to her attacking him, he had hit her in the head with a bottle of ice -- yes, a full bottle of frozen water, about the consistency of a club. She had the knot on her head to prove it, but she refused EMS treatment. The argument started after the couple came home from friends where they had been -- you guessed it -- drinking. They were going to gather up the laundry and take it to another friend's home to wash when for some reason, Smoot says, Royal decided she had no need of going along. That started the angry words, and the bottle of ice didn't have any cooling-off effect on the argument. It simply led Smoot to leave the room, and return five minutes later -- when he least suspected it -- and start in with the stick. The charge being sought against her is Assault with a Deadly Weapon with Intent to Kill Inflicting Serious Injury. A charge of Assault on a Woman is being sought against him.

Woman Says Wallet Stolen From Cart in Wal-Mart

Wilkesboro police have no leads in the case of a wallet that came up missing during a woman's shopping trip to Wal-Mart. Tanya Horton stopped at the Intake Center Sunday evening and reported that she had been shopping at Wal-Mart Saturday afternoon and had walked away from her buggy for a short time while it was in an aisle in the women's clothing section. When she got back to the cart, the wallet, containing over 600-dollars, was missing from her purse. Police say they have no suspects at this time. It's possible Wal-mart security cameras caught the theft, but that hasn't been confirmed so far.