Hutchens Scholarship Set Up

The family of fallen Winston-Salem police Sgt. Mickey Hutchens has set up a scholarship fund in his honor. Hutchens died in October after being shot while responding to a domestic disturbance call. Beth Hutchens says the support from the department and community, along with family, friends and her faith, have helped. The couple met when both worked at the Police Department. They have two daughters: Leah, who is in pharmacy school, and Jillian, who is a teacher. They think a scholarship's a good way to honor their father, who stressed the importance of higher education. Leah says she's been the recipient of several scholarships. The first scholarships will be awarded to two high school students in the spring.

Power On

Yesterday was a happy New Year's Eve for members of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation in Watauga County where the most devastating ice storm in recent history had left some without power since Christmas Day. At the end of major outage restoration there may be isolated, single residence outages that are difficult to detect. Therefore, members in Watauga County who are at their service location and do not have power are asked to contact the cooperative at 800-448-2383. Line technicians will continue cleanup work and final details into this weekend.

At the height of the outage, more than 25,000 members of the cooperative were without power in Watauga, Ashe, Caldwell, and Alleghany counties as well as parts of Wilkes and Avery counties. Power restoration efforts were helped by crews from crews from 11 different utilities including neighboring cooperatives Rutherford, Randolph, Piedmont, EnergyUnited, UnionPower, Pee Dee, Lumbee River, and Central EMC, and Blue Ridge Energies as well as crews from Pike Corporation, Carter Utility Services and Asplundh Tree Expert Company.

Public Relations Director Renee Whitener said the lengthy outage is an unusual event for Blue Ridge Electric, as the ice storm damaged nearly half the cooperative's 3,000 miles of power lines and took down some 150 power poles. Hundreds of outage source locations and damage to the system occurred in areas served by the cooperative in very remote, mountainous terrain. Heavy debris and fallen trees also blocked access to major as well as secondary roads early in the restoration process.

Wilkes Traffic Deaths Lowest Since 2004

Assuming there are no more traffic deaths tonight, Wilkes will end the year with ten fatalities due to crashes. It's the fewest in five years. Highway patrol troopers say of the ten who died in Wilkes this year, seven were not wearing seatbelts when they wrecked. troopers were increasing enforcement of the state seatbelt law due to the high percentage of people not wearing them in highway fatality cases. The Journal-Patriot reports seven of Wilkes County's 14 highway deaths in 2008 and seven of the county's 23 highway fatalities in 2007 were a result in part of people not wearing seatbelts. Five of the county's highway deaths in both 2006 and 2005 were people not wearing seatbelts. The total was four in 2004. 2004 was the last time fewer than ten people died in Wilkes county traffic.

Wilkes Volunteer Firefighter Dies While At Firefighting Job in Benton

Family members in Wilkes and firefighters on multiple departments are mourning the loss of 24-year-old firefighter from Wilkes County who died while at work in Benton Tuesday. Fire officials say Richard Adam Miller died while participating in physical fitness training at Gaston County Fire Station 43. He was reportedly running on a treadmill when he collapsed. Miller was rushed to Gaston Memorial Hospital where he later died. Miller was a paid firefighter in Belmont since August 2009. He was also a Lieutenant with the Millers Creek Volunteer Fire Department. The cause of death is still unknown. Firefighters and paramedics stood on a bridge over Interstate 85 last night to honor Miller as his body was brought home. Representatives from ten Gaston County fire departments showed their support for Miller's friends and colleagues by lining up on several interstate overpasses.

Funeral services will be held 11:00am Saturday at Millers Creek Baptist Church. Burial will be in Calvary Freewill Baptist Church Cemetery in Glendale Springs. The family will receive at Reins-Sturdivant Funeral Home from 6:00 until 8:00 tomorrow night.

Left Turn, Speeding Cause Crash that Injures One

A two-vehicle crash Monday night sent one person to the hospital. Wilkesboro police were called about 7:20pm Monday to the intersection of Highway 421 and Dancy Road, where a driver had failed to yield to an oncoming car as he was trying to make a left turn. The driver making the turn, 46-year old Timothy Allen Dehart of Millers Creek, suffered minor injuries and was taken by ambulance to Wilkes Regional Medical Center for treatment. He was alone in the vehicle. The driver of the other vehicle, whom police say was speeding, is identified as 22-year old Phillip Austin Church of Wilkesboro. He was uninjured. Both drivers were ticketed; Dehart for making an unsafe movement and Church for speeding and having an expired tag.

Brooks Earns Re-Certification from National Board

A Wilkes teacher has once again earned accreditation according to the rigorous standards of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Jim Brooks, an English teacher at West Wilkes High School has successfully earned National Board Certification, the highest credential in the teaching profession. The advanced teaching credential is good for 10 years, according to a statement from the Board. It demonstrates Brooks' ongoing commitment to professional development and student achievement. Brooks is one of about 17-hundred teachers to earn re-accreditation this year.

Could ABC Stores Go Private?

State officials are currently looking into how ABC stores are run to see whether the system needs to be tweaked or overhauled. Government officials could consider privatizing ABC stores across the state. Gov. Bev Perdue says she expects recommendations within weeks from her Budget Reform and Accountability Commission on the details of their probe into ABC stores.

Some local board members say their concern is that if the state's overhaul includes privatizing ABC stores, then they would be giving up too much control of state liquor sales. They say the current state-run system has kept liquor sales in North Carolina efficient and effective. He says it also should not be overlooked that ABC boards are able to give back to the community.

A 2008 report by the state's program evaluation division suggests that at the very least, North Carolina's ABC system needs updating. It says the mission of local boards is currently not clearly defined, and that the state should consider changing its ABC system to one found in other states, which includes the option of private sales. This decision will likely need to be made by the legislature as to how to control, or give up control, of the over 400 ABC stores throughout the state.

Thieves Using Gas Pump, ATM Scanners to Get Card Info

Law enforcement officials all across the state are urging banking customers to keep a close eye on their account balances. Scammers are skimming hundreds of people's account information from ATMs and pay-at-the-pump gas stations and using it to steal thousands of dollars. Investigators say thieves even go so far as to put hidden cameras near ATMs to record people as they enter their personal identification number onto the machine's keypad. Skimmers in gas pumps are virtually impossible to detect. The thieves then use the copied bank account information to make duplicate ATM and debit cards to steal money from people's accounts.

Cory Mathes is a security officer for the State Employees' Credit Union:

Additionally, Mathes tells News 14 you can avoid being scammed by
• Using the gas pump closest to the attendant. Those easily seen by store employees are the least likely to be modified with a skimmer.
• Try to use the same ATM as often as possible so you are very familiar with the machine and its layout. If you notice anything new, different or out of place, check with the owning financial institution to see if they changed the machine.
• When entering your PIN on the ATM number pad, use your other hand to shield it from view in case there is a hidden camera to capture your PIN code.

Woman Busted for Fake Pregnancy

A woman is in the Wilkes County Jail for threatening to abduct a baby.

Wilkes County Sheriff Dane Mastin said in a flyer to area medical centers that 33 year old Paula Pigg had been faning a pregnancy and called the Forsyth County Medical Center, threatening to take an infant. He said each time she went for a doctor's appointment, she left before an image of her baby could be taken. Mastin said Pigg was in custody on charges of attempting to defraud welfare services by faking a pregnancy. When his deputies got a seach warrant and went to her home, he said they found items associated with a fake pregnancy, including a fake belly. The sheriff said based on what was found, Pigg could have carried out the threat.
.

Crash Hurts One

Wilkesboro police say a single-vehicle crash this morning injured one woman. She was driving alone on River Street about 9am, and police say she may have blacked out briefly for an unknown medical reason. She went off the street and crashed her Ford Explorer into a tree, causing massive damage to the front end and enough steam and smoke that passers-by thought it was on fire. That was not the case though, and her injuries are reported to be relatively minor. The woman, whose name has not been released, was taken by ambulance to Wilkes Regional Medical Center, where she was checked out for the minor injuries and any possible underlying medical problem.