BIG TALKER TOP STORIES

Friends and family of local golf legend Bob Boyd are gathering today to celebrate the man’s life after he passed away this week following a five year battle with leukemia. The fifty five year old played in ten PGA Championships and five US Opens over the course of his career. Boyd is survived by his wife Pam and son.

After a weekend packed with public boat tours, and a candlelight vigil at the Sutton Coal Plant, the enormous vessel, the Arctic Sunrise departed from the banks of the Cape Fear River today to launch a Coal Free Future tour up the East Coast. The ship will make stops in Philadelphia,  New York, Bridgeport, Connecticut and Boston throughout the month of February.  The tour will bring communities together to share strategies and to energize local campaigns against coal fired power plants. .

School board members in New Hanover County met over the weekend to discuss a number of issues as part of their annual all day retreat. The budget was the main focus of meeting. Superintedennt Doctor Tim Markley recently started a blog to keep parents and citizens up to date on whats going on within the school district. His first post was centered around the anticipated cuts that will affect the school systems budget. School officials also released make up dates stemming from the winter related closing earlier this month. Students in New Hanover County will be going to school an extra two days at the end of the year on June nineth and tenth. Another makeup date will be held on Monday February twenty first.

Hundreds of people turned out over the weekend to the National Guard Armory near the airport off of Kerr Avenue to pay their respects to fallen troops from the area. A rededication ceremony for the Fallen Soldiers Memorial was held on Saturday. A number of public figures were at the event including keynote speaker, North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. Four more names were added to the memorial after they were killed in Iraq in two thousand nine when a roadside bomb hit their vehicle.

Police in Wilmington are investigating the city’s first homicide of the year after a man was stabbed and killed in front of the Rhino Club Downtown early this morning. According to witnesses, a large crowd from the club exited at closing time and a fight broke out. Thirty to forty people were involved in the altercation and three men were stabbed. One of the victims was stabbed in the chest and was pronounced dead at the hospital. The two other victims are expected to survive. There were five homicides in the Port City over twenty ten.

Public Schools in Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover, Pender and Onslow Counties are all closed.

UNCW, Brunswick County Community College and Southeastern Community College in Whitevillse are closed.

Day classes are also cancelled at Cape Fear Community College.

Wilmington Christian Academy, Cape Fear Academy, the Charter Day School and Myrtle Grove Christian are closed.

Whiteville City Schools are closed as well.

Also, if your scheduled to travel by air today, make sure you check your flight status before heading to the airport.

 Commissioners in New Hanover County also met for the first time this year last night. Officials voted to approve a resolution focusing on transportation projects and needs for the area through twenty thirty five. The agenda was developed by the Metro Planning Organization and will be presented to state lawmakers. The plan did include support and funding for the controversial Cape Fear Skyway Bridge. County officials also moved forward with a resolution that encourages the State DOT to fast track funding to finish the Bypass of I One Forty into Brunswick County.

Flu season is upon us here in the southeastern part of the state. Back in December, the Centers for Disease Control reported that the South Eastern region of the US had the highest number of confirmed flu cases in the country. There is still time to get your flu shot and the CDC reports that there is still plenty of the vaccine available. On average, five to twenty percent of U.S. residents get the flu, and more than two hundred thousand people are hospitalized for flu-related complications each year.

A freshman politician was officially sworn into office Monday night. State Representative Suzi Hamilton took oath of office as administered by New Hanover County Commission Chairman Jonathan Barfield. She defeated Beth Dawson in the November election to take the seat previously held by Sandra Spaulding Hughes in the Eighteenth District of the State House, which covers parts of New Hanover and Pender counties. Hamilton will serve on the Travel and Tourism Board in the State General Assembly. The full Legislature is set to reconvene in Raleigh on January 26th.

Tim Phillips, National President of Americans for Prosperity has listed three key issues that his organization will be pushing for in the new year. Grassroots activists involved in the group will be calling on their elected officials to dismantle the new health care law. He said this year will be the key turning point on the overall out-of-control growth of government spending. Mister Phillips indicates that his organization will keep the heat on lawmakers to ensure we get real reforms and real cuts.

In Sports, In College Basketball, Conference play opened up over the weekend. The UNCW women's beat Drexel sixty nine, sixty one. The men's team is on the road tonight. The Seahawks are scheduled to play William and Mary at seven o'clock. In the ACC, number one Duke beat Miami by eleven seventy four, sixty three. The Tar Heels crushed Saint Francis, and Wake Forest fell to Gonzaga. Tonight in College Football, Stanford will play Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl down in Miami. Kickoff is at eight thirty.

Real Estate and Personal Property taxes must be paid no later than this Wednesday, January fifth. A two percent interest charge will be added to unpaid balances on Thursday. Interest will continue to accrue each month thereafter until the liability is paid in full. Delinquent notices will be mailed by the end of the month. If your in New Hanover County, you can check to see if your bill is paid by logging onto the web at nhc gov dot com. You can also pay your bill online at official payments dot com.

It was one heck of a final week of the year for the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority as crews responsed to some six water main breaks in the county. Officials say it was the extremely cold temperatures that caused the pipes to crack and eventually break. There was also a sewer spill after a pipe failed behind a home on Marsh Oaks Drive. About seven thousand five hundred gallons of wastewater was discharged into a nearby watershed. Sewer system repairs will be going on all this week in the neighborhood around Greenfield Lakes. All lanes of East Lake Shore Drive at the repair site remain closed and detours are established. Motorists should also use alternate routes around Honeysuckle and Alabama. The Cape Fear Public Utility Authoritiy reported the two separate incidents last week. There were no sewer spills as a result of either collapse. You can find out more about the repairs on the authority's website at cfpua dot org.

Coach John Fox coached his last game for the Carolina Panthers Sunday. Fox and the Panthers made it to the playoffs three times over his nine year stay in Charlotte, which included one appearance in a Super Bowl. The panthers will spend the offseason looking for a new coach and contemplating which player they will select with the first pick in the April draft.

Many New Hanover High School students continue to mourn the loss of one of their own today. Seventeen year old Queyshon King was known buy many as a linebacker on the schools football team. He died as result of injuries sustained in a head on collision with another vehicle while he was driving on Lanvale Road. The driver of the other car was treated for serious injuries due to the wreck. No charges are expected to be filed in the case. Counselors will be available for students at school today.

Police in the Port City have taken a suspect into custody that was allegedly involved in a shooting early Sunday morning at the corner of Kerr Avenue and Sunglow Drive. Twenty one year old Christopher Coker has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. He was stopped in the county on Sunday morning after a deputy spotted a car matching the decscription of the suspects vehicle. The victim of the shooting remains hospitalized in stable condition. Authorities indicate the victim and Coker had been involved in a dispute earlier in the evening that may have led to the shooting.

A feasibility study to be conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will look at how the Port here in Wilmington could be upgraded and made more accessible to increased traffic and larger vessels. Secretary Dee Freeman of the State Department of Environment and Natural Resources say an upgraded port could enhance accessibility to businesses across the state, and could result in increased container traffic among the newer and larger vessels. Officials say the study follows public support for expanding the Port of Wilmington instead of pursuing a new international terminal.

 In High School Football, Three missed extra points and a strong running game propelled Wallace Rose Hill to the Class One A State Championship over the weekend. Junior Running Back Omar Carr ran for one hundred fifty two years for Wallace Rose in the twenty two, twenty one win over Murphy.

Pender High School fell short in their bid for the Class One Double A State Championsip in a twenty one, seven loss on Friday.


In College Hoops, the UNCW men's team beat up on Wake Forest Sunday eighty one, sixty nine.

A dedication and ribbon cutting ceremony for the Gary Shell Cross-City Trail will be held today at eleven am at Empie Park. The ceremony marks the completion of Phase one and Phase two of the 0 trail. Phase one of the newly completed section is about a mile and runs from Halyburton Park to Museum Drive and includes improved pedestrian crossings on George Anderson Drive and Museum Drive. The Phase Two section adds two point eight miles to the trail and runs along Independence Boulevard from Converse Road to Randall Parkway. When completely finished the twenty -mile, off-road, multi-use trail which will provide bicycle and pedestrian access to a number of recreational, cultural and educational destinations around the Port City.

The UNCW Board of Trustees late last week to discuss ways to deal with anticipated cuts stemming from the multi billion dollar budget shortfall facing state government. About two hundred dollars in tuition increases was recommended, which amounts to a six point five percent increase. The new rates will go into effect in July though the hike still has to be approved by the UNC Board of Governors. There will also be an undisclosed increase in student activity fees, in addition to some other miscellanous charges. Tuition across the UNC system will be going up next year as well. UNC Chapel Hill has already approved a six point five percent increase while NC State has decided to move forward wiht a six point two percent tuition increase.