Observer Home Delivery Comes To The End

Death of The Observer

Seriously have you noticed? The Charlotte Observer will no longer be that "wet thing" in the driveway. The "local paper" has suspended or rather ended home delivery and now will offer a print edition only on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The print edition will be delivered by the US Postal Service.  

The sound of the paper hitting the driveway before dawn has been notice that dawn is on the way for my entire life. Latey the Charlotte Observer in the driveway was a sure sign that the home belonged to a retired "boomer" locked in the past.

But beyond the loss of home delivery there is also the lack of news reporting.

The Observer doesn't have the staff or perhaps any staff. No they will report news on line but only print the news 3 times a week.

I give them two years tops a total merger with Raleigh's New and Observer within six months.

CMPD

The CMPD PIO seldom reports about shootings, local news media has limited coverage, the few reporters who do work weekends are not covering the crime "beat" and generally unless it is a major news event your best hope for learning of a shooting, murder or robbery is on NextDoor.

Steel Creek has become "Da Hood" known as "Da Creek" crime is 24 / 7 there and it is Charlotte's biggest crime meca.

Still this is the only report of a shooting in "Da Creek" from overnight:

Two people are currently in the hospital after a shooting overnight in southwest Charlotte.

Medic said it happened outside of a business in the Yorkmount neighborhood off of South Tryon Street.

Emergency crews were called to the area around 1:30 a.m.

We are asking CMPD what led up to this shooting and if anyone will face charges.

This is a developing story and we will provide updates as they become available.

If you want to know about Crime in the Q City you might as well watch television:

In the criminal justice system..... 

South Charlotte makes the news because normally bad things happen elsewhere:

A child is dead and four others are seriously hurt after a crash in a south Charlotte neighborhood Saturday afternoon, Medic said.

Medic confirmed it responded to a crash near Sharon View Road and Chadwick Place, just off Colony Road around noon. A total of five people were taken to the hospital, Medic said. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department later confirmed a the child was pronounced dead by hospital staff.

Sharon View Road between Chadwick Place and Beckford Drive is expected to be closed for several hours, according to CMPD. 

As of publication, further details about the child were not yet available.

Karen Farst, a neighbor in the area, said she heard a "huge bump" Saturday.

"Then I looked and said 'my gosh there's been an accident,'" she added.

Ellen Yingling also lives nearby and said drivers along the road don't tend to follow the speed limit.

"We walk out here regularly, our kids ride their bikes out here," she told WCNC Charlotte. "The speed limit is 35 - no one really ever goes 35."

Farst lamented the child's passing.

"They just don't understand what it's like. In a split second, the person you love most is gone," she said.

The news is of course seriously lacking but that's what we get. Tease headlines and spam camouflaged as news links are the new normal.