This week’s top stories from the Ledger-Enquirer | April 15-21
1. Lakebottom egg hunt turns chaotic: ‘It was like when Mufasa got killed in the Lion King’: Parents lept to social media this week after a chaotic egg drop event at a local park where a helicopter rained down candy-filled plastic eggs in celebration of Easter. The drop, sponsored by the Bridge Church in Columbus, featured a helicopter dropping candy-filled eggs into a field for children to then search for. But many parents left feeling overwhelmed and disappointed.
2. She helped a Columbus student get $70K for college. One photo could ruin it: Dante Jamal Harris graduated from Columbus High School in 2014 with honors despite the fact that he came from a home situation where he had been abandoned by his parents. Amber Massey, and her husband, Brookstone Coach Vince Massey, then stepped in and began to help Harris get through his senior year, and she discovered a $70,000 Georgia National Guard scholarship to the University of North Georgia. All that could end this week because of a photo Harris took on Nov. 3, 2016 of one of his instructors, Maj. Richard Neikirk, in an on-campus bathroom, according to a recent report on ajc.com. Neikirk was at a urinal but had his shorts pulled below his buttocks, ajc.com reported.
3. Fashion retailer closing its doors at Columbus Park Crossing: Young men’s and women’s fashion chain rue21 said it is eliminating nearly 400 locations across the U.S., including the store at 5550 Whittlesey Blvd. on the city’s north side. Warrendale, Pa.-based rue21 has reportedly been struggling financially for some time. Prior to the current downsizing, it had more than 1,200 stores in 48 states.
4. Columbus police release name of man found dead in church parking lot: Marion Davon Ralph, 39, was pronounced dead at 7:29 a.m. of a gunshot wound, said Muscogee County Deputy Coroner Freeman Worley. The victim’s body will be sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab in Decatur for an autopsy. Maj. Gil Slouchick of the Columbus Police Department said police responded to the scene around 7 a.m. in reference to a person being shot in a parking lot.
5. Belk, Bass Pro Shops, Costco possible good fits for old Sears space: It’s a lot of space to fill in one big gulp, with the Sears department store now empty nearly four weeks and the hhgregg appliance and electronics outlet now “going out of business” as part of its entire company’s demise. Could the 130,000 square feet of showroom space left vacant by Sears on March 26 eventually be home to another department store such as Belk? Perhaps it might be a Costco wholesale store, with that retailer having taken a look at the city in years past now ready to pull the trigger on Columbus?
This story was originally published April 22, 2017 at 2:58 PM with the headline "This week’s top stories from the Ledger-Enquirer | April 15-21."