This year’s National Night Out could only be called a huge success. Organizers spread the festivities out so that vendors wrapped all the way from the pavilion at Riverwalk to the water including three stages of live music. My wife and I had a great time. Michelle with the Piggly Wiggly pig: (Or as my [...]

Similar to what I did last year when my wife was first asked to keep track of what she was watching for Neilsen ratings, I was bored Saturday afternoon and decided to list the TV shows I watch regularly. Naturally, I then decided to share it on the blog because I share too much. People [...]

Thursday was a weird day for me. And that is saying something. I started out covering the double murder trial of a former Marine mixed up in a harry situation (I know, that is stretching it, but the other two fit). Jarrell Wilson: Later, I interviewed Harry Brown about being tapped as the state Senate’s majority [...]

N.C. State Sen. Charlie Albertson is going out with a bang. The long-time law-maker – who announced last month he wasn’t running again - is crooning about Willie Nelson’s band being busted for weed and moonshine before a concert, that didn’t happen, in Kenansville a few weeks back. Check it out: I wonder whether Dewey Hudson [...]

The Associated Press is reporting that Ric Flair’s new wife has been charged with assaulting the pro-wrestler in their Charlotte home. Flair, the 60-year-old platinum blond grappler nicknamed “The Nature Boy,” told police that his wife attacked him after they went out for dinner. He had minor injuries, but refused treatment from paramedics. Jacqueline Beems, 41, was charged with simple assault. On [...]

Nielson has asked my wife to keep track of what shows we watch on TV. So when you read about TV ratings every week, you will know that I had a hand in it. Not that I think I will make any difference; most of the shows I watch are nowhere near the top of the ratings [...]

Crime Stoppers is not offering a reward, but this man’s wife may be interested to know why he was purchasing a six pack when he was only supposed to pick up milk: No, this is not a frame from the fabled 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film, this is a forty-something free spirit exiting the Swansboro Piggly Wiggly on a Friday [...]

Sheriff Ed Brown said goodbye to Chelsea Donovan after six years of her reporting the news in Southeastern North Carolina. We went to Mai-Tai’s Restaraunt for lunch (I highly recommend the candy chicken). Mike McHugh took these photos with his cell phone. Chelsea, the sheriff, and Lt. Tommie Thomas: The Sheriff trying to explain how [...]

Passages like this are why I read Edgar Award-winning novelist James Lee Burke religiously. Here is a short except from his 2003 New York Times bestseller “Last Car to Elysian Fields.” The set-up: In the first-person point-of-view novel Burke’s fictional New Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Robicheaux investigates the drunk driving death of a wealthy [...]

When I moved into my very nice Hubert subdivision one of the selling points was that there is only one way in and one way out. At 1:20 a.m. Saturday, some idiot in a truck found that out as he endangered my entire neighborhood trying to outrun the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department. I was watching [...]

As long-time readers know, my personal life often bleeds into my professional one. I certainly don’t mean in the articles I write, but in the day-to-day grind of being a crime reporter in an area rife with unusual crimes. Tuesday was one of those days. I was up early because the jury in the Lawrence Dowsing [...]

Mike McHugh’s idea of funny. Me no laugh.

My wife was cleaning out some old boxes and came across this old photo of me riding my brother’s Harley:

A screenshot of Ravenbone (me) killing a salt flat scavenger bird in the Shimmering Flats. Need its feathers as a reagent that allows me to cast levitation spells. Sunday was a good day. 

Undead Priest Ravenbone rides into the Village of Brill after a long sojourn in the Barrens:

WITN’s Chelsea Donovan and Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown argue over who’s getting the top bunk:

I know, I know. Y’all don’t care about comic books. You come here for crime news. But if I don’t post something about this, I will explode! Ever since the Silver Age Green Lantern, Hal Jordan returned from the dead a few years ago in a graphic novel written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Ethan [...]

As Lindell mentioned last week, all Freedom Communications employees have to take a week unpaid off. He took the rest of his last week, starting at 2 p.m. today I will be finishing mine. When Cyndi Brown first told me about furlough, I about cried. I work hard for what I get, am paying back [...]

The New York Daily News was first to report this today, but other news outlets caught on fast. Steve Rogers - gunned down on the steps of a lower Manhattan courthouse two years ago – is alive. CNN is reporting that a movie about Rogers is in the works for 2011, but the details are reportedly [...]

Monday marks the one year anniversary of Off the Cuff. For the last 365 days this blog has seemed both blessing and curse, eagle and albatross. People have been able to express themselves and tear other people down. People have treated others with respect and operated outside the designed perimeters to insult third parties. I [...]

I couldn’t make this up: It sounds like a Hemingway-sized fish tale, but a Jacksonville man who said he fought an alligator off his boat full of fish and called 911 for help last weekend ended up being charged by wildlife officials for having under-sized fish. Read the rest.

While hanging out at the courthouse today, reporters waiting to catch a couple of 1st Appearances got bored. What do we do? Take fake mugshots of each other! Here are the ugly results. LINDELL KAY – Drunkard: Chelsea Donovan – Black Widow (watch out Doug!): Philip Jones – Adult Film Star:

I’m an avid reader. It is a part of my life that is inseparable from the rest. I have always enjoyed reading. When I was a child, I made my mother read “Scuppers the Sailor Dog” to me over and over. I read “Lord of the Flies” like six times in junior high and my [...]

Apparently some members of the Sheriff’s Department have nothing better to do than take pictures of my bald spot. Hey, didn’t Judge Crow say no unapproved photos in the courtroom?

NBC Dateline’s Keith Morrison is hard to forget. His interview style is unique to say the least. I saw this on Saturday Night Live a week or so after the Bill Miller episode of Dateline aired. If you haven’t seen this and need a good laugh then the 30 second Old Navy commercial is worth [...]

A four year old urban legend – that a gang shooting initiation will soon take place at a local Wal-Mart – has finally reached Jacksonville after cycling through Memphis, Greensboro and cities in Florida. Already people have contacted the newsroom with this nonsense and all I can say is “Gangs? We don’t even have gangs [...]

For all you cyber-sleuths out there, a North Carolina company that specializes in background checks is offering a good deal this weekend. So if there is someone you’ve been wanting to check up on, now’s the time. Of course, if you look me up, whatever they’re saying about me, I can explain… Check out the [...]

A suspect wanted for the clawing and biting death of a victim identified only by the street name “Lizard” is on the loose today. Witnesses described the suspect as a white female with gray hair and green eyes. The suspect was wearing only a blue collar and pink, heart-shaped name tag. A photographer with WITN-TV [...]

Evan was not my best friend, but we were close. We grew up in the same church, but lived in different counties, so we went to different schools. It wasn’t until after his father killed himself that we really began to hang around together. By the time we were 16 and could drive, we were [...]

Saturday and Sunday I got  chance to do some leveling. Most of you don’t have a clue about Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games, but they are the wave of the future. They are several good ones out there. Star Wars: Galaxies was my favorite for two years. I have played Dungeons and Dragons: Stormreach, City [...]

We are coming up on  the anniversary of when I first heard her name. At the time, all we had was a name. Like Mike always says, “it starts with a name.” In the beginning there was a lot of talk about whether her photo was newsworthy. Proponents on both sides made good points. I [...]

This weekend I finally got to do a little moonlighting and earn some gold killing werewolves in Silverpine Forest: Of course my wife gets to play a whole lot more and her blood elf hunter is a much, much higher level than my undead priest: The worst thing about Warcraft is I have to work [...]

I was wondering how long it would take for this to happen…. As someone pointed out to me, look at NBC’s Law & Order: SVU’s plot for Tuesday’s show. “A Marine who is pregnant with her rapist’s child goes missing.” Stabler and Benson get one hour to solve a faux-Lauterbach case. Honestly, I thought it would be [...]

At around 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, I received a phone call from WITN-TV’s Chelsea Donovan and WNCT-TV’s Laura Vesco. They told me the courthouse – the traditional place the media, public, and candidates hang out on election night – was so packed they couldn’t get in. I was tied up writing one of three articles I [...]

I have been waiting forever for some sort of legal connection to comics so I could blog about my favorite pastime. And it has finally presented itself. The movie adaptation of one of the best graphic novels of all time is tied up in court and it looks like although $100 million has been spent [...]

My wife and I always end up sharing our bed with someone. It’s OK, my parents did too. Get your mind out of the gutter. I am the youngest of eight children. My father had to put up with each of his kids climbing into his bed during a thunder storm or when they were scared for whatever [...]

I’m normally more of a Springsteen fan, but the Atlanta-based band Rehab has a hilarious new music video from their latest CD “Graffiti the World,” which given its subject matter could have been written about Onslow County. You can watch it here. You have to get through the Navy commercial first. You gotta love the [...]