Lunch Break (2/19/16): Danica gives Charlotteans a Lyft; Zika hits North Carolina
PostedByRyan Pitkin
on Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 11:30 AM
If things don’t pan out for Danica Patrick in this year’s Sprint Cup Series, we have a feeling she could find her second calling as a Lyft driver. The professional racer recently posed as a driver in an undercover video for the ride-share service, pranking unsuspecting passengers when she turned the roads of Uptown Charlotte into her own motor speedway (which is basically what Lyft drivers do anyway, but Danica did it with jokes). We have a feeling the conveniently photogenic and easy-going passengers were in on the prank, but you can judge for yourself:
CATS announced a halt to Blue Line service south of the Arrowood station this weekend due to construction on the Blue Line's expansion. Riders between the I-485/South Boulevard station and the Sharon Road West station will be directed to a "LYNX Connector" bus that will operate on the same schedule as the Blue Line from a nearby bus stop. (Joe Marusak, Charlotte Observer)
The virus that has made headlines across Latin America and the Caribbean – earning a travel advisory from the CDC – just got a little closer to home, as North Carolina confirmed the first documented Zika infection today. Officials state the patient contracted the infection while traveling to one of the countries known for active transmission of the virus, and do not believe that travel-related infections are a public health threat to North Carolina residents. (Matt Nowacki, WSOC)
One man is reportedly dead after crashing his plane into a wooded area in Union County last night. The Union County Sheriff's Office said 68-year-old James Howard Cook crashed his plane near Tarlton Mill Road, north of Wingate, around 6:45 p.m. last night. Cook had reportedly called in mechanical issues earlier in the day. (Fox46 Staff)
Acclaimed author Harper Lee reportedly passed away this morning at the age of 89. The author, equally famous for her loosely autobiographical novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” and her subsequent reclusiveness, spent her later years in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. Her death comes just less than a year after the publication of her second novel, last year’s “Go Set a Watchman.” The work, originally penned in the 1950s as a rough-draft of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” had been discarded for decades before being rediscovered by Lee’s lawyer. (William Grimes, New York Times)