Jocelyn Albright Desmond

Jocelyn Albright Desmond left us a couple of weeks ago, and our community is still mourning along with her family over the loss of such a bright and engaged fellow citizen. We’re looking for meaning as we try to fathom the news that the W.A. Hough High School teen took her own life.  Many of us are hugging our own children a little closer and wondering how to talk to them about her death.

On Friday, Jocelyn’s family issued a message of thanks for the outpouring of support from friends, their church and their children’s schools. As they mourn, family members also say they are encouraged by signs that people here – especially other teens – are learning something from the tragedy. Read the full story

Vi rejser til Danmark! (Translation: We’re going to Denmark!) That’s the buzz around Davidson United Methodist Church (DUMC) these days. While touring in Washington, D.C., last summer, the Senior High Youth and Handbell Choirs’ moving performances at the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society led to an exciting and unexpected invitation. Read the full story

Davidson and Charlotte Mecklenburg Police searched for a missing Davidson man for hours Wednesday night with dogs and a helicopter but it now appears the 18-year-old wasn’t really missing. The man’s family and police say he already was safe at a Huntersville hospital as the search continued. Read the full story

A Norfolk Southern train on the tracks near Zion Street in Cornelius. (Chip Dawson photo)

By CHRISTINA RITCHIE ROGERS
DavidsonNews.net

CHARLOTTE – A formal review period for the Red Line Regional Rail Project business and finance plan is coming to a close, but the next phase – asking local governments to adopt the plan – is delayed indefinitely, project officials said at a Red Line Task Force meeting Wednesday. Instead, project leaders will be meeting with Norfolk Southern Railroad Corp. in hopes of ironing out the track owner’s concerns about the plan.

Under the project’s original schedule, a 90-day formal review period was to be followed by revision and then adoption of the plan. Instead, project officials are putting the adoption phase on hold, amid Norfolk Southern’s concerns about combining commuter and freight service on the 25-mile line from Mooresville to Charlotte. Read the full story

Updated Thursday 7:15 a.m.
Davidson and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police searched an area of east Davidson near N.C. 73 Wednesday night for a young man who called police and was threatening to hurt himself. The man was unarmed, but police were warning residents to be wary and not to respond to unexpected knocks at the door.
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Local human rights activists are hosting a three-day event called “Abolish” in Davidson beginning Thursday to raise awareness of global sex trafficking. The event is organized by the Davidson College chapter of the International Justice Mission, a global humanitarian aid organization, and will include a Thursday speech and a Saturday night screening of the documentary “Sex + Money: A National Search for Human Worth” – about the U.S. Read the full story

Rabbi Michael Shields of the Lake Norman Jewish Congregation notes on his Lake Norman Jewish Life blog today that the area’s Jewish community is flourishing these days. Yet despite growth, he writes, “we have maintained the intimacy that comes with a community focused congregation.” Read the full story

Peter Snyder, 6, of Pine Road, found a pet on the Village Green over the weekend. The Davidson Elementary first grader adopted the worm, named him Samuel, and put him in a jar with leaves. (David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net)

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

“Hey, what is the deal with all of the little green worms falling from above?” Davidson resident Sara Rubens asks.

They’re canker worms, and depending on whom you ask they’re either cute pets, or awful pests. The eggs hatch and worms begin dangling every year as the foliage begins to appear, which this year seems to be a bit earlier than usual.
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