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ABC News
26-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Queensland government company chair stayed with 'fur-baby' in 'VIPooch' hotel for board meeting
The chair of a Queensland government-owned company has faced questions over his stay with his dog in a special five-star "VIPooch" hotel costing $500 a night during a work trip. The cost of the accommodation for the chairman, his wife and his "fur-baby Vito" at Brisbane's inner-city Ovolo hotel last year was queried by the company's operations director, who feared it was above the state's recommended rate of $181 a night for stays in Brisbane, according to emails sighted by the ABC. The internal correspondence from Queensland Capacity Network Pty Ltd (QCN) — a subsidiary company of Queensland government power supply corporations — has also revealed how some government energy corporation board members are able to fly business class on internal Queensland flights. In one case, it was nearly four times the price of economy flights. The emails were sent between executives and staff at QCN, which is 51 per cent owned by Powerlink — a state government-owned corporation (GOC) — and 49 per cent by Energy Queensland. QCN sells access to fibre networks on Powerlink's spare telecommunications network along the east coast of Queensland. It seeks to improve digital capacity and data services for customers in remote Queensland communities and is not required to publish any annual report or financial statement. Some of the emails were sent last year in the lead up to QCN board meetings and reveal how a company employee had been asked to make a special pet hotel booking for QCN chair Greg Young, who was attending a board meeting in Brisbane in November 2024. The email said Mr Young's booking was "for himself, his wife and their fur baby (Vito)". Later correspondence confirmed the booking went ahead for the special dog room at Brisbane's five-star Ovolo Hotel in Fortitude Valley. The hotel's dog room is promoted as the "VIPooch" package, with "luxury pet friendly accommodation" that includes "1 x fur baby", premium grain-free dry dog food, a mealtime mat and water bowl, and "a fun little toy for your dog to keep, because who doesn't love a present". Dog treats, a super comfy bed and dog-friendly staff are also thrown in. The booking was to allow Mr Young — who lives on the Sunshine Coast, about 100 kilometres north of Brisbane — to attend a Brisbane board meeting for QCN. The emails reveal that while the booking was approved last year, Mr Young's request for the same accommodation early this year raised flags with operations director Anne Wilson. Ms Wilson expressed concern in an email, querying whether the $500 a night rate and accompanying dog met with government guidelines. "Before we make any bookings, I wanted to flag that in September last year, the government released an updated government domestic travel rates directive (which applies to government departments and GOC's) … as you'll see in the directive the recommended room rate for Brisbane CBD is $181 a night," the email read. "Given this rate, I'm not sure that the Ovolo, which was $507 last time (with your pet) meets the government's guidelines". Ms Wilson went on to state: "I am also a little concerned that for government funded travel you might be exposing yourself to scrutiny with QCN paying for you to bring along a pet (which cost an extra $100 per night at the Ovolo)." She also pointed out measures brought in by the new government. "Given the new government in Queensland and its focus on government spending, I feel there may be more scrutiny on discretionary spending such as travel and wanted to flag this risk to you,'' she wrote. The emails also revealed that power company board members were being allowed to fly business class on internal flights within Queensland. One email sent by Ms Wilson revealed that Powerlink board members were flying business class for domestic travel. Ms Wilson revealed the policy when she responded to a request from Mr Young to take a return business class flight from Proserpine to Brisbane. He had requested the business class flight because he was holidaying in the Whitsundays the week of the board meeting and had asked for return flights. Do you know more about this story? Email Ms Wilson replied: "We don't specifically say anything for class of travel domestically so it's up to the CEO, in PQ [Powerlink] the board do travel business class." One quote for Mr Young's flights revealed that the proposed business class flight was more than $400 dearer for the Proserpine to Brisbane leg, and over $200 higher from Brisbane to Proserpine. Mr Young declined to comment and referred the ABC's questions to the power company's media team. A Powerlink spokesperson said Mr Young's travel with his dog involved extenuating circumstances related to "personal family circumstances, which are private". "This trip, along with all travel done by board members across all three entities, are completed according to the respective government owned corporation's policies,'' he said. "It's important to note these trips are audited regularly to ensure they are all compliant with these policies. "We strongly reject the assertions made against him." The spokesperson said QCN's travel policy allowed directors to fly business class domestically. He said only one business class trip was claimed in the last year — Mr Young's Proserpine-Brisbane travel. The Powerlink spokesperson said the government-owned corporation's board travels domestically one to two times a year and flights are a "mixture of economy and business class". Energy Queensland said its directors other than the chair are booked on economy flights. A spokesperson for Queensland Treasurer David Janetzki, the shareholding minister in the boards of Powerlink and Energy Queensland, said the government expects "all government-owned corporations to show respect for taxpayers' money and abide by the highest corporate governance practices". QCN did not respond to questions about what fees board members, including the chair, were paid. The QCN board meets six times annually and is made up of three independent directors and two member directors. It has 11 full-time staff.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Yahoo
20 MONTHS LATER: Attorney General confirms no court date in prosecution of ‘Final Disrespects' fmr. deputy probate judge
MARLBORO COUNTY, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Late on a Friday afternoon in July 2023, two women charged with stealing from a dead man hours after his death walked out of the Marlboro County Detention Center. The S.C. Law Enforcement Division, also known as SLED, called Tammy Bullock and Charlotte Green to the jail to surrender to felony theft charges. SLED agents had one warrant each for grand larceny against the pair. SLED arrests former Marlboro County Deputy Probate Judge, friend in 'Final Disrespects' estate theft case SLED charged Bullock and Green with stealing a pistol, $2,203 in cash, and cigarettes from Hollis Slade's pickup truck. Green was captured on camera admitting to taking cigarettes from Slade's truck. 'Oh, me and Tammy got four packs of cigarettes out of it; figured he didn't need them no more,' Green said in one of the recordings. Slade, who died several hours before, had installed multiple security cameras around his home. Slade's family told Queen City News Chief Investigative Reporter Jody Barr he purchased the cameras to cover the inside and outside of his home to help him keep watch over his wife, Joyce, who suffers from dementia. If Slade had to leave her to run errands, he the motion-activated cameras would alert his cell phone. Slade also paid an in-home caretaker to sit with his wife if he had to leave home for a longer span of time. Marlboro County sheriff did not investigate criminal allegations against 'Final Disrespects' judge, others The recordings the Slade family provided to QCN show Joyce was inside the home when her husband started complaining of stomach pains in January 2021 and was there when EMS picked him up for the ambulance ride to the hospital. Hollis Slade died an hour or so later at the hospital. The Slade family learned of the death soon after when the cameras captured a truck pulling into the driveway, and several people got out. The group, which included Green and then-Deputy Probate Judge Tammy Bullock, started going inside Slade's home and searching his property and pick-up truck. One of the men in the group contacted Beth Slade-Boling, Hollis Slade's sister in Indiana, to tell her of her brother's death. Those recordings later showed some of the group carrying property out of Slade's home before his sister arrived from Indiana and included video of Bullock telling someone in a phone call they were 'rummaging' thoughout the home hunting for a will. The caretaker, Linda Hood, would later tell Slade's family about a bag of cash and a pistol she collected and hid in Joyce's dresser. Hood said that a pistol and cash were stolen. Slade's sister reported the theft and what they found in the recordings during a face-to-face meeting with then-Marlboro County Sheriff Charles Lemon. Beth Slade-Boling told QCN she never heard from the sheriff again. FINAL DISRESPECTS: SLED is not confident agents can prove 'intent' The family spent months in back-and-forth conversations with SLED agents, supplying the agents with video recordings, Slade's bank statements, property inventories, and anything else the family thought was stolen from the home before they arrived the following day. It took 30 months following Hollis Slade's death before state law enforcers filed a charge in the case. On July 28, 2023, with no public notice, a SLED agent with the last name 'Hernandez' drove to Marlboro County and served both women, each with a single count of felony theft. Beth Slade-Boling told Barr that even though she was a victim, reported the theft to SLED, and provided all the evidence used to charge the women, the agency never informed the family of the arrest or gave them the opportunity to attend the bond hearings. We also had no idea the bond hearing happened on July 28. In fact, neither SLED nor the S.C. Attorney General's Office told anyone about the arrests, despite the incredible public interest in the two years of news reporting prior to the arrests. It would take SLED another three days to publicly acknowledge the arrests and to provide information to the public through a press release. SLED-CHARGES-TWO-MARLBORO-COUNTY-WOMEN-WITH-GRAND-LARCENYDownload Barr placed calls to both Bullock and Green as soon as a tip came in that both had been arrested in the 'Final Disrespects' news investigation. 'Go f–k yourself, man,' Green told Barr in the July 28 call. Green hung up before we could ask the name of the attorney representing her. Bullock never responded to our outreach. The charges remained pending against both women until July 2024, when Barr was conducting a monthly check-in on the state's online court docket and noticed the theft charge against Charlotte Green had disappeared. In an email exchange with S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson's press secretary, Robert Kittle, we tried to find out what happened. Kittle, in a July 15, 2024, email response, confirmed, 'The theft charges against Charlotte Green have been disposed of. I can't comment any further on that.' The following week, Barr went to the Marlboro County Courthouse to pull Green's case file. Nothing in the file showed a dismissal. Barr asked the AG's office why it believed the charge was dismissed. Kittle never responded with an explanation. 'Charlotte Green's case is still pending, and it says so on the public index, according to our attorney,' Kittle responded to Barr in a July 23 email. Green's case was never dismissed, despite what the AG's office told QCN, according to court records Barr reviewed in person. That dismissal didn't happen until Oct. 17, 2024. When Barr went back to the Marlboro County Courthouse in November 2024, to review the Bullock/Green case file, the only indication of a dismissal was the word 'Dismiss' scribbled on the July 2023 arrest warrant, along with '10/17/24' and an illegible signature that appeared to be that of Assistant Attorney General Joel Kozak. There was no other document in the Charlotte Green case file indicating a formal dismissal of the charge. A search of the Public Index for Charlotte Green's name today shows no sign of the July 2023 case, and when Barr requested the court file earlier this year from the clerk's office, he was informed it no longer exists. The AG's office will not explain what happened to the Green prosecution and why the AG dismissed her charge. The felony theft case against Tammy Bullock is still pending. Bullock faces an AG prosecution over both the Hollis Slade theft case as well as a gun charge from a few days following Slade's death in an unrelated incident. 'Final Disrespects' judge arrested, booked on felony gun charge Bennettsville Police Department investigators charged Bullock with pointing and presenting a firearm in February 2021. Bullock's roommate, Shanda Nash, told Barr that the pair were arguing in the home they rented together one morning when Bullock stood over her, pointed a gun at her head, and threatened to kill her. 'And she had the gun right to my face and was like, 'I'll f—ing shoot you, Shanda,' Nash said during an interview at her Bennettsville home on August 31, 2021. By the time we got in touch with Shanda Nash on August 25, more than six months had passed since she said Deputy Probate Judge Tammy Bullock stuck a pistol in her face and threatened to kill her. The women became roommates around October 2020, according to Nash, but Bullock had once lived in the home with an ex-boyfriend. When that relationship ended, Bullock rented half the home to Nash and Nash's 17-year-old daughter, she said. The argument that morning started over Nash's daughter after she said Bullock went into her daughter's bedroom to 'get onto her' about not having a job. Marlboro County court records show that in December 2021, Bullock asked for a venue change and for the court to dismiss the gun charge against her. A court date was never set to hear either of Bullock's motions. Bullock's weapons charge prosecution was set for trial on the Jan. 6, 2025, Marlboro County trial docket, but neither Kittle nor the victim, Shanda Nash, knew anything about the trial when Barr contacted both in late December. Nash said the Attorney General's Victims Advocate office never informed her of the trial date or any sort of status on the case since it happened. In an email response on Jan. 3, 2025, Kittle wrote that Bullock's trial was not happening. Nash told Barr she called the Attorney General's Office on Jan. 3, asking about the trial and why she was never informed of it. Nash said the office told her Bullock was set to take a plea deal in the case. 'System sucks,' Nash told Barr on Jan. 4. The S.C. Attorney General's Office agreed to prosecute the felony gun charge against Bullock, along with the felony theft involving the Hollis Slade estate. It took three and a half years from the gun incident until Bullock was indicted on the charge in August 2024. A review of Bullock's case file at the Marlboro County Courthouse earlier this year does not show AG Alan Wilson has attempted to indict Bullock on the felony theft charge involving the Hollis Slade estate. Both of Bullock's charges remain pending, and no court date has been set, AG press secretary Robert Kittle confirmed to Barr on Friday, April 11, 2025. Queen City News will continue to update our 'Final Disrespects' investigation as developments happen. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Serious wreck shuts down I-77 North and South in Iredell County: NCDOT
IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — A serious accident shut down Interstate 77 northbound and southbound Friday afternoon in Iredell County, according to NCDOT. The multi-vehicle wreck happened just before 2:15 p.m. Friday, March 21, on I-77 North near Amity Hill Road in Statesville. NCDOT reports the road is closed at Exit 45. NC State Highway Patrol confirms with Queen City News two tractor-trailers and several passenger vehicles were involved. Emergency crews are at the scene. Troopers said to expect the area to be shut down for several hours. 🚗 Track issues along your commute with the QCN Traffic Interactive Map I-77 South near US-70 in Statesville was closed at Exit 49A due to the landing of a medical helicopter, NC State Highway Patrol confirms. One person was seriously injured and has been transported to an area hospital. Detour: Motorists use Exit 42 (US 21 North), left then right to US 70 East to I-77N. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
One person killed in I-485 crash in west Charlotte
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — One person is dead and a section of Interstate 485 is closed from a crash in west Charlotte Wednesday night, authorities say. According to N.C. Department of Transportation, the incident occurred around 10:25 p.m. on I-485 Inner at West Boulevard (Exit 6). The road is closed there. 🚗 Track issues along your commute with the QCN Traffic Interactive Map Medic officials say one person was pronounced dead at the scene. The scene is expected to reopen by 4 a.m. Thursday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Yahoo
Neighbors shocked at swarm of police officers that arrived for shooting that killed suspect being served warrant in NE Charlotte
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — People were shocked to see dozens of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police cars in a University City neighborhood Friday evening. They told QCN they don't even see one in this area because its always quiet. So quiet that one woman second-guessed herself when she thought she heard gunshots. 'I heard loud gunshots, about two to three,' said Shayla Alexander. 'And then I also heard the helicopter sound like it was on top of my house and there were two going in rotation.' Suspect dead, two officers injured in shooting in NE Charlotte: CMPD Alexander says she was at home around 4-4:30 in the afternoon when she heard the commotion. And when she stepped outside, she couldn't believe it. 'There were about 100 police cars,' she says. 'It was about 10-plus undercover cars. So it was crazy. There is nothing that I've seen over here. So it's kind of alarming.' The quiet was interrupted after CMPD officers attempted to serve a warrant to a violent criminal at a home on Headquarters Farm Road. Chief Johnny Jennings says when they made contact with the suspect, he started shooting at them. 'There was an exchange of gunfire. At that time, we had two officers who were shot, both of them non-life-threatening injuries,' Jennings said. 'The suspect is currently deceased on the scene.' Jennings wouldn't disclose where the officers were hit. Authorities say there was an indication that there were people in the home at the time of the encounter. The warrant has multiple violent criminal actions on the suspect. Jennings says the suspect was someone investigators wanted to catch for a long time. The chief says officers were able to pinpoint the criminal through constant investigating and checks. Clearly, the man didn't want to go back to jail, he said. 'It's unfortunate, but some people want to respond by using deadly force. And, you know, officers are well-trained and equipped to be able to respond appropriately,' Jennings said. 'You also have to look at the fact that they were forced to take the life this evening. And nobody wants to have to go through that.' City Councilman Tariq Bokhari posted 'We must get serious about repeat criminal offenders' on his Facebook page about two hours after the event. Jennings has advocated for that since he was appointed. The shooting comes nearly 11 months after the warrant-serving shooting in the Shannon Park neighborhood that killed five, four of them law enforcement officers. 'It is something that our officers face every single day that when they're trying to do their job and it's unfortunate you never want this outcome,' Jennings said. 'And it's unfortunate that we're standing here talking to you today about this.' Jennings says with each of these situations, the department will continue to learn and be more vigilant. He's just happy his officers will be OK. After speaking with reporters he went to the hospital to check on his officers. Jennings says the department will oversee the investigation since it was their officers hit. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
