Ashley Balsavias
MMJ/Reporter
Wilmington, NC
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Ashley Balsavias joined the WECT news team in July 2023 as a multimedia journalist/reporter.
Ashley grew up in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated in 2023 from the University of Georgia with a bachelor's degree in journalism and a certificate in news literacy. In college, Ashley reported for her school's television station, Grady Newsource, including reporting live from the Warnock campaign during the Georgia Senate runoff election in December 2022. She has interned with the NBC News and Atmosphere TV.
Ashley loves to travel, and she studied travel writing for a month in Prague in June 2023. In her free time, you can find her learning how to surf, reading on the beach and going to coffee shops.
Have a story idea? Email Ashley at ashley.balsavias@wect.com
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Skylar won the U-14 shortboard competition at the prestigious Easterns Surfing Championships in Outer Banks earlier this month, competing against 32 other girls.
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A vehicle went over the bulkhead into the water near the Southport pier on Sunday, Sept. 24, according to Southport Fire Chief Charles Drew.
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It's been 'light's out' for almost 150 days for film studios in Wilmington due to the writer's strike. Now that the strike is over, film workers are hopeful the actor's strike will follow and filming will resume.
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Chief Dale Thomas is taking over as the Navassa Police Department Chief, after a five-month long vacancy.
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The N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles is seeking applicants to operate a license plate agency in Wilmington.
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Division officials announced 30 utilities and communities in the state which will receive funding for projects to find and replace lead lines.
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Emde has been charged with several sex crimes against children under the age of 10, including statutory sexual offense with a child by an adult, indecent liberties with a child and statutory rape of a child by adult.
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Residents are concerned about a proposed development that would bring almost 3,000 housing units to the area.
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The hospital says they rely on the taxpayer funds for maintenance and improvement projects.
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Dr. Lorian Schweikert led the study that located the light-detecting cells in the fish.
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Hurricane Lee will bring swells to beaches across southeastern North Carolina, which is why Oak Island Water Rescue says beach visitors should avoid the water.
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The Wilmington Fire Department held a remembrance ceremony for the 22nd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
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David Raeford Tripp Jr. was sentenced to between 237 and 294 months in prison in connection to the 2018 death of David Cody Stuart due to injuries dating back to 1997 in Longwood.
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As erosion threatens Southport's West Bay Street, city officials are working on a solution to prevent the water from reaching the sidewalk, road and homes near the shoreline.
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Some residents in Pender County say they have been dealing with drinking water issues and a lack of internet access for a while. One resident at Tuesday night’s county commissioner meeting says the water has been a problem for 15 years.
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According to numbers from a third-party study the board commissioned, 26 of the 43 schools in the district are overcrowded, including three out of four of the high schools. That means those schools are at least at 96% full.
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Water Street sees more business following reopening of road and sidewalk.
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The owner of The Chef and the Frog restaurant in Whiteville says this has been the slowest weekend all year.
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Following a trespassing incident, a Laney High School parent is concerned that her son doesn't have a safe way to get home from school.
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Local EMS workers are taking extra precautions to prepare for the storm.
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The New Hanover County commissioners and planning board are working together to make plans to accommodate the population growth.
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A mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida, over the weekend impacted how a local group remembered the March on Washington this year.
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Bed bugs have been cleared from Belk at the Independence Mall location
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Oak Island has installed 11 new water safety stations this month.
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Five days a week and ten hours a day, construction workers are at work in downtown Wilmington doing their job under the scorching sun.
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210 kids with autism learned to surf at Wrightsville Beach on Aug 21 as part of the Surfers Healing.
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Dog owners may find it more difficult to vaccinate their pets against the flu this year.
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Artificial intelligence programs such as ChatGPT could change how students learn and work this school year.
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The investigation is ongoing, but police say the cyclist was riding on the crosswalk — a mistake that likely cost the cyclist his life.
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The four divers were safely rescued and reunited with their families on Monday morning after being rescued by the Coast Guard.
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The Wilmington Fire Department and North Carolina 811 partnered for National Safe Digging Day.
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