Getting the lead out

New lead-testing rules due to take effect Feb. 10 have local booksellers, toy retailers, crafters and even libraries struggling to understand what the regulations mean for them. Ruled out?: Leslie Hawkins, owner of Spellbound Children’s Bookshop on Wall Street in downtown Asheville, worries that new lead-testing regulations could her force her out of business. Photo […]

Playin’ It Safe spotlights teen sexuality and health

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one-fourth of young women between the ages of 14 and 19—about 3.2 million teenage girls—are infected with at least one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases (human papillomavirus or HPV, chlamydia, herpes simplex virus and trichomoniasis). Health effects can range from infertility to cervical […]

Controvers­ies continue over URTV transparen­cy

While a recent release asserted that URTV follows open-meetings law, a video has surfaced with statements made by Executive Director Pat Garlinghouse at the public-access channel’s last board meeting that misrepresent that law, according a North Carolina Press Association attorney—and some board members claim they were not consulted in a press release that claimed to […]

Still facing severe space crunch, county seeks stimulus money

Buncombe County oversees many services, including health, elections, the Sheriff’s Office and the court system. All those agencies and more, with their attendant staff and paperwork, have to have somewhere to go, and as the county’s grown, the amount of vacant space available has dwindled. At the county commissioners’ Jan. 9-10 retreat, they tasked County […]

Welcome to A&E

For all this world-at-the-keystrokes opportunity, how often do we truly go somewhere foreign? Not physically, just moving the mind from its sometimes small, selfish place—how often do we give over to the meditation of listening? Wise, sweet, cunning: The poet Taha Muhammad Ali is pictured in the center shot. From left to right, visiting poets […]

Moonshine and mountain duels

Listening to Tom Godleski’s Fresh Preserves is kind of like being invited to browse a friend’s weathered photo album or watch his old home movies. It’s the same intimacy but without the obligation—Godleski’s ballads, spun from the tales told to him by family members, are actually interesting. Grampy and Granny were tough: Above, Buncombe Turnpike […]

Next we were movin’ on

Asheville is a town of steel-drum jam jazz, dirty-tonk and “Appalachian chamber music.” (Try searching those ones on iTunes.) In fact, Asheville has embraced its eclecticism to the point of eschewing anything smacking of Top 40. Duking it out for Asheville audiences: Indie pop diva and stephaniesid frontwoman Stephanie Morgan and alt-country roots-rocker Brian McGee […]

Green thumb

Usually it’s the main band that makes it big while the side projects soldier on in the wings, an outlet for more out-there inclinations. Usually a band with multiple leaders either implodes (Fleetwood Mac) or splits (Uncle Tupelo into Son Volt/Wilco). Usually once a band manages any sort of national recognition it’s too busy being […]

The Biz

Creative Careers Talk At Unca Thursday, Feb. 5: You can create it, but can you sell it? UNCA’s Career Center is offering a chance to talk creative careers with experienced hands who do just that on Thursday, Feb. 5, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Mountain Suites at the university’s Highsmith University Union. The […]

Don’t give up downtown’s historic vistas

I want to share with my community my feedback to the Downtown Master Plan Commission: Allowing 27-story buildings would be obscene—and the death of Asheville’s uniqueness. A background of surrounding mountains, cloud formations and sunsets, the sense of spaciousness and light and the human scale are what make downtown unique and friendly. The BB&T building […]

Scratch

Flavor: Fine-dining amuse-bouches writ slightly larger Ambiance: Coolly cosmopolitan Price: $6-$26 Where: 109 Broadway Contact: 505-2152 Web site: www.scratchasheville.com Hours: Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 5:30-10 p.m. Late night menu served after 10 p.m. Sunday brunch, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. It’s worth knowing that restaurateur Eric Backer briefly considered christening his new downtown eatery “Menlo Park,” in […]

Edgy Mama

When my kids told me they were writing letters to President Obama during the week of the inauguration, I was intrigued. I don’t know if it’s just Asheville or this time in history, but it seems that the youngest of us have been more focused on this election and its outcome than on any other […]

Gaza isn’t Warsaw

Tom Craig’s impassioned letter [“Will We Reap What Israel Sows?,” Jan. 21] expresses the horror felt by all compassionate beings at the devastation of large parts of Gaza City. Who does not cringe at the sight of a blasted baby, a grieving mother, shocked and homeless children? Having built a civilian shield and reaped international […]

Poking Israel in the ribs

In response to “Will We Reap What Israel Sows?” [Letters, Jan. 21]: First, for those that believe in one true God, he gave that land to Israel. So, the land belongs to them. Who is to deny what God gives? Though Israel has turned its back on God and denied his Son, he does not […]

Outdoor Journal

Natural arts, natural words: Explore the beauty of the natural world by spending an afternoon with the writer/artist couple George and Elizabeth Ellison, on Feb. 15, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the N.C. Arboretum. Through their words, illustrations and drawings, the couple will share examples of their work and their reverence for the natural […]