Mary Beth Mackley was sitting in an open fishing boat with a wet tushy when inspiration hit. Nursing a dream: RN Mary Beth Mackley patented her Craggy shorts, designed to keep your pants dry in the outdoors. She’s still pitching the product to clothing manufacturers. Photo Couresty Mary Beth Mackley “It was a beautiful day. […]
Author: Hal L. Millard
Showing 190-210 of 335 results
The Biz
The Sisters McMullen, the popular Asheville bakery that recently exited the doughnut-making business to concentrate on other goodies, left a big (ahem) hole in the local market. But the city’s first Dunkin’ Donuts franchise seems to be filling the breach. At your service: The new Dunkin’ Donuts on Merrimon is becoming one of the most […]
Regressive progressives
The look on Council member Bryan Freeborn‘s face said it all. A scant hour after it had appeared he would fend off his closest challengers and preserve the progressive voting bloc on City Council, the world turned upside down. As supporters kept their eyes glued to a computer screen showing the latest results and Freeborn’s […]
The Biz: Two new banks set up shop in WNC
New businesses start up in Asheville and throughout Western North Carolina on virtually a daily basis. But when it comes to new banks? That’s typically a much rarer event, thanks to a host of issues—primarily regulatory hurdles, market demands and the fact that banks have to raise millions of dollars in capital funding before they […]
Shred it up
Stave off identity theft. Get rid of those incriminating documents. Whatever you need to dispose of paperwise, this coming Wednesday is your day.
The Biz
The attractiveness of Asheville and the rest of Western North Carolina has helped shield the area from the worst effects of a severely depressed housing market nationally and the fallout from a continuing subprime mortgage crisis—one that has led to record foreclosures and a tightening of credit standards and available financing options. But even Asheville […]
AC-T offers City Council endorsements
The Asheville Citizen-Times has made its endorsement of who should be elected to City Council — do you care?
The Biz
Despite the romantic notion that a good idea and some chutzpah are all that most entrepreneurs need to be successful, the fact is that even people who might have been born to the entrepreneurial life still need some technical business guidance. JoAnn and James Carland Here in Western North Carolina, which seems to have more […]
Tribune convinced Taylor won’t run again
Well, it was a good try, but The Asheville Tribune’s two-part interview with ex-Congressman Charles Taylor has failed to answer the burning question among area politicos: Will he or won’t he run again? However, the paper seems convinced he won’t.
The Biz
“I suck. I’m worthless. I’m burned out. I’ll never make this business work.” “Boom thinking”: Cheri Britton coaches business people on how to change their negative thought processes to achieve success. These are common refrains for many frustrated business owners, executives, managers, entrepreneurs and employees when things just aren’t going their way. True, pessimism and […]
Armor announces for Congress
Highlands lawyer John Armor, who waged a failed bid in 2006 to wrest the GOP nomination for the 11th Congressional District seat from then-incumbent Charles Taylor, announced last week that he will try again. Armor may have an easier time of it than he did in 2006, when he lost to Taylor in the GOP […]
Asheville City Council
The Asheville City Council’s Oct. 16 meeting had all the elements of high drama—a controversial issue, an upcoming election, an overflow crowd, even a woman standing outside City Hall passing out placards decrying The Ellington. But in a scant 90 minutes, after hearing arguments for and against the planned downtown high-rise, Council members voted 6-1 […]
Armor announces for Congress
Highlands lawyer John Armor, who waged a failed bid in 2006 to wrest the GOP nomination for the 11th Congressional District seat from then-incumbent Charles Taylor, has announced he will try again.
Progressives chafe at Cape’s primary endorsement of Davis
Asheville City Council member Robin Cape drew the ire of some fellow progressives on election day when one of her endorsements included incumbent Jan Davis, a self-described moderate.
Council OKs The Ellington
Amidst an overflow crowd, Asheville City Council approved plans for The Ellington at its Oct. 16 meeting, paving the way for construction of what will be the city’s tallest building.
Supporting local business: Here’s how
As part of the Asheville Downtown Association’s speaker series, Jeff Milchen, co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance, will lead an Oct. 18 presentation on the many cultural, economic and environmental benefits our community reaps from supporting local businesses.
The more things change …
Whatever your political or ideological bent, you could probably find something to get your attention in this year’s bumper crop of 15 City Council contenders—candidates to love, to loathe, to snicker at or to be utterly ambivalent about. Who’s on first? Here’s how the 15 contenders fared in the Oct. 9 City Council primary. The […]
The Biz
A local Web-based company that most of WNC has never heard of is positioning itself to be the break-out high-tech company in our region. But more importantly, says CEO Bill Ward, Asheville’s BUILDERadius (www.builderadius.com)—which offers software and Web-based services geared to the construction, tax-assessment and real-estate-development industries nationwide—could become the catalyst that positions the region’s […]
Bellamy to give “State of Downtown” address
The Asheville Downtown Association will host an annual “State of Downtown” luncheon with keynote speaker Mayor Terry Bellamy, Tuesday, Oct. 16, at noon.
Asheville City Council preview: Oct. 16 meeting
After a few weeks off, Council resumes its business on Tuesday, Oct. 16, with the controversial Ellington building likely to take center stage.
Hardware returns to downtown Asheville
The opening of a new hardware store in downtown Asheville would be news enough, since big-box stores such as North Carolina-based Lowe’s and Home Depot have all but decimated the Mom-and-Pop shops that once littered the American landscape. But a new store, Asheville Hardware, aims to go beyond just the traditional nuts and bolts and […]