WPVM dials in new interim director, temporaril­y tunes out nine volunteers

A new interim station manager started last week at Asheville’s low-power FM community-radio station, but the news did little to quell ongoing tensions that have roiled the station since last fall. For months, station volunteers have lobbied to have Wally Bowen, executive director of the Mountain Area Information Network, removed from direct control of the […]

A-B Tech transition reports, February 2009

Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College’s Dr. Sam Dosumu, vice president of instructional services, presented his transition plan to the college’s Board of Trustees on Feb. 16, 2009. In his executive summary, Dosumu distilled the input he said he’d received through what he described as a “comprehensive effort” to hear from academic deans, associate deans, faculty and […]

A bridge to Africa: Motherland Internatio­nal

There’s no shortage of disease and poverty in Africa. But for Christopher Keiser-Liontree—co-founder of Motherland International Relations—there’s another way to see the continent. Making connections: Christopher Keiser-Liontree (center-left), co-founder of Motherland International Relations, on his third trip to Ghana in 1998, where he was a facilitator with a group that built a Habitat for Humanity. […]

Books as building blocks in Bolivia: BiblioWork­s

The premise behind BiblioWorks is simple: Books build communities. Over the past four years, the nonprofit has opened six libraries across Bolivia, mostly in rural areas, with the help of Peace Corps volunteers and Bolivian churches, authorities and nonprofit agencies. Young readers: Children in Morado K’asa, Bolivia, celebrated the opening of their first library in […]

Teaching Jamaica’s teachers: WCU’s Jamaica Program

On the campus of Western Carolina University, it’s simply called “the Jamaica Program.” Graduation day: These students are graduates of Western Carolina University’s master of arts in education program with a concentration in college administration, which is based in Discovery Bay, Jamaica. The university has been involved in teaching Jamaica’s young teachers for four decades. […]

WPVM volunteers present management plan

Volunteers at Asheville’s low-power community radio station have proposed a new management structure for the station. The plan was presented during the Feb. 10 meeting of the Mountain Area Information Network’s board; the Asheville-based organization, a nonprofit Internet service provider, holds the station’s broadcast license. MAIN’s board oversees WPVM, which broadcasts at 103.5 FM from […]

N.C. video gambling law

The following documents reveal the legal wrangling between attorneys representing two computer gaming companies, Hest Technologies and International Internet Technologies that are seeking to overturn new gambling laws passed to shut down the operation of computer-based gambling games in convenience stores. The first is a 2005 ruling against prosecuting games like those of Hest or […]