Beat the rush and vote early in the 2010 election! On Monday, Oct. 18, early voting opens at 14 locations around Buncombe County, from the Board of Elections’ downtown location to points east, west, north and south.
To see the latest Election 2010 articles, videos and blog posts by Mountain Xpress, click here. And stay tuned: In our Oct. 27 issue, we’ll feature the candidates’ answers to hot questions in several key races.
In a marathon meeting that started with a 3 p.m. work session and wound through several public hearings that didn’t wrap up till about 11:30 p.m., Asheville City Council members voted 5-2 to table annexation decisions for the next 12 months. That puts the Royal Pines annexation on hold. For more meeting highlights, read on…
Photo by Jonathan Welch
Asheville City Council starts early today, and it looks like a long one: After a 3 p.m. work session, Council members will launch an evening of five public hearings — including a contentious one, as Royal Pines residents will be holding a protest outside City Hall at 4:30.
One morning a few months ago, I found this 1970s Blue Ridge Parkway map lying on the dining room table. I shouldn’t have been surprised: My mother keeps just about everything, and she produced this old map after rummaging through some of her things. The map’s taped together along some of the torn seams, but it’s otherwise a priceless throw-back to a time that’s passed. And yet…
Stephen Hendrick — a 32-year veteran of the U.S. Forest Service — will be awarded the Aldo Leopold Stewardship Award at an Oct. 14 Washington, D.C. ceremony. The annual award recognizes excellence in wilderness stewardship. For more information, click here.
On Tuesday, Oct. 5, Buncombe County’s Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 to enact stricter steep-slope regulations for development. For details from Xpress reporter Jake Frankel’s live coverage via Twitter, read more.
This year’s special Women in Business issue explores this phenomenon from a number of angles. Mackensy Lunsford checks in with women entrepreneurs who’ve used Blue Ridge Food Ventures to help realize their dreams. Anne Fitten Glenn takes a look at women running businesses in fields traditionally associated with men. And Michele Scheve spotlights women (like herself) with less conventional career paths.
Yes, the New York Times crossword that appears in print for our Sept. 8 issue is awry. It’s got the right clues but the wrong grid. Click here for the proper puzzle.
Buncombe County commissioners wrapped up their Sept. 7 meeting in less than an hour. Among the actions they took and reports they heard was this tidbit: Commuters are the county’s second-largest source of carbon emissions, making up 18 percent of the total. More than 90 percent of county employs drive to work, averaging a roundtrip of almost 28 miles. In other actions and reports…
The former CTS plant and an adjacent Mills Gap Road property have moved one halting step closer to being named a Superfund site. On Sept. 1, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will consider proposing that the contaminated properties be added to the National Priorities List of hazardous-waste sites. A formal decision won’t […]
Two days after downtown Asheville was the scene of a two-and-a-half hour standoff between police and a man from South Carolina, big trucks arrived at the renovated Pack Memorial Library: “The Books Are Back,” Mountain Xpress staff photographer Jonathan Welch reported in a Thursday, Sept. 2 blog post. But earlier in the week… All’s well […]
Two days after downtown Asheville was the scene of a two-and-a-half hour standoff between police and a man from South Carolina, big trucks arrived at the renovated Pack Memorial Library: “The Books Are Back,” Mountain Xpress staff photographer Jonathan Welch reported in a Thursday, Sept. 2 blog post.
The CTS/Mills Gap Road property just moved one step closer to being named a Superfund site: Today, Sept. 1, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it’s “moving forward” with the process to add the former electroplating plant to its National Priorities List of hazardous-waste sites.
It’s time for late-summer wildflowers and the last of the blueberries. On a recent rainy Saturday, I captured these bright yellow flowers near Mount Pisgah. 
photo by Margaret Williams
A supplementary report on N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue’s air travel during the period for which she was a gubernatorial candidate. Aug20_Air_Travel_Rept.pdf
Incomes fell in 223 U.S. metro areas last year — including Asheville. Compared to 2008, local per capita income dropped 2.2 percent in 2009, according to recent reports in the Wall Street Journal. “Personal income took a hit in most of the U.S. last year with the only gains coming from government support, according to […]
It’s wild blueberry time in Western North Carolina. These beauties were photographed, picked and eaten about a week ago, in a secret location off a side trail very, very close to the parking lot at Black Balsam and smack dab in the middle of a blackberry patch. (I only tell you this because by now these off-the-beaten-path bushes have been picked clean by other foraging folk brave enough to dive through the briar patch.)
Time grows short for picking wild blueberries and blackberries. Do you have a favorite spot? (Hey, the Asheville Citizen-Times already divulged some of the best spots, in its Aug. 12 print article “It’s Blueberry Picking Time in in the WNC Mountains.”)
photo by Margaret Williams
Incomes fell in 223 U.S. metro areas last year — including Asheville. Local per capita income dropped 2.2 percent from 2008 to 2009, according to Aug. 9 reports in the Wall Street Journal (Phil Izzo ‘s “U.S. Incomes Tumbled in 2009” and Conor Dougherty’s “Incomes Fall in Most Metro Areas”).
Summer lingers, with hot muggy weather and sunflowers.
photo by Margaret Williams
It’s wild blueberry time: On a drizzly Sunday afternoon, these ripening fruit were found not far from a popular blueberry-picking spot, the Graveyard Fields. The exact location? That’s a secret.
photo by Margaret Williams
Work is already underway on this year’s Festival of Trees scheduled for December. Each Christmas season its gaily decorated trees fill Brevard’s Silvermont Mansion.
